Tank of shame - no more?

[CMOS]

Howdy All,

It's been a while since I've been here and sadly, I admit, it's been a while since I did ANYTHING to my reef tank. Background: I started a new job on February 1st of this year and due to the long commute and a precocious almost-2-year-old angel of a daughter, I literally didn't do a water change for 5 months. I just topped it off. I know, I know, you don't need to beat me up, I've done enough of that already. LOTS of nutrients had built up, long, thick hairy algae in many places and yet for some reason my Frogspawn skipped along like nothing was going on (???). About 2 weeks ago I was an inch away from just giving it away to someone that would just take proper care of it.

I didn't really want to give it away, but I knew it wasn't fair to the critters in there to keep going as I was. So, I thought a bit more about what the problem was: I couldn't (or didn't) make the time to do water changes so - why not look at that, and see if I could improve this process? I've been using a 5 gallon food grade container that I fill via buckets once I dosed the proper amount of salt. Slow and messy. Then I'd hoist that 5 gallon container on my shoulder as I opened the valve to pour it in the tank. Slow, messy.

I admit I can be a little slow sometimes so I stated thinking," I need to semi-automate this so it's really quick and easy."

So I did.

I came up with a 15 gallon food grade container, which I cut half of the top off, and strapped that to a vertical furniture dolly. In the container I put a Rio power pump and connected a hose to it, which is neatly secured to the frame of the dolly. On the top part of the dolly I have secured a plastic duplex box to house a power switch for the water pump. The hose is long enough to obviously reach the tank, so I simply flip a switch and the tank begins to fill to the desired level. This whole setup even makes mixing the salt easy: Just fill up the container, pour in the salt, drop the output end of the hose back into the container, flip the switch and I have an automatic mixer.

In the last 8 days I have changed out 10-11 gallons at a time, every other day. Needless to say, the tank looks much different already.

I was able to carefully siphon out most the hairy algae but still have a fairly thick algae film on the back glass which hopefully will be taken care of my by a new CUC that I'll be getting tomorrow (2 Turbos, one more Cleaner shrimp).

Now that I have an easy way to do maintenance (the purpose of this babbling thread...), I have a renewed interest in the tank, and I'm looking forward to some new additions tomorrow. In addition to the new CUC, I plan to get a Firefish goby and hopefully an Antenna Goby if I can find one. After these, I'll let things settle for a while before adding some soft corals, etc.

Moral of the story: have a plan to make things like maintenance relatively easy.

CMOS

[NoobSalt]

Good to hear you are back in the game!

[Original Fin]

Totally agree.

Unless you are just always home, and you don't have little ones running around, automating as much as your budget allows is the way to go with this hobby.

The first things I automated were lighting and top off. I would have been out of the game a long time ago if not for those.

I'm looking at a new job where I may end up traveling a lot, at least initially. I'd be gone two weeks at a stretch, so I'm sort of weighing the options of breaking down the tank, or incorporating more automation. A reef controller and a few peristaltic dosing pumps for cal, Alk and mag would be a huge help. I'd have to think about top off too. My current system only has reserves for about a week. Refilling the reservoir is more work than I can ask of my wife...it's kind of a backbreaking chore too.

My wife can help out with feedings, but that's about all the time she's got with a full time job and two youngsters; 3 months and 2&1/2.

Water changes could wait till I get home, every two weeks. I'd love to have a totally hands off water change system, but the logistics of that would require breaking down the current set up anyway to accommodate all the extra plumbing. Someday, I'd like to do that, but thats a big, expensive project better suited to a dedicated, scratch built fish room.


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[CMOS]

I also have my lighting automated. My MH and dual PC's are on different circuits. Both have programmable independent timers that I use to simulate dawn and dusk conditions.

I am REALLY looking forward to getting some more livestock in there. For over a year its been only the Frogspawn, Royal Gramma, and a Cleaner Shrimp.


CMOS

[chrisfont23]

Are there automatic mysis shrimp / bloodworm / nori feeders ?

[Original Fin]

Are there automatic mysis shrimp / bloodworm / nori feeders ?

Sure...it's easy!

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/salt...eeder-diy.html

My question is, if you have this much free time for experimentation, tinkering and the like, why do you even need this level of automation?

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[chrisfont23]

I have like 27 seconds free a day with a 3 yr old and 18 mo old. I'll call a neighbor... a reliable neighbor.

[Original Fin]

CMOS, what size is your tank?


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[CMOS]

CMOS, what size is your tank?7

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It's about 46 gallons: 36 x 13 x 24, with a about a 12 gallon sump capacity.


CMOS

[CMOS]

A question: ever since I've been on a water changing binge my Frogspawn has not been completely happy. It has not extended it tentacles out anywhere near what it usually does. Is this just a basic reaction to the "new" cleaner water?

[Original Fin]

A question: ever since I've been on a water changing binge my Frogspawn has not been completely happy. It has not extended it tentacles out anywhere near what it usually does. Is this just a basic reaction to the "new" cleaner water?

That would be my guess. Many corals will get used to less than ideal water quality. Suddenly changing water quality for the better is like putting them in a new system...you might expect a period of acclimation stress. It's better to do it in stages if you can.
I've heard of some corals even dying off when switched from high nutrient to low...such as xenia, for example.


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[CMOS]

Report: Went to a LFS Saturday and got the following: A nice Green Star Polyp rock, 3 turbo snails, one more cleaner shrimp, and a 6-line wrasse.

A question: Since I have been taking such horrible care of the tank, the Chaeto algae in my small sump has actually reduced in volume. Is this due to the previous poor water conditions? How many hours of light should I apply to the refugium? I have been doing a 12 hour time cycle, opposite to the main lighting systems (refugium light on at night basically). Thoughts?


Thanks for any help.


CMOS

[Original Fin]

We can assume it wasn't from lack of nutrients. Could be the lighting...what kind of lighting is it, and when was the last time you did a bulb change?

People hear the term poor water quality and instantly assume high nutrients, i.e. Nitrates and phosphates are the major issue. Not true. The other part of the poor WQ equation is balance of these key parameters within their respective acceptable limits. Chaeto, or any other algae for that matter, may not thrive when any of these are out of bounds:

Salinity
Temp
Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium
(above three drive PH, if PH is off, so are these three)


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[chrisfont23]

I have been doing a 12 hour time cycle, opposite to the main lighting systems (refugium light on at night basically). Thoughts?
CMOS

That's basically what I do with mine. I am at the point where I am cutting it twice a month. I just shipped a clump to Mad Mead

[CMOS]

The lighting on the refugium is just a basic 40W incandescent bulb. Do I need something more specific?


CMOS

[Original Fin]

If it worked once, you're probably ok, but those sorts of lights (and compact fluorescents) only last about 3-4 months before losing a lot of intensity and shifting colors, and some people report that their Chaeto will slow down or start dieing off if they don't replace bulbs within that time frame.

6500k is optimal for plant growth though.


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[CMOS]

Do I need to anchor the Chaeto on the bottom of the refugium or just or just let it float?


CMOS

[Original Fin]

Let it float.


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