upster

Home from work today; with a hot cup of bean as my muse, I'm inspired to post an update.

I guess I should start by talking about some of the teething problems I've had with this tank. My intention was to create an automated system, making me responsible for only feedings and water changes. I’m very happy with the way everything has turned out. My interest and energy for the hobby is as strong as it ever was. This is my second tank and is moving towards its first full year of operation. I am slowly and painfully learning all the little things that it takes to maintain a successful system. Past the basics, I hope I’m starting figuring out all the little things that make successful, mature hobbyists what they are. Managing flow throughout the system, dealing with the intricacies of livestock, disaster prevention, and managing nutrients to find that sweet spot.

The battle so far

A blown skimmer pump contributed to some evil live rock with it's green hair algae army taking control of the tank. Manual cropping, water changes, for a couple months it seemed hopeless. I was almost ready to start pulling out my own hair, PBITAWA The battle is turning into more of a cold war at the moment, and I think I'm almost at a point to say "mission accomplished."


Adding live rock to an existing tank

I felt I needed to bulk up amount of live rock in my system. The system was originally set up with the 45lbs of live rock from my old 40 breeder. I wanted to get this up to 80-90 lbs. My goal was to create tall structures in order to fill the dead space in the top portion of the tank. I think everyone is really impressed when hobbyists use negative space effectively, but I felt I didn't have the mature colonies to pull that off.

I found a guy locally in the midst of a tear down. I was able to steal 40 lbs of rock from his fowlr for 40 bucks; what a steal! Or so I thought....

My intention was to transport the rock submerged in water (45 mins) and add it directly to my system. Now, maybe I bungled the transport, or perhaps the live rock was saturated with phosphates (algae free, but the donor tank wasn't pretty). I was hammered by a massive green hair algae outbreak that I am only now finally recovering from 4 months later. Some equipment issues contributed to this (more on that to come), but I learned my lesson. No more used live rock, too many pests, phosphates, devil spawn Gelidium algae, never again! In the future, Marco rocks and a curing tub.

Equipment issues and lessons learned

I tried my best to put this system together with enough automation so that I wouldn't get burnt out down the road. This included an automated dosing unit, Reefkeeper Lite, ATO, ph/heat triggered fail safes. I thought GFCI's were good peace of mind, but not when a faulty skimmer pump trips the circuit, shutting down all pumps and heaters. Not sure how practical it is, but next time I would like to use 2 seperate GFCI circuits so that one malfunction doesn't shut down everything. My solution for now is a battery backup used for computer servers. This will backup the MP40w.

More backups!....When the skimmer pump went down, I contacted Reef Dynamics (formerly Euro-Reef) about replacing the malfunctioning pump on the RS80 skimmer. Jeff was very helpful and was able to sort out a replacement. However, but the end of this process it took 4 weeks to get my skimmer back up and running. I remember an old Reefcast episode where Marc talked about how he keeps a closet full of backup pumps and parts. It might not be practical for most people to keep an assortment of hundred dollar pumps, but boy, it sure would've helped.

I also found the Mag 5 I originally used to be underpowered. I think that because the display tank’s centre overflow is relatively tall I need some extra juice to pull particulates towards the teeth and into the sump. I added a Tunze 1074.02 which I think should provide about 8-9x turnover. I am happy with this pump, very silent. But I found that the impeller needs to sit just right after maintenance or it won’t restart. I would definitely recommend this pump.


Unexpected, frustrating, interesting things encountered along the way

The 2" sand bed of seaflor special grade became 80% solid. I contributed this to use of kalkwasser in the top off water, fresh RO/DI from now on. I've also read that this can happen when high levels of calcium are present, but don't think it ever spiked above 460. I have replaced 50% of the solidified mass, the rest will go next month.

My Flame Hawkfish has decimated my cuc and has taken over the rock work. I love this fish, but harasses any new fish I introduce. The existing 2 False Perculas are fine. But I introduced a Blackcap Basslet and fairy wrasse which both suffered the same cold floor fate. I feel really bad about this. I want this fish gone, just not sure if I will be able to trap it.

Biopellets aren't a magic cure all. 3 months in and I honestly can't say what specific difference they have made. After my experience and reading post after post I think I can confidently say that I would not recommend them to someone looking to fix algae issues. Maybe more for someone just looking to reduce existing nitrates. Admittedly, there have been a lot of other things going on with this system. I never got the white algae bloom, but I did encounter a lot of brown bacterial muck covering my sump walls. I'd guess to say that it was a result of bacteria going to town on the excess nutrients in my system. But that's the thing, no matter how much I read, I don't think that anyone fully understands their finer points.


That's it for now. I just fired up a new Ushio 20K so it won't be burnt in, but here are a couple pics. I think I have gone into enough detail on the system side of things; I’ll try to put together a more livestock centric update soon.