My Reef Journey Begins!

[Chrisfish]

Well, I lost my 3rd coral some time overnight. It is really amazing how quickly they will bleach. This wasn't exactly unexpected. I keep hearing that some coral needs very high flow. So I glued a $5 frag as close to the powerhead as I could without it getting completely blasted (about 6" and off centered so it wasn't in the direct path). It lasted over a month there but never really looked like it was thriving. I think I have a much better idea of what "high flow" is now. Kinda feel guilty that I lost a frag but I didn't know a better way to learn.

Sorry about that, I have been having problems with my hammer and a few acans, too much flow in mine. Moved them and seem to be doing better.

 

[Brew12]

You STOLE my blenny!!!!!!!!

What can I say, you inspired me! Was going to just get a regular lawnmower but this guy was just too awesome!

 

[helen ann]

What can I say, you inspired me! Was going to just get a regular lawnmower but this guy was just too awesome!

Yep! Getting Mr. Cutie his own frag rack from Xmas!!!

 

[Brew12]

Sorry about that, I have been having problems with my hammer and a few acans, too much flow in mine. Moved them and seem to be doing better.

Oddly enough, my hammer coral is loving life sitting in his bed of cyno.

 

[Brew12]

Yep! Getting Mr. Cutie his own frag rack from Xmas!!!

lol Think he will actually let you use your old one or will he just claim both?

 

[helen ann]

lol Think he will actually let you use your old one or will he just claim both?

I have reached out to Zen Reef to see if they can make me one with like 3 holes waiting on a reply.
I am hoping he will make that one his home and give me my other one back!

 

[Brew12]

Today is project day. Converting my SBReeflight 32" timers to be Apex compatible.

Lesson #1... the examples on line using the 16" version are only roughly comparable to the 32" version. Fortunately, its just a little more complex. Shouldn't cause any problems getting it done.

 

[Brew12]

One side done... one more to go. Well, on the first fixture anyway!

 

[Brew12]

Well, this fixture is on the tank and working great! For the first time since starting this tank I feel like my lighting is where I want it to be. Have it set to 35,000 Lux for an 8hr window and will start raising it from there.

Now I just need to get the 2nd fixture done!

 

[Brew12]

Ugh... Well,I only thought the light conversion went well. I will need to take one of the fixtures back apart. The first one I did dimmed up and down correctly but it will not turn all the way off. The second one works fine. Not exactly sure why that would be unless I didn't get a good connection on the voltage signal so it isn't going all the way down. Seems odd that it would be the same on both sides but its the only thing I can think of to check.
I tried to swap the connections to the Apex to make sure that wasn't the problem and the issue stayed with the light fixture.

Just really odd that this would be the case with all 4 LED drivers connected to 2 separate connections to the Apex. Maybe it will be more obvious when I get it taken apart.

 

[RamsReef]

Ugh... Well,I only thought the light conversion went well. I will need to take one of the fixtures back apart. The first one I did dimmed up and down correctly but it will not turn all the way off. The second one works fine. Not exactly sure why that would be unless I didn't get a good connection on the voltage signal so it isn't going all the way down. Seems odd that it would be the same on both sides but its the only thing I can think of to check.
I tried to swap the connections to the Apex to make sure that wasn't the problem and the issue stayed with the light fixture.

Just really odd that this would be the case with all 4 LED drivers connected to 2 separate connections to the Apex. Maybe it will be more obvious when I get it taken apart.

Noob alert.

 

[Brew12]

I think I understand my problem. I was under the impression that the LED drivers on this set up were like the ones that came with the tank I purchased. Apparently, these still need the controller to turn them on and off, they don't go to off at 10V like I expected. Not a big deal.... Just reprogrammed the built in timer to turn them on and off to match the Apex.
Eventually I'll design a circuit to allow the Apex to take that function but too much to do for that to be today. Taking the dogs for a hike in a few minutes and then need to work on the desk I'm building for my son.

 

[Brew12]

Well, it was a fight, but I now have 2 skimmers running in my sump. My Bubble Magus Curve 7 just couldn't keep up. The new rotor for my Aquamaxx CO-2 came in today. Initially I set it up in the refugium section of my sump but noticed at least 10 amphipods got sucked into it in the first minute. Not that I'm worried about a shortage of pods, but I thought I might have room to just add it to my skimmer section. It is a very tight fit but I managed to get both skimmers in there and running.
I'm kinda liking the Aquamaxx. It is definitely easy to set up and seems to accept a wider difference in water levels. On the down side, it is significantly louder than the Curve 7.
Hopefully having both these skimmers doing their thing will help with the cyno bloom from all my algae dying off.

 

[RamsReef]

From reading, you cannot run two skimmers at once. One will end up doing the work while the other does nothing, and it will be terribly inefficient.
Two generators in ISOCH mode.
But, I will leave you to run your own experiments.

 

[Brew12]

From reading, you cannot run two skimmers at once. One will end up doing the work while the other does nothing, and it will be terribly inefficient.
Two generators in ISOCH mode.
But, I will leave you to run your own experiments.

Hmm.. hadn't heard that before. Guess I will see how it goes first hand! I may have plenty of nutrients for both of them!

 

[cpschult]

I was a south sider but I never picked up my dads love of the White Sox. Growing up we would go to both Wrigley and Comisky and I just like Wrigley much better. You live very close to my brother. He is in Waukesha. I did some college in Watertown, WI which is just up the road!

And thank you for your service too! I was a quitter and only did 10 years. Another 5 year tour on a submarine just didn't appeal to me.

If you ever visit your brother in Waukesha shoot me a message and stop by! I could use your cord organizing skills!

 

[Brew12]

If you ever visit your brother in Waukesha shoot me a message and stop by! I could use your cord organizing skills!

I don't make it up there very often. It's a bit of a drive. Not to mention that it gets cold up there!

 

[Brew12]

I know.. I know... I'm behind on my updates. And that is because there just isn't much to update right now.
Still dosing Vibrant twice a week and tank is clearing up nicely. I'm still overfeeding but I can't help myself! I need to work on that.
My Vibrant dosing combined with my overfeeding led to a Cyano bloom. Yuck. Dosing H2O2 to help with that. It seems to be working fairly well.

Otherwise, I'm kinda in a holding pattern. I want to get more coral, but I'm not going to until I get a coral/invert QT set up. That won't be until after Christmas. Too much else going on right now.

 

[RamsReef]

I know.. I know... I'm behind on my updates. And that is because there just isn't much to update right now.
Still dosing Vibrant twice a week and tank is clearing up nicely. I'm still overfeeding but I can't help myself! I need to work on that.
My Vibrant dosing combined with my overfeeding led to a Cyano bloom. Yuck. Dosing H2O2 to help with that. It seems to be working fairly well.

Otherwise, I'm kinda in a holding pattern. I want to get more coral, but I'm not going to until I get a coral/invert QT set up. That won't be until after Christmas. Too much else going on right now.

Slacker

 

[Brew12]

I really need to be better about updating my thread. Here' the sad update.

As I said earlier, I had been dosing Vibrant and ran into a major Cyano issue. To combat this, I added some GFO into my system. I also started dosing H2O2 hoping the combination of the two would help clear the cyano. The biggest issue is that it was covering my corals and smothering them so it needed to go.

My SPS sticks seemed weren't doing great, but they weren't doing too bad like the plating corals. The biggest issue I saw there was that they had gotten very pale and had absolutely no PE. To me, this said I had a low nutrient problem. My zoas were doing great however, which tells me I had plenty of nutrients. My pipe organ and hammer corals also haven't been doing well but not as bad as the SPS's. Being confused at this point, I pulled my GFO and stopped dosing the H2O2. I was due another Vibrant add on Sunday but stopped using it as well.
I haven't had detectible nitrates since the first month I had my tank set up. At that point my algae consumed it all. Initially, I purchased the low range Hanna phosphate checker so I ordered the ultra low range checker to help figure out what was going on.
So here I sit with no algae, no nitrates, no phosphates on my ultra low range checker, and a light blanket of Cyano (it's gotten better since I stopped doing anything). My zoa's are thriving and my SPS's have RTN. Fortunately, I don't have much invested in my corals at this point so I'm just going to go ahead and let them wipe. Not sure I could stop it anyway since I have signs of both high and low nutrients at the same time.
Lesson learned... I should have let my tank run through it's ugly stage in a more natural way. Instead, I tried to fight it and in doing that, I put my tank in a condition where I have no clue what is going on or how to correct it. Just glad I learned it now instead of a year from now.

Fortunately, all my fish and inverts seem to be doing great. They are fat and happy.