More Bad Luck

This is turning into a saga...  But, am I discouraged?  NO WAY.

Late last night I went downstairs to turn off my RO/DI unit (making a new batch of salt water for my Sunday water change) and noticed both the fuge and sump were almost full-up meaning no water was pumping into the tank.  After restarting the pump several times, I realized what happened.

A large piece of green grape algae (very large) somehow got sucked over the baffle and right into the pump!!!

Who knows what I am going to do now.  I am hoping that I can open up the pump and remove the algae and it will work.  We shall see. 

The problem is that the way I have plumbed the pump, if I can not easily remove the screws, etc, I will have to cut my PVC to replace the pump and that means hours more work, not to mention having to drive to Champion Lighting this weekend to get a new pump.  For reference, the pump is a BlueLine HD70.

I will let you know what happens.

Pump running at 100% power!!!

Well, I missed the local reef club meeting on Saturday because I re-plumbed my tank.  For those following along, you know that my tank is on the first floor and I have a separate sump and fuge in the basement.  The tank has dual overflows and I was running one drain line and one return line for the tank.  Because I only had one drain line (and because of my ignorance in plumbing), the pump was only able to run 10% open.  That meant it was running about 100gph through the sump and fuge.

Well, I ran a third line, so that I have one return and each overflow has its own drain.  Wow, what a difference.  The pump is now able to run at full bore and I am getting a ton more flow.  This will help in so many ways.  I will turn over more water, so more water will be "cleaned" faster.  The increase in flow means that the coral get more "action" and the flow is strong enough through the fuge to suck some of the pods (amphipods, copepods, etc) up into the main tank to provide food for the fish.

In addition, the increase in flow will help curtail the hair algae and the cyano because the water is getting cleaned faster.

In addition, I added a second DI canister to my RO/DI unit as a back-up.  I replaced my existing DI cartridge and added a dual inline TDS meter so I can measure TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) coming out of the RO and out of the DI.

I am a little nervous about all that flow while I am away, but it ran smoothly for 48 hours now, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

New Additions Coming

Not to be dismayed, I placed an order with Blue Zoo Aquatics last week for the following:

• 1 Coco worm 
• 1 Fire Shrimp
• 2 Peppermint Shrimp
• 2 Scarlet Shrimp
• 20 Mexican Turbo snails

They are scheduled to arrive on Friday!!!  I thought the tank needed some more cool inverts and shrimp are always cool.

If I didn't have bad luck...

I wouldn't have any at all.  It has been a tough week for me and my tank.  Everyone always said that it is easier to maintain a bigger tank.  But, so far, this system has given me many more headaches than my little BioCube.

Last week I reported on the death of the baby half moon angel and my other Christmas present form my wife, a majestic angel, was getting severely harassed by the yellow tang.  The yellow tang was in the tank when I bought it used, so my plan was to get rid of it and keep the majestic.  But, alas, I got home from work on Friday and the majestic had died. 

The only thing I ever lost in the BioCube was a couple of red mushrooms and a peppermint shrimp disappeared.  So far my death toll in this tank consists of a baby half moon angel, a majestic angel and my elegance coral.

Add to that the hair algae problem I have been having.  It was overgrowing everything in the tank.  So, Saturday, my wife and I spent an hour removing hair algae by hand from all of the rock.  I would say we got about half of it because so many pieces were unreachable or too small to pull out.  (Yes, I said my wife helped.  She really enjoyed it too.  It was good bonding and the first time she has done anything with any of the fish tanks!)

I also have another problem that I hope to rectify this weekend.  As you can see from my previous posts, I had a single drain line and a single return.  I was not getting the flow I wanted through the sump and fuge, but was content because my Vortechs were providing enough flow in the main tank.  Well, I finally realized that the flow through the sump and fuge is NOT enough.  I had a guy who used to build tanks for a living come over on New Year's Eve to take a look.  Essentially, the way I have designed the plumbing, I have created multiple throttle points. 

In order to fix this, I am going to have to run another plumbing line.  Here is the plan for Saturday:

1. Run a 1 inch line of SpaFlex from the tank to the basement.
2. Disconnect both of the 1 1/2 inch lines that are currently there (1 drain, 1 return)
3. Reconnect the 1 1/2 inch lines so each one is a dedicated drain for the 2 overflows.  One will run to the sump and one will run to the fuge.
4. Connect the 1 inch line to the return pump and then tee it into the 2 returns.

At the same time, the recommendation is to drain the overflows and replace the bulkheads.  The bulkheads are currently barbed and thought I hated that, I didn't want to mess with them.  We are going to bite the bullet and replace them this weekend. 

When I am done, I will be able to run a LOT of flow through the system.  The pump is rated at 1750gph and I have it throttled back to less than 10%.  Opening it up will also help to keep the pump from overheating and burning out.

So, that is the plan for now.  I will post an update with new pictures when I am finished.

Happy Holidays!!!

Merry Christmas (belated) and Happy New Year!  It has been a hectic couple of weeks here, what with all of the family events and things to do.  But, rest assured that my tank saw a lot of action this week (some good, some bad).

I have my first death to report.  The baby half moon angel died after just a week in the tank.  He disappeared for a few days (he was getting harassed) and he showed up dead a few days before Christmas. 

In the meantime, I got a nasty outbreak of both hair algae and cyanobacteria.  And, at the same time, my macroalgae (chaetomorpha) was melting away in my refugium!  Oh no... 

This was so much easier in my little 14g BioCube (where it was supposed to be so difficult).

Well, I managed to figure out the problem in the fuge, I think.  The lights were too close to the water and the chaeto was cooking.  Apparently, it is very temperature sensitive!  So, I raised the lights and it seems that the chaeto is coming back nicely.

My cyano is going away, but the hair algae is still there in full force.  I will give it some time and see what happens.

Meanwhile, my elegance coral bit the dust.  That hurts!

And, the other Christmas present from my wife, the majestic angel had experienced a lot of stress in the new tank and his color was fading badly. I am doing Melafix in the main tank because we could not catch him (and we tried for a half hour) and he seems to be doing a little better.

Who says a bigger tank is easier than a small one?

But, the good news is that everyone else is doing very well.  And I got three firefish for Christmas from a family friend.  

The rest of the fish and coral look great!

Jay (from the Delaware Valley Reef Club) gave me four SPS and they are doing great too!  I got a Tyree Pink Lemonade, ORA Cali Torte, ORA Fuzzy Blue Stag, and one other from Jay!  All beautiful!

More to come!  Happy New Year!