120gal mixed predatory reef tank

[whatcaneyedo]

I'm having a pretty busy week. The tank finally settled down after a few days of bacteria bloom from the pellets. The water is looking clear again and the coral and fish are no longer oxygen deprived and distressed. Here is how the reactor looks at the moment with just 250ml inside. It is tumbling, its just hard to tell because it is just a picture.



As I think I mentioned the skimmer was pulling quite a bit out for the last few days. Here is how it looked and underneath is how it normally looks.





I've got big plans for my frankensump tomorrow (note: I just fed the fish so my foam head has collapsed, this is normal). I've decided to tear down my 50gal frag tank and convert the sump into a frag trough. I'm going to remove the 50gal's return and overflow and the area where I've been trying to grow macro algae. Then I'm going to move the skimmer to the left outside of the sump and part all of the rocks to the sides as well. Once everything has been moved out of the way I'll put all of the coral that is in the 50gal in the middle and hang one of my Lumenmax pendants above.

For some extra flow in the sump I've picked up two Hydor Koralia Evolution 1400 powerheads. I may leave them to run constantly or I may plug them into the controller and have them alternate... I haven't decided yet. (EDIT: after reading some reviews I'll just leave these to run constant and not on a wave maker) I'll post some more pictures tomorrow when the dust clears.

[whatcaneyedo]

After about 5 hours of setting up and then cleaning up here is how frankensump looks this evening.

[MitchM]

That is a lot of work and it looks much better. You can enjoy watching what's going on in frankensump.
I like the price tag idea of labelling plug-ins.

Mitch

[whatcaneyedo]

I'm into the second week of pellet usage now. All of the tank inhabitants seem to be growing and looking the same as they always have. The skimmer has settled down a little bit although its still producing more than it would in the past. The cyano in the sand is back... perhaps in time it will go away as the tank adjusts to the pellets.

I received two new additions this week from Tang Daddy. The first is 3/4" of a Hawkins Enchinata and the other is 5/8" of some kind of blue tort. They certainly don't look like much now but hopefully if I'm careful with them they will grow into nice colonies in a few years.

[zum14]

Hey. Nice job on the sump. So was there any reason behind the downsize?

[whatcaneyedo]

Growing out frags in the sump provides me with more space than the 50gal. More space equals more frags. Also, because its in the sump there is no glass or fishing line to clean. While suspending frags has some advantages, the fishing line was an algae magnet requiring constant tedious cleaning because no herbivorous invertebrates could service it. I also expect that downsizing to less system volume will improve the skimmer's performance as there is now less water to process.

[abcha0s]

Your tank is spectacular. Sump looks much better