kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[mike31154]

Hey thanks for the detailed responses. I thought about the skimmer taking up slack of removed critters as well, plus your system is fairly large, so maybe just a little bump in the road until it balances out. There are hobbyists out there that go to some lengths to provide cryptic zones to cultivate all the stuff you removed, so I thought I'd throw my ideas out there.

[Delphinus]

My thinking on removing of the lattice of tubeworms is that it's sort of a paradox having them in there: they might be removing nutrients but they also trap detritus like crazy which probably builds up more nasties. Plus, if they eat, then they poop, so, they may not be all that beneficial in the end. Hard to say.

I know I look at the ones in my sump and think "ugh, need to do something about that" but I never do.

I know in my old tank I would sort of do the sump clean thing every year or two and things would look better for a while afterwards. But it was always a nasty ordeal too that would last all day. No wonder it gets procrastinated on!

[christyf5]

I think those tubewormy things must like the dark (or less light anyways), I have quite a good population living in my overflow box which is shaded. They haven't migrated into my sump as I use a filter sock (yay another thing my filter sock is good for). Your shiny new sump and all its goodies make me want to clean my sump, but then my sump wasn't even that pretty to start with, I think it must be the sexy red skimmer. Gotta get me one of those

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by christyf5

I think those tubewormy things must like the dark (or less light anyways), I have quite a good population living in my overflow box which is shaded. They haven't migrated into my sump as I use a filter sock (yay another thing my filter sock is good for). Your shiny new sump and all its goodies make me want to clean my sump, but then my sump wasn't even that pretty to start with, I think it must be the sexy red skimmer. Gotta get me one of those

I think it may be more about flow........I know the big feather dusters dont do well in a lot of flow......I cant keep any feather dusters in the big tank cuz the flow blows their feathers off(not literally)f.....the small tank has significantly less flow and plenty of light and my dusters do well in there.....my sump too has a tonne of the wee ones.and is lit for the fuge all night ...leads me to assume that if the large dusters do fine in the light the small ones would too but,

and there aint nuthin sexier than the red, white and goo

[kien]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I know in my old tank I would sort of do the sump clean thing every year or two and things would look better for a while afterwards. But it was always a nasty ordeal too that would last all day. No wonder it gets procrastinated on!

This is the first time I've done such a herculean cleaning job on my sump and man.. I don't ever want to do that again! I'm hoping that this experience will scare me into keeping a closer eye on the state of the sump and perform smaller cleanings. "Oh look I see a tube worm, MUST DESTORY NOW!!!"

[kien]

With the removal of the tube worms I am at least expecting a slight drop in Alk and Calc uptake :-) Those buggers must have consumed a lot of alk and calc. Damn freeloaders!

So after i cleaned out the sump I finished off my chores with a display tank scrub down. I actually liked scrubbing down the tank because afterwards everything appears as if it is in HD

Full Tank Shots

The South Face


The North Face


The West Face


Not that anyone will notice but I changed up my aquascape a bit. I'm in the middle of battling these brown polyps that are infesting my live rock and are quickly reaching plague proportions. Luckly my rock structures are separated into three distinct structures so I didn't have to destroy my rock work too much. The most affected rock was my terraced zone (for those who have seen my tank in person). I dismounted the corals from those rocks and simply lifted the structure out of the tank and set them outside for a couple of days. After a couple of nights of freezing temperatures I thoroughly rinsed and scrubbed off all the debris that I could off of the rocks and rebuilt the structure in the tank. This area used to have two levels of terraces but after I placed the first level in I really liked the open swimming space above that used to be occupied by another piece of shelf rock with corals on it. My rock work was already pretty open but this openned it up even more and I liked it so I left it.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by kien

With the removal of the tube worms I am at least expecting a slight drop in Alk and Calc uptake :-) Those buggers must have consumed a lot of alk and calc. Damn freeloaders!

So after the cleaned out the sump I finished off my chores with a display tank scrub down. I actually liked scrubbing down the tank because afterwards everything appears as if it is in HD

Full Tank Shots

The South Face


The North Face


The West Face


Not that anyone will notice but I changed up my aquascape a bit. I'm in the middle of battling these brown polyps that are infesting my live rock and are quickly reaching plague proportions. Luckly my rock structures are separated into three distinct structures so I didn't have to destroy my rock work too much. The most affected rock was my terraced zone (for those who have seen my tank in person). I dismounted the corals from those rocks and simply lifted the structure out of the tank and set them outside for a couple of days. After a couple of nights of freezing temperatures I thoroughly rinsed and scrubbed off all the debris that I could off of the rocks and rebuilt the structure in the tank. This area used to have two levels of terraces but after I placed the first level in I really liked the open swimming space above that used to be occupied by another piece of shelf rock with corals on it. My rock work was already pretty open but this openned it up even more and I liked it so I left it.

opened up the very west end?....isnt that where your sunset monti was?.....whatcha do with the displaced corals?

[kien]

Originally Posted by fishytime

opened up the very west end?....isnt that where your sunset monti was?.....whatcha do with the displaced corals?

Yes, I removed the upper terrace in the far west end. No, the sunset wasn't there, the sunset lives on top of the middle bonsai structure. It is rappidly out competing every coral on that structure actually.. I really should frag it, LOL. *waits for vultures*

I just rearranges the colonies and frags that were on that shelf onto the new lower shelf and the slab of tavertine that the lower shelf is pegged into. I moved some to other rocks as well.

[kien]

Originally Posted by fishytime

sunset monti was?

Actually if you look at the South Face you can see the sunset smack dab in the middle of the picture on that upper shelf. It wants to own that shelf.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by kien

Actually if you look at the South Face you can see the sunset smack dab in the middle of the picture on that upper shelf. It wants to own that shelf.

holy crap brochacho......that thing went and got massive!!