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BlindSwordsman's 3 Tank System (1 Viewer)

Jonty said:
Looking very nice I really like the rock work. Is this one system or will each tank have its own sump?
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Thanks. I'm not a minimalist, but with this tank is sort of a display/frag tank in one (more of a frag tank than a display tank), I try to minimize the rock to leave more space for corals this time 😄.

This is 1 system with (3) 40 gallon tanks pumped into the same 20 gallon long sump. There is a separate live rock/chaeto compartment that is connected to the sump that has about 15 gallons of water total. The sump basically holds a skimmer and has some filter floss. Nothing is too special or high tech there 😄.

... I just went to Petco to return extra sand I don't need, and I saw a flame angelfish swimming around, happily nipping on the rock there so I bought it 😄. I have actually been thinking about maybe adding a flame angel, maybe a copperband butterfly anyway. These are the kinds of fish I normally don't add to my tank due to their 'add in with caution' label. But for this tank, it will be easy to catch them out, so I would consider them now. I'm not sure if I will try the copperband butterfly later... I'm also thinking about maybe adding a blue (yellow tail) damsel fish to add a dash of blue color to the tank (knowing that the damsels also have a reputation 😁). So, we'll see ... For the time being, I'll keep the flame angel in my 10 gall frag tank until this tank is ready.
 
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What’s great selection of fish.

On your separate chaeto tank and you pumping water from that to and from the sump or how do you have these connected?
 
reef junkie said:
What’s great selection of fish.

On your separate chaeto tank and you pumping water from that to and from the sump or how do you have these connected?
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Instead of having the chaeto compartment as part of the sump, I split it out to a separate compartment. With it as part of the sump, the light would shine everywhere and algae would grow on the skimmer and such, and I'm too lazy to keep on cleaning that 😁. The chaeto compartment is connected to the sump just like how the tanks are connected to the sump. It has its own pump (so I can start and stop it when I need to, and possibly a wavemaker if I think more flow is needed there) that pumps water from the sump. The water then overflows from this compartment back to the sump. Simple logic 😄.

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postie1686 said:
I looked at that flame angel yesterday while I was there. He was still floating in the bag 😂 I got the fox face instead
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If you have gotten it while it was still in the bag, you should have gotten another 10% off, I believe 😁. But, it's mine now! 😂

.. And I got the chaeto from @MistakesWereMade a short while ago. (Thanks! 🙂) I threw half of it into the 90 gallon tank system and half into this system. I guess we'll see how it fares 😁.
 
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My tanks are .. passing gas!!! 😂 .. There are tiny, micro bubbles coming off from the sand. Nitrogen bubbles?? 🤔 .. Who knows!!? I dunno 🥴 ... 😅 .. There is also a light film of algae build up on the sand and the glass. I might expect some red stuff showing up soon, I'm thinking. Who knows?!! I don't know ... I just go with the flow! 🤣🤣🤣

.. And the flame angelfish I got from Petco does not look too .. hot right now. I might lose it. Oh well! 😐

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To recap what I did:

- I used mostly old water from the 90 gallon tank system to fill up this system.
- Added 40 lbs of 'live sand', purchased from Petco.
- Added some rock that I had in a bucket for a few weeks, connected to the 90 gallon tank system. I don't know if this could be considered 'live rock' as I think I actually killed most of my copepods and stuff in my 90 gallon tank system (this is another story ;)).
- Used the old filter floss from the 90 gallon tank.
- Added some chaeto.
- Vacuumed the floor of my 10 gallon frag tank and dumped whatever that was (dirt, worms, ...) into this.
- (I haven't added the skimmer to this system yet, as I feel like this is not the right time for it yet.)

After 1 week, there was a light film of algae on the glass and sand. There were micro bubbles emerged from the sand. Looking back at the 55 gallon tank that I set up the same way before, there was some red stuff showed up after 2 weeks and cleared about about 1 - 2 weeks after. So, I was expecting some 'red stuff' here. But it's getting near to 2 week time now, and things look to be cleared out. The sand looks clean. The chaeto appears to be growing 🫤. As usual, I got bored and threw in my 1st test subject: The GSP. It came from the back of the 90 gallon tank with not much light so I think it's looking as how it usually looks. @RSnodgrass would say that the GSP is not a good indicator because he thought it was something that would grow even in the toilet, so I might just be going against all odds again here 😄. I haven't been out of the house this week, but I'll probably get to the store by the end of this week to get some egg crate to create some frag racks and start to add a few zoa frags here and there to see how they go as I'm bored 😁.

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postie1686 said:
i have about half a piece of egg crate left if you need some. its white
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Thank you. I do appreciate the offer but I got enough egg crates already :D.

... I actually ordered and received some 'black egg crates' from Amazon yesterday. The holes of these egg crates are too small for the usual cement frag plugs, so I will have to return them. I ended up using the usual white egg crates from Menards/Home Depot. I then made some new zoa frags and added them to this new system. They look well enough for freshly cut frags. If things continue to be fine, I will continue to add more frags here and there. I also plan to declutter my 90 gallon tank, move a few things from there over to this system, and do a bit re-aquascaping there later. As for the 10 gallon frag tank, once this new system is completely established, I do not know what to do with it yet. Maybe I'll turn it into a more specialized mushroom only tank or such? 🤔

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This system has been running technically about 1 month or so? Things are not great but not too bad. There has been a bit of debris and some algae buildup. I added some fish and some urchins and they clean most of that stuff up. I won't list all of the fish here because I will be frowned upon :p. I got something orange, something yellow, something blue and something red. For something 'red', I got the flame angel, but I've tried it 2 times and both died within a few weeks due to some internal parasite as it appeared. I probably should hold off on that until maybe the store gets a new batch of these, if I want to try again? The tanks are not exactly clean or perfect, but there is no terrible slimy red stuff, either. I've added some more frags to grow out. They are hanging on there, I think :D.

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And for this tank, I still haven't decided what to do with it yet. I just slapped a few extra stuff on for now. I will possibly put in some monti that I have. I really want to have some 'fancier' SPS but I know this is nowhere fit for those yet.

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This is not aiming to brag about this tank. I added a few more extra frags and moved all of the monti from the 90 gallon tank to this tank. Some are doing okay and some are not. I'm just merely documenting the changes with the photo here :).

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clownnut said:
love the Zoas field.
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Ah, thanks! I'm aiming to grow those so I can have backups for those. ... I'm not sure what the correct word to describe it. 'Preservation'?? 🤔 ... I'm kind of littering on my sand there but maybe it won't look too bad if they are fully grown. And this tank is part display, part frag tank, so that'll do :D.
 
BlindSwordsman said:
Ah, thanks! I'm aiming to grow those so I can have backups for those. ... I'm not sure what the correct word to describe it. 'Preservation'?? 🤔 ... I'm kind of littering on my sand there but maybe it won't look too bad if they are fully grown. And this tank is part display, part frag tank, so that'll do :D.
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I love the idea of Zoas Rock, but whichever grows faster will eventually kill off the rest. i preferred keep them on their own "island". then you can always just cut the island in half, sell half and regrow the island again.

how big are those disks?
 
clownnut said:
How big are those disks?
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I made a bunch of 2", 3", 4" ones myself last summer. These are the 3" ones.

spsick said:
Ken you really have the touch for beautiful aquascaping!
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Thanks! So, I did okay with my aquascape 😁. The important question is: How well can I grow the corals? 😆 .. I sometimes want to try some fancy SPS. But I have a feeling I will get stuck with the easy ones for the rest of my hobby life! 😂
 
BlindSwordsman said:
I made a bunch of 2", 3", 4" ones myself last summer. These are the 3" ones.



Thanks! So, I did okay with my aquascape 😁. The important question is: How well can I grow the corals? 😆 .. I sometimes want to try some fancy SPS. But I have a feeling I will get stuck with the easy ones for the rest of my hobby life! 😂
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What's the recipe? I have some sand left over; I want to custom some myself to fit my needs. :)
 
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