Homers 80G Started on RC

[homer1475]

Did your parameters change much after moving your tank?
Did you replace the sand bed?

looks good! So sad that you had to toss those frog spawn, one of my favorite corals.

Parameters haven't changed much, did see a small spike in nitrates, but a large WC brought them back down, and they stay at an acceptable level. I rinsed the snot out of the sand, and reused it.

I only tossed the frog because I have no where to to get rid of it(closest LFS is a 2 hour drive one way), and it grows like a weed.

 

[homer1475]

I think today might be the day I rip my reef apart to catch my red corris wrasse. Little ******* has chased his last fish.

I believe my new black leopard is dead from being chased into the sandbed every day for the last week. Haven't seen it in 4 days.

Luckily the person I am mentoring, will take the red, or it was toilet bound. Sorry, but my LFS is a 2 hour trip one way, and they do not want the fish. Unfortunately taking the big swim in the sky is my only option had i not found someone that wanted it.

I'm sure someone will find it cruel and inhumane, but ask me if I care what someone else thinks.

 

[homer1475]

On another note.......

Seems my bubble magus curve 5 elite has died......

The sicce pump has crapped out, or at least it seems. Noticed yesterday it wasn't running, couldn't get it to start up either. Pulled it out, cleaned it up, and noticed what appeared to be rust inside the motor housing, and on the magnet. Magnet spun freely, so didn't think twice about it.

There was soime CA buildup on the shaft so the magnet didn't exactly spin freely on the shaft. Cleaned it up, put it back in the tank , and it seemed to run, but seemed week. Didn;t think anything of it.

Woke up this morning to 3/4 my tank not running! Temp was down to 73F! Luckily I have 3 Eb8's, and one is on a separate circuit(luckily it's where my return is plugged in).

Noticed the GFCI outlet was tripped after a while of troubleshooting. Clicked the rest button, and the tank roars to life. Ok all good now, but why did it trip? Sat on the couch cruising R2R, and it tripped again! I thought "what the heck!". Reset it, and sat back down, only to trip again a few minutes later.

It's then that I noticed the skimmer looked super weak. Unplugged it from the EB, and the GFCI has been on solid since. So the pump is definitely shot.

Have one on order, but have an older syncra 1.5 sitting around that the impeller shaft broke on. Wondering if it's the same pump body, but different impeller? Once the wife wakes up, might rip the reef apart to catch a fish, and see if the syncra 1.5 will work for now till the UPS fairy decided to deliver the new pump.

 

[Water Dog]

Reminds me of an evil 6 line I used to have… :mad:

 

[homer1475]

Well the task is done.... Wasn't fun, and I certainly do not want to do it again, but it's done. The red coris is at his new home in a 4 foot 150G.

 

[Raege]

brings back memories of the blue damsel capture filter brutal! Glad it’s behind ya and things can settle in now

 

[homer1475]

So now that I've got everything settled down, including myself.......

Lost my melanarus.
I put him along with a few other fish in one of the tubs. He decided to jump, and landed so hard I think he broke his back. I picked him up, placed back in the water, but he just sat at the surface doing circles and gasping very hard. His body was also bent in a circle. After getting everything back in the tank(about 3 hours later) he wasn't doing nay better, so I put him out of his misery.

RIP Mel.

I did find my old sicce 1.5 pump to try in the skimmer. Well it's the exact same body size, and the needle wheel is the exact same impeller as the OEM with just the needles as the top part. Fit wise, it works perfectly. It is a little smaller(GPH wise), and I did notice I had to turn the skimmer knob up to max get it to work right. I wonder if I just lower it in the water, if I'll get more control back with the smaller pump? Anyways, it does seem to work better with a little bit smaller pump(bubble head is thicker with larger bubbles at the top). The PSK skimmer specific pump is a .6 amp draw @ 367gph, while the syncra 1.5 is .4 amps @ 357. Either way I think I'm going to leave it in there for a while.


New FTS. Doesn't look like any coral loss, My meat coral is still peeved, but he'll survive and look fine in the morning.

I got it mostly back to the same aquascape. It's tough when you have mature colonies to try and put back in the same spot. My wife doesn't think I did a bad job, and I have another shelf now to mount some of SPS thats been encrusting on my rack forever.

Pictures don't show depth, but just under the pavona, right in front of the slimer, and above the sunset monti, is a nice shelf all ripe for some SPS.(like my walt disnery, and nice sarmentosa that have really started to grow).

 

[homer1475]

You know what I find interesting.....

Most of my rock is dry dead rock thats been in my system for many years(basically very live rock now). No matter how long it's been in the tank, the part not exposed to light, is still stark white.

You can see it in the new shelf I have. That rock flipped over is still stark white.

 

[chipchipbro]

news?

 

[homer1475]

LOl news?

Tank has been built for years, and as I have said on previous posts, I often forget about my build thread.

 

[chipchipbro]

yes.. just wanted to know what happened after the mission you did..

 

[homer1475]

I suppose I could give a little update......

My original maxspect gyre died last week, and I will not be replacing it. While I love the gyre and the flow they provide, the amount of cleaning required to keep that flow is a huge PITA. Think all in I was close to $400 for the pump, and associated apex interface module. $400 for a pump thats only a couple years old, si not reliable in my opinion.

I can see on my sandbed where the flow has diminished as I am getting some cyano build up now. Think I might just get another nero 3 to put down low so I have more flow over the sandbed.

Black leopard is out and about now. Putting on weight so she's starting to look good.

Think my next wrasse will be an exquisite.

 

[homer1475]

yes.. just wanted to know what happened after the mission you did..

Tank is back up, running, and chugging along like nothing happened. It took about 2 weeks to get my dosing back up to where it was(assuming my corals took a bit of a shock, so they layed dormant for a while).

 

[homer1475]

Actually had to go back and read my own posts. lol

Anyways, I have to say the sicce 1.5 pump with the psk needle wheel is working like a champ! I would not be afraid to say it even works better. I get thicker foam, and drier stinkier skimmate at the same settings. Even though it's like 20gph slower pump, it seems to draw more air( I do not have a device to measure the air intake) as my PH is a point or 2 higher then it used to be(I draw outside air into my skimmer).

Least I know I can still source the pump as the PSK pump seems hard to find. I could only find it with one supplier, and their website looked sketchy at best.

 

[chipchipbro]

All in all that sounds pretty good tbh
Nice that everything works.. and btw. cyanos suck ;( I always have to fight dinos because my po4 seems to bottom out very quickly..

 

[homer1475]

Yeah just not sure if the cyano is from stirring up the sandbed(trying to find the wrasse), or from the decreases flow to be honest.

I haven't had a cyano issue in a year or so since I started dosing @Eldredge phyto blend. So this has me a little puzzled. I have the nero on order, so we will see if it's from the lack of flow, or from stirring the sandbed up. I will admit, I do not clean my sandbed at all, other then siphoning off the top from time to time when it gets gross. I do deploy many nesasarious(sp?) snails, and 4 conchs to keep it somewhat clean.

I simply rinse the siphoned off sand, let it sit in bleach for a few days, rinse in prime, let dry, and when I get a bag, I dump it back in.

I did just find out my wife has been feeding the black leopard a huge chunk of mysis in the morning when she wakes up! No wonder my nutrients are rising, but the fish is certainly looking better. lol My feeding regime is 2 rotation on an auto feeder in the AM(TDO, algae max, and NLS pellets), and a chunk of mysis, PE mysis, some homemade frozen, and live phyto in the PM. So the extra chunk of mysis in the AM is causing my nitrates to rise, and possibly the cyano from it sitting on the sandbed and rotting( I use a 100% all pumps feed mode in the PM to kick up the uneaten food into the overflow).

 

[i cant think]

I’ve been in an on and off fight with cyano and dinos over the past two or so years, hate it. My realtionship with it is a very big hate, I don’t think it’ll be there long but I would keep an eye on phosphates and nitrites (Also make sure your kit is in date, mine sent me on an absolute panic thinking it was on the edge of crashing or was crashing last night).

 

[homer1475]

Only fought dino's once. I now keep my nutrients on the "rich" side(15 to 20 nitrates, .1 to .2 phosphates), and haven't had an issue in years. I do deploy UV now 24/7 though as a result.

Cyano for me comes and goes. I never do anything different to spur it on, and nothing different to get rid of it. Just seems to come and go. it doesn't bother me as I have always had it to some degree. For me it's just part of owning a thriving reef tank. For as long as I have been reefing, I'm pretty set in my ways, to how I test, to how I mix salt, and my maintenance schedule. Whats the old saying? It's tough to teach and old dog new tricks. LOL

With that said, I do think my current bout is from the extra food thats been put in the tank without my knowledge for the last 3 weeks, and the lack of flow. It is right dead center of my tank, and on the sandbed. the gyre used to provide flow down there, so it wasn't an issue until the gyre died.

 

[homer1475]

Wow nero 3 is sold out everywhere! Thought I might have found one on some obscure LFS website, but they emailed me saying it was out of stock, and not expected back in stock for 3 weeks(pretty much the same drivel I got from everyone), so kept the order with them as I would rather support an LFS then a big box store(BRS, petco, etc).

Tanks cruising along quite nicely, things are growing again, and the cyano issue has mostly resolved itself. I do seem to be having a small bout of GHA, and not exactly sure why. My nutrient numbers haven't changed in months, other then a slight uptick in phosphates from the extra feedings my wife was doing. I'm going to chalk it up to decreased flow(haven't replaced the gyre yet), and a small uptick in phosphates. Just some manual removal during weekly WC's ,and some GFO should mop it up.

I did finally get a replacement for the sicce SK pump, but the 1.5 is working so well, I may just send it back for a refund and buy another syncra 1.5, and spare impeller.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Wow nero 3 is sold out everywhere! Thought I might have found one on some obscure LFS website, but they emailed me saying it was out of stock, and not expected back in stock for 3 weeks(pretty much the same drivel I got from everyone), so kept the order with them as I would rather support an LFS then a big box store(BRS, petco, etc).

Tanks cruising along quite nicely, things are growing again, and the cyano issue has mostly resolved itself. I do seem to be having a small bout of GHA, and not exactly sure why. My nutrient numbers haven't changed in months, other then a slight uptick in phosphates from the extra feedings my wife was doing. I'm going to chalk it up to decreased flow(haven't replaced the gyre yet), and a small uptick in phosphates. Just some manual removal during weekly WC's ,and some GFO should mop it up.

I did finally get a replacement for the sicce SK pump, but the 1.5 is working so well, I may just send it back for a refund and buy another syncra 1.5, and spare impeller.

Its crazy you wouldn't think messing with the tank does that, but I recently did that to 2 different systems one to get out peppermint shrimp, and one to get out hitchhiking crabs but disturbed all the rock the same(no sand in either) and put it back. All kinds of algaes and cyano for a couple weeks then just went away. I guess its the systems way of saying its ticked off at you, but then it gets over it.