Rascal

Update: It has been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of weeks. On the morning of 15th I got a call and email saying the left tank was leaking. Turns out the Bak-Pak had overflowed due to my attempt to solve the micro-bubble problem with a strategically placed filter pad. Dumped about 5-6 gallons on the floor. Very bad. Too make it worse the tank water had turned a putrid yellow-green color. I cleaned up the mess, pulled the Bak-Pak offline, and came back later with some fresh saltwater to replace what was lost. I also ran some carbon in a Phos Reactor to see if that helped. By Wednesday the yellow tint was gone but the water was practically lime green. We had done probably 4 or 5 8-gallon water changes in the last ten days, and the nitrate readings weren't bad (5-15), but it looked like . . . then it hit me -- phytoplankton! We had succeeded in growing greenwater! With that revelation the fix was easy - 2 days of a Gamma 25W UV and the water cleared up. That Friday I put the Deltec online and pulled the UV and carbon. And by Monday the 22nd the tank looked great! I took advantage of a sale at BRK to add a few fish and also added some premium live rock donated by dshnarw. I also cut some acrylic pieces to replace the glass tops - figuring the acrylic will let more light through and be easier to take off and clean. As of the end of last week everything looked pretty good. I am holding off adding anything to the right tank for now. It has the two Prizm skimmers on there, which actually do a surprising good job when they are working -- it just seems like more often than not they are not working. I put the Bak-Pak on that tank as well. To solve the microbubble problem without risking a clogged overflow, I crafted a new venturi with more of a restricted intake. This had the effect of slowing down the flow while still allowing a decent amount of air into it. I also attached an upturned elbow to the intake of the pump so it now draws water from 1" below the surface. That way even if something does go wrong, the pump will run dry before a significant amount of water gets on the floor. It works, . . . but still not very well. So, as you can see I've been pretty busy over there. I will try to take some updated pics when I stop by tomorrow.

No experience with really rare stuff, but all of these would look good and do well IMO: Royal gramma (b/c you don't have anything purple yet) flame angel (even a trio maybe) Copperband neon gobies (2-4 of them - won't add to the stocking level much but look really cool stuck to the side of the tangs) watchman goby Lyretail anthias firefish wrasse

You can do the PAR tests yourself. Just borrow the club's PAR meter before you replace the bulbs. Compare the before (old bulbs) with the after (new bulbs). For color spectrum, best idea I can think of is to take a pic with manual white balance set with the old bulbs and then take the same shot without adjusting for white balance after you replace the new bulbs. Would be interesting to see if there was a difference.

If you got the star because you think it's a cool critter to have (it is), it will probably be fine. If you got it because you believe it will "sift" your sand and help your keep your sand bed healthy (like the LFS probably told you) you probably made a mistake. If you do some more research on these you'll find that they are primarily carnivores. That means they spend their time sifting through your sand eating all of the other little critters (worms, pods and such) that actually churn the sand particles and help break down waste (i.e.-the detrivores and scavengers that eat poop and leftovers, and leftover poop). The reason for the large tank recommendation is so that there will be enough food to support the star's voracious appetite. As far as keeping a sand bed healthy, they do far more harm than good.

Just out of curiosity, what LFS didn't have anyone who could identify a piece of xenia?

Sean: Awesome job on the acquascaping. Really nice looking tank. As for the fans/evaporation issue, remember that fans don't actually cool the air, they just move it. The cooling effect happens because as more air comes into contact with the surface there is more opportunity for heat exchange. An unavoidable consequence of bringing more air molecules in contact with the surface of the water is that more water gets picked up by the air, especially when the air is not already laden with humidity. This added evaporation also creates its own cooling effect, of course. You are right that heat will increase the rate of evaporation even further, but air movement alone will still do the job. Think of the "heat" vs "air dry" settings on your clothes drier. The latter might take a lot longer, but both will remove the water from your clothes. I have a vague memory of some similar settings on hair driers . . . "Cool mist" room humidifiers are another example. The point is that whether you blow the fan across the top of the water or directly down onto it, you are still going to increase evaporation. You may see more or less of an increase depending on how the fan is aimed, but there will also be a corresponding change in the cooling effect. The only way that I know of to increase the cooling of the water without increasing evaporation is to use a chiller. If you aren't having heat issues and just want to cut down on evaporation, the best way is to cover the tank.

I can't imagine any acro would fare too well against a bubble. I don't have experience with bubbles but I do with other LPS vs SPS, and it's really hard for SPS to compete with sweeper tentacles. Even a more aggressive SPS like Hydnophora would be outmatched, I think.

With only 2 3/4" clearance in the back, I don't think it would work. You made a good point earlier about keeping the systems separate to isolate problems, but being able to get 1 good skimmer instead of having to get two might override this concern. I am still intrigued with the U-tube w/ or w/o aqualifter idea to equalize water quality through diffusion. I also have some new ideas on how to fine tune my already modded cpr bak pak, so I am going to pull it offline tomorrow and fiddle with it a bit more. Also, I meant to ask about your recommendation of the bi-color over the coral beauty angel. Having never had either, why do you prefer the one over the other? Personality? James: Thanks so much for the Paypal donation. It just went to help defray the cost of a great skimmer.

Sorry for not responding to all the ideas and pms for a few days. Unfortunately my daughter spent the better part of 2 days at the center this week but didn't even get to see the tanks. She spiked a fever early Monday morning and her immune levels were dropping so they kept her in one of the isolation "sick rooms" and gave her 2 huge doses of IV anti-biotics and an immunoglobin cocktail, all of which has other side effects. Needless to say it has been a tough week. In the space they have, I agree that the best solution would have been to put in one tank (probably a 125) with a sump, and the second best would have been to join the 2 tanks with a common sump. But the tanks they have were donated and the space is just not configured for a sump, so we have to work with what is there. If the tanks were in my house I would probably do a lot more tinkering and take a lot more chances (like drilling them) - but that's because I could stay up late at night fixing any problems like I do on my own tank (a lot of my stuff is DIY or heavily modded). At the center I feel like I need to be a lot more conservative with what I do. The U-tube option is interesting and might just work. My only concern would be making absolutely sure that the water levels would self-equalize if I had an aqualifter drawing water from one side to the other. In theory it should work just fine (water seeks its own level right?) but I'd like to try it out on a couple of 5 gallon buckets for a while first. If anyone has an extra one lying around let me know. Alternatively, could I just make one out of PVC? Evaporation loss is replaced with distilled water. The Nurse Manager, Mary Chandler, is an experienced hobbyist herself and has taken responsibility for top off, feeding etc. . . . The skimmer situation is really pressing right now. My attempt to mod my old CPR bak-pak is just not working out. It is noisy, ineffective, spraying the wall around the tank with a fine mist of scum somehow, and fills the tank with microbubbles. I need to pull it and tinker with it some more at home to try to work the kinks out, but there is only so much you can do. Good news though (hopefully) on this front - as long he still has it and it works as he says this should be a pretty good deal: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...ghlight=mce+600.

+1

I had the same thought initially, but I am not sure if it would work. Even with low profile bulkheads the tanks would have to moved farther apart to accommodate the plumbing (they are about 1" apart now), and there isn't that much room on the sides as it is. Given how close the tanks would be, I would be concerned with placing undue stress on the glass unless the holes line up exactly. All things considered, I would probably still go for it if this was my home system, but I'm not so willing to take the chance on someone else's tanks, especially given the location. I have found that I am a lot more conservative in what I am willing to try on a system that I can't spend hours observing and tinkering with each night. Your right that it would be a lot easier if we could figure out a way to plumb them together. A unified sump would solve a lot of problems and open up a lot of possibilities, but they just don't have the set-up for it.

Thanks. Maureen: I talked with a couple of people at the meeting and the feeling seemed to be that it would be better to shoot for sometime in early January, since everyone will be so busy in the next few weeks. Doug mentioned maybe doing something like we did for the Waikiki aquarium - an auction for corals and maybe even used equipment - every bit will help. It is on Rte 50 b/n Annandale Rd and 7 Corners. I'll talk with them today and to make sure that will be OK.

A couple of things I did today. First, I contacted a few of the local LFS's to see if it would be feasible to set something up that would allow people to donate to a store account at check-out. I also set up a Paypal account in my daughter's name and added a link to my signature allow people to donate to these tanks if they want. I would love to, but I just don't think there is enough room for a fuge and a quality skimmer as well, unless you know of one that could fit with only 2 3/4" clearance. I really think we will need the space on the sides of the tanks for skimmers. Craig: Thanks. At some point down the road I would love to upgrade to T5s, probably in a canopy. No way they could do MHs on this tank b/c they just have no way to deal with the heat. But for right now I think the priority needs to be water quality. The only high-light loving organism that would thrive in these tanks currently is algae. If you have a lead on a MCE let me know. Since the tanks aren't plumbed together we will need 2 of them, which won't be easy. Thanks Kevin. Until I was watching my daughter go through it I had no idea what cancer and chemo really did to people. There were times when the only way I could get her to stop crying, at least for a while, was to turn the music up and dance with her in front of my tank. Of course there many times when there was nothing we could do to ease the pain, but the peace that it gave her during those moments is my motivation for this project. I plan to eventually replace the coralife power strips with a DC8, but you're right, I probably should get rid of them sooner. A fire is the last thing that place needs. Thanks again to all. Keep the suggestions coming.

David: I should be by later on this afternoon to help. Let me know if you need me to pick anything up on the way. Mike

Wow! I'm more than a bit overwhelmed. I'll try to respond to everyone's offers and suggestions below if I can. First, let me share some shots from today. Left: Right: Unfortunately but not surprisingly, things are already starting to slime up a bit from earlier in the week. Amazingly enough, the Bak-Pak had 1/2 cup of skimmate in it and had already been emptied once this week. So at least it's working. I put the 2 Prizms on the other tank and they seem to be generating a little foam and collecting some skimmate as well. Proof that even poor skimmers will work on dirty water. I also added a serpent star to one tank and about 2-3 large and 5-6 small nassarius plus a couple of margarita and cerith snails to each tank. We need much, much more. So any offers of clean-up critters will not be refused! As for flow, they already had a Koralia 4 in each tank for flow, and I added a Sureflow MJ600 to one of them. I have MJ1200 bodies I could use to upgrade this, but I actually think a modded MJ900 in each tank along with the Koralia would be pretty good. I received a few comments and PMs about the lighting, but I think any lighting upgrade will have to take a backseat for now. It doesn't make sense to add more light to a high-nutrient tank. 270W per each 65 G tank isn't all that bad, and right now we couldn't keep anything that required more light anyway. What I'd really like to do someday is build a canopy with T5s, but that can wait. One thing I have thought of thought is replacing the glass tops with some fabricated pieces of acrylic. I figure they would be easier to take on and off to clean (there is a sink next to the tank) and that would help a lot with light penetration. Anyone with some skills feel free to offer up. RBTAs I have, but I appreciate the offer. Right after I read that post I noticed that one of mine had split again. That gives me four Flowerseller clones plus one RBTA with a green base, plus one GBTA, so I would feel guilty accepting a donation from anyone else. Problem now is with the water quality so poor I think they would just keep moving until they eventually became powerhead puree. A couple of people have offered up rock, which we definitely need. I have already responded to Dschflier and hope to pick up some from him on Monday. Looking at the pictures, how much more do you think we will need? Since the tanks are only 13" deep, aquascaping is a real challenge. A rock wall is practically the only option. I was thinking of adding a wall on the right side of the left tank and left side of the right tank, so it would almost look like an island in the middle of one big tank. Other equipment needs I forgot to mention: they are currently running 2 coralife powerstrips as timers. That's bad. Last thing this place needs is a fire. I have an ACJR I was supposed to sell a while ago but the sale fell through when my daughter got sick. Given that it seems destined that this unit gets donated to this tank. So I would like to get a DC8 and temp probe and set all that up sometime down the road. The main priority right now though is water quality. For water changes I rigged a little hang-on pvc contraption that will take about 8-9 gallons out of each tank at a time and drain though tubing to the sink, and then can be hooked right up to a MJ1200 placed in a bucket to pump new water back in. Problem is that the MJ is not quite strong enough to get up and over the rim of the tank, so I found a deal on a Mag5 on ebay. That should make water changes quick and easy (outside of getting the 5 gallon buckets from my house to the center ). Ben (the office manager's son) is also doing 10G water changes each week so between the 2 of us this should help a lot. That leaves the skimmer upgrade. I thought about adding a phosphate reactor but there really isn't room. Even the small bak-pak takes up most of the space on the side of the tank. Long term I am considering advising moderate carbon dosing for these tanks (they certainly have the personnel to dose meds), but that can't happen until they get good skimmers. I am still thinking the Deltecs are the way to go, unless anyone has any other suggestions (comparable Octopus hang-on?). I guess it wouldn't hurt to contact the company, all they can say is no. Does anyone have any idea how to go about that? As far as $$ donations, I have decided that I will neither ask for them nor turn them down if they are offered privately. I really don't see any other way to get quality skimmers on these tanks. As for livestock, offers of specific critters would be great, and gift certificates or credit at some LFS's might also be a good idea. But I really don't want this club to get bogged down with charitable solicitation threads. There are so many good causes, it would be impossible to limit. I don't want to log on 6 months from now and see a bunch of "give to this" and "give to that" posts and think that I was somehow responsible for that. That said, I think a "Giving for Grace" event would be great if people are interested, but it definitely couldn't be at the outpatient center or, unfortunately, at my house. My daughter has had no evidence of cancer according to scans for 5 months now, but her immune system has still not bounced back from the chemo. The kids at the center who are in the midst of treatment are even more vulnerable, so it is important to limit contact with the outside world, especially during flu season, which is absolutely terrifying to a cancer parent. The same level of germ exposure which might make you or I feel 'under the weather' for a day could be fatal to some of these kids. I will respond individually to all those who PMd me, but let me just say here, a sincere thanks to all who have offered to help. As I said, it is really a bit overwhelming, although I kind of thought this might be a project that WAMAS could get behind.

My daughter Grace's doctors recently opened up a new outpatient center here: http://www.childrensnational.org/pressroom...OVAcbdMOVE.aspx ; http://sris.org/prog/samples/cnmc/about/abt2a.htm . The outpatient center is where most child cancer patients go to receive their treatment - chemotherapy, blood transfusions, platelets transfusions, etc. . . . The doctors decided to include a Saltwater fish tank in the facility. Not in the waiting room like in most doctor's offices, but in the main patient area where the kids sit around hooked up to IVs getting whatever treatment they need. Trust me, it would be hard to imagine a more fitting place for a colorful, vibrant, healthy reef tank!! Unfortunately they have run into a little bit of trouble achieving that goal, so I have offered to help. Here's what we have to work with, Left Tank: Right Tank: Middle: You are looking at 2 65 gallon (48"x13"x24") tanks. No sump. 2 3/4" clearance in the back, and about 14" clearance on the sides, seen here: . They were originally set up by Congressional Aquarium. Some live sand, a mix of live rock and fake corals, a Prizm skimmer on each, and a Fluval internal canister filter. Filled with tap water, topped off with distilled water. The Prizms were skimming wet and just overflowing back into the tank. So effectively no skimming and no water changes for a few months. Filled with fish and . . . well you know the rest. Fish died (all but a few damsels/clowns), hair algae grew, and grew, and grew. The photos above are after apparently extensive manual removal attempts on numerous occasions. Not exactly bringing joy to little faces. So, with some live rock donations from myself and Yauger (thanks Josh!), and a lot of help from office manager Mary Chandler and her son, Ben, we did our first overhaul last Friday. We pulled every piece of rock out of the tank and scrubbed the algae off with a nylon brush. Then we placed the old rock and new rock back in (ditching the fake corals), and added about 15 lbs of sand to each tank. In the process we did about a 15 Gallon water change split b/n the two tanks. I just filled buckets at my house and brought them over in my pick-up. I also removed the internal filters - which were just filled with muck and spewing NO3 I think. Next task was to assess the skimmer situation. With such little clearance off the back, those Prizms are about the only thing I know of that will fit. A sump is out of the question. So I decided the only option was to put a hang-on off the side of the tank. I had an old CPR Bak-Pak that I had used for about a day before deciding it was pretty worthless, but it was all I had so I figured I would break it out and see what I could do. I modded a maxi-jet with a gutter-guard prop and some random venturi I had lying around, and after a bit of tinkering it is at least making bubbles, but we need better. Nevertheless, when I stopped by on Tuesday things looked pretty good. NO3 actually tested at 0-5 surprisingly enough. Future plans: about 20-30 lbs more live rock 10 % water changes (from RO water mixed with salt) at least 1 x week Skimmer. Anyone have an extra MCE600 or two lying around -- just kidding -- but not really To stock this tank the way I think these kids deserve it to be stocked, they are going to need a top notch, dependable, set and forget, highly efficient skimmer. All the research I do seems to point in the same direction. I'm open to other suggestions though. Another limitation is the light situation. They have Coralife PC fixtures on right now (270W per tank, I think). I would rather see some T5s on there but the PCs aren't too bad. The doctors want the tanks to be covered though, because they don't want too much humidity escaping into a room with a bunch of immuno-compromised kids, so this will affect the light penetration significantly. I still think some lower light corals should do OK. I put some shrooms and zoas in there on Friday. If I can get some Xenia at the meeting I will try that next. Proposed Critter stocking plan: 2 false percs each tank (already have 2 in one tank, one in the other) 2 smallish tangs (yellow, kole) - maybe substitute foxface for tang in one tank 1 pygmy angel (flame, coral beauty) 1 combtooth blenny (ex: bicolor) each tank clown gobies neon gobies royal gramma rainford goby shrimp goby (ex: yellow watchman) fairy wrasses (the advantage to covered tanks) butterfly (the request of the person who donated the tanks - any suggestions on type?) already have some hermits and a couple of turbos 1 serpent star each tank sea hare (?) if the HA comes back mix of snails (nerite, nasarius, ceriths) ornamental shrimp (maybe pair of skunks in one, pair of fireshrimp in another. If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to post them here. If you'd like to offer anything to donate to this endeavor, please just shoot me a PM.

I will be going there tomorrow and will be at the meeting for the first hour or so if that helps. You'd probably prefer someone who can pick up / drop off same day, but I can hold in my frag tank overnight if need be.

Faster than Frank Dux in the Kumite. I love it!

I'll be there but only from 1-2 unfortunately. Have to make it to a kid's soccer game out in Dulles at by 3.

Your Alk is lower too, so it could also be increased demand from new growth now that things are doing better.

Amazing pictures. Based solely on which one I would like in my living room, though some will probably think not the most artistic of the bunch: my favorite is the lighthouse - it is just very pleasing and comforting to look at. Others I especially like: the stream the lilly pad the wave - 3rd from bottom - the light hitting the water almost looks like blurry lightning to me -- very cool.

Spending some time on this site may help: http://www.manhattanreefs.com/lighting PPFD = PAR, as explained here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/sj/i...03/sj/index.php Have fun.

Nuisance algae. If you have it then you have excess phosphates, IME.

I guess I've never seen a good or bad one according to those pics. Mine look like Bob's. So do most I've seen in other tanks. As a general rule to determine good critters from bad (coralivores), if you see something on the glass it is not there because it is enjoying the view. It is there because it is looking for something to eat -- that would be algae (and maybe bacterial films?). Same goes for things you find crawling on corals.

Mine is a DIY 2 chamber based on a thread I found on RC. Very easy to make and has worked great for a couple of years now. A tank of CO2 will last 6 months to a year or more depending on the demand in your tank. For most folks I would guess closer to a year.