obrien.david.j

This is Awesome! There have been a number of Monday/Tuesdays I would have come visited. Thanks for the extended days.

Fair enough - you've got a bad pump.

And just to rule everything out, before you go do the repair route... Have you confirmed it trips the GFCI just as easily while plugged directly into the wall. (skipping the EB832)

Following up on this earlier QnA Normally, is the abyzz normally plugged into an Apex, or directly into the wall circuit?

I personally have had ethernet cable/port issues, with hidden corrosion. Apex suddenly wouldn't connect, or wouldn't connect after I disturbed the ethernet cable. I was lucky enough to solve it by plugging in/out/in/out, pushing a little harder (not too hard), .... Effectively slight tugs all over the place.

You're asking a good question, with a couple of aspects to the answer. Situation: Display tank is in the house. Not shown in this thread very well, I run a push/pull vent system. Fish room has blower, blowing air through wall and into the tank canopy. Fish room has 2nd pipe with fan actively drawing from inside the canopy back into the fish room. Idea - keep the house dryer. (used to run Metal Halides, this system also kept the house from being hot) Fish Room itself, which is an extension of the garage. 1st Dedicated door into the garage. Generally I leave open, or open a crack. Except on cold nights. Garage gets opened/closed, and it's a large volume of air. 2nd - fishroom has a 2nd door, going to the back yard. Mounted an exhaust fan on that door, blowing OUT. Haven't run it in the winter time (too cold), but generally let it run either on a timer or full time the rest of the year. Was a blower (noisy), found this new model (in post below) and it's AWESOME. Quiet. blows more air, and variable speed. Easy.

Good looking fish!

Think of it this way, you sent him to a tank with Plenty of dirty sand that needs cleaning. He should be One Happy Fish.

I copied my original thoughts above, You're Doing Great! I'm sure Rocks and Sand were a royal Pain. (or at least a lot of work) Great to jump start on your journey to reducing organics and all the yuck that goes with them. You need to figure out what you can do on a 1/2 week and weekly basis for the next month+. Cleaning mechanical filtration weekly (or 2x/week) is the really big improvement. This Physically removes organics out of your water Sooner. This is what you want. If cleaning your canisters is too painful, then start researching other mechanical filtration options you Can afford the energy to do. You don't have to remove rocks from your tank to do maintenance scrubbing. Use a HARD toothbrush (not soft, not medium stiffness.) Scrub them in place, even blowing the scrubbed spots with a spare power head, or turkey baster. best way to make visible progress on algae is to keep it knocked down Glad you're figuring out your Tang and cleanup crew options. Keep going Have you started any research on increasing your Ca levels yet? <-- Anyone want to make suggestions Re-read the last two lines of my quote above here. Lots of opinions, you've got to figure out what works for you.

I have no humu experience, so can't help there. It looks like you've just done a ton of work cleaning the sand, and scrubbing the rocks. Great Job! I encourage you to stay on it. Take something out and scrub it again in a week. Keep the weekly water changes going. How often can you change your mechanical filtration? (twice a week?). Make sure your cleaning your skimmer, at least weekly. Stay on top of things for a month or two, solid.

Thanks to @titus'reef help Friday, the tank now has a diamond goby again. Settled in right away, and just like the last one, is hard to find in this tank. FYI, smaller lid mesh netting is on order, and should be here the end of this week. Gotta protect this jumper.

You've been busy, nice job. Acknowledging multiple opinions have been expressed here, including "remove sand", "don't touch sand", "wash sand" ... Since you've already removed the sand bed and washed it like crazy - my opinion would be to put only 1-1.5" of sand back in. (my personal choice is 1") It looks like you're still in the 3-4" range, even after you held back a half a bucket of it. The sand bed has been disturbed. So there's nothing wrong with just syphoning out another layer of it. Simply less to build up junk in it. While still keeping some of the existing bio that was already in it.

Ron, Sorry to hear you aren't upgrading to this bigger tank. Was looking forward to this build. What a great deal for someone else.

Fair enough. Don't touch sand, work on nutrient export/organics control. What I can't tell is how dirty/old/Reasonably clean the sane bed is.

I love it when frags "explode." It's my favorite moment of keeping SPS.

Looks like he Jumped towards the netting, got gills stuck in 1/2" netting holes (new netting already ordered), and then twisted his tail up/through another hole trying to get out. Sad, I hadn't seen him for ~two weeks. Was wondering if he had died. Only to find he Was fine, but dead now. 😞

I saw your original post - glad you're reaching out here to try and generate more specific suggestions. In reality, there are a bunch of ways to run a successful reeftank. So you're likely to get (and read) a variety of opinions - you'll have to synthesize out what works for you. For example, I have to acknowledge I am Terrible on daily maintenance. So I've had to bias all my solutions towards as automated as possible. Otherwise I won't do it often enough. (especially things like dosing) Original post said you've been at this for ~5 years. I've had a tank in your shape. My thoughts, you've got built up organics (including in the sand) and built up nitrates. My specifics; Focus on organic cleanliness and reducing nitrates clean/change mechanical filtration media At-LEAST once a week, if not twice a week while trying to correct this. (remove organics as early as possible) I'd syphon out your gravel. replace with new thin layer if needed. You'll naturally not be able to reach 100% of the gravel (under the rocks), That's Okay. I've done this multiple times over the years. going back and forth of bare bottom vs sand bottom. (I visually like Something on the bottom of my tank) scrub rocks to knock off algae, syphon as much free floating algae out. clean/change mechanical filtration media the next day Do this once/twice a week for a month straight Grow Your Cleanup Crew! (Tangs, Snails, etc) <-- Soon, now, easiest to do. Ca feels low at 320 - I'd want closer to 400. As you increase Ca, I expect your Mag consumption to increase. So be careful there. Ca ~>400, Mg ~>1350 long term Your questions I don't have any fuge experience. No comment see my comment above on sand bed My view, UV sterilizer is for outbreaks and possible dino algae control. So I'd say No. don't put your time/money into UV. We didn't touch on anything like Strontium levels/etc, or amino additions. (Acro power, AB+, etc). I'll let others comment on this one.

thanks. and it looks my attempt to paste a direct link into my post yesterday didn't work. So here's the punch line of why I need a new one:

I happen to need a new diamond goby. PM me if the other responses fall through. I'll take it, simple as that.

And RIP for the little scopas tang for frag tank cleanup. He was pecking at food, nothing as aggressive as the copper banded butterfly. Tonight, his body has been scavenged by the cleanup crew.

Will your Virtual Tank Builder project allow me to still place Home Depot buckets into the scenery? (seriously, cool project idea)

I installed The Plank on one end of the tank last weekend, which meant the screen had to be pulled back ~2". And I haven't rebuilt it yet. Isn't that the time the Diamond Goby (who I have barely even seen) chooses to check out the surface. OR, my netting has too big of holes. In either case, rebuilding the screen means going to smaller netting and covering the whole tank surface. What's wrong with this picture?

Welcome to the group. You've come to the right place for help, or at least moral support. I've killed my share of things, and crashed my tank a number of times. I'm a huge fan of skimmers and nutrient export. I like to Feed My Fish (not starve them), but it means I need to pull the breakdown back out of the water. Not having a sump makes other mechanical removal methods tougher. I have sump, and ran without filtersocks for a long time. Just couldn't get the tank up to full snuff. Added them, change them weekly. And for Me, there's a differences. But, keep reading feedback below. John's feedback here is spot on. Basic nutrients of Nitrate and phosphate are in your system. I killed a bunch with my nitrates too high for a long time. Water changes will help/etc. Tank pictures helped. I'm also a huge fan of algae eating clean up crews. Couple different tang species, (your lawnmower blenny is excellent too), bunch of snails needed, conch is a good idea, hermit crabs, etc. I'd add like 10-20 snails. Tangs don't even need to be fancy. Yellow eye Kole tang, Scopas tang, Blue tang, ... I consider them utility tangs. Maybe I missed a comment, Do you have NO3 and PO4 test kits, what level is in your water?

I've placed two orders. First one was extensive. 10 bars, lots of plates/screws/miscmiscmisc. Second one was just follow up of half dozen additional piece parts. Shipped via the standard/cheapest shipping they offer. Fair warning, Shipping charges are high. So don't judge how much this is going to cost until you check your shopping cart all the way through shipping. 9/22 - ordered, 10/1 - shipped, 10/6 - arrived 12/5 - ordered, 12/11 - shipped, 12/17 - arrived

Of course this Entire Pallet is more than you need, but if you can do your own cutting or use lengths they have - this is 8020 equiv, off Craigslist. https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/bfs/d/columbia-city-large-lot-of-minitec/7257576118.html I've seen other offers in the last 6 months come up. I ended up just ordering exactly what I needed from 8020.net. Also, check ebay, I saw plenty of misc like this there.