Tank Journal - 135 FOWLR

[Floyd R Turbo]

Tested today, the important notes are Nitrate between 35 and 40, which is stable or even slightly less than it was when I tested both 7 and 10 days ago. I have made 2 minor (2 degree?) turns on the skimmer and boy howdy is it producing the green-black crud like crazy!!

I am still losing the Phosphate battle, however. It was down to 1 or 1.5, now back up to 2 or 3.

KH has dropped to about 10.2 on Salifert - this is from a high of 11.5-11.8 in mid January after a 55% PWC. Before that, is was below 8.0. That's probably due to the fact that I haven't done a PWC in 2 weeks, but I'm going in tomorrow to do that sometime.

The Cyano doesn't seem to be coming back quite as vigorously. This could be due to the change in the light cycle, lights are only on during lunch and dinner hours, 2-3 hours at a stretch and several hours in between. I also picked up some backing to block out the side and will install that tomorrow as well.

Several snails are obviously dead and will need to be removed. I'm considering a total substrate change-out if I can't get the phosphates under control, but before doing that I suppose getting a handle on the feedings is in order also. On this note, he has cut back to feeding every other day, so there's less uneaten food I believe. All this mat contribute to the low Nitrate production also.

 

[cmor1701d]

You need to find the source of the phosphates and eliminate that. Use only RODI water for PWCs and make up water. Rinse all frozen food in RODI water and strain through a fine mesh net.
Feed less frequently (every other day at most).
Do more frequent PWCs to get the phosphates down and help keep them down.

 

[austinsdad]

I think this is the one I have.

BRS GFO and Carbon Reactor - English

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Right now I'm less worried about it as long as the algae doesn't make a strong comeback. Down to every other day feeding and cut down the light cycle. Going to block out the side of the tank that is near the window. I use only RODI water. Still working on the food, going to make mush with garlic/vitamins eventually, when I have time. Right now I'm just jazzed that the Nitrates are coming down on their own. Also going to get him a bigger pump for his 225 cichlid tank and put that one on the this tank (Mag 12, he's running Mag 9 now). But right now I need to let his pocketbook take a rest!

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Oh boy!! I did a 20% PWC (30 gallons) on 2/17 and tested yesterday (2/18), and the results were fantastic! Nitrates are down to 20-25, down from 35-40 which can't really be attributed 100% to a 20% PWC, so denitrification is taking over, and skimming and reduced feeding is doing it's job!!!

Phosphates are 1.5 to 2, down from 2 to 3, so maybe I don't need to replace the ROWAphos quite yet. Now I just need to watch the KH to make sure it doesn't drop below 8 between PWCs.

So as this major project starts to ramp down, I have another potential one:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f45/tank-journal-95-bowfront-fo-126512.html

People just don't know how bad their tanks really are I guess. And maybe, some just don't care.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I've been too busy switching jobs to post in a while, but I'm down to 20% PWCs every other week and after this past weekend Nitrates down to 20, KH dropping still around 9 so not sweating it yet (I'll get to it), Phosphates way up still. Light cycle and every-other-day feeding beating the cyano down.

Oh yeah, and this tank is 100% proof that Nerite snails will totally devour Cyano and green hair algae. The overflows were coated with about 1/4 of algae, and at night the snails come down from the corners and chew trails right through the stuff. It's almost completely gone. The owner said that he occasionally grabs a few of them and drops them on the LR that has a coating of the green hair, and they graze right through it.

The tank water is crystal clear and fish are doing great. The Puffer had wedged himself in a hole in the LR and had a flesh wound that took about a week to heal, then unrealtedly he lost all of this teeth (they just fell out on their own). I guess that happened about a year ago too. Funny!

New thread on another tank starting up soon!

 

[Mitchell0605]

Nice Floyd. Looking forward to it as always.

 

[thincat]

Way to go Floyd..

 

[SHARPiE]

How's this tank doing now Floyd? Any pics?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

As requested...new pics!

The tank is doing well overall, it went over 2 weeks without a water change and there were only a few pockets of cyano growth on the gravel. Lots of hair algae on the newer LR, I'm going to rig up a piece of hard airline tubing to a siphon to get some of it sucked off (thanks to Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine for that hint!) Also in this month's FAMA interestingly enough was a species profile on the 3-stripe Damselfish. As it turns out, only 2 of them are in the tank, the other is a black-tailed damsel.

Check it out

Puffer

All 4

Did a PWC early last week and Nitrates are coming back up - around 30-40. Tank temp was 82 when I checked it the other day. So time for a little TLC again.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Does this thing have a sump Floyd?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

yeah Oceanic 3 - 30 long pics in this post:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f11/tank-journal-135-fowlr-124418-2.html#post1072580

 

[Mitchell0605]

Does it have any Macro algae in there? I couldn't find it anywhere.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I thought for sure that I had updated this thread sometime in the last 7 month, but I guess not! Been busy with other tanks, and the owner didn't want to spend a lot of $$ this summer on it.

Since the last update, I did a 20% PWC on 5/23 and added a filter sock (rotated the bio-ball tower to cover just 1 side of the intake), then did another 30% on 6/7. Nitrates were at 50 and Phos at 3. I had fought a good battle, but it seemed there was no way to keep them down below 50.

The snails were actually doing a pretty good job of mowing down the algae, but it was just growing too fast. I couldn't add a grazer because of the damsels (and the Nitrates!).

About that time, I stumbled on the Algal Turf Scrubber (ATS) and started making plans for that. Around the same time my RODI went on the fritz and I had to wait for a new water softener, and went to Wal-Mart for Culligan RO top-off water, so lots of big PWCs were off the table.

I changed out the filter sock about every 2-3 weeks, longer than I expected it to take to get dirty enough to need changing. But like I said, the owner was looking to keep the cost down, and he was really looking forward to the ATS.

The Nitrates went up above 100, so I did another 30% (40 gallons) on 9/6 and took these pics 3 days later:

As you can see, the GHA was starting to take over. The Nitrates got up above 100 again, and the algae was really starting to look bad.

I should have taken a set of pics before I cleaned it yesterday. I spent 4 hours and took all the rock out and scrubbed the GHA off, then gravel vac'd the entire bed. It was pretty gunky, I had to siphon off the top layer of all exposed gravel. Ended up with about 1 gallon's worth of gravel. I managed to only use 40 gallons of water.

Next post will have pics from today

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I took me 4 hours from the time I walked in the door until I walked out, and my fingers smelled rank!! But, the tank looks great again, and only a few traces of GHA.

To my surprise, I believe one of the snails laid eggs since I cleaned, or the babies just came out of hiding. If you look in the 2nd picture (with the puffer), they are all over the overflow behind him!

Also, to my surprise, I found a sponge growing on 2 of the rocks. I pulled it apart before I saw it, and kept it submerged, so hopefully it will survive. Interesting that life appeared on these otherwise lifeless rocks, so something must have been live at some point. Not sure if the rock it is growing on was one that I added or one that was original.

ATS box is built, but I'm going to modify it slightly before installing it. Going home for Thanksgiving and my Dad and I will work on it (since he built it)

 

[Bige]

I cant believe those fish are still alive. Good job. I hope you are on them full time.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I hope you are on them full time.

Hardly! It's a glorified hobby. I make a little over break-even. Whatever I make pays for health insurance that my real job doesn't provide (at least no better than what I can get on my own)

 

[Soundtrigger]

Well mr turbo you've turned that tank around whats next ....selling frags from a dental office LOL

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

There you are! I couldn't find you on here, only on RC...this is the China Garden tank I told you about.

 

[iDream]

Well mr turbo you've turned that tank around whats next ....selling frags from a dental office LOL

funny you say that, my girlfriends ortho has a large tank with some coral needing to be fragged lol