Man if you weren't so far away I would take you up on this offer - I am going to re-aquascape my 190 this winter sometime and would love to have a zoo bottom - Elvis the Idol would love it too!

Big idea!



Ever seen those Japanese SPS tanks, that have very little LR and mostly you just see the corals?

I was thinking about keeping only about 60 lbs of LR in my display, putting the other 120 lbs in my sump, and letting my tank show off mostly the corals.

Within 2 or 3 years it will be filled with corals anyways. If I don't put the LR in my sump I will have some SPS growing out of the water in about 1 year.




What are your thought?

Think it's a great idea. Far better to have low rockwork in the main display and let the corals have room to grow in.

I was under the understanding that japanese tanks were very low tech. and coral was disposed and replaced as needed, like a flower vase (flowers look wilted go buy new flowers).

Japanese tanks also have specific lighting focused on specific corals to highlight certain colors.

Mine won't have that.

But it gives you an idea.

I could grow my own LR!

I think you have a great idea, I prefer tanks with minimal rock work also. You should have a hundred pounds or so in say 2015. :mrgreen:

3 lbs a month = 36 lbs a year so I would say a lot more then that.:biggrin:

Yeah, I was thinking, 3 lbs per month of Coral growth should mean that you could remove "X" amount of LR in a month without impacting the system. I wonder if your system would work with 60 lbs LR in the display, 300 lbs of SPS and Clams, and "Frags only" in the sump. Does Coral reduce nutrients as well as LR does?

Coral uses nutrients, so that is always good.

LR is your bio filter though, and corals do not do that.

Suppose I should update this thread too.

I am awaiting an Ozotech 260 mg/hr ozonizer and air dryer.

So I guess my old Red Sea 200 mg/hr and 500 mg/hr air dryer will be for sale shortly. (PM for a real steal on a used product, not the best quality by any means, but it works if you just want to try it out for a while for cheap).

The Ozotec unit creates a real minimum of 260 g/hr and has replaceable parts, and is easy to take apart to clean. I got an awesome deal from SWC on the unit (still well over $500 taxes in).

I am also getting an automated air dryer, cool eh?

I am sick and tired of baking beads, and I refuse to do it anymore. Unfortunately the real nice auto air-dryers cost $800+. They have two dryers packed into a single unit, and switch between units when one is being automatically recharged. I am not that rich, so I opted for a $400 dryer that uses a timer to recharge the beads.

I will post pics and explanations when I get it.

I stopped baking beads long ago, and instead just throw away the silica beads I use. I only use them for 2 - 4 weeks depending on the humidity level of the air I am drawing in, then dispose of them.
I am sure anyone who has used the regenerating silica is thinking this is a waste, but I switched to silica cat litter, as it is pretty well the same material, and for $3 a 5# bag, every bag lasts 6 months +.
They do color change from white to a cream color when they are getting saturated, also I can tell by the make up and consistency of the bubbles in the reaction chamber of the skimmer.

FYI for a cheap alternative.

Something else to consider is that maybe a skimmer isn't the best place to be injecting ozone.

I thought of that too, and have read all about ozone reactors.

IMO s big skimmer is a much better reaction chamber then a relatively small ozone reactor.

I suppose if your skimmer is a recirc style it increases the contact time.

How come you weren't happy with the Red Sea ozonizer? I have one (not using it yet), it seems kinda basic but it seems like it should work?

It works, just not great anymore. It keeps my ORP at 330.

I wouldn't sell it to somebody that has a large tank, but somebody with a 55 or 90 would benefit for hopefully a few years from a little ozone.

My skimmer's (which is not recirc) reaction chamber is 8 inches by 36 inches. Much bigger then anything I want to get for dedicated ozone use.

I guess. My ozone reactor is 24" tall, 7" in diameter. But it could be much more then just size. A protein skimmer injects ozone into a column of water/bubbles. An ozone reactor injects/disperses drips of water into a column of ozone gas. According to dudes like Randy Holmes-Farley on RC that's the best way to get ozone to do its stuff. I'm not suggesting I'm right, just something to consider.

I considered it (also talked to SWC about it) and don't think it is really worth it, even if with a large reactor it is worth it.

If you have one I will definitely take a look at how it works for you. One of these days we are going to have to check out each others systems.

PM ed ya on ozone Ben

Weird stuff I find out, really weird!

I have always heard this fairly loud snapping sound, kinda like a snap of the jaws or pincers of something.

I only heard it at night with the tank lights out, but never saw any missing fish or tell-tale signs of a Mantis shrimp.


Well, yesterday I am watching the tank mid afternoon, and I hear the noise again, I look up and see the female clown (5+ years old, and 3 inches long) snapping her jaws on what seems to be some sort of food, but I am too late to see exactly what it was. Definitely the same noise, I always was sometimes suspect of my plumbing, my 4-way or something, but I could never pin-point it.

Ever heard of something like that before?

Ben, My pair of Cinnamon clowns use to make a clicking noise. It was almost a chatter type sound.

My CBB also makes a fairly loud chewing/snapping noise at times, but I found that out after I had him for 2 days, not after having a fish for 5 years.

Saw my female clown chomping down on one of my unknown pest anenomes, cool, just wish she would eat more of them.


Anyways about time for an update!

On Monday mourning I will start the big tank changeover:

-take out all LR and corals
-get rid of pest anenomes (putting LR in sump causes anenomes to release within 24 hours and easily get them out after that)
-re-arrange LR and corals for more of a Japanese type look
-clean everything up
-install 1 larger return pump
-clean other pumps
-install new ozone unit if have it yet
-make old skimmer into new calcium reactor (from a buddy)

probably other stuff too, but we shall see, that is a lot of stuff for one day!

Tomorrow is the big day!

All ready with containers for LR and corals and I have all of the plumbing bits I need.

Japanese (kinda) style tank here I come!

I may have pics at the end of week.


As a bit of an update on other stuff:

I will have a new calcium reactor for you all to see soon!


RO stuff: I use to have 100 feet of 1/4 RO tubing going through my sump to cool my tank water and also to pre-warm my RO water to make it more efficient. I recently got a pressure gauge and found this 100 feet to give quite the pressure loss. So I changed it out for 3/8 RO tubing. Then I got 65 gallons per day out of the unit, not bad for a unit rated at 75 gpd (btw my tap pressure is over 60 psi).

Then I decided to try out a booster pump and see if I could make the membrane even more efficient (not too concerned with output, but it is a nice plus). Now I get 96 gpd out of the unit, and my post membrane tds dropped from 8 to 4!
Only problem is the switch that turns on the booster pump only activates when the post membrane pressure is below 28 psi, so in day to day operations it never turns on at all. It will however turn on if I am making lots of water and have almost depleted my storage tank. I will try and get a different pressure switch.

I got my Ozotec ozone generator, and have yet to hook it up.


FWIW according to Ozotec the best way to inject ozone is in a large skimmer, they say an ozone reactor works, but is not ideal as there is less contact space available.

To me that makes sense from what I know of physics. But I am no expert. I know other "experts" will argue either way.

IMO the only benefit to using an ozone reactor is that it is extremely easy to run the effluent through carbon (which is a point to consider).

I still believe that you don't need carbon with ozone, but when I set-up my ozotec unit I will test for residual ozone and maybe I will find that I need it with a bigger unit. I all I know is I have had fantastic growth and no fatalities in 2+ years of using ozone w/o carbon.

I'm not trying to argue, nor convince you that what I'm saying is correct. From my reading an ozone reactor works better then a skimmer, and unlike a skimmer an ozone reactor was designed for dissolving ozone in water. The main reason I bought the reactor was because there is a good risk that ozone will ruin the seals on a skimmer and I spent too much on my skimmer to risk that. Also, if my skimmer fails/leaks I'm down... if my ozone reactor fails/leaks I'm still good to go, just get another reactor. That, IMO is the biggest reason to use an ozone reactor... to save your skimmer. Especially if you plan to push much ozone through the system.

btw, for anyone else interested, here is a great source of ozone info...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/rhf/index.php

I hear you buddy.

FWIW I have yet to hear of someone with my style of skimmer have a problem with prolonged ozone use. I have read fairly extensively on the use of ozone reactors, and depending on my readings of residual ozone I may even get one too.

I just thought it was interesting after reading how much better ozone reactors are that Ozotech specifically says that bigger skimmers are better.

I will post up in a few days how Ozotech recommends you dial in your ozone unit logging both ORP and residual ozone, it is very interesting!

Time for some photos that a friend took:

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6760-2/IMG_2187_1.jpg

In the left of this pic you can see that parts of my stag have bleached out. This is liekly due to its being shaded for the past 2 years by my cap, and now it is getting full light.

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6779-2/IMG_2186.jpg

A close-up of Doug's old beloved CBB.

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6785-2/IMG_2171.jpg


Don't cry doug.:cry:

My new bi-color:

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6791-2/IMG_2174.jpg

I tried to train this guy to eat my pest anenomes, no luck.:neutral:

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6797-2/IMG_2177.jpg

This clown is about 4 inches long!

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6806-2/IMG_2182.jpg

Clams always look best from the top down, always!

My next tank will have a seperate clam tank, tied into the main system.

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6838-2/IMG_2205.jpg

Now this is a calcium reactor!

http://www.egunn.com/gallery2/d/6823-2/IMG_2191.JPG