Pirate's Reef

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Anonymous

Guest
Thanks everybody. Hopefully now I can get down to the business of stocking this thing and making a display that is as interesting as the tank.

I did order a new bulb for the CoralLife 96 watt fixture - one with true 03 actinic and 10K bulbs. I was talking to a couple of people on another forum that had had trouble with the CL bulbs not getting good color with their corals. Should be plenty of light for a small tank, so I began to wonder if the actinic part of the bulb might be the problem. We will see. Anyone else here have any negative experiences with the CL 96 watt 50/50 bulbs?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Just wanted to post an update for those that might be interested in how the tank is coming along. No fairy tale finish - yet.

The tank is six weeks old and things are not prgressing as quickly as I would like. I have made several "adjustments". First of all, the remote deep sand bed was removed. I believe the idea is a good one, but I did not have it properly engineered. I think I had too much sand and not nearly enough flow across the top of the sand. Since it dumped into my skimmer compartment, the smell inside the skimmer cup was off the charts. :shock: So I pulled out the sand and I am rethinking this part of the system.

The skimmer started producing some nasty looking yellow/orange skimmate. I know at first thought you would think I need a water change. But, I have probably replaced the water volume of the system a couple times in five weeks and I am still getting this cruddy looking skimmate and yellowish water. The skimmate in the picture is 24 hours worth.



I have a few small corals in the tank, mostly zoas (one medium sized colony and several frags of 3-4 polyps each, 1 small mushroom, 1 1.5" yuma, 1 1" cap frag, 2 small clumps of GSPs and no fish. There are about 5 snails and a few scarlett hermits. That's it. The tank looks almost empty, so bio load is aparently not the problem. Still trying to figure out the source of this odd colored skimmate. If anyone has any ideas, I am all ears.



Water parameters look good:
pH - 8.0
Salinity - 1.025
Calcium - 400
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
dkh - 12
Temp - 79
Running carbon 24-7

Coralline starting to appear in small patches.

Actually had to buy a heater. Excess heat was a concern with all the pumps and lights, but the tank was dipping down to 74 - 75. Now currently running at 79 - 80.

Replaced the black sand with aragonite reef sand. I removed the remote sand bed, so I wanted aragonite sand back in the system.

Anyway, we are progressing, but in baby steps. I suppose I can't expect too much, it's only been six weeks.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
that yellow skimmate is curious - the scientist in me sees yellow and automatically thinks sulfer so maybe the remote sand bed was too deep and producing SO2 and the skimmer pulling it??????? purely speculative though of course i really have no clue i have never seen that before - and that of course would also give you a verrrry baddddd smell!
awesome tank BTW love it and i really prefer the white sand to the black
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
The remote sand bed has been gone for a couple of weeks and since then I have probably changed about 10 gallons of water. The skimmmate then was unbelievably rank in odor. The yellow skimmate now is almost odorless. Since most factors suspected have been removed, my attention is turning to what specimens are in the tank. My filter pad is also getting a good bit of slime on it. Somethng is apparently not happy and sliming pretty well, but I don't see any traces of it around any of the inhabitants. Both me and my LFS guy are stumped.

Thanks for the input johnanddawn. I too like the light colored sand. It really brightened things up, if nothing else. Black sand and snail poop don't look real good together either. :)
 
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Anonymous

Guest
opps i said SO2 but wanted to say hydrogen sulfide ....... and that would smell
do you run carbon? that would help if you have allelopathy disturbing someone if thats whats going on
 
TimSchmidt

TimSchmidt

New Member
Don't know about the yellow skimmate. Where are you getting the water? If it is still around for so long it has to be something you keep putting in or haven't taken out yet (I know, I know, Mr. Obvious here, just thinking out loud). I too prefer the lighter sand, any specific brand or is it just argonite sand?
 
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AlexfromSATX

New Member
could it maybe be a piece of equpment that is leaking grease or oil or something? maybe while building a small screw or metal object fell in the tank and is creating Rust which the skimmer is pulling out? Not really sure just throwing some ideas out there.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Running carbon & PuraPad right now - plus the big skimmer. The water is RO/DI that I make here at home. Digital TDS meter reading there is 0. It has a fresh set of filters.

Cleaned out the skimmer this morning and so far the skimmate it is producing today is wetter, but does not appear to have th eusual yellow tint. Pretty weird.

The sand is CaribSea Aragonite Seaflor Special Grade 1-2mm in diameter.

I hadn't thought of rust. The only metal that I can think of in the system would have to be on the Mag / Sedra pumps and they are stainless. I will ponder that one a while.

Thanks for throwing ideas out at me. I really do appreciate it!
 
skipm

skipm

Moderator
Staff member
Check the tanks you built into the bottom of the stand and see if they are perfectly clear. I know both of us live in hot, humid climates and this time of the year we get some strange colored mildews and molds. I wouldn't think they could grow in the tank itself but in the make-up tanks where the water just sits and is stagnant maybe. Just trying to throw another idea out for you.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
skipm said:
Check the tanks you built into the bottom of the stand and see if they are perfectly clear. I know both of us live in hot, humid climates and this time of the year we get some strange colored mildews and molds. I wouldn't think they could grow in the tank itself but in the make-up tanks where the water just sits and is stagnant maybe. Just trying to throw another idea out for you.
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Thanks Skip. I checked down there and all looks clean. The salt water is constantly circulated by a micro-jet ph. Probably ought to do the same with the fresh water side.

This afternoon there seems to be only a hint of the yellow foam in the skimmate. Today it skimmed a bit wetter than usual (and I made no adjustment to the skimmer). I have my fingers crossed that I might be making headway clearing this problem up - whatever it may have been. Got my fingers crossed anyway.



While I was preparing this reply, I thought I might stop and take a closer look at that "black sand" that I had in the tank. I was a little surprised to see that under high intensity light, the sand has a yellowish tint. Under magnification, you can see there are some very small amber colored granules mixed in with the black sand grains. I don't know what this is, but it is curiously about the same shade as the skimmate.



The first pic of the yellow skimmate that I posted was when the sand was still in the tank. It was still yellow this morning, but now that the sand has been out for a few days, the skimmate this afternoon is now getting lighter. Could it be that the black sand (or whatever this amber stuff in the sand actually is) was the problem all along? Hmmmm....

Can you see the amber tint to the sand in this pic?

 
skipm

skipm

Moderator
Staff member
It sounds like you may have found the problem (even though we have no idea what the yellow stuff is). it sounds like it is finally almost completely skimmed out of the tank. I see the yellow substance in the sand but would like to know what caused it in the first place. At least it looks like the mystery is over.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
One thing I didn't mention (duh) is the sand in the pictures above is right out of the bag of sand that was left over. That sand was never in the tank.

Skimmate is still clear this morning, so I am hoping this interesting little episode is indeed over. Always something new and interesting with this hobby. :)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
With the "Yellow Skimmate" incident now behind me, I have started to add a few things to the tank. I have been buying shipping frags (stuff that fell off the main coral in shipping) at my LFS. So, now almost two months into this, the tank is not quite as stark as it once was. Far from where I want it to be, but here are a few shots of some of my bargain basement additions.


FTS


$5 worth of zoos


$15 hammer coral frag


$15 worth of pink zoos. I almost feel guilty about this one. :)


My resident Hectori Goby

Anyway, nothing special yet. Still pretty barren. Just thought I would post a few new pics. A long way to go still.
 
EDGRAY

EDGRAY

New Member
:shock: wow were did you get those prices they are crazy really cheap god you so lucky and well its looking goooood :mrgreen:

P.S: im really interested in your yellow zoanthids can you take a closer pic of them???? next to the pink ones the big branch on the left side of your tank .. please :)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
EDGRAY said:
:shock: wow were did you get those prices they are crazy really cheap god you so lucky and well its looking goooood :mrgreen:

P.S: im really interested in your yellow zoanthids can you take a closer pic of them???? next to the pink ones the big branch on the left side of your tank .. please :)
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SkipM said:
You are a bargain bin master, great finds and prices.
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Yeah, my LFS has a good size tank dedicated to all of these bits and pieces that break off during shipping. He still has the original coral to sell, so he feels like he can sell these little pieces for a few bucks and still make money. The owner of the store is a hobbyist himself, so he enjoys helping people out where he can. I keep a close eye on that tank. :)

Well, those zoos went through a color change during the time I was having water quality problems. Probably also because they aren't under MH lights any more either. I am hoping they return to normal color now that I have that particular water quality problem resolved. They still look cool, but I don't feel they are as pretty as they were before. I am afraid that I may not be happy with the PC lighting. I have always used MH on my other tanks. If I continue to have issues with color, I may be shopping for a MH fixture. What lights do you use Ed?

 
EDGRAY

EDGRAY

New Member
WOW you dont think your zoas are great....how dare you say that about those beautiful zoas :bash: :lol: anyways you want to swap a frag with me or sell me a frag i personally love those zoas they look cool :victory and well gotta be lucky to have that tank to look at and get the lose frags for almost nothing $$$ hate you :evil: :cry: :lol:

Well im using right now maybe around 2 weeks or so a 70w 12k MH & 2 24w blue actinic PC why??? they were like 9 inches above water but currently the fixture is like 6inches from surface...

EDDY :cool1:
 
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