120 G with 60 G sump build

[Palmer]

Well I just got back from a seven day vacation in Orlando and for the most part all was well with the new tank. The Tunze osmolator is a great thing to have it handled all the evaporation ( I lose about 2 G per day.) When I had left I had a diatom bloom. I had added 4 cerith snails to my display and one to my fuge which were helping a little and now getting back the diatoms are almost completely gone. My skimmer is working awsome the cup was almost completly full and black goo covering everything. I had it completly clean and empty when I left.

One problem I am having is what I believe to be green hair algae all over my tank in little tuffs. I noticed a little bit in some chaeto I had put in my sump and I should have removed it. My water parameters are 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate when I tested it on my return. So I scrubbed the display and put a filter sock in my sump return to catch the floating algae. My two astrea's seem to be eating it here and there on the glass. I am thinking of getting a couple of additional astrea and maybe one turbo snail. I like the philosophy of a small and diverse cleanup crew and just putting a bit more elbow grease into maintaining the tank.

BTW- I was at the Orca show in Orlando at the same time that terribile incident happened (It was in a tank that was not part of the show.) I am glad my kids didn't see it. Ironic, I was telling my relatives about the problems with keeping Orca in captivity the day before we went to the show

[Palmer]

So the algae problem seems to have gone away for the most part. I took the plunge and bought some additional live stock. The first fish is a orange spotted prawn goby. I also bought two corals, a GSP colony and a orange zoa frag. Since I only had a few snails I added two more astrea's and a turbo snail to the mix.

Now I have a fairy tale peppermint shrimp story. I went to Red Coral and Kevin had two large peppermint shrimp. I have had a lot of aptasia and have been wanting to get a peppermint shrimp to keep up on it. I heard they can be very reclusive and depending on the shrimp may or may not go after the aptasia. Well I have had great success with these shrimp. They started going after the aptasia right away and now I can't find one in site when I had 15-20 lurking before. Alhough the shrimp do like to hide somewhat I can always see one of them at one point or another and they come out for mysis feedings.

I will put up pics of the fish and shrimp etc later but until then here is my favorite blue porcelain crab and the GSP.






Palmer

[Red Coral Aquariums]

What is your lighting schedule?

What do you have for flow in the tank?

Kevin

[Palmer]

Hi Kevin,

RIght now I am running the actinics from 10 AM to 9:30 PM and the halides from 2 PM until 6:00 PM. What do you think, too much? The algae seems to have gone away on its own except for a couple of small patches.

Palmer

[Palmer]

Well it's been awhile since I have posted to this tank thread. since last spring I have lost a orange spotted shrimp goby and a sandsifting goby to the carpet. I had also lost and replaced a couple of peppermint shrimp.

I have managed to add and keep some things successfully. I have added-

Yellow tang
Black and white perc clown
Lawnmower blenny
Fairy wrasse

Candy cane coral
Red Montipora
A green sps that I can never remmember the name (in pic below)
An acropora frag
Open brain (from zoa elite)
Crocea clam

All in all things have been going pretty good!



Thing I can never remmember

[Palmer]

My wife just got a Canon SLR camera so I thought I would add a couple of shots I took to this thread. I also changed my MH bulbs recently to phoenix from Ushio and really like the difference in color.

I am dealing also with this small patch of pest algae or something. I am wondering if it is cyano. Here is a pcture below. I am basically scooping the stuff off the top of the sand bed to keep it under control.

Brown stuff



FTS



I think the clown wants an anemone





Dont mess with the big dog

[Palmer]

Here are some new photos of the tank. I did end up winning the war with Cyano. I used Chemi clean and also bought a Vortech MP40 to add more flow on my tank. I think two Koralia 2's was definitly not enough flow for this size tank. I have added a couple of corals over the last number of months and added a GBTA. Below is a pic when i first got it and it was "bubbled" up. It split shortly after getting it. I am in the process of setting up a 30 G frag tank on the other side of the wall that is behind this tank. I am taking my time with this project but I have a custom overflow I bought that I will be inserting into it and have just installed three bulkheads so I am pretty well on my way to setting that up...

Somewhat recent FTS


Before split


After


Some coral

[fishytime]

there sure is some noticeable growth when you scroll down this last page of your thread......you must be doing something right.....lookin good man

[Palmer]

Thanks and your informing me I should probably test for magnesium may have helped with that It took awhile to really get things going between figuring out how long to run the lighting and just letting all the frags encrust etc but I am pretty happy with the progress now.

[Palmer]

Well my latest project is slowly progressing. I wanted to turn a 30 G all glass aquarium I have had forever into a frag tank. I also thought it might be nice to be able to use it as an isolation tank if needed. The big quandry I had is whether to plumb it into my existing system (making isolation of course impossible) or whether to run it completly on its own (more $ + less extra H(OH) for stability..)

A really simplistic idea came to mind and I decided I would just buy a bunch of ball valves for the herbie and return and make it so I can either send the water back to my display sump or to a tank below the new frag tank just by directing the flow with the valves. Just a few bucks more and you get two potential solutions...

I had an overflow made for me and i cut it to my size with a table saw. Then I cut three holes into the tank and added bulkheads. And that is pretty much where I am so far...

I am going to put an Aqua remora pro on this that I am getting used. It is way overkill for this size tank but I figure if my sicce pump on my SWC EXT 200 gives me problems I have a back up. And despite my skepticism of the value (or over value) of skimmers I still dont believe you can overskim a tank Far from rocket science but nice to have options rather than an either or situation...

Here's the tank. I dont have the plumbing set up yet but I will likely put a small simple sump underneath it that I can have the herbie drain into if I want to run it seperate..



These are the new bulkheads and holes in my wall leading to the main display sump (This is my basement so no worries on the home front!)


Other side of the wall to display



This is the return which I will have a T fitting with ball valves to allow for plumbing to the display and a return from underneath this tank