Outdrsyguy's 940 gallon DT Build

[outdrsyguy1]

Added two blue star leopard wrasses. They are playing Rock Paper Scissors to decide who turns male.
CIPP below

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Here's what they actually look like lol
http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+304&pcatid=304">http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1378+304&pcatid=304</a>

Also added 5 blue reef chromis. I've only ever gotten one of these through quarantine in the past and it died in the dt within a week. They just don't seem to ship or qt we'll. This batch of five all seem to be survivors so I'll keep my fingers crossed. They are a beautiful blue. I've been thinking of adding more of the el cheapo chromis but if these make it I might splurge on a school of 10-15.
[IMG]http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2971+113&pcatid=113">http://m.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2971+113&pcatid=113</a>

On the down side the clam and the sebae anemone perished this week. Not sure why on the clam. One of the angels nipped it a couple times but I saw no damage and all of a sudden dead. It did coincide with a tank temp rise to 79.5 where as it is always 77.7 to 78.5. Hard to believe it's anything other than coincidence. Was around 200-250 max par where it sat so lighting should have been fine for a derasa. I did see the cleaner shrimp near it one morning but I would think it could close up before they could kill it. The strange thing was it always like to sit at a 30 degree angle or so instead of straight up. Even when I'd straighten it ip, two hours later it would be cockeyed again.
Anemone just wouldn't find a home and went under rocks for a while. I fished it out but it wasn't doing well. The. It started spitting out its guts which was like a dinner bell for the emperor and regal angel and they just kept picking at its mouth area.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

well, i'm fed up with cyano. It's just never going away so I decided to go grab some chemi clean. I'll update soon.
I feel like the cyano is keeping the tank from progressing to maturation as everything's always covered and all the sand dust gets trapped on the rocks creating a hotbed for detritus. The only place tangs and angels eat algae is on the bottom edge of the walls where i can't clean due to the sand. And the bare bottom areas that are blown clear of sand. Better now than later for trying more drastic measures!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

As of 1:30 today it's all in. Removed carbon, set skimmer to virtually nonexistent and put in 3 air stones on the intake of the main pumps. Even when the skimmer was barely running it rose up over a foot and bubbled over so I had to dial it back on top of having the exit valve fully open. Crazy!
Mixed the whole bottle in 2 batches. A couple of corals got ticked off from the air bubbles. Didn't notice any change once chemiclean was poured in.
Here's a couple before shots. Lights weren't on much yet so....

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[outdrsyguy1]

I know it looks like coralline algae on the rocks but trust me, there's none. It's all 100% cyano. I'll post a pic of oxygenation when the lights come on. If there's not enough O2 then only option would be to strap on ventilators to each fish! It's full of micro bubbles for sure.

Also. I put the third 40 breeder back in service and JACKED it up with flow. Used the large tunze and a small powerhead. This will be the sps frag tank and the old frag will become lps and rbta's.
the light is the old school ocean revive with power outlets for blue and white with no timer. I used the par meter to match the tank below and set timers with the apex. Shouldn't have to worry about nuking frags again in this one!

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[outdrsyguy1]

Lights on. Bubbles make it hard to see more than halfway through the tank hehe. Most fish are a little freaked out and hiding.

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[kzoo]

Good luck , looks like you have taken all precautions. Im sure you will be happy to get rid of the red plague!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Well it's 99% gone. If it starts to come back at all I'll do a second treatment. There's a few small spots still hanging on in the high flow area. Fish are super happy to be back out of hiding. Some nipped fins from all of them deciding to try and stay in the same two feet of space during the bubble storm lol.
40 gallon wc done and working on second one. Heavy skimming and put in some carbon. Decided to try out my avast spyglass reactor I've had for a while. Was using a vertex reactor. I really hate carbon.
Hopefully this will rebalance the scales so my tank can continue to develop. It really got choked out by the cyano and I never could get to the hair algae stage and beyond.

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[outdrsyguy1]

Things have really turned a corner for the better the last few weeks. I started dosing 100 ml a day of the KNO4 (stump remover concoction) to increase nitrates. I'm noticing HUGE polyp extension improvement and much better color/growth on nearly all corals. A couple turned darker vs the zeovit pale look but i'm okay with that for now. I still think i'm under 10 ppm no3 after 10 days dosing along with adding several scoops of reef chili to the frag tank daily. I did notice aptasia popping up again that had disappeared before and I think there's some small spots of dino's here and there. Also the bubble algae has started growing again, gonna have to slap the tangs around for not keeping it in check!
I'll post pics once tapatalk is back connected to forum.
Really couldn't be happier with the nitrate dosing results. More growth in the last 2 weeks than probably 2 months or more from before.

 

[kewl2reef]

Rusty you can post pictures by adding attachments below a post. Its a new feature.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Tank turned out great dude!

 

[a4goulet]

Any updates (Pics) Rusty? Has the KN03 dosing produced desirable results in the long run for you? Also do you monitor your PO4 at all?

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I think the KNO3 dosing helped personally yes.  I added a boatload of it to be honest, lime 100 ml a night for a lot of nights, maybe 1L or more total.  got me up to about 10 ppm no3.  Phosphate always reads dead zero on elos.

I did send off for a triton test but i'm not sure hot to post the results here.  Be nice if they let you put up a link to a report or something.  doh! figured it out! see link here for my test

https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/46164/



Everything was decent with the following exceptions:

Lithium was high (happens to a lot of folks, people suspect foods), consensus from public is it's not an issue

Molybdenum was zero, i might add some of this as it's needed for some sort of coral process (per randy holmes-farley)

Phosphate was a hair less than .01 (recommended to be a little higher)

Calcium was low (my test kit was 20 ppm high) and I fell behind on testing so it was pretty darn low, fixed now

said my magnesium was low but it was 1361 vs recommended 1370 so lolz on that one.. chasing numbers anyone??

they also want me to add iodine, strontium, and manganese.  I might do the iodine and strontium but on the fence on the manganese(my red ora flower pot coral is doing good)

lastly they want more vanadium, nickel, and zinc.  Doubt i'll touch those as they are a little dangerous.

I'll try to update with pics.

Still battling dang cyano.  Did another treatment but i'm sure it'll be back hard core in 6 weeks.

Would like to do a couple more batches of qt fish but finding the time to handle the extra load isn't going well so haven't ordered more yet.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Wow, trace elements definitely make a difference!  I finally got around to adding the recommended amount of iodine, strontium, manganese, and 1/4 molybdenum and my corals have never looked so healthy. Within 3 days I noticed a huge difference in polyp extension on most corals. Even my lps and anemones got much bigger and started sending out sweepers which they’ve never really tried to do before. Some corals where I barely ever saw polyps but in a couple spots now have them visible in many areas. Coloration is starting to change in a few corals and we’ll see how it goes. Definitely pretty expensive though. Spent about $140 in trace elements and still need to buy $120 more in molybdenum. I assume one bottle would cover me but turns out I needed 5!!!  Wish they sold larger bottles with lower cost. I’m going to start trying to come up with my refugium design and work on moving toward a Triton style system I think.

I plan on building a large refugium that gravity dumps into the tank with a surge. At least I’ll start with that in mind. Not sure the feasibility but hopefully will work!  That way I get a surge in the tank and also pods can gravity fall into the dt without having to pass through a pump.

 

[Adam]

Hey Rusty, how've you been?

I have been seeing good results doing less water changes and adding trace my self. Kent makes a http://Strontium and Molybdenum">Strontium and Molybdenum mix</a></em>[/B]. This is what I'm using now. I also add Iron, Iodine, Potassium and Amino's, all of those are from Brightwell. I just ordered their KoralColor, Replenish & BoroChrom too.

I'm trying to go about it cost effectively. It's probably is just slightly more expensive than doing more water changes. I'm now doing 20% every 6 to 8 weeks instead of closer to 30% monthly. If you were to do the "Recommended" 30% a month that would be two boxes of Reef Crystals or close to if not over $100.

I don't think I'd switch over to the Triton method but I've been giving some thought to Red Sea's program. Not sure if it costs me more to do it my way rather than making that switch but it would sure be a lot easier. We'll see how I feel about it in another 6 months.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

things are definitely going better.  I ordered 4 more molybdenum bottles on cyber monday.  Once I get values back to natural i'll wait a month and send in for another triton test to see how much things went down over that month.  Then i'll probably try the other brand bottles as a maintenance dose as the triton bottles are $$$ for a tank my size.  I don't like adding things without being able to measure them and I think the hobby is moving in that direction slowly.  Eventually I think all the "magic mystery" bottles will go away, or at least mostly haha!

Added a lavendar tang, yellow eye kole tang, and another yellow tang to the tank and there's a tang war going on currently.  Hopefully it settles down soon!  Have a bellus pair in quarantine along with a mystery wrasse and 2 leopard wrasses and really hope all goes well and they all make it to the big show!

 

[bcavalli]

I really need to get over there and see your system!  I have a Lavender Tang as well.   They are beautiful fish!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Hey Brett! your lavendar tang was the inspiration for me to get mine   Really pretty fish.  Course now that the achilles has been chasing it 24/7 for 3 days it's gone into hiding.  Really hoping they work it out soon

You should definitely come by and see things while they are looking good before the cyano comes back! lol

 

[bcavalli]

Thats horrible poor little guy.  . Ill get with you and see when its a good day and time to drop by.  Im super stoked to see it!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

So yesterday my make up water float valve failed to my make up water holding tank. Luckily I was home and heard the splashing overflow before things got ugly. The apex water alarm also went off as I was walking up to it.

I think that over the last year when the float shuts off flow it bounces a lot over a couple seconds and that bouncy hammering motion might have worn out the gasket. Gotta get in the barrel to check on it and see if it’s fixable. I guess I’ll also add a shutoff switch in the barrel ties to apex and use the float as emergency backup once it’s fixed.

Couple pics of new polyp extension after trace elements. It’s pretty awesome!  Not sure why the pics come in sideways.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Here’s a few more recent pics