Maiorsmv1: The Good And The Very Very Bad
Hi guys - it's been a while! :cool:
In fact it has been closer to 18 months since I last stalked these forums. Work, study and kids what more can I say? On the MAIORSM side things it has been a fairly quiet affair - that is until now.
When I last posted (See here for history), I was toying with an external sump and Zeovit, both of which worked very successfully. Growth was good, Zeovit worked as advertised and all was well in the world. The only negative I hit was the time commitment due to the DIY not being 100% perfect. I spent a portion of everyday testing heavily, tweaking flow rates, monitoring water levels and more all because I couldn't completely trust the setup to not go spastic and drop 130L into the living room. High water levels in the Chamber Of Death (COD) meant I was constantly working to avoid watering the carpet.
In early Jan 2014 I made a decision to take on more study so I sadly started taking the tank back to a stock setup to give myself a bit of a break from the ongoing maintenance. I removed the Turboflotor Blue as I couldn't quiet get it to mount correctly, I removed the Tunze Osmolator as with filter wool running in the media rack it kept over filling the tank and put the modded Tunze 9002 back in. I quickly stopped running filter wool so that the Tunze would work more consistently as well.
So this was the life of the MAIORSM for a good 8 months. No real impressive growth, consistent water parameters and a fortnightly water change. Then something weird happened.......
Red Hair Algae (RHA). Lots of red hair algae.
It came from no where and went nuts. A botched pruning session to try and combat it resulted in spreading it further around the tank. So I stopped and tried to figure out where the excess nutrients were coming from. Feeding hadn't increased, nor had I added more fish or coral and the DT was crystal clear. The skimmer was working, albeit maybe a bit light on, and I hadn't changed my lights either. I tried a blackout period that only resulted in pissing off the few corals I do have - in fact I think the RHA enjoyed it.
It was by chance that I was dropped a fitting into the return COD and noticed a thick sludge on the bottom. By thick I mean close to an inch. It appears the COD was living up to its name and the decision to run the tank unfiltered was a bad idea. The worst bit was the speed at which it all happened - within a week I had cyano on the sand, an increase in RHA and the glass needed to be cleaned daily . I must admit I should have reacted straight away but frustration and lack of motivation made it a 'weekend' job. Two weeks later I began to regret the decision heavily.
I siphoned out all the matter in all rear COD's added back the filter wool and tried to improve the skimming. The Tunze responded by flooding 2/3rds of a cup of crap back into the tank... I started vacuuming the cyano off the sand and in the process destroyed a return pump with sand fines. It turns out my decision to use fine sand was going to come back and haunt me. I am not sure whether it was a cumulative effect or a result of the filter wool removal, but the sand in the DT was packed solid and that had me worried. So I reacted stupidly without thinking and tried to siphon out a couple of the bad spots that had turned black. Very very bad idea if anyone else is considering this. Exposing the tank to the trapped nutrients rotting away in the sand caused the tank to cycle - Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate hit the roof and I was too scared to check Phosphates. Neither test kit could measure the nitrates that high...
A week of water changes and a bit of luck bought the levels down but the damage was done. Algae had gone nuts and the corals had all retreated. I lost a few snails but the fish appeared OK. I must admit I was a bit over it all, knowing full well that K.I.S.S would have saved me a lot of heartache and money. I even offered to sell the tank but my wife wouldn't allow it. So it sat in this state of neglect for most of November and into December 2014.
Once again it was my wife who came to my tanks rescue. :worship
Sick of seeing it sit uselessly in the room with the lights off and the glass dirty, I cam home from work to find that she had cleaned the glass. And you know what, it didn't look all that bad. The fish were healthy (I was still feeding, it is a ritual the kids love) and the corals were still alive and ok. It was motivation to give it a decent water change and a bit of love. Yes the itch was back and I spent the remainder of the evening googling solutions to my issues.
No more cutting corners and dodgy DIY - if it needs to be done, do it right.
So I came up with a wish list and a plan of attack:
1. Purchase new test kits - I have a bit of Christmas money to spend, so I am considering some Hannah checkers as these seem to be fairly common and approved.
2. Bring the tank parameters back under control - Fairly straight forward, but not overly easy. The 9002 is tuned back is way too picky with water level changes to be effective long term. This may be due to this being any early model 9002 as it seems the newer models have a few tweaks to them. I am running filter wool and attempting to change it daily to catch particulates, a lot of which is fine sand on closer inspection. To combat this I have turned off the MP10 until I can deal with the sand issue.
3. Replace the lights and broken RSM timer module - this is something I have been wanting to do since the beginning and had planned to DIY. Instead I spent the extra and ordered a kit designed for the RSM from RapidLED. Proven to work and fit, no need for me to stuff around with it. It was easily installed over two nights and it is the most impressive feature of the tank. See below for more details on the install.
4. Replace the damaged RSM power board with a more permanent solution - I replaced the damaged board with some cheap switching power boards when I added the sump but they require timers to function properly. The solution I chose was the Reef Angel. This was partly my wife's choice as it simplified my ATO, Lights, Skimmer, Temp and pH control. To be honest it would have cost me more to replace the power board from RSM and is absolutely amazing. See below for more details on the install.
5. Add a sump - again something I have been keen to complete since day one. The COD on the back of the RSM (note this is not a RSM130D so has the crap hinges and weir) is a nightmare to work in. ATO and water levels are hard to maintain, and dont help my 9002 at all. The return pumps suck air bubbles too often unless the water level is really high and the skimmer can easily flood if the pumps stop. This time the sump will be correctly sized (x3 times larger with capacity for power outages), a proper overflow not a DIY, filter socks, ATO, media reactors and an in sump skimmer.
6. Replace fine sand with 'normal' sized coral sand - once the sump is running, I will attempt to remove the fine sand. I want the sump running first to help me keep the parameters under control but I am not envisaging this to be an easy job.
7. Add media reactors - Still considering the best options here, but I am looking at either two small fluidising reactors with say GFO and carbon or GFO and biopellets. The plan is help keep stable parameters and allow for the lack of a refugium in the sump.
9. Add a new skimmer - Once the sump is up and running and the sand replaced I expect it to be close to March. I was looking to add a new skimmer to the mix and would consider something such as the MS RDC-250 or the Octopus 500L as both seem to have good ratings and are reasonably price. I am not sure if I could get away with much larger due to the low bioload, but it seems easier and cheaper to find 500L+ skimmers.
10. Once the system is stable, I will then look at expanding the livestock.
In fact it has been closer to 18 months since I last stalked these forums. Work, study and kids what more can I say? On the MAIORSM side things it has been a fairly quiet affair - that is until now.
When I last posted (See here for history), I was toying with an external sump and Zeovit, both of which worked very successfully. Growth was good, Zeovit worked as advertised and all was well in the world. The only negative I hit was the time commitment due to the DIY not being 100% perfect. I spent a portion of everyday testing heavily, tweaking flow rates, monitoring water levels and more all because I couldn't completely trust the setup to not go spastic and drop 130L into the living room. High water levels in the Chamber Of Death (COD) meant I was constantly working to avoid watering the carpet.
In early Jan 2014 I made a decision to take on more study so I sadly started taking the tank back to a stock setup to give myself a bit of a break from the ongoing maintenance. I removed the Turboflotor Blue as I couldn't quiet get it to mount correctly, I removed the Tunze Osmolator as with filter wool running in the media rack it kept over filling the tank and put the modded Tunze 9002 back in. I quickly stopped running filter wool so that the Tunze would work more consistently as well.
So this was the life of the MAIORSM for a good 8 months. No real impressive growth, consistent water parameters and a fortnightly water change. Then something weird happened.......
Red Hair Algae (RHA). Lots of red hair algae.
It came from no where and went nuts. A botched pruning session to try and combat it resulted in spreading it further around the tank. So I stopped and tried to figure out where the excess nutrients were coming from. Feeding hadn't increased, nor had I added more fish or coral and the DT was crystal clear. The skimmer was working, albeit maybe a bit light on, and I hadn't changed my lights either. I tried a blackout period that only resulted in pissing off the few corals I do have - in fact I think the RHA enjoyed it.
It was by chance that I was dropped a fitting into the return COD and noticed a thick sludge on the bottom. By thick I mean close to an inch. It appears the COD was living up to its name and the decision to run the tank unfiltered was a bad idea. The worst bit was the speed at which it all happened - within a week I had cyano on the sand, an increase in RHA and the glass needed to be cleaned daily . I must admit I should have reacted straight away but frustration and lack of motivation made it a 'weekend' job. Two weeks later I began to regret the decision heavily.
I siphoned out all the matter in all rear COD's added back the filter wool and tried to improve the skimming. The Tunze responded by flooding 2/3rds of a cup of crap back into the tank... I started vacuuming the cyano off the sand and in the process destroyed a return pump with sand fines. It turns out my decision to use fine sand was going to come back and haunt me. I am not sure whether it was a cumulative effect or a result of the filter wool removal, but the sand in the DT was packed solid and that had me worried. So I reacted stupidly without thinking and tried to siphon out a couple of the bad spots that had turned black. Very very bad idea if anyone else is considering this. Exposing the tank to the trapped nutrients rotting away in the sand caused the tank to cycle - Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate hit the roof and I was too scared to check Phosphates. Neither test kit could measure the nitrates that high...
A week of water changes and a bit of luck bought the levels down but the damage was done. Algae had gone nuts and the corals had all retreated. I lost a few snails but the fish appeared OK. I must admit I was a bit over it all, knowing full well that K.I.S.S would have saved me a lot of heartache and money. I even offered to sell the tank but my wife wouldn't allow it. So it sat in this state of neglect for most of November and into December 2014.
Once again it was my wife who came to my tanks rescue. :worship
Sick of seeing it sit uselessly in the room with the lights off and the glass dirty, I cam home from work to find that she had cleaned the glass. And you know what, it didn't look all that bad. The fish were healthy (I was still feeding, it is a ritual the kids love) and the corals were still alive and ok. It was motivation to give it a decent water change and a bit of love. Yes the itch was back and I spent the remainder of the evening googling solutions to my issues.
No more cutting corners and dodgy DIY - if it needs to be done, do it right.
So I came up with a wish list and a plan of attack:
1. Purchase new test kits - I have a bit of Christmas money to spend, so I am considering some Hannah checkers as these seem to be fairly common and approved.
2. Bring the tank parameters back under control - Fairly straight forward, but not overly easy. The 9002 is tuned back is way too picky with water level changes to be effective long term. This may be due to this being any early model 9002 as it seems the newer models have a few tweaks to them. I am running filter wool and attempting to change it daily to catch particulates, a lot of which is fine sand on closer inspection. To combat this I have turned off the MP10 until I can deal with the sand issue.
3. Replace the lights and broken RSM timer module - this is something I have been wanting to do since the beginning and had planned to DIY. Instead I spent the extra and ordered a kit designed for the RSM from RapidLED. Proven to work and fit, no need for me to stuff around with it. It was easily installed over two nights and it is the most impressive feature of the tank. See below for more details on the install.
4. Replace the damaged RSM power board with a more permanent solution - I replaced the damaged board with some cheap switching power boards when I added the sump but they require timers to function properly. The solution I chose was the Reef Angel. This was partly my wife's choice as it simplified my ATO, Lights, Skimmer, Temp and pH control. To be honest it would have cost me more to replace the power board from RSM and is absolutely amazing. See below for more details on the install.
5. Add a sump - again something I have been keen to complete since day one. The COD on the back of the RSM (note this is not a RSM130D so has the crap hinges and weir) is a nightmare to work in. ATO and water levels are hard to maintain, and dont help my 9002 at all. The return pumps suck air bubbles too often unless the water level is really high and the skimmer can easily flood if the pumps stop. This time the sump will be correctly sized (x3 times larger with capacity for power outages), a proper overflow not a DIY, filter socks, ATO, media reactors and an in sump skimmer.
6. Replace fine sand with 'normal' sized coral sand - once the sump is running, I will attempt to remove the fine sand. I want the sump running first to help me keep the parameters under control but I am not envisaging this to be an easy job.
7. Add media reactors - Still considering the best options here, but I am looking at either two small fluidising reactors with say GFO and carbon or GFO and biopellets. The plan is help keep stable parameters and allow for the lack of a refugium in the sump.
9. Add a new skimmer - Once the sump is up and running and the sand replaced I expect it to be close to March. I was looking to add a new skimmer to the mix and would consider something such as the MS RDC-250 or the Octopus 500L as both seem to have good ratings and are reasonably price. I am not sure if I could get away with much larger due to the low bioload, but it seems easier and cheaper to find 500L+ skimmers.
10. Once the system is stable, I will then look at expanding the livestock.
