Elos 130-ish + a chopped up 160 for a frag tank and display

[w2inc]

Phosphate and nitrate are .1 and 10. I brought in 44 Malaysian clams to help the bacteria cycle and pull some nutrient out of the system. I was not able to get live photo to feed them and in the end they brought in dinoflagellate.


Dyny-x for two days worked great. I will get live phyto tomorrow and it should eat the nutrient and the clams eat that.

Meanwhile, skimmer is pulling tons of brown. House smells like bad seafood form the algae paste I have been feeding the clams. 20 of them died, fortunately they m
ove to the surface to do it, so it was easy to get them out before it was an issue. I changed the light on the Chaeto to a 100 watt 5500k shop light with no fan. The UFO was just loud. I am thinking of redoing the rock. We will see what happens.

 

[w2inc]

 

[Jon Fishman]

Two things...... or 3 or 4..., we will see.

1). Yep, you’re addicted

2). I have a couple of MP40’s on the way, but I have 4 Koralia’s and they are a great bang for your buck.

3). I would worry like hell that one of those caster-wheels would break through the floor given LBs per inch.....

4) Welcome!

 

[w2inc]

Thanks for the input. You are probably right about the wheels. I am on a concrete slab, so I am not too worried about it. I do need to adjust it so that the feet hold the wheels off the ground and I would have forgotten about it if you handn't mentioned something. Thanks for that.

I have a couple mp-40's on my other system and I like them. I might try to find a way to add a slow surge to this tank but I will see how things go. My main system has been having issues so this tank got coral in it sooner than I wanted to put it there.

 

[w2inc]

The pod catching trap wasn't all that successful. It moved to the scrap bin, but the speakers were awesome. I had to take a break from working on the tank due to some issues with the 120 reef. It needed a new pump. When I was trying to change it out I decided that I would be happier if I never had to get on my knees to work on a sump again.

So I built a new dedicated tank for the Chaeto grow out, a new set of overflows that could keep up with the Reef Octopus V8, a overflow box on the back of the tank that can double as an ATS, a syphon feed to my chiller, and a separate tank that holds the skimmer and drive pump.

I was planning to keep the skimmer tank at the same level as the Chaeto tank, but at the last minute I changed plans and put it under because it seemed to have easy enough access and it would save some floor space. The volume of it was based on the idea that it would be level with the Chaeto tank, but sitting at the bottom of everything like it is I am not sure that it can handle having the main pump shut off without overflowing. I am still working out the details on that.

 

[Hermie]

I seeded my tanks from ocean rocks and water when it started. I have tons of different pods and plankton in the other two reefs and I am planning out a way to get them seeded in the new tank without bringing in the things I dont want. Some times I think it might not be possible. A good pod stock seems to be a key to a stable tank. I am doing my best to just avoid shaking a rock in the tank. There are several things I would love to leave behind.

I've been trying to get an effective amphipod trap going... modeled on the "snail" trap that is a bottle with a small hole in which they can climb but not climb out... I saw that's how deep sea amphipods are caught, it's basically a crab trap... but I haven't had much experience, good or bad. I want to transfer my QT amphipods into my DT...

 

[w2inc]

Update. I let things sit for the summer. The 120 was and is still having some random slow tissue death on the SPS and it got hard to look at.

The 130 had a Massive cyano outbreak and then bubble algae showed up so cleaned things up and I pulled the bubble infested rocks.

Things look much better now.

Still wishing I had kept the skimmer sump at the same level as the 120 fuge, but there is always time to change things up. That system is really thriving in some areas and really struggling in others. I still lose a coral about each month, some times two. The ones that are living are growing faster than ever and have been fragging and trading in, so I have plenty of pet store credit to restock when I figure out what is going on.

My yard looks great. Loaded it up with succulents while I was ignoring the reef. Sold the freshwater 120 and there is finally some room to move around in the fish room.

more later.