howaboutme

Ask the vendor who the local delivery company is and inquire that way. If you ask Saltwater Aquarium they wouldn't know the intimate details of deliverying in an urban environment where apartments/condo buildings are prevalent. However, the local delivery people will and can provide you with more info. Worse case you have to pay extra to get it up the elevator and into your condo. Just make sure the tank can turn around corners, etc. I know some DC condos are built pretty tight in the back hallways. Als double check size (LxWxH) of the service elevator. Edit...Was just thinking that if they use Fedex then yeah, you likely would have to hire "movers" (LFS can do this) to do the last mile or friends/wamas members w/ appropriate equipment. Then you have to make sure your building will allow you to store the tank/stand temporarily until your last mile people get there.

Hard for us to see but this is a case of whatever gives you piece of mind.

Is it like bubbling? Is it at the side closest to water or the dry side? Do you have a picture of it? I know some manufacturers will say that some bubbling is normal.

Wow! I don't think I fully grasped how small it is until now. Nice picture.

I was gonna say that the best way is to put the tank in another location but that's not happening here. Somehow I think Isaac's 2 sentence paragraph is much harder than it seems...Plan for a long day, especially if you're doing it yourself. Try to do most of the plumbing (like gluing) before hand when you dry fit in another location. Then all you need to do is to attach them via unions. Basically, do as much as you can prior.

That's great to hear! I've been there a few times, it's a good resource. We are lucky to have a good amount of LFS' in our area.

You can buy from LFS that do do a full quarantine process like reefescape.

My tank is technically in our dining room although we have kind of an open floor plan so it's not right up against the dining area. The only smells that come are when I stop the pumps for maintenance or feeding. If everything is up and running, no smell at all.....Well, sometimes the frozen food I feed smell like the ocean.

You still have your pico? How about sump in the basement? Just like old times... Congrats and good luck! ?

Love it! Instant coralline! ?

Probably but if your wife is like mine she'll probably think that's uglier than getting a nice set of shades or curtains....

Can you put some window treatments at the top to help control the lights? I put that easier than moving the tank but I guess it has to pass the wife test. I get it. By the way, I have corals and I don't even keep my lights on that long. I think I'm at about 10 hrs. It's all about a balance. It sounds like you have a plan. Try it out bit it's not days or even 1 or 2 weeks. Give it some time and see what happens. Just looking at a few pics, I don't see snails on glass, etc. I'm thinking maybe add 10 to 20 or more CUC members to help. Again, that "balance" also includes things that can eat the nuisance algae.

There's probably a plethora of things you can do to see what the results may be but I usually start w/ the easiest, give it a few weeks, then tweak if necessary. If this was my tank, I'd do three things before I do something more drastic. 1) Take 1 of your feedings away but don't add more food in those other 2 feedings, 2) lower your light cycle. Not sure what they are now but reducing likely won't hurt what you have. 3) add more CUC, blue-legged hermits, snails, etc. A tank your size should be crawling w/ these guys. Also, I noticed that your picture shows the tank w/ sun coming from a nearby window. How long is your tank exposed to that sunlight? Can you shade the window a bit as another test? Slow and steady.

You mentioned you dose 40mL daily. What NO3 does that get you? What's your sweet spot?

It sounds like you're talking about the redfield ratio? Many years ago we talked about it as a thing but I've seen more recent posts where it's not. I'm NO3 limited too but haven't played with it since I don't check PO4.

Isaac...I personally think that the dreaded dinos people get are somehow tied to dosing bacteria. I have zero proof and it's likely not that easy and other things most certainly are involved but if you read a lot of the threads here and elsewhere you will find a loose correlation between the two. Again, zero proof but don't really care. I'll never use it. I think your 3 month algae bloom is normal. When I transferred, I had one. Didn't change a thing and it all went away. Not overnight but it went away.

I don't think I can add much more than what has already been said but I will say that one of things that I think is not done well in this hobby, especially for newer hobbyists is setting expectations. What we see (or want to see) are the pictures of nice tanks floating around online with no traces of algae in sight. What is not obvious at the beginning is how much work went into getting that tank in that state. By work, I mean both effort and time. The latter being the key that has been talked about. Before every awesome looking tank picture that same tank has had algae or some other nuisance issue. It's just that no one takes pictures of it unless they are having true problems. The long time hobbyist know there really isn't a problem so you will only see the newer people post those. The long time reefer knows to stay the course and let time solve the problems (not always true of course). I think my point is, it is okay to post those pictures and get suggestions. No one will judge you. WAMAS is a unique club in that it is filled with experience reefers and those people naturally don't post often. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't. I second Tom and hope that we can move beyond just a buy/sell/trade forum. I'm happy to contribute of course!

Ah! I see. I was caught up in your NOVA comments.

Welcome back! Good see a familiar avatar from back in the day. Lot's of MD'ers from the northern 'burbs of DC so they will chime in soon enough. By the way, I remember going to Marine Scene (assume you meant "scene) too! Definitely a few new LFS but some old ones still exist.

Can you flip the pictures? It's hard to see but that looks like hair algae. You can scrape it off or get snails/hermits that will clean it out in no time. edit: just noticed you tried to flip picts.

Thanks for the update! Good luck with the move, it's never easy. My suggestion is to start over. Transferring is always a risk. At least you have all or most of the equipment depending on if you want a new tank or not. I applaud your efforts to work w/ the lilly pipes but I did think that it was going to be a difficult task.

Looks great, Colin. Question. Does Dr. Mac ship their clams with them attached to a rock (or something)?

Welcome! I've done that coast to coast drive, albeit when I was a kid but I still remember that journey crystal clear. Your old setups look great!

That little thing is pretty cute. Keep up the good work!

Any updates on your lights? How are the luxdiums fairing?