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RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:18:18 GMT

i am very sad still but... i still have a 2000 gallon pond at our office that has 15 big Koi and a few smaller ones too. i just came from there where i fed them and just sat and enjoyed watching them for a bit. not the same as at the house but that is the way it is.

even though we have work again for now i am still way in debt and there will likely never be a pond at this house again.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Crow — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:42:20 GMT

Sorry to hear about the pond...

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:40:00 GMT

i took one look at her and Lola just popped into my mind, however my daughter likes Abby which is what the people that found her named her. so that is not really her name either.

i have never met the dogs of the people that found her. when i told them what i named her they told me one of their dogs is named Lola. weird!

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefmo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:23:40 GMT

What a cutie! Got a name yet?

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:07:24 GMT

we got a new dog. she was a stray that apparently was left behind when the owners lost their house and had been running the streets a couple of weeks.
she is only half as big as Bryson so no problems. she is very shy right now but is warming up to us.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:51:26 GMT

playful Bryson

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:48:55 GMT

Bryson loves Nori.

Happy dog

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:07:33 GMT

Having followed your thread with Eric on the loss of some of the corals, I too would be highly suspect of the NSW being or having been used. Now that you have switched over to ASW, hopefully you are past all that. Strange though how one tank has specific organisms while another similiar tank doesn't. I've noted the same with many of my tanks, you THINK they are pretty much the same, but theres always a few critters that do well in one but won't survive in the other. I've never been able to figure that one out.

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:01:30 GMT

this is the most variable coral in the tank.

as soon as the lights go out the feeding tentacles come out.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:49:06 GMT

and now it looks like this.

some still look fine.

the clams have kept growing.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:43:04 GMT

of the two tanks in the garage the anemone tank has lots of feather dusters, the other one none. both receive DT over flow water. the feather duster tank has anemones, ATS, and fish and is also bare bottom. the other tank has several inches of sand, one Heliopora, macroalgae, no fish, and no feather dusters.

how come? there are lots of them in the sump tanks underneath too.

some corals continue to do well.
the Umi Xenia looks good and is spreading even though a nearby Xenia Elongata nearby faded away.

the Lobophylia never receeded. however the little piece of Montipora came from a piece that showed no signs of life and then one day i saw this little piece.

this piece is a survivor of the tri color frag plug. it has come back from almost nothing.

this Acan was kind of the canary in the coal mine. the whole piece started out like this.

and then parts died off the coincided with additions of NSW.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:58:34 GMT

i still have several of these in the system. i must be feeding too much because i don't see a diminution of aiptasia.

the anemones continue to thrive. both the good and the bad.

the Elegance coral has not had a skeleton since April but continues to live although it is smaller.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:21:03 GMT

I'm sure you are going to be pleasantly surprised once you do get a look at the algae fauna, should be a great deal of nematodes and copepods, I can also just make out a lot of swimming "dots" as well, but the scope is not powerfull enough to make out what they could be.

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:53:21 GMT

it still needs a lot of tweaking to get the water flow right. the slot is too wide allowing too much water on one side and none on the other. i think there is enough flow overall. the flow is just overflow water from the tank. the limiting factor is the overflow in the garage tank is only one 1 1/2" pipe. i can't open the valve from the DT all the way or it would overflow the garage tank.

i am going to try to look at the algae under the scope one day and see what i can see. this is how fish geek i am. i told the family all i wanted for the holidays is a dissecting scope but i don't think we can afford one this year.

i have one of those jewelers loops that is 20x. maybe i will see what i can see with that and a bright light.

things are licking up though.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:41:49 GMT

Wow, thats a really cool set up and I can imagine the amount of and diversity of life that it could and proabably does support. Ya know, every time I see such things, the thought of living ocean side always comes to mind. So close, yet so far...

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:39:20 GMT

here is a partial picture of the garage. i am not really happy with the water flow over the ATS.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:32:46 GMT

Those are great! To me they look just like most of the rocks that I pull straight out of the ocean. Which I hope to do more of this coming week....

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:17:35 GMT

we don't really do any work with hot asphalt anymore. i still have one kettle and have used it a handful of times in the last few years.

these photos are for you you Chuck. i finally cleaned the glass on the garage tank and could see in from the side. these sponges are under an overhang and get very little light.

these feather dusters are growing in 1/4" of debris on the BB of the tank.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:31:07 GMT

I for one am glad you dodged that bullet, its a wonder you got any sleep at all untill that job was done and out of danger. I wouldn't last an hour at that job, for some reason, and its the only smell that gets me, but asphalt is a sure way to run me off...

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:58:38 GMT

not reef related except this is how i pay for my obsession.

before we could finish a storm came up. we had one day to waterproof the job temporarily. there went enough money up in smoke to keep me in salt for a year or more. we spent a day prepping for the rain. i am really happy to say not a single leak.

here i am actually working on the roof. my crew would be the first to tell you that doesn't happen often.

the job is all covered. about a 200' long building with a 3' wide swatch open to the weather in the middle of the builing and another along one whole edge. it rained 2.25" that night. almost unheard of in October here. October rainfall is usually unmeasurable.

last night i had to go back to the building at 8pm as we were have huge winds and things were blowing off the roof. if the wind had blown like that when it was raining it would have been a huge disaster and i would be out of business for good. last night nothing too bad happened but flying debris could have been really bad. one car got a piece of debris on it that the manager removed prior to my arrival and i couldn't get a good look at the car in the dark. no wonder i don't sleep well in the winter time.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:37:39 GMT

Its on one of the peppermint shrimp, a very obvious red bulge, quite common amongst the Caridean shrimp.

I'm really glad to hear of your future plans, but the thought of not being able to maintain a tank with at least some corals would have me looking towards Florida instead...

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:59:47 GMT

chuck-

i can't see it in the photo. your powers of observation are amazing. where in the photos is it? the shrimp were fresh, on ice at the fish market when i bought them.

it is sad about the pond. i still have about 20 koi, 15 big and three medium to small ones at the office pond that i see every day. i probably won't have a pond here at the house again. within a couple of years we will sell the house and build a smaller one in the area or move to the tropics. i am already thinking about what to do differently with the tank. we both like Hawaii but you can't have corals there. we could retire on the beach in Hawaii if we wanted.

my new mantra-
smaller house better tank, more energy efficient, all on one level to decrease pumps needed for moving water vast heights. the fish room will be in a greenhouse or atrium too.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

charlesr1958 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:41:31 GMT

Hey Carl, I'm really bummed out to learn that you have to take down the pond, I loved my pond as it was my place of "peace" after working all day and can't imagine having to drain it. Hang in there my friend, hopefully things will turn around sooner than later.

I couldn't help notice that one of your shrimp looks to have a parasite, red bulge on the side of its carapace, not sure if their larvae can survive aquarium conditions or not as I am assuming you bought the shrimp as is. Bopyrid parasites

Chuck

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:08:02 GMT

Clams, shrimp, mussels, squid, sardines, tuna, vitamins and AA, rotifers, cyclopeeze, mysis, and ???
It makes about 15 pounds and will last a few months. The kitchen Aid was not an aid. The sharp blade on the Cuisinard food processor works much better, pulsing as needed.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:07:07 GMT

I recently needed to make some fish food. I am lucky. I have an Asian Supermarket and a fish market nearby. I buy nori, I think 30 10x10 sheets, for about $4.50. the dog loves them too.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:29:14 GMT

see my other thread. http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic103175-9-1.aspx#bm103210

the ATS is my third one. it is not that great. the material is too flimsy and the slot is too wide so too much water spills out without making it all the way around to cover all the screen but it is growing algae on the part, a little more than half, that is getting water. i need some updated pix.

my first generation had pods but that was before the tank got poisoned.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

DXmarinefish — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:18:54 GMT

I really love your setup, and i have been following it with a keen interest. Well done.

I have a question please.
With the ATS you have, have you noticed any increase in pod life at all, any more significant than when you did not have an ATS?

I run an ATS and its working miracles, in the process of updating the design.

Regards.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Crow — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:25:10 GMT

Awesome setup...

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 06:38:36 GMT

the surge tanks are kept in the dark. one is empty and the other has several pounds of long established live rock with sponges et al. over that i put a layer of 1" size dry coral. that was 6 months ago.

when i look in these tanks and the garage tanks that are fishless i don't see any pods moving around. the only water movement in the surge tanks is the inflow of water to fill. the surges are fed from water at the end of the sumps.

should i run a powerhead in the surges? should i fed these other tanks directly?

i think my water quality overall is getting better. i have been running the ro/di almost continually and changing out water with Seachem ASW. the cyano in the display has gone. the one Acro remaining is growing and the Heliopora is still doing well in the garage tank with lot of macroalgae seen below.

there may still be a few small crustaceans. i saw one Mysis shrimp the other night after lights out. i think it was just the exoskeleton blowing in the current but it means there was/is mysis still in the system. when i first set up the tank there were no fish in the system and the display tank was ruled by hundreds of mysis. i know many of the fish i have like them, the two hawkfish, copperband, 6 line wrasse, Mandarin, et al.

when i don't clean the viewing panel for a few days there are some very small, less than 1mm pods in the algae film.

in the display there are lots of the tube worms with two feeding tentacles in the sand. there is also hundreds of mini brittle stars all over the system. is there a fish that likes to eat them? i don't think a Harlequin shrimp would survive the hawkfish.

should i feed more? should i feed after lights out? i only occasionally feed after dark.

PO4 levels were 0.19 a couple of days ago and i used Lanthanum Chloride for the first time in many weeks.

there is a lot to do later today. 150 gallon water change while sucking out aiptasia and debris, clean skimmer, change carbon and GFO. clean tank.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:25:17 GMT

There still continues to be a dearth of small crustaceans. When I look in the tank at night I don’t see any small crustaceans. The Mandarin continues to pick at the rockwork and doesn’t seem to be suffering.

This garage tank has no fish. It grows macroalgae and sponges but there doesn’t look to be any life in the sand. That is probably not true but that is how it looks.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

J-Luis — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:28:36 GMT

Oh wow !

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:10:11 GMT

This one suffered some and got cyano on part of the exposed skeleton. It is gone now replaced with coralline.

The Elegance lost it’s skeleton in one of the tank episodes many weeks ago. It continues to live though it is shrinking despite daily feedings with Cyclops et al.

I have no idea what this is. I just noticed it one day on the clam that had been there for many months. Then a few days later it was gone. Could it just be flake food that I fed a couple of times?

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:49:33 GMT

The Heliopora in the garage tank continues to do well. I put a piece in the DT a few weeks ago and it continues to live.

Some other corals continue to do well also.

Lobophylia

The Gorgonian continues to grow.

This one is one of the first corals I ever got. It waws about 3” then. Apparently very hardy.

The pocillipora has suffered a bit. I have found several colonies of a green one in the tank that also did not die. One as large as a quarter.

Another one that continues to do well.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:37:39 GMT

Some of the LPS corals lost some tissue but didn’t die.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:35:55 GMT

The economy has taken it’s toll on my business and I couldn’t keep the koi pond. I sold many of the fish and took 15 to the 2000 gallon pond at the office. I also moved a big bead filter and ¾ hp pump there as well. Now many more people can enjoy them everyday. I do worry though about someone putting something in the pond. I have seen a couple of pennies on the bottom.

The pond will remain empty for the fore seeable future. It is weird and sad when I walk out the back door it is so damn quiet. The pond would have been seven years old last week.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:34:48 GMT

It has been a couple of months since I last posted. There was really nothing much or good to report.

I think things are finally turning around.

A little history for new readers.

I have used NSW since I set up the tank early last year.
The tank is mainly lit with a 4x8 skylight the foot print of the tank. The shaft is lined with spectral aluminum as in a MH reflector.
In addition I have two 400 watt 10000K bulbs on light rails that run a couple of hours morning and evening. This is for me mostly.
The garage sumps/tanks are lit with two 250 watt 10,000k bulbs, all ballasts and reflectors are icecap.

The ATS is lit with a 400 watt halide.
Skimmer is a C4848 from MyReefCreations.com
Total pumps are a few small power head in the sumps, tunze 6060? In the two 250 gallon garage tanks and 5 Sequence Hammerhead pumps for OM’s, tank return, skimmer, surge tanks.
Water motion is provided with two Oceans Motions four ways under the tank driven by two Hammerhead pumps. Additional motion is provided by two 75 gallon surge tanks in the closet above the tank.
Sumps/garage tanks comprise four 160 gallon containers and two 250 gallon tanks over that.
Water from the overflows goes into the glass tanks and some goes thru AC and GFO and over the turf scrubber.
Ca and Alk is provided by cacl and soda carbonate or bicarbonate, mgcl supplies magnesium as needed. The above are dripped into the tank over the day from a 5 gallon container of RO/DI water next to the sump. Additional top off water is just dumped into the sump to keep the salinity right. I am using about 20 gallons per day of top off water.
Tank temps have been very stable this summer. No chiller. I do have a big fan over the sump that only needed to run a handful of the hottest days. Our temps rarely hit even the high 80’s here so close to the marine influence. The ocean is about 3 miles away.

Tank temps have been running 81-83. the highest this summer was 84. for those of you that keep your tanks at 77 degrees are probably freaking out about that. See the article on RonShimek.com about reef temps. Right now temps in the tropics

I had good growth of many corals but not most sps, Monti caps and LPS always grew well until the mass death. SPS corals would always just fade away usually bleaching from the bottom up.

In April I changed some of the sand bed away from quartz based sand to aragonite. many corals died in the weeks/months after. During this time I was only using DI water, no RO stage. This water was not pure and was putting ???? in the tank. The NSW has PO4 levels up to 0.15 and who knows what else.

I added an RO component to the filter weeks ago and ro/di water now is 0tds going into the tank, hurray!

Where to start. I think it MAY have been the NSW that was hurting my tank. The last water change as with previous water changes I did with the NSW, within a day there was more tissue recession on some LPS corals. I lost the couple of test corals, a birdsnest and an acro.

Other possibilities include a contaminant in some of the chems added, esp MgCl which is known to be “dirty”. Plasticides leaching from the storage container, something got dropped into the tank, like a screwdriver or screws or other metal object when working near the tanks in the garage or setting up the doors over the tank.

I have had several esteemed guests to the house and picked their brains for possible causes of the problems I have been having. They included Eric Borneman, Steve Garret, Sanjay Yoshi, Joe Yaiullo, and Melev.

So about a month ago I started doing water changes with SeaChem ASW. So far I have changed out about 60% of the 1700 gallons. The RO/DI is running almost nonstop now. The waste water is going into the 1200 gallon storage container in the yard to be used for all yard watering.

The two remaining SPS corals might be starting to grow. There are still two Acroporas in the tank and one at least has growth tips and good polyp extension. The purple Monti cap from GarretsAcropolis is growing again. The green and orange ones died.

There are still peppermint shrimps in the system and also lots of aiptasia too. not in the DT though. I guess the copperband really is eating them.

The new elbows in the tank have helped the flow I think. an interesting thing not seen as I don’t have a recent picture but the new elbows are covered with coralline algae but only on the bottom parts. The tops are still just white.

I have heard that coralline prefers lower light and that seems to be true.

Cyano bacteria was prevalent for a few weeks in the DT but is almost gone now.

Interestingly there was never any in the garage tanks which have less flow than the DT.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Mr.reef24 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:43:37 GMT

tank parameter's are looking good nice work.

mr.reef24

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Davez — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:52:13 GMT

After all the problems you have had with phosphates for so long, you would have to be happy with that.

Cheers,
Dave.

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:23:58 GMT

i got my water tested with aquariumwatertesting.com
Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good ......................................... 0.006
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good ......................................... 0.017
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .............................................7.5
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good ........................................... 0.09
Silica (SiO2-3) .............................Good .............................................0.3
Potassium (K) ...............................Low............................................. 302
Calcium (Ca)................................Good ............................................ 401
Boron (B) ....................................Good .............................................5.2
Molybdenum (Mo).........................Good .............................................0.1
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good .............................................7.8
Magnesium (Mg) ..........................Good .......................................... 1251
Iodine (I¯)....................................Low............................................ 0.02
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ........................................... 0.00
Alkalinity (meq/L).........................Good ........................................... 4.31

RE: 700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:22:37 GMT

[quote]melev (7/8/2009)

Is she still dancing naked near the tank? LOL
[/quote]

yes! lucky me! she is not a professional stripper though she does touch scantily clothed people daily.

you can see the whole living room with the camera, or zoom in on the tank so not going out to the world.