Hi Folks,

My tank was quite successful for almost 1.5 years. On top of it SPS dominated. Things started going down hill since about early November 2009.

First all my biggest SPS colonies started dying from the bottom. I figured that was due to lack of light as at that point I only had 150 MH and older T5.

First I replaced all the bulbs and things were decent till about January. In January I started noticing that cyano is getting out of hand and corals just continue dying. Unfortunately that was really busy point for me and between Feb and July i didn't do anything with the tank other than 15% water changes every 2 weeks.

By July I've lost all my SPS. I think the biggest mistake that i've done was that as all the SPS were dying i just left them in the tank and I think my water was getting polluted for many months.

In July I've taken apart my fixture and I replaced the 150MH with 250MH (lumatek select a watt ballasts) and I replaced the T5 ballast (Sylvania T5HO - previously i've used T8 ballast as i've red up somewhere that it is ok).

After major light overhaul I also took out all the rocks and cleaned them in salt water. Cyano started disappearing but hair algae and little green fuzz keeps on coming back.

By now i've lost about 80% of my corals - fish and inverts are all perfectly fine.

The LPS that are remaining seem like they are stable now but are in a rough shape.

The issue that i'm having now:
1. hair algae - I keep on cleaning it all every 2 weeks but keeps on coming back. Although it's starting to slow down and it's bit of darker green colour - does not seem to thrive as in the past.

2. I started getting rusty colour cyano?? i've always had red slimy cyano. For some odd reason it went away and came back as rusty slimy looking thing.

3. I have whole whack of Truf algae mostly on rocks and sandbed.

4. Rocks is covered with quite a bit of green fuzz.. don't know if it's hair algae, but I do have hair algae as well but i keep on trimming it. Rocks just have this green fuzz that came back after i cleaned all the rocks and I can't vacume it off.

On the bright side lately all the algae is not looking as healthy as before. lol.. but still keeps on coming back. And on one of the rocks where I had amazing beautiful Australian montipora (which died back in July) - it started coming back to life and encrusting the rock again.

I'm little hesitant adding any corals at this point as I don't want to just kill them. Also I'd like to get rid of off all the algae before I do anything. I've upgraded my lights to 250 MH hoping to have SPS dominated tank again.

i'm running out of ideas on what to do and I was gonna call it quites few time in the last couple of months. But i'm still here but just hanging by a thread.

Here are my parameters.

• water changes bi-weekly - 15%
• salinity - 1.025
• temp. 79 - but in the last couple of months I had temp swings 77.5 - 82.

• calcium - 360 - it was steady 440 in the past but i scaled back on 2 part dosing as have no sps now. But seems i need to continue dosing the regular dose.

• alkalinity 7.7 - same as above as it normally sits at about 9-10

• magnesium 1250 - maybe little low but this was first time I've tested mag since maybe Jan. but in the past it was steady at 1300s

Get ready for this

• phosphate - 0.00 - tested with hanna. I didn't believe the results and tested 3 times... all 3 times same reading
• nitrates - used salifert - 0.2 - barely traceable.

Forgot to mention - i've had flatworm issues since my tank was about 6 months old. In the last 6 months I've treated my tank 3 times with flatworm exit. Last time I've used double amount - and finally i've been flatworm free for over a month now. in terms of impact on corals - i don't think there was any immediate impact as each time i've done water change day after the treatment and used lots of carbon after each treatment as well. Tank was already in a rough shape when i treated using the flatworm exit. Maybe it had some long term impacts - at this point who knows.

Attached are some pics. Tank is looking like coral graveyard. it's hard to look at it compared to what it looked like a year ago.

Am i over looking something? I'm at the point where I don't know what to try anymore and i'm hanging in, in this hobby just by a thread now.

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Hello all,
so I came across this : http://reefbuilders.com/2010/02/15/z...aptured-video/

and want to make one out of my KZ reactor, now here is my question, if I add another hole and a huge pump to it, to turn on a couple times a day, while the huge pump is off, will water flow out of it ? or will its impellers stop water from going backwards out of reactor ?


another question would be, where can I get big clear PVC pipes ?to make a reactor out of, any Idea ?

thanks all.

So my phosphate problem persists, GFO brought it down a bit, water changes haven't helped, Bio-Pellets haven't decreased it YET. Corals continue to die,Cyano still present. I hate to take the rock out and boil it. I think Phosphates are leashing from the rock.

Has anyone had any luck boiling the rock, And then wHAT CYCLE THE TANK AGAIN WITH ALL MY FISH IN IT. Help

OK folks tell me all you know about chillers, to me they are essentially the reverse of a heater, so same logic applies (external controller for temp), 2 is better than one (not feasible), but that is where my knowledge stops.

Are in line markedly better than coil drop in types (in the sump with about 10X turnover)

I am looking at keeping approx 150G of water at about 65F (in my basement which can support 72F without a chiller) - I found a chart somewhere which said a 1/4hp unit would do - I am looking at a 1/3 for a buffer to be safe...

Should I buy used, or is it a "you want the warranty of new since they are prone to breakdown"

Have a line on a 1/3 aqualogic drop in chiller for about $400 - if not a good option, tell me some alternatives.

Mark

Hi All,

We are considering setting a new, larger, and more crazy show tank and likely to be illuminated by Sfiligoi's new Plasma Arc fixtures. In order to do so we are considering selling our 105g Cube show tank to anyone interested. Included is:

-105g Cube 4 sided Starphire Rimless tank 32"x32"x24"
-Sfiligoi Galaxy T5/Led Hybrid fixture 8x24w plus 27 Leds plus Moons and active cooling
-Custom Acrylic sump
-EuroReef Skimmer
-all pumps and power heads

*Rockwork, livestock and corals are available if interested

Any inquiries please call or speak to Jay at the store.

Also, we are now stocking the new Sfiligoi MH and T5 lamps. These are high quality German made bulbs. Available:

MH
-250w DE 14K
-250w SE 14K
-400w SE 14k
-400w SE 20k

Pricing ranges from $80-125

T5
-24w SuperActinic

-39w SuperActinic
-39w 15k

-54w SuperActinic
-54w 15k
-54w 20k
-54w CoralRed

Pricing ranges from $20-30

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Is the red sea max any good? Is it worth $450-500 canadian?

Tank Raised Lookdown Jack - Unique fish & support captive breeding




GET THE BEST PRICED CONE SKIMMER ON THE MARKET - *** NOW ***

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never thought it could be done
so i thought id share a few photos

vic

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OK, so I've looked all over and they just don't seem to exhist. I want a 36 x 18 x 36 (or 48 even) high tank...

Don't care if it is glass or acrylic as I've had both and understand the pros and cons of each. Would like drilled for overflow.

Mark

Hi All, Jay has been fragging all week and they are ready for sale now. Huge variety with everything from Acros to Acans to Chalices to Zoa's etc available.

Prices are $10 and up!

Also, here are the store hours for the remainder of the long weekend:

Sun. 10-3
Mon. 10-4

Please read and help. Thanks, in advance.
I recently removed ALL live rock from my 150g FOWLR display tank, which has a 80g sump below it, because of a stubborn long-standing green hair algae problem. The night the inhabitants (including about 15 different community fish) and 2 shrimps had to spend without any live rock to sleep in, was apparently a traumatic one.
Next morning, we found the blood shrimp was being the breakfast for some of the older bigger tangs/angels/zebra damsels/diana's hogfish, and another cleaner shrimp and common cleaner wrasse missing.
Today, after 2 days, as I was reintroducing the thoroughly cleaned live rock back, I discovered the shrimp and the wrasse were inside the overflow return reservoir chamber, where they apparently found refuge from the nocturnal frenzy or were sucked in due to the flow, from a small gap in the grate/sieve design.
The return reservoir has the inverted-J return pipe and the pipe that brings water up from the submersible pump in the sump to the display tank. About 6" x 4" and the plumbing within it. It is a sheltered area, but I have been unable to get these refugees back into the display where now the clean live rock offers ample sleeping/hiding room. I tried using a common red fishnet and tried using the Python cleaning tubing, but just not enough room to maneuver anything in there. They hide in the narrow space between the pipes. At my wit's end now. I know that the shrimp or wrasse cannot climb against the flow of the water, so they might eventually starve to death.
Please give me your suggestions, whatever they might be, as I dont wish to lose these important 'cleaning crew' to a plumbing oversight!
Thanks.

I just installed Chrome and when I try to log in to AP it keeps saying I have an invalid username or password. It works when I use it on Firefox, but not on Chrome. ??????

hello all I started cycling my new 65 gallon reef tank

I tested for ammonia on tuesday(aug 31) it was .25 ppm

I did not test again untill yestarday morning(Sept 3) and got 0ppm ammonia,0ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate.

I was using 100% new water and about 45 lbs of fully cured live rock,about 10 lbs is fully encrusted in coraline (from my main reef).
The 35 lbs came from an closed down system the rocks were kept alive with saltwater heater and powerhead no light for months (with small water changes).

I got a small bloom of diatoms and went away after about 2 days.
The rocks are starting to get very small amounts of coraline ,I scraped some of the live rocks to release spores in to the tank

yesterday i threw in 1 hermit and a small frag of zoos

The zoos opened right away but were a little darker than in my main system

This morning the zoos opened after about 2 min of the lights being on and the hermit is still alive and grazing off of the rocks and there is some small hitch hiker snails all doing there job

i have tested a total of 9 times lol and get consistent readings of 0/0/0 i am using a API master kit.

Am i crazy to think my tank cycled in 10 days i was using no filtration just power heads and a heater

Thanks for all of your help

Hi,

Who is selling the Deep Dimension Corner Flo tanks by Marineland.

Looking to get a 36x36x27?

Thanks.

Hi ,How often should i be changing the water in the larval tank, when breeding clown fish