RockRash's 75 gallon build

[KeyWestReef2009Indiana]

How big is the chamber your sensor is in, and how much distance is between the alarm sensor and the normal low water sensor? I suspect that the issue is a combination of two things. 1, before the water in the reefmat raises enough to trigger the fleece advance, it has trapped some additional water, which the ATO dutifully replaces. And 2, when it does advance, that trapped water flows out now that it doesn't take as much pressure to flow through the clean fleece and has to go somewhere. Is it possible to raise only the overflow sensor? Or even less likely, to make the return chamber bigger so the addional volume has less effect?

I agree here, I'm looking at adjusting my height of the reef mat system to aid this issue. I still have months of fine tuning, I like the advice I see here.

 

[RockRash]

Well its been a while since I've updated this thread. I had a diatom outbreak early January so I reached out to Reef Cleaners, gave John my info and shared a picture. He recommended a assortment of snails everything arrived alive and well packed. They made quick work of the diatoms. So much so I started supplementing with nori, the tank was so clean i was afraid they would starve lol. I ended up loosing about 25% of what was sent. I wish I would have done some research and went with 50% of what he recommended. Lesson learned.
I am glad I have the cuc because I'm now going through some sort of gha. I've been slowly plucking "hair stragglers" that the snails dont catch and it ends up growing too long.
Today I did a water change and turned on my white lights to remove the stragglers of the gha. When I did I noticed a bunch of red and purple blotches all over my rock. I took a brush to it and it wont come off. The snails are covered in coralline so I'm hopefull that's what it is.
My tomini tang in qt is doing great. Hes on the home stretch. I told everyone we wouldn't name him until he was out of qt. However somehow the last week or 2 everyone is calling him Tommy. He went through copper like a pro now I'm worried about the prazipro. I'm sure once I get the hang of it, it will be just like dosing copper. Its been s long month and I hate to mess up.

Anyway I'll post a few pictures of my rocks, like I said I dont know if its coralline starting to grow but it wont come off the rock.

 

[RockRash]

Almost forgot to say. My jar package from TBS arrives tomorrow. I got 2lbs premium rock, 2lbs base rock, 2lbs sand and I think 2 hermits. The base rock will go into the sump, I'll put the premium in the display along with the sand. I'm hoping to put the sand in the low spot where my power heads are blowing my sand away. I'll post pictures of the rock tomorrow.
My wife will be home waiting for delivery, however its going to be a long day at work tomorrow lol.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Almost forgot to say. My jar package from TBS arrives tomorrow. I got 2lbs premium rock, 2lbs base rock, 2lbs sand and I think 2 hermits. The base rock will go into the sump, I'll put the premium in the display along with the sand. I'm hoping to put the sand in the low spot where my power heads are blowing my sand away. I'll post pictures of the rock tomorrow.
My wife will be home waiting for delivery, however its going to be a long day at work tomorrow lol.

I wonder what kind of critters will come on your TBS!

 

[RockRash]

I wonder what kind of critters will come on your TBS!

Well the rock came In and I'm really impressed with it. The premium rock is beautiful and full of life. The bag was full of dead worms. I put everything in a bucket looked it over then added it all to the sump. I finally got around to placing the premium rock in the display. Its covered in sponges, cup corals, tunicates and I got a sponge nem. I understand the sponge nem is a verity of aiptasia but I'm leaving it on to see how it goes. I thought everything else was dead but my wife spent about a hour looking through the leftovers in the bucket and found 2 blue leg hermits and 2 brittle stars still alive, they are so small. I wish I had taken a picture of them the the crabs could fit on the pad of my pinkie finger. I turned the flow off and put them on the rock and by the time I washed my hands they dissapeared lol.

Anyway here's some pictures I took with a flashlight while they sat in the sump.

And here's a few of them in the display.

Eta: I placed the 2lbs of sand in the front of the tank where the mp40's are making a bald spot. It looks really good I think im going to order some more sand and while I wate slowly remove the caribsea select grade in the front with water changes. I'll leave the back alone but I really like the TBS sand lol. Here's a picture.

 

[RockRash]

Good news everyone. Tommy the tang made it through qt and is doing great. I ended up doing a TTM with the advised qt treatment from the forum. I was really worried about ammonia so I transferred him him to a new 10 gallon tank every 3 days. The new tank was medicated and temp matched before transferring. It was costly with saltwater but I really formed a bond with this little fish. After a couple days he would meet me at the lid for feeding and was always out when I was by his tank. He was a trooper, I messed up on the beginning and put him in a tank at .033 salinity. I quickly corrected it and he ended up ok. He was my first go at quarantine so I definitely messed up a few things. Anyway he went through 30 days copper and 2 doses of prazipro. I'm so happy he made it. Anyway here he is in my tank eating and grazing like a champ. My buddy Tommy Tang.

Excuse the GHA lol. I'll leave it it with a picture of Tommy the day I got him. Hes still small but he was the size of my thumb nail when I bought him.

 

[RockRash]

Small update. Went to my LFS today and saw the smallest flame angel I've ever seen. I know they are hit or miss on eating coral but how could you say no to this face.

Anyway hes in QT now. We had a issue with him jumping out of the bucket on to the floor when I went to check salinity. I picked him up and plopped him back in the bucket and seems to be ok. He ate ok tonight, hopefully tomorrow he eats more.

We also bought 3 of what we thought ( and what was labeled as chalk bass) turned out I have 3 tobacco basslets now. I had no idea and after some research they get BIG, I had no idea
I really like then (so does everyone else) but we also like our inverts and don't want them to kill each other. I was fell victim to not double checking what you buy. Hopefully the LFS will take them back, I'm not even concerned about a refund or credit I just don't want anything bad for these fish. They really are cute and eat great. They have a " Get off my lawn" face about them.

 

[RockRash]

Has anyone kept tobacco basslets? Just wondering because there's not a lot of information about them. I didn't even know they existed until today lol.


ETA: I forgot to add I removed 15lbs of sand and replaced it TBS sand today. My wife and I spent the evening sifting through sand looking for small snails that got siphoned out. I really like the look of the TBS sand a d best of all it doesn't blow around like the caribsea select grade.

 

[Red_Beard]

Cute little devils.... for now :)

 

[RockRash]

Cute little devils.... for now :)

I know, I really like them. They seem to follow you around and look at you straight on. I am seriously torn I really want to keep them, but I know I shouldn't.

 

[Oldsman]

Gorgeous tank and the fish look amazing. We're planning a Tomini for ours once its ready to go after the tbs package arrives

 

[RockRash]

Gorgeous tank and the fish look amazing. We're planning a Tomini for ours once its ready to go after the tbs package arrives

Thank you! I couldn't recommend a better tang, he's a algae eating beast and a really good looking fish.

Disclaimer: he's the only tang I've ever had, so I may be biased lol.

 

[Tahoe61]

That Flame is gorgeous.

 

[RockRash]

That Flame is gorgeous.

Ya, he was at the lfs for almost 2 weeks. We saw him the day he came in. I was shocked when we went back and he was still around.

 

[RockRash]

Updated:
We returned the tobacco basslets, as cute and as personable as they were, they were just way too aggressive during feeding. I got some credit so I decided to get some corals.

We got a green and purple hammer and some clove pollops. We also picked up a Halloween hermit.

Also my lids came in today. I went with Top Lids and couldn't be happier.

 

[RockRash]

Quick update, "Freddy" the flame angel is out of qt and in the acclimation box. I figured the tomini tang would be overly aggressive so I bought a acclimation box from Amazon. I'm so glad I did, the tang is a a- hole, last night when we put him in the tank he jumped out of the acclimation box. The tang instantly attacked him and wouldn't let up. Luckily I was able to catch him and get him into the acclimation box. The tangs aggression has diminished through out the day, but every now and then he goes after the angel. I'll leave him in until the tang stops messing with him. The picture doesn't do justice the tang is a jerk lol.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Quick update, "Freddy" the flame angel is out of qt and in the acclimation box. I figured the tomini tang would be overly aggressive so I bought a acclimation box from Amazon. I'm so glad I did, the tang is a a- hole, last night when we put him in the tank he jumped out of the acclimation box. The tang instantly attacked him and wouldn't let up. Luckily I was able to catch him and get him into the acclimation box. The tangs aggression has diminished through out the day, but every now and then he goes after the angel. I'll leave him in until the tang stops messing with him. The picture doesn't do justice the tang is a jerk lol.

Glad you were able to put him in an acclimation box!

 

[Oldsman]

The color on your flame is intense!! Hopefully Tommy will let Freddy out to swim in the display soon! Has Tommy been keeping up grazing duties

 

[RockRash]

The color on your flame is intense!! Hopefully Tommy will let Freddy out to swim in the display soon! Has Tommy been keeping up grazing duties

Thanks he is a pretty fish. We put him in the DT last week. We ended up putting a mirror to distract Tommy just to Freddy a chance to swim around in peace. Freddy found the mirror and the both of them were attacking their reflections. After a few hours we took the mirror away and now they a great swimming around next to each other picking at the rocks all day. I think they bonded while trying to defend the tank from the intruders lol. I've been busy with work so I'll try and get some pictures and a update this weekend.

 

[Oldsman]

Awesome to hear they turned into buddies, weird how fish adjust like that