FarmerTy

So nothing like waking up to the sounds of a return pump gurgling and a very full DT that's almost spilling over. One of my pink cucumbers decided to attempt a joyride down my left drain. The only thing he miscalculated was the amount of midnight snacks he's been eating that added to his girth. He got stuck and the water started backing up behind him. Luckily, my 2nd drain was up to the task of keeping the tank from spilling over and my 3rd chamber in the sump was running dry of water helping avoid a near disaster as well. Oh a good note, upon removing all acros from my frag tank, my depletion rate of alk has slowed to a much more manageable level and overall, the frag tank looks 10x healthier. Even the ORP level jumped into the 400s just a day after removing all acros and one dead snail. This frag tank stuff is much easier now, though I still plan on shutting it down after C4. After dipping all my acros from the frag tank, I moved them all back to my sump and put a light over them. Most didn't skip a beat and look very happy, if not happier than before. Two or three didn't like the transition and I yanked them immediately before they could foul my water. I've noticed that after running the frag tank, I've been very quick to yank unhappy corals. If I even see a bit of RTN, I yank them out of the tank. Just not worth my time anymore trying to save little 1-2" frags when I have a healthy mother colony pushing out new frags every month.

Thanks for weighing in bud. I think you guys are slowly talking me into just finishing it out as planned.

Keep us posted. Sorry you're going through this bud.

Don't forget giant tangs cruising the tank as well. [emoji4] I've found giant angels to be just as helpful.

I can see black and white splotches.When some where on they're way out... It almost looked like skin was coming off.. Which I'd assume was severe sliming. The fish in the QT look dusty almost Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pictures when you get a chance?

Gotcha, so all tubs are connected to your sump and share water. You put new fish (what fish?) into the SPS tub a few weeks ago, and then the last couple days you've been losing fish quick in your fish tub. Smells like velvet or bacterial infection to me. Both, once reaching critical mass, will kill very quickly. It seems like it took a little while to make it to the other tub and grow to a critical population before wiping fish out. One way to check if its velvet is to freshwater dip a fish in a dark container. You'll see them drop off the fish within 5 minutes. By the time you actually see physical symptoms of velvet, your fish are more than likely doomed at that point. Bacterial is usually harder to distinguish but I've seen it as dark gray or white splotchy areas on the fish's skin usually. It'll kill in 24hrs on average... Very quick. Don't confuse the splotchy areas on tangs and angels under duress as bacterial... You know how they can change colors and show stress patterns, try to differentiate if possible.

Do you have any pictures of the surviving members? It's very hard to see potential disease symptoms on dead fish. When you say they look terrible, what are the physical symptoms?

Oh my gosh! Sorry Juiceman! [emoji47] I never saw your temporary setup, is this in the tub that is connected to your sump still? Did you mention adding new livestock?

I think I've easily saved myself over a thousand in labor alone the last couple of years. Replaced a capacitor, a contactor, and a motor on the outside unit and a board and a blower capacitor on the inside unit.

What can I say, I'm rant selfish! The only place in town that sells to the public, Johnstone. There's one up north literally 2 minutes away from my house and there is one down south near the 71/35 intersection.

100% agree!

Excuse me sir. This is a non-ranting zone..[emoji6]

I think my backyard would appreciate that spilled water!

That was just me soaking up the glory of my successes for the day. I turned it back up... Got a bit chilly. [emoji4]

If cost is not a function, I say get a nice acrylic sump. But if you want to keep costs lower and most likely people aren't going to go into your sump room often enough for you to show it off, just get the tub and call it a day. You will have less flexibility to have segmented chambers with different water levels for different purposes (refugium, skimmer chamber, etc) but if that doesn't matter to you, then tub it.

Woohoo!

Dang capacitors, that's why! They are prone to failure in the extreme heat as they get older. For all you homeowners, do yourself a favor, if you haven't replaced or had someone replace the capacitor or contactor in your outside unit in the last 3-5 years, then do it! That's average replacement schedule anyways. You might as well do it in the winter when it's cooler than wait for it to break down on you in the middle of the summer. Also, newly learned to me, there's another capacitor powering the blower fan. It fortunately was not the problem but average life on all the capacitors are like 3-5 years anyways so I replaced mine while at it. It was operating at 80% capacity. If it sounds fancy, it isn't. Think like replacing a giant battery... mine was a whopping $20 for a replacement. Loosen two nuts, remove two tab connector, swap capacitor, reassemble, and you're set. The real problem was my main board. It was fried. I had to replace the whole board and rewire to get it to work again. I had a lot of fun in the attic today but I'm currently writing this post in a brisk 76 degree living room. Scorch mark from the old board burning out Burnt board Tadah, new board in and functioning. Check out that shiny new capacitor above it too.

AC guy was actually out last night at 10pm but sadly, it was the wiring harness and they don't drive around with a wiring harness for every manufacturer of AC units with them. I'll be DIYing it this morning once Johnstone opens at 8am. I'll replace the blower capacitor as well while I'm at it. It was reading a hair low.We both actually slept pretty comfortably last night. Nothing like two giant fans and about 100 lbs of ice to keep it nice and comfy in the master bedroom. Smart man. Good to know you make early AM house calls.As in roll out of bed and get to working... Then yes... Haha.

Oh man, I live and die by AC so I feel ya. I wish I had a temp gauge in the room with me last night but it couldn't have been over 78 in there. Pretty comfortable in spite of the situation and my wife even pulled the covers back over her because she got chilly last night.I figured I'd at least wake up glued to my mattress but it was nice, cool, and dry this morning. Nothing like some Aggie engineering! [emoji106]

My life is pure entertainment these days! You should see what happens in the next chapter this fall! Stay tuned... [emoji6]

AC guy was actually out last night at 10pm but sadly, it was the wiring harness and they don't drive around with a wiring harness for every manufacturer of AC units with them. I'll be DIYing it this morning once Johnstone opens at 8am. I'll replace the blower capacitor as well while I'm at it. It was reading a hair low.We both actually slept pretty comfortably last night. Nothing like two giant fans and about 100 lbs of ice to keep it nice and comfy in the master bedroom.

Can I just make a comment on chillers? A couple years back, I thought it crazy that people would spend absurd amounts of money on a chiller when I felt like fans blowing over the water would solve everything heat related. Then I put 3 400-watt MHs over my tank in a canopy and it didn't matter how much water you evaporated to cool your tank, you weren't going to win against those heat lamps. I found me a cheap used chiller and hooked it inline. It saved the day. Once I swapped LEDs out for the MHs, the chiller never would turn on... But I left the chiller operational just in case. Fast forward to tonight, my board on my inside AC unit gets fried and I have no AC right now. Wife and I are comfortable in the Master with two coolers full of ice and fans blowing over them. The frag tank gets plenty of cooling via the large surface area to volume ratio, and the tub is in the office with the fan on but temps are holding steady at 81, which they are normally at 80 so no biggie. The chiller is keeping my display at a nice 80.5 degrees and thank goodness it is there, even though it is for emergency purposes only. When you run an SPS dominant tank, redundancies are your friend. It's not about if, but more about when for emergencies.

I was absolutely content with ich management until I decided I wanted an achilles tang and powder blue tang. All this work is definitely making me think two fish aren't really worth it. I will still QT just to make sure I'm adding healthy fish but all the TTM and QTing CUC is way more involved than this lazy reefer ever wants to be.

Probably won't be free for a bit sir (busy season of real estate) but will be bringing a mess of frags to C4. Make sure you attend!