New House...New Tank!

[Justin]

So ****ed today!

Last night I noticed that my Coralvue 18 Watt UV Sterilizer was not on but the outlet showed that it was supposed to be. When I pulled the light out to observe, i was pleasantly surprised to get a shock telling me that something shorted. Loe and behold, there was a link in the sterilizer that allowed water to enter into the ballast and consequently shorted the system. I pulled the electrical component and left the "shell" with water running through it and thought nothing of it. After about 30 mins, I walked by the tank to notice that it was cloudy and everything was sliming up as well as my zoas closing up. I can only guess that it was something to do with "seal" clouding up the tank as I noticed that it was coming apart.

Anyway, I immediately did about 60 gallons water change and was processing another 60 gallons to do today. I woke up this morning to find that the skin on a couple of my frags that I run in a raffle was off and polyps gone on those frags. My "nicer" frags like my Walt Disney, Minh Tri Color, Matt V Pyscho Asylum, Rainbow Tort, Purple Passion survive. With my black light I can see polyps and the skin looks super thin or almost gone. I've saved corals before with no skin but Polyps with plenty of meat foods to help offset the lack of photosynthesis. I'm just crossing my fingers that I only lose 3-4 that I can see. I would be super bummed if I lost the ones I named. What sucks even more is that I was getting some super nice consistency and being rewarded with awesome growth. Knowing that everything is in shock and panic mode, I turned off my 2 part dosing entirely and just waiting and biting my nails to see if everything will pull through.

This part of the hobby sucks so bad!

Here is a short video I posted on Youtube literally a day before the incident occurred.

https://youtu.be/9aZ4hK3ADAY

[Sierra_Bravo]

That really sucks, Justin. I hope the damage is minimal and everything recovers quickly. Always something.

[alton]

Sorry to hear that too Justin!

[Justin]

That really sucks, Justin. I hope the damage is minimal and everything recovers quickly. Always something.

Thanks man. Yea, I know for sure I lost 3 pieces. My WD and Minh Tri Color are still showing PE and have a little of skin left. I'm just waiting to see how severe the damage. I'm hoping that the pieces that are super stressed will calm down and start to color back up. Only time will tell sadly!

[Justin]

Sorry to hear that too Justin!

It sucks for sure!

[Justin]

Its been awhile but I have managed to clean up quite a bit and get the tank back on all 8 or 12 Cylinders. Some of the changes I made after the UV fiasco are:

• Took the UV completely out. I put one on the tank because my fear was that a bacteria or something was running rampant in my tank and would prey on the already weak SPS frags I had, causing them to stress even further. I found a couple of threads discussing it and I had an 18 Watt laying around. Big mistake!

• I went back to gradually adjusting my Dosage using BRS 1.1 ml Dosers to match my tank consumption. In an effort to go with something a bit more reliable, I decided to hook my doing up to the Apex DOS. I love this piece of equipment. I no longer need to use a separate website to help me with the Apex coding for the Doser. I literally tell it how much to dose and the time frame and the wizard does the rest. Of Course I have to go into the Advanced coding to add a few more lines, like if the pH is higher than 8.50 to shut down the Doser. Once I get a 1 link cable, I can also free up an outlet on my apex system. With the BRS dosers, I had to have a separate outlet for each doser. I was using 3 for my tank!

• I tried to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible

• Religious water changes on my system. I every week perform about a 30 gallon water change to my system with fresh Kent Marine Sea Salt. In an effort to make it easy to do and therefore allow me to be religious about WC, I have made the process super easy and only takes about 15 mins at most. I'll have to post a video of my water change process tomorrow during my weekly water change

• After speaking to a fellow reefer buddy at the last frag swap, JJ, I have been religiously dosing the following in my tank every morning. Not sure if it makes a difference but since doing all of the above and this daily dosing, the tank is doing extremely well:
  
  • Kent Iodide 1ml
  • Kent Pyhtoplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)
  • Kent Zooplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)
  • Kent Chromoplex 2 ml (One squirt on each side)

The tank is doing so well that I fear in a couple of months, I might have to go back to using a Calcium reactor to offset my needs and use the DOS as a backup. I 'm hesitant to go this route due to the issues I had in the past but my tank is consuming Alk and Calcium like crazy and I will have no choice but to go with this more reliable method. I'm currently Dosing the following amounts:

Alk: 85.1 ml throughout the day
Ca: 181.4 ml during the daylight hours of 0930 to 2030

Alk and Ca Dosing with DOS 7-12-18.JPG

To make up for the loss of frags and space, I've been fortunate to have some great local reefer friends that have given me some corals but I also put a couple of orders with Joe's Knows Corals and Golden Basket.

From Joe Knows Reef the following

BC Indigo Stag


Event Horizon


BC Secale


Apocalypse Now


Tyree Pinky the Bear


PC Rainbow

Wild Irish Rose - This is my favorite coral from him and the reason for the whole order

All of them in my BAO frag case, which makes it so easy to dip, transport and hold frags


Finally a pic of them on a temp frag rack before placement in the tank

[Justin]

Prior to my vacation last weekend to Miami, my sand sifting starfish made the 3rd attempt to walk on the glass. Fortunately or unfortunately, I found him caught in the intake of my MP40's and 3 of his arm; which healed about 2 months prior to his last attempt, were severally damaged. I told myself that this was the last time I wanted to see this and decided to get myself some MP40 guards to prevent snails, my cucumbers or my poor starfish from getting snipped by the blades. I do not like the foam guards for the MP40's because they in my opinion collect way too much detritus and need to be cleaned too frequently for my lazy tendencies. I had previously made anemone guards based on a design I found on one of the forums online with screen netting and acrylic rings.

The problem I had with these guards was that they too were collecting detritus pretty frequently and stuck out way too much and became an eye sore. After reading a post from Reefbuilders on 3d printed guards, I did some digging and found 2 manufacturers. The original creator quoted in the thread was based in the UK and the mailing time would be way too long for my impatient nature.

https://reefbuilders.com/2018/03/28/...n-3d-printing/

Fortunately I found another designer on Ebay and they were local for not that bad of a price and with a pretty sleek design very similar to the one in the article.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-Printed-...sid=m570.l1313

Yesterday after coming back into town, I received my guards in the mail and couldn't wait to open them up and install them on my tank to protect my inhabitants. I was a bit dismayed that the original front guard did not fit the slightly rounded front of the new MP40 housing units but the order came with another attachment that was a simple ring that locked into little grooves and allowed the water flow to become less inhibited. Snails and anything that can brave the strong flow could in theory still move in front of the MP 40's but at least the sides where the openings are greater or blocked from my reef pets.

Overall the quality is pretty solid, the notch to hold the front piece is a little weak but then again its 3D printed and fairly cheap. Here is a pic of the guard in use

[Justin]

Its been awhile since my last update and I am happy to report that the tank is running smoothly. Since taking the Calcium Reactor Co2 tank offline, the tank has been pretty stable. I have managed to keep the tank at a steady:

Alk: 7.5


Calcium


Here are a couple of coral shots and a video

Front Shot


One of the pieces I am constantly checking to see how happy it is

BC Bubble bath unicorn




Apocalypse Now



A huge colony of Seaworld Stag



Purple Orchid



Nice unknown Mari-cultured with an acro Crab!



Another on my constant observation

Walt Disney - This guy has constantly grown for me, considering that I almost lost it earlier in the year with the crash. Colors are still off but I'm sure it will come back



My Lt/ Vampire Kiss tang- Vlad




The last Tri Color Valida frag I have after losing my main Colony and to the right an Oragne Spathulata
Having had a blue and a rainbow years ago, I have been on the hunt for one. I finally found this Orange one from Rudy Batara at Golden Basket



I forgot the name of this Tenius but I thought i lost it during the crash as well. Its since starting to grow nicely and hopefully gain its color back



Wild Orchid



So glad this piece is growing nicely. Minh Tri Color



Right side with my Green Nepthea and Tubbs Blue taking center stage

[Justin]

Here is a video of the tank:

https://youtu.be/xMBto3OovGo

[Sierra_Bravo]

Glad you're making a comeback. I wish I could keep my alk as stable as yours has been the last two weeks.

Can't wait to see that bubblebath uni grow and color up.