Another Risk, reefer 350

[Risk1994]

How big of a QT are you using? Any issues with aggression?

20g long. I had the LFS keep them together for a week before I picked them up. Didnt see any aggression then, dont see any now either. Although the purple is REALLY timid and not eating well, Im concerned. The yellow is really outgoing and eating like gangbusters.

 

[Risk1994]

ok long overdue for an update...

Fish update
Current stock...
2 clowns
Flame Angel
Yellow Tang
Damsel

Want to add: Purple tang, gobi/pistol, chromis

All fish doing great.

Had a long running ordeal with my purple tang who in the end didnt make it. I honestly think there was something wrong with him when I got him. I had the LFS keep the purple and yellow tangs in a tank together for a couple weeks before I got them to make sure no aggression. On pick up day I noticed the purple was really timid and not eating well. I chalked it up to being early in the morning and the fish still waking up. They told me he was eating great. Turns out he never ate well for me...lesson learned, unless a fish looks perfect Im not buying.
You can read about this here and here.

Lost a clown due to jumping and a flame angel for unknown causes.

So Im done with QT. It's just too much work and is really stressful on the fish. From now on my plan is to only buy pre-quarantined fish from reputable dealers. I'll pay the premium so I dont need to keep tanks all over my house. Im not planning on many more fish anyway.

Some tank pics...

note the 10g nano is gone!

 

[Risk1994]

Coral update

My old 10g nano sat fishless for several months so I've counted these corals as QT'd safe from ich/velvet/brook and put them right into my display. Im keeping them in QT 75 days per Humblefish protocol. However I'm beginning to really re-think this. Perhaps just 30 days is sufficient? I really am most concerned with keeping fish parasites out of the DT. 75 days is a long time to wait though. And I've never been too good a QT. Hopefully this new system will work better for me.

Several ricordia from old tank
Torch from old tank
Gorgonian from old tank
GSP from old tank
Added another beautiful gorgonian (middle bottom) I placed him on a new frag plug so assuming he's safe from any trophonts.

in qt
trocus snails
ribbon gorgonian
gold gorgonia
gold galaxia
freak hair pavona
pulsing xenia
Clove polyps
frogspawn

 

[Risk1994]

new equipment

-Eheim auto feeder and ring
Too many bad reviews on the Apex one and its triple the price. Apex turns off the return a couple mins before/after the ehiem dispenses food...works really well.

-CO2 scrubber & automated ball valve
I plumbed in a ball valve connected to the APEX so it sucks in fresh air when PH is above 8.3 and CO2 scrubber when below. Tried the AC solenoid route but it was hot to the touch from the AC power, no way I'm placing that over 30 gallons of saltwater. I found one that cuts power once cycled. As it turns out my PH is NEVER 8.3 so the scrubber is on 24/7. I purchased a CO2 detector to see levels in my house, normally between 700-900 so not crazy.
I'm going to attempt to run a line outside to feed my skimmer but this wont be easy as the tank is in the middle of the house. Played a little with kalk but I don't have many corals yet so there's not much coral to uptake all the extra alk and calcium. PH seems to stay around 8.1 for the most part. As I start adding more corals in perhaps I'll revisit kalk.

CO2 scrubber and valve

Ball valve to activate CO2 scrubber



-CO2 detector



-Neptune Sky
The plan was always to get a T5 hybrid with kessil. I wanted to make sure lighting was never an issue and the consensus seems to be you can't lose with T5. I've really bought into this concept of a large screen of light to flood the tank and prevent shadowing. The sky just came out and I'm fairly confident it should work, I just cant get past how much less work LED's will be. I just have the one as I only have a few corals (and this thing is really spendy) eventually I'll add another, kind of stinks, I feel like 2 will be overkill but one is likely not enough. It makes the tank look really nice but no shimmer. I'm using my Kessil A80 on the other side. It REALLY shows the difference, the left side shimmers like crazy, the right side not at all. When I get my second sky I think I'll keep this kessil on its lowest setting in the middle.

-Frag tank
One thing I learned from QT is that I DO NOT WANT TO MAINTAIN ANY OTHER TANKS. I did still want to QT corals though. Since I'm doing AWC I decided to take the waste water from the DT (about a gallon a day) and drop it into a 20g long. I drilled an overflow so as the water level rises it drains into a bucket. About once a week I dump the bucket in my driveway (I have septic and don't want salt in there) Viola, I no don't need to do anything to the frag tank now. I dropped in a skimmer and plumbed the intake to the outside to keep the PH up. I love this setup. I've had several corals in there for a month now and they seem to be doing well. I think the Kessil A80 may be too weak though. See the pic below, the clove polyps seem to be reaching.

(note the tube coming from the skimmer, runs to the outside). RO system lives here also with fresh and salt reservoirs for AWC. Those colored tubes all run up to the DT. All this stuff is on wheels.

Cloves are reaching, I think the A80 might be too weak, although its only in like 7" of water.

 

[Risk1994]

As you can see Im taking things pretty slowly. Once the stuff in QT is ready I'll have a lot more corals to add to DT. Cant wait, this 75 day deal is awful. I'm on day 30 for many of them.

My ugly stage doesn't appear too bad after 5 months wet. As you can also see cyano is starting to rear its ugly head. Should probably post some parameters.

PH - 8.1
Alk - 7.1
NO3 - 13
PO4 - .06
Temp - 78
Salinity 1.025

I've been deliberately overfeeding, I always had zero NO2/PO4 in my old tank and don't want that here.

So far the AWC is AWESOME! Once a week I empty the bucket and like once a month I mix up a new batch of saltwater. Couldnt be easier.

 

[Chrisv.]

Is the CO2 scrubber set up for recirculation?

 

[Risk1994]

Is the CO2 scrubber set up for recirculation?

Yes it is. One issue though, when the valve opens to let in fresh air instead of scrubbed air, the air out from the skimmer cup still goes into the scrubber. I imagine I would need another valve to bypass the scrubber here as well.

 

[Chrisv.]

Yes it is. One issue though, when the valve opens to let in fresh air instead of scrubbed air, the air out from the skimmer cup still goes into the scrubber. I imagine I would need another valve to bypass the scrubber here as well.

Do you see a difference in pH even though the room air is being scrubbed?

 

[Risk1994]

Difficult to say but I think so. 30 days after water was added PH was routinely below 8, sometimes 7.7. Now its normally between 8 and 8.2 routinely.

Here is 5 days of PH data. I have an outlet set to the ball valve to open close. Does anyone know how to overlay the open/close states with the below PH chart? That would be fascinating to see.

 

[Chrisv.]

Difficult to say but I think so. 30 days after water was added PH was routinely below 8, sometimes 7.7. Now its normally between 8 and 8.2 routinely.

Here is 5 days of PH data. I have an outlet set to the ball valve to open close. Does anyone know how to overlay the open/close states with the below PH chart? That would be fascinating to see.

That's amazing. I wonder how often you will need to replace the media.

 

[Risk1994]

That's amazing. I wonder how often you will need to replace the media.

Too often. I really don't want to have to maintain another piece of equipment. Seems like a couple weeks before it starts turning purple. I'm not sure if I can wait until it turns entirely purple or if half purple means I can still use it.

I'm going to run some tests with 3/8 RO and PVC to see if I can run a line outside.

 

[Chrisv.]

BTW I wouldn't worry for a second about pH of 8.1. if it were still at 7.6 with the scrubber I would say do kalkwasser. I know 8.3 is ideal but 8.0+ is a heck of a lot better than most tanks.

 

[Chrisv.]

Too often. I really don't want to have to maintain another piece of equipment. Seems like a couple weeks before it starts turning purple. I'm not sure if I can wait until it turns entirely purple or if half purple means I can still use it.

I'm going to run some tests with 3/8 RO and PVC to see if I can run a line outside.

I'm surprised it's so soon given that it's set to recirculation. What fraction of the time does it draw room air? I wonder if this is what's burning up the media.

No experience with CO2 scrubbers. Lots of experience being annoyed with low pH.

 

[Risk1994]

Since its in recirculate, the air out of the skimmer cup goes right into the scrubber. As a result, even if I bypass the scrubber for the skimmer air intake, the air coming out of the skimmer still goes to the in of the scrubber. If that makes sense.

So I think as far as using up media its the same as having it on 24/7. Ill need to either take it out of recirculate or install a second valve.

Its getting to be a bit much, I really hope I can get some way to get outside air.

 

[Chrisv.]

Since its in recirculate, the air out of the skimmer cup goes right into the scrubber. As a result, even if I bypass the scrubber for the skimmer air intake, the air coming out of the skimmer still goes to the in of the scrubber. If that makes sense.

So I think as far as using up media its the same as having it on 24/7. Ill need to either take it out of recirculate or install a second valve.

Its getting to be a bit much, I really hope I can get some way to get outside air.

Ah. I understand. I hadn't thought about that. So you would need a second pH controlled valve. What a pain. If the second valve substantially extended the life it would be worth it!

I guess you could estimate that based on the fraction of the time the It intake to the skimmer is set to draw from the recirculating scrubber. If it's drawing air from the scrubber 50% of the time it's probably going to last at least twice as long if you install a second valve.

 

[Risk1994]

Ah. I understand. I hadn't thought about that. So you would need a second pH controlled valve. What a pain. If the second valve substantially extended the life it would be worth it!

Precisely

I guess you could estimate that based on the fraction of the time the It intake to the skimmer is set to draw from the recirculating scrubber. If it's drawing air from the scrubber 50% of the time it's probably going to last at least twice as long if you install a second valve.

Yeah the plan is to let all this stuff play out over time to see where PH settles out. Ill have to choose a method of keeping it high and stick with it. In the end I just want to have stability. Hopefully at a high level.

Issue is that once more corals go in and alk gets used kalk may be the best way. I guess time will tell.

 

[Risk1994]

As an interesting aside. Apex lets you do some interesting things.

Here is a comparison chart, in yellow is PH. The blue bars represent when the AWC adds 1 gallon of new salt water.

Seems like shortly after the new water is added the PH peaks. Could be a co-incidence, I believe around noon is when PH peaks normally but still kind of cool.

 

[Chrisv.]

As an interesting aside. Apex lets you do some interesting things.

Here is a comparison chart, in yellow is PH. The blue bars represent when the AWC adds 1 gallon of new salt water.

Seems like shortly after the new water is added the PH peaks. Could be a co-incidence, I believe around noon is when PH peaks normally but still kind of cool.

Are you monitoring alkalinity? How stable is it? Can you overlay on/off on the solenoid valve on top of the pH graph? Or is it too many on off cycles?

 

[Risk1994]

Are you monitoring alkalinity? How stable is it? Can you overlay on/off on the solenoid valve on top of the pH graph? Or is it too many on off cycles?

I measure alk like once a week. Eventually Ill get a trident.

Looks like the valve has cycled just once over the last week. I was playing around apex and may have left it off. Ill stabalize everything and see what I can get after a week.

 

[Chrisv.]

I measure alk like once a week. Eventually Ill get a trident.

Looks like the valve has cycled just once over the last week. I was playing around apex and may have left it off. Ill stabalize everything and see what I can get after a week.

So this is with it recirulating 24/7?