Kessil

Alex’s IM 150 EXT

I returned last night after 16 days of vacation, and I could not find any problems with this tank (there were a couple of coral casualties in the nano tank, though).

The neighbor's kid did a great job with the feeding and helping with adjusting the skimmer - an important lesson learned for next time. Also, I want to be able to adjust the skimmer remotely going forward, but the Hydros drive extension cable only arrived while I was gone so I could not this time. Since I am strongly considering swapping my Reef Octopus for a DELTEC, I better not get used to controlling the skimmer remotely.

Alkalinity - I first wanted to check alkalinity (Hanna) since this was the big unknown while I was gone. It dropped only from 8.1 dkh when I left to 7.5 dkh yesterday, which is excellent since I expected a much larger fluctuation. The Versa dosing pumps are great when they work, keeping the calibration relatively stable. Still, if I go to automated alkalinity testing (AquaWiz), I probably need to get dosing pumps that I can control remotely.

Calcium - CA dropped from 440 mg/L to 425 mg/L (Salifert). My target is around 435 mg/L since the ICP showed approximately 15 mg/L lower values than what I measured with Salifert. I assume part of the drop came from not doing two weekly water changes while I was gone - Fauna Marin Sea Salt is between 410-440 mg/L - and I do hope this additional consumption also came from additional growth :).

Phosphate - Increase (Hanna) from 0.09 mg/L before vacation to 0.48 mg/L after vacation.

Nitrate - Increase (Hanna) from 18.5 mg/L before vacation to 38.5 mg/L after vacation.

For Nitrate and Phosphate, I believe there are several aspects to consider. Missing two water changes will certainly make an impact, 1.5 minutes of dry food feeding four times a day will also impact the parameters. Additionally, the skimmer was running at a rather too-low intensity for at least a week after it started to overflow, and I did dose relatively high amounts of Tropic Marin ElimiNP - 5 ml daily - before I left but not at all while I was gone.
 
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Alexander1312 said:
10 days into vacation, both tanks looked fine until yesterday.

I noticed the Red Sea ATO filled up a rather large amount of water yesterday (timed out after a while), and another round today.

Simple reason was that the skimmer overflowed while lights were turned off. This led to the 5 gallon skimmer container to reach the skimmer sensor water height which turned off the skimmer (great job Hydros).

I only had the sensor at the 3.5 gallon mark so still some room to raise the sensor up (manually). Also. lowered the pump from level 4 to 3 of the VarioS4S, and lowered the water level in the skimmer from 2 to 3. Lastly, will add another 4 gallon of fresh saltwater over the next few days. All of this was done by the person who does the fish feeding.

Seems like I should have listened to @dangalang who recommended to run the skimmer more dry. I did test it though for a couple of weeks before going on vacation and it seemed fine. And something happened in the tank overnight, which caused the skimmer to overflow suddenly rather than gradually. Maybe there was some massive snail or urchin spawning, etc. Did not think of this before tbh.

Otherwise, tank seems great, I can still see through the windows from all sides which surprised me.

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Why raise the water sensor up on the 5g skimmer overflow? Which will result in a larger skim volume lowering water level then more freshwater for the ato dumping into tank unless Im missing something?..Id have the skimmer shut off around a gallon of skim mate or whatever the skimmer cup holds so it won’t effect salinity until you can address the issue but sometimes there just is no issue. They can run fine for months/year then one day go crazy and overflow.
Hope you and the family had a great time! Thanks for the pics from your trip
 
PjFish said:
Why raise the water sensor up on the 5g skimmer overflow? Which will result in a larger skim volume lowering water level then more freshwater for the ato dumping into tank unless Im missing something?..Id have the skimmer shut off around a gallon of skim mate or whatever the skimmer cup holds so it won’t effect salinity until you can address the issue but sometimes there just is no issue. They can run fine for months/year then one day go crazy and overflow.
Hope you and the family had a great time! Thanks for the pics from your trip
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Yes, agree with your concern. I had a 5 litre container before but had an issue recently when this overflowed, so I wanted to be safe while I was gone. While I think salinity is very important, my focus is on the skimmer. Turning it off for several days or a week is not something I wanted to tolerate. I had already informed the tank sitter to refill 2 gallon of salt water when the skimmate container goes above the 2 gallon mark. I did not anticipate it going much higher than that, but it ended up being around 4 gallon.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Yes, agree with your concern. I had a 5 litre container before but had an issue recently when this overflowed, so I wanted to be safe while I was gone. While I think salinity is very important, my focus is on the skimmer. Turning it off for several days or a week is not something I wanted to tolerate. I had already informed the tank sitter to refill 2 gallon of salt water when the skimmate container goes above the 2 gallon mark. I did not anticipate it going much higher than that, but it ended up being around 4 gallon.
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While I get that it's better to be consistent, 5 gallons of rodi water added to 150 gallons isn't gonna do any damage really, especially if it happened over a two week timeframe. Your salinity probably was somewhere between 1.024-1.025 in the end.

And if your tank sitter refilled 2 gallons, it probably didn't drop below 1.025.
 
RandyC said:
While I get that it's better to be consistent, 5 gallons of rodi water added to 150 gallons isn't gonna do any damage really, especially if it happened over a two week timeframe. Your salinity probably was somewhere between 1.024-1.025 in the end.

And if your tank sitter refilled 2 gallons, it probably didn't drop below 1.025.
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Yes, and the tank sitter ended up refilling 5 gallons, so I assume my salinity slightly increased, but have not measured yet.
 
psidriven said:
How do the corals look at the higher n/p levels? I felt most of my corals looked better after my long vacation which resulted in similar parameter swings.
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I am in camp 'lower nutrients' so will not make a case here for higher nutrients but I could definitelty see the growth in some, specifically the JF homewrecker, and the torches/hammers like it. The manila spy seems to have grown most, but this coral seems to grow faster than a birdsnest. Overall, I do not believe they looked better now than when nutrients were much lower.
 
I bought some items in Germany that I could not easily find here (plus the Tunze Stream 3, as per a separate post).

1. These seemed to have a very strong grip which is why I bought them for both the IM 150 and the Reefer Nano tank. Tried them out today and I am very happy with them - almost better than the Tunze, which was the only good one i knew thus far.

IMG_7691.jpeg


2. I have been looking for titanium-made reef tools for a while now but looks like titanium is not used (often) as it bends much easier than stainless steel. The tools here are titanium-coated, and we will see how they resist rust. The other item of note is the plastic fish net - it seemed impossible to find a plastic only net in the US vs one that has a stainless steel frame. I have a bunch of magnets in the tank, and when I tried to catch a fish recently, it would constantly stick to one of these, which made me crazy.

IMG_7692.jpeg


3. Yes, I had to buy Fauna Marin products. Here is a selection of some (not all) of the stuff I bought - you can tell that some were on an airplane. ICP Total tests (6 in total), one of their most sold fish food with different pellet size, two boxes of their alkalinity which has been sold out for months in the US, their new coral wow product, which was not available for sale in the US yet - ammonium carbonate based from what I remember (needs nitrate below 20, and phosphate below 0.2), and their bacto balls + a magnet based cup to put them in - bacterial product which over two weeks releases beneficial bacteria to reduce nutrients (both phosphate + nitrate).

IMG_7698.jpeg
 
Alexander1312 said:
I bought some items in Germany that I could not easily find here (plus the Tunze Stream 3, as per a separate post).

1. These seemed to have a very strong grip which is why I bought them for both the IM 150 and the Reefer Nano tank. Tried them out today and I am very happy with them - almost better than the Tunze, which was the only good one i knew thus far.

View attachment 70392

2. I have been looking for titanium-made reef tools for a while now but looks like titanium is not used (often) as it bends much easier than stainless steel. The tools here are titanium-coated, and we will see how they resist rust. The other item of note is the plastic fish net - it seemed impossible to find a plastic only net in the US vs one that has a stainless steel frame. I have a bunch of magnets in the tank, and when I tried to catch a fish recently, it would constantly stick to one of these, which made me crazy.

View attachment 70393

3. Yes, I had to buy Fauna Marin products. Here is a selection of some (not all) of the stuff I bought - you can tell that some were on an airplane. ICP Total tests (6 in total), one of their most sold fish food with different pellet size, two boxes of their alkalinity which has been sold out for months in the US, their new coral wow product, which was not available for sale in the US yet - ammonium carbonate based from what I remember (needs nitrate below 20, and phosphate below 0.2), and their bacto balls + a magnet based cup to put them in - bacterial product which over two weeks releases beneficial bacteria to reduce nutrients (both phosphate + nitrate).

View attachment 70394
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Grippers are easy to find, been using them for a while. Saltwateraqaurium.com and BRSsells them.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

32.5" Coral Gripper (83 mm) - Maxspect

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

www.saltwateraquarium.com

23.5" Coral Gripper (60 mm) - Maxspect

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

They can break easily, don't squeeze super hard.
 
RandyC said:
Grippers are easy to find, been using them for a while. Saltwateraqaurium.com and BRSsells them.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

32.5" Coral Gripper (83 mm) - Maxspect

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

www.saltwateraquarium.com

23.5" Coral Gripper (60 mm) - Maxspect

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

They can break easily, don't squeeze super hard.
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Good to know. I would have not bought them from the pictures though, based on my experience with other models. But trying them in store convinced me to give them a try. Let’s see how long they last. The Tunze is still the bench mark but not always precise enough to catch smaller items easily.
 
Pretty cool your lord and candy cane aren't fighting on the corner of the tank, or do they shoot out filaments at night?

The borb looks pretty happy with its shaded overhang too.
 
finalphaze987 said:
Welcome back Alex. Glad to hear your tank survived your absence. Interested to hear how the tunze stream works out for you. How did your PH fare with an empty house?
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Thank you, Patrick. Only Day 1 after my return so I have not tried out the Tunze yet, but planning to do it ASAP. The only logistical issue with this is that both vertically oriented gyres I am using are sleeping places for a couple of fishes, so I feel bad removing one of them for now and replacing it with the Tunze - will still do that though.

Re PH - great, for both tanks, but still is - EXCEPT - last night when I cleaned the glass ORP rose dramatically and PH decreased dramatically at the same time until later today when both normalized. I am not sure what caused both probes to act up (PH was down to 7.5 this morning)?
 
Darkxerox said:
Pretty cool your lord and candy cane aren't fighting on the corner of the tank, or do they shoot out filaments at night?

The borb looks pretty happy with its shaded overhang too.
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A great point - I thought about this more this morning actually, since the other candy canes killed a large favia colony in my nano tank :(. The short answer is no, they both seem to be getting along very well for quite some time now.

Also, yes, I wanted to trim the monti but both of them love hiding below, mostly the small one though since the large one is the boss of the tank and usually right in the middle of the tank.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Thank you, Patrick. Only Day 1 after my return so I have not tried out the Tunze yet, but planning to do it ASAP. The only logistical issue with this is that both vertically oriented gyres I am using are sleeping places for a couple of fishes, so I feel bad removing one of them for now and replacing it with the Tunze - will still do that though.

Re PH - great, for both tanks, but still is - EXCEPT - last night when I cleaned the glass ORP rose dramatically and PH decreased dramatically at the same time until later today when both normalized. I am not sure what caused both probes to act up (PH was down to 7.5 this morning)?
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You and your family polluted the air with your respiration.
 
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