Aussie 6x2.5x2
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samparker
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OK, for the last couple of months I have been on the chase for tank clarity. I have never really been happy with how unclear the tank looked. Funnily enough, it comes up alight in pictures, but in person there is a distinct whiteness or milkiness to it that just shouldn't. The tank is low-iron glass front and sides and the water from the main tank makes its way over to my little tank (automated water change system passes through little tank before drain).
The last couple of months it had got to me, I had to sort this out. I started with the water, frantically chasing better water clarity. Tried a number of things, ozone, UV, ozone and UV, big water changes, constant little changes, carbon carbon and more carbon, mechanical filtration - you name it. Went through all of this before realising that my 130 litre tank gets its water from the big tank and is crystal clear....
(again, it doesn't really show in pics/video, but gives you an idea)
So! Turned pumps off and looked from the top down onto the tank. Crystal clear.... OK, must be the glass! Further inspection showed that there indeed was some sort of white build up on my glass even after a go over with a good brand magnet cleaner. Appears to be a lanth build-up (which is interesting as I have used only a few millilitres of the stuff over six months and again, that water is in the little tank and not bothered? Perhaps it clings to the low iron glass more easily?
This video shows the tank glass with tanks lights off. You can see the smudged white reflection on the glass against the ceiling light:
Loaned the same mag cleaner that I have off a friend, but hers has the blade built in. This instantly showed that there indeed was something on the glass. Was almost as if it was a "soft" or rubbery coating on the glass as the blade clearly showed where it had not cleaned yet:
This blade sort of did the trick, but took AGES. Like, I cleaned the glass for a combined 8 hours over a weekend and had almost 1/3rd of it done... Spoke the most knowledgeable reefer I know in Dave at Deer Park aquarium and he suggested a magfloat magnet cleaner with the blade attachment. A friend of mine has one of these, so gave it a shot. Useless.... Told Dave and he darted off out the back of the store and came back with a monster. Magfloat with blade suited for up to 20mm glass (my glass is 12mm). Said I could try it out before buying, if it worked, just pay for it. If it didn't, bring it back for no charge as he was going to use it at home anyway so wasn't worried about packaging (not sure you will find better service anywhere in this country!) OK, so using this huge magfloat smashed the lanth on the glass, took it off the entire tank in about 20mins. BEAST!
Great, the tank should be crystal clear again right!? Wrong.... I could see the glass was perfect now (especially when tank lights were off) but the tank still looked milky. Perhaps the lanth was in the water column now? I gave it a few days to clear, still no good. Tried a 250l water change, still no good. Tried Zeo Coral snow and zeozym each night for a week, no improvements :/ So, if it's not the glass or the water, what else could it be? I guess lighting? By luck, I moved my middle LED unit to the left to reach something in the tank. This made the left side of the tank extra white and the middle crystal clear....
(again, doesn't show as dramatically in the video, but gives you an idea)
Hmm, my LED's have been mounted waaaaay too close to the waters surface in order to fit them in the hood. Got me thinking that perhaps they are that close that they are getting some sort of weird refraction off the waters surface? So, off with the hood, dismantled the light rail and went about making some temporary chocks to mount these lights higher. In the mean time, I also picked up some handy halides at a good price (three units plus some spare ballasts/globes/ignitors etc. Just had to wire them up (this was kinda scary as with a ballast, igniter, capacitor and bulb holder, there are a few components to connect and I have never done it before. So double and tripple checked everything a few times on a temporary wiring job to see how we went:
That looked pretty cool, best try it on the tank!
Anyway, back to the topic - having raised the led's, does appear to have helped. The tank is still not as clear as it should be, but I can live with it the way it is now (I was getting awfully close to packing it up...)
So, where did I get after all of this? Lighting has appeared to either make it better or just mask the problem better. Either way, will explore further. Oh, and halides are kinda cool! Will do a much nicer job of the electronics in a sealed box and look into mounting 2 of the 3 above the tank for a couple of hours boost each day in place of the T5's I have been using for that. Might have to make an enclosed hood to the ceiling and run some ventilation fans though.....
Hope you enjoyed the rants of a mad man!
Sam
The last couple of months it had got to me, I had to sort this out. I started with the water, frantically chasing better water clarity. Tried a number of things, ozone, UV, ozone and UV, big water changes, constant little changes, carbon carbon and more carbon, mechanical filtration - you name it. Went through all of this before realising that my 130 litre tank gets its water from the big tank and is crystal clear....
(again, it doesn't really show in pics/video, but gives you an idea)
So! Turned pumps off and looked from the top down onto the tank. Crystal clear.... OK, must be the glass! Further inspection showed that there indeed was some sort of white build up on my glass even after a go over with a good brand magnet cleaner. Appears to be a lanth build-up (which is interesting as I have used only a few millilitres of the stuff over six months and again, that water is in the little tank and not bothered? Perhaps it clings to the low iron glass more easily?
This video shows the tank glass with tanks lights off. You can see the smudged white reflection on the glass against the ceiling light:
Loaned the same mag cleaner that I have off a friend, but hers has the blade built in. This instantly showed that there indeed was something on the glass. Was almost as if it was a "soft" or rubbery coating on the glass as the blade clearly showed where it had not cleaned yet:
This blade sort of did the trick, but took AGES. Like, I cleaned the glass for a combined 8 hours over a weekend and had almost 1/3rd of it done... Spoke the most knowledgeable reefer I know in Dave at Deer Park aquarium and he suggested a magfloat magnet cleaner with the blade attachment. A friend of mine has one of these, so gave it a shot. Useless.... Told Dave and he darted off out the back of the store and came back with a monster. Magfloat with blade suited for up to 20mm glass (my glass is 12mm). Said I could try it out before buying, if it worked, just pay for it. If it didn't, bring it back for no charge as he was going to use it at home anyway so wasn't worried about packaging (not sure you will find better service anywhere in this country!) OK, so using this huge magfloat smashed the lanth on the glass, took it off the entire tank in about 20mins. BEAST!
Great, the tank should be crystal clear again right!? Wrong.... I could see the glass was perfect now (especially when tank lights were off) but the tank still looked milky. Perhaps the lanth was in the water column now? I gave it a few days to clear, still no good. Tried a 250l water change, still no good. Tried Zeo Coral snow and zeozym each night for a week, no improvements :/ So, if it's not the glass or the water, what else could it be? I guess lighting? By luck, I moved my middle LED unit to the left to reach something in the tank. This made the left side of the tank extra white and the middle crystal clear....
(again, doesn't show as dramatically in the video, but gives you an idea)
Hmm, my LED's have been mounted waaaaay too close to the waters surface in order to fit them in the hood. Got me thinking that perhaps they are that close that they are getting some sort of weird refraction off the waters surface? So, off with the hood, dismantled the light rail and went about making some temporary chocks to mount these lights higher. In the mean time, I also picked up some handy halides at a good price (three units plus some spare ballasts/globes/ignitors etc. Just had to wire them up (this was kinda scary as with a ballast, igniter, capacitor and bulb holder, there are a few components to connect and I have never done it before. So double and tripple checked everything a few times on a temporary wiring job to see how we went:
That looked pretty cool, best try it on the tank!
Anyway, back to the topic - having raised the led's, does appear to have helped. The tank is still not as clear as it should be, but I can live with it the way it is now (I was getting awfully close to packing it up...)
So, where did I get after all of this? Lighting has appeared to either make it better or just mask the problem better. Either way, will explore further. Oh, and halides are kinda cool! Will do a much nicer job of the electronics in a sealed box and look into mounting 2 of the 3 above the tank for a couple of hours boost each day in place of the T5's I have been using for that. Might have to make an enclosed hood to the ceiling and run some ventilation fans though.....
Hope you enjoyed the rants of a mad man!
Sam
ws6kid
Well-Known Member
Amazing tank 
Love all the photos.
Is your skimmer setup to empty the cup directly to a drain? I had a bad experience with that if so. If it bubbles up and overflows, you can run a lot of salt water into the drain and fill up with fresh water.
That is why I like the Avast Locker sort of setup that will kick the skimmer pump off if it fills.
If it isn't setup like that, forget I said anything
Again, the tank looks awesome.
Love all the photos.Is your skimmer setup to empty the cup directly to a drain? I had a bad experience with that if so. If it bubbles up and overflows, you can run a lot of salt water into the drain and fill up with fresh water.
That is why I like the Avast Locker sort of setup that will kick the skimmer pump off if it fills.
If it isn't setup like that, forget I said anything
Again, the tank looks awesome.
OP
OP
samparker
Well-Known Member
Hi ws6kid,
thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Yes, the skimmer cup is setup to drain directly, however I have a couple of safe guards in place to ensure it shouldn't go wrong. The ATO I run will only pump so much RODI before detecting a problem and stop. I also have shut offs for the skimmer if the sump level is too high or if the skimmer cup is full.
As my RODI storage is automated also, I did think about this quite a lot before "letting loose". Appreciate the tips though
thanks for the kind words and suggestions. Yes, the skimmer cup is setup to drain directly, however I have a couple of safe guards in place to ensure it shouldn't go wrong. The ATO I run will only pump so much RODI before detecting a problem and stop. I also have shut offs for the skimmer if the sump level is too high or if the skimmer cup is full.
As my RODI storage is automated also, I did think about this quite a lot before "letting loose". Appreciate the tips though
OP
OP
samparker
Well-Known Member
Small update, did some maintenance today and took some snaps whilst there. Just the basic sump clean, skimmer clean, ATS clean and general check over things
Cheers!
Sam
Cheers!
Sam
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OP
OP
samparker
Well-Known Member
Little update, used the weekend to get some further maintenance done on the tank, well, tank related things. Finally got around to swapping out the pre-filters on the RODI unit and to my surprise, after 19months use and approximately 7000-8000L of filtering, they came out near perfect?! Was half tempted to pop them back in, but as they cut a grove in the top and bottom when installing to create a seal and the fact that the replacements are so dang cheap, I just changed them anyway.
Next on the agenda was to clean out my IBC's. I run these through a filter sock every now and then to pull out any gunk, but after a while there is a little sediment and a bit of algae growth on the sides and I wanted them like new again. Gave them a good hose out, scrub with my IBC only broom, quick hit with the high pressure hose, splash a bit of diluted hydrochloric acid, give a BIG rinse and then 24hours of assisted drying (use some fans to pump the air in there). They come out so crystal clean its worth the effort.
Next on the agenda was to wire up my second halide to assist with a PAR boost in the middle of the day. Currently run both halides from 2:30-4:30 each day just as a midday peak (midday in the tank anyway) Need to finalise the hood modifications to make it look nice and neat again, but toying with a number of different options there.
Had the camera out and managed to sneak a couple of decent shots of Prius, my hybrid angel and a neat macro of what I thought was a basic chalice, but really like it under a macro lens!
Was also lucky to grab some quick pics and video of my clowns laying some eggs in an easy to shoot location
Thanks for reading
Next on the agenda was to clean out my IBC's. I run these through a filter sock every now and then to pull out any gunk, but after a while there is a little sediment and a bit of algae growth on the sides and I wanted them like new again. Gave them a good hose out, scrub with my IBC only broom, quick hit with the high pressure hose, splash a bit of diluted hydrochloric acid, give a BIG rinse and then 24hours of assisted drying (use some fans to pump the air in there). They come out so crystal clean its worth the effort.
Next on the agenda was to wire up my second halide to assist with a PAR boost in the middle of the day. Currently run both halides from 2:30-4:30 each day just as a midday peak (midday in the tank anyway) Need to finalise the hood modifications to make it look nice and neat again, but toying with a number of different options there.
Had the camera out and managed to sneak a couple of decent shots of Prius, my hybrid angel and a neat macro of what I thought was a basic chalice, but really like it under a macro lens!
Was also lucky to grab some quick pics and video of my clowns laying some eggs in an easy to shoot location
Thanks for reading
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OP
OP
samparker
Well-Known Member
Egg's progressing well, up to day 6 now. You can see a dud one or two in a couple of pics though, obviously the male can't see them yet (or he still has hope for them?)
Sam
Sam
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steelheader.262
Valuable Member
Looks amazing, great photography!!!
Been following your thread for a while, that angel has colored up beautifully! Stunning.
OP
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samparker
Well-Known Member
Quick update for those interested, got my water tested by the Triton Labs to see if there was anything unusual in there.
Had a bit of a debarcle with Aus post taking 9 days to get my results to Cairns Marine, but from there it was smooth sailing. The guys at Cairns Marine were fantastic in keeping me updated with the status of my water samples and once it was sent off, it only took a few days before my results showed up on-line.
Lithium is high (from dosing Tech M to battle bryopsis), slight trace of copper (which is interesting), Calcium and Mag a touch low, and phos is a little higher than they recommend (which is no surprise). Rest looks good!
Regards,
Sam
Had a bit of a debarcle with Aus post taking 9 days to get my results to Cairns Marine, but from there it was smooth sailing. The guys at Cairns Marine were fantastic in keeping me updated with the status of my water samples and once it was sent off, it only took a few days before my results showed up on-line.
Lithium is high (from dosing Tech M to battle bryopsis), slight trace of copper (which is interesting), Calcium and Mag a touch low, and phos is a little higher than they recommend (which is no surprise). Rest looks good!
Regards,
Sam
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