210 Gallon - "Texas" (First Build)

RocketBunny · Aug 6, 2018

Byronyk said:
Finally moved all 10 acro frags from the frag rack to the rock. I'm a bit concerned I've got somewhat... overboard as I'm limited in space. It just means I'll have to be vigilant on fragging when the time comes.

That said, I woke up this morning to my Emerald crab picking at some algae around the base of the TCK Pikachu. Stop it! That guy is already stress !

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmIyRXegm3d/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=942jw8b42jsi

Hello... On your 90 gallon clown harem tank build, will you explain how do you balance the water levels in your main tank, and sump... well, so nothing overfills and doesn't destroy your floor. Like I mean this :: How do you balance the return pump and overflow valves so the water levels don't change and one of the water bodies doesn't over-flow. So far, I have dealt only with Internal filtration (like AIO tanks) and I built only those... But I wan't to start a build with an external sump, and I just don't wrap my mind around the balancing of the overflow and return pump. PLZ HELP!

About the TCK pikachu... I have the same thing happening in my tank. Crabs will turn and throw and play baseball with the corals... If there is algae, they don't care... glued or not, they will detach the coral and eat it xD.

Thanks!
Good luck today !

Aaron-A2 · Aug 6, 2018

So here's what I do. I fill the DT and let it flow into the sump. Once the water level in the sump reaches the return pump chamber and reaches the top of that baffle (Wherever the baffle terminates between the prior chamber and the return pump chamber), I stop adding water.

In terms of controlling water level, it's a mixture of two things:

Return pump power
Drain (How open/closed it is)

I have gate valves on all my drains. I play a balance of how much I open the gate valve and how much power my return pump is set to. Say for example I have my drain closed 25% and I'm running my return pump at 100%. In my 90g system, the Vectra M1 may be too strong at 100% with my drain closed only at 25%. To compensate, I open the drain until the system is in equilibrium.

As for the TCK Pikachu, I'm not concerned about the crab eating or knocking the frag off (I'm pretty liberal with glue). I just don't want him to tick it off XD

RocketBunny · Aug 6, 2018

Byronyk said:
So here's what I do. I fill the DT and let it flow into the sump. Once the water level in the sump reaches the return pump chamber and reaches the top of that baffle (Wherever the baffle terminates between the prior chamber and the return pump chamber), I stop adding water.

In terms of controlling water level, it's a mixture of two things:

Return pump power

Drain (How open/closed it is)

I have gate valves on all my drains. I play a balance of how much I open the gate valve and how much power my return pump is set to. Say for example I have my drain closed 25% and I'm running my return pump at 100%. In my 90g system, the Vectra M1 may be too strong at 100% with my drain closed only at 25%. To compensate, I open the drain until the system is in equilibrium.

As for the TCK Pikachu, I'm not concerned about the crab eating or knocking the frag off (I'm pretty liberal with glue). I just don't want him to **** it off XD

Alright thanks... I kinda get it, I will play around with it once I start building...

My electric blue leg hermit crab (I call him El Chapo), he's crazy about algae and mollusks. If there is even a dust-particle of either algae or mollusk, he will find it, and he will eat it...

That is him when I started my tank... He has grown a lot and changed his shell a couple times.

Aaron-A2 · Aug 6, 2018

That's a beautiful hermit!

Aaron-A2 · Aug 7, 2018

Bounce mushrooms looking really good today

somethinq else · Aug 7, 2018

Would love to increase your bounce collection. Interested in any trading?

Aaron-A2 · Aug 7, 2018

Beautiful bounces! Right now, I doubt I have anything of trade value that isn't an Acropora (of which I'm not keen on getting rid of). I'll hit you up in the future if that changes

somethinq else · Aug 7, 2018

Byronyk said:
Beautiful bounces! Right now, I doubt I have anything of trade value that isn't an Acropora (of which I'm not keen on getting rid of). I'll hit you up in the future if that changes

Sure any time. I also have high end jawbreakers and a purple monster electus. I have one of my purple monsters spawn promised out but I dont plan on getting rid of the main one so if you ever wanna go high end and dont wanna break the bank hit me up

somethinq else · Aug 8, 2018

Would loved to have a piece of that paly. Becareful. Some puffers eat zoas and palys. My daughter wanted a dog face puffer so badly. It ate my Godzilla bounce. So I put him in my community tank and he ate about 1200 bux worth of zoas over night. He went to lfs the next day. But I have a huge porcupine puffer in my 300 and he never touches anything except one time he tried to bite a chunk out of my finger when I was servicing my tank.

somethinq else · Aug 8, 2018

This is my second attempt. I'm 40 now. I had a salt water tank when I was 17 and loved it. It was a fowlr tank but at 17 you cant afford to get knee deep in it. I cant afford to get knee deep in it now come to think of it lol but you have a really nice set up

Aaron-A2 · Aug 14, 2018

FALLOW IS ALMOST OVER!!!

For those that don't know, I brought Ich into my system by not bringing my coral beauty/flame angel up to therapeutic levels in QT (nervous about killing them).

August 23rd is DAY 76 of my fallow period. My fish have been through a complete round of copper and I've had well over 30 additional days of observation without issue. Now my reef tank will be more than a COLR !! (Coral Only Live Rock)

Aaron-A2 · Aug 16, 2018

So I started with a single with a single polyp on my speckled krakatoa. Got it for a great price locally, and since then it's grown 2 additional polyps. It looks like it's growing a third at the bottom right now.

Aaron-A2 · Aug 16, 2018

Been testing my camera settings thanks to @bubbaque 's help. Here's the results

RocketBunny · Aug 17, 2018

Byronyk said:
Been testing my camera settings thanks to @bubbaque 's help. Here's the results

Beautiful...

Aaron-A2 · Aug 20, 2018

So this week (8/23) is the last week of my tank being fallow! It's been a long journey, but I'm glad for it to be almost over.

For those QT guru's out there, I have a question. Is it possible for Ich to remain with/on a fish for 30 days in a non-medicated QT?

Aaron-A2 · Aug 21, 2018

I've been dosing Brightwell Aquatics NeoNitro as a nitrate supplement in my tank for 1-2 weeks now. I took it very slow to bring nitrates from 0 to 3ppm. Here are my observations:

Glass: Holy hell my glass gets dirty so much quicker! I mean it makes sense; dirty water, dirty glass.
Detritus: Just like the glass, there's been an increase in detritus on my sand. I may need to pick up a few new CuC members since the only ones I have for the sand are 4-5 nassarius snails + 1 fighting conch.
Pink/Orange Octospawn: This coral has lost a ton of color over the last month which I believe is partially to do with low nitrates. As of today, it's hard to tell any visible improvements
Green Birdsnest: Like the octospawn, this coral lost a lot of color as well. However in the last 2 weeks, I've seen a halt on the color loss and an increase in overall growth. I'm hoping with time, the color comes back as well.
Pink Birdsnest: A clear increase in coloration. The pink itself has really started to come out!

My observations so far are on mostly my coral that are struggling. Most of the issues have been tied to my pocillopora with my acros doing great. I'll report again on on my Nitrate dosing in a few weeks.