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Thread: 150g turnaround

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Jacksonville, NC. USA
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    150g turnaround

    Hello,
    I am trying to turn around my 150g that I bought in September of 2009. It was running before I got it and this is my first tank. When resetting up the tank, I did not rinse any sand or scrub any rock. Reused most of the water. It survived the 6 hour move minus 2 fish.
    These are pictures of it before it bought it.


    This is it after the move




    And this is it as of today.







    I got shipped out of town for work 3 days after moving the tank and just got back into town last week.
    I left my dad the huge responsibility of maintaining it for me and with him being so busy, it did not happen.

    I have been reading skimmer threads for a couple of months decided to buy one.
    I bought a SM-100 Scrubber and installed last tuesday due to the fact that the MRC skimmer i was using was finicky to say the least.
    It started growing slightly brown and i cleaned it 5 days after installing with a toothbrush (I now know not to) and this is a picture of it before I cleaned it yesterday.



    GHA has started to detach from the LR and algae growth on the glass has slowed considerably.
    More stuff has been coming out of rocks since skimmer was taken offline. Small starfish have been multiplying.
    I am looking for advice on how much the skimmer will fix and if I should perform water changes to get nitrate levels down.

  2. #2
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    My experience with fish has been that as long as they are adjusted to Nitrate levels they'll do fine. So no need to panic. I've 'rescued' tanks with 800-1000 ppm Nitrate, knocked it down with PWCs and the fish are still alive. Just make sure your KH is good and PH is good. Let the scrubber do the work and keep the skimmer running until the scrubber is growing green for at least a couple weeks. Let the system reach a new stability point, then start backing off the skimmer, maybe dial the level down or shut it off a few days a week, then a few more days, etc. Make sure you clean the screen every 3 days until N drops. Make sure you are feeding the tank enough also. P appears like it's being absorbed by the algae in the DT, since it's low. You may eventually have to dose iron to get the growth you need to knock down the N but I'll let SM chime in on that one.

  3. #3
    Administrator
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    I think his skimmer is already off.

    Growth looks great for a week. The pool is a little deep at the bottom... see if you can decrease flow a bit, and it will give you a bit more working screen area.

    Your scrubber box should start getting more full every 7 day cycle. After 4 or 5 full cleanings, your display will be much better and N and P will probably be zero. Although for all the phosphate to come out of the rocks, will probably take 6 months.

  4. #4

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    Feb 2011
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    Jacksonville, NC. USA
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    Thanks for the insight.Yes, I used my skimmer pump to feed the scrubber. Even though my growth is brown, should I limit gleanings to 7 days now?

  5. #5
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    Yes 7.

  6. #6

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    Feb 2011
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    2 week growth pics




    (22 grams, forgot to tare out)

    Hair algae in display is continuing to detach, brown algae on rocks is receding also.

  7. #7
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    As the nutrients come down, growth will get greener and more hairy, and will start filtering even more.

  8. #8

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    Jacksonville, NC. USA
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    Here is 3 week growth pics.







  9. #9
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    Now that's some good scrubbin'!

  10. #10

    Join Date
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    Re: 150g turnaround

    Now if only I could afford one more for the 72 bowfront...

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