pledosophy

Where did you get it? Did you QT it first?

You need an RODI eh? Hit me up if you still need it. We moved it outta the way to get the rock

I think that one is named George. Have you ever wondered how they name some of these things. I swear they get 12 year old give them soda, bubble gm, and icecream and see how ridiculous they can be in between rounds at a Pokimon tournament. JMO

I have no idea. I have not researched them in a couple of years. I have been happy with what I have.

Looking Good. Love going through this thread. So many nice tanks in our area.

Acanthastrea, commonly called an Acan.

I did not have a good experience with my Vortechs. I found they broke so often I had to have a back up pump for when I sent them to be repaired (under warranty but still 6 weeks to get them returned is far to long). So I got jaebo's for back up pumps and liked them so much I sold the vortechs. Sure jaebo's might not last as long as vortechs, but my I have 4 of them and they are all at least 2 years old now. Still running great for me. I do clean them every month or two with white vinegar, but that's about it. For the cost though you can sure buy a lot of Jaebos for the price of one Vortech and i also find... your going to need to buy a back up pump for the vortech anyway IME. The other thing I do not like about the vortech, which is completely not vortechs fault, is that people coming to the house would always pull the thing off, "oh what is this thing?" It was annoying. If you do go with the Vortech, i did the ceramic bearing mod on the one I kept and it did make it much quieter. Not mentioned by Tunze makes a very nice small controllable pump, and while I have not used the controlable model, I have used other pumps of theirs and been very happy. JME

uh... I do not think you understand what carbon dosing is. There is carbon, which is a filter media designed to strip elements out of the water, usually considered impurities or chemicals excreted by corals for warfare/protection and there is carbon dosing which refers to dosing a source of sugar (sugar, ethanol, alcohol, vinegar, etc) that is used to feed the anaerobic bacteria that is present in our systems and by adding that carbohydrate increases the efficiency and growth rate of the bacteria by removing a limiting factor (sugar) from the bacteria to spur its growth. If you are familiar with iron dosing to increase the growth rate of beneficial macro algae, carbon dosing is very similar except it directly affects the bacteria in our systems that process nitrate and phosphate converting it into oxygen. The protein skimmer removes the extra waste and your tank is left naturally cleaned. It is very similar to dosing a probiotic as it spurs a natural event, but it is widely considered faux pau because the easiest source for carbon dosing is vodka. Depends on your carbon source. Each source has it's own starting point and benefits. If your Mom won't let you use vodka I would go with white vinegar and start with 1mL once a day. Increasing the dose by 1mL every week (e.g. week 2 2mL a day, week 3 3mL a day) until you hit the point where your nitrate and phosphate drop. Then stick to that dose. If you see a bacterial bloom cut your dose in half and start again to the point where the nitrate or phosphate hit zero. If you miss a day, you start the process over at 1mL and increase a bit more quickly. Don't double dose for a missed day. It will cause a bacterial bloom and in that small of a tank be a very bad thing. If you want to read literature on it google search Randy Holmes Farly, he has a good write up and a 15 page explanation (which I find fascinating) as to the rate and source. I disagree with his initial report but so does he as he has modified it on reef central and reef2reef. Originally it was thought that you wanted to dose much more and cut the does in half as a maintence dose, but I have found that if you go a little bit slower you can reach your desired dose without the bloom or the dose cutting. It takes a little longer and is more conservative but it provides a more natural and sustainable growth for the bacteria.

Geothermal temperature control, very nice. I have a buddy in So Cal who ran 1500 feet of pipe in his backyard to cool his reeftank without a chiller. Great concepts.

I had a pink spot goby for about 3 years before it decided it did not like other fish and started killing them. I had to take the tank apart to catch him after he caught and killed a Kole tang. It was the third fish he had killed that week. They can get fairly large over time and do get territorial IME. The dropping sand everywhere was not to much of an issue for me though. JME

I just did hose through the walls at my last place. I had the display in the dining room, and then my sump and two refugiums in the office. Drilling through Drywall is easy, you can borrow my bits if you need. I was pretty leary of it all but after it was done i was like Oh, that's it. Awesome you have the extra space though. Having the sump/refugiums separate is very convenient. Let me know if you need any help since your gonna be down the street now.

Scared? It is easy to do, just not sure it would work in your situation because of the age of your rock

Gotta get that a little closer in there so we can see stuff better. Does look good, makes me wanna see more. Did you start the carbon dosing?

I used to do large water changes frequently, but have altered my method to almost no water changes ever. I do vacuum out the sump once in awhile (I do not use filter socks) and also remove equipment to clean it. So I replace water that is taken out on occasion, but I never do it for the purpose of a water change. I think the last time I did more then a 5% change would have been Oct/Nov of 2014. I run a reactor, I dose ammino's, I carbon dose, I have a skimmer, I use RODI. It seems that from my experience doing it both ways that for me I get better health and growth out of my corals then when I was doing water changes. I also had a very bad experience with a batch of bad salt and lost thousands in corals before I realized that doing the water changes was the problem. (I kept changing more as it got worse too) It really made me rethink and reexamine my methods. JME

Looking good man! Can't wait to see it fill in

I prefer meetings where there is something more "advanced" for lack of a better word, to learn or a meeting where we as a group give back/educate the community. Collaborations with a diving group and a talk about the health of the reefs might be good. There are a few colleges with marine bio programs that offer research into corals. There is a research facility in SE using jellyfish mainly but other marine animals as well for medical research. (Although walking by the cadavers kinda freaked me out a bit) Hatfield is fun but maybe combining it with something at the Aquarium. I'm a nerd so I always enjoy the presentations from speakers especially if they are specific and specialized. (e.g. Bob Fenners on how corals are collected or Scott's on his propagation/triton system). Many great speakers like Richard Ross, Julian Sprung, Anthony Calfo, Eric Bornman, are great and do the MACNA circuit and will often be sponsored by their company. We don't need to go national with the local talent though. A sponsor highlight is great but what about having Kenny give a presentation on how he builds his lights and what research and testing goes into it regarding specific kelvin temperatures and growth. We can use our own community as presenters/specialists. Getting specific companies to give presentations on the advancement of specific technology like ATI on their product line would also be great and is very accessible (American ATI rep is a member). A tour and presentation by a business like Envision Acrylics on how tanks are made and what technology they are using for advancement (their kressils are industry leading). For community involvement SOLVE beach clean up has been a staple for us. There are other community style beach clean ups as well. As a group focused on Marine organisms beach clean up and education is paramount. Getting a space at fairs or festivals with interactive activities for attendees would be a great way to spread knowledge through the community. I do this with another organization I am a part of and it works great for our message there. If you read our mission statement as a club, we should do more of this. I'm not down on frag swaps. When I was with OCMARS, we organized what turned into the largest frag swap in the world, but for us frag swaps are every meeting. Organizing a meet and greet, how about 1st Tuesday of the month is Moloko's and last Thursday's is Vagabond's. Announce it and done, doesn't take planning. Do it in two regions and have inconsistent and it will work. OCMARS is one of the more successful groups in the country and this meetings are at a pancake house the same day every month. Consistency for meet and greets would be good. We used to do it at a McMennimans and get 20-30 people a month. If we want to pursuit that we just need consistency. The "club" can not sponsor it for liability reasons but we could post it and spread it on our social media pages as member supported. IMHO with 10 board member/officers we should be able to plan a "good" meeting once a month, a meet and greet once or twice a month, and contributions to the community a few times a year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I find a hypodermic needle with boiling water and lemon juice is the best by far if you can't remove them from the tank. If you can remove the rock, a lighter is the best IME. I do keep 5-6 peppermint shrimp in my system but after having a problem with Aiptasia 5-6 years ago I am hyper vigilant now about them. I do have a CB Aiptasia eating file fish but it is hard to loan a fish out since not everyone has the same idea about QT and I don't want to have to QT the fish for 12 weeks every time someone brings him back. The boiling liquid through the syringe is by far the cheapest ($2) and most effective of any of the solutions I have tried though. A blow torch however was the most fun [emoji16] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice looking tank. Growing sun corals and SPS in the same nano tank is quite the undertaking. Looks like your doing it right with everything so healthy. Kudos Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine is setup just like Arsonmfg, because he is the one who helps me with these things . It works great and has been very easy for me. It has been running almost a year and the only time my Alk has ever been off was when I ran out of C02 and didn't notice for 2 days. I feed mine with a maxijet 400. It is a consistent pump IME. My Apex will turn off the solenoid from the C02 tank if the pH in the system crashes, but I do not test the pH of the effluent at all. I increase and decrease the amount of C02 based on the alkalinity of the display. Even with the MJ 400 I have to restrict the output of the reactor. While a maxijet 1200 is a very good pump, I would be surprised if that high of a gph is needed for a reactor, but if you have a large or multi chamber reactor, or it has to pump a long way then it could be useful. MJ's do handle some head, I used a 1200 as a return for a 30g tank once. JME

Funny I feed more then that and only have 5 fish. I think because of the carbon dosing I have to feed more often to keep the corals happy then I otherwise would.

In a tank that new with dead rock the anaerobic bacteria is in no way colonized and you might be better off going with a different route. The purpose of carbon dosing is to supplement the diet of the anaerobic bacteria so there is more sugar which then encourages the bacteria to eat more so they consume the nitrate and phosphate. Anaerobic bacteria are very slow growing though and they can take a long time to colonize. Think years not months. There is some research on speeding up their growth with rocks in specific diameters however that doesn't really apply to much to a tank unless you were to include those rocks in your aquascape. In your case where the system is almost completely void of the bacteria to see any affect you would likely have to dose very large amounts, and even then I am not sure you would be able to get the results you are looking for. You might have better luck going the refugium and gfo route IMO. Also you might look at different food options to make sure you are minimizing the input of phosphate as best as possible. A probiotic bacteria might be good in your case as well. I have used them when I was breeding seahorses but never used them in a reef tank so I can't speak to their specific benefit in your case, but I did find them helpful when breeding. HTH

It does not look like there is enough room to widen the hole for a larger secondary drain. But I am not there with a measuring tape to know for sure. If it were me and I had the moola what I would do would to run the biggest opening (the 2")as the drain which in theory would handle the entire output from that pump if it makes manufactor specs. Then run the second hole as your back up. Then I would run the return split through two sea swirls. A single SCWD would be cheaper and still give you some alternation though as well.

I started with 1mL in a 120g tank. Then after a week I told the doser to dose that 2 times a day, then the next week 3x per day, etc etc until I saw nitrate and phosphate drop. Then I held. It is a conservative way, but IME much less carbon is needed then most think. If you dose to much you get this white stringy stuff. By keeping the dose small you can avoid that bacterial bloom IME.

I have been carbon dosing for about 9 years. First with a sugar and vinegar mix and then with vodka. I find vodka to be the easiest for me as it is the most consistent. I dose 1mL every 3 hours by a peristaltic pump, so I use about 1 ounce per week of vodka, in my 120g system. I feed 3-4 cubes of food a day along with reef roids. I also dose AA twice weekly. With vodka dosing I do not have an accumulation of nutrients that one would expect to find in a tank that size with that amount of feeding. I can notice when my vodka runs out, algae appears in the tank. So I know it is working. After resuming vodka dosing the algae usually disappears in a few days to a week. My experience differs from Tom's in that I get better coloration in my corals when vodka dosing as compared to not vodka dosing. When not dosing my sticks tend to get a bit more brown as with the amount I feed the nutrient content of the water is high. I have found that when dosing vodka it is best to not dose GFO concurrnetly as it limits the effectiveness of the vodka in removing nitrate. I have also noticed that it is better to dose a small amount several times a day then to dose the same amount once a day. I do not know why but I do notice a difference in the system. I also notice a difference in the system and nutrients if I empty and clean the skimmers neck daily as opposed to letting the skimmate collect in a storage container. I am not sure how much of this affects the carbon dosing but their is a noticeable difference in a short time period. For me personally Carbon dosing saves me so much time and energy. I no longer do weekly or monthly water changes and now find the only time I change water is when I remove equipment for cleaning (I vacuum my sump when I clean the sump). I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is using a protein skimmer. The only drawback for me is that I am not able to grow algae in my refugium the same as I used to be, but the pods seem to colonize there the same. I am thinking of making it a place to keep frags now, so that might be a good thing after all. JME.

If there is a Taps close to you you might be able to be remnant pieces for a dollar or two. The PVC piece will cost a couple dollars as well. Some glue... your basically set. The nylon threads that hold the lens still can be nice, but I find my left hand does an alright job at that too. I am not to keen on screwing things into my lens.