New A.G.E. 40x28x22 Pic intense

Traded some chalices to get this new toy.
Scored some new equipment. I really like using a Calcium Reactor more than dosing, so I made a trade and picked up this Aquacare Turbo Chalk Reactor #2 with the Aquacare C02 controller, this is supposed to bring the pH of the effluent back up to 7.0, which is great especially in the winter. You run it two hours, and cycle it for 30 minutes...it's a very efficient reactor, uses less C02 than traditional reactors...We shall see how it works, but the build quality is equal to, if not nicer than my Schuran Jetstream, as well as my GEO 618.

Here is the controller, which measures the C02 and not pH to run the rector.

The BB sure has some of my more troublesome coral, coloring up nicely. Surprisingly, the MH has experienced a lot of growth the past few weeks, without feeding even. This loves the lights.

 

It's been a long time since I updated this thread. This saga started in September of 2010, and this update will bring the thread up to date.

Ok, so a recap from many months ago...One day my tank looked like this

and then the next day, I come home to a smell of insecticide, for what it's worth, I might have contributed to this event when I went bare bottom the lazy way. Although my corals looked so good the night before the event, that I wonder if it was just a poisoning.

Anyway I came home to this


My ex used to get mad at me always playin with the tank, said she would bleach it one day... normally I'd say stfu, go upstairs and wait for me...,.guess maybe that's why she is my ex :yahoo:

and this was some of the damage


I was all bummed, basically being a ### about it and feelin sorry for myself. As soon as the event started, I removed all the coral, except two chalices, and dropped them off at Green Marine. I waited a few months before retrieving most of my LPS and a few acros and montis. All I did was basically remove my old dead coral, and let the tank run and tested a coral before bringing the rest home...HUGE MISTAKE

To make myself feel better about the tank, I got a Marios nem rock as well as his Pink Lemonade colony, which was an offspring of what I lost. I also spent a huge chunk of coin buying that nem from RO.
Here is the Nem rock, see the rbta with green base, that is the %%%% clone from RO


I also got stuff from Ian, a Pink Sandollar, a Red Planet piece that was like two inches on the base....

Fast forward a few weeks, and one day I come home and the once proud rbta is all shriveled up. I look and have seen this before, and figured it was doing a water change...anyway, I just did a water change and changed out carbon so I was good to go....Next morning, I find all three nems looking ####ty, when I scoop them out, just the flow from the return, blows meat all over the tank, it was nasty.

At that point, I decided I had to act in the right way, something that I had not done. And that was to break the tank and sump and all equipment down, and start from scratch.

I wanted to do a few other things:
Shim the tank and stand
Thoroughly scrub out with vinegar, clean all pumps etc...
The only thing that I would not clean and would reuse was the 30 lbs of rock I have in the sump, in a separate compartment, that is fed by the GFO and Carbon reactors. This compartment is where I used to clean all my rock out. After being in there for a few months, algae covered rock was clean, and Im sure it's from the water source always containing zero po4's etc...

So on the weekend, I drained it, the whole tank, was syphoned into the neighbor's back yard, yes the same neighbor who had sprayed his house and backyard the day in question. Plus the guy needed a new roof and they did it when it rained, so he had to have the guys use nail guns late one night. long story short...I woke up to a nail gun, several, at around 1am...I yelled at the workers, who stopped. When I got back into bed, they started the nailing...so I went over, took their ladders...3 story house...threw them down the side of the house, then called the cops....so yes, i drained my toxic saltwater into his fruit trees...

The process took a lot of time because of the vinegar baths, but what I had was a super clean tank. Collateral damage was a few scratches in the side panel, and tearing the vinyl sheet that was in the overflow to hide the plumbing.

My rockwork is a lot different. I did it to make my bare bottom super effective at keeping things clean. All the rock was bought from Aquatic Collections, and was stored in heated and circulating salt water for a couple of days. The rockwork has 12 points where it touches the bottom, and the way I will run my vortechs is one on each side and one on the back...I also upgraded to MP40W ES's and can set these up to really blow the flow in the tank...huge difference between this scape and the old, in regards to keeping it clean. Oh I also got rid of some fish, and only kept the two flame wrasses, the purple tang, the mandarin, and that damn perc...BTW, I noticed that my mandarin eats pellets, which he seems to love to snatch up whenever I feed the tank.
BTW all these next pics came from my HTC EVO so not the greatest, but not bad for a camera phone.

Just added that rock that is all white...just some dead rock I cemented together...
Aussie Enchinata

Here it is after being mounted. Red Planet frag below, hopefully will retain it's green from being partially shaded by the Enchinata.

Scored this Aussie Humilis from will last night

You can see how much open space I have under the rocks..####ty camera phone pics

Another piece I got shipped, that was supposed to be delivered by 1030, every ship I get from them shows up at 10-1030. I was home, never heard the door, and at noon, decided to check the status. Delivered, left on porch at 815 am...lol...the water was so cold, and my piece had browned out. Still has some green to it, but it's going to take some time to get it back to this...

This coral is the colony on the upper left...nice huh?

Scored that mini colony and a aussie enchinata mini colony last night. And Tony gave me a replacement Pink Lemonade multi branch to replace mine and mario's that I lost the day I clean everything out.

That's right, I lost the rest of my acros and montis when I worked this project. I just had a container of coral left, and just had it on the kitchen table...I think the fact I had them in with the LPS was a huge mistake...cuz all of them were done when it was time to put them back...guess they didnt like being in there touching for 12 hours.

It's been running clean like this for several weeks, I got a green slimer and a tort to try out before I started getting more coral. Once I saw them have growth, I started stocking.
I have been slowly re acquiring some of my favorite corals. and last week got a sweet frag pack from Jared at Rocky Mountain Frags. I got the following in this WYSIWYG pack: Tyree Emma’s Mind Trick Monti, Tyree Icefire Echinata, Smurfette Acro, Raspberry Limeade Hyacinthus, 30,000 Leagues Lokani, E-Corals Unknown, Ultimatefrag’s Ultimate Red Acro, Bumblebee Acro, Aqua Glacier Bottlebrush and Ultimatefrag’s Rainbow Acro. -

Random pics of new frags and some old stuff


Freebies came fresh cut, so I just glued them to a piece of rubble, until I decide on where to mount them permanently


Nice Red Planet frag from Cherry Corals

BGM got jacked up and kinda browned, but is recovering finally

Maxi mini that is actually pretty big, probably 4" across

A chalice I got from Mario

OG Mummy Eye

Final aquascape


I scored new bulbs, because in reality, when I buy bulbs, I never trust the timeline of the seller. So I figured I would go ahead and buy them and know exactly how much time I have on them. I also got more of the blue tort that was my experimental frag, as well as a large piece of the Bali Green Slimer. I have been doing daily 20G water changes to keep up with the increased demands. I am waiting for the last component for my calcium reactor. Had to buy a pretty strong air pump to feed the reactor. This is key to getting the effluent's ph up to 7.3 before entering the tank. Hopefully I can start running it by the weekend. I am going to tee off the return and use it to feed the reactor. Just picked up the ATB Flowstar, its super quiet, and a pretty powerful little pump. I also am thinking about getting one more vortech, the MP10wES to mount on the back glass...I may have to go with another MP40WES because of the thickness of the glass.


Im pretty happy so far, even the browned out coral from a shipment a couple of weeks ago, is showing improved color, with the tips and base getting green.

 

Great corals, love them.

And great tank, like the scape and the BB.

 

Wow I just read this entire thread and what a rollercoaster ride. You had a beautiful tank before and you are well on your way to an excellent rebuild. K+ for your perserverance and excellent pics. Inspiring to say the least.

 

Wow, you had some ups and downs for sure. But the outcome is great! Sorry for all your troubles. The new scape looks cool too. K+.

 

Thanks guys...these tank problems happen to everyone, I know in my local club, it happens to all the members eventually, so no one is immune to it. All the troubles I had were from being too busy, and not keeping up with the tank. Im still not sure what really caused the tank to crash, if it was the neighbor spraying, going bare bottom, or my ex, doing what she said she would do...lol all I know is 24 hours prior, it looked the best it ever did.

My problems with the cyano, was from lack of maintenance and stopping my carbon dosing, then ramping up too fast. I should have shaken the rock more, or even cooked them in unlit sealed containers for several months, when I went bare bottom. I hate to admit, but I kept about 4 inches of water in the tank that was super nasty, so nasty, I couldn't see my fish. This time, tearing it all down and restarting was my only choice, was done with the 1/2 a$$ work, and wanted it done right.

Three things I've learned with this tank:
Don't stuff fish in the tank, I used to have 14 fish in this tank, it made me have to carbon dose to keep my Nitrates and PO4 acceptable. One day, I looked into the tank, and thought, wow, it's pretty unrealistic with all those fish in there. It seems more natural with less fish I think. And with less, you have less bio load, and in return, less troubles with water quality. I may even get rid of the tang. People say tangs eat your algae...they also eat a lot, and have a huge impact on your tank's load. So are we just trading apples for oranges? I think so, my wrasses will probably be the biggest fish in the tank. Less fish, less load, less algae

If it works, don't fix or fiddle with it. Don't upgrade equipment, unless you have to. Changes can effect your tank. Getting the profilux doser was a disaster, it didn't crash my tank, but twice condensation fried the board, and it stopped working. I wouldn't notice until days later. Personally, I loved my calcium reactors, their only drawback is the low ph in the winter, this depends on your demands...I am trying the Aquacare, which has an effluent higher than any other on the market..so far so good.

Research your coral before you buy it...find out how it looks when grown into a colony, and mount your frags accordingly. And resist the urge to fill your tank with frags, to fill space, in a years time they will do that on their own. All you end up doing is having to move or remove coral once they get larger.

 

look at this SSC colony I picked up...the prices are plummeting on these beauties, compared to what I paid for 1/4 the size a year and a half ago.

 

Being a huge fan of acropora, that looks like an amazing colony. Would love to see more images of it.

And you right about buying colonies compared to frags and placement. I am currently dealing with, what do I want to keep, and what do I want to get rid of secondary to growth of my acropora. Of course my problem is compounded by a seriously small tank.

 

The first time around, i had well over 100 coral frags in the tank at one time. As each grew out, some much faster than others, I found myself getting rid of many of them. First to go were Montipora Digitatas, then all Birdsnest corals....This time around, I know how fast the stuff grows, and decided to not get them.

I'll try to get more pics of the colony.

What I did today was get another Reefbrite LED strip for the tank. I have one being shipped to me as we speak. I will use them for the dawn dusk only, shutting them down while the MH run. I was surprised that they were so bright, and covered as much as they did. I forgot how much LED moonlight/actinics make certain colors just pop.

Smurfette Acro from Rocky Mountain Frags really pops with the LED

Of course the chalices really glow, Golden Eye Watermelon

OG Mummy Eye

Actinic FTS