FishWife

So, since my clownfish started hosting the anemone, two issues: 1. The anem's tentacles aren't as extended or active or near its mouth. 2. The clownfish impedes my ability to get near the mouth of the 'nem. (And flow is also an obstacle.) How do you folks with hosting clownfish feed your 'nems? I had one idea: buy a clear funnel, put it over the anem, and use turkey baster to squirt Formula One or mysis in there. Would that work?

Our tank/fuge combination is tough to control temperature wise. It fluctuates day and night, and with the ambient temp. in the "engine room." We have a digital thermometer in our sump; and the whole system turns over 12-15 X/hr, so we feel like the two tanks are about the same temperature. We have three heaters in the sump, but they seem so wildly variable. When we had the Mag 24 in the sump, we had trouble keeping the heat down, so we ran fans on the surface of the sump. It cooled well by evaporation, but if we leave the tank for hours at a time, it can get too chilly. Now we have the Dart, so heat isn't as much of a problem, but when the lights are on all day, it's still a concern. Our idea was to run a surface fan (thereby cooling by evaporation) and then have the heaters kick on at a certain temp (c. 79.5 degrees) to keep the whole system steady within a degree up or down of 80. So far, it's much harder than we thought. Here's our setup: Any thoughts? (It would be nice if someone made a probe-controlled fan, wouldn't it???)

Chip, Thanks for these suggestions. We do plan to replace the metal that's in the water. It was a desperate need that drove us to those; we could NOT figure out why our dart wouldn't prime, finally read the directions (after our tank had been without motion and our BTA waiting in acclimation bag for 8 hours!) and realized the need for a check valve. What can we replace those with? Also, the angle irons and shelf supports will/may rust over time, but that's easily fixed; and we bolted the Dart to the board; again, they'll be easy to replace, we think. But, any other suggestions? We have PVC grates over the three intake outlets, and that seems to let in the micro critters and since we have filter media on the surface of that intake compartment, we've not noticed a lot of crud going into the pump. What are you thinking when you say "heavy screen material"? What kind? As for bubble trap... yeah. We don't feel able to redo now, but think we might do a mod to the skimmer output... or simply shorten the skimmer return to deal with bubbles.

Hi, We've got our tank up and running and need to establish a maintenance routine. We've read about making two-part CA at home and know there are also ready made products on the market. Assuming that a CA reactor is pretty far into our future, can you please answer some basic questions? We did our first CA test last night and got 350 ppm. This is, I understand, about 100ppm low. We have not hard corals, and clean up inverts, one clownfish, and one BTA in our tank currently. We plan to add one fish or coral per month because of budget and wisdom issues, but may get some free frags at the Nov. meeting ( ) so want to ready the tank. 1. What products to use? 2. WHERE to dose? Refugium? Intake compartment of sump? 3. How often do most people with 160 total gallons and just a few corals find they need to dose? 4. Any information that I don't know enough to ask???

We have our tank up and running and are now ready to establish a maintenance routine. I wanted to start two threads: carbon and calcium. This is carbon! What I've understood so far it that one should run it, and probably in a cannister filter, and probably two weeks per month. (Please correct me on any of this.) The questions below are based on that starting information. 1. How to "run" carbon? Cannister filter? In the sump? 2. If in a cannister filter, how long each month? 3. Would an old freshwater HOB filter deliver carbon adequately to a sump? 4. If using a cannister filter and periodically, do you replace the carbon and clean the filter between uses so the stuff inside doesn't rot and so that the carbon is replenished, or not and why? 5. WHY run carbon at all? What does it do for your tank? TIA!

Well, I just posted all our pictures, but here are a couple. LMK if you want more. Lower manifold under our sand, fed curently by a Sequence Dart: Upper manifold: before and after shots 'cause it's hard to see. Black verticles with two outlets each in the back corner. Also from our Sequence Dart. Before: After: And this is the "engine room" behind that black wall. The Dart is mounted on that board, as you can see better in the second picture. With these valves on our two manifolds and our siphon return, we have almost total control. The only thing we don't have is variable flow, but so far that's not a problem. HTH!

For those reading this thread, Dan (the man; Skimmer builder of the Standard 8) said we only need to shorten our return to near the surface of the water to try to avoid bubbles, and to not worry about doing a valve mod. Thanks for everyone who tried to help out, tho! His comments are on page 8. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...4974&st=175

Disclaimer: I've never done it. BUT, I was reading about dosing two-parts (alk and calc) last night, and it said to resist ALL URGES to dose separately. It said to always do them in ratio and tandem 'cause it would throw them out of balance if you didn't.

Sorry to hear about Dan's troubles... we'll be praying for him. I enlarged the diagram, and I think the diagram says "PVC T with the top of the T open"

Jason... that's a GREAT diagram... but I can't read the letters near the valve... does it say just to leave it open? I searched for gate valve mods, but found them for G2's and ASMs only... Is Dan reading this? Wonder if he could help... hint! Hint!

So... you set up your cannister filter and turn it on two weeks a month...? THEN? Do you clean it out and repack it for the next time you turn it on?

OK; thanks. About carbon... How? In a canister filter or something?

Almost exactly what Scott said. Tucking in for the night.

We have it that way because when we had it returned to the 'fuge we were struggling against microbubbles because the flow was too fast through our bubble trap. But, are you simply saying that it should dump in ABOVE the water's surface? In that case, the location is fine, just chop off the pipe?

Hmmm. Carbon running. We don't. Given our setup, where and how would we run carbon? We've been so busy getting the tank up and going that we didn't yet think about maintenance. I guess we're coming up on about three weeks with "all systems go" so we should... Remind me about carbon along with idoine, folks, please? What else should we be remembering? We're getting a calcium test tonight... so it's a good day to make a list.

We need to dose with idoine, I think, 'cause we had a shrimp molt and we have the BTA which needs it. So, I guess it goes into the sump... 1. What brand? 2. How often? There's no test, right? 3. How much? We have an 80g display and a 60g sump

My Rose BTA seems to shrink down to nothing every night, and then reopen with light. Other than that, it seems very healthy during the day and is eating. No cause for concern, right?

Not really. The shelf brackets are galvanized, and if they do rust, they're easy to replace/paint. But it's a good thought.

HOORAY! Tracy! My clownfish went into my anemone tonight! I am so thrilled! She couldn't be happier. We had wanted a week for Rosie (the Rose BTA) to find her happy spot before Gracie (clownfish) found her. It was 6 days! THIS was my WHOLE REASON for starting this tank. I am SO THRILLED!!!! (just thought I'd share! calming down now)

Up late watching the Red Sox triumph! So, in order to answer your questions, I went to look at our engine room, and there were enough changes from our open pump surgery to post pics. Here we go: The Dart (on the other side of that plywood on the right) has the same mission as the mag 24 used to: to power our 80g manifolds (lower and upper) and to someday power our FOWLR kitchen tank. Here's the engine room as it is tonight: And here's a closeup of the Dart and its intake and outflow (note the true union: very key!): As you can see, maybe , we mounted the dart above the third compartment of our sump. BTW, it's not self-priming, so you need a check valve below the water line if you mount it like we did (that's the black part). Part of our DRAMA was that the silly thing didn't *pump* after all the effort of getting the piping redone. We found that great three-way 2" fitting and put PVC grates in there so we have plenty of flow coming into the pump and not a lot of maintenance with sponges, etc. Up top again, from the Dart, there's a 1.5" outflow pipe that we T'd up to a 1.5" ball valve (as we had the mag 24), to provide for a later split to the kitchen tank. Then, we split the line going to the bow 80 behind the wall to serve the lower and upper manifolds. You can see that the ball valves give us total control over flow into the tank. The one closer to the dart (lower and harder to see: red handle) controls the eight holes on the bottom. The valve a little closer to the wall and on top is to the upper manifold. There are no valves on our two drains from the pre-drilled holes in the overflow box (1" duflo and 3/4"), but on what we call our "super sucker" siphon that takes water from our tank and back to our sump, we have a ball valve (the one closest to the opening in the wall). This enables us to allow for as much flow as we want to for tank turnover. So, yes, it's dialed down; probably about 40% but, as we say, we have plans for the other power with another tank. And, we're still playing with levels. Obviously, we'll change things as we get animals that need specific conditions. And, no, we don't power our UV or skimmer off this because they are fed by raw tank water, not water that cleaned and fed from the sump and ready to return to the tank. HTH!

So, our next question is, "Where's a good place to put some pulsing Xenia?"

I decided to start a tank thread that I'll update as things progress. Hopefully, it will help others to learn as we have. We bought our 80g bow and stand with a PC light used (with a trickle filter and bio balls!), thinking that things would be just like they were five years ago, when we left the hobby. We figured it would be up in a month; it was basically "ready to go. That was August 1. By October 15, we had researched, thought, schemed, and realized that we were serious about corals and wanted a two-tank system. We are blessed with an ideal situation: a den backed to a mudroom backed to a kitchen desk area that I've always hated 'cause it's a junk area. SO, we decided on a two-tank system with a central sump. We took our old 75g undrilled tank and made it our sump. We ended up buying one of Dan's skimmers (a Standard 8) since we'll eventually have at least 240 and maybe 350 gallons (if we eventually upgrace the bow, for which we do have wall space in the den). Here are our mid-October set up pics: Our new tank, set up in the den. (I got brave and painted this small room black, and put our TV in there. Now the family lives in this room!) Scott assembles our bottom manifold, fed by a mag 24 from our mudroom through the wall. This is the main way we put water into the tank. It's controlled by a ball valve, so we easily control flow into the tank. The two drains in the overflow box return water to the tank. Ready for water testing. Meanwhile, we assembled our sump in the mudroom behind that black wall:installed the mag (T'd for the future kitchen tank which will go on the other side of the wall to the right) Putting in live sand Testing the skimmer on that really ripe live sand: Skimmer wins! Scott installs a shelf for the skimmer and other future equipment: Mudroom (we call it the engine room) is neat and complete: UV sterilizer in place, sump chugging, and all systems "go." Meanwhile, back at the tank, we put in new sand: After it cleared, we did aquascaping with live rocks bought off the WAMAS site. Here is our setup under our PC lights. and added Gracie, our clownfish, from our QT tank. We added snails and peppermint shrimps, too, 'cause our live rock sprounted aiptasia. SO FAR THEY HAVE NOT TOUCHED IT. :( A week later, we installed Jason's new lights above the tank (he had made a nice wooden housing for the six T-5 bulbs which I stained a dark mahogany). The picture below shows his lights over our tank. They made a huge difference! A week after that, we put in the "upper manifold" and our "super sucker" (a siphon to the left of the overflow box because our outflow thru the drains wasn't enough volume). You can barely see it () behind the rocks on the left. To the left of that (and the far right) are our black-painted upper mainfold inflows sticking down into the tank. On the right, you'll notice our bubbletip anemone. She came the day we also decided to do open pipe surgery and switch out our mag (too loud and too hot) for a Sequence Dart (we love it, but the process took 8 hours and DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA! The new upper manifold (two jets each in the two back corners) were connected to the Sequence Dart pump. They are on a ball valve, so between the two manifolds, we are REALLY happy with the flow, and our control thereof. The anemone moved a couple of times, once per night, to the back of the tank. We decided it was too hard to feed it back there, so we moved rocks. Finally, I got the bright idea of making a cave above and to her right. Sure enough, she went right in. The "cave" has a "back door," where there's more flow from the new upper manifolds. She likes to protrude from both sides, which is fine with me. Here's shot of her back doorstep, where turbo snails like to park, so she tends to hang out more on the front side. That brings us up to today. We are hoping to get a few inexpensive frags at the fall WAMAS meeting. Everyone has been so great with advice and encouragement. We are grateful and excited about watching this tank come to life.