VTBig053

I really should just get a float but I keep putting it off. I set my phone alarm to check every hour until the reservoir gets near full, then I check every 15 minutes or so. Inevitably though I will be in the middle of something else and just turn my phone alarm off and forget to go check the RODI. Then I have a load of towels to throw in the dryer..... Oops!

Predator tank..... Sorry, I am no help at all.

Nice! That looks great. The branches look kinda like fox flame and pink caddy had a baby. I just got a frag of this so I am excited to hear it is a fast grower.

CUC = Clean up crew. Stomatella snails - http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/SwSnails/Stomatella.php Sounds like it is spawning in your tank. I haven't seen mine do this but I started with a single large one (must have been more I didn't see) now I have many.

It looks like a stomatella snail to me. They are harmless and pretty good CUC members. I have them in my tank but have never seen them "smoke". When you say "smoke" do you mean it is releasing something into the water?

Industrial park behind the Ravensworth Shopping Center off Braddock Rd. https://supremereefs.com/

Supreme Reefs in Springfield has a good selection. They are located just off the beltway near the interchange. Shouldn't be too bad of a drive up 95 from Woodbridge.

Thanks Issac! That little nub of WD is starting to grow/encrust pretty quickly over the past 1-2 weeks. I'll share a picture once its a little more substantial. Oof, I should have proof read that last post a little more closely... typos galore. Just to clarify, the alk/ca spike occurred once my corals stopped using these which I think happened because NO3 and PO4 actually hit zero. At least that's my best theory. I'll share some numbers once I get a chance to test over the weekend. It also looks like my memory of the timing was a bit off as I see a post from July and that was before everything went to downhill.

I just realized I never shared the photos of my fuge set up in chamber 2 that I promised back in Dec. Here they are. Light with velcro tape to secure it to the glass and electrical tape directly over the LED diodes because otherwise it burns the chaeto. Here is velcro’d to the glass on chamber 2 Here are two shots of chamber 2. One with out the basket and chaeto and one with the basket and chaeto. You don’t really need to the InTank basket for this set up. I actually only got it because someone over on Nano Reef was giving it away for the cost to ship it, which was only a few bucks vis USPS. It does make it easier to remove the chaeto when it comes time to trim, but It doesn’t really do anything to keep the chaeto from getting into chamber 3 with the return pump. That being said I haven’t had any issues with chaeto getting into the display. I’ll likely be trimming the chaeto more often than the two week routine I had been following since I recently set up and auto water changer and don’t to run my tank “too clean” my sps have been growth and color with more NO3 in the water. Last time I tested I had around 0.5 ppm. As far as a “resource” for setting this up. I’ve had lots of great advice from the folks that n this forum, plus over at Nano-Reef.com and Reef-2-Reef.com as well. That and a lot of trial and error, hah. Happy to answer any other questions you have.

Here are my standard picasso (via another club member) and onyx picasso (supreme reefs). The standard has developed a lot more black since this video was taken mid-summer. Hopefully the video works. edit: of course the video did not work! hah. Here are some not great photos (hence trying the video) from over the summer. 57763AA6-2A84-4B31-9FFB-6D2F47B12766.MOV

Wow! Been a looong time since I updated this thread. Full disclosure, I had a huge tank crash last may/june due to neglect and over tinkering (I know how do you neglect a tank while tinkering too much?). Well, My tank made it to the one-year point and it seemed stable enough, so I decided to get some SPS and a doser! Got everything set up and dialed in over a few weeks.Things were boomin’ for about 2-3 months. At the same time I had a huge hair algae outbreak. I decided to use Vibrant for the algae issue. Holy *&#@! This miracle worked! It cleared out my hair algae in about a month.... but wait, now I have cyano all over my rocks and sand, and worst of all, my Acros are dying. Mind you this was over 3-4 week period. I am not bashing Vivbrant, it worked, but it threw everything out of whack in my tank and I am convinced bottomed out my nutrients. The combination of a new doser and bottomed out nutrietns caused my sps to stop consuming, alk/cal spike. Everything died. One baby, some soft corals, a horrible VT football season, and a new autowatet changer, I am back in the game! love the auto watsr changer. Here are some new tank shots.

Sure, I’m away until Tuesday though and dont see any on my phone.

I have this tank and run two InTank media baskets in chambers one and two, with the third housing my return pump and heater. You can easily build media baskets using egg crate. In chamber in one I am currently running filter floss on the first shelf and a bag of ChemiPure Elite (really any carbon will do) in the bottom shelf. I use the media basket in chamber two to run a mini-chaeto fuge with a small LED plant grow light velcro taped to the glass. I upgraded the stock return pump to a Sicce Syncra 0.5. You have to shimmy it in there at an angle, but it fits. I use a 50W Cobalt NeoTherm for a heater because I like the low profile it has. I think using rock ruble in the back chambers would just end up becoming a detritus trap and a pain to clean, so it may not be worth your while. Also, if you plug the hole in the middle of the false wall you will get much better flow through the rear chambers. I hope his is helpful and let me know if you have any other questions.

Looks great!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to FragFest today. It’s my last day of leave with the new baby before returning to work, so I need to spend it with my family. Bummed to miss it, especially since I haven’t been able to make it to a meeting since the winter. I wonder if some club members might be interested in getting together for a happy hour sometime between now and the fall meeting? We could propose something in the members only forum to gauge interest.