I do have a hammer drill, but I haven't tried it. Thanks for the idea! I will try on the tough rocks. There are only a few or a couple that are super hard, the rest are really easy to drill.

On my next attempt I will try to incorporate PVC structures and the big black zip ties I bought and forgot I was going to use.

I have a pretty good idea how I want the whole tank to look, so ya I have the inhabitants fairly well thought out. I have a few inhabitants that are "out of the box" for me like the Bellus Angel, and a couple of the gorgonian species that I am unsure about.

Sounds like a pretty wicked tank...on paper:lol: Dont give in to frustration...Im sure happy I didnt.

Ya Myka, the Hammer drill will make short work of Tonga, or any live rock. I've been using a Hammer drill all day, Bolting electric Switchgear to the rock wall in the mine all day LOL, So I know it'll drill a hole :D

Your only hope for Gorgonia sp. is from Cuba. The Reef Shoppe and Interior Reef have had them. I got mine from Interior Reef. Haha, maybe I should charge $100 per frag and slow down the financial hemorhaging this hobby causes me. :p

And .. speaking as someone who adores clams .. I don't think you can realistically expect clams to put a huge dent in your nitrate levels, unless you maybe have an otherwise *incredibly* small bioload.. Sorry - but if it were true, I'd have zero nitrates in my 110g right now and I can assure you that I don't - it's low, however, but I also use NO3 Destroyer...

Thanks Doug! I have been frustrated with this tank since day one...I think it's just because I don't like this part. :lol:

Dan, thanks for the tip! I will try the hammer drill on the tough pieces. :D

Tony the local gorgonian expert! :D I was reading about the Gorgonia sp and Julian Sprung said the same as you, that the Carribean Gorgonias are easier to keep. I think I will try the other species, and see how I manage before I attempt the Gorgonias. Although from my reading is seems like the differences in all the gorgonian species are like day and night. Some grow almost like weeds, and others are nearly impossible. Some light lots of flow, some like calm waters. Some need super bright light, and others require low light. They will be a very interesting addition. :)

I'm no clam expert (by far), but I have read a few articles about people adding nitrate since the clams require it as a food source; keeping NO3 at 5 ppm. So I figured if I had a number of large clams in the tank that is would have some sort of measurable impact on the nitrate. Maybe not...? If not, that doesn't bother me as I have always kept very small bioloads. I haven't had a mature tank with measurable nitrate in many, many years.

Myka,

In regards to Clams one of the local reefers here (NAS on Canreef) has to add nitrates regularly to his tank or the clams start to fade in color and don't fully expand out of their shells. I've seen the tank and he has lots of other stuff in there that should build their own nitrates but it's not enough.

I don't personally know a lot about clams but his are beautiful.

I think NAS's clam-to-non-clam ratio and fairly low overall water volume comparatively probably contribute to that.

I've read the same stuff about people adding nitrate for the sake of their clams and all I can say is I have never had the need to do so. I have 15 or 16 in my 110g, I've totally lost count, ranging in size from 2" to 15" and I have never had low nitrates, never. Fish load is fairly nominal, 5 fish in a 110, but even before when I only had 2 fish in there. Over ten years in the hobby I've only once detected a minor drop in measurable nitrates after adding clams, but it was a short lived dip because the levels returned to normal for the tank shortly after.

I'm not saying don't have clams, and I'm not saying clams don't reduce nitrate, I'm just saying it's hard to plan for a clam population for the actual sake of nitrate reduction in a tank. If you find that your nitrates are always zero then you can add some back to maintain say 5.0 and likely the clams will respond positively but I wouldn't be adding nitrate unless I found that there was literally an overconsumption of nitrate .. I myself can't say I've ever encountered that myself but like anything, "YMMV".

:)

"yymv"?

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