Terrys Red Sea Max E170 Build thread
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
I designed and printed a little insert for my case to hold Hanna cuvettes. I had planned on making a drying rack insert for the front compartment but may not. Here is the STL if interested (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3892534/files)
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Little snag today.
Unfortunately a WWII B17 crashed about 2 miles from my home (https://patch.com/connecticut/windsorlocks/plane-crash-reported-bradley-airport). I am an aviation enthusiast (purchased my home to be near the airport) . Retired Airforce Msgt and this was very personal to me. I wish the best to the survivors and may the lost rest in peace. Now I have a new issue.
The fuel, deicer (they hit the storage tanks) and foam retardant has washed down into the storm drains and into the river. The town has a cautionary health warning out and is researching if it has also contaminated wells (the aquifer is near where it ran off). That will take some time. Hopefully there isn't contamination and this is moot point.
I shutdown my RODI and Water Softener for now. I will wait to see if the well water nearest the source tests positive for these chemicals. ethylene glycol is no good for anyone and the fuel foam can cause tumors in animals (They say not humans but I imaging long term it will as well) I imaging the fuel will evaporate and contaminate the soil before it gets to me.
Unfortunately a WWII B17 crashed about 2 miles from my home (https://patch.com/connecticut/windsorlocks/plane-crash-reported-bradley-airport). I am an aviation enthusiast (purchased my home to be near the airport) . Retired Airforce Msgt and this was very personal to me. I wish the best to the survivors and may the lost rest in peace. Now I have a new issue.
The fuel, deicer (they hit the storage tanks) and foam retardant has washed down into the storm drains and into the river. The town has a cautionary health warning out and is researching if it has also contaminated wells (the aquifer is near where it ran off). That will take some time. Hopefully there isn't contamination and this is moot point.
I shutdown my RODI and Water Softener for now. I will wait to see if the well water nearest the source tests positive for these chemicals. ethylene glycol is no good for anyone and the fuel foam can cause tumors in animals (They say not humans but I imaging long term it will as well) I imaging the fuel will evaporate and contaminate the soil before it gets to me.
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
More work done with the printer.
I did more work on my organizer for my test kits. I had planned on adding the redsea but I was unhappy with the result of the divider. I may still build one with simple walls. I don't know.
All the STL files are here (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3892534)
I did more work on my organizer for my test kits. I had planned on adding the redsea but I was unhappy with the result of the divider. I may still build one with simple walls. I don't know.
All the STL files are here (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3892534)
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Last night I had a die off of something. My skimmer went nuts and overflowed. I had to turn the air way down to get it under control. the cup by morning was full of smelly dark green\back summer goo. My best guess is as I lower my nitrates and phosphates, I must have hit a threshold , killing something and causing a bacterial bloom of another. Oh yeah last wed I did another water change and vacuumed ant cyano mat I found.
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
So I am probably right. I just tested and my phosphate is now at about .07 and my nitrates are at 10. Perfect in my book! What ever was feeding in the nitrates must have starved and died off. I am not sure if I should do a water normal water change Sunday. I will have to do a full set of tests.
I may just do a small syphon of the cyano not sure if I should now. I don’t want my phosphates to drop to zero.
I may just do a small syphon of the cyano not sure if I should now. I don’t want my phosphates to drop to zero.
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Fish season is coming up and I have been printing away. I finished the organizer for my test kits. the last piece was for the RedSea Foundation pro test kit. I used the super kit last night and it worked fantastic. It was easy to test both my tank and my wife's nanao. I honestly think it cut down a lot of time. Unexpected plus was I grabbed a sample of tank water from each tank (using the sample cups in the kit) and walked to my dining room table to test (I out a towel down just in case). It was really pleasant to do actually.
The harbor freight case is here BTW: https://www.harborfreight.com/8-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93927.html
RedSea Foundation Test kit. I was racking my brain on how to fit in the titrator until it hit me that I can put it in another bin.
complete kit with sample cups.
The harbor freight case is here BTW: https://www.harborfreight.com/8-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93927.html
RedSea Foundation Test kit. I was racking my brain on how to fit in the titrator until it hit me that I can put it in another bin.
complete kit with sample cups.
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Chemiclean clean Complete! Again everything is spotless. Bright white sand and now dull rocks.
I added some bacteria to the tank to try fill the “void” from what the chemiclean killed with good bacteria.
I noticed that I am also starting to see small spots of what looks like green cyano. Didn’t know it comes in green but it looks like the pink stuff growing in my power heads but green.
so I also had a few thoughts about my problem.
1) I may just finally be going through the uglies. tge rank never went through it so perhaps it’s a late bloomer.
2) the room this tank is in gets a lot on ambient light in the morning (not direct). My lights are programmed for 12 hrs (4peak) but does not account for the natural light. Perhaps I should figure a way to take the into account.
sorry lights are off so my camera uses a flash
I added some bacteria to the tank to try fill the “void” from what the chemiclean killed with good bacteria.
I noticed that I am also starting to see small spots of what looks like green cyano. Didn’t know it comes in green but it looks like the pink stuff growing in my power heads but green.
so I also had a few thoughts about my problem.
1) I may just finally be going through the uglies. tge rank never went through it so perhaps it’s a late bloomer.
2) the room this tank is in gets a lot on ambient light in the morning (not direct). My lights are programmed for 12 hrs (4peak) but does not account for the natural light. Perhaps I should figure a way to take the into account.
sorry lights are off so my camera uses a flash
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Holy phosphate Batman. Now my treatment is done I measured nitrates an phosphate.
.29 phosphates and 60 nitrates. Holy poop! I need a water change. Might be time for the chem pure elite.
.29 phosphates and 60 nitrates. Holy poop! I need a water change. Might be time for the chem pure elite.
AngryMike2016
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With numbers like that, I'd recommend doing several 30% water changes, with a day or two between each one.
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Even the best made plans:
Things don't always go as planned.
I got to go to my first coral show over the weekend. Since it was my first time going to one, never dipped coral and never QT'ed, the plan was simple, raid the bargain bins. I also wanted to meet venders, get business cards (to recognize them online) and get a general feel of what to expect. Mission accomplished. I got quite a few for less than $50 (schools are awesome) . Now If I lost one I will be sad but not cash poor sad.
Then comes my daughter and her boyfriend to put a monkey wrench in things. They go an buy a $250 golden torch and two clowns to put in my QT (I wanted to go with no fish originally). So now I'm paranoid. We dipped them and in the QT they went. The QT light is not the best but I will be getting a clearance AI prime Thursday.
Everyone opened fully and seems happy except the torches. At first I thought it was some irritation due to acclimation. I tested and checked lighting but each day the torch receded more.
Unfortunately it was worse than I expected. I just learned about brown jelly disease. Guess what the one and only expensive coral is just about gone. We quickly setup a 5g tank I had, and are trying to save it but being a new reefer who knows.
ICU treatment.
I am going to try and save the torch or at least use it as a learning experience.
We focused first on removing the necrotic tissues. We dipped it in Revive and used a 10ml syringe to blow out the jelly ( and any dead tissue). It was amazing what came out. We were wondering if there would be any tissue left.( There are a few polyps so who knows). We then rinsed it and gave it a rest for a few hours. We pulled it again and dipped it in H2O2 (20:1) using the same syringe we blew it out again. some final bits came out. We felt like surgeons cutting out flesh eating bacteria leaving only healthy tissue. We dipped it in clean water and then gave it a final dip in and IODINE solution Seachem Reef dip. There isn't much left after we got all the narcotic tissue off. However there are a few polups so it is possible it will survive (we can dream). I have nothing to loose giving it a try I guess.
Now it is sitting in a 5g tank we call ICU, We added a little Amino acid and trace elements to that tank and a small amount of reefroids.
I also did several large water changes in the QT. No other corals in the QT are showing any signs of infection. I guess it solidifies the need for a QT. I would have hated for this to happen in my DT. The scary part is I thought it was the QT tank causing it to be angry and toyed with the Idea of putting it in. Wow how stupid that thought was.
One lesson learned will be when I get a coral I am going to treat it as having a disease. Im going to first treat for pests then for dead or damaged tissue.
Here it is day one. The day we got it from the show, dipped and put into QT.
Hey here is fun fact. I had the same procedure done to me when part of my pancreas dies. its called necrosectomy which is Debridement of dead tissue in the pancreas.
Day two - You can see it starting on the top left. All the detritus on the bottom of the tank was overnight not sure why (its clean now)
Today in ICU There are popups on the lower left. However its mostly a husk.
Things don't always go as planned.
I got to go to my first coral show over the weekend. Since it was my first time going to one, never dipped coral and never QT'ed, the plan was simple, raid the bargain bins. I also wanted to meet venders, get business cards (to recognize them online) and get a general feel of what to expect. Mission accomplished. I got quite a few for less than $50 (schools are awesome) . Now If I lost one I will be sad but not cash poor sad.
Then comes my daughter and her boyfriend to put a monkey wrench in things. They go an buy a $250 golden torch and two clowns to put in my QT (I wanted to go with no fish originally). So now I'm paranoid. We dipped them and in the QT they went. The QT light is not the best but I will be getting a clearance AI prime Thursday.
Everyone opened fully and seems happy except the torches. At first I thought it was some irritation due to acclimation. I tested and checked lighting but each day the torch receded more.
Unfortunately it was worse than I expected. I just learned about brown jelly disease. Guess what the one and only expensive coral is just about gone. We quickly setup a 5g tank I had, and are trying to save it but being a new reefer who knows.
ICU treatment.
I am going to try and save the torch or at least use it as a learning experience.
We focused first on removing the necrotic tissues. We dipped it in Revive and used a 10ml syringe to blow out the jelly ( and any dead tissue). It was amazing what came out. We were wondering if there would be any tissue left.( There are a few polyps so who knows). We then rinsed it and gave it a rest for a few hours. We pulled it again and dipped it in H2O2 (20:1) using the same syringe we blew it out again. some final bits came out. We felt like surgeons cutting out flesh eating bacteria leaving only healthy tissue. We dipped it in clean water and then gave it a final dip in and IODINE solution Seachem Reef dip. There isn't much left after we got all the narcotic tissue off. However there are a few polups so it is possible it will survive (we can dream). I have nothing to loose giving it a try I guess.
Now it is sitting in a 5g tank we call ICU, We added a little Amino acid and trace elements to that tank and a small amount of reefroids.
I also did several large water changes in the QT. No other corals in the QT are showing any signs of infection. I guess it solidifies the need for a QT. I would have hated for this to happen in my DT. The scary part is I thought it was the QT tank causing it to be angry and toyed with the Idea of putting it in. Wow how stupid that thought was.
One lesson learned will be when I get a coral I am going to treat it as having a disease. Im going to first treat for pests then for dead or damaged tissue.
Here it is day one. The day we got it from the show, dipped and put into QT.
Hey here is fun fact. I had the same procedure done to me when part of my pancreas dies. its called necrosectomy which is Debridement of dead tissue in the pancreas.
Day two - You can see it starting on the top left. All the detritus on the bottom of the tank was overnight not sure why (its clean now)
Today in ICU There are popups on the lower left. However its mostly a husk.
OP
OP
Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
I decided to do so designing today.
I built a frag cage for fragging leather corals/
The last time I fragged a todastool I used a piece of netting other used a rubberband to hold it to the tile.
I seen someone use a plastic container to just enclose the frag and tile in while it attaches to the tile. I couldn't find anything online so I decided to design my own. It was a lot of fun and my local fish store thought it was cool. So I alsl bought a hunk for leather coral to test it out.
The way it works is you put the tile in the base then lay the leather frag ont op of the tile. The top of the frag cage just encloses it. There is no pressure on the frag and it can move around. Once it attaches you pull the case apart take out the attached frag and tile and reuse it for the next one.
I was concerned about the width of the mesh blocking light so the second version was more open. I may just purchase some nylon screen (liek for tops) and glue it into the top shell. For now I just made a top with holes so I could thread a rubber band into it. I can now easily adjust the band tension so it doesn't crush the coral stock. Lets see how it goes.
I built a frag cage for fragging leather corals/
The last time I fragged a todastool I used a piece of netting other used a rubberband to hold it to the tile.
I seen someone use a plastic container to just enclose the frag and tile in while it attaches to the tile. I couldn't find anything online so I decided to design my own. It was a lot of fun and my local fish store thought it was cool. So I alsl bought a hunk for leather coral to test it out.
The way it works is you put the tile in the base then lay the leather frag ont op of the tile. The top of the frag cage just encloses it. There is no pressure on the frag and it can move around. Once it attaches you pull the case apart take out the attached frag and tile and reuse it for the next one.
I was concerned about the width of the mesh blocking light so the second version was more open. I may just purchase some nylon screen (liek for tops) and glue it into the top shell. For now I just made a top with holes so I could thread a rubber band into it. I can now easily adjust the band tension so it doesn't crush the coral stock. Lets see how it goes.
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OP
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
So I had a better weekend. A while back I lost my candy cane coral. It shrunk away a and eventually fell off my rocks.
well yesterday when I was cleaning my tank I caught a little green glimmer from this set a rock. To my amazement it was a nub if the candy cane coral. I pulled it out, dipped it, and glued it to a frag plug.
now it’s in my coral QT to grow out a bit. Today I can even see new growth.
Here are a few pictures of what I have in my QT. the Kenya tree is going to stay in the QT. Hopefully it will not attach any polyps to my frag plugs (I understand it’s like growing thistle)
This is the candy cane back in June
This was it a month later caused by algae chocking it out.
Today in QT
well yesterday when I was cleaning my tank I caught a little green glimmer from this set a rock. To my amazement it was a nub if the candy cane coral. I pulled it out, dipped it, and glued it to a frag plug.
now it’s in my coral QT to grow out a bit. Today I can even see new growth.
Here are a few pictures of what I have in my QT. the Kenya tree is going to stay in the QT. Hopefully it will not attach any polyps to my frag plugs (I understand it’s like growing thistle)
This is the candy cane back in June
This was it a month later caused by algae chocking it out.
Today in QT
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Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
Having a bit of a down day. Obviously this doesn’t come natural to me. 7 months in. Never missed a water change, testing, even used good salt. I spent a HUGE amount of time and money testing. Numbers are in the green zones and pretty stable. My e170 is getting cyano again along with green algae. I have only three corals two zoa frags and a monster toadstool . Things just don’t really want to grow in the tank I’m loosing interest To be honest. I had to fight myself to clean the tank today and do water Testing. Not good since I used to love Sunday mornings cleaning. (I’m feeling bipolar)
Hear is the flip side. my two month old, 10g Coral QT tank with nothing but a HOB filter and an AI prime, all the frags I bought a few weeks ago are growing like weeds. My hammer is splitting into two heads, the Kenya tree is HUGE, the zoas have giant heads the Dunkin’ is beautiful . The only loss was a mushroom and the kids torch. what the heck?
The frag tank has been running a new salt for me with slightly different parameters. What I am hoping is I changed my salt to fritz. ( the reason is tropic Marin mixes to have an alkalinity of 7.6. I don't dose so the number is low for me. Fritz mixes with An alkalinity of 8.6.). The frag tank seems to be happy with it.
Today wAs the first water change in my big tank with a higher dkh.
I’m guessing at other possible impacts
1) the ambient light in the room. It’s not direct but it is gets a LOT of daylight. It could be contributing to the cyano and algae.
2) The other thing I can think of is it’s proximity to the bathroom. I know when we shower you can smell the soap when you open the door, I wonder if that is One if my issues.
I may have to move the tank to my office (where the 10g tank is) if I can’t figure this out soon.... I don’t know. I really need some solid progress. I don’t want to associate this with instant failure.
Hear is the flip side. my two month old, 10g Coral QT tank with nothing but a HOB filter and an AI prime, all the frags I bought a few weeks ago are growing like weeds. My hammer is splitting into two heads, the Kenya tree is HUGE, the zoas have giant heads the Dunkin’ is beautiful . The only loss was a mushroom and the kids torch. what the heck?
The frag tank has been running a new salt for me with slightly different parameters. What I am hoping is I changed my salt to fritz. ( the reason is tropic Marin mixes to have an alkalinity of 7.6. I don't dose so the number is low for me. Fritz mixes with An alkalinity of 8.6.). The frag tank seems to be happy with it.
Today wAs the first water change in my big tank with a higher dkh.
I’m guessing at other possible impacts
1) the ambient light in the room. It’s not direct but it is gets a LOT of daylight. It could be contributing to the cyano and algae.
2) The other thing I can think of is it’s proximity to the bathroom. I know when we shower you can smell the soap when you open the door, I wonder if that is One if my issues.
I may have to move the tank to my office (where the 10g tank is) if I can’t figure this out soon.... I don’t know. I really need some solid progress. I don’t want to associate this with instant failure.
OP
OP
Taxus812
Destroyer of corals
OMG ! I think figured it out ! All this time, Water testing, changing water diligently, keeping the tank spotless I still couldn't figure out why my corals died after a few weeks. Then I got a 10g tank and dumped a bunch of coral in and everything is growing like weeds. It made me very frustrated honestly.
Then everything clicked with just a couple of statements in this video. To much light, Polups will eventually retract and the coral will shrink. Lower the light and the polups will extend so start on the dark side. My 10g tank has a smaller light (AI Prime), same spectrum setting and is in my basement.
I set my HD26 to the BRS AB+ spectrum and set it at a total of 45w (10hr light cycle with ramp up and down). Guess what my corals polups are extending. could it be this simple ?
Then everything clicked with just a couple of statements in this video. To much light, Polups will eventually retract and the coral will shrink. Lower the light and the polups will extend so start on the dark side. My 10g tank has a smaller light (AI Prime), same spectrum setting and is in my basement.
I set my HD26 to the BRS AB+ spectrum and set it at a total of 45w (10hr light cycle with ramp up and down). Guess what my corals polups are extending. could it be this simple ?
