Jager

well fwiw i doubt your fish will not be well fed, however your efforts to culture food within the system means yo will likely see more natural feeding activity and food responses. also picky fish are liklier to do better as they can pick good quality live foods as well as flakes pellets etc. AFAIK your system is similar to several older lagoon style algae scrubber tanks with large refugiums. they tended to fall out of style due to the yellowing tannins from the algae scrubbers not being maintained the way they do now (with weekly cleanings and not allowing algae to reenter the system easily.) I think if/when you see this go live you may have one big issue. and that is water quality/ TDS. if you have a mass die off of copeopods and artemia etc, you may have a complete tank crash due to the massive ammonia bloom. I read about your ro system thoughts/plans, but I would suggest you look at going with a full ro/di system sized to handle at least a few hundred gallon sump area if you have a crash. then you can transfer fish and corals into the sump with clean water and work on fixing the main system. possibly keep one section separate from the rest of the system with a pump for flow, and just use that as your water change area normally, then turn it on to the rest of the system to do a W/C then cut it off after for a "QT/Quiet" tank. not for medications, but at least a backup for your massive project or starting area for sensitive fish which you can dose live foods from another sump. HTH edit guess i pushed us to page 12!.

dave my apologies for dropping off there, health got iffy and am still getting that all back together. from what you are saying I think (and that may not be worth much as the prescriptions are good) you have the right idea. i have not read anything at least that disagrees with your approach on the settlement chambers and ssuch, that being said you may wish to email one of the big aquaculture companies about their systems or thoughts, as they do massive turnovers. I know greshemH on RC is/was affiliated with one group, and rodsreef is a big name in clownfish and food (if i am not mixing up the names) as far as the material to put in your "caves" and hollow areas, if they are open to removal or cleaning, the broken up plastic material that is used in place of bioballs would be an option, flow through it would keep detritus from collecting easily, but I do not know how that would work as a pod shelter. I will reread more of your posts and try to research some of your thoughts later when I can, but for now I am just along for,and enjoying the ride with you dave.

i'll bring the nog... the avast skimmer is tuned and the nog is nasty.

the storm was all the way down here, I did not lose power but it was certainly loud and impressive. hope no one had any major issues.

just a heads up your link to the various raffle items isnt working at the moment, it leads to a 404 for april the 11th. good luck to those that go. hope the gear finds good homes.

ugh remind me to stop posting right before bed forrest the lta is not AFAIK one of the fraggable anemones, though it has pretty much fragged the entire side of itself off anyway. I am still watching it, but had to move it to a specimen/fish container to prevent it blowing around the tank. it is still with us, but continues to show no real signs of progress.

dave, i wore gloves for that very reason. nothing says a person's first day like that "AAAAHHHHHH THATS HOT " followed by alot of swearing. beautiful looking work so far, I cannot wait to see the progress continue. You certainly will have a stunning system. or a really nicely deck surround swimming pool there. I promise not to suggest that to anyone else in your family

hey dave, glad to see he tank hasnt eaten you yet, but wih all the spaghetti references now I am hungry mmm word of warning on any paints etc, most indoor outdoor or marine paints have anti mold agents that do offgas, (several giant rc tanks are dealing with this issue. so check the msds sheets on any paint you go with to be sure its not gonna ruin your sump area over the course of several years. (reefski on RC has been battling the effects of that for ages :( lost alot of corals) on the wire once it is installed, you may wish to look into electrical potting silicone, and using it to seal and cover the wires box entrances and any stripped areas. it is an electrical insulator/isolator, and will keep SW or salt creep out. (yet another RC thread on LED's by nuclearheli, he went Highvoltage DC worth a read if you like that stuff.) I think calling in the welders was a good idea, if nothing else liability for issues goes to them unless your plan is poorly engineered, but most shops check that first. your insurance rep will probably thank you for spending a bit more. I would offer to help, but after years of disabilities, my welding is probably too poor for structural work. I still have the knowledge maybe I should go teach high schoolers.... nah I would be laughing too hard when one of them didn't listen and held the part with a hand while electrically spot welding and made himself jump. I hope you are able to attend the meeting april 10th. I am gearing up for the trip myself, it would be a pleasure to put a face and a handshake to the screenname.

yeah I always wrap anything dead in plastic. I actually keep the plastic bags the LFS puts fish/inverts in incase they perish to ensure they are safely sealed away. the bacteria issues alone are bad enough to not do a wrap, let alone the anemone jellying. the smell is horrendous to say the least when they actually die. checked on it again and did another gentle hand waving near it debridement of the dead side, its gotten a bit worse, so hoping i am catching it before it spreads, the mouth was gaping and the anemone had flipped upside down, turned him over as well so another 2 hours and i may have to pull him.

the heater "should" have been covered, not entirely sure how the anemone got to it in an area that it has never "walked" to before, but I was keeping a heater in the main tank to ensure if the gfci tripped the tank wouldn't get too cold (heater on another outlet). went ahead and filled the area the anemone got into and moved the heater back to the overflow, i know they walk, but it took me by surprise given that its foot was firmly locked to the glass under the sand that day. I will keep this updated as it progresses, and now that i have a workable point and shoot camera i will try to get some photos. once i know it will make it through the night.

after further inspection and a bit of flow pointed toward it the anemones main structures are fine with the exception of the outer pedal disc on one side. the mouth is already closed fully, and the side that is burned is certainly a mess, but isnt sloughing off material/nematocysts like last night, there is hope for recovery here, just keeping things stable, and keeping my hand outa the tank

as an update, the anemone is holding on, abet it has turned most of the burned portion away from the flow, (and towards where i can see) so I have to wait for the lights to come on normally to see how it responds. I am still weighing just pulling it, so if anyone has any opinions or has survivors from a similar incident feel free to post them up.

this is the other post, with the weights, he also said he added components one at a time then waited 24 hours for it to clear. the gentleman he borrowed/copied the mix from also was in the thread and mentioned morton solar salt mixed cleaner and faster, but neither i think mentioned mixing the components together for a premix, (abet my limited chemistry) is telling me that a sealed container and shaker should keep everything in and wouldnt be an issue if you got the premix weights correct. weights of salts per 1000 he also was nice enough to give the formula for smaller batches, so for 200 gallons multiply by .200 for 50 gallon bags use .050 on the gram amounts I would be interested (was gonna buy it all myself and try it out for 200 ish gallons, but if others up there are working on it as well, id try some. only time i honestly may be able to get up there (health willing) is we are shooting for the meeting weekend. if that is too soon then just list me as an interested standby

for those of you with anemones, my giant sized lta (8-12inches open) decided to get moving for w/e reason, and found himself the heater I do not know how exactly, but he was still stuck to it when I removed him. one side of his body is now burned mush due to his escapade.. I checked and the oral disk, the foot itself and the rest of it are ok. (and I reenforced and moved the heater/heater cover to attempt to prevent this again). I also checked and while the tentacles on the non burned side are obviously deflated, they are stickier then all get out, so the anemone is still kicking. I know the burned area will slough off and need to be cleaned/removed (which I will do tomorrow) but should I give it another 24 hours to try and pull through? or just pull it and save the possible jellying of the tank? either way, guess the avast skimmer I just bought/got tuned is gonna get a hefty workout. I'll post on that later.

the only time temperature swings can affect a tank is if the glass is cold and you add warm/hot water to the tank, or vice versa and the glass can stress and crack. as long as you give it time to warm up in the house before you start dumping water in it, you will be fine.