madweazl

I took a pretty big leap of faith today and moved most of the corals from the 75g into the 150g. I fragged a few but for many of them, the parent was moved. I also replaced quite a bit of the rock that was in the 150g with pieces from the 75g. I moved three acroporas over last week as test mules and they still looked great (eight days of observation). I also moved the fish out of the 75g and dropped them in the 150g (all except the six line wrasse). That brings the fish count up to 15 for the time being. The tank is still fairly cloudy but I snapped a quick picture. Over the course of the next month, I'll get rid the corals that remain in the 75g and shut it down. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put an in-wall behind the space the 75g currently occupies in my office or just focus on a single tank.

We lost the little dude (Opie) on the left about a year ago, it sucked. For what it's worth, that tank is a hair under 300lbs so if you're a foot wider, the glass is likely quite a bit thicker and quite a bit heavier (I still dont think it would be an issue but if you were worried about it, you could drop a 3/4" piece of plywood under it).

The 150g sat like this for a year and a half (holding water just fine now).

I don't think it will make a difference in the long run unless the skimmer isn't flowing enough water to turn over the entire contents of the tank multiple times per day (no clue what that magic number would be). I don't run socks/mats because I feel all that particulate is feeding something (I have little to no concern with detritus).

The skimmer's pump should have been engineered to operate the skimmer at full power. My personal opinion is that DC pumps are a complete waste on skimmers (I should probably change that to controllers on skimmer pumps is a complete waste). Dwell time and all that jazz is the least of my concerns and in the end, will have little to no effect on your tanks health.

After trying many over the years, I'm most consistent with the following: Alkalinity - Hanna (hands down the easiest) Calcium - Red Sea Pro (I just cant get consistent results with the Salifert kit) Magnesium - Salifert (piece of cake to use but I just ordered the AquaForest to test out) Phosphate - Hanna ULR (dont bother with anything else) Nitrate - Salifert is about as easy as it gets and consistent

Whatever you decide, orient it in a fashion that facilitates maintenance over just about everything else. I'd definitely keep the sump all the way up front and anything else that is rarely messed with behind it since it doesnt look to have side doors. I initially went with Elite Aquatics for the sump on our 150g and it was a gaggle; ended up having to file a claim with PayPal for a refund (sump never delivered). From there I went to Synergy Reef and they were absolutely fantastic to work with; they constantly kept me updated and were happy to do whatever I wanted. They were more expensive than a lot of the options typically carried in store (Bashea, Trigger, eShopps, etc.) but they have a good product and outstanding customer service. I went with the TS-44.

I just wait until the sun goes down and shoot in a dark room. Any lights that arent in front of the glass (i.e. the tank lighting) shouldnt reflect on to it.

If you're going to QT and maintain an ich free environment, you have to QT and treat everything without exception, there is no trusted tank.

Awesome!

I wouldnt worry about it much honestly (provided what is sealed is good). I have some on the 150g that goes to the basement that I didnt get seated all the way.

Gonna need bigger heaters. Think I'll give the BRS/Shego heaters a try. On another note, most of the acroporas have died. I've been playing with the lights trying to get something close to the 75g in regard to intensity and I'm pretty that was the largest factor (other than being a young tank). I help mitigate the difference, I changed the slope of the Kessils in the 75g; they were originally on a constant ramp but not sit at peak intensity for three hours (adding an hour today). This actually created a positive response and alkalinity consumption has gone up quite a bit so that is cool. I'll give it another week and frag some more. We also added a diamond goby, hi-fin goby/tiger pistol pair, and a fire shrimp. Oh, a pair of turbo snails were added too (little bit of fuzz on the rocks I want them to take care of).

5 A360s wouldn't do it, you'd need almost double that due to the width unless you had a narrow rock structure (8 would probably work). I dont think the cost will ever average out; by the time you've caught up in price to the LEDs with replacement bulbs, the emitters in the LEDs have also degraded to a point where they'll need replacement (they use phosphors as well, especially the blue).

If everything is doing well, dont change anything. PAR levels are good for a benchmark but not for arbitrary changes.

You can replace a lot of T5s in an 8 build fixture for the cost of LEDs.

I've read a number of posts (check out R2R) regarding people replacing LEDs and boards in the Orpheks; enough that I dont think I'd even consider them (especially over a black box that provides 95% of the same for a fraction of the cost). Many of the LEDs within an array dont last long term (UV for instance) so there are drawbacks there as well. A tank that size will be extremely expensive to light with the higher end LEDs (i.e. four or five XR30s due to the width for an acropora dominant tank).

We had a tank on a wall for 11 years with enough room behind it for an AquaC Remora; no damage to the wall at all. I would wipe it down back there occasionally (couple times a year).

Use whatever's cheapest (and baking soda is pretty dang cheap...).

Not much to see when we're talking about frags So far, I've lost the pink lemonades (both), the unknown pink/white, and the blue echinata. The pink lemonades RTN'd over night and the blue echinata died off over the course of a week (I'm pretty sure that one was getting too much light). I think everything else is still doing alright, though the cali tort is loosing a lot of color. I need to get the lights hooked up to the controller so I can get them close to the program running on the 75g tank but I've been fighting some illness the past week that I just cant seem to shake (no energy and constantly hot). The tank gobbled up .5 dKh in eight days and while the frags arent doing anything, the coralline is likely responsible for all of that. With some manual dosing, I was able to determine that total water volume is as close as I can measure to 150g on the button.

Well they wont, it's the wrong species Some that will are: Hi-fin goby Randall's goby Dracula goby Yellow watchman goby Tangaroa goby Wheeler's goby Yasha goby I'm sure there are more but this is what I can think of at the moment. Diamond gobies absolutely will not though.

In that case, they're prone to carpet surfing but again, even more unlikely to be taken out by a pistol shrimp. Edit: just to clarify, we're talking about a diamond goby; white with orange diamonds that sifts the sand? If so, they do not pair up with pistol shrimp.

Tiger pistol wont kill a YWG (likely to pair up) and it is extremely unlikely that it would kill a healthy fish of any species.

What type of pistol shrimp is it?

Added 12 frags yesterday: 2 GARF bansai Unknown pink/white SCA orange passion WWC Yellow tip austera Unknown blue/green Strawberry shortcake 2 Tyree's pink lemonade ORA Hawkin's blue echinata Cali tort Vivid rainbow delight I have space for about three or four more and would like to add some peach/orange. I was a little more selective on placement with this tank; purple is next to yellow and pinks are next to greens to provide more contrast. I'm going to remove the turbinaria and the rock with the green mushrooms that I used to seed the tank.