Rob's tank and greenhouse
- Thread starter robvdv
- Start date
Awesome!
Awesome!
Awesome!
That's all I can say.
Well done Rob.
Awesome!
Awesome!
That's all I can say.
Well done Rob.
Any updates?
I'll try get some in this weekend. Been busy (as usual)
Hi Rob, new to the site all the way from UK, and I just have to say, I have never ever genuinely been soo excited to seem someone elses build as I have with yours!!!
Its just way too awesome, and I can't wait to see what it looks like finished. This is truly one of THE most unique tanks I have seen! All the best!
Its just way too awesome, and I can't wait to see what it looks like finished. This is truly one of THE most unique tanks I have seen! All the best!
It's weekend uncle Rob. Start clicking away on the shutter release button and upload them pics already.....lol
Nice very nice. 
If you tank is up and running wil you invite us for deep sea fishing in your tank.
If you tank is up and running wil you invite us for deep sea fishing in your tank.taging along
My tank is still pea-green and kinda boring. Honestly, it makes me rather grumpy at the moment. I'm spread very thinly between projects, so I don't have enough time to work on it.
Time for an update. I've had a pretty unpleasant time with the tank and greenhouse over the past few months. My tank went from green to brown as a nasty dinoflaggelate started to dominate:
It was killing my molluscs (including my breeding Berghia, *sniff*) and inhibiting other algae. It took me a while to figure out that it was a dinoflaggelate rather than diatoms or phytoplankton.
Lovely stuff. Had the consistency of nasal mucus:
I put in a nice, healthy little red turf algae into a tub with dinos and it pretty rapidly turned brown and started to die:
I experimented a bit with hydrogen peroxide, and it had some effect, but it seemed like there was a rebound effect too. I think I was actually dealing with two dinoflaggelates. Killing one meant the other more benthic one started to flourish. With no decent microscope it was had to get a confirmation.
In the end, I did the following:
1. 600mg/hour of ozone into the skimmer
2. a 55W UV sterilizer
3. calcium hydroxide to raise the pH to 8.7
4. a 350W pump hooked up to two Beckett foam heads to improve airation and redox
5. another 30 airlifts to improve redox
6. 2kg of carbon changed weekly or so (probably too little)
7. I'm mechanically removing the sludge.
Here are the airlifts:
And the water starting to clear:
And then yesterday I did a little rockwork rearranging:
Getting instructions from the wife on where to move the rockwork:
The water is now pretty clear in general. On a smaller tank you wouldn't really notice the discolouration. The greenness here is from scraping the glass and kicking up detritus.
All in all, I'm a much happier camper than I've been in a while.
It was killing my molluscs (including my breeding Berghia, *sniff*) and inhibiting other algae. It took me a while to figure out that it was a dinoflaggelate rather than diatoms or phytoplankton.
Lovely stuff. Had the consistency of nasal mucus:
I put in a nice, healthy little red turf algae into a tub with dinos and it pretty rapidly turned brown and started to die:
I experimented a bit with hydrogen peroxide, and it had some effect, but it seemed like there was a rebound effect too. I think I was actually dealing with two dinoflaggelates. Killing one meant the other more benthic one started to flourish. With no decent microscope it was had to get a confirmation.
In the end, I did the following:
1. 600mg/hour of ozone into the skimmer
2. a 55W UV sterilizer
3. calcium hydroxide to raise the pH to 8.7
4. a 350W pump hooked up to two Beckett foam heads to improve airation and redox
5. another 30 airlifts to improve redox
6. 2kg of carbon changed weekly or so (probably too little)
7. I'm mechanically removing the sludge.
Here are the airlifts:
And the water starting to clear:
And then yesterday I did a little rockwork rearranging:
Getting instructions from the wife on where to move the rockwork:
The water is now pretty clear in general. On a smaller tank you wouldn't really notice the discolouration. The greenness here is from scraping the glass and kicking up detritus.
All in all, I'm a much happier camper than I've been in a while.
I saw that on the other forum last week. Well done on sorting it Rob. At least in future you have more than enough knowledge to help others when they do run up against the same stuff.
Btw, how does it get into a tank??
Btw, how does it get into a tank??
I think they may have come in on my Ric shipment. They both appeared first just after then, one in the tubs with the Gorgonians (brown water) and the other in one of the Ricordea tubs (mustard coloured slime).
It's also possible they came in with the natural seawater.
So we do get them here???
rob.........you are officially one of the most hard core and crazy reefer i have come across........lol:yeahdude:
'Course. White spot, zooxanthellae, red tide. All dinoflagellates. We definitely get them here.
Thanks, Marco. I think it helps to be a bit of a masochist.
Great come back Rob. You don't think maybe it could have been the same that is happening at melkbos?
Dunno. I spoke to the Two Oceans folks and they said they've seen a lot of ammonia in the source water. They've also seen some unseasonal species down here.
The newspaper said it was a "low oxygen" event causing all the deaths.
The newspaper said it was a "low oxygen" event causing all the deaths.
I think there's more to the story than what they telling us.