Taller is better: Kev's 80g column

[Dj City]

Don't be too surprised if "the nasties" don't show up at all.

If you did the water changes and knocked the nitrates down, they may not come up.

You started with clean rock and clean sand plus a fishless cycle.
Combine that with no light and you might be good for no nasties.

 

[Dj City]

Looks like you changed your scape up a little bit.
Or is this just a different angle?

 

[Kevin Jaako]

Looks like you changed your scape up a little bit.
Or is this just a different angle?

Just bad iPhone photography [emoji1]

 

[Dj City]

This...



While beautiful

 

[Dj City]

Looks different than...

 

[Dj City]

 

[Dj City]

Or maybe it's just the meds im on.

Either way,
Beautiful build!

 

[Kevin Jaako]

@Dj City It’s the same, I promise :) it’s funny - you really can’t tell where one island ends and the other begins in the last photo so I can see how it looks like I swapped it all for a single pile or rocks.

These pillars are cemented together with so much AquaWeld that they’re never coming apart!

Im thinking about dusting off my old dSLR...

KJ

 

[Dj City]

Lol...

 

[Kevin Jaako]

Add a noise, kill a noise.

I dropped in my Vertex Omega 180i tonight and triggered the SumpHi alarm, so at least that works. I have the Lo & Hi sensors placed really close together, since the DOS does such a good job of keeping the sump level in a 60ml range. That should keep the inevitable dosing error from running away on me.

The skimmer was the last noise-making thing to go into my tank so I took a moment to listen to the new exhaust note of my family room. There’s definitely an AC hum that wasn’t there before, but at least no sucking or gurgling.



In paying attention, I noticed that the open channel standpipe was actually the loudest thing on the tank. I tweaked the siphon gate valve a bit and brought the water level in the overflow just below the open channel air intake. Man- what a difference. My tank is noticeably quieter now- even with the skimmer.



I don’t think I could cram another thing into my stand if I tried...

KJ

 

[Kevin Jaako]

Buh-bye NO3.
KJ

 

[Kevin Jaako]

NO3: 100mg/L -> 10.

After doing the math, I decided to buy a second Brute. The economics of doing one massive 90% WC instead of a whole bunch of 40%’s is pretty compelling. If not just for cost, then for time. It would have taken me 4 times the number of water changes and twice the salt to get me to where I’m at with a single massive water change.



So, with the tank cycled and nitrates knocked down, it was time to give the tank its first inhabitants. After all, it’s not a fish tank until you have fish in it!



Now the coral planning begins...
KJ

 

[flowflezy]

Nice tank really like the taller ones

 

[cjd]

I had the 74 deep blue tower = Armpit Soaker, love the look! Roll up them sleeves!!!

 

[NY_Caveman]

NO3: 100mg/L -> 10.

After doing the math, I decided to buy a second Brute. The economics of doing one massive 90% WC instead of a whole bunch of 40%’s is pretty compelling. If not just for cost, then for time. It would have taken me 4 times the number of water changes and twice the salt to get me to where I’m at with a single massive water change.



So, with the tank cycled and nitrates knocked down, it was time to give the tank its first inhabitants. After all, it’s not a fish tank until you have fish in it!



Now the coral planning begins...
KJ

Nice! He is like, “Dude, this is all for me? Thanks!”

 

[Dj City]

How are your levels now that you've done the massive water change?

Looking good btw.

 

[Kevin Jaako]

Whoop whoop, here come the diatoms! I’ve got a faint brown dusting over the tops of my rocks. I’ve got one little crevice which looks like it might be sporting a small tuft of GHA too...

Don't be too surprised if "the nasties" don't show up at all.

Here come the nasties!!

How are your levels now that you've done the massive water change?

0 ammonia & nitrite, 0.03 phosphate, 7.9 pH, 35 ppt salinity and somewhere between 10 & 20 mg/L nitrates. I haven’t started testing for alkalinity yet.

KJ

 

[Dj City]

Those are pretty good numbers.
And your tank is so clear! Really nice man.
Looks like he's floating in air.

The clown is going to love having the tank to himself for the time being.

You may have to be careful adding other fish though as clowns can be territorial.

 

[najer]

Looking very nice. :)

 

[Kevin Jaako]

Those are pretty good numbers.
And your tank is sho clear! Really nice man.
Looks like he'd floating in air.

The clown is going to love having the tank to himself for the time being.

You may have to be careful adding other fish though as clowns can be territorial.

Cheers! There are actually two clowns and they sure do love having the tank to themselves. It’s cool to see them play in the flow and enjoy swimming up and down in the extra-tall tank. They seem to like sticking to the glass and don’t really interact much with the rockwork.

As I plan my next livestock additions, I’m finding it hard to find a practical guide to quarantining things like CUC. There are just as many people out there staunchly advocating a hard-line “QT everything for 76 days” as there are saying “don’t bother” - it’s hard to gain insight into the actual/ relative risk levels that I’d use to guide my decisioning re: QT’ing corals and inverts. I feel like a zero-risk policy is unrealistic for me right now, but I don’t want to make an avoidable mistake...

KJ