MadReefer

Cool! I have some in the tank and I just fragged some. I'm at work or I would post pics. I'll try to remember next time I post pics.

I wish I was. Space and money limit mine. My fuge takes up most of my sump though. If I ever have space for a fish room I will have a very large fuge.

My rock has never looked full of life when I got it but within a few weeks it started to show and after a few months I had a lot more. Also, CUC and fish will sometimes eat all the life before it shows.

If you want the most life you will want to get uncured live rock and pick it up the same day the LFS gets it in. You don't want it sitting around in there LR curing tanks. I've never seen a LFS cure rock the way I do at home. You might find better rock online but I wouldn't buy rock from Florida. My premium fiji rock from liveaquaria.com had all kinds of life when I got it.

You can try bridal veil material on a string with a shrimp in the middle. But this works best for a lot of small ones and I'm not sure how it will work on one big one. It might be easiest to remove the rock it is in.

My blue tang eats it. But my foxface lo eats it the fastest. The foxface has been good and is not eating corals. I try to keep it fat and happy so it doesn't start.

Nice tank Eric. Merry Christmas.

Kshack said it best. No water change needed, just adjustment by dosing. I thought adjustments needed to be done with cal reactors anyway becuase it is not always the same use on cal and alk that the reactor gives out.

I like to break/cut the rock apart. Taking them off the rock works but they don't do as well as fast.

4 days is fine. They would probably be fine for two weeks if your reef is healthy. I read about someone trying to make a reef that didn't need water changes or feeding and it lasted, I think, two months before fish started dieing.

I'm not sure what to call that coral. I got it from snowpunk.

Attempting a more concise write-up of my tank This tank has had some salt water in it since about 8/31/2009. I know many ways that I would like to make this system better but I am VERY happy with it considering how much money I have spent. Someday I might have more money and be able to set it up the way I really want. 180 Gallon glass used tank. I resealed the whole tank and built a coast to coast overflow with black acrylic. It still has towers in each corner but with a coast to coast piece that stretches between the towers. I have one of each Koralia 2, 3, and 4 for additional flow. I would like more but that is what I have now. My live rock is: 50 pounds of new Utah rock (LBTR); 45 pounds of new Fiji base rock; 45 pounds premium Fiji rock that is two years old; and 40-50 pounds miscellaneous rock that I accumulated over the years. I guess my sand is about 200-300 pounds of fine Utah oolite sand. I have 3x 250 watt stealth heaters, one in the sump and two in the back of display. Lighting: 1 250 watt basic Odyssea fixture; 1 Corallife 216 watt (4x54) T5 and I’m not sure of the bulbs but 2 daylight and 2 actinic; 1 Odyssea 3 foot 4x T6 HO fixture with 3 daylight and 1 actinic. Sump is a Rubbermaid tote that is 55 gallon total volume. I have a Remora Pro skimmer with a mag 9 pump. Chaeto fills most the space with room for one Maxi-jet 1200 for extra flow and 2x Rio HF 12 for returns. Also I have a maxi-jet 900 or 1200 pumping water to the mangrove bucket. The mangrove bucket is a 7 gallon bucket. It is about ¼ full of sand and has about 14 mangroves that are growing nicely. The drain is placed about half way up the side of the bucket. The mangrove bucket is in the window and gets a good amount of sunlight. The sump has a 65 watt CF spiral twist bulb over it; I think the spectrum is about 6500K. I built the stand myself out of 1x pine, wood glue, liquid nails, and coated with outdoor polyurethane. I connected two 5 gallon buckets with bulkheads and plumbing for an ATO reservoir that drains to a float valve drilled onto the side of the sump. I use BulkReefSupply.com #1 2 part mix at about 100ml per day. And that is about it. I will have to detail livestock later.

This really isn't the plan but I spent all of my money on the tank, new rock, powerheads and such and it will take that same amount of money just for the lights I want. I still want a bigger skimmer, I want to build a sump, and a calcium reactor would be great. I can't complain to much though, as is it is doing better than I had hoped.

Very good point. I forgot to mention, stop feeding while you work this out. Your tank should be more than fine for a week or two with little to no feeding. I use Prime when I use tap water. I really like my RO/DI also. How much macro algae is in the tank?

I have 180g with about 30g of water in the sump. I have a 5g mangrove bucket that helps keep temp down in the summer but also cools the system down a little too much in the winter. In Utah the air is dry so a cooler is not needed in the summer but it can make the temp in the tank drop extra fast in the winter. I use 3 250watt heaters and the temp has been 74-76. It did drop to 73 one day so I added plastic to cover part of the window next to the tank and it's back to 74-76. The air in my apartment is set to 70 I think, maybe 72, it's old. The outside temps have been between 5-40 for the last month. Edit- my lights don't heat up the water too much. I need more light. I only have one 250MH and ~350watts of T5.

I bought a derasa clam from Diver's Den for $60 plus shipping and it died the first night. With the credit they gave me (plus $45) I bought two derasa clams for like $105 delivered from LiveAquaria. They are still doing well.

You might be doing too many water changes. If things test all good except nitrates, unless they are very high 50+, I would stop water changes and find the source of nitrates or other problems.

1-3 degrees is great. 4-6 is getting somewhat bad. Anything over 6 is probably pretty stressful, especially if it happens everyday. I have mine set to about 75 and it goes from 74-76 and I'm really happy with that. In the summer is was 76-79 about.

Stability is most important. It is possible to do too many water changes. I think your numbers are fine except nitrates are a little high and mag could be a touch higher. If I were you, I would add some macro algae and wait to add more corals. Double check temp swing and have someone else verify your tests.

Chaeto will use phosphate as long as it has nitrate, iron and some other things needed to grow. Zoas and other corals should use a little as well. Chaeto and mangroves help me keep phosphate next to zero.

Wow! Very nice setup you've started. Thanks for the great pics. I hope I can do something like this someday.

I personally like to have sunshine on my tanks. As long as nitrates and phosphates are low to zero, sunlight should only be helpful. My tanks have always done well with it.