Sacul1573's 90g - RIP

Nice set-up I like the 2 island look. Gotta get your little buddy a friend fast. I was watching our news up here and seen your 8" of snow. I wake up to that a half dozen times between Nov and Apr.

 

Well, maybe some of you saw my other thread, but I woke up two days after the move to find this creeping around the bottom of my tank:



My first panic as a saltwater hobbiest! I was pretty nervous for two days while I wiped it away again and again, monitoring it closely. It finally stopped appearing overnight, and the verdict is just some spilt water from transfering all the live rock into the tank, thankfully not the other unmentionable...

I've done two large water changes since the move (20-30%), and the nitrates are now around 60ppm, but phosphate is still really high, between 8-10ppm. I'm going to pick up some more PhosGuard on my way home today, but I'm guessing my best luck will be with more water changes over time.

I'd really like to get them down soon though, because the boss wont stop bugging me about wanting to go get some fish. I tell her "patience", but she doesnt know what that means...

 

I haven't updated in a while, so here's a brief rundown on what's going on.

My nitrates are now down to <10, and still falling. Phosphates are still greater than 2ppm. I've added a DIY fuge with mangroves and chateo, and I've sold off the old lights and chiller, and bought a new skimmer (Reef Octopus 110) to replace the POS I had before that wouldn't skim worth a darn. It's currently breaking in. Still feeding twice a day, morning and night, sparingly. I'm currently battling a full tank war against cyano. I'm hoping between the skimmer, fuge, and regimented feeding, we can win this battle.

I have added a blue hippo and yellow tang, a few more chromis, and a CUC from reefcleaners. Also, during the move I placed a firefish in the tank, who proceeded to dive for the rocks. I wrote him off as perished after 4 days of no sightings, but after 6 days he popped out and started feeding, and now hangs out by his hole all day.

I will update tonight with some pics, although with the cyano, it probably wont be very pretty... lol.

 

Are you using tap or RO/DI water?

 

RODI, tested 0 Nitrate and 0 Phosphate.

If you have any other suggestions for battling cyano, let me know. I will also be increasing the ph to about 8.3, it's at 8.1 right now...

 

About the only thing left is increasing your flow specially in the areas where it is growing.

 

Lol, as in areas, you mean everywhere! I have 3 Korlina 1040s in the corners, plus about 1200 gph coming from the sump. That puts me at 48x turnover rate for this setup. Should I be directing the powerheads directly at the rock? Right now they're high in back corners pointed to the front middle.

I'll experiment with the flow options tonight, but I really need to bring down the phosphates. That is what's fueling this battle.

 

The flow change might help some. The increase in pH should help, but I think you are right on the phosphates.

 

New rock coming soon, so I wanted to put up a few pics of the tank as it stands, as well as some of the newcomers. Still struggling with cyano, but I've seemed to gain the upper hand.

Full tank shot:


Bubbles and Dori checking out their new home (the boss named them):


Firefish, no name yet:


The cast of Finding Nemo:


Green polyps:

 

Living on the edge!

The edge of my circuit breaker, that is. I was running the vacuum, on the same circuit as the tank (as well as our media center, which was on), and then suddenly everything went dark. I think the tank heater must have kicked on and pushed the current draw over the edge. Soooo, now I need to be a little more careful on whatever else I add to the tank or media center. ;D

I wanted to throw props out to John at reefcleaners again, I ordered 55 lbs of rock last week, and it arrived last night looking great. AND, the box weighed in at 62 lbs, so thanks to John for throwing an extra piece or two in. This stuff is so large for so little weight, I'm going to have a hard time fitting 100+lbs in my 90 gal. 62lbs is already looking like close to the limit. hmmm....

Tank looks like a mess right now, and fish are stressed out from Mr Giant ripping up their home. I'll post pics in a few days