Water on the floor

So I purchased 2 koralia magnum 7 powerheads. Awesome powerheads! So I install them, check the flow and call it a night. I wake up in the morning and there is about 1/2 a cup of water on the floor around my tank!!!!

The pumps are so strong that once they settled in they were actually creating 2-3" waves inside the tank. Mind you its 8' long. So of course I'm freaking out when I walk in thinking that some seam is busted somewhere. It was actually pushing a wave up against the black trim around the tank and the trim not being water tight was dripping about 1 drop every minute from the splash.

Needless to say it put a calm in me to simply turn off the powerheads as I was leaving for work in 20 minutes. Then I look over the tank, the powerheads have almost covered my plate coral and started to push sand towards my expensive zoas!!!! Now im rushing in the tank to uncover everything and finish getting ready for work.

So lesson of the day, NEVER make changes to your tank, 1 - late at night, 2 - whenever you cannot spend a considerable amount of time to watch the effects!\

Nothing died in my tank, and the water on the floor was minimal, however, I can't help but think what if.

BTW! A friend of mine has 2 of these same powerheads in a 125 and no problems, so im thinking I just need to find a sweet spot. I placed them like I did due to coral placement, but I'll be moving things around soon.

Which one are you talking about the 80 or the 240? I will work on gathering some pictures to post.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 

Honestly I can't decide. 

LOL! Alright I have a bunch of pictures of my 80 on my phone. I will post some of those. Then the 240 later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 

 If you would, could you show us another pic of your tank in this thread when you get the chance? maybe powerhead related?? lol

Here are a few from my 80G. Some of them where taken without the HDR filter so they are darker than normal.

Yes, I broke the rule of 2 clowns. I had 5 and they played along very well. Sold them as they didn't play along so nicely with me and it got super annoying.

Ohh boy!

It's not a simple answer, i guess....

- 20% water changes every 2 weeks.

- Stir the top of the sand on 1st water change and top gravel vac on the second (just a tap along the top, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 deep)

- Wipe the glass every 2 days

- Scrape the glass once a week (with the back, I scraped when I first set up, now it has a kind of slime layer on it and coraline algae doesnt stick to it. IDK, I like the always black background, makes the colors pop! I do get spots every now and again, as you can see in a few pics, but I scrape them off at the next maintenance.)

- Flow, well this probably helps in keeping the coraline down on the glass, my flow is directed towards the sand and towards the rocks, coraline needs flow to spread, I simply deny it that. I do angle the flow into the caves and such but not along the glass and such.

- My powerheads I clean them once a month, remove them before maintenance and place in freshwater until all is cleaned, then I simply take a cloth and wipe them down. I'm not a big fan of powerheads to begin with as I don't like the equipment look, however, with the correct maintenance they should be fine. I have seen them covered in algae also, never understood why people don't clean them more than once every 3 or for months, the more junk on them the less flow they provide. 

My 240 is the same way, I hardly ever get any algae on the glass, I don't believe in smaller water changes, as this is a process that stresses the livestock, I have seen where people do 10 percent weekly, I think that's too often, unless you are fighting a problem. I also have heard of people doing monthly 50% changes or around that level. I also think that's super stressful.

Im a little OCD and if I had a tank covered in algae I would almost be tempted to start scrubbing it like no other, so I basically prevent problems, by getting rid of problems through prevention, especially the mechanical kind.

Ohh also, I have always ran a refugium, now that looks like crap, but that's where you want the junk to end up at, I never clean that area. I pull some algae here and there that's it.

No of what I said is based on too much fact, however, I now have kept 2 successful reefs with minimal algae problems, and very few deaths. I have only lost 1 coral and it was a pink zoa coral. It was there one day and slimed the next, possible predator, not sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 

Sweet pics man. Thanks for sharing with us. I really enjoyed reading your maintenance routine. 

Thanks, it's so hard to get clear pictures of the 240 with the lighting spectrum I have and without a decent camera, iPhone needs a white balance setting.

Thanks!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by artemK 

is that an anemone right on the front of your tank?

Long Tentacle Plate Coral
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric B 125 

Beautiful!  Looking forward to pics of the 240

Im working on it possibly tonight, charging batteries for my other camera.

Ok, here's the 240!

Like I said with the LEDs it's hard to get good pictures, and I had to take with the iphone as I can't find my memory card adapter.