WVNeds's Tanks

[WVNed]

You will love the life reef skimmer. It was one of the few pieces of equipment that I kept when I sold everything off a few years ago. I also switched from a RO skimmer when I had bought the life reef.

I am not running the ozone kit, but did upgrade to the larger collection cup and went with the maezzi injector for it. It is an absolute beast that you can tune any way you want.

What pump do you plan on driving it with??

It comes with a Danner Magdrive 18. I will drain it to a bucket like I am now. I wasn't sure about the injector but felt It might be something to do in the future.
I am pretty good with DIY stuff.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Awesome. Looking forward to some pics once it arrives. If you have any questions feel free to reach out.

 

[WVNed]

I read lots of posts before buying a new skimmer. This made me think about how I had mine set up now.
So a few days ago I replumbed how air goes into the SRO-5000. Most of it comes from the "hat" I made for it recirculating the air/ozone inside from the skimmer cup to the air intake muffler. The rest comes from an air pump I rigged to inject outside air into the ozone generator and then into the skimmer mufflers second port.

This is how a Lifereef skimmer manages intake air.

It looks like heck but it is working much better. The skim is much darker and there is less of it.

I turned off the Nopox dosing channel today. More testing in 2 days. NO3 is 2 now.

 

[WVNed]

Really bored.
You want to eat. Let me take a picture.

 

[WVNed]

My foxface has marks on his side.

They look familiar

Bite marks from a tang.

I am feeling a little bad about all the fish I put in those small tanks.
They act completely differently in a big one. They hang out and chill.

I have yet to see the butterfly eat anything I feed or touch an aiptasia.
But he has filled out and is growing. He is very skittish.

I added 11 more berghia last week, but I am starting to worry that nothing eats the kind of aiptasia I have.
There are none in the big tank. Something must be eating them but I have no idea what. I thought it was the crabs but the one I moved to the refugium hasn't touched them. Perhaps I am feeding him too well.

So far my total fish losses since setting this up are a hippo tang, chocolate tang, yellow tang, 3 lyretail anthius,
and 2 blue reef chromis. They all just disappeared. I never found any of them. All of them had been in the tank weeks to months before they disappeared.

The chocolate tang was in the 75 in the morning and I had decided to raise the light levels a bit. This causes the Photon V2 to flash the tank a lot. When I was done I never saw the Chocolate tang again. There isnt anything in that tank to eat it unless an eel did it. There might be two small hermits in there. I dont think urchins and conchs would consume a fish body.

 

[Schnizzle]

I've have the same marks on my foxface. I wasn't sure if it was the tank or the lawnmower blenny.

 

[WVNed]

The new skimmer should be here next week. I got the tracking number from Lifereef.

I need to find something more filling this guy will eat. He is hungry every day now.

My cat is all grown up

That flew by

 

[WVNed]

Watcha doing Ned?

If you're not gonna eat that clam I will.

 

[WVNed]

The Blue Ridge is changing shape.
From a single big growth to 4 taller spires.

I have been watching all the white down in the center. It seems to be new growth.

Growing taller and separating in the base area.
It is encrusting a large rock but is now reaching down for the next one to grow on.

 

[WVNed]

Let's try this

SVS3-36 with a MagDrive 18 and ozone.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Nice. I think you will be very pleased with the LIfeReef skimmer. You will find that you will need to run the bubble line quite a bit lower in the skimmer than you are used to. I would start it at the top of the LifeReef sticker on the main body. With the small diameter of the neck, it needs to be tuned a little different than a more traditional skimmer.

 

[WVNed]

My morning view

 

[WVNed]

Went out of town to attend my grand nephews graduation from high school.

There was only one when I left. In the post above you can see it in the center of the tank.

Now there are two.

 

[WVNed]

I used a PVC pipe and Jeanna used the big feeding tongs. We herded him into a corner and grabbed him.

Off to the sump

A conservative estimate would be over 30 crabs have come from the TBS live rock. Stone, porcelain, gorilla and some that seem to stay tiny that come out of holes in the rock at night. 6 or 7 different kinds. Something has been mauling the fish.

There may be more.

 

[WVNed]

Does reading this sight ever give you the willies? You will wake up and all your chromis or tangs have had a fight to the death or spots all over your fish.
All these new people generate so much angst.

I watched my tuxedo urchin spawn this morning. I only have one of them though. I wonder when the 3 long spines will do it. That could be messy.

I ordered 2 Tunze 6155 flow pumps. I am hoping to put them on the back and get more flow in the middle of the tank while being able to turn down the Vortechs a bit.

I also ordered 4 14K MH bulbs. I still have the 20ks in now.

My gorgonian is very droopy. I always thought they would grow toward the light like a plant. I suppose that is silly though.

I guess I should clean the glass if I want to take pictures. I cleaned some gutters off the extension ladder and am a little beat up today.

 

[cmaxwell39]

That is a massive crab Ned. Tank is looking goood as well.

How is the new skimmer doing??

 

[WVNed]

That is a massive crab Ned. Tank is looking goood as well.

How is the new skimmer doing??

It's working well. Took right off and skimmed. I have had a few hiccups with small pieces of ulva floating in the sump finding the venturi.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Glad to hear that it is doing well for you.

 

[WVNed]

I drilled some holes into shells and cable tied clips to them. That way I can sink the nori to the bottom where the urchins and conchs can get some. They also cant come off the glass and blow around the tank.

 

[WVNed]

5-30-19

5-31-20