Our First Saltwater Tank (Lots of pics!)

[NandKBlock]

On February 22, 2008 we put a bunch of live rock in our first saltwater tank to cure and we haven't looked back. My wife and I talk about keeping a history of our tank with both pictures and writings but never seem to get around to it. There's just too much cool stuff to find, discover and watch in the tank and fuge to ever get around to it. I doubt we'll ever go back and document everything we've done and experienced but we can going forward.

There's a smattering of pictures in our album here on this site if anyone's interested in where we started and how we got here. It was kinda shocking to look at pictures of the frags when we first put them in and see how much they've grown already in such a short time. Well anyway, here's some of the pics I took tonight starting off with the ever-popular and highly elusive 'full tank shot'.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010775.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010809.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010811.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010814.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010803.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010791.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010793.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010779.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010799.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010796.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010800.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010786.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010787.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010780.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010784.jpg

Thanks to everyone here who's taken the time to answer our questions and help us get off to a successful start in this awesome hobby. Our adopted animal friends thank you too!

[kpete4]

Looks great!

[Dhummel]

very nice setup, like the aquacsaping, corals are looking good as well :beerchug:

[fivesmallworlds]

You have some beautiful pieces, can't wait to see how they develop over the years. Great pics too!

[bob_trrnt]

Very good Nate. Nice to see it really start to take off isn't it.

[FastFish720]

Looking good :) now you need to show off your "under the sump pics"

[REEFSTOCK]

:biggthumpup::beerchug:

[thepollock]

looking good nate. that rtba has gottin huge.

[kerks01]

Things are looking great!

[cwk132]

Very nice looking tank. What kind of lights do you have? And where did you get your rock it looks great.

[bkoppes]

Looks awesome!!

[NandKBlock]

Thanks for all the kind words! It's nice to know all the planning, research, and hard work to get to this point is paying dividends.

Very good Nate. Nice to see it really start to take off isn't it. It is! We never realized just how much things were growing untilwe looked at the old pictures. The Pocilipora has REALLY grown and so has the Montipora but I know those grow fast. The Monti has at least an inch of new growth all around the perimeter and the wavy 'bumps' nearer the rock are new too and that's in less than two months including acclimation time.

Not only the corals, but it seems every night we've got some new worm crawling around and the pods have reached infestation levels. They don't even bother staying hidden during the day. Our fish are going to love that! :)


Looking good :) now you need to show off your "under the sump pics"I'll leave that for another post once I take more pics of it.


looking good nate. that rtba has gottin huge.Hehehe, I didn't know if you'd recognize it! :) You should recognize most everything else though. Thanks again for getting me started, nothing's died yet. (Knock on wood)

Very nice looking tank. What kind of lights do you have? And where did you get your rock it looks great.Up until last weekend I was using the Sundial (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~sundial%2054~action~view~idP roduct~CU01153~idCategory~FILTFIT58U~category~48_i nch_Current_USA_SunDial_T5_HO_4x54W_w__Timers___LE D_48in_Units~vendor~.html) fixture by CurrentUSA which coincidentally is going up for sale as soon as I clean off the splash shield and take some pics. I am a chronic DIYer and decided to make my own lighting and now I have a 4x54w icecap SLR retro kit that I purchased at SWE installed with four fans blowing down the length of the bulbs to keep them cool. I'm using 2 ATI Blue Plus bulbs, 1 ATI ProColor Bulb, and 1 ATI AquaBlue Special bulb. I tried mixing in an ATI True Actinic bulb but frankly I couldn't tell any difference in coloration of the few corals I have so I removed it in favor of a second Blue Plus which provides vastly more PAR.

We ordered our rock online for $3 or $4 bucks per pound plus shipping and requested the largest pieces they had figuring we could always break them up if we needed to. It worked out awesome and we ended up only breaking one in half and the rocks you see are mostly single pieces. I had planned and prepared to drill all the rocks and use rods but ony ended up needing to do that once. The tall skinny pillar in the middle where the anemone perched itself inthe tunnel is one piece but has a small piece rodded into the base that acts as a third point of contact. I got the rocks to fit together nice and secure by themselves but decided to use a rod there just to make doubly sure it wouldn't topple if I whacked it. Everything else is rock solid - pun intended. :)


Keep the feedback coming!

[dougers31]

Nice :eek2:

[NandKBlock]

Looking good :) now you need to show off your "under the sump pics"

I cleaned out my skimmer, did a water change and took some pics so here they are. :)

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010840.jpg
Here's a 'full sump' pic that shows the overall setup. I'm using a 40 gallon breeder with the right half devoted to the fuge and the left half the sump. The water flows in from the display (top left) and is immediately split sending some flow to the skimmer section and some to the fuge. The ball valves immediately after this tee allow full control over how much flow goes where. The majority of the water that enters the skimmer chamber is sent through the skimmer which empties directly into the bubble trap and then into the return chamber while the water that doesn't get processed through the skimmer flows over that first baffle on its own. The water sent to the fuge empties directly into the return chamber.

I positioned the tank, sump, return chamber and pump such that is is a perfectly straight shot back up into the tank. I wanted to keep the potential flow as high as possible and didn;t want to add head height through bends and elbows. There is one tee along the way which allows me to send water from the return pump to the fuge or through the wall and directly into a basement floor drain. I did this to expedite water changes but I find myself vacuuming substrate and and cleaning up settled debris in the chamber chamber more often than not during a water change. Still, I can do a full 15 gallon water change in less than five minutes with not a drop of spilled water anywhere. Pretty handy option to have...

You can't see them in the pictures, but both the drains and returns use unions directly below the display tank so any changes/repairs I need to make to the plumbing (or maintenance to the return pump) can be done by disconnecting there.

One last note about the overall design. It was important to me toadd as much volume to my system via the sump as possible and you can see the water levels in the skimmer chamber and fuge are above the frame and the return chamber and bubble trap levels are not far below. I've tested a complete power failure and even running at this level the sump is able to prevent any spillage in such an event.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010847.jpg
The bubble tower. This is the where the water from the display enters the skimmer chamber. I battled microbubbles, noise, and splashing in my sump forever and without a doubt fixing those issues were the most frustrating thing I've had to deal with to date. I finally scrapped my quest for a perfectly clean look and made a drop-in bubble tower for the drain to empty into. It blocks most of the splashing and gets rid of most of the bubbles by providing a large column for them to float up in while water is forced to travel to the bottom and through slits cutin the plexiglass. The end of the drain pipe is capped with a strainer to diffuse the flow instead of jetting it straight to the bottom which would send bubbles with it, and I recently started hanging a bag with carbon over the inlet as well.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010846.jpg
The skimmer chamber. I elevated my skimmer (AquaC EV-120) on a platform for three reasons. First, I could place the pump that powers the skimmer beneath it thereby adding 'floorspace' to that section. Second, I could raise the overall water level in the section from 9" up to around 14". And thirdly, I could empty the skimmer directly into the bubble trap instead of back into the skimmer chamber. I felt this would help me get the most out of the skimmer since water would only go through it once meaning that only 'fully dirty' water would be processed. I read somewhere that the actual throughput of the skimmer is 235gph and I know that all of those 235 gallons are dirty tank water, not already-been-skimmed water sent through a second, third, fourth, or morth time. I drilled holes in 1" PVC to form a spray bar that diffuses the flow of water from teh skimmer allowing the bubbles from it to rise upwards in the bubble trap instead of being forced downward by a more direct flow.

I ordered the skimmer with an optional John Guest fitting for future use with a calcium reactor or whatever else but once I got it I figured I may as well make use of it now instead of just plugging it up so that is where I drip my evaporation top-off into. The blue tubing and valve carry the freshwater from a remote reservoir into the skimmer where it's dripped in at a rate that matches evaporation. Now that I have this set the only change I need to make is when there's a significant change in room temperature which affects the rate of evaporation.

The nasty looking clear tubing carries overflow skimmate to a 1 gallon jug sitting next to the fuge.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010843.jpg
The Refugium. There's two ways to send water to the fuge, from the display tank, and from the return pump. The plumbing in back comes from the display drain and runs horizontal at water level bleeding off bubbles up into the tees which confine any spray from popping bubbles. The angled plumbing in front comes from the return pump which as of now is closed off with the ball valve.

The fuge holds a 5-6" DSB composed of CaribSea's Bahamas Oolitic sand, various leftover fiji branch rock, some larger rubble rock, and a ball of Chaetomorpha. The rock aids in denitrification and serves as a pod motel along with the chaeto. Pod production is a major goal of my fuge. I have yet to harvest any chaeto but it is finally growing so that should come soon. The fuge is lit by a regular old CF spotlight from Home Depot on a reverse photocycle from the main tank.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010845.jpg
The return chamber. A MagDrive 9.5 sends water out of the sump. My heater is located here as well but the temp probe that controls it is in the skimmer chamber outside the bubble tower. I've also placed the smaller pieces of my rubble rock here for even more natural filtration and the pods have even moved in here too...

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010841.jpg
Electrical and misc. plumbing. All power for my setup comes from a dedicated 20 amp circuit. There are four independent GFI outlets in the sump area so that a heater that shorts out will not stop all the pumps, lights, etc. The pumps are on the same GFI with everything else having its own right now.

There's three flexible tubings plumbed through the wall and from top to bottom they are: Exit plumbing from return pump to floor drain, freshwater entering from remote reservoir into skimmer, and premixed saltwater from a remote reservoir ending with a gate valve (which is hanging hidden to the right of the fuge light timer). As metioned earlier, the freshwater is dripped in to match evaporation rates and any wet skimmate water volume that's removed can be manually re-added using the valved SSW supply. It is also the way I add water during water changes. No carrying buckets!!! :)


Here's some more shots of the sump area:
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010842.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1010844.jpg

I think that's everything...

[Dhummel]

everything looke great, the only thing i noticed is that you don't have very much room for power outage, back flow into the sump, if that happens your going to have a flood, unless you have already tested a power outage, i guess i would not run my sump that high, i have a 55 gallon that only has 8" of water running through it all the time, wit h a power outage it goes 8-10" from the top.
something to consider..

[wes]

I agree, def. do major blackout testing to avoid floods.

you even cleaned the skimmer! looking good!

[NandKBlock]

One last note about the overall design. It was important to me to add as much volume to my system via the sump as possible and you can see the water levels in the skimmer chamber and fuge are above the frame and the return chamber and bubble trap levels are not far below. I've tested a complete power failure and even running at this level the sump is able to prevent any spillage in such an event.

I know I got long-winded ;)

I did test for a complete power outage and yes the sump can handle the water that drains from the display tank. I test this at every water change just to make sure because even though I know it will I look at the space available and find it hard to believe. The key to this that I've found is twofold. First, I can't let my durso develop a siphon because if it does it will drain an extra 4" of water out of the overflow and second, make sure my locline returns will break their siphons before they pull out any more water than the height of the overflow.

Now it's not like I have a ton of room to spare or anything. When I cut the power the water level rises right up even to the part of the top frame that juts into the tank a little bit. Since I'm dripping in my evaporation topoff that has the potential to overflow it but I've tried to calculate that out and I think I'd have about 24 hours before that but who know what would happen to the evaporation rate. Anyway, I'm checking my tank way more often than once a day so no problems. If/when we go on vacation or something I'll lower the water level in the sump a little just in case. When I do that however the dreaded microbubbles increase... :mad_3:

Keep the constructive criticisms coming! Everything I've done/designed/purchased was the result of internet and book research. I haven't had the benefit of first hand experiences from people until now. After all, I'm still a :lots:

[NandKBlock]

Our cleaner shrimp finally decided to start coming out of the rockwork now so I was able to get a nice pick of him. We've had him for about six weeks and he's molted twice already. He's looking forward to next weekend when the fish are re-introduced into the tank, he's getting tired of waiting around to clean my hands every couple days. ;)

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=725

[seaweed]

nice tank:goldfish:

[NandKBlock]

To get everyone up to speed here's an old post from reefbuilders: http://www.reefbuilders.com/forums/new-hobby-getting-started-setting-up/9363-one-month-since-rock-went.html

At some point we began referring to the turbos as Decepticons and the Astraeas as Autobots, it only made sense since we had a gigantic bad-***** turbo named megatron... :) Fast forward two months from that post and our tank is now crawling with teeny tiny little decepticons (Frenzies for those of you who've seen the movie), hundreds of them. Strangely, the autobots have been found laying on their sides in increasing numbers of late and its obvious what's happening, the decepticons and autobots are at war!

In all seriousness, it's kinda cool to see the turbos back. We've finally developped a little hair algae in the tank so hopefully a balance will develop between the turbos and the algae. It's pretty cool to see a miniature eco system develop and sustain itself right before our very eyes. I wish my kids a were a little older so they could appreciate this stuff, what an awesome science project a reef tank would make.

[NandKBlock]

This past weekend was pretty eventful for our tank. We added some corals courtesy of some frags we bought from Dobbs and the Pollock's insurance frags and reintroduced the fish after running the display fallow for eight weeks to erradicate ich. I'll have to get better pictures of the new corals before posting about them and putting up some new tank shots but I did get a decent pic of our two fish frolicking happily in their new (old) home.

Amphiprion Oscellaris 'Nemo' & Heniochus Diphruetes 'Spike'
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=732

You might be able to tell from the picture that after eight weeks in a ten gallon glass and white pvc pipe sanitorium that they became pretty good friends. So good that they now school together. Honest to God, they swim together all over the tank. Nemo's just one messed up litttle clown fish. First he decided to host the corner of the overflow instead of that nice big RBTA (or leather, or GSP, or frogspawn, or hammer) and now he schools, and with a different species to boot!

Not only do they school together, but they sleep together. Nemo used to sleep floating up in the corner by the overflow, now they sleep side by side rubbing fins mid-depth near the back wall of the tank. Honest to God it's like these two are paired or something.

Anyway, it's REALLY nice to have the fish back in the tank and add a little more movement. I was expecting a little cycle after adding them since the tank has been running for two months without any feedings or any waste being added but so far the tests are still showing zero across the board so that's been a nice surprise.

Sometime later this week I'll get pics up of the new corals and maybe a growth pic or two. Bye for now.

[NandKBlock]

Not getting any replies so I'm not sure if anyone cares, but we'll keep this up just because it's fun. Comments, criticisms, thoughts and helpful hints are all VERY welcome.


Last weekend I purchased from frags from Dobbs. Kristen had told me to buy some bright ones and Dobbs had some things that definitely fit the bill.:banana:
Here's the pics, if anyone has an ID for these I'd really appreciate it, I'm trying to put together an accurate inventory of my livestock. Thanks!

Birdsnest Are there different kinds?
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=748

??? Browned out a bit but it will have bright green polyps.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=746

Montipora??? Bright yellow polyps and a banana yellow base that's browned out a tad.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=749

??? Bright orange with large clearish polyps (not shown) that come out at night. I target fed some PE Mysis successfully but I'm not sure if I need to or not. I'm worried that this one has special needs! Help!
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=747

Thanks for the great frags Dobbs. I'll get you some of my red monti whenever you're ready for it.

[David Grigor]

That looks more like a yellow turbinaria ( scroll ) than a monti. Depending on the light intensity the base can be all yellow but most times will have some brown tint to it unless you have really intense light or located way up high.

[fivesmallworlds]

(following along) looking good.

[NandKBlock]

Thanks David, I've done some follow-up research from your suggestion and you're correct, the yellow one is Turbinaria reniformus.

[NandKBlock]

Last weekend I made a look-down box out of a $3 11"x14" piece of plexi from Home Depot and some super glue. It's not the prettiest thing, but why would anyone be looking at the box itself when these beauties are looking up at them?

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=861
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=860
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=859

I didn't do any touching up or manipulation of any kind other than cropping and resizing. That's how they look. Unreal!

I never knew how different and beautiful corals could look from the top as opposed to the side. If people are keeping SPS and don't have a look-down box I highly recommend making or buying one so you can see the hidden treasures of your tank.

[fivesmallworlds]

Those are some Fantastic pics! Might have to make me one of those boxes when it's all up and running.

[NandKBlock]

So I have this problem in that I've never been around a reef tank before to know how fast corals should grow. I read a lot of talk about having to dose this and that or elevate this or that or up the lighting and stuff like that in order to get growth and I do want growth but at the same time my corals are growing but I'm not sure if they're growing very slowly or what. So I took some pictures a month ago and then again this month and pasted them together so people could see the growth and tell me whether or not they're growing at a somewhat normal rate. I'm really hoping for some feedback to let me know where in the range of growth rates my corals are falling. I know that corals grow at different rates but hopefully people have some experience with a couple of these. I've included when the frags were first added so you can account for the period of initial adjustment/acclimation. Here we go:

Purple Montipora capricornis (Added 04-14-2008)
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=884

Pink Pocillopora damicornis (Added 03-24-2008)
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=882

Rainbow Acropora tortuosa (Added 03-24-2008)
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=880

Purple Montipora digitata (Added 03-24-2008)
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=881

[Ocean Devotion]

Nice Job, Simplicity at its best. Well thought out.

Your growth looks fine, I wouldn't rush it give it time.

[thepollock]

i would not be worryed they look like there growing fine. i wish i could get the mother colony of the Pink Pocillopora to color up like that.

[thepollock]

:beerchug:

[NandKBlock]

Kristen just called me and told me that Nemo is finally hosting in our RBTA. I can't wait to get home and see! If I can get a pic I'll post it here later.

Nobody has any thoughts on whether my corals are growing OK???



PS - Don't blame me for 'Nemo', our two year old named him...

[Zibba]

The corals are growing great and coloring up nicely. That rainbow acro is awesome!

Keep up with the progression shots, you'll really appreciate looking back at them as your tank matures. You'll find that as the corals get more comfortable in the tank and lay a base, they'll start to take off.

[cwk132]

The growth looks good. Even more important your corals look healthy. Great polyp extension and the coloring that developed on the rainbow tort is amazing!

[NandKBlock]

OK, I feel a little better now, thanks for the feedback guys. It's tough being a :lots: and not knowing what is good, bad, or indifferent. I mean I know nothing has died and the polyps are opening on everything, but is that enough to mean things are happy? I just didn't know.

That rainbow tort IS awesome. I love that thing! It was a 'frag it forward' acquisition so in time I'll be happily fragging it out. I wish I would have put it in a little more prominent part of my tank now that I can see what it will look lke but it is up front and the flow around it seems to be just perfect for it so it'll stay there. It seems like the rest of my frags are mostly growing toward the back of the tank or leaning forward so that the front side is shaded and not as colorful. I was really wowed by the top-down views. I'm hoping that as they grow out more of the highly colored parts become visible from the front.

[Zibba]

Last weekend I made a look-down box out of a $3 11"x14" piece of plexi from Home Depot and some super glue. It's not the prettiest thing, but why would anyone be looking at the box itself when these beauties are looking up at them?
.

Was there a thread that I missed about you making this? If so, can you point me in the right direction? If not, can you either post how you made it or shoot me a pm.

TIA

- Z

[NandKBlock]

Oh yeah, no problem. I didn't make a thread for this, it was kind of a spur of the moment, the kids are napping sort of project but I'm happy to share.

There wasn't much too this really, I just bought an 11"x14" piece of plexi/acrylic from Home Depot but you can find the same thing at Menards or Lowes or wherever. I glued the pieces together using superglue that I had on hand for attaching frags but that's all I needed. The only mildly tricky part was figuring out how to get all the pieces I needed out of the one sheet. I went back and figured it out again and the cut plan is included below. Just be sure to pick wither the long sides or the short sides and reduce their length by two times the thickness of the sheet. You want the sides to sit on top of the bottom piece and if you don't shorten one of the sides they will hang over the edge of the bottom piece once you butt the side pieces together and glue them. After I had the pieces all cut (on my table saw, but any method of cutting will work) I sanded the edges to be glued just to smooth them out since superglue doesn't bond well to uneven surfaces. After that was done I glued the sides onto the bottom one at a time making sure to glue them to each other as I went around. You can see below that the box is smudged up with superglue marks and such but the bottom panel is clean in the middle where I left the plastic 'wrapper' on during assembly.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=891
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=890

[wolmutt]

Looks awesome. I would be concerned about the sump being so full. I think is is more important to follow tried and true methods. In my experience when I worked from my theories in the beginning my method worked, but then something unplanned for happened, and chaos erupted. Having several extra gallons of salt water, even 10, isn't worth what an overflow in a sump could do to your floor. Also, are you sure that butterfly fish is safe for your corals and inverts?

Beautiful tank, and great corals. You have done an excellent job with this tank. It is very impressive. Especially the water change method you came up with. I would LOVE to have that.

Oh yeah, are you sure you want all those 45 degree bends in your overflow pipes? I like straight shot overflow and return pipes/tubing. I have had 1.5 inch overflow tubes clog that were a straight shot. I learned from that experience to not ever put any algae in the overflow box. Overflow tubes clog much easier than you would think IME. I don't really know s@#t about plumbing so take it with a grain of salt. Great tank guys!

[NandKBlock]

Thanks for the comments Wolmutt. :beerchug: I totally get where you're coming from on the sump level and I would lower it if there was ever any chance of an overflow, but I've gotten into a habit of turning off all my pumps when I feed (just because there's less food blown away before it gets eaten) and every time I watch the sump and it never overflows. Short of the main tank springing a leak and draining into the sump I just can't imagine how it could overflow and if that happened it wouldn't matter how low my sump evel was, it would overflow. I keep it that high to help reduce microbubbles that make it into my return chamber. That's still a bugger of an issue...

The butterfly is a Heniochus diphreutes which is purported to be a reef safe species unlike the Heniochus accumatis and others that are known to nip. He's only a juvenile and all but so far he's lived up to the reef safe rep purposefully avoiding corals but nibbling at the rock close by.

I wish I could take credit for those corals but truth be told I've kinda fell into them. ThePollock gave me a bunch as frag it forward frags which he had received from others and the few frags I have bought were purchased largely under the 'bright color' mandate of my better half.

It is a nifty water change method but I rarely use it. Instead I find myself siphoning out detritus that;s settled in the sump or cleaning the sand and rock in the display, etc. Still, if I needed to do an emergency water change it would be quick and easy.

I do worry a little about all the drain pipe bends. I really wanted to maximize flow so I straight-shotted my return which meant my drain had to bend. I experimented with at least a dozen different plumbing schemes before settling on this as the best compromise of various factors. Ideally I'd want to utilize the two drain system with a restricted main and an emergency overflow. Unfortunately I knew nothing of that when I was setting everything up. Definitely any future setup will have better plumbing and multiple drains.

I probably should make a point to clean the drain lines every so often. If anyone has a particular method that works well or any experiences at all doing this I'd be interested to hear them.

Thanks for the feedback though. We've done a LOT of research on things and tried a bunch more but we're still newbies to this whole thing and need all the feedback, good, bad or indifferent that we can get. After all, four months ago we had never had an aquarium before, much less a reef tank, and while we think things have been going good we really don't have anything to measure against. We need feedback!!! :beerchug:

I've thought about having a meeting just so I could get people here to get their advice, observations, and recommendations but most people probably don't want to come see a bunch of teeny weeny little frags and I haven't Cleared it with Kristen either. Definitely down the road I'd like to host one though, it's just a matter of when.

[wolmutt]

I'd like to host a meeting, too, but my 120 is in my bedroom :biggthumpup:. You should come see it. My tank is perfectly silent. The only sound that is apparent is the massive amount of air being sucked in to the MSX skimmer. I have no micro bubbles due to the gate valve method of quieting the overflow. Cool to know about that particular butterfly. Cool fish. I want an angel in my tank, not a dwarf either.
You know what would be cool is if you could find a way, or the next time you plan a tank, to have a conical or sloping section in the bottom of the sump so that when the detrius settles it is right over your drain valve for doing water changes. I read about Walter Adley I think who set up a system like this in a public aquarium.
Theory is great in practice, but it's like you said you need feedback from others. It's kinda like reefing is an art. Art is about feeling and balance whereas theory is void of these aspects (within the context of one having no experience). Theory can compliment art and vise versa, but one without the other and.......crash :biggrin:. Give me a call if you want help with your micro bubbles.

[dobbs]

Last weekend I purchased from frags from Dobbs. Kristen had told me to buy some bright ones and Dobbs had some things that definitely fit the bill.:banana:
Here's the pics, if anyone has an ID for these I'd really appreciate it, I'm trying to put together an accurate inventory of my livestock. Thanks!

Birdsnest Are there different kinds?
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=748

??? Browned out a bit but it will have bright green polyps.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=746

Montipora??? Bright yellow polyps and a banana yellow base that's browned out a tad.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=749

??? Bright orange with large clearish polyps (not shown) that come out at night. I target fed some PE Mysis successfully but I'm not sure if I need to or not. I'm worried that this one has special needs! Help!
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=747

Thanks for the great frags Dobbs. I'll get you some of my red monti whenever you're ready for it.

Your welcome.

The 1st one is a Seriatopora Hystrix - Purple & Pink Birdsnest...
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/purplepinkbirdsnestseriatoporahystr.jpg?

The 2nd one is Tri-Colored Acro...
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/IMG_0028.jpg?t=1213905939
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/IMG_0143.jpg

The 3rd one is a Yellow Turbinaria...
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/ReefTank004.jpg

The 4th one is either a Lava Flow Echino, or a Rasberry Echino (if it's the Rasberry - I'd like to get a frag when it grows out. I sold my last frag by mistake. Was it mounted on a disk, or did I frag it for you?)...
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/LavaFlowEchino.jpg
http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/dobbelmann/rasberryechinophyllia2.jpg

[NandKBlock]

Thanks for the IDs Dobbs, you've got awesome looking corals. I'm 99% percent certain the Echino I got is a Lava Flow because it's very orange. I don't remember if it was on a plug or not but either way if you ever want frags of the stuff I'll be more than happy to give them.

The Tri-Color Acro must need more light than it's getting right now (it's underneath the center brace right now) because it hasn't colored up much if at all yet so I'm thinking about moving it out into the open more

The birdsnest is already growing noticeably with several new branches. It's not as pink as yours yet but the polyps have stayed nice and bright.

The Turbinara opens beautifully all the time but still hasn't shown much growth. I'm not too concerned though because most frags I've added have taken around a month before they really start taking off so I'm content to take a wait and see approach with it. I'm hoping it will become my centerpiece in time.

The Echino will probably be moving as well. I've read they can be mean mofo's and right now it's close to my rainbow tort... Plus I've read that they don't need as much light as other SPS so I'll probably move him a little lower to fill out some bottom areas.

They're all great animals and make great additions to my tank.

[dobbs]

Thanks for the IDs Dobbs, you've got awesome looking corals. I'm 99% percent certain the Echino I got is a Lava Flow because it's very orange. I don't remember if it was on a plug or not but either way if you ever want frags of the stuff I'll be more than happy to give them.

The Tri-Color Acro must need more light than it's getting right now (it's underneath the center brace right now) because it hasn't colored up much if at all yet so I'm thinking about moving it out into the open more

The birdsnest is already growing noticeably with several new branches. It's not as pink as yours yet but the polyps have stayed nice and bright.

The Turbinara opens beautifully all the time but still hasn't shown much growth. I'm not too concerned though because most frags I've added have taken around a month before they really start taking off so I'm content to take a wait and see approach with it. I'm hoping it will become my centerpiece in time.

The Echino will probably be moving as well. I've read they can be mean mofo's and right now it's close to my rainbow tort... Plus I've read that they don't need as much light as other SPS so I'll probably move him a little lower to fill out some bottom areas.

They're all great animals and make great additions to my tank.

You're welcome...and thank you :beerchug:. What is your lighting again? With the exception of the birdsnest - they are pretty slow growing. Did I frag the Echino while you were at the house? I used a hammer and a screwdriver to frag it. If not - you have the rasberry.

[NandKBlock]

I've got a fan-cooled 4 bulb T5 retro kit 4" off the water with icecap reflectors. Showing/explaining that will be a future update to this thread but I still need to get some pics of some new frags and of our clown that FINALLY decided to host in out RBTA.

I must have the Raspberry then because you didn't frag it while I was there. There were two pieces of it on the sand, one larger, one smaller. I got the smaller one. It had already healed up from being fragged. It REALLY looks orange though, no redish or pinkish tinge to it at all... Either way it really doesn't matter, when it grows out some and I know it's healthy and happy I'll gladly return a frag, whichever it is. I can get you some of the red monti cap at the same time.

It's the weekend and that means I'll see some updates to your build thread. Looking forward to it. :beerchug:

[dobbs]

I've got a fan-cooled 4 bulb T5 retro kit 4" off the water with icecap reflectors. Showing/explaining that will be a future update to this thread but I still need to get some pics of some new frags and of our clown that FINALLY decided to host in out RBTA.

I must have the Raspberry then because you didn't frag it while I was there. There were two pieces of it on the sand, one larger, one smaller. I got the smaller one. It had already healed up from being fragged. It REALLY looks orange though, no redish or pinkish tinge to it at all... Either way it really doesn't matter, when it grows out some and I know it's healthy and happy I'll gladly return a frag, whichever it is. I can get you some of the red monti cap at the same time.

It's the weekend and that means I'll see some updates to your build thread. Looking forward to it. :beerchug:

Thanks. No rush on the frag though. With your lighting - you might want to get the tri-color ong the turb as high as you can. The other 2 should do well at lower levels.

I'm hoping to have a few hours to work on the build this weekend...family outing on Sat...and back to the 50's at the fairground all weekend.

[NandKBlock]

My father in law has a 72 Nova that we detailed in and out for him for father's day. I think he was planning on going to the Back to the 50's sometime this weekend, maybe I'll tag along and look for ya.

Thanks for the advice on placement, that's the kind of help I need! +1 for the usefulness of this thread. :)

[NandKBlock]

Finally after an initial month-long stay in the display, a two month trip to the QT while the tank ran fallow for ich, and another couple weeks in the display our false percula is finally hosting our RBTA!

The whole thing is just really cool. Our guy is tank raised and he spent most of his time floating in a corner so we wondered if he'd ever 'do the natural thing' and host in the anemone or if he just thought glass walls and siliconed corners were the Ritz. Well he finally did. The first time we fed him after he dove in there he took the first two pieces of food directly to the anemone and left it on the anemone's tentacles before going back to get his own. Obviously not a learned behavior, totally instinctual. Fascinating.

The downside to this is that his only other tankmate and (former) best buddy is now left to sleep alone after spending his entire time at our house sleeping spooned up next to Nemo. It's kinda sad to see him all by himself...

Anyway, here's a pic of the new best friends:
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=896

[cwk132]

Looks like you need to buy a new friend for the lonely one! You only have two fish right? A wrasse would spice things up :banana:

[NandKBlock]

Yep, we've got just the two in the display right now but there's a Royal Gramma we got last week in QT for a month while he gets copperized and de-iched. If we can find a Blue Reef Chromis somewhere this weekend we'd add him to the QT as well but it seems they're hard to find.

I like wrasses myself but Kristen doesn't. She thinks they're ugly and has heard they're jumpers. Our only fatality thus far was a previous Royal Gramma that jumped out of the QT one night and she found him the next morning. She wasn't pleased...

[NandKBlock]

Since the loss of our last Royal Gramma I've bee hearing nasty rumors that we're heartless fish killers but I'm here to tell you it's not true. That was our first and only fatality and how were we supposed to know he was a jumper? Royal Grammas are supposed to dive and hide not surface and jump! anyway, we purchased a second Royal Gramma from Jake at Discovery Aquatics a while back and with all the rumors going around I thought it was time to post some pics to prove he's still alive.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=933

He's a happy little fella too. The maze of interconnected PVC pipes we've got in the QT are heaven for the little cave dweller. He pokes his head out one hole then disappears for a while before poking out another. Seeing as our QT sits on our bar for the time being we've turned it into a drinking game; guess which hole he pops out next or have a shot. There's at least a dozen holes... *hiccup*

Anyway, the first guy, RIP, was named Thor in honor of his Viking colors but since he died what surely was a horrible death thus cursing the name forever we opted for a different name this time and since he slinks around the tank in short little darting bursts we naturally settled on Slinky.

Slinky is set to make his display tank debut around July 20th.

[NandKBlock]

:mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad: :mad_3: :mad:

A couple months ago after adopting Spike and seeing him explode with ich we decided to do things right before we got too far along and take the fish out, QT them, and let the tank run fallow for 8 weeks to eradicate ich. After that we were going to QT every fish and proactively treat with copper before introducing to the display. So we suffered through two months of no fish in the display but kept telling ourselves, no more headaches!

Well our ich-free tank lasted about a month and a half...

Spike is again speckled. The ich didn't come in on any fish since none were added since, or in water as I dipped every new coral frag. I even requested fresh cut frags to eliminate any ich on the plugs or bases of the corals. The only thing I can think is that our new Dragon Eye zoas are the culprit. I took them off the plug they came on but there was still some glue/epoxy/whatever stuck to them and after a couple good dips they went in the tank. There must have been some ich cysts on that glue cause I doubt ich would stick to a living coral and every other coral we added was fresh cut.

It's all very disappointing given the lengths we went to to fix the problem and do things the 'right' way.

I suppose we should have QT'd the corals for 8 weeks somewhere without any fish but we don't have a whole separate set-up capable of supporting corals.

So this morning I quick checked the tank before work and Spike was patiently waiting for our cleaner shrimp to wake up where he usually sets up shop. Tonight he's already looking better and with the fish so happy and healthy I don't worry about losing them, it's just disheartening is all. We could have had our tank fully stocked by now if we hadn't let it run fallow for 8 weeks.

We are in need of some sympathy...

The moral of the story for a newbie reading this is to add all your corals first and then let the tank run for 8 weeks to kill off any ich. Then and only then start adding fish that have been QT'd and treated themselves.

On a brighter note, today is picture day for the tank. I'm trying to take pics of all the corals on the 14th of every month so I can put them together and see the growth. I'll try to get some new pics up this week sometime.

[David Grigor]

IMO: It's a real longshot to say was re-introduced from a coral. The more likely is the fish were never 100% ich free. While I haven't seen any visable ich on any fish in my tank for years, I go under the assumption that it's unlikely to have a 100% ich free and it's always present in some form. Keep the fish well fed as as stress free as possible is the best way to prevent an outbreak.

[NandKBlock]

IMO: It's a real longshot to say was re-introduced from a coral. The more likely is the fish were never 100% ich free.

Agree with the first but with regards to the fish, they were out of the main tank in QT for 8 full weeks getting treated with copper (and tested for appropriate levels) the ENTIRE time. After the first 3 days neither fish showed any signs of ich at all while in QT. For ich to survive that AND be transferred in on the fish (not in the water since they were freshwater dipped twice before going back to the display) would be remarkable.

It may also be that some ich persisted in the display over the course of the 8 weeks of running fallow. I had elevated the temp to 81 in an effort to marginally speed up the 12-28 day lifecycle AND went 8 weeks as opposed to the 6 weeks most people say is sufficient.

In the end it doesn't really matter where it came from, the fact is it's back and it's depressing. Only because of the effort we put into getting rid of it. Aw well, we talked about it and since we did everything 'by the book' we're not going to do it all again, the ich will stay. The fish are healhy and not in any danger so that's life on the reef I guess. At least we'll be getting the rest of our fish a little quicker now. :biggthumpup:

[Taklu]

I include garlic as a supplement with food everytime i remember & have not seen any ich come back; this maybe up for difference in opinion but hey all my fish are healthy!

good luck with your fishy's!

[fivesmallworlds]

Garlic has worked for me as well.

[gruntmon]

Garlic, UV, and water changes helped keep our tank going. Every single one of our fish had it too. Even the pajama cardinal and the mandarin. After running the UV for 4 days, it really cleared up quite a bit.

[wolmutt]

Catching a fish in a reef tank causes what? stress to every fish. Stress leads to what? decreased immune response. Decreased immune response leads to what? Ich. Quarantine leads to ich. :biggrin:

[wolmutt]

Ich is like the flu. You will be fine unless your immune response has been compromised.

Oh yeah, the lava flow is not orange unless lighting can change the color that much, but as far as I understand it doesn't.

[NandKBlock]

Thanks for the tips guys, we're going to have to learn to live with it I guess. Most of the foods we feed now have garlic added but we're just feeding a mixture of pellets, flakes, blood worms, and PE mysis right now. Perhaps getting a better feeding regime in place is necessary...

Ich seems to creep up and be a continual problem for people, I mean it's only a matter of time till something happens that causes your fish stress. Company comes over with kids who tap on the glass when you're not looking, the temp swings a bit, a fish starts becoming agressive as it ages, etc, etc. That's why we tried to actually kill and eliminate the ich parasites instead of minimizing the chance of them being able to affect the fish. Alas the effort has failed.

UPDATE: Spike was looking almost back to normal last night while I was taking pics. I could only find a half dozen specs on him, down from 20+ earlier in the day. This morning before work he was zipping back and forth by the glass as soon as he saw me (he loves to eat) which was a change from yesterday when he was just hanging out by the cleaner shrimp cleaning station. Nemo of course has never showed any visible signs of ich and continues to be healthy. This outbreak appears to have passed without major incident.

[NandKBlock]

The 14th of every month I try to take a picture of each of my corals (frags for the time being) so I can see if and how much they've grown. It's also a good time to try and improve my photography skills but I never seem to make any progress on that... :mad: The corals seems to grow in spurts over the course of the month alternating between encrusting their bases and adding new branches. Anyway, here's a couple corals with monthly pics spliced together from April, May, June and July.

Chime in and let us know if this growth is slow, normal, or fast, we're trying to get a sense of what to expect as this is our first experience with corals. Thanks!

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1023
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1020
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1021
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1022
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1018
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=128&pictureid=1019

[NandKBlock]

So Kristen, I and the kids visited Jake at Discovery Aquatics on Wednesday and they thought it was hilarious when I whipped out my weekly water test log complete with graphs and everything to ask Jake about my params and what he thought I should do in the future as far as dosing Ca and Mg. Now I admit that I take the whole testing/tracking thing to a whole other level and bless her heart Kristen has come to accept my obsessive, bordering on anal retentitive, ways but it was new to Jake so they shared a good laugh over it. Jake thought I should post a picture of what I keep so everyone could laugh about it so since it's Friday and I'm a firm believer in periodic self-humiliation to keep one's pride in check, here it is:

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1035

Nate
:stupid:

[fivesmallworlds]

Well if he laughs to hard ask Jake about the bikini in his back seat... He swears it was his girlfriends but I dunno... lol

Sorry jake buddy

Looks like you keep some immaculate records...

[David Grigor]

So what CA test do you do that can come up with readings like 444, 448, 464 ? Mine only does 20ppm increments.

[NandKBlock]

Well if he laughs to hard ask Jake about the bikini in his back seat... He swears it was his girlfriends but I dunno... lol

Sorry jake buddy

Looks like you keep some immaculate records...Even if it is his girlfriends, why is it in his backseat instead of on her, and what was she wearing when she got out of the car?

------------------

So what CA test do you do that can come up with readings like 444, 448, 464 ? Mine only does 20ppm increments.It's a Tropic Marin kit that measures both Ca and Mg. My box looks slightly different but this is the culprit: http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~magnesium+test+kit~action~vi ew~idProduct~TP4117~idCategory~FITKCA~category~Tro pic_Marin_Calcium___Magnesium_Test_Kit_Saltwater_A quarium_Supplies_Test_Kits_Calcium_Kits&vendor%3D.html When I first got it I did three back to back tests of both Ca and Mg and they came out within one step of the other two so I figure it's at least consistent and by the brand, probably accurate.

[fivesmallworlds]

Even if it is his girlfriends, why is it in his backseat instead of on her, and what was she wearing when she got out of the car?

I have my theories...

[benihana]

how did I miss this thread....everything looks great...all the way down to the excel charts! :biggrin:

[NandKBlock]

Earlier in the day I had picked up a Canary Wrasse Jake had ordered for me over at Discovery Aquatics along with a dozen Cerith snails for the DSB in my fuge. I got home to find both kids waiting for me in the driveway excited to see the new fish so after a couple minutes of show and tell we got down to the business of acclimating them both. The wrasse's bag went into the QT tank and the snails into the fuge with a drip line into the bag from the main tank above.

About twenty minutes into the process I hear my two year old daughter choking and coughing. Not the normal stuff, something was obviously wrong. I wheel over there and my five year old says 'She swallowed a screw'. The panic on Peyton's face as she coughed and pointed into her mouth sent dad into action and in less than a minute she, Austin, Kristen and myself were on our way to the emergency room. By this time she was pretty much back to normal and repeated questions of both the kids yielded the same story, she had swallowed a 1-1/2" screw. I know the size because I had been using said screws in that general vicinity last weekend. There goes my World's Greatest Dad TShirt next Father's Day...

Anyway, so we're about halfway to the emergency room and I remember our new fish and snails. The wrasse was floating in an openend bag and the snails were drip, drip, dripping away. So the wrasse was slowly suffocating and the snails would soon be drip, drip, dripping onto the carpet. Neither a good thing.

So we called a neighbor to help us out and gave her some directions about what to do; take the dripline out of the snail's bag and put it into the tank ('sump' would be too confusing) and dump the fish, which Kristen said would be in the little tank on the bar, into the tank.

We got home and the eggrate top was off the QT. From all I've heard about wrasses carpet surfing I was a little scared, especially when I didn't see it swimming around. I looked all around inside the tank, by the heater, by the filter, inside the PVC pipes, everywhere, no wrasse. I checked the floor, the bar, the bar stools, no wrasse. I upended the PVC structure in case it had gone insidelike our Royal Gramma had loved to do, no wrasse. I checked the floor again, no wrasse.

Aha! She must have taken the bag out of the QT and put him in the display tank across the room. Off to the darkened display tank we went but no yellow wrasse could be found. Back to the QT, still no wrasse. Back to the main tank just in time to see one second of the wrasse before it dove straight down into the sand. So the wrasse is alive despite it all though it hasn't been fed yet. The question is whether it killed itself on the glass bottom 1" under the sand, it was really hauling straight down...

The snail situation was much better. The neighbor had forgotten what we said to do with the dripline so she had found a garbage can and put it into there where we found about a gallon of water. No biggie and they're finishing their acclimation now.

My daughter? She's fine for now. I guess they just let people pass stuff naturally now, even 1-1/2" pointy screws... We're supposed to 'watch for it' (I delegated that to my wife since I already hosed up next year's World's Greatest Dad TShirt) and bring her in to her Dr. on Monday for another x-ray to confirm it passed.

So anyway, we've got an unquarantined wrasse that I need to get pictures of along with a Royal Gramma who's loving it's new home. I'll post them by Friday.

What a night...

[David Grigor]

Wow, I'd consider a 1.5" wood screw to be a much bigger deal than the puzzle piece that Curious George swallowed and had to have surgery.......

[Zibba]

What a whirlwind night for you! First off, glad to hear that your daughter will be ok. Second, your wrasse should be just fine. Heck, you already have ich back in the tank...what's the use in qt!?! j/k....kinda. I'm sure all your fish will be just fine. Keep us posted on the health of your family (fish and daughter).

[NandKBlock]

Wow, I'd consider a 1.5" wood screw to be a much bigger deal than the puzzle piece that Curious George swallowed and had to have surgery.......Curious George, Funny! :biglaugh2: We were thinking something along the lines of search and rescue down the throat but nope, they just let that thing go. The Dr. said about the only thing they fish out are batteries and breakable glass objects.

What a whirlwind night for you! First off, glad to hear that your daughter will be ok. Second, your wrasse should be just fine. Heck, you already have ich back in the tank...what's the use in qt!?! j/k....kinda. I'm sure all your fish will be just fine. Keep us posted on the health of your family (fish and daughter).Yeah, if the ich weren't back and all that LFS water (and fish!) were dumped right into the main tank I'd be seriously bumming but I've already been down that road, now I just hope the acclimation shock wasn't too much for it. The QT is kept a little cooler and with a lower salinity. Like I said though, he was well enough to bury himself for the night so now I'll just ahve to wait for the call from home today with more news.

I took Peyton's temp before I left and it was normal. I guess if it punctures something an infection and high temp would very quickly follow so so far so good.

[David Grigor]

Wrasses are very resilient towards ich. Something out the skin/scales. Rarely does ED at OD every quarantine wrasses because it's more stress and ich is not really an issue for them. ED is the wrasse guru IMO.

I remember when trying to catch a yellow wrasse, how fast he could ram into a pile of sand. It looks as though it went through a brick wall. They much have really hard heads.......

[fivesmallworlds]

Wow That IS a night... Glad she's doing ok.

[NandKBlock]

Our Royal Gramma was previously known as Slinky but recently assumed the alias of Lady Di. She's been in the display for a little over a week now and has finally settled on a particular cave as her own and is swiming about freely even when Spike makes a run at her.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1084

Our newest addition (see posts above) is a Yellow Coris Wrasse who's yet to be named. It's still camera shy and whenever the camera comes out he starts zippin' around nervously so i couldn't get any great shots, but here's one just as he came around soe rocks and before he saw the camera. Spike as always is begging for food...
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1083

Nemo of course is still loving his anemone. Maybe we'll get him (actually 'her') something else to love in the next couple months.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1085

[fivesmallworlds]

Looking Great! I'm digging the expression on Spikes face! boo.. I scared you...

[NandKBlock]

We've got a couple hitchhiker things growing on our live rock that are kinda neat. I couldn't get great pics of either one but the first appears to be an orange and yellow coralline algae. The LR we bought was very colorful when we got it so I suppose conditions have gotten right for this particular coralline to start growing.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1106

The second thing is much more exciting. It's a bright blue circular bump that started growing way at the back of our tank on the top of some tonga branch rock. It's textured with what appear to be tiny bumps and dimples, some of which appear white. I haven't touched it yet but I did get a better pic than I had before from the top down. Anyone have any thoughts about what it might be?
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1107

[NandKBlock]

Well our fish are slowly getting named/renamed. The Royal Gramma has been officially renamed Lady Di due to Kristen's insistence that it is a girl. Our new canary wrasse has grown into the name wrassekul (rascal). Our newest fish is a Blue Reef Chromis and he has yet to be named but he's eating well in QT with no signs of disease.

Spike, our Heniochus diphreutes is a serious ich magnet it seems. He's the only fish in our display that's showed signs and it's bad. He's still got a huge apette but the little fella looks horrible and is single handedly keeping our cleaner shrimp occupied all day long. I'm seriously considering pulling him out but then the Blue Reef Chromis would have to go into the display after a two day QT. I've got a bad feeling about Spike's long-term future... Any advice besides garlic for treating an 'ichy' fish in a reef tank?

Anyone have any thoughts about that blue hitchiker in the previous post? A sponge maybe?

[this1fish]

if it is as bad as you say when it comes to being covered with ick. i'd just leave it in the display, taking it out may make it worst. as long as it's eating, keep it feed and water quality as prestine as possible. it will not effect the other fish as long as they are healthy and eating. plus the presence of the cleaner shrimp will help. also , don't rush the chromis. they are ick magnets as well.

[NandKBlock]

Thanks this1fish. He's still in the display but I've got a net hanging in there waving around in the current so he gets used to seeing it in case I need to yank him. :) He's looking better than he did but not great. The good news is that his appetite is still phenomenol and we usually have to get him fed first before the other fish have any shot at anything. I adjusted the skimmer to run a little wetter than I had been to help with the water quality a little but it tested out really good last Tuesday. Is there any kind of medicine I should/could be adding to food or water?

The blue chromis is still doing well in QT. He's eating flakes, pellets, cyclopeeze granules, and frozen mysis so he should be good to go when the time comes. He's even swimming out to meet us when we come around so he must be feeling pretty comfortable too. I love the look of it and hope we are able to keep it successfully.

[wolmutt]

Personally, I wouldn't call chromis ich magnets.

[this1fish]

Personally, I wouldn't call chromis ich magnets.

try a blue reef chromis............ not the blue green chromis. totally different fish when it comes to being a damsel/chromis.

[gruntmon]

I suggest looking at a UV sterilizer. We had ich issues till we put a UV sterilizer on the tank. Really watch your salinity too. If the salinity is off it can cause excess stress on the fish and make them more prone to ich. Just what I've experienced.

[fivesmallworlds]

UV sterilizer is a good idea, and many people have had great results using garlic as a supplement to boost the immune system of the fish. Just a couple thoughts.

[David Grigor]

Once you finish stocking your fish, keep them well fed and ich won't be an issue. But as long as your adding fish you likely will have to deal with it for a while. I never got to the point where I thought UV was justifiable but then again I'm more into corals so the fish are just there for maintenance.

[NandKBlock]

Hi guys, thanks everyone for the tips on dealing with the ich, all the work of keeping this thread up to date is finally starting to pay dividends!

Spike's ich is doing a little better every day. Yesterday he was very noticeably better from the day before and today a little better yet. I intended to snap a pic but I just missed the lights shutting off and I'm trying to keep everything as stress-free as possible right now for the fish so I left them off. He's started swimming all funny though, darting here and there and hiding in the rocks which he NEVER used to do. Kristen says half-jokingly that the ich got to his brain...

The other fish continue to do well and show no signs of ich at all. Lady Di, our royal gramma, showed a few signs when she was first added but none since. Our newest fish is doing awesome in QT but he's going to stay there until Spike's ich subsides a little more. Spike's the biggest fish we've got and him darting around all the time with the itchies won't make for a nice low-stress welcome.

I started a thread Calcium Reactor Help (http://www.tcmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10373) a couple days ago to help me start the decision making process on how to handle supplementation moving forward. My corals and coralline are beginning to outpace the replenishment of Ca and KH the weekly water changes provide and so before we get behind we're starting to think about that now. In the course of the very helpful discussion the issue of low magnesium was raised as a concern. I did my weekly water tests today and it was back up to 1180, probably due to last Friday's water change. Calcium was back up to 416 while KH was still at 8.0. I think the sudden dip was probably due to a skipped water change (SHAME ON ME) and I'm hoping they stabilize somewhere around where they're at right now until we decide on a solution.

The other issue we're trying to get a good handle on is a feeding regimen. Right now we're feeding a variety of Ocean Nutrition Brine Shrimp Plus, Tropic Marine Frozen Mysis, Ocean Nutrition Formula One Marine Pellets (garlic), Omega One Marine Flakes (garlic), and Tetra Cyclop-eeze Granules. We're going heavy on the garlic'd foods right now for obvious reasons. Is there a way to add garlic directly to the tank water? Or if mixing with frozen foods how long should it soak?

[tico mike]

You seem like the perfect candidate for the two part stuff. Being that you test your water so consistently, you're right there for getting awesome growth. Just mix up a gallon each of the calcium, alk and mag supplements. Dose your daily amounts (BRS has an estimator for starting) of calcium and alk and when the gallon is done add 20 oz of mag solution. (First get your parameters in balance). Most people never test enough. You're already doing that. You'll have great success and awesome growth if you give it a try. You can add a reactor down the line if you continue the success and don't like the daily additions. If you're checking out your tank every day regardless (like I do), then two part is the way to go. When my wife and I went to Costa Rica in April, my 11 year old did the dosing for me and everything went great.

[NandKBlock]

I was looking at my RBTA this morning noticed something I've never seen before so I snapped a couple pics. It looks like the tentacles have a white stringy thing inside them. most of them have just a single straightish strand that seems to connect to the inside of the tentacle and form a little circle but one of them has a mass of twsited stringy things inside it. Is this something to be concerned about? What is it?

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1155

[thepollock]

don't worry mine has the same thing its ok.

[NandKBlock]

Well Spikeis almost all the way back from his ich attack. His color has returned pretty good and while he's still got a few spots it's nothing like it used to be and his breathing has slowed noticeably. Here's the happy fella:
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1030302.jpg

[NandKBlock]

There's been a fatality. Grover the blue reef chromis passed through the pearly porcelain gates into the great beyond today. He was a beloved fish and will be remembered fondly by all of us forever.

[NandKBlock]

Most people that see my light frame think it's pretty cool so...

Awhile back I decided to switch to a T5 retrofits with icecap reflectors and needed a way to mount them closer to the water since my aquarium is built into a bookcase and the top 'canopy' is over 12" tall. After tossing some ideas around I decided to make a frame/mount for them out of aluminum channel and angle stock you can get at any home improvemnt store. I decided on aluminum for the fact that it won't corrode like other metals, won't warp like wood, and wouldn't flex like plastic or plexi.

I cut the aluminum with a regular miter saw and regular table saw. Aluminum is soft and any old carbide blade will have no trouble going through it, just be sure to watch for kickback. I fastened the various pieces together with self-tapping sheet metal screws which holds tight. The endcaps themselves are attached with machine screws inserted through holes drilled in the aluminum stock, again with a regular old carbide drill bit. It was really simple really, the only tip I can give you if you want to do this is to make sure to buy either 90° angle stock or channel stock to make it easier to attach pieces together at various corners. Aluminum is flexible however so if you'd rather bend a corner you can do that too.

A big concern I had was heat. Being our first aquarium I knew heat would be a factor but I didn't think about the fact that completely enclosing three sides of the tank plus sealing the canopy and sump areas would drastically reduce the amount of heat that would naturally bleed away from the tank. So I looked at ways to reduce the heat of the lights, beyond selecting T5s that run cooler than other types of lighting. The ballasts and bulbs generate heat and I tackled both those heat sources in different ways. I removed the ballasts entirely from the sealed canopy and ran the wires through the 'roof' where I mounted the ballasts raised on long machine screws and separated to allow airflow around them. By taking them out of the canopy none of their heat is introduced to the system and they are easily hidden behind pictures and such. The wires were left long enough to allow the frame mount to be removed through the front doors and set on top of the canopy should I ever need full access to the water. As for the bulbs, I cut two holes in the top of the canopy and mounted to PC case fans, one blowing in, the other blowing out, to move air through the canopy bringing their heat with it as well as aiding in evaporation which has a natural cooling effect. I can now run my tank with all access doors closed, during the summer, and maintain a temp of 79°F with no cooling other than natural evaporation. Beautiful simplicity!

While I was at it I wanted to incorporate some extra features to the frame/mount itself. I wanted to be able to run LED moonlights, run small fans to keep the bulbs at the correct temp which maximizes their output, and power the venting fan (above). Both kinds of fans as well as the LEDs run off 12v DC so I knew I could power them all with a single plug if I could find a converter that supplied anough amps. I found that in the form of an old laptop cord that supplied both 5v and 12v DC leads. Instead of bundling a bunch of wires and using wiring nuts to connect all the fans and LED wires I decided to make the fram the neutral 'wire' and a single long bar of aluminum that runs the length of the frams the hot 'wire'. By doing this I could supply 12v DC anywhere along the length of the fixture without running wires all over the place. It makes for a nice clean look. The hot bar is predrilled with screws so wires and leads can be wrapped around and the screws tightened, similar to old-school outlets.

The LEDs (420nm wavelength, the same as actinic) were attached to 12gauge wire and then wrapped with balck electrical tape making a flexible arm of sorts that could be bent and pointed anywhere and in any manner I chose Currently I've got them pointing up at the reflectors to disperse their light a bit but still maintain the shimmer. Pointing them straight into the water yields some pretty cool spotlighting effects. Keeping the LEDs on the flexible arms means I can switch between the two, mix and match, etc. without having to rewire or re-do anything. Just reach in there and point it where I want it.

Most people will tell you to mount bulb cooling fans at one end of the bulb and blow air down the length of it. I found that to be innefective in my setup. I had orignally placed my fans like that but found that the ends closest the fans were too cold and the far ends were still too hot. So in the end (after much tinkering and trying to make the previous setup work) I moved my fans to the side and spaced them out evenly down the length of the bulb. After angling them up just slightly the bulb temps (as best I can measure them) are maintained at a nearly perfect temperature across the entire length. As with the LEDs, the power is provided through the fram with the fan leads connecting directly to it.

The venting fans draw their power from the frame as well using disconnectable connectors on the leads so that if I ever need to take the frame out I just disconnect the venting fans' leads and pull the frame out.

Here's some pics that may help make some of what I wrote up there make sense. :)

Bulb-Cooling Fans and pointable LEDs mounted on frame
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1209

Power supply, construction method, venting fan disconnects
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1208

Top of canopy with raised ballasts and holes for venting fans
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1207

[NandKBlock]

So it's been a while but there's not much new to report. I have had an explosion of these things in my tank and would like your help identifying them. Until I took this picture I didnlt realize they had little fans on the end and thought they were some kind of algae. Now I'm thinking they might be tiny little feather dusters or something. None of them have gotten more than 3/4" long but lots of them branch off like the one in the middle of the picture. With the number of them in the tank and waving around all over the rocks and undersides of the monti caps it really looks kind of crappy. What are these things, should I get rid of them, and if so how?

Thanks in advance for your help!

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1449

[RaysReef]

feather dusters would be my guess or some sort of tubeworm.

[NandKBlock]

Anybody notice that one of those zoas is pooping in the picture? :gay1:

Anyone else ever seen these things or know what they might be? Also, is it possible that they're gobling up magnesium? My Mg levels have been dropping at an alarming rate...

[David Grigor]

Very very doubtful on the magnesium. During calcification magnesium is depleted at only 1% of the rate the CA does for most corals. Coraline algae is about 4%.

If you haven't already, verify what the Magnesium level is on your freshly mixed saltwater. If your not supplementing your freshly mixed, more likely your replacing will less ppm than taken out and depleting that way vs. actually consumed.

If they are hydroids then that can be bad but never seen any hydroids that tall.

[NandKBlock]

Well I think I've gotten to the bottom of my low Mg and low Ca levels...

I was doing like you suggested and testing my freshly mixed saltwater and the results were equally, and in some cases even lower. At first I was thinkning that I had a bum bucket of salt but then as I was squeezing drop after drop into the test tube for the Ca test I started thinking that maybe my refractometer's calibration got changed (a hazard when your five year old who's obsessed with buttons, knobs and anythng else that moves, fancies himself a reefkeeper just like dad) and so I did a salinity test on my RODI water and yep, it was WAY OFF.

After recalibrating it I tested my tank (and freshly mixed water that's mixed to a 1.025 sg using the refractometer) and found the specific gravity to be just 1.019!

I know I need to slowly increase that number and frankly I'm surprised my corals aren't dead instead of just not growing very well and I'm going to start dripping in saltwater topoff instead of freshwater topoff to accomplish this.

QUESTION: Is there anything else I need to be concerned with or made aware of as I increase the salinity back to what it should be?

[NandKBlock]

We bought a new fish several weeks ago from Jake at Discovery Aquatics. We have nothing but great things to say about his business, and most importantly to us, his integrity. We were looking at a Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse considering whether to buy it and not only did he give us a full rundown on everything about the fish both as a species and an individual, but steered us toward a different Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse that he though 'seemed more healthy'. How many store owners would do that?

Anyway, it's cool as heck when he flashes but since the first couple days when he was scared to death of Spike he doesn't get scared enough to flash and there's no female to trigger it either. My camera simply can't take pics of fast moving subjects like wrasses (I'm at the mercy of an automatically determined shutter speed) but I did at least get a rare shot with all five of our fish in the same pic.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1457

[fivesmallworlds]

Nice Nate! Everything is looking nice and healthy! Have you always had that big chunk of GSP? I don't remember seeing it.

[NandKBlock]

Yep, it was a freebie from Jeremy (thepollock). If you want some just say the word, it spreads like weeds and it's completely covered the island rock it's on so any spreading it does over the sand is giveaways or throwaways. It adds nice movement to the tank and it's a very bright neon green compared to the few others I've seen in person.

[fivesmallworlds]

Nope, none for me. I had a hard enough time getting rid of the ones I had. GSP is nice for adding movement and all but I had it branching off the original frag across my sand and getting on to my other LR. I do like the bright green though.

I just thought I'd ask because I didn't remember seeing it is all.

[morty]

So it's been a while but there's not much new to report. I have had an explosion of these things in my tank and would like your help identifying them. Until I took this picture I didnlt realize they had little fans on the end and thought they were some kind of algae. Now I'm thinking they might be tiny little feather dusters or something. None of them have gotten more than 3/4" long but lots of them branch off like the one in the middle of the picture. With the number of them in the tank and waving around all over the rocks and undersides of the monti caps it really looks kind of crappy. What are these things, should I get rid of them, and if so how?

Thanks in advance for your help!

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1449

If they are a type of hydroid, it doesn't sound like you want them --

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/hyzoidf3.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cnididfaqs5.htm

[Dhummel]

Well Spikeis almost all the way back from his ich attack. His color has returned pretty good and while he's still got a few spots it's nothing like it used to be and his breathing has slowed noticeably. Here's the happy fella:
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1030302.jpg

have you had any problems with him picking on corals, sps corals, i want to get one but lee said there not reef safe, he said the ones from hawaii are though. i would live to have one.

[NandKBlock]

Spike's a Heniochus diphreutes, very different reef-safe wise from a Heniochus accumatis. The H. accumatis is what most LFS stock and they will most certainly munch on your corals. H. diphreutes is reef safe in all aspects and I can vouch for that in my personal experience with this guy. I've ever once seen him even nip at a coral, even when picking at the rock it's attached to, he never picks at the coral. I've got mostly SPS but a couple leathers and three fairly common LPS and he doesn't touch any of them.

It's very difficult to find the reef safe H. diphreutes, I happened across Spike at Petco of all places being sold generically as Heniochus sp. They're difficult to tell apart however so be very careful.

So far though he's been our best fish. He's perfectly behaved, a VERY active swimmer, a piggy eater, and quite personable doing turns at the front glass whenever someone comes into the room. Highly recommended!

[NandKBlock]

So a while back I finally realized why my Ca and Mg levels had been so low. My refractometer's calibration dial had been turned by one of my kids. If you read this, take two minutes and go calibrate yours and save yourself some serious headaches.

...

OK, you're back. In hindsight there were a lot of things going on that were attributed to the low salinity levels. Our RBTA wasn't opening much any more, snails were falling off rocks WAY more frequently, the corals mostly stopped growing, some polyps had quit coming out, our GSP retracted frequently despite always being open previously, our leathers would do the same, our shrimp molted far less frequently, and the skimmer just wasn't foaming as much as it used to. Live and learn I guess.

We didn't lose any corals from it thank God but we lost 40+ nassarius somewhere in the sand and probably a dozen other assorted snails. Combine that with the decreased efficiency of the skimmer (they only work in salt water, the higher salinity the better) and we ended up with a raging case of cyano. I've been fighting that for a couple weeks now and am finally starting to see less and less on the sand each day. The corals are all extending polyps again and actually showing some signs of growth after a three month hiatus. Hopefully the end of this debacle is in sight.

Seriously, take a couple minutes and recalibrate your refractometers!

[morty]

Hope things continue to improve -- Are you saying that if I am unhappy with my skimmer production, I should boost my specific gravity above 1.026? I haven't heard that one before...

[NandKBlock]

Skimmers don't skim non-salinated water so it stands to reason that the higher salinity the better skimming. All I can tell you factually is what I experienced and thats that with my recent low salinity I was not pulling out nearly the volume of skimmate I am at normal salinity. Now maybe there's the same amount of gunk in it, just more concentrated or something, but the color is pretty dark both ways but the volume is drastically different.

Maybe there's a science person who could explain how and why skimming works...?

[NandKBlock]

So I can't get a good pic of this thing to save my life but I'll post this one since I haven't put on up yet and because it's got its mouths open inside the polyps. We've never had an acan before so the first time we saw this we thought it was pretty cool.

The actual coloration is blue flesh with orange inside the polyps and fluourescent green mouths inside.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1562

[REEFSTOCK]

higher salinity =
good for skimming
bad for oxygen levels
..............................................
looks like hydroids to me.

[condiman]

if you want to be on the safe side you could drill a small hole close to the top of the sump and attach a hose to that and have the hose go to a bucket to be on the safe side.

[condiman]

I love the Acan it looks great

[NandKBlock]

I promise someday we'll get caught up on updating all the new stuff in our tank...

One of the coolest things we've gotten (and the most recent) is a really nice Crocea clam. The pink and blue is really amazing, especially from the top. We don't really know much about clams but I'm kinda infatuated with the way they close up if you wave a hand over them. Yeah, I'm a newbie and it don't take much... :)

Here's a couple pics:

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1563http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1564

[thepollock]

nice pics nate.

[fivesmallworlds]

Nice clam and acan! The pics look great!

just realized I never picked up that cap from you.... oh well. Come by sometime if you want.

[Adam G]

Tank is looking great. I really like what you have done with the lighting as well as the 12V rail. What a cool idea. Lot'f of fans you got going there. Everything is neat, hidden, and compact. Nice job.

[NandKBlock]

Thanks for all the compliments guys. Here's October's full tank shot:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/FullTank_10-14-2008.jpg

[Adam G]

Looking good. Looks like you have things back under control.

[dougers31]

Sweet tank!:goldfish:

[NandKBlock]

Kristen picked out our sixth fish about a month ago. She's a purple firefish we purchased from Discovery Aquatics and she's doing great. I finally got a decent pic of her so I thought I'd share it. My favorite thing about her is something I had never noticed before we got her, the small green stripe at the bottom of her bottom fin. She's still without a name so if you've got a suggestion chime in. :)

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1710

[gogregerson]

I just love that anemone in your tank, it's huge.

[NandKBlock]

I just love that anemone in your tank, it's huge.

Heh, it's very happy again now that I've got the salinity back up. I'll tell you what though, I go to bed scared every night wondering if that night's the night when it will split and get chopped up in the Korallias. I think it likes being up high with more light and in a nice medium flow. It's also got a nice hole its sitting in which someone told me they like for defensive purposes. Hopefully it's happy enough to stay in one piece and not too happy to want to split...

[bob_trrnt]

Nate the tank looks awesome. Very nice looking stuff.

[fivesmallworlds]

Can't wait until my RBTA's get that huge! Goodness!

Name the firefish, matchstick. lol

[NandKBlock]

Happy birthday to me! Thanks to Jake at Discovery Aquatics I got a beautiful new coral for our tank. It's a stunning orangey pink color that fluouresces really nicely under even just the ATI Blue+ bulbs we have. It makes me want to add an actinic! I can't get the color quite right, but the corallite structure alone is mesmerizing. Thanks Jake!

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1732

[PLNelson]

It's official. I have to stop by and see your tank sometime. I've been drooling over that species of Pavona for quite some time, and would love to se one in person. Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[NandKBlock]

You're welcome whenever you're up this way. Anyone really for that matter, I'm always looking to meet people with passion for this great hobby. My phone number is in my profile if you want to set something up.

[fivesmallworlds]

Purty!

[NandKBlock]

Where to start...!

So if you've been following along you know about my first major setback since getting into the hobby, my kids recalibrated my refractometer without my knowledge and I was running at VERY low salinity. Most of my snails died off, almost a hundred nassarius in the sand and they did quite a job encouraging all sorts of algae growth, the most annoying of which is the cyano. Thank god all my corals made it through!

So I've been fighting the cyano with all the usual steps and advice people give; more flow, less feeding, wetter skimming, agressive removal, better surface agitation, etc., etc. and while it's better than it was it's still coming back after several days. Half my display sand has been vaccuumed out with mats of cyano and was washed, bleached, rinsed, dried, and awaiting re-addition. We are hosting Kristen's extended family for a Christmas celebration on December 6th and I WILL have that crap gone by then one way or another. I've got some chemi-clean in a MarineDepot.com shopping cart just waiting to be purchased. Do you hear me you pathetic little bacteria?! I'm not joking around!

Ahem.

OK, so in addition to the cyano there's random clumps of hair algae, blue bubble algae, some kind of plating brown algae, some aiptasia, and a single mojano too. None of these mind you before the Great Snail Die-Off of Summer 2008.... Grrrr. So I kalk pasted the aiptasia and mojano last night and am dutifully harvesting the others which hardly grow back at all but they do just enough to annoy me.

So you know all these things can be kinda downers but I'm pushing through and even started a project to upgrade my fishroom a little. The tank is part of a built-in bookcase unit and up until now the only thing I've had outside the sump is the fresh and saltwater reservoirs. Well I eventually want to add a frag tank so that is going to go on the other side of the wall and be plumbed together so I decided, what the heck, I'll redo that back room and improve some stuff. I'll make a post with pics and stuff about that I promise.

One of the big things I wanted to improve were the reservoirs themselves. My old ones were flimsy... ah, that'll be another post, but basically I got that all wrapped up one night, hooked up all the plumbing and turned on the RO/DI to fill em up. Nothing would leak or drip with the new system and any overflow would go right down the drain. Ah, a perfect failsafe setup.

You probably know where this is going.

The next morning I go downstairs to check on everybody and the friggin' carpet is soaked! WTF!?! It turned out I left the valve on the saltwater in the sump area open so as the reservoir filled up in my nice failsafe fishroom it was running through the line, through the wall, and out the nozzle onto my floor. I was PISSED! So as I was cursing and pulling back the carpet to dry it out and soaking up as much as I could with towels Kristen comes down to see what's going on and then says "Something's wrong with Spike."

That's not exactly something you want to hear when you've been fighting all these algae issues and just discovered that your perfectly failsafe water handling system pumped about 20 gallons of water onto your family room floor. I look up and he's got an eye bulging out of his head, he's covered with white stringy crap and he's hovering at the back of the tank instead of doing laps beggin for food.

OK, get the hospital tank going! We had a QT tank setup but took it down after our failed attempts to rid our tank of ich by running fallow for 8 weeks. So I get everything all cleaned out and set up and start filling with water. Now the fishroom wasn't really done so I hadn't put up shelves for stuff or made a place for the hospital tank so it was just sitting on the floor next to the water bins where I had all the bottles of stuff like Revive sitting. 80% full and off the shelf comes the bottle of revive, right into the hospital tank and shatters the bottom. Water flowing everywhere and no more hospital tank for our fish that's seriously near death.

If someone, right at that instant had been there and said "I'll give you $50 for everything and I'll haul it away." I would have taken it. Honest to God.

Anyway, we got a new 10g tank for the hospital tank and managed to get Spike out of the display without any coral casualties, and have been treating him for 5 days now with TriSulfa. His top fin has almost completely melted away but he ate for the first time tonight. I'm also almost done with the fishroom, and the algae issues are noticeably better every day. Things are finally looking up.

[bob_trrnt]

Wow, Rough few months there buddy. We can all relate to those situations. It gets better when the kids go, daddy you sure know how to makle a mess ten minutes after you lecture them on a dirty room. Don't you love fish.

[Mikko]

woah...

[fivesmallworlds]

Don't you just LOVE this hobby? lol Most of us have been there and can totally relate. Hope the algae issue gets resolved soon. Have you tested for phosphate or run a phosphate reactor?

I'm hoping this algae scrubber I'm building will help out a bit too, I'll let you know what I make of it in a few weeks.

[NandKBlock]

So it all started with a couple leaky water reservoirs, grew to include a future frag tank, and ended with a full-blown fishroom. Here's a before picture:
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1826

And an after picture with the makeshift hospital tank for spike (who's actually eating tonight!). The hospital tank will eventually go on or next to the wall b the reservoirs:
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1827

The water bins were the big thing. i had been using Rubbermaid Roughneck totes for the fresh and saltwater with some homemade bulkheads. The bulkhead idea/design was fine except for the fact that the Roughneck totes flexed too much and were too soft of plastic which eventually began splitting where I had tightened the bulkheads too much. I found some heavier duty 17 gallon totes at Menards for $10 each with stiffer plastic and decided to use them for the new ones. I've got two kinds of bulkheads, one kind empties from the reservoirs through ball valves to 1/2" tubing which runs through the wall to my sump area beneath the tank. I drip freshwater to match the evaporation rate for topoff and have pre-mixed saltwater available there too to replace skimmate loss and when refilling after a waterchange. The second kind of bulkhead just empties into 1/4" poly tubing. I use those to get the RO/DI water in and to prevent overflows by running from the freshwater on top to the saltwater beneath and if the saltwater overfills it empties into a floor drain. I can also move freshwater into teh saltwater bin quickly by way of a set of first type of bulkheads. The key to successful bulkheads is simply to make the contact area on both sides of the bulkhead as large as possible. I accomplished this on the outside with metal washers and on the inside with PVC 1/2" MPT to 3/4" slip adaptors. I siliconed all the threads as well as the seal on each side of the tote. The emergency overflow bulkheads are angled upward on the inside so the water level can rise all the way to the lid before overflowing. Some more pics:
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1802
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1828

I have a MagDrive5, airpump, and heater set up in the saltwater mixing reservoir and on a multiple plug so I plug it all in at once. Seven scoops of salt mix and 20 minutes later I have saltwater ready to go that tests out good for pH, temp, and salinity. A pic of that:
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1830

A pic of the storage shelves for all the 'stuff' including 6 one gallon jugs of kalk that I really haven't needed to use yet. You can see the frag tank below which will have a water level equal to the main sump once I hook it up. It's rim is 1/2" lower than the sump so any overflow will be in the fishroom and not the family room.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1829

And the still ghetto looking RODI/main house plumbing/spigot/floordrain area to the right of the previous pictures. Ugly but serviceable. I caulked around the walls of the entire fishroom so any water will stay contained there where it will go down the floor drain. Yes, this was tested when my hospital tank exploded...
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=12&pictureid=1831

[FastFish720]

Looks pretty (different since I was last there), but how's the floor doing?

[NandKBlock]

The carpet's fine. I pulled it all back and let it dry out. Short of leaving that saltwater spigot in the sump open again I shouldn't ever have water on the floor again. *crossing fingers*

[insacron]

Holy crap those are some trying times. I'm trying really hard not to be a 'Negative Nancy' but I have to ask, are those outlets GFCI protected? No offense but you'd have a run of bad luck.

[NandKBlock]

Holy crap those are some trying times. I'm trying really hard not to be a 'Negative Nancy' but I have to ask, are those outlets GFCI protected? No offense but you'd have a run of bad luck.

LOL

Yup, they are GFI'd up the line. All the outlets in the hood and sump areas are individually GFI'd with this block being downcircuit from one of the non-used outlets in the sump. I've got all the aquarium outlets on a single dedicated circuitbreaker as well.

Bad luck indeed!

[insacron]

*Phew* Just had to ask.

[RaysReef]

Let's see some of the new addition today ;)

[NandKBlock]

Damn they're pretty! Seriously, I've been gawking at them all day.:greenguy:

I snapped a few quick pics but none really turned out very good. I'll take some tomorrow when the lights come back on and post them.

[fivesmallworlds]

Sounds like Nate got some Ray's Goodies!

The fish room looks great Nate! Wish I had the room for one. Hope spike recovers.

[NandKBlock]

Rhodactus
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1833

Favia
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1832

Thanks Ray! :beerchug:

[fivesmallworlds]

Ah so you got the favia that I wanted... lol

That was my fave of the favias!

[NandKBlock]

It's allegedly a Christmas Favia but I see a definite blue/purple ring in there. I LOVE it!

I got my first Ricordia too! It's getting checked out by a snail and still is working its way flat from where I attached it. I guess it's not the most uncommmon and the blue ones are probably 'better' but I love the bright orange and green so this is cool for us!
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1835


I also got some nice Zoas. Maybe Ray or someone else can tell me what the common name is? We're not nearly creative enough to give them a name. :)
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1834

[RaysReef]

looks great! Nate, sorry for the late post, I just got ransack tonight from Colin, lol ;)

[fivesmallworlds]

Ray...was it good for you too?

:banana:


lol sorry couldn't resist...

[RaysReef]

my buttox is still sore ;)

[NandKBlock]

Our Royal Gramma Lady Di has been MIA for ten days and after a thorough search of the overflow, sump, and known hiding places we have no choice but to assume the worst. Rest in peace your Highness, Rest in peace.

[bob_trrnt]

that favia is tight nate. I think you can ground fault at the breaker box as well.

[fivesmallworlds]

Our Royal Gramma Lady Di has been MIA for ten days and after a thorough search of the overflow, sump, and known hiding places we have no choice but to assume the worst. Rest in peace your Highness, Rest in peace.

O Lord we commend thy fishy spirit into your hands...

[NandKBlock]

The wonders of reef aquaria! One of the ten cerith snails we have in our fuge decided to lay some eggs yesterday. The pics are bad cause the fuge glass is dirty, the light is crappy, and I had to shoot blind around a corner and through the glass at an abgle, but you can get the idea. It's a neat pattern, siilar to how they move when they eat film algae off the glass. Without predators in the fuge some of them should actually make it, unless the pods get to them.

This is our second known snail spawning event, the other was Mexican Turbo snails releasing eggs and sperm into the water column whcih we cctually gotto witness. About a month after that one we started seeing all sorts of little baby turbos. :)

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1862http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1861

[FastFish720]

:( Royal Gramma
:) Snail Eggs

[fivesmallworlds]

hmmmmmm reincarnation?

















Just throwing it out there.... lol

[TriggerFreak]

sweet! keep up the good work.

[veloboy]

Looking really good Nate. Hows Spike? Sorry to hear about the Royal. That fish room is swizzy man! Nice work...The plumbing really turned out nice.

Happy T-Day!

[TriggerFreak]

I like that torch coral of yours

[NandKBlock]

Spike's still got some pop eye going on but not nearly as bead as it was and the swelling seems to be going down every day ever so little. We ended up just doing the two rounds of TriSulfa in the hospital tank along with epsom salt doses to help reduce the swelling. We left him in their another couple days until we noticed he started getting the hospital tank blues not eating very much and just generally acting depressed.

I scooped him out of the hopsital tank at night while he was sleeping so he could go back into the main tank inthe dark. It must scared the heck outa him cause he didn't even move when I netted him but when I pulled him out of the water I must have woken him up cause he freaked out big time. Needless to say he broke out with a little ich from that stress but the cleaner shrimp had him back in shape in a couple days.

He's still only making left turns but he's swimming normally and energetically and eating really good even though he has to make two or three runs at the food to get it since his depth perception is all screwed up.

Anyway, lots of people told me just to flush him and forget about it when he got the pop eye but I'm glad we didn't. He seems very much on the way to recovery and we still have our favorite fish!

Oh, and his spike that used to be a good six inches is now a little two inch stub, but it'll grow back. I hope...

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1979
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=1980

[NandKBlock]

Must be snail mating season or something, I caught a refugium Cerith in the act just now. Probably should have cleaned the glass first...

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2021

[RaysReef]

nice, I got dibs $.20 a snail ;)

[NandKBlock]

Nah, they'll be freebies if they make it. When the Mexican Turbos spawned I gave a bunch of babies to Colin and I'll do the same with these. You're first in line for these. ;)

[RaysReef]

Nah, they'll be freebies if they make it. When the Mexican Turbos spawned I gave a bunch of babies to Colin and I'll do the same with these. You're first in line for these. ;)

That's if I even have a tank to put it in, lol.

[Mikko]

... I need snails... >.>

[NandKBlock]

Mikko's second then. ;)

[Woodnboatguy]

Great job on your set up. I am redoing my basement soon and have to move my tank. As any attict would, I'll be taking the opportunity to replumb my sump. Thanks for showing us the pics and consider some of your ideas STOLEN! Good luck.

[cdness]

I had sone of my limpets lay eggs. Also the Nerite snails but none made it as there are predators who will eat the babies in the main tank. If I had some in the fuge it might have been a little better for survivability.

[fivesmallworlds]

I still have quite a few of the first batch I got from Nate.


How's the frag tank setup coming?

[Mikko]

Mikko's second then. ;)

lol
yay! :greenguy:

[NandKBlock]

There are two red and white Christmas Tree Worms on/in the Pavona maldivensis I got from Jake at Discovery Aquatics a while back. My camera isn't good enough to pick up the details of them, but since it's almost christmas I thought I'd post a pic of them. Merry Christmas!
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2065

[David Grigor]

I've had an orange maldives very similiar to that for 8 months. I really like it but unfortunately has been an extremely slow grower.

[insacron]

Do you spot feed the Christmas Trees?

[NandKBlock]

Yeah, I've yet to see much growth at all. I just fragged up some pieces of it to sell or trade since I don't have much else people might want and I'm hoping to be able to see some healing growth soon. Where did you put yours light and flow wise? I've tried mine several places and it seems to color up really peachy orange under more light and turn kinda purpley blue under less light. In this pic it's kinda halfway between the two. I've got the frags in various spots now so we'll see what the different conditions bring. I like the submassive growth form you can get with this coral.

Nope, I don't spot feed the Christmas Tree Worms. I don't have nearly a clean enough tank to worry about them not getting enough nutrients. They are pretty cool though. Jake was telling me that sometimes you can get a porites rock that has all kinds of different colored Christmas Tree Worms on them. I think that would be the bomb!

[Jim E.]

I often see the Porites/X-mas Tree combo in LFSs including WOF a few months back. I brought my specimen back from the not-so-local FS I visit whenever I'm in PA (toofishy.com), and have had it for quite some time. Its blue, gray & yellow worms seem to be doing quite well. I've even noticed Porites growth. Hope I don't kill it.

Your specimen, on the other hand, is quite beautiful, and is the first I have ever seen of its kind. Red worms. Imagine :-)

[NandKBlock]

Hey Jim, a pic of them would be fantastic, sounds like a very beautiful mix!

It's a bummer that nearly all the LFS are south of the cities, I just don't get down there very often and between the time it takes plus gas costs I just can't justify it, especially being between jobs right now. I stop in to those stores whenever I'm down that way though but that's usually on the way to/from visiting family in southern MN and usually it's outside of store hours...

[David Grigor]

I keep mine at midway point. Has pretty much stayed the same color as when I bought it so that's where it stays. It did have a little 2-3mm bald spot on it that healed up but other than that hasn't done anything not even trying to encrust onto the LR yet which I'm surprised.

[Jim E.]

Sorry to hear you're between jobs! Man that sucks. I'll bet this leads to something better though in the long run.

I don't own a camera yet, and am stashing what little cash I have towards my next upgrade to a Tech 120 after Christmas. Fortunately, my friend Q bought a Nikon D60. When I ask him to chronicle my upgrade, I'll have him take some pics of my 65.

If Southern MN ever includes the New Ulm area, I would love to have you over. Come to think of it, every guest so far has managed to escape with a frag or two of something neat (Alan, Les, Q, etc...)

Seriously, my cell's in my profile if you are ever down here.

[quilaho]

... my friend Q bought a Nikon D60. When I ask him to chronicle my upgrade, I'll have him take some pics of my 65 ...

I finally remembered to pickup the tripod from Dad. So, we're set to do that photo shoot of your tank.

[NandKBlock]

More details here: http://www.tcmas.org/forums/showthread.php?p=149212#post149212

[dougers31]

Hey Jim, a pic of them would be fantastic, sounds like a very beautiful mix!

It's a bummer that nearly all the LFS are south of the cities, I just don't get down there very often and between the time it takes plus gas costs I just can't justify it, especially being between jobs right now. I stop in to those stores whenever I'm down that way though but that's usually on the way to/from visiting family in southern MN and usually it's outside of store hours...

What part of S. Minn.?

[NandKBlock]

Albert Lea is where my mom lives. I've also got family in Hollandale, Owatonna, Rochester (Byron and Kasson(sp?) actually) and Farmington if that counts.

Kyle from these boards has met my mom when I bought something from him and had her hold it. Sometime when we are down there not on a holiday I think it would be cool to do a little tour of reef tanks, there just hasn't been a good opportunity yet.

[veloboy]

Nate - cool to see your RBTA split! Saw your FTS shot on another thread. Sure looks great!

[NandKBlock]

The battles continue...

Spike is back in the hospital tank after his popeye flared up again. Apparently the popeye is just fluid from an infection so you need to treat the infection and then wait for the swelling to go down. We're using Maracyn Two this time at double the freshwater dosage as recommended several places online. Both eyes are now bulging and he had a heck of a time finding the food with his depth perception all screwed up but he seems to have it down now and is eating very good.

Since we took Spike out of the main tank our Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse 'Flash' has decided he's the new boss and darts after the other fish kinda randomly. Nothing to be concerned about I don't think but while the cat's away the mice will play I guess. It's a little concerning though since Spike has to go back in there at some point with less than optimal eyesight. I hope there's no blood as they figure it out.

The algae issues continue from the Great Snail Die-Off. I think I've figured out why this has been such an uphill battle. The original die-off was due to low salinity which pumped a bunch of nutrients into the water. Those nutrients fostered a bloom of dinoflagettes which have toxins in them that kill the snails that eat them thus putting more nutrients into the water causing more dinoflagettes growth, etc.

After much research about how to get rid of dinoflagettes I decided that a lights out period would be required. I agressively siphoned out every bit of dinoflagettes I could using a toothbrush to get it off the rocks then cut the lights for two days (60 hours of total darkness including the normal night) hoping to kill whatever weakened stuff was left by starving it of light. During this time I also ran a lot of carbon and phosphate remover, well at least as much as I could passively since I don't have a reactor for them (yet!!!). I also ran the skimmer wet and cleaned it twice a day. The fish never ventured out of hiding during those two dark days so I didn't feed anything further starving the dinoflagettes, at least that's what I hoped.

When the lights came on the sand was sparkling, and I mean sparkling white. The dinoflagettes were nowhere to be found and the hair algae was wilty looking if that's possible. Since then I've had the lights on normal and the dinoflagettes have returned a little, but nowhere near what they used to be. I'm planning on another lights-out period with aggressive nutrient removal in the coming days. For anyone thinking about running lights-out for a day or two I highly recommend it. I know Wes on these boards does it once per month and reports equally good results.

Other than that I've been doing a little trading of frags finally and the tank is finally starting to look a little more full. It was really nice to meet Dan, Ryan, Eric and Matt and I hope you'll all visit again sometime soon.

[mnreefgeek]

Everything looks great! I may have missed this, but would you post your overall specs for this set up please.

[kensilvey]

Great looking system,keep up the good work.

[Bob1]

That is one sweet tank, where did you the liverock?

[NandKBlock]

Everything looks great! I may have missed this, but would you post your overall specs for this set up please.
75g Display (2175gph, 29x) 100lbs LR, 3/4” 1-2mm Grain SSB
20g Refugium (165gph, 8x) 25lbs LR, 5” .5-1mm Grain DSB, Chaetomorpha Macroalgae
20g Sump AquaC-EV120, BRS Dual Reactor running GFO & Carbon
Lighting 4x54w IceCap SLR Fan-Cooled Retrofits, Fuge on Reverse Photocycle
Water RO/DI, Freshwater Drip ATO, 15%/Wk Waterchanges
Parameters 79.1°F, 1.025sg, pH 8.3, Alk 7dKH, Ca 460, Mg 1340, PO4 0.01, Ammonia/NO2/NO3 0
Livestock
Astraea, Nassarius, Mexican Turbo & Cerith Snails in Display and Refugium
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab (Paguristes cadenati)
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
False Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
Yellow Coris Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)
Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri)
Purple Firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
Various SPS, LPS, and Soft Corals
Established 02/22/2008

Great looking system,keep up the good work.
Thanks Ken, but I fear you spoke too soon. See below...

That is one sweet tank, where did you the liverock?
I ordered it online somewhere. Kaelani rock or something like that I think.


:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry: :cry::cry::cry:
And since I foolishly agreed to a 'I'll post mine if you post yours' agreement here it is...

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=222&pictureid=2684

Hey, most people struggle at some point and this is just my tank recylcing from the great snail die off and all the fun that's accompanied that and going through the hair algae stage. Not everyone has a perfect tank.

[RaysReef]

Its not a bad as Nate makes it sound. Overall the tank is recovering well and looking great. BTW I got about a dozen astreas if you ready for them ;)

[veloboy]

Come on Nate, what about the most recent photo with almost all of the algae gone!

This is a sweet set-up, although the pictures are great, they don't compare to seeing the tank in person. The whole thing is really well thought out with the tank built (by Nate) into a bookcase with a fishroom behind it. Nate did a great job of aquascaping and his RBTA is amazing. When it all grows out its gonna be something.

Happy to hear your algae problem has all but disappeared. How about an updated full tank shot Nate?

[grayworg]

This is an incredible tank, and an incredible thread! Very beautiful tank, and I love all the detailed information! :biggthumpup:

[nate_mcnasty]

not trying to be a downer but that algae looks like bryopsis. might be a task in its self to get rid of

[RaysReef]

not trying to be a downer but that algae looks like bryopsis. might be a task in its self to get rid of

Its better now, it has gone down significately. Nate needs to take a better recent pic.

[NandKBlock]

This is an incredible tank, and an incredible thread! Very beautiful tank, and I love all the detailed information! :biggthumpup:Thanks! I'm hoping that people find this thread useful in some way.


not trying to be a downer but that algae looks like bryopsis. might be a task in its self to get rid of

Indeed much of it was! (Emphasis on was) To make matters worse it was all matted together with cyano too. I used Kent Tech-M to raise my Mg levels to 1650 for several days and it completely wiped out the bryopsis.

For those following along who are not familiar with the method, I'll summarize here, but a google search for "Bryopsis Kent Tech-M" will give you numerous threads of info from people who have successfully done it. The claims (and I can now confirm that they worked for me) are that using Kent Tech-M to raise your magnesium levels over 1500 will kill bryopsis starting on day two or so at that level. Other magnesium supplements haven't worked for other people so people wonder about a secret ingredient, but the label is pretty straight forward with just three ingredients listed: Deionized water, Magnesium chloride, Magnesium Sulfate. There's several things to be aware of if you're trying this. First, your salinity level will increase during this process. Second, too high of a concentration of magnesium in the water will result in the precipitation of trace elements which will have an undetermined effect since we don't know what they do in the first place, if anything at all.

After trying for months to get my tank back under control I decided to let things cycle out and stabilize on their own. I went through a hell of a cyano phase which was ending about the time the bryopsis and hair algae seen above was setting in. I let it all grow and grow until it stopped growing and then did the Tech-M treatment for the bryopsis. Once the bryopsis was gone I did a serious harvesting of the hair algae and then shut the lights off for a day and a half to eliminate any uptake of nutrients in the water by photosynthetic processes. My phosphates and nitrates had been testing zero for quite some time but I needed to know if they were simply being used up by the algae as fast as they were produced or if they were indeed zero. After a day and a half in the dark I tested for both and still got zero readings. Yippee! I've since had the lights on for a normal 10 hour photoperiod and nothing more than arogue strand of hair algae here or there has grown back.

The last algae issue I have to tackle to get everything back to normal is a bristley red algae covering about half the rocks. For that I'm employing a longspine urchin which is doing a remarkable job. He clears about a 2" circle per day and once he clears an area on the rock it does not grow back. As of right now it's just a waiting game for him to get around to all the rock. If anyone wants to loan out another longspine I'd LOVE to have it a for a while.

I've also been dealing with a livestock issue but that's a topic for another post...

Frankly I was really embarrassed about the state of my tank but finally I decided that there's probably a lot of people that battle these things every day and probably think they're alone. Seeing my disaster just might help someone feel better about their tank - That's the hope anyway. If not I'm sure there's at least a few people who are getting a good laugh about this and that's OK too. It is kinda funny really. :biggthumpup:

I'll get updated pics soon...

[this1fish]

is that green hair algae? doesnt look a thing like it but i like it!

[Screwtape]

I've read about the Tech M treatment quite a bit and it certainly seems to work for some people, I assume it might only work with certain algae, specifically bryopsis (or some bryopsis anyway). Glad to see it worked for you, chalk another one up for the Tech M crew.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if there were regulations regarding what has to be listed on the ingredients list on the package. Just like in food products if something comprises an insignificant percent of the total product (like .005%) and it hasn't been identified as harmful, then it doesn't have to be listed on the packaging.

So who knows what trace elements/constituents are in the Tech M formula because I've read other reports of other magnesium supplements not working but then Tech M magically comes along to the rescue and slays the evil green dragon. :)

[veloboy]

Thanks for sharing this information Nate. This is super valuable for us Newbs. I've always thought that its not a matter of if but when this kinda stuff is going to happen, despite my most careful efforts. Its really nice to know how to deal with these issues and that other reefers are dealing with issues as well. I haven't checked into it too closely, is there a place on our forums where we keep threads on how to deal with issues like algae, aiptasia etc..?

[NandKBlock]

As promised here are a couple pics of the tank I took today. This is the right half of my tank looking from the front middle. You can see patches of bare rock where the urchin's gotten and the darker areas are still covered with the red bristley stuff. There's a few little patches of cyano here and there but you can see that the bryopsis/hair algae is virtually gone.
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii201/NandKBlock/P1050140.jpg

Here's an aussie acan frag I got from Ray (Sogonerg) a couple weeks ago. You can see that it's healthy and growing over the rock/skeleton which makes me feel good about my water quality/params going forward. You can also compare the rock to the left/top that's been mostly cleared by the urchin and the rock to the right that hasn't.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2767

So it's a waiting game now as long as I keep the water quality high. How long? Who knows, probably a VERY long time...

[fivesmallworlds]

Even with some of the pesky stuff your tank is one of the best I've seen! It'll come around.

[BeerNut]

What size powerheads do you have in there? I'm planning my next tank and it's going to be a 75 gal also. I'm glad you've done most of the hard work already :beerchug:

[NandKBlock]

What size powerheads do you have in there? I'm planning my next tank and it's going to be a 75 gal also. I'm glad you've done most of the hard work already :beerchug:
They're Koralia 3s and they do a fine job for me. You could most definitely upgrade them though or add more but my two 3s are working so no need to tinker with it until I need to IMO. There's enough other things that need my attention. LOL

[dougers31]

Nice pics Nate!


I got a frag of that same acan from Ray. One of the best looking corals in my tank.:beerchug:

[this1fish]

is that the same blue reef chromis i sold you?

[RaysReef]

Nice, the yellow coris is out, finally! Glad to see everything is progress well :beerchug: Love the acan Doug/Nate ;)

[NandKBlock]

Thanks Doug, it sure is a fine piece.

And yes that is the same Blue Reef Chromis I bought from you this1fish. He's been an awesome fish for us without any ich problems. (knock on wood)

It's funny Ray, the Yellow Coris is the fattest of them all, I guess his early morning adventures left him well fed on pods or something.

[NandKBlock]

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2786
Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse
False Percula Clownfish
Yellow Coris Wrasse
Green Psychedelic Mandarin
Blue Reef Chromis
Purple Firefish

No, you can't see our new mandarin in the pic above, but I did catch him peeking!
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2785

Jake at Discovery Aquatics laughs at us for picking fish based on color but we like the look when they're all out swimming around, especially against the black-painted back glass.

[acharpenter]

Bea----uuuu-ti----ful! Looks way different from when I saw it a couple months ago!

Jake can laugh all he wants, Kevin and I do the same thing! ;)

I am SO JEALOUS :mad: you picked up a Manderin!!!

Very nice Nate - I gotta get onto starting corals soon!!!!

[NandKBlock]

Well what's new this week...

I purchased a couple Top Crown Snails from Discovery Aquatics in Anoka after reading that they would eat some of the smaller macro algaes. I've still got that red bristley stuff I'm trying to get rid of so I thought I'd give them a shot. Yippee, they work! They've been at it for a while now giving the rocks a nice close shave before moving on. They don't eat it down to the rock like the longspine urchin, but they do eat it so that's fine by me.

The urchin has figured out that there's plenty of food to go around so he's not clear-cutting the stuff either like he used to. Instead he eats a little here, eats a little there. Kind of annoying but what's eaten is not growing back so it's just a matter of time.

I'd have posted some pics but our camera was dropped on Easter and our new one won't be here until Thursday. I had wanted our next camera to be a DSLR since I've always found photogrpahy kinda enjoyable but the money is not there yet so we just got a newer version of our old camera which I was always happy with. The new one will be 9.1 megapixels instead of 5 and will have HD (720p) movie capability. I can't wait to start playing. Oh yeah, it's a Panasonic DMC-TZ5 that's on its way.

[veloboy]

Are urchins universally reef safe? How long has it been in your tank? I think you should get a new full tank shot up as soon as you get that camera. Can you throw in a couple of the urchin for me?

Thanks Nate.:biggthumpup:

[kjdeut]

Wow Nate the tank is looking great. All your work has really paid off.

Ken

[David Grigor]

Are urchins universally reef safe? How long has it been in your tank? I think you should get a new full tank shot up as soon as you get that camera. Can you throw in a couple of the urchin for me?

Thanks Nate.:biggthumpup:

Pretty much reef safe but there are a few concerns:

1. They are not acrylic safe. If you have an acrylic tank, they will create thousands of little spiderweb like marks/scratches on the tank. Glass is fine.

2. Not only can they mow hair types of algaes, but also mow coraline algae down to bare rock as well. Which may or may not matter to you.

3. All corals and rocks need to be bolted down REALLY REALLY good. Urchins can easily knock off stuff ( or in the case of tuxedos, carry it around with them ).

[capman]

I think most urchins are fine, as David said.

Pencil urchins are predators though that could potentially eat any animal that does not get up and walk away. I have strong suspicions that a pencil urchin I used to have caught and started to eat a sleeping coral beauty angel (the angel had just been introduced to the tank the day before though, so it is possible the angel died first, but when I found the angel being gripped by the strong spines of the urchin the next morning the angel looked very fresh, as though only recently caught, and only recently dead). The same pencil urchin also ate several other urchins of another species - ate them alive, and ate them completely. They will also grip onto the arms of seastars and start eating. I don't know what else they will eat, but I don't trust them.

By the way, urchins in general eat a lot, and need a lot of food for optimal health. And even the normally herbivorous ones will usually like to eat other things, like silversides, krill, etc. It might not be a bad idea to give your urchin foods like this several times a week, especially if algae is not abundant.

[REEFSTOCK]

If you are still in the small frag size stuff LongSpine is the only one I would recommend, and I do recommend it (unless you are really in love with purple corline). A mature or as David says, "in a locked down tank" the options get better.

LSUrchins don't bulldose much.

[hypertech]

I pretty sure Nate has the long spine I got from SWE. He was a cute little guy I got to help with a small algae problem I was having. Trouble was - he grew really fast really quick eating up stuff so he had to leave the biocube. I only got to keep him for a couple weeks.

I "think" that is when he went to Nate, but I could be wrong.

[NandKBlock]

Yep that's him, still munching away. For better or worse when I started getting corals I glued them all right to the rocks so they're encrusted and not going anywhere. I pray I never get AEFWs...!

I'll have some pics with the new camera this weekend, I've just been really busy the past couple days.

[this1fish]

have you ever thought about adding two more blue reef chromis to make a shoal of 3? btw how big is the guy now?

[NandKBlock]

I've thought about adding a couple more but I only have a 75g and don't want to devote that much bioload to a single kind of fish.

He (and you can call him Cookie, as in Cookie Monster per my 3yo daughter) really hasn't grown as fast as I thought he would. He's about one and a hlaf to two inches not including his tail. Love his color though!

[Screwtape]

Do you have long-term fish stocking plans or are you leaving it at what you have now? Nice choices, I like the stocking scheme so far. :)

[NandKBlock]

Well I think we're just about done with the fish stocking. Our overall goal with our tank is to make it as least demanding on our time and as simple as possible. I don't want to increase the bioload too much and then start having to worry about getting a bigger skimmer, doing more frequent water changes, etc. As it stands now Nitrates do not accumulate at all. While I was working on getting everything back to normal after the low salinity calaminty I went 3 months without a water change, saw nuisance algae stop re-growing after harvesting, and the nitrates still measured zero after three months.

If you read through this thread you know we used to have a Heniochus diphreutes and if I ever found another one I'd buy it in a second because it was a great fish with a great active personality that always drew a lot of interest from other people. Unfortunately I only know of one place that distinguishes it from other Heniochus sp. and that's Vivid Aquariums in CA. I have thought about ordering one from them but I just don't have the money to lay out right now for it. Maybe someday. For now I'm content to stop in to Deathco every once in a while and see if the Heniochus they got in is a diphreutes or some other kind.

[NandKBlock]

Here's a couple top-down photos of some of my favorite SPS. I used the DIY acrylic look-down box I built and my new camera.
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2910
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2909
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2908
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2907
http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=191&pictureid=2906

[PaulTushaus]

NICE!!!!!:biggthumpup:

[PLNelson]

What is that last one?

[veloboy]

Nice Nate- looks great. Are you adding anything (kalk 2-part? c-reactor?) for your stonies or do they just naturally look that great?

Wheres the urchin shot dude?

[NandKBlock]

I have no idea what the last one is, I was actually hoping someone might chime in. It grew from an itsy bitsy teeny weeny little tiny insurance frag from Jeremy (thepollock). The tips are really a bit more yellow-green than the pic and very bright which you can tell by the way the camera overexposed the tips.

As far as dosing, I very irregularly dose Kalk like maybe five gallons a week and just recently started baking soda too (I never knew before last week that kalk eventually lowered alkalinity...) Otherwise I don't feed or do anything.

You can see the patches of red bristley stuff where the urchin hasn't gotten and the clear spots where he has. I also had a cyano outbreak again which is al too obvious in the pics. I seem to get one after every water change but I've tested the change water and the phosphates/nitrates are good so I'm starting to think the water is saturated with CO2 or something. Still a mystery...

[dougers31]

Those are some sweet (top down) pics Nate!!:beerchug:

[NandKBlock]

No updates for a while now...

I did a massive water change, probably close to 80 gallons of the 100 gallon total system volume. I had never lowered the Mg levels after using Tech-M and started to notice some weird occurrences. I also thought my nitrate levels might be high as my nitrate test kit was of the Red Sea variety and was showing zero but algae kept growing... Nope, took before and after samples to Jake at Discovery Aquatics and they were identical.

After visiting Jake and purchasing a rather unique acan I decide to stop at Deathco just because. I was VERY excited to find that they had gotten in a Heniochus sp. that looked very much like it might be a diphreutes which is the only reef-safe variety. I snapped a few pics on the phone, put it on hold, and went home to try and confirm this. Indeed it was so we now have Spike II. It's by far our favorite fish, lively, interactive, colorful, and unique.

We've also added a mate for our clown and a sand-sifting goby to keep the sand clean. It does it's job perfectly and the sand is sparkling but for a week or so it sure clouded up the water as it went about it's business.

I think that's about it.

[RaysReef]

now post some pics dammit

[fivesmallworlds]

lol...

[mrlee]

its time for more pic and a update...