o2manyfish - 750g Display Tank, 1500g System with Outdoor Frag Tanks
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Hey Dave, what do you keep the reactor pH at when using the Dastaco media? I switched to it yesterday and have the first chamber reactor pH at 6. Do you keep it the same or were you able to get good results with the pH higher?
celebrityovernight
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Man, this is by far one of the best threads I've ever read. Definitely feels like reading a book. I love the passion you have for this hobby. I like how reading through the thread like taking a time machine through the evolution of reefing. Excellent stuff! Thank you so much for sharing!
charleslotz
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Hey Dave ,
Firstly awesome tank and agree with a couple posts regarding your resilience and passion for the hobby. Drawing inspiration from your thread , I installed 3 liquid pallets 1 is settlement no lights , 2 is refurgium , 3 is return with skimmers etc etc etc... Making my total water volume with 400 display around 950 gallons lotal.... My display is more about sps than rock so I only have +- 250 lb of life rock... + 3 marine pure blocks. I dose vsv 40 ml per day and macro algue and large nitrate filter...
I have a couple questions if you don't mind?
I also want to keep plus 100 fish have 30 at the moment. Even with 30 I'm struggling with the amount of particulate in the water colomb.... I have bare bottom like you and loads of flow .... Can't seem to get the water clear of particulate go through 2 x 100 micron filter socks per day. I'm a bit of a perfectionist.... I have loads of sps coral and everything is doing great. Looking at your display and the lack of fine particulate my questions are
do you contribute this to the sand filter ?
How often do you clean the sand filter ?
How mush water do you use when cleaning ? Rodi , tap or salt rodi ?
We're does your waist collect if not in the sand filter?
Second issue : As I don't have mounds of live rock do you think this is an issue ? Do I need to consider more biological filtration like sand or moving bed or more live rock?
Appreciate your view?
Firstly awesome tank and agree with a couple posts regarding your resilience and passion for the hobby. Drawing inspiration from your thread , I installed 3 liquid pallets 1 is settlement no lights , 2 is refurgium , 3 is return with skimmers etc etc etc... Making my total water volume with 400 display around 950 gallons lotal.... My display is more about sps than rock so I only have +- 250 lb of life rock... + 3 marine pure blocks. I dose vsv 40 ml per day and macro algue and large nitrate filter...
I have a couple questions if you don't mind?
I also want to keep plus 100 fish have 30 at the moment. Even with 30 I'm struggling with the amount of particulate in the water colomb.... I have bare bottom like you and loads of flow .... Can't seem to get the water clear of particulate go through 2 x 100 micron filter socks per day. I'm a bit of a perfectionist.... I have loads of sps coral and everything is doing great. Looking at your display and the lack of fine particulate my questions are
do you contribute this to the sand filter ?
How often do you clean the sand filter ?
How mush water do you use when cleaning ? Rodi , tap or salt rodi ?
We're does your waist collect if not in the sand filter?
Second issue : As I don't have mounds of live rock do you think this is an issue ? Do I need to consider more biological filtration like sand or moving bed or more live rock?
Appreciate your view?
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Error
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Here are some updated photos to show just how fast they change. This is what the fish looked like as of last Sunday night. So total switchover was about 10 days.
Dave B
Dave B
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Not sure what's happening with the photos I posted. They show up in preview, they show up when I click edit, but they don't seem to be appearing in the thread...
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Charleslotz,
Sorry I missed your questions a couple of weeks ago. My water is not that clear. I see some tanks and the water is crystal clear, mine is not tinted but definitely not clear. I attribute that to the ozone. I only use filter socks when I am having people over to make sure the tank sparkles. While my tank is barebottom, the entire back of the tank, and under all the rock work has turned into a solid mass of millions of mini featherdusters.
Probably 65% of the bottom of the tank is covered with the featherdusters and they have created a silt bed which may be trapping some of the detritus.
One of the things I do contribute to the clarity is not only the featherdusters, but I have a huge quantity of xenia, both inside the display tank and outside in the rock sump and frag tank. When I say I have xenia, I mean I have a ton of xenia. I harvest over 200 large stalks of xenia out of the display tank every month to keep what I have in check. And in the outdoor frag tank, the xenia is measured is squarefeet, and I have maybe 8-10 squarefeet of xenia in the tank outside. So the xenia are filter feeding a ton of particulate out of the water column.
Then there is the rock sump, which has maybe 700-800 lbs of rock in it that I never clean, so who knows whats in the bottom of that sump.... Haha
As for the sand filter.... I have never cleaned it
About every 4-6 months I take a length of 3/4" pipe and slam it into the bottom of the sand filter. Some of the sand solidifies at the bottom of the filter and it slow the flow down.
I hope that answers your questions. If I missed anything feel free to ask more.
Dave B
Sorry I missed your questions a couple of weeks ago. My water is not that clear. I see some tanks and the water is crystal clear, mine is not tinted but definitely not clear. I attribute that to the ozone. I only use filter socks when I am having people over to make sure the tank sparkles. While my tank is barebottom, the entire back of the tank, and under all the rock work has turned into a solid mass of millions of mini featherdusters.
Probably 65% of the bottom of the tank is covered with the featherdusters and they have created a silt bed which may be trapping some of the detritus.
One of the things I do contribute to the clarity is not only the featherdusters, but I have a huge quantity of xenia, both inside the display tank and outside in the rock sump and frag tank. When I say I have xenia, I mean I have a ton of xenia. I harvest over 200 large stalks of xenia out of the display tank every month to keep what I have in check. And in the outdoor frag tank, the xenia is measured is squarefeet, and I have maybe 8-10 squarefeet of xenia in the tank outside. So the xenia are filter feeding a ton of particulate out of the water column.
Then there is the rock sump, which has maybe 700-800 lbs of rock in it that I never clean, so who knows whats in the bottom of that sump.... Haha
As for the sand filter.... I have never cleaned it
About every 4-6 months I take a length of 3/4" pipe and slam it into the bottom of the sand filter. Some of the sand solidifies at the bottom of the filter and it slow the flow down. I hope that answers your questions. If I missed anything feel free to ask more.
Dave B
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Had the itch for some closeup shots of the corals tonight. Shot with Canon 70D with 100mm lens, handheld no tripod.
Simple bright green acro
Australian Colony Coloring Up
Crazy Monti
Grafted Monti
Purple Pink Jake Adams Milli
Milli With Potential
This has grown into a beautiful colony, but I don't know what kind of coral it is. Its Green with magenta polyps in the middle and then chalkish with the magenta polpys at the edge. Colony is about 6.5" across but only a couple of inches tall. If you recognize the coral please let me know what you think it might be.
Tricolor
A different tricolor
Simple bright green acro
Australian Colony Coloring Up
Crazy Monti
Grafted Monti
Purple Pink Jake Adams Milli
Milli With Potential
This has grown into a beautiful colony, but I don't know what kind of coral it is. Its Green with magenta polyps in the middle and then chalkish with the magenta polpys at the edge. Colony is about 6.5" across but only a couple of inches tall. If you recognize the coral please let me know what you think it might be.
Tricolor
A different tricolor
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This is one amazing reef!
bobbychullo
Community Member
unbelievable! and the tank looks better than ever...
thanks for the read!
thanks for the read!
Sharvey103
ReefAddicted
Thank you for sharing that incredible journey. There are always setbacks but it you truly love something persistence pays.
G_Sanab922
Keys Life
Wow long thread and a lot to read but great stuff. Can't imagine what you've been through in this hobby, you are a true reefer! We all go through ups and downs but really? A RAT? That's insane! lol I'm sure you laugh it off now. Will continue to follow along
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Hi Guys,
Been awhile since an update. I have tried at least 6x to get some photos of the tank since Dec and just can't get decent photos. I even had the Tedinator stop by last Friday night and together we couldn't get any real good photos.
So I tried something different, put the hood on the lens and took some top down shots that turned out pretty nice.
If you want a FTS log onto the webcam and take a look, but for now, here is what things are looking like from above.
Here is one of my favorite colonies, still have no idea what it is, but it's just getting bigger and bigger
Here is a little Aussie piece I picked up about a month ago. Wasn't anything crazy but it caught my eye and thought it had potential. Of course I placed it all the way at the bottom of the tank, so not really giving it a fair shot to see what it can do, but I still think it might do something.
Originally thought this was the Jason Fox Beach Bum, but have since been told it's actually the WWC Kung Pao Monti. This is also sitting on the bottom of the tank and and seems to be really happy. Scroll back to the photos in Nov and look how much this beauty has grown in the past few months.
This is the left side of the island.
Here is another show of the first colony with some of the stags behind it that are starting to grow over the top
Picked this one up awhile ago, also sitting on the bottom of the tank.
The Grafted Cap is getting big
Here is the Purple Pink Milli that Jake Adams collected last year. Its grown a nice sold encrusted base and the colony is atop a long single stalk of coral. The colony head is really starting to grow. As pretty as this piece is I gave a piece to Chefzilla. His piece has outgrown mine and his has much better color.
There are some photos of these millies from a few months back. The bigger one doesn't look like much from the front view, but top down it's kicking. The little one is sprouting more and more branches and the orange color is showing up more and more
Been awhile since an update. I have tried at least 6x to get some photos of the tank since Dec and just can't get decent photos. I even had the Tedinator stop by last Friday night and together we couldn't get any real good photos.
So I tried something different, put the hood on the lens and took some top down shots that turned out pretty nice.
If you want a FTS log onto the webcam and take a look, but for now, here is what things are looking like from above.
Here is one of my favorite colonies, still have no idea what it is, but it's just getting bigger and bigger
Here is a little Aussie piece I picked up about a month ago. Wasn't anything crazy but it caught my eye and thought it had potential. Of course I placed it all the way at the bottom of the tank, so not really giving it a fair shot to see what it can do, but I still think it might do something.
Originally thought this was the Jason Fox Beach Bum, but have since been told it's actually the WWC Kung Pao Monti. This is also sitting on the bottom of the tank and and seems to be really happy. Scroll back to the photos in Nov and look how much this beauty has grown in the past few months.
This is the left side of the island.
Here is another show of the first colony with some of the stags behind it that are starting to grow over the top
Picked this one up awhile ago, also sitting on the bottom of the tank.
The Grafted Cap is getting big
Here is the Purple Pink Milli that Jake Adams collected last year. Its grown a nice sold encrusted base and the colony is atop a long single stalk of coral. The colony head is really starting to grow. As pretty as this piece is I gave a piece to Chefzilla. His piece has outgrown mine and his has much better color.
There are some photos of these millies from a few months back. The bigger one doesn't look like much from the front view, but top down it's kicking. The little one is sprouting more and more branches and the orange color is showing up more and more
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charleslotz
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This tank is one of my all time favorites.... So many fish and health sps ... Simply stunning
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o2manyfish
Valuable Member
Hi Guys,
Lots of stuff happening around here. I started cleaning up my back yard and decided to the move the frag tank up against the house instead of being out in the middle of the yard. Hired some laborers, had an engineer friend over. They spent a few hours leveling the base bricks and then we moved the tank.
10 days later I came home and noticed the ground around the tank wet. I look closely and the corner seam of the frag tank had popped. But all the xenia that was growing on the back wall of the tank, got sucked into the gap in the glass and actually stopped the tank from draining.
The frag tank got clamped, and then the coral and fish were all moved to a temp frag tank. To my benefit a local coral store was closing and I picked up 2 like new 8x3x16" frag tanks. I'm waiting now to have a paver base installed and then setting the new frag tank on top of that.
In the mean time I finally cleaned the coraline off the front of the tank and shot some video of the fish and corals.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Things are doing pretty good. Coral colors could be better, having some issues with the calcium reactor. Going to get a peristatic pump to try to stabilize it, if not going to just buy a Dastaco and be done with the fiddling around.
Dave B
Lots of stuff happening around here. I started cleaning up my back yard and decided to the move the frag tank up against the house instead of being out in the middle of the yard. Hired some laborers, had an engineer friend over. They spent a few hours leveling the base bricks and then we moved the tank.
10 days later I came home and noticed the ground around the tank wet. I look closely and the corner seam of the frag tank had popped. But all the xenia that was growing on the back wall of the tank, got sucked into the gap in the glass and actually stopped the tank from draining.
The frag tank got clamped, and then the coral and fish were all moved to a temp frag tank. To my benefit a local coral store was closing and I picked up 2 like new 8x3x16" frag tanks. I'm waiting now to have a paver base installed and then setting the new frag tank on top of that.
In the mean time I finally cleaned the coraline off the front of the tank and shot some video of the fish and corals.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Things are doing pretty good. Coral colors could be better, having some issues with the calcium reactor. Going to get a peristatic pump to try to stabilize it, if not going to just buy a Dastaco and be done with the fiddling around.
Dave B
