Lee Stearns

Thanks for hosting Howard- We'll have to figure out how to get your tank stable enough to keep SPS- Once you move it to where you want it in that room- We need to get you some Digitatas. That would be a bell weather for what is happening in the tank. I always have bits and peices of Green digi that gets fragged by my ham fisted arrangements or sevicing in my tanks. Regards, Lee

If you make a trip to The Reef Tank- I am jsut a few minutes from there - So PM me if you are going to be in the area. Regrads, Lee

I agree xeon I thought the device looked to be interesting with the key technology being the screen material that allows phyto plankton to flow to the rotifers and the rotifers waste to flow back to feed the phyto. I would be concerned with haveing to break down the system to clean the screen on a regular baisis. You know how quickly the seive screen gets clogged when trying to screen out the rotifers for feeding. I would think some kind of overpressure on the phyto side might keep the flow going. But would want to see more feedback on people actually using this- It looks rather simple to build if you had the sceening material. On another note my experience has been that if there is even the remotest chance a rotifer or rotifer egg can get to your phyo culture and contaminate it -a mear splash of one drop and the phyto culture is doomed to become a great rotifer culture in only a few days- So the set up looks to be too easily cross contaminated.

Grav -- sounds most cool- I do not think the Mag pumps like being turned on and off- I would consider some type of surge/flushing device that dumps the water into the main tank when it builds to a certain level- that way you can keep your flow constant to the upper pod fuge- figure the size of the fuge and the flow of a small pump with the head pressure calculated and you could figure how often it would flush- I have seen some of these designs on RC and thier DIY page- might do a search- Man what an awesome tank that 150G island is. On Pod fuges I do not know the nutrient sump effectiveness. My experience has been that you will want to feed them a bit- If you are a heavy main tank feeder then I think they will reproduce well- I have two pepermint shrimp in my fuge and while I know they do a great job on any aptasia. I think they predate on the pods- I also see them hang out by the flow when the tank is fed so I am assuming they are waiting to catch a meal and that there is little to feed upon in the fuge- The best pod production in my experience is when feeding phyto plankton, which is why I would love to add some form of phyto growth drip system but am worried about dumping the nutirents that feed the phyto into the tank before they are consumed. If you grow batch Phyto you do not have that worry. Grow or feed phyto and you will have pods! Good luck with getting this all together and if you need a hand playing with it at some point let me know- Regards, Lee

Mike sounds like you could run a little phos remover(rowa phos) and it would go away in time- Purigen is for Nitrates/nitrogen compounds. Also cut back on feeding your tangs if they are that picky- Mine graze all day long. :D

I have Chaeto if you are interested Pm me- It is free- SLower growing in my opinion than the Calurpas, but will not crash. Tangs do not like it too well- wich is why I still grow some calurpa in my fuge and 29 to feed the ever hungry Tangs.

You must be some body :D - I never thought John would frag that lovely elegant- I drooled over it in his basement to no avail. If you have as good of success with it as he has and want to frag it somewhere down the road keep me in mind- I think the only way to get one these days is to get one that has been in a tank for many years. All the rest on the market are just not making it in captivity, which is why I have not tried one yet.

Do you have a devils hand, cabbage or Toadstool leather corals in the tank with them? These have a tendency to fight chemically with SPS- Acros being more sensitive than some digitatas in my limited experience- Run some activated charcoal to try an take out the extra poisons. Just my two cents Tom- there are several more experienced sps guys that should chime in. Regards, Lee

Another bare bottom- everythings looks really good- How long have you had the elegant? How long has the tank been up and running? What are some of the filtration, refuge, sump, pumps, or other equipment you have hooked to keep this going? Be intersting to know some of your maintenance schedule on this- I have no bare bottom experience. Thanks for sharing the nice pics. Regards, Lee

JC you know where I live- It is a great time to add live sand- give me a call or drop by for a couple of cups. Regards, Lee

That efflo is really nice- Your corols are well colored up. I have a blue tort that is identical except yours is farther down the path to being a colony. What are you using to shoot pictures? Very nice pics. Regards, Lee

I have the same problem in my nano cube- Not sure why zoanthids shrink as all else does fine in there- I have one small ric that doesn't do well in there either- but there are mushrooms and another ric that has been thriving for a year- Kind of like putting xenias in my main tank- They melt to nothing over time- but everything else does fine. Tagging-- any of you experienced guys want to take a guess-- Regards, Lee

welcome- sounds ike you have a handle on it if you are in the pico mode--You'll still love getting to see folk's tanks and their generosity. Regards,

steve has it right- I wouldn't bother to run the canister because it will get clogged and may even do some damage to the impellar area- When the bacteria gets started well- with some live rock and a samll piece of fresh shrimp- your sand particles will get a bio film on them and settle out. This can take from a few days to two weeks. Nothing good hapens fast in a reef aquarium. Patience in everything from research to adding things to the tank and it will slowly come around- After the first week, Get an inoculation of live sand in there to start the critter cycle-If there is no one nearer you, PM me and you can pick up a couple of cups from my sand bed. Regards, Lee

Gary - I do not remember what you got from me- Is it a digitatas?- in which case it is either green or orange as that is all I brought to give away- If it looks like an acropora - It is the green bali slimer- they grow fast and color up nicely under halides and actinics- If anyone is looking for a peice I would be happy to frag it again- PM me- It originally came from Grav this summer and I have fragged it several times- It does grow well!

Welcome aboard! Sounds like you are taking some of the right steps in getting that tank rescued. Once you have read up on some of the basic maintenance thread/stickys and or reviewed some of the basic reef keeping books let us how we can support- many of us have low light corals that we'd be happy to give you to get started.

You are up and rolling early - have no idea Grav- I vaguely recall reading about similar situations but do not remeber the outcome- Some of the Freshwater guys might be able to answer up on this. Hope the spouse unit has not noticed- It will keep her awake until you figure out a cure. Good luck

I still say the 10K with vho actinic supplement is the only way to go- Growth is great under the 10K and colors enhanced under the actinic. For PAR the website on 250 watts had the iwasaki leading almost every category but with Xm 10K a close second and with a much whiter coloration than the Iwasaki- I have 250 HQI DE 10K AB's and am very pleased but would be willing to try the XM 10K in my next set of bulbs to get a bit better PAR.

I have two in my main tank and one in a nano cube which I get to watch fiarly closely- One of the two in my main tank has become a monster in size biggest complaint is that almost no rock is too large for him to budge- If they can squeeze under a bit they lift them up and flip them to get at any algea- good news unless you have sps frags attached and they end up in your torch coral down below- where a stinging fest goes on all day until you return home- :( And then trying to catch him to get him out has been difficult On bubble algea I was hoping that these guys would get them while they are small- They may be- but I have never seen one eat bubble. I find on occasion a bubble algea and take it out while it is smalll- I have read that until the buble algea gets at leats an inch in size there are no spores in it- do not know if this is true- But I do not wait- If I spot bubble I take it out immeadiately and hopefully as small as possible. I have seen some tanks where bubble has gotten out of hand and they are impossible to get back under control in large tanks. I have seen the same thing with majano and aptasia- so fight them early and often if they appear.

buckeyefieldsupply.com Was where I last ordered and was happy with price and service.

The 250 Iwasaki' shad the best PAR in the lighting tests across the board. I would be interested in what you mean by color issues __too yellow? Can this be compensated for by Actinic suplement?

Great ideas guys- I kind of lean towrd the acrylic rack- has some limitations for a higher build- but would allow for a rather quick transition using live rock that already has some coral on it. Ajaf's thread was pretty good-and looks pretty easy

yes I had seen that site and one other but it is still difficult to judge brightness between photos- and to some degree colors unless you see them in person.

Howard, I run 250 DE 10 K ABs. They are about 8 months old driven by blueline E ballast Are you asking for one of those to be brought over? I could bring unit and all pretty easily, to compare against what you have set up there. What type of VHOs are you looking to test in side by side comparisons- Looks like your set up has only 1 bulb. I have a 4 bulb set up but it would be easier if someone could bring in a one bulb set up for similar comparison . This is really a helpfull idea for those that are tweaking their lighting- I would like to see a T5 hung for comparison. The Tank of the Month on RC the guy had 8 T5 bulbs to get enough of the rigtght mix over a 110 G tank. Not that I am thinking about changing - just would be interesting.

I was hoping you'd answer that Grav. I was the recipient of that split that Grav caught on camera. That was last May I think- Anyway the green bubble tip he gave me from that just split about a month ago- so you can log that as a data point- but I do not feed it directly nor do I have clowns in the tank yet. I did not get to see the process- but did note it moved about 1 foot from where it had called home.