Jimbo’s CDA 250
- Thread starter Jimbo327
- Start date
It's been close to a year from my previous post on this build thread. So a quick recap.
So this tank had issues after issues last year. It's been battle after battle. I had a GHA algae outbreak that took over the tank and smothered some of my corals, but I've dosed fluconazole 2x and knocked it out. Dinos (specifically Coolio) reared its ugly head on my sand, but went away when I turned off my skimmer and let the tank get diatoms for about a month. I also did a Cipro treatment to fend off BJD in my torches.
After about 1.5 years of starting this tank, I'm confident that it has finally matured enough that I don't get as much random RTN/STN and the SPS is actually growing. My softies have flourished, but my SPS has been dormant. For the most part, my PAR is on the low side and my nutrients generally runs high, which leads to slow SPS growth. My colors are decent under blue light, so I live with 1" frags all over the tank...for now. I feel like I made it through the dry rock and dead sand phase, and it's only going to get better. I'm ready for the explosive growth phase next. LOL.
Lately, I'm dealing with aiptasia outbreak, a bit of cyano popping up, and nutrients have been trending up. But I have plans to get those back in check. These are way more preferable than hair algae, cyano and brown jelly.
Side shot
So this tank had issues after issues last year. It's been battle after battle. I had a GHA algae outbreak that took over the tank and smothered some of my corals, but I've dosed fluconazole 2x and knocked it out. Dinos (specifically Coolio) reared its ugly head on my sand, but went away when I turned off my skimmer and let the tank get diatoms for about a month. I also did a Cipro treatment to fend off BJD in my torches.
After about 1.5 years of starting this tank, I'm confident that it has finally matured enough that I don't get as much random RTN/STN and the SPS is actually growing. My softies have flourished, but my SPS has been dormant. For the most part, my PAR is on the low side and my nutrients generally runs high, which leads to slow SPS growth. My colors are decent under blue light, so I live with 1" frags all over the tank...for now. I feel like I made it through the dry rock and dead sand phase, and it's only going to get better. I'm ready for the explosive growth phase next. LOL.
Lately, I'm dealing with aiptasia outbreak, a bit of cyano popping up, and nutrients have been trending up. But I have plans to get those back in check. These are way more preferable than hair algae, cyano and brown jelly.
Side shot
This is the remaining 24k indo gold torch that had BJD and I had to dremel it to save these 2 heads. It’s holding on, but lost a lot of it gold color. Flesh band is non existent, so still iffy if it will make it.
I lost my 5-6 heads super nice holy grail torch that I grew out from 1 head. I just couldn’t save it. But there is a baby torch somehow in the rocks, so I’m hoping it is a spawn from the melted HG torch. It went from a speck to this baby tentacles showing.
I lost my 5-6 heads super nice holy grail torch that I grew out from 1 head. I just couldn’t save it. But there is a baby torch somehow in the rocks, so I’m hoping it is a spawn from the melted HG torch. It went from a speck to this baby tentacles showing.
The yellow corris wrasse was swimming vertically this morning, Doesn’t look like he can use his tail. Looks like it was either injured or has neuro condition. Either way, long term outcome is probably not good. I’ve leave him in the tank for as long as he can still eat. What a bummer as he looked fine last week and I’ve had him in observation tank for 2 months beforehand.
The new puppy is finally on a routine and house trained! So we have some semblance of normalcy in the house.
Been neglecting the maintenance, so I spent the weekend catching up on some much needed tank upkeep.
Been neglecting the maintenance, so I spent the weekend catching up on some much needed tank upkeep.
- The gyre was wobbly from torn rubber gaskets, so placed an order for that part.
- Resetted the carbon dosing container and cleaned out the bacterial sludge.
- Emptied the overflowing 5 gallon bucket DIY skimmate locker.
- Manually sucked out some of the bigger cyano patches from rocks and sand.
- I DIY all of my trace elements solutions, so I created a new spreadsheet to track my ICP results and what I dosed.
- Tested water for nitrate and phosphates. 21 ppm and 0.31 ppm. Bit too high on phosphates, need to clean the skimmer.
I started adding some Zeobak and AF Pro Bio S bacteria. Let's see some of this Zeovit magic in my tank.
I was too scared to put higher end SPS corals into my tank last year because it had so much issue. Finally picked up my Ebay auction purchases...I think Johnny (@thirst) held it for me like 9 months, LOL.
Praying these will do well in my system.
I was too scared to put higher end SPS corals into my tank last year because it had so much issue. Finally picked up my Ebay auction purchases...I think Johnny (@thirst) held it for me like 9 months, LOL.
Praying these will do well in my system.
I'm going to need the good luck. These frags have good color, but are tiny nubs and most look to be fairly new cuts. So they are very susceptible to RTN/STN. In fact, the one on the very left (JF Jolt) already half RTN'ed, so will need to be replaced. It'll probably take 1 year to base out, and another 2-3 years before they grow out. Kind of crazy.
So every night, my ORP drops significantly at the same time. I thought it was my carbon dosing chamber flushing and the anoxic bacterial water is lowering ORP, which would make sense. But that is currently offline as I’m resetting it.
So I figured out it is my UV turning on coincided with the ORP drop. Did a little googling, and this may be caused by RF interference from the UV ballast to the ORP probe. The UV ballast sits behind the tank and next to the sump with the probes.
I ordered some cheap faraday fabric from Amazon to test out. And I’ll move my ORP probe further away. Always something new to learn
I have no idea if my ORP reading is accurate because I never calibrated the probe and use it more for trends.
So I figured out it is my UV turning on coincided with the ORP drop. Did a little googling, and this may be caused by RF interference from the UV ballast to the ORP probe. The UV ballast sits behind the tank and next to the sump with the probes.
I ordered some cheap faraday fabric from Amazon to test out. And I’ll move my ORP probe further away. Always something new to learn
I have no idea if my ORP reading is accurate because I never calibrated the probe and use it more for trends.
