2016 200 gallon reefing restart

[windwaterwaves]

On Sunday I added Dr. Tom's one and only and dosed with Ammonia, dosed on monday, dosed on tuesday. Currently a diatom explosion, I will leave lights off today. Ammonia is at .4 on red sea test, NO3 is now at 2 so something is happening, NO2 is 0. PH 8.2.

Here are some current tank pics during the cycle..

Testing from photobucket, here is a picture of my old Lionfish, he was 14", died in a tank overheat event when it was 90 here for a week with no a/c...

 

[spieszak]

Uncheck to make the image show inline when linking from photobucket

 

[windwaterwaves]

Thanks for the tip

 

[mfinn]

Something that I just noticed in your previous posts, was that you had live rock already?

Why add ammonia?

 

[windwaterwaves]

I had live rock, we wanted to fill out the bacteria and feed it with ammonia. Now I have identified some nuisance algae before adding fish and corals so.. doing a magnesium hike to wipe all that out then.. finally putting fish and slowly corals. I think I (the idiot) took one branch of tonga that had been out of water for 3 years but had algae spores and introduced it. I should have bleached it, scrubbed it. It was a lapse of reason. never ever ever add anything again that hasn't been through the ringer!

 

[mfinn]

I had live rock, we wanted to fill out the bacteria and feed it with ammonia. Now I have identified some nuisance algae before adding fish and corals so.. doing a magnesium hike to wipe all that out then.

I would have thought that just the Dr. Tims would have been enough.

As far as the mag thing, you know that you will have to use Kent Tech M and it will only work on bryopsis.

 

[spieszak]

I've seen recent evidence of Tech-M helping with other algae(s) and even green cyano, though its could just be a fluke.....

For a coral QT, I would think the live rock would be more than enough also. I can see the added ammonia and dr tims (though I have my doubts on bacteria in a bottle) in an actual tank, but it wouldn't surprise me if the bacteria transferred on the plugs would be enough to sustain a coral QT. Good thing is, it really doesn't matter, I mean, as long as the ammonia isn't killing cool stuff on the LR... you just have a really solid bacteria population.

Also, if you are careful, you can eliminate most of the algae with a little hydrogen peroxide scrub (toothbrush dunked in it, careful not to splash) before moving them into the QT. It may speed the process up a bit for you, and the less nutrients you put in, the less you have to mitigate while treating.

 

[windwaterwaves]

It is tech M, I am thinking it's bryopsis, it definitely resembles it, but.. it's algae.. thin wispy splitting like a fern almost. You can see it in the pic above. I'm 1.9 liters into the mag now, latest reading 1410 (1/2 last night, 1/2 this morning) It read 1350 this am with my old salifert test, but it ceilings at 1500 so if I am headed to 1700.. well I need to figure something else out to measure it. I will start adding bottle 2 tonight, looks like I will need.. ugh 3 bottles to get to 1700. But hey it's giving me something to do while it does more cycling..

 

[windwaterwaves]

While i'm spending money.. So I had purchased some reef radiance Proline+ LED's so I could control it with the Apex. The integration is kind of cool but frankly they don't have a very good spread on the individual led's or better angles, and hardly any shimmer. So with a fist full of dollars I was going to by a fancy new skimmer (I have a smaller reef octopus I can use in the mean time), but the lights were getting to me and I was going to have to buy (2) more to get the coverage I wanted. Then I saw Mojoreef's lights (Oceans by Design), wow these things are cool, he has been in the industry a long time and his experience shows. He has an apex module but talked me out of it and I went with the wireless programmer. I have to say these lights are amazing, the design, the way they connect together (1) CORD and daisy chain they just say quality and the design and light feels like a metal halide. I wish I had seen/bought these lights FIRST well now I have to spare LED's for quarantine or something.. I will be able to cut his lights into the hood and use a router to put a perfect mounting in place. This tank is going to be sweet someday..

 

[mfinn]

It is tech M, I am thinking it's bryopsis, it definitely resembles it, but.. it's algae.. thin wispy splitting like a fern almost. You can see it in the pic above. I'm 1.9 liters into the mag now, latest reading 1410 (1/2 last night, 1/2 this morning) It read 1350 this am with my old salifert test, but it ceilings at 1500 so if I am headed to 1700.. well I need to figure something else out to measure it. I will start adding bottle 2 tonight, looks like I will need.. ugh 3 bottles to get to 1700. But hey it's giving me something to do while it does more cycling..

Yeah, it's expensive.
When you say old test kit?

I found that Salifert is pretty reliable, until they get old.
If fact I don't trust them when they get down to a few months of expiring.

When you finish the syringe, fill it up again to the 1.0 mark and start over, then add the numbers together.

 

[spieszak]

Agreed on all MFinn said on the kit.

Love my helios lights. Just well designed, and great color/output.

 

[windwaterwaves]

Thanks, great tip.

-------
I found that Salifert is pretty reliable, until they get old.
If fact I don't trust them when they get down to a few months of expiring.

When you finish the syringe, fill it up again to the 1.0 mark and start over, then add the numbers together.

 

[Maxx]

Not to be the negative guy of the thread....

But I've found my Salifert kits to start to wander on accuracy at the 12 month mark...IE 12 months from being opened and used for the first time.

I love the Salifert kits, and that is pretty much all I use for testing, but I write the date I first used the kit, (and exposed the chemicals for testing to air), on the top of the kit. At 12 months, I'll pitch the chemicals and save the syringes, containers etc....and start over.

Glad you like the new OBD lights. I wish they were available out here in the Midwest.

 

[spieszak]

I love the Salifert kits, and that is pretty much all I use for testing

I am transitioning back to them, though I use the hardware from the red sea kits now when I test. Just makes it so my hands are more steady.
Accuracy is just hard to come by in hobby grade kits. I had/have used the actual red see kits for a while, but their accuracy is coming into question now too.

Glad you like the new OBD lights. I wish they were available out here in the Midwest.

They are. The website is down right now, but if you (or you know someone) who wants ... Crystal Reef Aquatics is taking over the Helios brand in the merger. You can contact them at (360) 393-6121

 

[windwaterwaves]

Here I am a few weeks in now. Parameters are great, salinity 1.026, KH 8, Nitrates 0, Ammonia 0, a trace of phosphates. Small skimmer running in my 55 gallon sump (Euroreef RS-80), Apex up and operating.

A bit of an algae bloom, bumped Magnesium to 1760, seems to be effective on some but a lot of diotoms, quite the hairy tank. Dropped in a tuxedo urchin, a long spine, and a blue stripe legged hermit. Waiting for my cleanup crew to arrive today. Tired of brown.

Here is a link to my "story album" in photobucket http://s720.photobucket.com/user/windwaterwaves/Aquarium/story

 

[windwaterwaves]

Added dr. Toms waste away and the briopsis seems to have exploded everywhere long strands. Turning down lights. Cleaner crew came in today from reef cleaners.com. Wow 3" fighting conchs, cichlin, and a ton of snails and hermits. Hoping these guys will kick some briopsis ass and purge the diatoms. Now to wait while darkness and Red Sea magnesium, and all the cleaners hopefull get ahead of this stuff. I will be pulling as much as I can as well.

 

[windwaterwaves]

A word about my apex and Hanna test kits. First never ever bother with the Hanna calcium kit it is a gigantic pain in the ass. The Hanna kh tester is awesome albeit the syringe is nearly unreadable, but a quick test.

I grabbed a break out box to play with an Ato backup, and I know about the low draw versus th relay ports on the 8 port, but I got it all wired up and plugged in a aqua lifter pump, float would start it but not turn it off, sure enough the aqua lifter doesn't have enough draw to trip the plug in. You can unplug it and back in and it turns off. Swapped in a maxijet worked fine. Basically I made an Ato with a car relay and a 12v adapter and an ro/di on/off. I just want a second float on the apex that will doubly shut off and alert me if the water gets too high

 

[mfinn]

Now to wait while darkness and Red Sea magnesium, and all the cleaners hopefull get ahead of this stuff. I will be pulling as much as I can as well.

If you are using Red Sea Mag for bryopsis it probably won't work.
The only one that I've ever heard of working ( or used ) was Kent Tech M.

 

[spieszak]

Agreed with MFinn on the magnesium.
Agreed with windwaterwaves on the hanna calcium

 

[windwaterwaves]

I am using kent tech m. Cleaner crew is working, but a lot of coverage to do. Ordered some turbo snails and more aestrea from barrier due tomorrow.

My 3 sunshine? Chromis harem showed up and are in quarantine along with two paired gobies and a very small pistol shrimp. All from live aquaria I.e. dr. Fosters.. Hopefully they are happy in a week or two and can hop in the tank