Success with the 24g.
Obviously with this setup there have been some corals that have done very well and some that have not done as well due to the limitation of the system.
Dendrophyllia and Tubastrea;
As expected these were very easy to care for. We have several pieces in the tank some at the top and some at the bottom. The pieces at the top definately get fed more often as they are easier to feed. We feed these regularily with the FM LPS food and for any pieces that we have recently purchased we soak the food overnight in the Energizer. We did find that a few of the species that we purchased were a bit more picky than others for feeding. We rescued a Dendrophyllia that was in crazy rough shape it is well on the road to recovery but still to the day sometime it just doesnt want to open. But if you put some of the energizer on the pellets, feed a couple to the tank and next thing you know its open and ready for food! We recently purchased a Tubastraea micranthus (Black Sun Coral) from Fish Tails and it had some damage from shipping but we managed to get it eating in 2 days so I am positive it will fully recover.
Balanophyllia;
Very interesting piece! I had ready that these pieces tend to only open at night and its partially true. There are three in our tank, 2 in partial light and one in full darkness. The 2 in partial light will only open during feeding time if the light is on. When they do eat you can easily feed each polyp 8-10 pellets. The one is full shade is open 24/7 and rarely if ever gets directly fed via pellets so it must be catching some of the fine particle food in the tank as its been well over a year now and it is a very healthy coral!
Archohelia Rediviva
This piece is one of the very few corals that naturally is healthy and pure white at the same time. We have 3 of these in the tank as both Trina and I liked this coral so much. 2 pieces are pure white with a hint of purple where the polyps extend and the other piece is a purple base with clear/white polyps. For feeding these primarily eat part of the food mash that we prepare and dose to the tank hourly. Occasionally we feed them some of the pellets as well, but not regularily.
The pics above were taken in a coral bed before they were added to the azoox tank so the polyps were not open, sorry.
Diodogorgia nodulifera
We have had excellent success with this piece, probably better that any of the nps gorgonia sp.
I do feel though that at least in part this is due to the condition that the pieces arrived in. As they ony have a short trip here from the caribbean, when we got these pieces they were in amazing health. We have had 2 piece for about a year now and both are doing well. One piece is near the bottom and is in strong laminar flow and is definately the healthier of the 2. The other piece is closer to the top, and directly under the Reef Brite. If the water parameters are not bang on this piece will not open and has developed a light film of algae on the surface several times. This film need to be cleaned up and the water quality improved or it just wont open and feed. We will certainly be addressing this in the new tank.
Gorgonia sp.
Dont try to rescue piece. If a piece isnt doing well at the store just leave it be. Trust me, while they can be brought back its a long and hard road. I am not sure if any of these will make the tank trasfer as I am pretty sure I will be inclined to get some nicely shapped, healthy, large pieces for the new tank
Dendronephthya sp
We had excellent success with these species right up until the summer. Then during the summer we were gone for 10 days, then back for a couple weeks then gone for 30 days then back then gone... and expecting our tank sitters to replace the food for the dosing pumps every 2 days was just too much to expect for this long of a period of time. Again this issue is something that will be addressed with the new setup by putting a bar fridge under the tank. Prior to then we had 4 Dendrophyllia that were doing very well and since then 2 of them have come back and are a decent size again. The pieces that have come back were as down to 1-2 inches and now each of them are 5-6 inches. These feed exclusively off of the mash that we prepare and feed via the dosing pumps.
So to address these issues and still be lazy and not have to carry water up and down the stairs there was really only one choice, connect the new tank into the main system.
Water quality would then be maintained with a MR6 skimmer which is more than up to the task.
Already run carbon and phosban on the main system so thats covered.
Instead of running ozone on both tank and having to run 2 controllers now I can just run one large unit on my main system.
Water parameters are already being controlled via the balling method.
And the new stand will allow me to put a bar fridge right under the tank in which I can keep a good supply of food chilled and ready to feed to the tank at all times.
This system is ideal as the dosing pumps will supply a high food concentration into the azoox tank, the low flow rate going through the azoox tank will supply a low food concentration to all of the corals in the main system, and the main system will provide a continual supply of prestine water into the azoox tank. Its truely a win win situation.