Taking it to the Next Level

[+brian.srock]

Wow this last month has taken forever to finish my next step in my project which is the stand but finally an update.

Thanks to Aaarrrggg I got some nice macro rock from her and after bleaching them out and cleaning them I built a little cave for my yellow banded brittle sea star that I picked up. (Pic of him to come soon)

Next was the longest part of this project which was building the concrete stand and waiting for it to cure completely.

First was the mold made out of melamine wood since it's a laminate and does not stick to the concrete and I wanted a flat surface

I did not want a perfectly flat edge look though since I'm making this stand look like the side of an old ship so I destressed it afterwards with my dremel and sander

After the destressing phase and repaint it was straight to the stand (Ok too me a couple days to find help since it was too heavy for my wife to be able to help lift)

and thanks to my cousin and neighbor I was able to use some harbor freight dual suction cups to move my tank onto my new stand

Current projects still include drilling overflow and return holes in the stand using a concrete hole bit then all the plumbing that accompanies that.

After that I will finish up the back, sides, and front of the stand and hopefully have a full setup pic up shortly

[+brian.srock]

Here's a couple updated pics of the tank. I still need to take a full living room set up pic to showcase my new purpose built stand in it's spot. I ended up going with modified durso stand pipes after trying all the other options and my tank is now whisper quiet. I also need to make room for the new LED cannon that I won in the ARC raffle.

Left Side

Front

Right Side

Baby Clown hosting my Toad

[+brian.srock]

Finally had some time to take a Full System Shot. I still need to wrap the sump up but have a couple other mini projects that need to get done first like put a barrier up so my Brittle Sea Star stays in his section of the tank. What do you guys think?

[+KimP]

That looks great! I'm happy to see it all together, well minus the other tank. Any timeline for the second tank yet? Are you going to use a matching light fixture?

[+dapettit]

Awesom tank build thread. Looks good!

[+brian.srock]

No clue yet on the other tank. I did put in a call for a quote but haven't received a call back yet. I also saw it online at DiscountedPetProducts but it's local pickup only. I may end up using the LED cannon for that tank so it would just be finding Sand and buying Reef Saver Rocks and I would need one pump for flow and I'd be in business. For now though I'm using it as my ladder to reach into my tank and set up more frags.

[cMidd]

really cool to see how far this tank has come, i remember your first post about figuring out that tapwater was the problem waay back when. it looks great

[Nwehrman]

Nice tank! Liking the next level!

Nicole

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+brian.srock]

Had a phosphate spike due to a lot of uneaten mysis shrimp stuck in my return pump. Was wondering why I had a lot of algea everywhere. Now that thats cleaned out I'll wrap my pump inside a panty hose so that'll fix that problem. I'm also going to make a carbon and a GFO sock on my sump drain using panty hose as well and I picked up about 15 snails to help tackle the algea and have been doing 20% water changes for the last 2 weeks so hopefully it'll kick that algea out of my tank.

Stay tuned for a next level update!

[+brian.srock]

I hate phosphate!!! I unfortunately lost a couple sps frags due to the increase algae. I just ordered a Fluval 406 that I will run GFO and GAC from and it should arrive before this friday. Picking up some peppermint shrimp as well to help with uneaten stuff. I have really reduced my feedings and lighting and it still looks like I haven't made a dent. TDS = 0, 1/2 cube mysis shrimps for 2 clowns, watchman, blenny, engineer. I have a 5 gallon water changed scheduled for tonight but can't make more until I buy more salt this Friday. I tried Azoo Phosphate Remover and that didn't work one bit. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[sifuentes31]

Know what you mean . Trying to get rid of Red Cyano...took over my tank. Did 3 days of darkness and it helped but is slowly coming back. So i cut back on the light so i slowed it down a bit. Hopefully i get rid of it soon too. Great tank by the way. Love the rock stack...

[cMidd]

GAC should help. it looks like a green cyano or film algae. i would try to feed less mysid and more flakes / pellets until you can get a grip on the problem...maybe alternate what you feed on different days. not sure if you have tried or have any snails, but there are some snails that will go to town on it (if it is film algae).

[cMidd]

just read this

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/marine-algae-plants/51983-cyanobacteria-treatment.html

pretty simple solutions to cyano

[+brian.srock]

Know what you mean . Trying to get rid of Red Cyano...took over my tank. Did 3 days of darkness and it helped but is slowly coming back. So i cut back on the light so i slowed it down a bit. Hopefully i get rid of it soon too. Great tank by the way. Love the rock stack...

Thanks the rock stack took me a while to build with a lot of trial and error but I've very satisfied with how it looks especially from every side.

I did a 5 gallon water change and vacuumed my intake section of my sump. I think that may have been a problem as well as my return pump. I had a large sump sponge in there which was restricting a lot of detritus so I removed that. Hopefully that'll allow stuff to move more now and allow gas to be exhanged easier. Am I on the right track in removing it?

Also noticed my skimmer was having issues so tore the pump apart and cleaned every little piece of it that I could. It's still offline though since I need a hose for it so I'll pick that up during lunch today.

Still waiting on my fluval...

[DerrickH]

Chemiclean + large water change + wet skim + GFO + GAC = cyano dead and gone.

Just ran though this last week with my tank and it was there with a vengeance. I had a goby die on me behind the rocks, he starved to death Im guessing. I couldnt get him out without removing just about all the rock so figured he could get eaten by the hermits and snails....well cyano showed up. Took me 2 25g water changes to get the skimmer to quit foaming over but now the only remnants of the cyano are some clear slime thats detaching from the rocks and heading to the sump/filter sock.

[sifuentes31]

My Gobi dies as well. I'm also thinking he starved since he only came out at night and never fed with the other fish...Hate that Cyano...

[+brian.srock]

Update time. I'm happy to report back that I am beating the phosphate problem. The Azoo Phosphate remover was just snake oil. I have the new fluval 406 set up next to my sump with bigger diameter carbon at the bottom, a finer carbon in the middle, and Phos Guard in the top chamber with a water polishing pad right on top all encased in ankle high panty hose that I picked up. I just did a 20g water change last night and installed a 24w UV filter so I believe I will see a lot more improvement in the coming days. For now I will be running the UV filter for 48 hours straight but then I will put it on an outlet thats on a light timer. I have been cleaning the return pump sponge at least every 3-4 days and I repositioned a pump to push water at the top of my column since my tank is so deep and I was still having a light film at the top even though I thought I would of solved it with having an overflow.

BEFORE FLUVAL

AFTER FLUVAL LESS THAN 1 WEEK

[sifuentes31]

THAT'S GREAT NEWS!!!

[+brian.srock]

So the algae is slowly melting away about 2 weeks now since I installed my fluval with GFO and I couldn't be happier.

I was also able to score a RBTA for my clowns although only the big one seems to enjoy it. The little one is still in her toadstool as you can see from the above picture.

Here's a FTS and it is 85% back to pre algae outbreak.

So where do I go from here? Do I just stop writing and start an update only thread?

NO! This is a taking it to the next level build and what better way to do than than with a second tank! Thanks to KimP for her tank and although it is sad to see her break it down I will put it to go use.

I have purchased an identical dual overflow and aqualifter that I have on my current tank as well as I won a LED Cannon built by Timfish at the last reef meeting. I purchased the yo-yo hangers for it and will be buying a decorative light shade for it soon. I am waiting on funds so I can buy some rock. I will probably go with dry rock that I will drill and secure prior to putting any water in the tank so it may be another month or 2 until that gets done.

Here's a FSS(Full setup shot) (Yes encasing my sump with some wood is on my to-do list)

Once I do encase my sump I'll be putting a port hole under my frag section so you can see my sea monster that the kids love

[sifuentes31]

Man i love that Fluval idea. I have a Rena XP and i think i'll do the same. Should complete my sump this weekend and hopefully set it up in another week. I was gona retire the Rena and by some reactors but why not fill the Rena with the GFO and Carbon like you. It will work the same and save me a ton of cash. Can't wait for your next installment!!!!

[+brian.srock]

Sorry everyone still haven't set up the second tank yet. I am still on my vodka dosing regiment and everything is looking much better with 0 deaths. I now have one months worth of dark green skimmate in my skimmer gallon collection. Prior to vodka dosing I would maybe get a standard 6oz collection cup of stuff so this is a big improvement and my water is much cleaner. On tap for this weekend is a 10% water change, filter media change, and cleaning of my return pump, skimmer, and intake socks. I am now dosing 1ml of vodka in the am and pm along with 10ml of cal daily. I do need to get on a weekly test regiment of at least cal. I have noticed some sort of blue algae on my barnacles but it hasn't spread so it's fine there. Also my brain looks very pale because my pumps haven't been ramping down at night like usual because the little piece fell behind. Now that everything is back to stable and most of the algae is gone I can focus more attention on getting some corals. I need to snag a good deal on some rocks so I can set my second take up. I'm also going to be looking for a camera so I can take some better pics. Thought I'd post some iphone progress pics for now so here you go.

[+brian.srock]

I just bought a Nikon d5100 so now I'll be able to shoot way better pics than from my iphone. It came with a 18-55mm and I just got a 55-200mm lens that I picked up off ebay so now I just need to get a carrying bag and some photography classes.

The newest addition to my tank is this little guy.

I'm also pleased to note that I have totally eradicated all green algae in my tank. I am currently at 3 1/2 mg of 100 proof vodka daily for my total water 100g of water volume between my display and sump. I now have some type of benificial algae growing which is why I got the tang. Still cleaning return pump filter and skimmer cup weekly and changing out filter media weekly.

I just lost a tunze pump so it's offline but hopefully I can get it going again. It's doing some weird reverse rotation where it's sucking water in rather than pushing it out.

Here's a FTS. As you can see the green algae is almost completly gone so definately pick yourself some phosban and 100 proof vodka if your having any problems.

Now that my tank is back to a better state I can focus on buying more coral. Also really wondering if I should keep the xenia in my tank even though it's at the very bottom where I don't get much growth.

[+KimP]

The tank is looking great! It's nice to hear of someone recovering from algae like that. I never could get control of it in my tank, but I never used gfo or vodka dosing. Pretty cool! Can't wait to see that new tank set up!

[Juiceman]

My korelias would reverse they're polarity all the time, I'd have to plug them in and out a few times to get them to correct.

[+brian.srock]

Very weird indeed. I had tried plugging them in and out a couple of times but after reading your reply I thought i'd give it a whirl and what do you know? I'm back in business.