chewie

Have you ever been stung by an aiptasia? I haven't. I have been stung by euphylia sp. many times. I have never thought of using them for aiptasia control though. Good idea!

I have a coralvue 10k and a BLV/ushio 10k. I would trade either of them for your xm15k. Or if you want to buy them, how about $60 a piece (both bulbs have less than 2 weeks use).

Let me clarify a bit. You can use a ball valve on the intake, but only to use it as a shut off device. When it comes time to clean the pump, ideally you want to be able to disconnect the pump without draining your sump, or if on a closed loop. Just don't use the intake to restrict the output. A filter sock is a 8" diameter sock with usually a 100 micron rating. all your drain water from the tank passes through the sock, creating less turbulence while trapping detritus. If you don't change them often, you will have nitrate problems.

I need to buy a good(ASM Euroreef clones or diy) within the next week. Let me know your price or if you want anything in trade. I am also looking for a sump with no more than a 18" x 16" footprint. Thanks!

I should be able to get one for you in the next month or so. i'll make a post when it's ready.

Awesome! GLad it worked out, it's a very cool fish!

Put a ball valve on the output of the pump to restrict flow. Never restrict flow on the intake side. Your sump may not be long enough to disperse the bubbles before getting sucked into your return pump. Or you may need more baffles. A filter sock would help greatly, but you need to change them out regularly. Salt water fanta-seas sells the socks, and they even have a exhange program for a Dollar. You take in your dirty one, and exchange for a clean one. If the filter sock doesn't help, then you probably need to cut the flow back on your return pump.

That's pretty sweet. The fuge is awesome. And the clown!

Oceanic. It's 20" x 18" x 18"

Simmer down now, I am a hunt and pect typer LOL I forgot to add, I use Oceanpure saltwater from Saltwater Fanta-seas.

Equipment; There are no powerheads used. The only means of circulation is from a Mag 9.5 from my sump return. It feeds a SCWD and has 2 90 degree nozzles in the back corners. Tank was drilled with a dremel and O/F box was custom made by myself. Skimmer is a Prizm Pro submerged in my sump. It does a good job, but there are better skimmers. Lighting is a SE 250w XM 15k in a Lumenarc mini reflector. Actinics are 2 x 36w PC. CA/Alk/Mg are added to topoff water as needed. I have been using salifert, and seachem. I run carbon 24/7 and change it after 3 months. No Poly filters, rowaphos, or other chemicals are used. That's it.

Maintenance routine is as follows Fish are fed daily and usually 2x on weekends. RBTA's fed every 2-3 days. Glass cleaned 2-3x per week. All Parameters tested weekly. Every other day I use a custom "powerfilter" to blast the detritus off the bottom and out of the rocks. The powerfilter is just a MJ900 with filter floss material wrapped around a 1" PVC pipe that has about 100 holes drilled in it. I let it run for about 2-3 hours. This is THE main reason the tank does well with that kind of bioload. Once a month I do a 7g W/C which is how much my sump holds. I disconnect everything in the sump, dump the water and wipe it out with a paper towel. No filter sock on the sump. Lights, reflectors, fans cleaned once a month right after the W/C. Tank is 10 months old.

Thanks! List of inhabitants: Fish: 1 True Percula (soon to be a pair thanks to Lowman) 5 blue/green chromis 1 Flame angel 1 Sunburst Anthais 1 Sixline Wrasse 1 Lawnmower Blenny 2 Purple firefish Clams: 1 T. Crocea 1 T. Maxima Inverts: 1 Cleaner shrimp 2 Peppermint shrimp 2 emerald crabs 10 Scarlet Hermits 20 Astrea Snails 3 Rose BTA's (I have had this BTA for 4 years next week, I got it from Reefcam) There is never a boring moment in this tank. I know it's alot of fish, but my maintenace routine keeps the water SUPER clean.

The top down shots came out the best. I love my little maxima. Thanks for hanging on to that one for me Austin.

Thanks Austin! They turned out pretty well, but I need to figure out my W/B on my camera. As soon as I do Hopefully I can get a better representation of the color. Some pics were under 15k, and the others under 10k. I have been trying to get into my e-mail today to no avail. Custom skimmer LOL!

use a turkey baster to target feed him when hiding behind rocks. Mine has a special spot he likes to "hang out" in.

I have had a Sunburst for 2 weeks. Mine wouldn't eat frozen either. What it WOULD eat was live brine. Have you tried live brine? I think it's worth a shot to try baby brine though. Try to get some live brine too. I got my sunburst eating frozen after a few days. I unthawed some of SWF's(saltwater fanta-seas) Gumbo, and the gumdrops, and mixed in some live brine(less each feeding) and after 3 feedings, he is now weaned off of live. This is one of my favorite fish. Hopefully he's eating some of the critters in your tank.

Definitely worthy of PoTM! I got to see it w/my own eyes. That dude was feelin the luv for a good 5-10 minutes.

No problem. The tank had to be up against the wall when I had it. It also worked out really well for the closed loop, as there were no extra fittings on the intake side of the closed loop. Just a nice bend of spa-flex(this was key). The 2 1" bulks(CL return) only had a 1.5" Tee, and 2 1.5" 90's necked down to 1". On the inside of the tank the bulks were teed again and necked down to 3/4"MPT for 3/4" locline one each side. 4 loclines pointed on the bottom of that tank made some great flow with currents bouncing off of all panes. It made some really good eddies. There wasn't much that would stay planted to the bottom anyway, and I had 2 eggcrate platforms so the bottom 3 inches of the tank didn't matter much. The sump drain standpipe didn't bother me as it was black ABS. I had green star polyps growing up it;) That being said, it's always possible to just patch the holes & drill the back, or do an external overflow, but this setup was "custom"(Bow)

oops, The leftmost 1" b/h was the return from the sump. On that I used a 12" length of 1" pvc from the bottom, 90'd & reduced to a 3/4" locline.

Ryan, I had an Ampmaster 3000 for the closed loop, and a Mag 12 for return. I don't know what you want to propagate, but that setup had perfect flow for SPS. Sorry I don't have any pics, but basically the rightmost 2 1"b/h's were Tee'd together with a 1.5" Tee and I used 3/4" locline in the tank. The feed for the intake was just 1.5" flex pvc straight to the pump. The drain to the sump was 1.5" cut down to about 12" from the bottom. I didn't get any gurgling with the drain setup that way, it pushed about 800GPH to the sump. It could have handled more flow, but it may gurgle with more GPH. If I were you I would set it up the way I did, but I'm biased LOL! You're gonna love that tank once you get it going. Feel free to ask anymore questions.

lol! That IS my old tank. (sad) The way I had it setup before was as follows. From left to right, THe 1.5" b/h was sump drain, basically a 1.5" standpipe. The 1" next to it was the sump return standpipe. the next 2 1" B/h's were closed loop outputs, and the last 1.5" B/H was the intake for the closed loop. It was "custom" LOL I wish I still had that tank.

Hey mike! Nice to see you back.

Awesome! Cute lil guys.