wiz's 40b with 20l sump/fuge

[revhtree]

Great job and looks good! Those flame angels are so pretty.

 

[Wiz]

Thankyou ! :-D:-D

 

[Wiz]

went over to look at my tank yesterday, and noticed my flame angel in the rock work moving kind of funny. upon closer inspection my brittle star and mithrax crab we're both picking at it. it was still alive and thrashing weakly, so I pulled it out and put it in my fuge hoping it would recover. all the fins on the fish were tattered to shreds other than that it was in good shape. was not moving well but the rest of the fish had no visible damage. last night I came home to a dead angel! I don't think that my brittle star is big enough to have gotten hold of it and of course it was not the mithrax. my water parameters are near perfect. and the angel has been eating well. so I can only assume that something else in my tank tagged it after which the cleanup crew got a hold of it. there are a few in my tank that may have done it but I can't be sure. It was my favorite fish I am so upset. anyone else lost a fish in this way?

 

[Wiz]

well a bit has changed. I lost my flame angel. I was so upset. The night before he had seemed fine. The next morning my starfish and my emerald crab were munching on his fins.while he gave feeble kicks. Not sure what caused him to die but it was too late by the time I got there. My best guess is that he ran into something that disagree with him anemone or coral not sure and the clean up crew got a hold of him.... I recently got a nano clown that paired up with the clown that I have. And yesterday I got my mandarin. I'm psyched about him my pods have been fantastic I hope theyre enough to sustain him with supplemental feeding of course. Over the past 2 days I did some rearranging of rock work. I think my tank is full now there is no room for anything else. Here are some pics. I am in the process of uploading a video to youtube which I will put a link to later.

 

[Wiz]

Couple more

 

[Wiz]

here is the link for the full tank update
https://youtu.be/uvfjSBEwRDQ

 

[Wiz]

update time, so I lost a couple of fish. the tiny Nano clown that I got lasted a week and a half or so and then disappeared. guess I'll have to get one slightly bigger one to try and pair with mine. I just noticed the other day that my purple firefish is gone he was there about 4 days ago I remember seeing him. unfortunately he's just gone can't find a dead body something must have got him. I suppose that's how are Reef works right. if you're going to have predators in your tank you can expect some loss. sad though I really like the purple firefish. Beautiful fish. all my corals have been doing fantastic with the exception of my Duncan which still has not opened. Been more than a month now. Occasionally it begins to open and stays partially open for a couple hours but close as backup. Really wish I knew what was going on with it. been having an algae issue recently. think it's phosphates. going to try a gfo reactor. my refugium has been fantastic pod and worm populations are awesome. also have a small explosion of tiny white brittle stars. That's pretty cool.all of my corals including my NPs are thriving. not growing extremely fast, but I am not complaining. this tank has been doing better than I've ever been able to do. I give a huge thanks to Reef2Reef and all the people that have giving me advice and helped me. special thanks to Randy Holmes farley for the chemistry help. my parameters have been pretty close to perfect for a year now. here are some updated pics

 

[Tahoe61]

Tank looks good, it's really evolving. Try putting the Duncan in an area not directly under the led lighting. I have LED and my Duncan is in a less intense area of lighting and just starting to open consistently. I have had Duncans under all lighting types,,mine is not real happy with my LEDs.

 

[Wiz]

Tank looks good, it's really evolving. Try putting the Duncan in an area not directly under the led lighting. I have LED and my Duncan is in a less intense area of lighting and just starting to open consistently. I have had Duncans under all lighting types,,mine is not real happy with my LEDs.

Yeah mine grew from 2 heads to about 15 under my vhos. Then maybe 2 weeks after the switch to led it closed up. I've tried a few spots. Everything else seems fine. :-( ill try a shaded area.

 

[Wiz]

So I decided on a two prong attack on phosphate. I added the gfo dual reactor. And much to my fiances dismay I decided to expand my fuge. Piping in a 30gal long just for macros and dsb. maybe ill even be able to stop the 1/2 ml of vodka every two days. All that macro should keep nitrates in check too. my plan is to keep a variety of algaes in the 30 and empty my previous 12x12 for a frag rack. Wish me luck

 

[Wiz]

Ok 30 is filled with water and the drain to the sump is in place. Just added 60 lbs of white marine #0 sand. Its not aragonite and should not affect water parameters at all. Grain size of .1 to .5 which is basically mush. Lol my plan is to transplant my macros and take the four inch 12x12 sandbed in my current fuge and spread it over the top of this bed. The grain size is larger but it will be a fraction of the overall bed and I hope the life in it will transfer. I'm thinkin the 60lb might not be enough. So Im gonna go back to the lfs for one more 20lb bag tomorrow. That should give me more than 4"s. This fuge will contain the dsb with macros and a couple rocks with lots of holes for bug homes. Thats it. I hope it turns out how I picture it. What do you guys think?

 

[Wiz]

Ok, still needs tuning. But its piped in and running. 80lbs oolitic and 15 lbs arganite on top. Couple macro covered rocks in center.
Oolitic sand: https://youtu.be/fFHxFlmju38

 

[Wiz]

Updates. Piping is holding up :-D. Plants are growing, bug population is comin on fast. Awsome. Did some cleaning yesterday and rearranging. set up the rubble tank where the old fuge was. almost had a major mishap. but avoided catastrophe lol. here is the updated fuge the new rouble tank and the clean display.

 

[Wiz]

 

[Wiz]

plants are growing very well. This is the best I've ever been able to grow chaeto. I'm so happy with how it turned out

 

[Wiz]

First pic was 5-16-15. Second is 6-17-15. Second one was taken after my first harvest! Doin so awsome. Never been able to grow chaeto. Now... just look:-D:-D:-D

 

[Wiz]

Homemade baby brine collector!
Ziplock tuppaware cup and lid $1.50
Electrical tape $.99
Water bottle $.75
TOTAL= $3.24
hope it works

Also my homemade baby brine feeder. Modeled after paul b's. Hope these work to fatten up my manderins. Total of $5.50 for the feeder. Pvc and some old nylons.

 

[Cjsanders757]

Did I miss it?! How does the water flow through the refugium?? Lol

 

[Wiz]

I have a maxijet 1200 in the sump right next to the return for the main tank. it pumps water out the back and up into the refugium right above another maxijet 1200 which pushes that water across the refugium.I drilled a one inch bulkhead which change the water back to the sump in the skimming area

 

[Wiz]

Did I miss it?! How does the water flow through the refugium?? Lol

So I had to take the input tube out of the tank and have it feed just above the water line. (To avoid a syphon affect if I should lose power) and I added a second maxi jet under the feed to push the water across the macros. Other than that, this vid is accurate.