Anemone

Good thing to keep in mind when things get wonky. How high was the ammonia?

The New Yorker has a new article about a few efforts to create corals that can survive global warming. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/a-radical-attempt-to-save-the-reefs-and-forests?mbid=gnep&intcid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true

Excellent, thanks.

Has anyone drilled an upright tank? This is for a 125 gallon so moving it around is a pain. It'd be a lot easier to leave it on the stand (empty) and drill from the inside out. Plus I can trickle water over for cooling and the tank will catch it all. Any thoughts or cautionary tales?

N and P are zero you said. Light alone isn't enough, chaeto needs N and P to grow, right?

I think Exotic Reef Creations has phyto cultures available (read that recently here somewhere.)

Very sorry for your loss.

Any update?

James Fatheree (who was going to speak at our winter meeting before the snow messed up the date) runs his 125 gallon without a skimmer and has tons of pods and great coral growth. The idea as I understand it is that bacteria that end up in the skimmate aren't available as pod food. Tank profile: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/9/aquarium Another Advanced Aquarist article gives bacterial counts in the water as a result of different setups. Skimming decreases bacterial counts by about 10 times. Interestingly the unskimmed tanks matched counts in actual coral reefs. I think this fits with the notion that skimming restricts pod growth. On the other hand, not skimming lets pods increase in numbers until they reach a balance with the bacteria levels. Link to study: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/3/aafeature (Backed by real examples per your earlier point, though the examples aren't my own.)

On further reading I think I was wrong about skimmers being big contributors to oxygenation. Apparently the effect isn't so significant except in small systems. Link: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-08/eb/index.php

1x turnover is very appealing for the smaller overflow, cheaper return pump, and less electricity and heat. Does anyone run even less than 1x (other than the 0x / no sump folks?) Is there any reason to be concerned about oxygen? Highly skimmed water that is returned to the tank should be pretty much saturated with oxygen. Slower turnover rates would decrease the amount of this highly oxygenated water entering the tank. Would good water movement from wave makers be able to compensate?

Cloudy + lots of skimmate must be a bacterial bloom. Bacteria deplete oxygen and it seems likely that your fish unfortunately suffocated. Was nitrate at zero normal for your tank? This could also point toward a bacterial bloom (growing bacteria suck nutrients out of the water).

The fine mesh idea seems like it would work about as well as a UV sterilizer. You'd need to filter / sterilize the water faster than any ich spores could find a fish host. Tricky if you've got any caves, tunnels, nooks, or other rock work. Might slow down the spread but seems iffy for complete eradication.

You can always have a couple friends jump around on the stairs and see whether the studs flex.

FWIW our new stairs are supported like you said, by resting on the floor/at the top, and not by any other supports. The old 1958 stairs that came out during the remodel were the same. (Sadly could not be reused.)

Good article PaulB, thanks for sharing. Any supermodel could've told us about the importance of cleaning out your pores (that's your source, right?) Have you ever looked at this stuff under a 'scope to see more about what it's made of?

Could someone who has an Aqueon 125 gallon do me a favor and measure the dimensions of the base very precisely? The only manufacturer information I can find says "approximately" 18 inches by 72 inches. I am having a custom stand built and need the outside dimensions as closely as possible. I figure the trim adds maybe half an inch to an inch, or is that already accounted for in the official dimensions? I'll bring you a cold soda of your choice to the next meeting as thanks.

Good safety tip, thanks. Any warranty help from BRS?

Sorry, I wrote before seeing the picture. I was thinking that the back wall was finished and was thinking of putting an access door on that side. That way you could keep the noise down, but still open the door for better access when needed. I think when you cut out a stud, you're supposed to put a frame across the top and bottom of the cut and on the left and right sides too. At least that is what our contractor just did when I asked for an access door to a crawl space. I might be able to get a picture this weekend if you want to see. Anyway, you could mount some kind of door on that frame for noise blocking.

If your carpentry skills are up for it (mine would be stretched by this), you might be able to install an access door over the opening with a plumbing cutout to get the best of all worlds. Something else to think about is stud placement. If you've got to cut out part of a stud to fit the overflow box then you will have to install some supports (basically a box around the opening). That could all be done from the sump side, leaving the display side wall mostly intact.

If I'm picturing this right, it sounds like a brilliant idea if the hole goes all the way through, and then you'd have even better access to the overflow box and plumbing from the back in case you ever need it. Just make sure the hole goes high enough to give access (is there a cover on the external box? You'll want room to pull that off, and be able to reach into the box if necessary.)

In case it helps, this is from a recent Advanced Aquarist article. Might have some better luck than with the coke bottle. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2015/9/aafeature "My fish trap is a little more complicated, but still rather simple. In the photo below, you can see that I've placed a small plastic box in the aquarium, with a piece of coral skeleton in it to keep it in place on the bottom. I found it at a local pet store and it's for keeping small reptiles or maybe a spider, etc. and has a flap-type door on the top that snaps shut. When I need to trap a fish I place the box in the aquarium, and for a couple of days I only feed the fishes with sinking pellets. Then, I start using a three-foot piece of rigid airline tubing to drop the pellets into the clear box, and only in the box. So, if the fishes want to eat, they have to swim into the box. I also stand the tubing on the top the box, next to the door, to keep water flow from pushing the door over, and to close it when the time comes. Of course, the other end of the tubing sticks out of the top of the aquarium."

Curious, are you planning to quarantine the cleanup crew? Or just a rinse/dip and then into the tank?

I will. You gave some great ideas. I'll start a build thread when things get closer. We're about a month from moving back in to the house. Our builder is putting in a custom stand skinned to match the cabinets, and we've got plumbing from under the stand down to the fish room (former laundry room so it's got everything going for it). Anyway once we're a little settled I'll start looking for more input. For the time being I'm content to be curing some live and dead rock in the basement of the temporary place.

Dehumidifier plumbed to the drain seems like a good way to go, if you've got a good spot for a drain. (If not things will be tough, and not just because of humidity.)