My first Marine, a Fluval M40 journey

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Gallma02

Member
Hi Crainto,

Yes, I have found that once the skimmer gets a coating of slime for a better word the noise does come down a lot. I have the value fully open and its gets dirty pretty quick. As soon as I give it a full clean, the noise comes back for a bit until the coating builds again. Give it time and it does appear to get better. Something to watch is that the inlet opening can get material stuck in it which makes a hell of a racket if you don't remove it.

Please start a chronicle so we can track how it goes.

Mark
 
G

Gallma02

Member
Hi all,

Well been a little while since the last update so here goes.

So I got home and noticed a puddle on the floor :poof: Looking round the back, the rear value which is meant to be a selling feature for water changes has cracked and water is coming out! I am so grateful it did not happen when I went away for a weekend, however the tank is so new and to see the plastic split like this is very worrying. I did email Fluval and explained it wanting to know how to get a replacement part, but no response at all. To be fair to all involved, my wife has told it me I most likely screwed it in too tight. The net result is I no longer use the tap at the back and do water changes the old fashioned way, which to be honest is not an issue at all. The incident has made my mind up that I won’t be upgrading to a bigger Fluval Sea tank.


The Nitrate issue is now under control; however I went away from the SeaChem and started using Red Sea Algae management. Easy to just add a set amount than keeping bags in the rear sump.

So now the fun stuff, tank updates. Finally managed to get my crab to stop moving for a decent photo.


Latest tank shot a few more corals compared to last update 


Besides the tank value failure all going well.
 
Ratpack

Ratpack

Active Member
Very nice setup. I do have one piece of advice, move the yellow polyps to the sandbed on a rock by themselves so that they are isolated from the rest of the rock work. They will spread quickly and take over. And once they get a foothold, they are hard to control the spread to areas you don't want them.
 
C

Clint24

Active Member
Hello there. Sounds like ur off to a good start. I like ur setup. I agree with ratpack on the yellow polyps. Hope ur enjoying this hobby so far. :)


CD
 
G

Gallma02

Member
Hi all,

Thanks Ratpack and Clint24 I am watching the yellows closely. It looks like a solid rock at the top, there is a gap between the one on the left and main structure. Although I suspect I will have to move it in the near future.

On a totally different topic, this may seem a silly one but what do you do in term of maintenance of the rear compartments of tank? Looking in mine it appears just to be one massive “crap” storage zone, ground covered and walls all got all sorts on it.

Therefore today I drained the entire rear section and gave it a good clean, wanted to check if you all suffer this way or am I missing something. Now I understand these tanks should not have any media placed in the back, but should I be putting snails or anything in.

Thanks all,
Mark
 
G

Gallma02

Member
Well sadly I have had a nasty week which has shown me just how fast things can change and how costly any issues can be. Things started off with me seeing something unusual moving around when I got up in the middle of the night. On closer inspection it appeared to be a Xanthidae crab, which according to all the websites is a nasty little fellow. This guy must have been in the tank since the very beginning as no way he got in with one of my coral purchases. Managed to catch him and really hope he is the only one.


Then the disaster, I went away for a couple of days only to return to see the tank water level well above what it should be and obvious signs that water had run down the side. My auto top up systems suction cup had failed which meant it never switched off and dumped 4L of RO into the tank. If that was not enough, one of the heaters in the rear sump failed and the tank temperature was sitting at 23.4 degree’s Celsius. I immediately got the spare heater in to start getting the temp up and also did a water change to get the salinity back up. Sadly the net effect is all the corals are not looking good, I have lost two for sure and the others are off colour so hoping they start to recover now things are back to normal. Will just have to hold thumbs. So frustrating.

Totally unrelated, Fluval finally responded to my email regarding the broken valve and to their credit they have offered to send me a free replacement part :dance:
 
Snid

Snid

Active Member
Well... Bummer... :(

Quick suggestions...

Your ATO should be connected to your sump and not your DT. Regardless, it would have kept going and overfilled your sump. It also would have still altered your salinity level. :( One way to reduce that, however, is by not having too large of an ATO supply tank. Then it would be a minimal change and something that things can recover from more effectively. The best sump design I ever saw had the ATO tank attached to the sump in a way that if for some reason the ATO unit failed (like your case) any sump overflow went back into the ATO, keeping everything dry at the very least. ;)

I am a strong advocate of keeping two heaters on a system, one dialed in a slightly lower temperature than the other to kick in as a backup. This will save you tons of money in the long run in the event of one failing. ;)

I also prefer to keep the heaters in the DT whenever possible, as unsightly as they can be, because if the sump pump fails, again, no heat in the DT. ;)

I hope everything recovers! Best of luck!!!
 
R

Rick76

Member
Dear Gallma02,

Firstly I would like to thank you for your story - I purchased a M40 10 days ago and your posts have been a window into my future.

I have a question... Did you cycle your tank before adding the clean up crew. Over the past 48 hrs I have noticed a green / brown algae on my live rock and a plethora of apistasia starting. I would love to add a CUC, however my ammonia levels for the first time have gone up to 1ppm and I don't want to kill anything at such an early stage.

Kindest regards and please let us know how it's looking a couple of months on.

Rick
 
G

Gallma02

Member
Hi Snid,

Thanks for the comments. The ATO is setup to flow into the rear sump and I do run two heaters in the back. Appears the second heater was set a little too low and they could not heat the water in time with 4L of water cold water getting pumped in so fast. I don’t normally keep 4L in the ATO container but I am trying to test how long I can leave the tank without filling the ATO and emptying the skimmer as my wife is insisting on a holiday soon and I don’t have someone to come in daily for the tank. Any tips more than welcome.

In terms of damage, I have lost the Acropora and Candy for sure, some others touch and go, but the softies appear to be making a recovery so I will hold thumbs. Decided to take the opportunity to give the tank a bit of a clean and also remove one of the lower rocks and replace it with a Marine Pure rock. They have got great reviews on the bio filtration ability so giving it a go for my nitrate issue. I will post some pictures when I next post.

Rick,
I am glad you have found the posts useful. I added the cleanup crew only after the cycle. To be honest my cycle was pretty uneventful as you see from the tread. I think it is because I used live sand and Nutri sea water (they claim you can just add fish). I never had any algae issues at all, until about a month in I think. Are you keeping your lights on? That could be adding to your issue and you don't need them on while the tank cycles I am told.
In terms of Apistasia, I managed to kill those off fast with the Red Sea Apistasia X product. Works if you follow the instructions. Followed by a peppermint shrimp once I got the CUC. I have not had an issue since.

Best of luck Rick, I hope it goes well and enjoy it. Please let me know your thread as I would love to see how you get on and some pictures.

Mark
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Hi Rick,

welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
745.gif
 

Start a new tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along - we love pics :)
 
F

fishpalace

Member
Gallma02 said:
Day 6

2.The skimmer noise is still pretty bad, hope this starts to resolve itself or the Mrs is going to throw it away one day when I am out. I also seem to have having a wet skim regardless of settings however I believe even running the skimmer during the cycle is in debate.


IMG][/URL]
Click to expand...

Is the skimmer still making a noise or is it quieter?

I have just bought the M90 and the skimmer is louder than I anticipated although it has not been adjusted or used for a long period of time to break.
 
G

Gallma02

Member
Hi all,

Well been a few months since I have posted, after I had the heater and ATO disasters I just let things settle for a while. Nearly gave up a few times but glad I stuck with it as the corals and fish all appear much happier now. To the point, I was happy to add a couple more corals to account for the losses I suffered. Now I know the highlight of anyone posting is pictures so here are a couple of the tank as it is.

Front shot


Side shot


The Duncan appears happy with a few more heads starting to come out.


Here some shots of some of the others




In terms of maintenance. Fishpalace, I find I have to give the skimmer a complete clean (take it out, open it up and clean it) every couple of weeks to keep the noise down. It is a pain in the butt to be honest.

As it has got colder, maintaining the temperature was nearly impossible. I had two heaters operating in the rear chambers and the display tank was always having 2 to 4 degree C fluctuations. Therefore, took Snids advice and moved one of the heaters into the display tank and this has resulted in the temp staying within 1 degree C. Therefore, although not pretty looking it seems to be the right thing to do. Now what this does mean is that I have a space in the rear of the tank for whatever I feel like. This could be more rock, or filter media. I do have my eye on an Aqua Medic reactor. Any recommendations?

I have also noticed that I am using loads of RO water for top-up as it’s got colder. A few litres a day sadly, hate to see how much I would need if I had a bigger tank! Wondering if it would have been better getting a closed top system, food for thought on my next tank.

My view on the Fluval Sea M40 has not really changed. I think it’s a great little tank and does the job while allowing me add what I need. The one issue why I will be looking at a different brand is the lighting, I want the ability for a timer to set the switching between day and night lights.

That’s all for now, will try not to leave it months before my next update.
 
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