Getting my tank on track for SPS corals -

[snakeblitz33]

Yup, I said it. I don't practice what I preach sometimes, and my tank is paying for it. I've been really lax by only doing a water change once in a blue moon, scraping the tank, changing out media and filters and all sorts of stuff. I haven't been doing any of it, and my hard corals are paying for it.
I really would like to keep SPS corals alive and thriving and growing but it seems like I don't WANT to do the boring every day tasks that it requires to keep them.
Well, that's going to change. Just like Sweatervests thread on the "oncoming storm" I'm going to use this thread as a "recovery" (siptang patented) thread for my tank, so that I can get it back in good working order.
After work today I am going to get on here and do some more research on the computer and re-read SV's thread about all the maintenance he has done and start modeling some of it for myself.
Before I feel comfortable again giving advice, I need to prove to myself that I can keep an SPS dominated system.
Please, if anyone has any helpful and friendly advice, please post it. I am interested to know as much as I can about the maintenance aspect of the hobby that I have so dreadfully neglected.
Thanks for reading

 

[eric b 125]

I think it's just a matter of putting in the footwork. You already know what the demands of a SPS system are and you know how to meet those needs...

 

[snakeblitz33]

Yeah. Motivation was missing. Ill get it back on track this summer.
Stay tuned!
Any suggestions, eric?

 

[eric b 125]

My experience with SPS was nothing special: I just put them in my tank and they grew. I didn't dose anything and never got a chance to get my calcium reactor going. I did water changes every two weeks and sometimes I'd go longer than that. My filtration consisted of a skimmer and fuge with rubble and chaeto in it. I didn't use filter pads or socks because I knew I wouldn't tend to them enough, no matter how good my intentions were. I kept it simple and it seemed to work. Hopefully I will have the same luck when I get the tank running again, hahaha

 

[sweatervest13]

I know you are not big on water changes. And I am changing my philosophy a bit as well. I used to do a weekly WC of about 15 gallons (125g tank and 67g sump). I am stretching it out to two weeks to free up some time. But I think the key is consistency. If you keep a routine (weekly, bimonthly, or monthly) then the tank will get accustomed to a fresh change of the water and trace minerals.
I think the biggest challenge for keeping SPS is the steady parameters. Whether its your salinity using an ATO, or your Calcium, Alkalinity, or Magnesium and dosing. The biggest issue I have is testing on a regular basis. I don't test for Ammonia or Nitrite anymore, but pH, Nitrate, Kh, calcium and Magnesium I should test every couple of weeks. But I figure that I would see something going on in the tank if something were really off.
I would say that every task you plan on doing, you should aim for being as consistent as you can be.
And I think that changing out your polyfil biweekly is probably a good start (I know that this is something I am striving for as well).

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric B 125 http:///t/395686/getting-my-tank-on-track-for-sps-corals#post_3523341
My experience with SPS was nothing special: I just put them in my tank and they grew. I didn't dose anything and never got a chance to get my calcium reactor going. I did water changes every two weeks and sometimes I'd go longer than that. My filtration consisted of a skimmer and fuge with rubble and chaeto in it. I didn't use filter pads or socks because I knew I wouldn't tend to them enough, no matter how good my intentions were. I kept it simple and it seemed to work. Hopefully I will have the same luck when I get the tank running again, hahaha
Hah, that's funny. There's a lot of other people on the big forum that are so strict on their maintenance routines and want me to be as well. It's kind of funny that you were so lucky, and yes, I do hope that you are as lucky this time around too.
I guess I'll be doing weekly water changes here pretty soon. I'm buying another 10g and setting up a rack. I'm going to ditch the 40g breeder idea for the time being. weekly 12% water changes to the system should be sufficient - especially if taking the time to siphon out as much detritus as possible at every water change.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sweatervest13 http:///t/395686/getting-my-tank-on-track-for-sps-corals#post_3523346
I know you are not big on water changes. And I am changing my philosophy a bit as well. I used to do a weekly WC of about 15 gallons (125g tank and 67g sump). I am stretching it out to two weeks to free up some time. But I think the key is consistency. If you keep a routine (weekly, bimonthly, or monthly) then the tank will get accustomed to a fresh change of the water and trace minerals.
I think the biggest challenge for keeping SPS is the steady parameters. Whether its your salinity using an ATO, or your Calcium, Alkalinity, or Magnesium and dosing. The biggest issue I have is testing on a regular basis. I don't test for Ammonia or Nitrite anymore, but pH, Nitrate, Kh, calcium and Magnesium I should test every couple of weeks. But I figure that I would see something going on in the tank if something were really off.
I would say that every task you plan on doing, you should aim for being as consistent as you can be.
And I think that changing out your polyfil biweekly is probably a good start (I know that this is something I am striving for as well).
I'm not really that big on water changes and more into supplementation, but if water changes means a more stable, healthy, thriving reef,... then I am going to give it a shot. I figure 10g water changes every Sunday or so shouldn't hurt... and it would balance any chemicals that the tank needs naturally. I will still be supplementing with calcium, alkalinity and magnesium as needed. Trying to figure out how to keep my nepthea while stocking the tank full of SPS. That nepthea is like... the size of a basketball, literally. It takes up a lot of real estate in the tank, so I am hoping that the new LEDs make it turn a lot more green. If not, it might not be worth keeping.
I'm kind of disappointed at having only two tomato clowns and a yellow tang. I might take the yellow tang back to the store and buy three or four tangs at the same time to help them get along better from the start. I'm just tired of not really seeing a whole lot of movement in the tank. If anyone has other suggestions for fish - that would be great.

 

[sweatervest13]

I love tangs. I have two right now and want to add 1 more (Powder Brown).
If you pick the right tangs and add them all at once, you have a pretty good shot of it working. What tangs were you thinking of adding?
Stepping up on the WC's should help a lot of stability. And if you go all out every time and blow off the rocks and siphon out all the detritus, it should work out well for you. I usually try to do that every other time.
Now you have me rethinking adjusting my WC schedule. I should probably keep doing weekly.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I like powder brown tangs, kole tangs, yellow tangs, sailfin tangs, etc. Some of the smaller tangs - I just want to see some dang fish swimming around the tank. I just don't feel like it's "enough" just yet.
Yeah, I just have the find the time... and the money,... to make a new stand. I have a few things that I need to buy for the tank before I can start building the stand though. Namely, new GFO, a rainbow locline to replace the old one, and a few other things here and there.
Tonight I'm going to be giving the tank a really, really good cleaning even more so then I have done in the last week. Lets see how well it goes! I'm going to post before and after pictures! WOOHOOO

 

[snakeblitz33]

SOOOOO
I was doing some NEW routine tank maintenance this evening - and discovered that my NEW 500w finnex heater was putting current into the tank. YIKES!
I took the heater out of the water for a minute to get it out of the way while I was cleaning the sump out and grabbed it with the whole palm of my hand and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTT I felt the electricity start going up my arm!!!!!!
The apex controls the temperature - but it doesn't recognize current going through the tank! YIKES!
No wonder when I was cleaning the display tank glass the other day and my arm touched a little metal, I felt a little electrical tingle.
Maybe now some of the corals that I do have will start looking better and the fish stop acting weird, eh??? lol

 

[sweatervest13]

Wow. That's crazy.
What's the fix?. Grounding probe?

 

[eric b 125]

Oh man. See, the new maintenance is already paying off!

 

[snakeblitz33]

Quote:
Originally Posted by sweatervest13 http:///t/395686/getting-my-tank-on-track-for-sps-corals#post_3523435
Wow. That's crazy.
What's the fix?. Grounding probe?
The fix... well, I threw the old heater in the trash. If it's leaking voltage (or whatever you darn electricians like to call it. lol) then I don't want to use it. period.
I'm installing that GFCI unit I bought for the tank almost a year ago on there some time this week. Then, once I can afford it, I'll buy a new titanium heater in a different brand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric B 125 http:///t/395686/getting-my-tank-on-track-for-sps-corals#post_3523442
Oh man. See, the new maintenance is already paying off!
YES, YES IT IS!
... let me see....
Tonight I am making an excel sheet to keep track of all the stuff that I do for the tank. I hope that every single night I can put some information down about the tank into it so that I can have a seperate log than just on here and my build thread. Being accountable "to the excel sheet" like I am accountable for doing homework for college may make me do better in husbandry skills.
TONIGHT...
What I did tonight was I cleaned the sump - I removed a lot of the detritus out of it with a powerhead. Some of it was returned to the tank and subsequently got collected into the mechanical filter. After the detritus settled in the mechanical filter, I replaced the quilters batting with fresh a fresh one. It was really dirty and I hadn't changed it in about five days. I'm surprised how quickly the tank cleared up... I think I have a really good thing going with the new mechanical filter setup I got going on.
I moved the rock that contained most of the C. racemosa macroalgae closer to the lights so that maybe it will grow a bit faster. It might be wishful thinking, but who knows. I also added my phosphate reactor back to the system with some old GFO that was only in use a few days before I had to take the reactor offline. The reactor is currently sitting on the INSIDE of the sump in the overflow section because it wasn't running earlier because it was leaking a little around the top. So far, no leaks around the top of it, but I'm not taking another chance.
Since I hooked up the phosphate reactor back to the system, I had to steal my ATO pump away from the reservoir. EEEK. I hope to make enough extra money this week to AT MINIMUM maybe buy a new ATO pump (Azoo 404).
I cleaned my ATO and checked the sensors to make sure they were all still in good working order. I also took an old credit card and chipped away all of the coralline, fan/tube worms and everything else on the glass... including a little hair algae... so that it could be eaten in the display or otherwise removed manually. I'm hoping that running some GFO in my system will help keep down the phosphate levels and help improve coral growth in the tank. I'm tempted to later on down the line buy another phosphate reactor and run carbon in it. Hey... that sounds like a good idea!
I'm soaking the Koralia 3 powerheads. I was taking one of them out of the tank and the "stem" thing broke - so now I'm down a powerhead. I Still have one K3 and one K7 or 8, I can't remember... so that should be enough for the time being if placed correctly. I have them both soaking in vinegar overnight so I can scrub them in the morning and put one back in the tank and the other one in storage till I need it for whatever reason. Heck, I might could use it as a salt mixing pump. lol, who knows.
10g tanks are cheap, so I am going to pick one up this weekend and start getting ready to build that side cabinet this Summer. For the next three to four weeks while I am out of school, my wife and I are saving up to pay for the hotel (weston diplomat hotel) for MACNA and our plane tickets... so my funds are limited for the tank at the time being. In any case... I can't wait to see some of you there at MACNA. WOOHOO!
I guess I should make a list of things that I really need for the tank to get it back on track for SPS corals.

 

[snakeblitz33]

So, I'm posting a few pics of my progress this evening.

This is a side view shot of the tank before I started working on it. Notice all of the cords everywhere and it's unorganized. Notice that the fuge is really yellow and green and yucky? Notice a bunch of stuff under the stand that doesn't really belong there and all of the salt creep? Dirty filter and all?!?! No wonder I can't keep SPS corals - with such bad husbandry skills.

 

[snakeblitz33]

Soaking the K3's in vinegar/water mix overnight.
Hopefully it will be nice and clean in the morning.

Notice the purple tint of the liquid? I did too... kinda neat. As the coralline dissolves, it releases it's pigment.

 

[snakeblitz33]

cleaned the skimmer and got it working really well. It's skimming up a storm now.
A pic of the mechanical filter that I modified. It works much, much better now. 100% of the water coming down the pipe has to go through the filter and not just some of it like before. I'm happy with this configuration. Though, I would like to use a coupling instead of a T fitting on the end of the pipe. I'll have to change it out before I can put that second carbon reactor beside the pipe.

I gue

 

[snakeblitz33]

I cleaned the fuge as much as I could. I scraped all four sides of the glass and got it all as clean as possible. I blew out all the detritus that had built up in the sump and it all went into the display and was washed into the mechanical filter. It took about 30 minutes for the mechanical filter to catch everything.

As you can tell, the yellowness of the fuge has gone away since I cleaned it. I also moved the C. racemosa algae rock over to the light so that it might grow faster and outcompete the hair algae in the sump.
Cleaned the skimmer cup and a bit of the inside of it and inspected the pump and the airline tube to it. IT's sitting in about 8" of water right now, but I am considering letting my ATO sensor drop down another 2.5", since that is the "proper operating depth" of the skimmer.

 

[snakeblitz33]

You can see kinda in the upper right corner of the picture that I tied up the cords coming down and getting in the way and looking bad. Zip ties work wonders. This is a picture taken from the living room side - something rarely seen, but actually relatively pretty to me. lol!!!! As you can see, I have the phosphate reactor installed on the inside of the sump, and I have the output of the reactor being directed up and over the refugium. I don't know if that's going to make a big difference or whatever, but I felt like I'd give the concept a shot.

Lastly, Here is a picture of the tank and sump ... just a snapshot of it that I took without really doing any settings on the camera or anything. Sorry for the bad quality of the image.

So all in all, does it look better?

 

[eric b 125]

It looks way better! I've been trying to figure out something I can put in the stand that would allow me to keep the electrical cords out of the way, like some hooks or something to suspend them from.

It's nice that you can access your sump from both sides; a luxury not too many of us have! Have you thought about going bare bottom for SPS? I considered it myself, but I like sand too much.

 

[sweatervest13]

Wow Seth. What a difference... It looks great!!
Your sump is looking fantastic. It is dialed in very tight.
Great idea for the cords, I battle cords and I don't win. I agree with Eric, you are spoiled with being able to access your sump from both sides. Now it looks very clean. It has to feel good to sit back and see the hard work you put in pay off.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I tell yah, after having a peninsula tank or island tank, i dont think i am going back to a regular sit on the wall tank.
Yeah, its all looking up. Im happy with the changes. Just not too excited that i dont have an ato right now. Lol. Ill get that pump sooner than later.