mogurnda

Just looked into my jug, and it's clear. Used Arm&Hammer this time, though, not BRS. Maybe the food grade stuff can't have impurities. I can't imagine it having much effect.

Looks like you have a good bacterial bloom on your hand. The filter will work better if you rinse the media so they don't clog up. If you're worried about killing the bacteria, rinse with tank water after your next water change.

If it's HDPE, I would worry a bit about it becoming brittle and cracking over time.

Is there supposed to be a photo here?

I still have hermits as well (in my non-slug tanks), but I just keep in mind that many species will have no hesitation to eat snails, especially if the shell looks particularly suitable. There were battles raging on the boards years ago, with some screaming hermits are "never reef safe." Like most things, the story is more nuanced. The Mexican red legs are still my favorites for dealing with hair algae outbreaks in small tanks, but they are also untrustworthy with snails.

These charts always seem pretty random. A few comments based on keeping a lot of snails and growing a lot of algae. I have two turbos, one is about 11 years old, and they have been good for diatoms, turfs and hair algae. Once hair algae gets beyond a certain length, nothing except an urchin will touch it. The reputation turbos have for bulldozing is well-deserved, so my frags are securely epoxied in place. Astreas have always done well for me, and do a great job of general film removal. As far as I can tell, they will not touch hair algae. I have tried Trochus several times, and they have never lasted more than six months, regardless of how I acclimate them. Ceriths should have sand to burrow into, and are viewed as food and shelter by hermits. They are the major crew in my slug tanks, and do a great job on the glass, along with cleaning the debris and algae off the macroalgae without eating the macros themselves. Do not touch hair algae, which is good for me because they will not compete with the slugs. Another general comment is that people tend to way overload their tanks with the stupid "cleaning crews" that vendors put together. Next thing you know, you have snails dying of starvation and feeding an algae bloom.

Hi Jessica, My tank fits your criteria, and the plumbing is pretty darn simple and quiet. It is a modified coast to coast, and not a Herbie, though. I will be around most of this weekend, if you want to pop down.

Thanks for the input Tom. I can ponder while I wait for a few more fittings to arrive.

If I just loop through the sump, then some fraction of the cooled water will be sent back to the chiller. If I send it to the tanks first, it all goes to where it's needed. I am not really sure if it makes much of a difference.

Your post made me rethink the plumbing. Originally, it was going to loop into and out of the sump, but it seems wasteful to mostly be chilling the sump. My current plan is to plumb it into the line that goes to the top two tanks, which then flows through one other tank to the sump. That would deliver more cool water to the tanks that need it, but will add head pressure. I think it's a good tradeoff.

Cool turtle tank. My first tank was a 10 gallon metal frame tank with baby red-eared sliders. I bet your turtles were a lot happier.

30 years salt, 45 years fresh, usually with multiple tanks at any given time, so somewhere just short of infinity.

I'm not sure if I understand this. I will be pumping from the sump to the chiller either way, so what would be the difference? To be clear, the system current has 3 tanks and a sump, with a 4th coming on-line soon, so chilling any single tank would not work.

Thanks, Tom. I suppose you're right that leaving the feed on is smart. I will probably just hook up a line from the return pump, so it should be even less than a maxijet.

My primary slug colony is in my office, which is usually a good place for it. However, a few times a year, the facilities people shut off environmental controls, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident. This almost always happens on weekends or holidays, which means I only catch it if I have to be in for some reason that day and find myself in a sweatbox at my desk. So far, I have not lost any livestock, but it is only a matter of time. I got an excellent deal on a chiller from a fellow WAMAS member, and would like to hook it up in case of emergency. It will be controlled by the AC Jr that currently runs things, and I will upgrade to an APEX once I convince IT that it's safe to allow my system to access the internet. Here is the question: how do I hook it up to minimize energy use during the 98% of the time the chiller is not needed? Should I continually circulate water through it, and only have the chiller turn on when the temperature gets too hot? Can I leave the feed pump off when the unit is not in use? Does anyone else do this kind of thing?

Nope. If you put one into a normal reef tank, it will be dead within a week. If they were smart, they would stay on the food plant and not wander around. They are not smart.

https://youtu.be/hftEWpoxbPo

It's finer and brighter green than the stuff Justin had. Maybe a different species. It may be time for a road trip at some point.

A quick and dirty photo of one of the crispata enjoying fresh Bryopsis.

And it is indeed beautiful. Thanks for the algae! I would love more algae, but have a conflict with the meeting. I am in the area though. Will PM about possibly meeting up before or after.

Bryopsis is soft, but usually very feathery. Almost like Caulerpa when it is growing well. Below is a photo from an earlier batch.

Great! Will try to arrange a pickup.

Still looking. Don't be embarrassed, PM me and I won't tell that you have an infestation.

Bingo! Mystery solved. Of all the slugs I looked at, none seemed quite right, but this has all the right features. I wonder if you can do a SWAP with these guys.

I have tamed a few serious blooms, and spend a lot of my time trying to grow hair algae to feed my slugs, so I would disagree somewhat. I agree that the "cleanup crews" sold by online suppliers are way too big, but a combined approach of grazing and nutrient control will solve the problem if you give the system time to get back into balance. The mistake I see a lot of people making is getting impatient and jumping from one solution to the next without giving anything a chance to work. Cooking the rock, throwing everything away, adding a chaetomorpha reactor will all work, it's just a matter of how you want to approach the problem. I am shocked to see this. Both variegated and rock boring urchins have chowed it down to bare rocks in my tanks. What species was it?