Choff's RSM 650 Build
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ive been experimenting with pumping outside air in like we were talking about a while ago and i have noticed some changes. first my ph stays higher around the range i like to see(8.3) and a seriously phenomenal increase is coral growth rates. my corals always seemed to be very slow growers in comparison to my girlfriends tank and i tried everything except c02 levels. ive had a bicolor frogspawn for the longest time and seen practically no skeletal growth and i can already see it splitting heads, tripling its numbers. birdsnest all show constant white tips, lobo increased noticably, wellso is humungous, coralline cover has thickened and ive got these random clams growing in several places. i gotta say this is probably one of the best changes ive ever made to my tank. as of right now its just a pump kinda hanging out my window but after seeing the results, i am without a doubt going to fully implement this.
i didnt write down when i hooked this up but i know its been less than a month.
green slimer has also grown significantly but for some reason is showing signs of necrosis which is odd because its been the easiest to care for of all sps ive bought. monti plate also continues to grow fairly rapidly but that one has always been a speedy grower. bige pipe trumpet is also splitting, lord acan has definitely grown.
my torch, flowerpot, staghorn acro and hammer are the only ones i havent seen any growth worth noting.
i didnt write down when i hooked this up but i know its been less than a month.
green slimer has also grown significantly but for some reason is showing signs of necrosis which is odd because its been the easiest to care for of all sps ive bought. monti plate also continues to grow fairly rapidly but that one has always been a speedy grower. bige pipe trumpet is also splitting, lord acan has definitely grown.
my torch, flowerpot, staghorn acro and hammer are the only ones i havent seen any growth worth noting.
Choff
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Sweet Jerry. Did you make any design changes once you got going?
I bought all the supplies to do it and it will be my first project once the new sump is online.
I'm now targeting October 4th as the day I turn off the sump and silicone in the baffles with Sunday night as my go live date. Hoping 60 hours is enough cure time.
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I bought all the supplies to do it and it will be my first project once the new sump is online.
I'm now targeting October 4th as the day I turn off the sump and silicone in the baffles with Sunday night as my go live date. Hoping 60 hours is enough cure time.
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Choff
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Took a trek out to PSU's house this morning to pick up some frags. First time there. Gorgeous set up and his corals are all beautiful. His rock scape awesome and his goby pistol shrimp burrow is dead center. Couldn't have planned it better.
I just got home and everything in my tank seems so drab. Hopefully his corals will kick start me.
I'll post picts later, off to a hockey game.
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I just got home and everything in my tank seems so drab. Hopefully his corals will kick start me.
I'll post picts later, off to a hockey game.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
It was great meeting you, thanks for coming down! Glad you like the corals..... I'm sure you will get your tank situated and I'll be coming to your house for some frags! With about 15 months under my belt now all the small things are starting to make a difference and the corals are growing. Maybe we can do a group but from Reggie and get some new goodies!Took a trek out to PSU's house this morning to pick up some frags. First time there. Gorgeous set up and his corals are all beautiful. His rock scape awesome and his goby pistol shrimp burrow is dead center. Couldn't have planned it better.
I just got home and everything in my tank seems so drab. Hopefully his corals will kick start me.
I'll post picts later, off to a hockey game.
Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk 4
Choff
Well-Known Member
Bit of a tank catastrophe tonight. I was cleaning up the fish/store room I noticed the smell was a bit off, but thought it was the bucket of dirty filter socks even though it had a lid on it. Anyway, after a few hours in the room I finally look into the corner at the skimmer and I see a suds bath going. Foam everywhere. WTF! Then i realized my skimmer was overflowing. Well, yesterday I looked at the skimmer and saw 3 solid inches of the blackest sludge you have ever seen in there and thought it was about time to drain and clean it. Well, I didn't. So for whatever reason the thing decided to overflow tonight and dumped a weeks worth of skimmate back into the tank. My ORP took a nosedive from 445 straight down to 189. To further compound this comedy of errors, I have no RODI or SW. Both 55G drums are empty. I did a WC pn Satuirday and stopped making water in prep for the cut over to Fish Room 2.0 next weekend. I would have seen this hours ago had my Apex display unit not gone on the fritz...that I or should have set up an ORP alert.
Anyway, cleaned the skimmer out, scooped out as much foam and filth off the surface of the sump as I could and got the skimmer humming again. It's working OT right now and I am baby sitting it as the levels keep fluctuating quite a but because of the health of the water. I think it had finally stabilized and can actually hit the sack. I should have 60 gallons of water by morning that I will start mixing up and do a WC when I got home from work. I should have a another 60 by then and will do another WC before bed tomorrow night. My ORP has already rebounded to 296 after 2 hours of skimming and circulation.
If I'm lucky the only ill effect will be a cyano outbreak. Just hoping the SPS I just picked up from Bryan don't become casualties.
On a positive note, on Saturday I went to the LFS to pick up some of Larry's food and ended up walking out with a cool red tuxedo urchin. I owe some picts, I'll try to get some up on Tuesday. Tomorrow is out with all the WC BS and I play Hockey on Monday nights.
Anyway, cleaned the skimmer out, scooped out as much foam and filth off the surface of the sump as I could and got the skimmer humming again. It's working OT right now and I am baby sitting it as the levels keep fluctuating quite a but because of the health of the water. I think it had finally stabilized and can actually hit the sack. I should have 60 gallons of water by morning that I will start mixing up and do a WC when I got home from work. I should have a another 60 by then and will do another WC before bed tomorrow night. My ORP has already rebounded to 296 after 2 hours of skimming and circulation.
If I'm lucky the only ill effect will be a cyano outbreak. Just hoping the SPS I just picked up from Bryan don't become casualties.
On a positive note, on Saturday I went to the LFS to pick up some of Larry's food and ended up walking out with a cool red tuxedo urchin.
I owe some picts, I'll try to get some up on Tuesday. Tomorrow is out with all the WC BS and I play Hockey on Monday nights.
Choff
Well-Known Member
Wow...just called Petco to see if I could buy some RODI water from them. They said they use tap water in their salt water tanks.... I don't have many close options for RO water. May have to go to the supermarket and buy 100G of distilled water. Going to be fun lugging all those 1 gal containers
Choff
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My wife to the rescue. Didn't even think about calling water companies. Belmont springs is delivering 200G of distilled water in the next few hours. I wish I told her what happened sooner. I just did a 50G WC and hopefully with a couple more large ones I can save something.
Blimey mike that really is bad news, but great that a water company can sort you out. Have you any poly filters ? As these can really help in these kinda disaster management. In currently using mine to mop up any trace of copper after my dad popped 5 anthais straight into the tank.
Alan
Alan
Here hoping you don't lose your corals & get it sorted soon !
Wolffman64
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Mate, I'm really gutted for you! Have any of the SPS improved?
Choff
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Hey all, Things are quite bleak. It turns out it was not the skimmer. What I didn't mention was a shop light I was using to grow cheapo fell into the sump. That is what caused t hybrid e skimmer to go nuts. Something leached into the water and is causing the wipe out. The cfl bulb appeared intact, but if mercury leached I'm really screwed.
I have 300g total water volume and I always,I mean always have 60 to 120 gallons of rodi on hand. ...except last night. I bought 8 (200g) boxes of io salt a few months ago when it was in sale.
The culprit
40 jugs if distilled water
Just did a 120 g water change and I have Thu next 120 mixing. I'm headed to my hockey game now and will do the next 120 before bed. I'll probably do another 60 in the am. I have a 150 gpd rodi,
I'm running 6 cups of carbon in 3 reactors, 2 large bags of purigen and a bag of chemipure that I got at macna.
Fingers crossed, but nit hopeful
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I have 300g total water volume and I always,I mean always have 60 to 120 gallons of rodi on hand. ...except last night. I bought 8 (200g) boxes of io salt a few months ago when it was in sale.
The culprit
40 jugs if distilled water
Just did a 120 g water change and I have Thu next 120 mixing. I'm headed to my hockey game now and will do the next 120 before bed. I'll probably do another 60 in the am. I have a 150 gpd rodi,
I'm running 6 cups of carbon in 3 reactors, 2 large bags of purigen and a bag of chemipure that I got at macna.
Fingers crossed, but nit hopeful
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Mike here hoping that you can save everything - running fresh carbon should help, seems your are doing all you can ! Enjoy the hockey game !
Really hated to see what you're going through. I hope things improve for you. I was just complaining to myself about the cyano in my 16g, I think I'll count my blessings instead. Good luck, my friend.
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