WVNeds's Tanks

[WVNed]

Beautiful tank! Love the lion fish and the butterfly’s!!

Thanks

This time around it is about all the things I used to look at online or at the LFS in those big tanks but couldn't have.
I enjoy all the pretty coral pics in the good morning thread. But they aren't my thing, beyond something interesting for the fish to swim around.

 

[WVNed]

I never get the rocks back right after I move them. It looks like this now. Unless it falls down again. Rocks with big corals are top heavy. It looks to me like the water clarity is greatly improved. I dont have the filter socks in right now either. The next time I have an 8 foot 240 gallon tank made I will have 4 x 1 inch returns drilled. Live and learn.

The three amigos

 

[WVNed]

The TS-2 denitrator is working. But it isnt big enough. It seems to be able to remove 30ppm of nitrates from 45 gallons of water a day.
It is sold for UP TO 400 gallons. Oops, I have 400 gallons and lots of food going in the system every day. The TS-3 for up to 1000 gallons was never put on clearance.
My nitrates have risen to about 50. I had to restart the Nopox. The cyano is returning.
I should have got 2 from the Marine Depot clearance. But I didnt. In fact there dont seem to be any anywhere now.

So I am making my own. These things sell for $300-$600, if I could find one. Seems a little much.

I did a little TLAR engineering with pencil and paper, read the DIY denitrator post and looked at how the TS-2 works.
Then I went to Lowes.
Dry fit up

4 x 24 inch PVC DWV pipe. I combined the designs of the DIY reactor and TS-2 while sticking to off the shelf parts and only needing simple hand tools. I drilled the holes with cheap spade bits for wood in my hand drill.
Holds 4.94 liters according to the calculator. I will put 4 liters of sulfur in and the rest will be aragonite. I have 8 pounds of sulfur prills coming and will mix in the Seachem Matrix I have here and top with the argonite media.
Sicce 1.5 pump for recirculation.
I am making spacers out of filter material I got from BRS.
The Inlet is above the pump on the suction side. The outlet is a fitting in the center of the top so gas vents out automatically.
The vinyl is so you can see the bubbles go by and that gives you some idea how it is working.
I am going to fasten it to a base made of 1 inch PVC board with nylon bolts to make it more stable. This will be heavy when filled.
The lid is a 4 inch clean out plug. I skipped the flange for simplicity.
I am going to connect it in series with the TS-2 at first to inoculate it. I am hoping it starts faster that way. I may leave it that way. That is what the TS-2 instructions say to do for multiple reactors.

 

[WVNed]

All glued. I used Amazing Goop for the large pieces. PVC glue has too much grab and you dont have time to line the parts up to get the pipes to go through. On the rest I used regular PVC cement and taped the threaded parts.

I have to drive to the next town over and get the last piece. The 1/4in PTC for the outlet. It goes in the hole I tapped in the cap.
I put the shower drain strainer in and shoved a piece of course filter to the bottom.

Not a bad job for an evening and a morning.

 

[WVNed]

Sulfur will not be here untill Monday. I water tested the reactor and it works.

I made new tops to the new size.

The slats I made to get the new returns to fit have an interesting effect so I made them go all the way across.
They shade the back and hide everything.

Ripclean has turned into Food Pig. He sits around and waits on the food looking at me.

The wrasse is coming out more and more.

This urchin is an overachiever.

 

[WVNed]

Still going okay

 

[WVNed]

 

[WVNed]

I am redoing my fuge, I have some kind of foot long worm in there.

Cool.
I got some 5 micron filter socks and am going to try using the lanthanum differently, They are 7 x 32 so I am modifying a brute can and making a holder for them. They cost 8 dollars each so it depends on how long they last if this is a viable option.

 

[Fudsey]

Looks like it could be a peanut worm.....

 

[WVNed]

Our whole house generator has shipped. The guy stopped by about the install today. Soon.

The sulfur came and I put the DIY reactor up in series with the Aquamaxx hoping to inoculate it. Once it is going I will run them in parallel to increase the throughput.
The fish room is getting ridiculous. The stock tanks are stuffed with stuff.

 

[WVNed]

The fish room looks like this now

Phosphate 0.9 Nitrate 10 alk 10 cal 460 mag 1480
The trashcan has 2 large 5 micron filter socks. It creates still water for lanthanum chloride to react with phosphate and then settle out. I am dosing 30ml/day into the trashcan.
The second sulfur reactor is in use. I am going to add a filter housing with a sediment filter and feed both reactors with it. I will then run them in parallel.
I swapped out the stand the fuge was sitting on. The old one was tilted to the side.
I am swimming in phyto so I am only making 2 bottles a week now.
Phasing out the Nopox for the second time now. Down to 10ml/day. This time the nitrate is not climbing.

I am hoping the cyano goes way when to Nopox is stopped like it did before.
Sorry I have been lazy about cleaning the glass and I just dumped about 1.5 liters of phyto in so the water is a bit green/cloudy.

 

[WVNed]

Today I am replacing the Simplicity 1600 pump that drives my manifold with a Simplicity 2100. After adding the second nitrate reactor and adding 400ml more biopellets for a total of 2000ml I need more flow.

waiting for the glue to dry a bit

Then on to mixing a batch of stuff to refill the dosing containers.
The exciting life of a dedicated reefer.

 

[WVNed]

I set up a 20H and have the Emperor in it with Kanaplex. I am hoping to just keep the room dark for a few days.
I don't have anything big enough to hide him. It is covered.
He has some kind of wound that looks infected. Hopefully it will go away quickly.

The other spots are just stuff in the water. Way fun catching this guy, but it is done. Lot's of terrified fish. Sorry guys.
It doesn't look like anything in the disease sticky to me. I think it is an infected urchin spine stab. It really isn't getting any bigger either. Just fuzzier.

 

[WVNed]

My friend is still in the hospital. The spot is going away but is taking longer than I had hoped.

He gets a water change today and more meds. I hope the war doesn't restart when I put him back in the tank.

The whole house generator should be fully installed today. It is very large. A 3 cylinder water cooled with a turbo.
No load sharing modules required.

It appears operation No More Nopox was a complete success.
Nitrates are 5 and phosphates .05

 

[WVNed]

It's been almost a month. I am certain you are all concerned about your favorite reefer with Parkinson's disease.
I went through a bad spell for a while. I was having an ever worsening reaction to the Neupro patch the neurologist put me on months ago. Over time the dosage is ramped up and right when I finally got to a maintenance dose, I couldn't use them any more. Stopping a drug like this is kind of like crashing you car into a wall to stop it if the brakes go bad.
Then you go through withdrawal at the same time you are trying to deal with the side effects it caused. You have to change the dosage of the other stuff you are on to replace the therapeutic effects of the one you stopped. Parkinson's drugs take weeks to have their full effect. Meanwhile you grin and bear it. No sleep for weeks is one of the really interesting things to deal with.

During all this I didn't pay very much attention to tank stuff.
I did finally did my testing today. Everything is fine.
All my friends are fine too.

The light on the 55 failed because it got wet so I put glass tops on it. It has a new shipment of fish in it for the lions.

Jill will retire in December but right now I am watched over by an excellent staff of people, all good friends.

I have finally felt like resuming normal activities. Started cooking again Friday. I learned to make pretzels and ciabatta
and made egg rolls.

Stir fried excess egg role filling with spaghetti squash and a simple Thai chili/soy/cornstarch sauce is great for dinner.

 

[LegalReefer]

Glad to hear you're doing okay, was missing checking out your updates! Looks like you're learning to cook quite well, any suggestions of fun recipes for someone with little time? Your staff seem alert and helpful, working hard. Glad the tanks are doing well, you're running a system than can handle some benign neglect! (For reefing more generally, if your system can't handle a few weeks not being watched by eagle eyes, what're you even doing?)

 

[WVNed]

Glad to hear you're doing okay, was missing checking out your updates! Looks like you're learning to cook quite well, any suggestions of fun recipes for someone with little time? Your staff seem alert and helpful, working hard. Glad the tanks are doing well, you're running a system than can handle some benign neglect! (For reefing more generally, if your system can't handle a few weeks not being watched by eagle eyes, what're you even doing?)

My best suggestion is learn to cook what you like to eat. With a little practice and knowledge you will quickly be able to make food better than you can get eating out.

The trick is to start simple and make sure the ingredients are the best you can get and then cooked correctly to the correct temperature. Learn to use a good digital thermometer. Be careful watching videos. The point of them is to get you to watch the video and not to necessarily teach you to cook something new.

Sous Vide cooking, cast iron cookware and I recently got an Instant Pot pressure cooker have opened up new ways to prepare things and get results you cant get any other way.

 

[sp1187]

Glad to hear you're doing okay, was missing checking out your updates! Looks like you're learning to cook quite well, any suggestions of fun recipes for someone with little time? Your staff seem alert and helpful, working hard. Glad the tanks are doing well, you're running a system than can handle some benign neglect! (For reefing more generally, if your system can't handle a few weeks not being watched by eagle eyes, what're you even doing?)

cook asian.
great flavor profiles.
quick meals.

 

[WVNed]

cook asian.
great flavor profiles.
quick meals.

If you want to cook Asian on American appliances learn to correctly use a cast iron skillet. About the only way to high heat stir fry on an electric stove.
Makes great steaks and blackened fish too.

 

[sp1187]

gas stove here.
i hate cooking at mom's as she has electric.