- Location
- Southampton UK
Looking absolutely stunning Sanjay.
Do you have any idea what the table acro is (species)...?
regards
Do you have any idea what the table acro is (species)...?
regards
1 year anniversary of my tank
- Thread starter sanjay
- Start date
- Location
- Union Square, NY
Nice!
Is that "Sanjay's Throbbing Red" I see?
In my tank it is called "Impotent Green Acro". :lol:
Is that "Sanjay's Throbbing Red" I see?
In my tank it is called "Impotent Green Acro". :lol:
henrystyle
Bad Mutha Shut Your mouth
- Location
- East Stroudsburg, PA
Still using the same bulbs & Ballast Sanjay?
- Location
- Westchester, NY
Simply beautiful work Sanjay!
- Location
- Staten Island
Does the Clarion angel pick at acros or clams??
- Location
- State College. PA
There are several things that happened to this tank in the last 9 months, that have impacted the tank in some way or another. So here are the stories of issues that I have run into.
1) In Dec/Jan, while I was away on Christmas vacation, the CO2 tank ran out. This dropped the alkalinity in the tank to 5 dkH. No idea how long it stayed that way, but I ended up loosing some of the more colorful and sensitive SPS.
2) A few months later there was another big alkalinity swing. For some reason the CO2 leaving the tank was not reaching the reactor. I could see the bubbles in the bubble counter, so I did not catch it. Becoming lazy in testing compounded the problem and I did not detect it until I started seeing it in appearance of the corals. I checked every single joint for leaks and all checked out fine. It turned out that there was a long crack along the length of the CO2 tube feeding the reactor. I was using the RO water line tubing to feed the CO2 and it developed a crack. I caught it after submersing each tube in water and testing it under pressure. Well, that also dropped the alkalinity again down to 5 dkH, and happened just as the corals were recovering from the previous alkalinity disaster. This took out a few of the smaller corals that were affected by the previous incident but were still holding on.
3) This summer for a stretch of 9 weeks, I was only home for 8 days, of which only 6 were continuous. So the tank was subjected to severe neglect. This also had its impact. The flatworm population bloomed since I was not able to keep up with a weekly blasting schedule (which worked quite well for me). This time around it really impacted the milliporas, and one humilis/gemiferra. Large corals can handle small numbers of flatworms easily, but large numbers can definitely affect them adversely.
4) Coral growth was also taking its toll. Corals were overgrowing each other and starting to shade other coral and killing them by blocking the light. This led to me hacking out some large corals from the tank.
4)Additionally I found out in late July, that my nitrates in the tank were completely off the charts (around 80-100 ppm) according to the Salifert kit. The old kit I was using was too old and gone bad and not showing nitrates. When I switched to the new kit... wow.. off the scale nitrates. I retested with another kit and same results - so now it was confirmed that nitrates in the tank had creeped up to really high levels. With lots of fish, and others feeding my tank while I was gone the nitrates level got too high. So now I am working on a gradual reduction of nitrates. This has given me an opportunity to play with the Zeovit system, and see how well it works in bringing down the nitrates. I started using the most basic of the Zeo system - the stones in a Zeoreactor, and Zeostart2 at 1/4 of the recommended dose for 2 weeks, and then increased it to 1/2 the recommended dose. This was started in mid August. I want to do its slowly so as not to impact the tank by sudden changes. Time will tell how well this will work. So the high nitrates are definitely impacting the color too.
5) Just as things were finally in steady state and under control, about 3 weeks ago I came home and noticed a small puddle of water on the floor. Not thinking too much about it I mopped it up. A couple of days later the puddle reappeared. This time - A reefer's 2nd worst nightmare flashed before my eyes .... A leaking tank. In complete denial I checked all the plumbing to make sure it was not the plumbing that was causing it. For the next couple of days I was still in denial.. it just could not be the tank, must be the sump, etc. Well after a couple of days of denial, I had to face the truth... it was the tank that had sprung a small leak somewhere. And of course as Murphy would have it, it was showing up in the front right corner behind the wood paneling. The only way to even see it was to remove a chunk of the wood paneling to even get a look at where the water was dripping. Not being able to do it myself I had to wait a couple of days to get a friend to come over and help. During this time I spent the nights tossing and turning unable to think of anything else but.. "What would I do if I had to drain the tank to fix it". The thoughts of tearing down the tank were just ripping my guts out. Thoughts of leaving the hobby for a while crossed my mind. Knowing Murphy, I knew the worst would happen to me. While ripping out the panels, I kept thinking I know the leak will be from a spot on the bottom seam where it cannot be reached easily or seen and is traveling along the bottom and showing up in the front corner. A few days prior to this I had tried to contact Aquarium Obsessed to ask for potential ways to fix this, and once again had to deal with Murphy's Law. AO was not answering their phones, the mailboxes were full, and they no longer had a forum on RC. After talking to others, I had a few suggestions on what I could try. Once the panels were removed, I took a towel and started drying up the wet areas in the hopes of finding the leak, all the while thinking "I will never find it". Imagine my surprise and joy when I noticed a small droplet forming at the bottom front right corner (where the 3 seams meet). I could not believe it, that I actually found the leak. Now thoughts started to fly in my head, on what I could to mitigate the problem while a more permanent solution was found. I even thought about rigging up a channel that would take the leak and run into the sump below the tank. A crude prototype actually worked ! Since I had nothing more to lose at this point, I decided to try an idea suggested to me by one of my friends (Dominic from Manhattan Reefs) and backed by 2 others Rich Ross and Gresham - super glue. Willing to give it a try, I dabbed a bunch of IC -gel on my finger and rubbed it into the spot where the droplets of water were forming. And Lo and Behold... as soon as the glue dried there was no more water leaking. I could not believe my luck.. somewhere some REEF GOD was smiling at me, probably swayed by all the sacrifices I promised. Its been almost 3 weeks now and the super glue has held. I am still working on a more secure solution. So if you have any suggestions let me know, as long they do not involve draining the tank.
Here is a picture of the super glue patch...
6) The bulbs are 16 moths old, bases and under sides of some corals have receded from alkalinity swings, and shading due to growth.
At this point I am just happy to still have a tank, so I could care less about any reduction in color of the corals.
Here you have the full saga of my tank.
sanjay.
1) In Dec/Jan, while I was away on Christmas vacation, the CO2 tank ran out. This dropped the alkalinity in the tank to 5 dkH. No idea how long it stayed that way, but I ended up loosing some of the more colorful and sensitive SPS.
2) A few months later there was another big alkalinity swing. For some reason the CO2 leaving the tank was not reaching the reactor. I could see the bubbles in the bubble counter, so I did not catch it. Becoming lazy in testing compounded the problem and I did not detect it until I started seeing it in appearance of the corals. I checked every single joint for leaks and all checked out fine. It turned out that there was a long crack along the length of the CO2 tube feeding the reactor. I was using the RO water line tubing to feed the CO2 and it developed a crack. I caught it after submersing each tube in water and testing it under pressure. Well, that also dropped the alkalinity again down to 5 dkH, and happened just as the corals were recovering from the previous alkalinity disaster. This took out a few of the smaller corals that were affected by the previous incident but were still holding on.
3) This summer for a stretch of 9 weeks, I was only home for 8 days, of which only 6 were continuous. So the tank was subjected to severe neglect. This also had its impact. The flatworm population bloomed since I was not able to keep up with a weekly blasting schedule (which worked quite well for me). This time around it really impacted the milliporas, and one humilis/gemiferra. Large corals can handle small numbers of flatworms easily, but large numbers can definitely affect them adversely.
4) Coral growth was also taking its toll. Corals were overgrowing each other and starting to shade other coral and killing them by blocking the light. This led to me hacking out some large corals from the tank.
4)Additionally I found out in late July, that my nitrates in the tank were completely off the charts (around 80-100 ppm) according to the Salifert kit. The old kit I was using was too old and gone bad and not showing nitrates. When I switched to the new kit... wow.. off the scale nitrates. I retested with another kit and same results - so now it was confirmed that nitrates in the tank had creeped up to really high levels. With lots of fish, and others feeding my tank while I was gone the nitrates level got too high. So now I am working on a gradual reduction of nitrates. This has given me an opportunity to play with the Zeovit system, and see how well it works in bringing down the nitrates. I started using the most basic of the Zeo system - the stones in a Zeoreactor, and Zeostart2 at 1/4 of the recommended dose for 2 weeks, and then increased it to 1/2 the recommended dose. This was started in mid August. I want to do its slowly so as not to impact the tank by sudden changes. Time will tell how well this will work. So the high nitrates are definitely impacting the color too.
5) Just as things were finally in steady state and under control, about 3 weeks ago I came home and noticed a small puddle of water on the floor. Not thinking too much about it I mopped it up. A couple of days later the puddle reappeared. This time - A reefer's 2nd worst nightmare flashed before my eyes .... A leaking tank. In complete denial I checked all the plumbing to make sure it was not the plumbing that was causing it. For the next couple of days I was still in denial.. it just could not be the tank, must be the sump, etc. Well after a couple of days of denial, I had to face the truth... it was the tank that had sprung a small leak somewhere. And of course as Murphy would have it, it was showing up in the front right corner behind the wood paneling. The only way to even see it was to remove a chunk of the wood paneling to even get a look at where the water was dripping. Not being able to do it myself I had to wait a couple of days to get a friend to come over and help. During this time I spent the nights tossing and turning unable to think of anything else but.. "What would I do if I had to drain the tank to fix it". The thoughts of tearing down the tank were just ripping my guts out. Thoughts of leaving the hobby for a while crossed my mind. Knowing Murphy, I knew the worst would happen to me. While ripping out the panels, I kept thinking I know the leak will be from a spot on the bottom seam where it cannot be reached easily or seen and is traveling along the bottom and showing up in the front corner. A few days prior to this I had tried to contact Aquarium Obsessed to ask for potential ways to fix this, and once again had to deal with Murphy's Law. AO was not answering their phones, the mailboxes were full, and they no longer had a forum on RC. After talking to others, I had a few suggestions on what I could try. Once the panels were removed, I took a towel and started drying up the wet areas in the hopes of finding the leak, all the while thinking "I will never find it". Imagine my surprise and joy when I noticed a small droplet forming at the bottom front right corner (where the 3 seams meet). I could not believe it, that I actually found the leak. Now thoughts started to fly in my head, on what I could to mitigate the problem while a more permanent solution was found. I even thought about rigging up a channel that would take the leak and run into the sump below the tank. A crude prototype actually worked ! Since I had nothing more to lose at this point, I decided to try an idea suggested to me by one of my friends (Dominic from Manhattan Reefs) and backed by 2 others Rich Ross and Gresham - super glue. Willing to give it a try, I dabbed a bunch of IC -gel on my finger and rubbed it into the spot where the droplets of water were forming. And Lo and Behold... as soon as the glue dried there was no more water leaking. I could not believe my luck.. somewhere some REEF GOD was smiling at me, probably swayed by all the sacrifices I promised. Its been almost 3 weeks now and the super glue has held. I am still working on a more secure solution. So if you have any suggestions let me know, as long they do not involve draining the tank.
Here is a picture of the super glue patch...
6) The bulbs are 16 moths old, bases and under sides of some corals have receded from alkalinity swings, and shading due to growth.
At this point I am just happy to still have a tank, so I could care less about any reduction in color of the corals.
Here you have the full saga of my tank.
sanjay.
- Location
- Rockaway Park
how come i can't see any of the pictures?
- Location
- Staten Island
Is the clarion eating acros and clams..
- Location
- State College. PA
Bob:
The clarion was never in this tank. It was in my 55G tank. It was doing great, and one day just out of the blue.. it dropped dead. Was fine in the morning, ate food, and when I got back from work it was dead. !! It was eating zooanthids in my 55G tank and I have a feeling it got poisoned from eating too many of those.
sanjay.
The clarion was never in this tank. It was in my 55G tank. It was doing great, and one day just out of the blue.. it dropped dead. Was fine in the morning, ate food, and when I got back from work it was dead. !! It was eating zooanthids in my 55G tank and I have a feeling it got poisoned from eating too many of those.
sanjay.
- Location
- Staten Island
aaww sorry to here this... I was thinking about a juv.queen.. But had no idea on wether it would go after clams and acros. Thanks.
Sanjay-
Glad you were able to find a temporary solution with the leak. Too bad AO is MIA.....I have a tank from them and all of this is a bit unsettling to hear.
From the looks of it, it seems like your tank has come through all of the recent troubles quite nicely.
Keith
Glad you were able to find a temporary solution with the leak. Too bad AO is MIA.....I have a tank from them and all of this is a bit unsettling to hear.
From the looks of it, it seems like your tank has come through all of the recent troubles quite nicely.
Keith
Sanjay, I am very sorry you have had also these problems with your system!
But to be absolutely honest, it does newbies hearts good to know that even the Top Reefers have problems as well. Please do not take this the wrong way. All I am saying is that it is helpful to know that we are not alone. Of course this is not to metigate the fact that we absolutely need to do all the research possible, and work as digilently as we can to insure the excellent health of the animals we choose to house.
Sanjay, again I am very sorry of what has happened to your system, but thrilled that all is on it's way back to recovery. Wish you all the best with the perment fix on that leak....:hug:
But to be absolutely honest, it does newbies hearts good to know that even the Top Reefers have problems as well. Please do not take this the wrong way. All I am saying is that it is helpful to know that we are not alone. Of course this is not to metigate the fact that we absolutely need to do all the research possible, and work as digilently as we can to insure the excellent health of the animals we choose to house.
Sanjay, again I am very sorry of what has happened to your system, but thrilled that all is on it's way back to recovery. Wish you all the best with the perment fix on that leak....:hug:
henrystyle
Bad Mutha Shut Your mouth
- Location
- East Stroudsburg, PA
Salifert Flatworm exit works very well. Blowing them off is not going to kill them...Your just moving them somewhere else in the tank....The more you ignore them, the more they will populate to unbelievable numbers... Only when you add the flatworm exit will you realize how many flatworms are in your tanks.... (but you probably know that already) Trust me. Been there, done that...
- Location
- Staten Island
He's speaking about acro eating flatworms.. Flatworm exit does nothing for them, only the planaria I think that's how you spell it.
- Location
- State College. PA
Since you guys requested a FTS.. here are a couple
sanjay
sanjay
- Location
- poughquag, ny
pft id be happy to have my tank go through some troubles to still look like that. looks good sanjay
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