270g Starphire build thread (pic intensive) (1 Viewer)

[morty]

isnt that from the little bit that leaches from new pvc? its so small that most skimmers miss it.

Are you saying that PVC leaches some sort of molecule that gets skimmed? I guess I've never heard about that. At any rate, the system has had water running thru it for quite some time now, so I would think the inside of the plumbing is pretty well coated with whatever biofilm is going to grow there.

 

[morty]

livestock

I've added some fish/inverts to the tank, and it's also sprouted quite a few different kinds of algae. I guess a lot of it will die off over time (esp. the hair algae I hope ). I've taken some photos of the things I've added and the things that added themselves.

Here is a pic of what I believe to be Mermaid's Teacup:

Here is some more, as well as what B. Capman described as Neomeris annulata in another thread:

This appears to be a macro that I hope becomes tang food (as soon as I add a few to the tank):

This is (I think) a type of bryopsis that J. Sprung talked about at the speaker event. Appears in new tanks, not the nuisance type. I have a purple tang in my 'fuge and he loveloveloves it when I feed him a strand. I imagine it'll be gone once he goes in the display. (Plus a moon coral from OD is visible in the shot.)

This is another guy that is liking the algae big time, my lawnmower blenny. He is becoming quite a fatso, but is making good headway on the misc. hair algae (which also seems to be disappearing on its own).

Here's one of my favorite fish - flame hawk. Very comical.

This is a nice Pectinia specimen I got at OD. About 7-8" across.

Here are some other LPSs -- A Symphillia, an Acan rock, and a Platygyra(?). Color isn't as good when the MHs are on. All get reealy hungry at night.

This is a couple of purple firefish that seem to be pairing up. They chased a third one off and I had to put him in my 'fuge.

Here is a (bad photo of a) bird's nest from Live Aquaria. It's growing pretty fast.

This is the lone acro in the tank so far. I got it from David G. at the speaker event and seems to fairly happy, with decent PE. In the MH light the color of the tips isn't as evident, but I think it's growing pretty good. Now just to be patient for the hair algae to continue to die off.

Here is the purple tang I mentioned, still hanging out in my 30g 'fuge. I want to add him to the display along with other tangs when I get them. Also, I'm keeping an eye on a spot where he had a bizarre parasite to make sure it doesn't come back.

I have a dozen or so other frags in quarantine, and I'll post shots of them as they get added to the display. But this is what I thought was worth putting up at this point.

 

[HermitSolo]

Absolutely stunning...

Got any plans or details on the folding stairs?
Chris

Where was I when you posted this thread and how have I missed it for so long.. absolutely stunning! I NEED to win the lottery!

Those steps are exactly what I was planning on doing now that i have the sump out from under my tank..ok, my idea of steps was a LOT more ghetto than yours are. Hope you're hosting a meeting sometime in the coming year :beerchug:
-Bill

 

[Tifosi]

I love it! Go big or go home!

I'll be studying those pics when I upgrade to a big tank.

 

[clownnut]

Astraea are your best friends now.^_^

 

[morty]

skimmer mods - final verdict

A couple of people expressed interest in the mods I did to my ASM G4x. I told them that I still needed convincing that the dual venturi unit on the OR3500 feed pump was the best way to get a good water feed rate and additional air injection, so instead of the venturi assembly, I tried an OR2500 with a needlewheel, and I made an aspirator for the pump's inlet by drilling a 9/16" hole in the side a 3/4" fpt x 3/4" slip coupling, and tapping it for a 3/8" mpt air hose coupling. I restricted the water inlet to get the best air flow by inserting a 3/4" plug with a 9/16" hole in it. But this arrangement only injected about 3 lpm air when attached to the skimmer, and only pushed 150-200 gph water. I really had been expecting more. I then tried a needlewheel in the OR3500, and was disappointed with it too. Better water flow than the OR2500/needlewheel, but not much better air injection. I had made a similar aspirator for it, and also tried a 12 lpm air pump into the aspirator, which worked ok, but whenever the pump was unplugged it failed to restart until the air pump was momentarily shut off. The air interfered with the impeller spinning up.

Apparently the extra head needed to push the water level up in the skimmer affected the air intake rate, and the neelewheels weren't as effective moving water.

In the end I went back to the dual venturi unit with the OR3500 and regular impeller, and observed much better water feed rate and a 6+ lpm air injection. Should've stayed with it in the first place, and it would be my recommendation. At this point I plan to sell off the needlewheels to people that need them for other applications!

Also, for the recirc pump's air injection donut, I would recommend trying spa-flex instead of the elbows, if it would bend in that tight of a radius. Not that there's anything wrong with the elbow design, but spa-flex is easier to find than 45 deg street elbows.

Skimmer is still doing a good job, producing several cups of dark skimmate every couple of days. I may try skimming a bit drier, to compare and see if I'm currently skimming too wet.

 

[Adam G]

Morty,

Sounds like you are fine tuning your skimmer and getting it dialed in. Sometimes it takes some eperimenting to find that one of your original solutions is that one that works the best. Several cups of skimmate every couple of days is pretty darn good. I am getting about 2 cups a week out of mine. time for a change.

Would love to see some full tank pics, even if you are getting an algae spurt.

 

[steve1600cc]

Yeah I noticed that Gate Valve right away also...NOT
What an incredible set up all I could think about was standing in the midst of it all and wondering to myself "what the Hell do I do now"My spot for that one is definitely at the Bar which I must say you could have shown a Pic fully Stocked and ready for all of us..LOL
Again very well done and look forward to the Future posts.

 

[Havre]

Very cool Morty! I have to admit though when I first opened this thread and saw the very first picture I thought............"That looks more like a clamp rack than an aquarium."

 

[morty]

Thanks Scott! Yup this has definitely been a very diy type project.

Hey, I was in a waiting room the other day and there was a copy of a MN magazine, with an article about local people who keep different kinds of pets. I thumbed thru it and saw a pic of a guy sitting in front of 3 aquariums, facing away from the camera. I thought "Hey, I recognize that red hair!" and saw your name in the caption. So, have you figured out if your fish recognize you or are you still just a blob to them?

 

[wes]

hey morty, are those macros able to be split up in the same way chaeto/caulerpa can be? I would love to have some of that kind of diversity. If you wind up pruning them, please let me know. I don't mean to impose, but they're just so beautiful.

 

[morty]

Wes, I'm not sure how well some of those algaes can be propagated. I might be able to give you a small rock that has some 'sprouts' on it and see how it does in your tank. But of course there would potentially be a lot of other nuisance algae on it too. I suspect that the two cooler algaes that I'm seeing, mermaid's wineglass (Acetabularia, which I mistakenly called mermaid's teacup before) and spindleweed (Neomeris annulata) are the types of algae that won't do well in a more mature system. Given all the other algaes that I've seen come and go already, I won't be surprised if these die off too. (Or the opposite could happen, and they could take over your tank ) But let me know and I'll see if there's a smallish rock that has one or both on it and I can bring it to OD.

 

[morty]

Here are a few more progress photos. The tank still has a healthy growth of hair algae, but more and more bare rock is re-emerging and I'm now seeing the rock starting to color up with pink and blue-purple coralline algae.

Here is a rock that shows some coverage of the darker blue coralline algae on the right. It had previously been completely the bleached white look seen on the left.

Here is another rock showing how it is coloring up. There is another kind of algae that is spread around in the tank - it's on the lower-left of this rock. It's greyish green and fluffy. It has no structural strength at all. It's like it's made of nothing. It doesn't need to be plucked or scrubbed, just getting a siphon hose near it simply sucks it out, which is nice.

This is another bryopsis-looking algae, kind of similar to one from a previous post, except it does not seem to branch. It is only located in a couple patches in the tank.

The mermaids' wineglass algae has continued to spread around the tank, here's kind of a little garden of it.

This is another calcifying algae that has appeared (middle, scallop-shaped). Also all around it is the short brown hair algae that seems to be the main non-coralline algae remaining.

But the brown hair algae seems to be disappearing. The bare patches of rock in this photo were recently covered with it. This makes me wonder what is consuming it, because it's not like it's falling off and going down the drains, or dissolving. It's more like something is consuming it. Would some sort of pods eat it at night? Like amphipods? (I have noticed the hawkfish hunting around in the rocks a lot more, picking something off for food.)

This was something I forgot to post before. It seems to be some kind of small polyped encrusting coral that survived the cooking period over the past year. If anyone knows what it is I'd be curious to hear. It's in a couple patches on this particular rock. Hope it survives.

This is an alien eye echino I got from David G. It's beginning to encrust onto the rock I glued it to.

Here are some orange mouth zoas from David, starting to rapidly take over this rock. I'm glad I glued them to a smaller rock, so if they really take off I can move the rock out into the sand to keep them from taking over. There's an open spot near the back of the colony where I killed an aiptasia with Joe's Juice, so I'll probably have to deal with more of them in the future. I also have spotted a few red flatworms here and there. I'm sure they came in on another rock I put in the tank.

This is the same acro I posted before, still seems to be doing pretty good.

This is a purple mouthed monti I also got from David. It's growth pattern is interesting. It seems to be growing down before starts to grow upward. The whitish area in the lower left as well as everything below the lit-up lower ridge is new growth, but I haven't yet seen to top of the frag grow taller very much.

Here is an aquacultured pink birds' nest I got from LiveAquaria. I think it has about doubled in size. In the foreground two branches have stitched themselves together. I can see why it's called birds' nest, because the inner area of the frag is more hollow, while the outside branches seem to be weaving together.

Here's the most recent full tank shot. The left end of the tank looks pretty barren, but I have a bunch of frags (still) in quarantine that I will begin to put in place once a little more of the hair algae is gone. Also not many vertebrate occupants -- the purple firefish pair are visible towards the middle, and the flame hawk is the little red patch at the right end of the tank. Good luck finding the lawn mower blenny. And my purple tang is still waiting it out in the refugium, once I get a better idea of what other tangs to add with it at the same time. (btw - Any more opinions/ideas out there on this?)

 

[REEFSTOCK]

I just want to ask:

Are you going to be taking pictures at the store for us?

 

[morty]

Clownnut can blow away anything I can do - I would've thought that would be his territory!

 

[Zekester]

Keep a close eye on that pectinia they have some wicked sweepers that love to mark territory (if you didn't already know)

 

[tito]

This is (I think) a type of bryopsis that J. Sprung talked about at the speaker event. Appears in new tanks, not the nuisance type. I have a purple tang in my 'fuge and he loveloveloves it when I feed him a strand. I imagine it'll be gone once he goes in the display. (Plus a moon coral from OD is visible in the shot.)

QUOTE]



This is the same stuff I am dealing with. I have some strands that are 6" long. Let me know if your tang needs anymore. :biggrin:

 

[morty]

This is the same stuff I am dealing with. I have some strands that are 6" long. Let me know if your tang needs anymore. :biggrin:

How long has your tank been set up?

 

[Flounder]

Sweet Build. Very Cool. Glad I didnt look at this thread with a 56k hook-up

 

[tito]

How long has your tank been set up?

I am guessing 10 weeks or so.