Disaster, Problems and Toys.

It's been a crazy week. As I mentioned previously my Calcium reactor sprung a leak, I've been attempting to fix it by repairing the pump with silicone until I can sort a permanent fix. This sort of worked, looks like its sealed for now but it rattles worse than a kids rattle. Also while I was on the case of the Calcium reactor I also purchased an adapter ring from JBL called U-M which allows me to use my solenoid with fire extinguisher CO2 bottles. This means I can use a 2kg cylinder which is cheap as chips to refill. So that was the problem.

The disaster, while doing some maintenance within the tank I managed to knock my LED light unit into the tank!!! One corner of the unit was submerged, luckily at the time the unit was unplugged. So after a mad panic which involved a air compressor, hair dryer and RO water to clean the electrics I decided to leave the unit to dry out over night. Next morning I plugged it in to find the controller, LCD screen and one channel of LEDs not working. ahhhhh. Panic mode, pricing up new light units. 24 hours later I managed to price up replacement parts and someone to repair it. Before sending the unit off I decided to create a new support for the light when over the tank, the support raises the height of the light, is strong and allows me to slide the unit backwards so that I can still access the tank. Once finished I test fitted the light and as a last measure I tested the light again, and would you believe it but its now fully working. Not sure how long it will last but panic mode is on hold for now.

Toys. On a rather brighter note, I've received some new equipment and additives for the tank. First up I managed to source a Maxspect Gyre 130, which also included every accessory under the sun for it. I've only just set the Gyre up and so far so good, it moves a huge amount of water in a linear line which is fantastic at keeping detritus and food in suspension. Plan is to run it in pulse mode majority of the time and in alternative gyre mode a few hours a day to mix it up. I will report back in a few days.

Additives. So I wasnt happy with the way my corals looked and decided to try NSW but also dose Red Sea Reef Colour ABCD along with AminoAcids and TraceHard. My dose scheme at the moment is 10ml of Aminoacids and TraceHard a week and 2ml every other day of the Red Sea ABCD. So far the aminoacids have made my SPS polyps extend like crazy.

Marine Tank update August 2015 (part 2)

After attending a Wedding 4 hours away from home I decided to look around for a Marine shop. Anytime I go away I usually have a look around as the nearest LFS (Local Fish Store) to me is a 2 hour drive. I found myself in Kettering Aquatics. I was highly impressed by the place, their display tank was amazing to look at and something to aspire to. Their frag/coral tanks looked clean and tidy with a good selection of corals, fish and inverts.

For the last few weeks I’ve been researching new ideas to improve the flow in my tank, there’s 3 options I have narrowed it down to, Maxspect Gyre 130, Vortech MP40 or 2x Jabeo RW8’s. All have their pro’s and con’s however after visiting Kettering Aquatics I managed to narrow it down to either the Gyre which they had running in their display and was the only wave maker in there or the 2x Jabeo RW8’s which they had in many of their frag tanks. The gyre 130 produces a nice wide blanket type wave and has various settings such as pulse and gyre mode, this is a fairly new product which many reefers have ‘upgraded’ to over the vortechs. On the other hand the Jabeo RW8’s are also known for good cheap wave making capability. They don’t look too bad and having 2 allows the controllers to be pair and run in a sync’d mode. Still having a hard time on choosing, will research a bit more before I take the plunge.

While at Kettering Aquatics I made a few new purchases. 3x Green chromis, fighting conch, 5x turbo snails, maxima clam, toadstool softie coral, a few frags of xenia and a collection of sps frags.

I’ve add them all to the tank and so far all look ok, the SPS still looks like its sulking hopefully this will be ok and colour up soon. I have been researching Red Sea Reef Colour ABCD additives which I may give a go to see if it improves the colours.

Finally, I’ve always kept my marine tanks slightly higher temp than the norm due to having high powered lights that output a lot of heat or a hot house. Normal temps are usually 29-30c however I haven’t been that happy with them at that temp so I built a cooling fan which is hooked up to my STC1000 temp controller. The controller currently is set to bring the temp down to 28.5c, which over the next week I will drop it down to 27.5-28c and see if that has any improvement on coral colouration. Will talk more about this next week as a Tip of the Week. Stay tuned.

Test results this week.

CA – 390 (slightly low due to taking Calcium reactor offline to fix a leak)

KH – 8 (dropped to 6 recently now dosing sodium bicarb to bring back up to 8.5)

NO3 – 0

PO4 – 0

I will probably do a ICP test soon which costs £35 but you get results for a lot of parameters including some trace elements, it will be a good test to see where my tank is at now.

Tip of the week: Marine Tank

Water Changes Made Easy. 

Depending how you manage and replenish your water elements whether it be using triton, balling or good old fashioned water changes all these tasks can be laborious, time consuming and messy.

I run a calcium reactor to replenish the main 3, ca, kh and mg, however water changes are needed to remove nutrients and replenish trace elements. Previously I used a 2 bucket method for changing water, mixed fresh salt in one and used the other to remove the tank water. This resulted in a 10 litre water change which is less than 3% of my total volume. It was also messy, spilling salty water on my wood floor didn't go down well with the wife.

The resolution - I stumbled upon a product on various reefing forums. The company is called Reefloat and the product is the Automatic Water Changer.

It's a great bit of kit. I have the 32 litre version. Fill it with RO water add the salt and the internal pump mixes it. An hour or so later put the lid on put the 2 pipes into the tank and press the go button. It automatically changes the water and after the pre-programmed time it turns itself off. Water change done. No mess, no fuss just what I like.