Well first off I'll tell about my system and the madness behind it...
Initially it was setup last September and was BB. Everything was great with it until I really started slacking over this last spring and summer. I didn't really do anything to it for quite sometime and it was just in sad shape.
As the colder winter months returned I was indoors more and finally paid attention what sad sore condition my tank was in.
Needless to say what I did next was probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I was very burnt out with the tank and just wanted it to do okay by itself without any help from me - yeah right. So I picked up some sand and put it in the tank hoping that would make it easier to get under control (yes dumbest thing I've ever done :freak. From that point on plaguing algae on every surface within the tank, nitrates through the roof but on 3 seperate phosphate test kits it keep reading 0. I tried everything possible and out there and nothing got the nitrates low. I had lost ALL my SPS, hair algae out the butt, all the snails died and so fourth.
After battling with this crap for nearly 2 months I came up with the notion that I'd start over from scratch. Probably the smartest idea I had with this tank so far besides the initial decision to go BB.
The new tank is 110% BB. It took me right at a week to clean out the old tank and sump, good enough to feel comfortable with filling it back up with good fresh clean 0.00 TDS RO/DI water.
So I finally got it filled up and running this morning after a day and a half of filling it up. The water is a bit cloudy, you can still see through but a bit murkey. I put in the salt and got the salinity right at 1.024 and it was still a bit cloudy, cleared up a bit. Anyway I got my skimmer hooked up and running and its pulled some nice foam and gunk out of the water. My question is what in the heck is there to pull out? I mean I tested each batch of water I put into the tank and every single one read 0.00 on my digital TDS meter. The tank was also very clean, some residue left on the glass from the dried water I presume or possibly the vinegar/rodi solution I used to clean it with.
Anyway I'll post pictures of my progress and what not.
Picture of the tank pre-algae invasion, post-sand addition.
Empty tank with my new suspended lighting
Here is a picture of it with the cloudy water just tanken from my MacBook Pro.
A shot of the Bullet skimmer working to pull out some gunk.
Here are the specs on the tank:
120g AGA RR Tank 4x2x2
2 x Tunze 6100 Streams
1 x 7095 Multicontroller
1 x Pan World 150-PS (pressure rated) powering 2 eductors
Precision Marine Bullet-3 Skimmer powered by a Pan World 150-PS
250w 20k Radiums in Reef Optix I pendants powered by a SLS BlueWave 7 dual 250w HQI ballast
36" Super Atinic VHOs
Neptune ACIII Controller
I'll be using Randy's 2 part mix to keep Ca and Alk in check.
Initially it was setup last September and was BB. Everything was great with it until I really started slacking over this last spring and summer. I didn't really do anything to it for quite sometime and it was just in sad shape.
As the colder winter months returned I was indoors more and finally paid attention what sad sore condition my tank was in.
Needless to say what I did next was probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I was very burnt out with the tank and just wanted it to do okay by itself without any help from me - yeah right. So I picked up some sand and put it in the tank hoping that would make it easier to get under control (yes dumbest thing I've ever done :freak. From that point on plaguing algae on every surface within the tank, nitrates through the roof but on 3 seperate phosphate test kits it keep reading 0. I tried everything possible and out there and nothing got the nitrates low. I had lost ALL my SPS, hair algae out the butt, all the snails died and so fourth.
After battling with this crap for nearly 2 months I came up with the notion that I'd start over from scratch. Probably the smartest idea I had with this tank so far besides the initial decision to go BB.
The new tank is 110% BB. It took me right at a week to clean out the old tank and sump, good enough to feel comfortable with filling it back up with good fresh clean 0.00 TDS RO/DI water.
So I finally got it filled up and running this morning after a day and a half of filling it up. The water is a bit cloudy, you can still see through but a bit murkey. I put in the salt and got the salinity right at 1.024 and it was still a bit cloudy, cleared up a bit. Anyway I got my skimmer hooked up and running and its pulled some nice foam and gunk out of the water. My question is what in the heck is there to pull out? I mean I tested each batch of water I put into the tank and every single one read 0.00 on my digital TDS meter. The tank was also very clean, some residue left on the glass from the dried water I presume or possibly the vinegar/rodi solution I used to clean it with.
Anyway I'll post pictures of my progress and what not.
Picture of the tank pre-algae invasion, post-sand addition.
Empty tank with my new suspended lighting
Here is a picture of it with the cloudy water just tanken from my MacBook Pro.
A shot of the Bullet skimmer working to pull out some gunk.
Here are the specs on the tank:
120g AGA RR Tank 4x2x2
2 x Tunze 6100 Streams
1 x 7095 Multicontroller
1 x Pan World 150-PS (pressure rated) powering 2 eductors
Precision Marine Bullet-3 Skimmer powered by a Pan World 150-PS
250w 20k Radiums in Reef Optix I pendants powered by a SLS BlueWave 7 dual 250w HQI ballast
36" Super Atinic VHOs
Neptune ACIII Controller
I'll be using Randy's 2 part mix to keep Ca and Alk in check.