My 300g to 120g Upgrade

[DaveMorris]

I'm too embarrassed by the bryopsis in the tank to take any full tank shots. I do have the mag up around 1700ppm and regularly siphon off as much of it as I can, but I think its gonna take some time to completely get it eradicated. Hopefully the macros in the sump will start helping it as well. My next big project will be mounting my LED fixtures above the tank. I'm still not convinced that I will like them, but I'm going to give them a shot. The fixtures I have are the Reef Radiance Prostar fixtures and I saw them on a tank at MACNA last year. They looked great so I figured I would give them a try. I want to have a clean, open look to the top of the tank instead of a canopy. If it doesn't work out and I feel that I need to have a canopy, then I will start the campaign to beg and bribe Mr. Mitchell to build it for me.

[davocean]

As long as you are using Tech M for the mag I'm sure that alone will kick your bryopsis.
I'm also sure you will be happy w/ LEDs, but if you need canopy of course let me know Dave.

[DaveMorris]

Yep, I'm on my second 64oz bottle of TechM from Marine Depot. Magnesium takes a lot of additive to effect a rise in mg.

[nanoreef1]

Love steves leds and I'm really liking you skin for your stand!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

[DaveMorris]

Love steves leds and I'm really liking you skin for your stand!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Thanks. I am very anxious to see what it looks like with the glass in the doors and it actually being 100% complete.

[DaveMorris]

My Diablo 5500 decided to stop working all of a sudden. And of course, it happens when I am out of town. The tank was fine for the day and a half before I got back and now it has a brand new Waveline DC 10000 pump running on it. It seems to be much better built so time will tell how good of a replacement it is.

[Tapio]

My Diablo 5500 decided to stop working all of a sudden. And of course, it happens when I am out of town. The tank was fine for the day and a half before I got back and now it has a brand new Waveline DC 10000 pump running on it. It seems to be much better built so time will tell how good of a replacement it is.

One word from me, Iwaki. It will never quit.

[DaveMorris]

One word from me, Iwaki. It will never quit.

I am using DC pumps because I want my system to be ultra quiet and very efficient. We'll see how the Waveline does.

[DaveMorris]

If I wasn't still doing battle with nuisance algae I would post some more tank pics. It is really quite frustrating to be honest. I haven't wanted to buy any corals to put in the tank until I get the algae under control. Worst case scenario I will remove all of my rock and replace it. That is the only place I can think of that is causing this ongoing growth. I run a huge on a reverse light cycle and actually noticed a narrower swing in my ph after several weeks, thanks to long term graphing by Reeftronics. I am going to do a few more phosphate removing steps and if I don't see any improvement the rock will come out. That will truly suck though so I really hope to avoid it. And this saturday I am taking my wife to the glass store to get my stand doors finished (finally!). Pics will go up once I do that.

[davocean]

I feel your pain dude, the last batch of rock I was given by that company I did stuff for had been subjected to tap water WC's for so long the algae issues were just never ending.
I wished later that I had done the muriatic acid bath.
Hope it does not come to that for you.
Will be nice to see glass on them doors!

[DaveMorris]

I can't believe that I am actually going to go public with this but...I am going to put two powerheads in my tank. Yeah, I know...first it was LED's and now powerheads. I am sure that the sky as we know it is going to come crashing down at any moment. I am going to get two RW-8 pumps and control them using a DCI module and my Archon controller. Gonna get some nice wavy flow going in the tank. Hopefully that will add some more flow to the tank and help to keep things happier.

[DaveMorris]

I picked up two powerheads from AquaSD. Will is carrying the Jebao WP pumps as well as the RW pumps. I bought a RW-8 and a RW-15 and will be getting them hooked up here in the next day or so. I am also going to move everything over from the RKE to the Archon. I have been running and testing the Archon alongside my RKE system and it has been doing great. Rock solid. I'll post up some details as I get that going.

[DaveMorris]

Wow I am embarrassed to say that it has been 4 months since I posted an update here on my tank. I have finally taken the upper hand on the algea issues in my tank. Thanks to advice from Marc Levenson I have mostly eradicated the bryopsis from my tank. I am now finally feeling comfortable enough to start adding corals. I do still need to sort out what to do about my lighting though. Since Reef Radiance apparently doesn't care about customers enough to act upon repair needs, I am going to scrap the idea of replacing my halides and DIY LEDs with two RR Prostar 165 light fixtures. I am thinking of going with three Kessil 360's. I love the way they look and have been very happy with what I have seen and heard about them.

On the topic of the algae issues, I discovered a couple things that may have had a lot to do with the crazy growth of bryopsis in the tank. First, I didn't have enough light on my refugium to adequately grow the macros that are in there. I increased the light intensity and duration and now have seen those macros growing very fast. Second, I have removed my bio-pellets. I dose Prodibio and while I know you can use bio-pellets with it, you need to watch what you are doing with it. When I removed my bio-pellet reactor, about half of the pellets had turned to mush on the bottom. That is what happens when you do not pay attention to what you are doing. My bad for that. I am taking things back down to the simple tasks to keep things happy. After I removed the bio pellet reactor, within 3 days the algae in the tank start coming off the rocks in very large clumps. I simply reached in the tank and manually harvested as much as I could and it was 80% better. A few days later I was able to harvest more and now it is almost all gone. No signs of it coming back anywhere either.

Now my next task will be to replace my skimmer. I have a CADLights TIA1220 skimmer and while I have been relatively happy with it, the pump keeps stalling on it. I have cleaned it several times, which is not very easy on that model, and the other day the impeller shaft I discovered was broken. I am thinking of replacing it altogether and have been looking at the Nyos and Vertex skimmers. Not sure which one I want yet. I also need to get my Archon controller back into service. I had it off the tank for some beta testing and haven't had time to get it back in control. I will also be removing my MP40 and replacing it with my RW8 and RW15 being controlled with the Archon and a DCI. I will try to get some pics posted up soon.

[d-man]

Good to hear.
Yeah, the BP can be finicky if you're not tumbling enough or replacing sporadically

[davocean]

Glad to see you at least posting, hopefully we see some cool pics soon.
What pump is on the cad?
Is that the DC pump?
Why are you dropping the vort?