The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Superglue works wonders for stabilizing rocks. I use this kind.

Ill save you some Scott.

I have some, Marc. Just don't like using it on the rocks. I probably would if I could ever get them all the way I like them.
One of my buddies sends me emails that say "move that one rock 2cm to the left". He's watched me fussing with it a number of times. Not many days go by that I'm not wet.

I have rarely and only slightly rearranged my rock. Almost every piece has something on the outside of it that likes where it is.
I hear you, Scott, about the wet arms. If you add it all up I spend like four hours or more a week with my arms in the aquarium. If not then I couldn't see inside. I will have to get an updated picture.
I think I lost my maxima clam due to a malfunctioning heater back in the coldest part of winter. It was about five years old. Our two best fish stores closed, now there is nothing close to me.

[sikk50]

Originally Posted by shilala

I have some, Marc. Just don't like using it on the rocks. I probably would if I could ever get them all the way I like them.
One of my buddies sends me emails that say "move that one rock 2cm to the left". He's watched me fussing with it a number of times. Not many days go by that I'm not wet.

[Wolfgang]

It dosent really fuse them together. It just makes the more outrageous things more stable. The rocks can be pulled apart really easily just not under their own weight.

I will be adding a clam shortly. I have my eye on a 3.5" dersea, 3" squamosa, and a 4" maxima at the LFS. Just have to decide which tank.

[OLS]

HAhahah, I KNEW there was a slope that people didn't talk about. That's cause it is the
biggest money-tossing slope that there is.

And I am also afflicted. This is my second tank, and it is an old picture from very early on.
I have replaced half the rock and moved everything 5 times. This is just a 40 with a 25 gal sump.
My old tank was a 110 and a few photos from it's early days are here:
http://www.reefs.org/forums/topic134254.html

I never thought to look and see if there was a reef thread. SHould be, as much disposable as we dispose of.

[OLS]

Originally Posted by shilala

My salt is up around .025 right now, Carlos. I'll have to swap out a couple buckets of water in the morning.
She's really not in bad shape at all. I should probably not screw with it real fast. I'll bring the temperature up slowly and lower the salinity slowly. I need some water changes anyways, so I'll start making RO water in earnest.

I can also suggest, that if the fish is not flashing, you can leave it alone.
When I have a tang that is getting ich, I do a couple of things. I get some real macroalgae for it to
eat, I let my tank go to **** and try not to put my hands in the water at all, or even go into the
room for that matter. I go in for feeding and that is it. MOST fish can beat the outbreak if they
have less or no stress. That said I lost a Hepatus tang with this method, and I watched a yellow,
pictured above, beat it cold. I find the stress of catching and quarantining fish pushes them over
the edge. Especially given how we have to catch them with all the rock, coral etc. Many die the
first nite of qt.

[Wolfgang]

Added some new coral today.

Tyree Meteor Shower Cyphastrea.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by OLS

HAhahah, I KNEW there was a slope that people didn't talk about. That's cause it is the
biggest money-tossing slope that there is.

Dood. I LOVE killing fish. It's the best way to rid myself of that cumbersome money. I haven't killed anything in weeks, and it's driving me nuts.
Today I'm fighting brown slime again. I have a branch sponge in there that's breaking down, I need to get it out. I've halted feeding to near nothing, but my skimmers are working overtime. Something could have died in there, I have no way of telling.
Sooo....
I hooked the diatom filter back up and did some scrubbing. I usually let it just burn itself out, but decided to do battle this time. I'm not gonna do much. It'll be gone before I know it.

[Wolfgang]

Picked up some more coral.

Green montipora Cap
Pink Montipora Cap
Blue Stag
Pink Pocillipora
Green Pocillipora
and a Green slimer Acro.

picture coming soon.

[Wolfgang]

Got back from the LFS. I swapped some frags with a friend, then I bought myself a Green slimer acro.




Everything is looking happy.

[shilala]

Here's a question you guys may be able to help me with...
I'm having another brown algae bloom. Along with that is lots of green hair algae.
I understand it's from phosphorus spiking. My lights are good and they are on a timer and all that good stuff.
Since I've set up this new tank it went from good, to real bad, then back to crystal clear with no algae, and now it's back again.
Something could have very well died in there, I have no way of knowing. It could have been a shrimp or one of any number of snails, or just some other die-back I can't think of. I run two protein skimmers and both have been pulling stuff out doubletime even though I've taken feeding to almost nothing.

Okay, so here is my question...
I usually just let this stuff go. I clean the glass and prefilters regularly, and I run my diatom filter a lot to pull the junk out of the water.
My thinking is that if I let the algae grow, it will pull the phosphate and nitrogen and fertilizers out of the water and fix it in itself. When I clean, I use the diaton filter to pull that organic matter out of the water.
How long should I let things go before I scrub the rocks and stuff?
I've noticed in the past that when the algae starves out it sluffs off in big chunks. Should I just wait till it starts peeling off itself, and how long does that take?
I know it's an odd question, I hope someone can help.
Thanks!!!

[Wolfgang]

Scrubbing the rocks will not likley prevent the algae from coming back. I was in the same situation as you a while ago. My solution was taking the rocks out and blowtorching them untill I was sure every bit of algae root was gone. This is an extreme measure.

The algae will pull nitrates and Po4 out of the water but it will not fix the main source for the Po4. It will keep growing and growing leaving you an unhappy camper. My suggestion would be to pick up a phosphate reactor. Like the MR1 made by nextreef. And run some neozeo media. This will cut out Po4 as well as Nitrates. In my case eliminating the need for water changes for almost a year now.

Next Reef MR1

NeoZeo

I scrubbed with a brush and used a net to scoop out the debris. Eventually these blooms seemed to run their course. The tiny snail and tiny star blooms were interesting. I wonder if your diatom filter is contributing. I use only a mat filter on the overflow and the skimmer. No fine filtering at all.

[shilala]

Thanks for the replies, guys.
I cleaned the tank really good yesterday and it looks spectacular this morning. Even the algae among the substrate cleared up. I added some sand and shells from Siesta Key that I had in a big jar, and now my Sargeant major damsel is making a great big nest. He's fanning out the hole and carrying rocks away and dropping them at the rate of about 5 or ten trips a minute. Fun to watch.
Lance, I had thought the diatom filter might be adding to the phosphates. It doesn't jive though.
Mark, I have tons of phosphate sponge in my Fluval sump filter, or whatever it's called. I think it's a cannister filter. That initially helped.
With clean water and a clean light and clean glass tops, there's a lot more light. It may just be that my light was so low it caused the bloom. I'd been pretty lazy about taking care of cleaning, so I'm likely the cause.
I'll just keep after it for the next week and see if the algae blooms subside.
Thanks for the help!!!

[Wolfgang]

Phosphate pads are only good for a week or so. After that they become nitrate factories by trapping deterius then it decays. Canister filters *usually* are linked with nitrate and phosphate issues. I think Carlos would know more. He was in the aquarium trade for quite a while.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Phosphate pads are only good for a week or so. After that they become nitrate factories by trapping deterius then it decays. Canister filters *usually* are linked with nitrate and phosphate issues. I think Carlos would know more. He was in the aquarium trade for quite a while.

I haven't cleaned that thing out for awhile, either. I should do that today. I can see where the filtered chunkies would rot and cause trouble. The bioballs should have plenty of nitrifying bacteria, as well as my substrate. It wouldn't hurt to get that crap out of it, though. Hopefully I'll quit feeling like crap and I'll get to it today.
Very little green algae is growing, that's a good sign. It's how I guage how fertile the tank is. I'll keep cleaning and hope the bioload goes down. I should do a massive water change but I'm not up to it.
I managed to clean it into "okay for now" mode. I'll put some more time into it as soon as I can.

My tank exists in perpetual "OK for now" mode.

[poker]

Anyone looking for MH lighting? I may have quite a bit of it available shortly.

[Wolfgang]

maybe what are the specs and bulb spectrum?

[poker]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

maybe what are the specs and bulb spectrum?

I have to check when I get home. I know I have the bulbs/ballasts/sockets/and maybe reflectors. It was off my 150g reef a few years ago.