I'm back in! Only, no salt this time around!

Kylie has discovered the aquatic varmints

Well, that break only lasted 3 years. I'm back into the aquarium hobby. But, this time around I'm going with a freshwater planted tank using the Diana Walstad (El Natural, Natural Planted Tank) method. I've read enough of her book to give it a go.
I decided to blog about my tank as a personal reference and to provide info for anyone looking for similar setups. I think the tall tank is something hobbyists tend to avoid for the planted tank for a few reasons: you need long arms to work with the plants at the bottom of the tank (I have those), water circulation and the idea that the bottom of the tank won't get enough oxygenation (canister filter seems be doing well on water movement, so far).
June 22nd: I started with a 70 gallon, tall Visio glass aquarium (36 X 15 X 30"), stand and canopy, a 36" strip of Current USA Pro Plus LEDs, San Diego tap water treated with API Tap Water Conditioner (too guilty to use the RO water....or, just being environmentally responsible, at least to some degree), two bags of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix (8-Qt., each), two bags of Seachem Laboratories Flourite Black Substrate (15.4 lbs, each) and a Cascade 1200 canister filter. A heater will be used during the winter months.

Cracked Aquarium

The first set up lasted an overnight stay, however. I got home from work in the nick-of-time to see the water level unusually low by about an inch or two. I started checking frantically for leaks, but couldn't find any until I ran my hands against the back lower left of the aquarium. The water was dripping slowly out the back and wicking its way out of the house! The aquarium, being under warranty, was promptly drained, cleaned and swapped out for a new one. A crack was discovered on the bottom glass. For the uninitiated: this is a very rare occurrence and shouldn't dissuade you from considering a glass aquarium of this size. Just discuss it further with your local pet store if you need further reassurances.
So, that changed my Diana Walstad substrate formula. I ended up taking the drained, mixed soil/Flourite and placing half of it into the new tank. Then, another two new bags of Flourite (this time, extremely well rinsed!) was placed on top of that. Two filter socks (8 X 12", 800 micron) were filled with well-rinsed Vigoro red lava rocks and buried under the soil to create a mound on one side of the tank.

Jun 24: Tank V2, initialized

More details on the steps taken to bring up this tank in a later post. For now, the tank has cleared up with a few water changes, driftwood placed and several fish are enjoying their new home!

Exiting the Hobby...for now.

A few last pics before I drain the tank of its critters and sell off the equipment (13Jun2014):

 

 

The new (self-contained aquarium), four-legged furry friend:

 

Kylie, the Scottish Terrier

 

Anemone Fun

This is the right half of the 55 gallon glass tank. The purple LTA anemone (Macrodactyla doreensis) looks decent today. It goes in and out of moods, but stabilizes for several weeks. I used to run two MP10 pumps, but found that the anemone as well as the Frogspawn coral didn't seem to do well with all that water flow, so I removed one. They still don't like the single one, but I've got to keep the water moving or suffer debris build up. These two specimens, therefore, get placed in the low flow area of the right side of the tank.

This week I lost two large SPS corals (tricolor Valida and Scripps acro, usually very hardy in my tanks) and it coincided with the increased rate of Alk and Ca dosing that I applied at the beginning of this month. I usually struggle with getting the Alk up from the 7's, so I had decided to double the drip timing. The Alk was high at 9.2 dKH yesterday. The pH rose over this month as well, but stabilized in the 8.2 area. So, now I'll give the tank a chance to recover (Alk will drop) and decide on a rate between 1 and 2X of what I was working with.

Breaking up the Turbinaria sp.

The Turbinaria sp. coral (yellow scroll coral) from my old 110 gallon tank setup was finally taken out of the quarantine tank and broken up into pieces. I could see polyps and a little gain in coloration while it sat in the Q tank, so I decided to take a few pieces and super glue (gel) them in my 50 gallon cube tank. There were some larger chunks that I'll try to grow out on the sand bed and offer them for trade later.

After a while, I just used my gloved hands to break more pieces off. Then, I used the wire cutters for trimming. I threw away most of the dead coral and kept the underlying live rock for the refugium. 

I glued 3 small pieces at the same level on one of the live rocks. You can see a green variety of Turbinaria sp. near the recovering yellow scroll coral frags. I'm hoping that the pieces will grow and attach themselves to the the rock before a crab comes buy and dislodges them.

 

Calcium and Alkalinity Dosing

I followed instructions at BulkReefSupply (BRS) to create the Calcium and Alkalinity solutions. Then, I drilled holes on the tops using a 7/32" drill bit and a smaller hole to allow for air. I'll have to find another screw top when it comes time to mix new solutions. The hard-line tubing had a tight fitting, but was easy to slide in through the holes I'd drilled. The BRS peristaltic pumps came with their own mounting and screws. I used smaller wood screws to secure the mounts under the stand next to my 50 gallon reef tank. Now, I'll have to figure how to program my RKE to dose each solution.

 

 

Pink Fromia Sp. Sea Star

I was told that the Fromia sea stars eat only sponges. But, since I'm using well established live rock from my old system, there should be plenty of sponges to choose from as this sea star goes on the hunt for food. This pink variety really adds some color pizzaz to the color of my 50 gallon tank! Note the sponge structures embedded in the live rock near the sea star.

Bon Appetit!

Blonde Naso Tang

I sure am going to miss this guy. Since I'm downgrading from a 110 gallon reef to a 50 gallon cube, I can't transfer him. I hope I can find someone with a large enough tank to keep up with his growth. This guy would fetch you your slippers and morning newspaper if it weren't for that dang thing called "seawater".

Pancake-shaped live rock with Zoanthids

Gotta put this one up for sale in the local reef club.

Aquasculpture of 50 gallon Reef Tank & Radion XR30w Installation

The Radion LED light fixture was installed over the 50 gallon tank. I used 1/4" Molly toggle bolts to install the custom hanging kit to the ceiling. I had to make over-sized, messy holes (I should have read the link and used the nylon toggle anchors, instead) in the ceiling and will have to putty and re-paint it, but the aquarium kinda takes away from you ever noticing the holes above.

I installed the software and programmed the fixture to Natural mode.

Then, I aquascaped using a minimalist approach; I used only 4 large live rocks from my main 110 gallon reef tank. Two of the largest rocks were drilled to accept an acrylic rod between them so that they could support each other with no wobbling. I tried using acrylic rods on several small pieces of live rock, but it just looked too much like Shish Kabobs to me. So, the small pieces went to the refugium for later use.

I had to pluck off dozens of green majano anemones from the rocks. And, with a lot of diligence, I plan to keep up with removing these pests until they're completely eradicated from this tank. It should be easier to access the rocks with this cube tank, but I have a feeling the Aiptasia will move in once the majanos are gone. My main tank kept sprouting majano anemones from areas I could not access, so I just gave up.

Here's a night time pic of the tank in its bare-bottom format. I'm thinking of buying some sugar grain sand to cover the bottom. Then, I'll fill it up with livestock from my main tank. I was trying to avoid the "pile of rocks" look, but it still looks like a pile of rocks! Ha! I'll be sure to separate the pieces when the sand bed gets installed.

The Downgrading

I recently purchased a 50 gallon Starfire glass cube aquarium (born on 29jan2012) with a glass sump and stand from an SDReef user. The tank, stand and accessories were still in their packing boxes as he had decided he'd rather go with a larger setup. Since I've always wanted a glass tank to take better shots of my specimens and I was thinking about downgrading to a smaller tank, I went for the purchase. So far, I've replaced the main pump with a Tunze 1073.40 (still trying to "break in" and waiting for the humming to dissipate).

The 1" bulkhead was not easy to tighten (without over-tightening) and I've got a mini-micro-leaking going on. The rest of the plumbing is working out. I've got more work to do, but at least I can get an "instant reef" from my main 110 gallon reef tank.

I'm now stuck at the "aquascaping" part. I want to go with pillars of rocks rather than a pyramid pile of rocks in the center. More on that, if I'm successful, later.

Reef Warfare

Wow. After yanking out a few majanoe pest anemones from the tank, something coincidentally triggered a reef warfare among the yellow birdsnest coral (the dead, white coral in the middle of the pic) and the brown, stringy Pavona behind it. The Red Planet coral to the right of the dead birdsnest also suffered. There is some tissue death at the base of the Red Planet, but it has since slowed down, so I think it's going to stabilize. If not, I'd have to frag it to pieces so that I won't lose $100's of dollars of a worthy coral. Meanwhile, I've noticed that there are parts of the yellow birdsnest coral that have BGA at the base which seems to have protected it from further tissue death.

RKE updated

After determining that the RKE head unit was corrupt, I sent it in for repairs. It somehow got fried after I did the firmware updates. Who knows what did it? But, it wasn't too much of a loss for me since I actually got the free V2 head unit trade-in when it was available back when. So, I went ahead and purchased a replacement unit and it's been up and running since May 3rd.

With the NET module working, I was able to look at the data that's been recording. Temperature reflects San Diego weather that affects the house:

The pH is fluctuating with lights on/off as it should (a spike marks a water change):

I still haven't bothered calibrating ORP since I don't really use it to push the tank in either direction. The spikes correspond to the water changes that are done once every 2 weeks. The ORP is inversely related to the pH.

The data are not uploaded to any website just yet since the router I'm using is not able to act as an access point. I'll have to search Craigslist for some old router or get a fancy Airport Express that I can hook up to a sound system and listen to Airtunes for my big fat Airhead.

Hammers for Sale!

...and 5-6 heads of hammer corals for sale!

Here's an example of the Mother colony:

Fungia for Sale

Get your green, hot Fungia's for sale!

 

Unknown SPS on tall live rock

I've got to sell or trade this tall live rock with an unknown SPS on top. I've already got a piece of it growing elsewhere and I'd like to make room for other corals. I'm not sure what type of SPS it is and the coral's color might be better under another type of lighting (and other tank chemistry) other than what I'm providing.

A top-down shot:

RKE, still trying

Last night, I re-installed the firmware on the head unit, but this time I disabled Norton 360. The RKE looked like it was going to do much better. I was even able to use MyReef 2.0 to do some programming. But, this is what the head unit was doing this morning. I've been in contact with DA support and we're trying to do some troubleshooting.

RKE still no good

After re-reading all the notes for updating, I went ahead and re-applied the firmware to all devices after my last blog post. This time, I made sure to unplug everything from the PC4's while the head unit was going through factory default settings. It worked nicely afterward, but this is what I came home to today. Again, all power from the PC4's was shut off since who-knows-when after I left for work this morning.
I'm still waiting for a reply from DA support.
I've re-applied the firmware to the headunit and now it's up and running and it looks like the settings have been kept. Now, I have to figure out how to program the PC4's to just keep the power on while while the head unit randomly goes into crap-out mode.

RKE updated (regrettably)

I updated the firmware on all the RKE devices over the weekend and things were working well for several hours. I decided to feed the fish and use the RKE's standby mode, then the head unit "crashed". I re-programmed the head unit's firmware again, and it seemed to work even when I tried the standby mode. I thought that might have been the only hiccup during this updating process.

Unfortunately, this is what I came home to today at 7:30 PM:

Another, seemingly random, crash.

By the looks of it, it looks as if my main pump, protein skimmer, heaters and auto top-off devices had been powered off since 3:22 PM. LED lights and Vortech circulation pumps were kept separately on a good old-fashioned power strip.

The livestock looks healthy....so far.

Time to log on to Digital Aquatic's forum. Ugh.

Top-down shots

I was doing some maintenance on the lighting hood. It looked like BBQ ashes were collecting in the LED cooling fans and heat sink fins, so I had to blow them out with a can of air.

Anyhow, since the top was off, I turned off the pumps and tried to take some top-down pictures of the corals. It's difficult without an acrylic box to minimize surface water interference. I had to crop out the flask and camera's reflection.

Red Planet (oooh, ya, my favorite SPS)

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea.
The polyps aren't as wide open as I see on others' pictures.

There's a whole mess of these yellow zoanthids. There might be a little zoa pox going on, but I wouldn't mind if there was something to control their growth.

Clam

This Tridacna maxima clam is the latest addition to the tank along with a Halichoeres melanurus Wrasse that seems to be decimating the flatworm (red rusties and brownies!) population in my tank. Finally, a bioweapon that delivers results! Oh, and speaking of results, the new Tiger Conch I got from Pet Kingdom started to vacuum up the blue-green algae from the sand bed. I was surprised.
I got the clam at AquaSD for a resonable price (unlike the $400 for an equally-sized clam that this guy sells his for in NYC).