BornToHula

No overdose of alk or calcium. But like we discussed at C4, my dosing pumps do drip into the same chamber as the pump. I'm going to move the dosers to a different chamber and see if that helps solve it.

I have the camera+ app. I can get slightly better pics than the default iphone camera in camera+ by going to the advanced settings and turn on the white balance control. Then when you take the pics you can adjust it up and down to get pics that don't look so blue.

Had a problem with the Ecotech Vectra again tonight. Around 8:00 my water level alarm started going off. In the past this had meant that the Vectra's controller failed and needed to be reset. Luckily this was not the issue again - I just received and installed a replacement controller board last week. This time the pump was still running, just no water was actually being pumped through it. I went in to check the pump and the whole thing was super hot! Not burning hot, but hot enough that it was uncomfortable to touch it for long, and this was under water! I turned off the pump and gave it about 20 minutes to cool off, then opened it up and find this calcium build up causing the pump to fail: I cleaned it off using vinegar and some elbow grease. This was the first time I opened it up, so I'm not sure if the o-ring wasn't properly installed at the factory or if this will be an ongoing occurrence. It seems to be working OK now but I'll have to keep an eye on it. This pump has only been running for 3 months and already caused a ton of headaches. I'm just glad it happened when I was home so it didn't cause any issues.

Interestingly, now that most of the brown stuff has died off, my phosphates and nitrates still read zero. I wouldn't think there is enough algae taking up nutrients to still read zero. Maybe I should cut back on water changes/GFO?

Thanks! Thanks! I can make you one for the cost of materials + a frag or two .

Finished the dosing pump reservoir! Doing a water test before it goes under the tank.

Hey! The urchin stole my zoas off the frag plug last night.

Interesting, my tuxedo urchin doesn't seem to like the stuff too much (or maybe he is too small to make an impact). Astrea snails seem to work the best on it out of all my clean up crew.

Made some progress on the dosing pump reservoir! I decided to go with 4 chambers. That way I will have room for both magnesium and amino acid dosing if I want to go that route. Each chamber is about 1.5 gallons. Also the battle against the mystery brown stuff continues to improve. This is the worst spot in my tank currently. Compared to how it was just a couple weeks ago:

I see. I have pods, so the brown stuff isn't killing them in my tank at least.

Any progress here? I'm following along as I think I have something similar. The stuff in your video looks very similar to mine, but a little thicker. It doesn't look like its all over your rocks like mine is though. While the stuff initially appeared while my tank was cycling, I think it has been staying around because I was over feeding my tank and created a nutrient problem. To update my progress I seem to have stopped most of the growth. Now whenever a snail cleans an area it stays clean for several days. It also took about two weeks to grow back where I scrapped it off the back glass, where before it would be about 2 days. I have done: A lot of 25 gallon (~10%) water changes. At least 2 times a week (sometimes more) since mid July. Salt has been expensive! While doing water changes I scrape off anything on the glass and siphon out. Its very hard to remove from the rock (a toothbrush wont cut it) but it comes off the glass fairly easily. Reduced feeding to once a day since the beginning of August. I now feed either half a cube of frozen or 1/4 cube plus a half sheet of nori. I had been feeding several times a day trying to keep my Anthias alive. Rotating in new carbon & GFO every 2 weeks. Slowly Increasing biopellets - I started with about a cup and have been adding 1/4 cup about once a month. Testing really hasn't been too helpful. Nitrates and phosphates have continually read zero, most likely due to the algae uptake. Things seem to be slowly turning in my favor, still a long ways to go though. The algae hasn't seemed to have any impact on coral growth.

Alkalinity and calcium 2 part in the first two. Debating if I want magnesium for the 3rd or if I want to dose something like Acropower. Probably will go with mg even though my uptake is pretty low currently.

I hope to start building the dosing pump reservoir this weekend. Each section will hold a little more than 1 gallon. I'm getting an apex breakout box and float valves to put in each reservoir so it will alert me when it is nearing empty. I still need to figure out how to actually mount the float valves, and the apex coding to set up the alerts.

So I did this test yesterday and it doesn't really reform into "snot" it just stays broken up. I've been searching online more to ID it and the closest things I can find is maybe chrysophytes or calothrix.

One of the anemones that has been refusing to release from their rock finally let go after about 48 hours of being blasted by a powerhead. I put him in the 240 last night but no sign of him today. No idea where he crawled off to, hopefully not in the overflow! Also found some time this morning to build my filter sock holder.

I also have had a outbreak of what I believe to be Pineapple Sponges and Spirobids in my sump. I noticed a lot of what I thought was the same brown algae in the sump yesterday, I took a closer look today and this is what I see. Crazy how fast it bloomed up. From what I have read both the sponges and spirobids are harmless and should run their course.

I will try the vial test tomorrow to be certain, but I would not describe this as snot like. I'm relieved its likely not dinos but I don't like that its not an easily identifiable algae/bacteria.

Well now that you mention dinos... I'm a little worried Here are some videos that may give a better view.

I'm not sure what it is, from me just looking at online ID guides I thought it was diatoms. I could be wrong. Its not Cyano. Here are some more pics. The algae is a pale/clear brownish color with about 1/4 to 1/2" hairs.

Figure it is time for a tank update! Still struggling with diatoms. I think part of the issue was me feeding 3 or 4 times a day to keep the Sunburst Anthias healthy. Unfortunately they did not make it and now I am dealing with the algae. Lesson learned: wait until the tank matures to add difficult fish! I have heard of a remedy for diatoms using Baker's Yeast to remove it, but I will probably give it another few months to run its course before I do anything drastic. Corals are still looking healthy and most are growing quite nicely. The tank's still looking pretty bare, C4 can't come quick enough!

In my opinion ARC is by far the most welcoming & helpful reef forum (or any forum, really) I've ever been to. On many other sites, both national and local, you have to put up with way more negativity to get though a conversation. While a couple of members may have had some issues I bet the vast majority of members, new and old, would agree. Keep up the great work.

Yep, I'm going to be loading up. I've been holding off buying frags until c4

Got everything out of the 75g besides 3 anemones that are refusing to deatch from their rocks! One of the 3 are going into the 240, the other two will be traded in. The live rock has been dried out and will be getting an acid wash this week to remove the vermatiid snail skeletons and other dead organic matter. I seem to have lost some of my better pics, but in its heyday I was pretty proud of my 75g considering it was my first reef tank. The 240 looks bare in comparison, I need more frags!

Vermatiid snails have a special place in hell, right next to green star polyp

I don't consider the snails a nuisance but I understand your position. I think as long as you disclose it when you sell them, should be no problem. That or just take them to the LFS and trade them in for some credit to buy new fish/corals for the 240-gallon. Not a bad idea. I will probably just manually remove the snails that I can and trade them in for a little credit. That way I wont be intentionally killing corals which seem wrong. As for them not being a nuisance - we'll have to disagree! They did a good job of trashing this tank, which is why I am being super careful on the 240g about them. Once they started reproducing it was a losing battle from the start.