[Identification]

That's kind of a lot of bubble algae to try to pick off.  I've always thought it looks kind of cool, but it can quickly take over a lot of real estate.  For a while in a previous tank I had red bubble algae that tends to be bigger bubbles that I liked a lot.

 

As others have said, be careful around the zoas.  Wash your hands well after handling.

[3.7g Pico]

Pico is going well so far.

 

I've gotten a few zoas, ricordia, and xenia for it and also put in some possibly ill-conceived SPS.  

 

So far everything is doing fine.  

 

The fish is a jumper for sure.  I heard it splashing off the glass lid yesterday evening.  I assume it's because it doesn't really swim.  It kind of jumps from rock to rock.  In the wild it may jump from pool to pool hunting.  It's hard to get a photo of, but here are the corals for now and you can kind of see the fish inside the cave on the left.  It's pretty cryptic.

 

 

 

[Our New Living Room Mixed Reef]

That's terrible.  I wonder if a root cause will become apparent over time.  It does seem like you had some infection that took out just the LPS.  For what it's worth I haven't seen any ill effects in my little tank from the stuff you sent home with me after adding it, but I don't have LPS either.  I have a tiny amount of SPS, ricordia, xenia, and zoas.

[New 20 Gallon Long]

4 hours ago, nanolong said:

I just assumed a full siphon would have a set flow rate and you match the return with that rate.

 

Normally there's a valve at the bottom of the full siphon that lets you adjust how quickly it drains.  The larger cross section of the larger bulkhead and pipe lessens the chances of that getting clogged up with stuff over time.

[New 20 Gallon Long]

Why do you think the larger drain equals higher flow? 

 

The flow is determined by what the return pump is pushing out of the sump, not by the size of the drain.

[New 20 Gallon Long]

In my opinion 1/2" drains are really small.  Hope you don't overflow the tank when they plug.

[New 20 Gallon Long]

3 hours ago, howaboutme said:

I love this tank design and proportion. A lot of good examples here. I'm curious how the return works. The image above doesn't show where the water returns. Is it the top bulkhead?

 

Looks like return is on the right side with some locline going in through a bulkhead.  Drains are on the left side.  

[New 20 Gallon Long]

Nice.  Looking good!

 

One of the longest running and nicest tanks on WAMAS was one with just bulkheads on the end like the one you have here.  He's moved on now, but here's a link to when Robert Chu was ReefCentral TOTM in 2013: http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/137-tank-of-the-month

 

 

[LPS Bacterial Infection]

There ya go.  500mg is basically a full adult human dose, so I'm surprised that's available without a prescription for fish, but I guess it's because it isn't as dangerous as something like interceptor which they control more carefully.

[LPS Bacterial Infection]

sorry you're having this issue, and I really hope it doesn't do in that rainbow trachy! 

 

I don't see how it could be a nutrient problem if you're direct feeding the trachy unless the low water nutrient level is causing dinos or something to bloom, but those would kill your inverts and SPS too. 

 

The cipro idea is interesting.  This is getting off topic, but I don't really understand how it would work to dose in a full tank.  I've recently been on a few rounds of that and levaquin myself over the past few months and one of the things you have to avoid is calcium and magnesium.  The calcium binds to it and prevents it from working somehow.  I couldn't take it anytime near eating dairy or taking any multivitamins that included calcium or magnesium.  Since reef tank water is full of both I'd think it would deactivate the cipro.  I'm not a biologist or a chemist, so maybe it's more of a metabolic thing where it just causes your body to flush it out rather than preventing it from killing bacteria.

[Our New Living Room Mixed Reef]

Saw the tank today.  This trachy is like nothing I've ever seen before.  

 

The colors are more brilliant than this in person:

 

[3.7g Pico]

Everything still alive and doing well. 

 

I added two bottles of live pods from Reef Nutrition.  The place looked like it was snowing tiny swimming critters.  The dragonet just kind of sat there looking confused, but I assume he will start getting them eventually. 8)

[3.7g Pico]

33 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

 

What a rush! You should plumb this into a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank downstairs! It's a low priority for me, but I will eventually do something like that. 

 

Yeah, the gentle hum of a Reeflo running downstairs pushing it up and the big whoosh as the upstairs overflow filled with water and started pushing the air out of the siphon line until it quieted down once the pump was restarted after a water change.

[3.7g Pico]

21 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Nice! I would love another mandarin, especially the dragonets, but refuse to put a lid on my tank. 

 

I like it a lot without the lid.  Lid helps with evaporation quite a bit, though.  I had a mandarin jump in my 75g as soon as he started eating frozen food, and it still upsets me.  I loved that guy.  I'm going to try very hard not to let this one jump.

 

One of the advantages of running it for three months without fish in it is that I was able to learn what not to do.  I discovered that, for me, the hardest part of running a tiny saltwater tank is mixing up small quantities of new salt water to closely match the water in the tank. 

 

When I used to mix up a 40 gallon brute of saltwater I could just kind of eyeball it and pour in a bunch and measure while pouring.  Now I'm working with a 1/4 cup measure into a 5 gallon bucket trying to get the salinity right and trying to carefully match the temperature because a 2 quart water change into a tank with only around 3 gallons of water volume is a relatively large one.

 

The good aspect is that it's really easy to siphon out a 2 quart pitcher of old water and replace it with 2 quarts of new water without walking buckets up and down the stairs.  My wife likes not having hundreds of gallons per minute running through our basement ceiling down to the sump, but I do still miss that tank most days.

[3.7g Pico]

1 hour ago, jhOU said:

my clown goby managed to jump out of that hole RIP:( you can turn the lid around so the hole is over the rear chamber, just slightly annoying for feeding


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ack.  OK.  I can do that.  The front of the glass lid has rounded corners, which makes it nice to have the lid this way since it fits the rest of the tank, but I can turn it around.

[3.7g Pico]

25 minutes ago, lynn.reef.nerd said:

I found that the red dragonet jump  . 

 

 

Yep, I am watching out for that.  I have a glass lid on it which seems to work well, but it has a 1"x2" little hole in the front that I hope it misses.

[3.7g Pico]

2 minutes ago, tpallas said:

 

I'm afraid we are going to need pics

Scroll up, my dude.

[3.7g Pico]

Yep, they didn't know.  I have seen it eating on the pods in the tank which there are a lot of at the moment.  I have a brine napulii hatchery that I'll do every few days from when I kept jellyfish.  I also ordered some pods from Reef Nutrition because they're a great company, and I'd been intending to for a while.

 

I'd like to get it on LRS or something like that, though, so I'll be feeding a bit of that to keep the snail, hermits, and zoas happy and see if he will eat it.

[3.7g Pico]

Left to right: nassarius snorkel, hermit crab back, ruby red dragonet, and some angry zoas.

 

[3.7g Pico]

Life! 

 

I visited the fish store.  Got a few hermit crabs, a single nassarius snail, a rock of random zoas, and a ruby red dragonet.  

[Least expensive 2x4x8 in Virginia]

Here was my stand construction post for my 75 gallon aquarium:

 

https://wamas.org/forums/topic/54660-alans-rimless-75-build/?tab=comments#comment-482911

 

 

[Least expensive 2x4x8 in Virginia]

11 hours ago, lstmysock11 said:

Well kind of need 2x4's to build the frame to cover with some plywood. Needs to hold about 1000 lbs for a 75 gallon tank

 

Nope.  3/4" plywood edge on is super strong.  Can carry 1000 pounds straight to the floor.  Much stronger than 2x4.

[Least expensive 2x4x8 in Virginia]

You could do it out of Plywood.  A 4x8 sheet of 3/4" oak is $75 at lowes instead of the normal $45, but that's still not bad.  

[Least expensive 2x4x8 in Virginia]

Lumber is shocking right now.  It's around 3x normal prices by me.  Romex and electrical boxes are expensive too for some reason.  

[Herbie Overflow - side mount without external box]

careful with drilling.  Take your time and go slow.