bshriver

The brute trash cans do contain something that killed the coral plankton in project seacore last fall. There is a thread in here about that somewhere started by Mike who participated in the project. That being said, I have never heard of any complaints from people using them for mixing containers and I bet the 44 gallon brute is the most popular solution in the hobby for that size range. I have two. Just rinse and soak them first. Bleaching them might be a good idea too. Just rinse and soak I in fresh water after the bleach before you use it. Sometimes you see group buys on the local club forums for 50 gallon pickle barrels or some other food container that they are getting from a local food supplier. I have not seen one of those threads in a while though.

Updated: 110G SPS display, 29 G sump, 66 gallon new frag --------- Separate 20G clown/anemone tank ----------------- 210 G Display 30G fuge 20 gallon fuge --------- 45 G Freshwater

Good point on the tube worms. . Mine eliminated those and a flame scalop before he really took to the aiptasia.

Keep them with plenty of live black worms and/or live brine shrimp ( gut loaded) while you get them moved to frozen food. I mixed my frozen mash with the live foods for both of my CBBs for a week or so until they started eating frozen foods well (table shrimp and mysis shrimp). Mine started grazing on aiptasia in the first few days. The aiptasia slowly disappeared over a few weeks. He did not just eliminate them in one feeding. He nibbled them down over time like a steer grazing grass.

If you start two part you should dose both parts equally. I get that mag and ca supplies from bulk reef supply. I get the sodium carbonate by buying big bags of baking soda from BJs and baking it in the oven for a few hours to turn it into sodium carbonate or soda ash. I use it over baking soda to help keep ph levels higher. I mainly run CA reactors now though and only use the two part on my small tank and to raise levels here and there. Since I switched to GenX media in my reactors I don't have to dose mag anymore either. Kalkwasser is a balanced additive as well because it provides calcium and carbonate in the same ratios that you coral consume them.

Walnut hill plaza. By the MVA express. I get blackworms from them every other week. The owner is nice and always talks with me. He struggles a little on his SPS tank sometimes but it seems to be getting better and better. I keep meaning to trade frags for supplies with him but I have not yet. He asks me every time I come in They do really well with the fish. I have never gotten a fish from them that brought something bad home.

Don't forget the old lights. As lights color shift from blue to red, cyano does better and coral does worse. Cyano prefers the red spectrum. I have replaced bulbs, cleaned my tunze and gotten rid of cyano problems in the past. And a random article on dealing with cayno http://www.reeftime.com/reef-articles/reef-health/cyanobacteria-red-slime-algae/48.htm

Excellent looking system Dan! I love the machine room What kind of camera/lens did you use for those macro shots? They are fantastic.

Thanks Dan! It was good meeting you on Friday. LMK how the frags do.

Glas or acrylic.

I assume you are looking to borrow one. I work in Rockville near the I270/I370 interchange. You can borrow mine if it is convenient to get to that area for you M through F between 8 and 6:30.

I may add a DSB or a container in it as a DSB. My 110 system fuge has a DSB as does the 110 display. The display DSB is 3.5 years ol now and going strong. This tank I went with a shallow sb so I may still add a DSB to the fuge. Flow is super simple. In the second picture you can see the drain hose from the display in the back right corner. It drains straight down into the fuge. There are two 1.5 inch bulkhead drains that gravity feed to the sump. Lighting is on te cheap too. Two clamp on flood lamps from home depot. The bulbs are 120w equivalent 5.5k pc flood lamp bulbs from home depot for $7 each. Par at the chaeto is around 120. Plenty for chaeto to grow well. If I ever add a frag rack to the fuge I will add LED lights.

Thanks! Your chalices will show up on the sandbed soon!

Thanks all!

Oh, and I have two bulbs, so I can try one of each.

Blues reds and greens sound fine . Mostly I have purple, blues and greens.

I need to replace my T5 bulbs. They are supplemental only. Who can reccomend a good bulb for color pop?

Coming down the home stretch here for equipment. I added one of the final pieces - a custom fuge (NAGA) under the stand. Under the tank is now full and, note that behind the tank is too Only remaining things may be a phosphate reactor and ozone eventually. Or an LED light for the fuge, which you then be followed by a frag rack or two of course But for now my 66 gallon frag tank has plenty of room - now that I got all of the colonies out of it into this tank anyway Pics: Fuge Behind the tank: Thanks for looking! Brett

Thanks Ron! Our new group buy corals should find a spot in there somewhere after a month in QT I might put the scroll coral in the 110 though. It's lights are not quite as intense.

Hey Don! How are things? I need to check out your latest thread. Yes, it is my assumption that the new media is keeping the mag up. I got the media with a used reactor. It is GenX CRM. I have never used it before. It must have a lot of Mag in it because I used to dose a ton of Randy's mag supplement every day just to keep it at 1300~1400 (both systems). Now my mag is up around 1600 and it won't come down without dosing. The same thing happened in the 110/66 system when I switched it over to the Gen-X media! I used zeo mag in CA reactors before and it did not seem to keep mag levels up at all. I also got some zeo mag like stuff with this media, but I did not put it in both reactors, yet both reactors started maintaining Mag after I switched to the GenX media. I thikn my coral skeltons are a little stronger now as well. Perhaps due to more strontium in the media?

Gotta love out of calibration ph probes. I knew it needed calibrated based on how the readings always seemed too low, but I still let it fool me into adding a little too much kalk. Nothing hurt and nothing lost, but I did cause a late night snow storm. Params were only a little low the next morning and are all in check again now. I spent the time to recal that probe too I finally picked up my custom fuge and I will plumb it in this weekend. It will add another 25 to 30 gallons to the system and fills up the remaining open space under the stand. I also bought a BRK doser to keep up my mag levels only to find out that with my new ca reactor media I don't seem to need it any more as my mag levels stay high.

+1

Mine is in a 110 with lots if live rock a fuge and frag tank wih more LR. It is almost obese It definitely has always taken live black worms. I have seen it eat them. I fed them at the same time as I fed my home made frozen mash. I eventually saw him start eating small pieces of table shrimp and other meaty foods from my frozen mash. What did your friend feed his tank? Try those food for sure. People have also had success with cyclopeze in a feeding station like a submersed jar. I would try lots of different food in a feeding station along with target feeding live black worms. Oyster eggs (DTs) stimulate feeding responses. You might try them right before you add another food source. Good luck!

If the shutoff valve is an electric solenoid, it should have an arrow on it indicating the flow direction. If the water flows the wrong way they will not shut off entirely and make an annoying humming noise. If you still have trouble with leaking and noise after you reverse the flow, take it apart and lubricate it with plumbers grease.

Looks great Chris. I need to pick up that frag and I can't wait to see I in person!