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.

after a bit (i think an hour) the edit button goes away and only mods officers etc can edit the post. i will report the post requesting the order number be editted.

my only concern with that dave is whether the open areas are "open enough". any debris or detritus that gets caught in a less open structure could get caught and stay, turning toxic or anoxic at least. if you plan as most do to keep the open areas free flowing with the water (or have a powerhead or such back there to get water moving, then you should be fine. You are correct that "less is more" in a tank this size, use your massive lower areas to do filtration and aquascape and tune the display tanks to look how you want them to. the stuff above about a piston wave maker would be good for keeping detritus suspended in a semi enclosed area behind your aquascaping for sure. probably more efficient then most other designs since you are carrying the debris out, rather then just blowing it around chaotically like a powerhead. if you are comfortable with your welding then godspeed sir, I am not a bad welder per se, but I am not certified now, when I used to weld we used to park a truck or other heavy point load weight on the part to guarantee the small parts were up to snuff (we had to hold 1500lbs I think per part on that run). I was always happier with 304 stainless welding or machining even though its more likely to rust, simply due to the less heat required to ensure a proper weld, less burning through and 304 isnt as hard so it didnt eat the carbide tipped cutters when we cleaned the welds and machined to spec. are you mig welding or tig welding? there are some great online resources for wire feed rates, mig wattage needed per thickness etc as well as the whole range of tig settings and wire types to use, I highly recommend using them if you have any issues or questions. If i am visualizing this correctly my only concern or suggestion would be to buy por-15 or another type of truck bed liner/metal protector that becomes inert once it sets. then you can coat your welds and the steel, then set the steel right on or above your concrete sumps without worrying about corrosion and rust falling into your water. (had that issue before and it required a total tear down of a persons tank due to the levels of iron in the water.) HTH and good luck with the welding, and if you are concerned with a weld, test it with weight if you can. You could call a weld shop and see if they have recommendations for a scanning service (or if they will) to xray or otherwise scan the welds to ensure no pockets or stress fractures, cracking etc exist. its not the cheapest thing, but if peace of mind is what you want, then that will be the best you get. (probably overkill tbh though) a nice slow rate and steady hand will get you great welds, and you certainly do not strike me as an amateur at this stuff ( I likely am by now more then you)

i have seen your coral head proposal done in smaller scale, and they did not just pour into the molds, but used the molds in corners and covered the outsides as well with good results, in order to break up the design and make it more "natural" they stuck rock to the epoxy as it was setting up and then left that side to cure withe the rock facing up or down (so it did not fall off.) also seen the sculpted areas hit with shotcrete/gunnite then that pockmarked, drilled, patterned, etc to create "rock" even using other rock to push into and remove to create all the little holes and such. i dont know about you but the second you said steel was in, I was gonna ask whether you were feeling confident welding it. welding as you know isn't too hard, but on a project of such weight and possibly a mini tsunami of water if a weld broke, I probably would find a steel shop with a warranty and use them. nothing like letting their structural engineering staff sign off on it for any future issues with insurance or damage to cover yourself if you don't have a certified welder friend. also something that caught me on reefcentral, you may want to check and update your homeowners policy if necessary to cover any slow or catastrophic leaks. the gentleman in Richmond VA had his 300gallon tank bottom just let go while full. his homeowners covered that, but not a slow or persistent leak. he ended up having to rip his entire hardwood floor out and do repairs to his foundation and house beams due to the damage. I know you are "separated" from the house and have taken more then enough precautions, but its always better to be safe and get a check to cover the damage then lose such a tank and have to eat repair costs. good luck on the pours and hope it goes well

if you are looking at controllers and dosing if you have the time, go talk to Johnny at BRK he just got in more APEX's I know Sean @ F&F is also extremely knowledgeable if you are closer to there. either way, getting some hands on time with them will probably be your best bet. when that much money is at stake you really want to be comfortable with what you are buying and the support behind the product. the BRS dosers are great, as above they tie in easy with a controller. if you are lucky/good on ebay you could look into a medical irrigation pump with multiple cartridge pump attachments if you want to control dosing down to the most minute amounts, but at the same time the apex proflux etc can do the same with dosing pumps and be so much more expandable.

johnny what is the apex going for these days? and that's a H-E-double hockey sticks of a deal on those cannons. Thanks

an injured leather coral can blast massive amounts of alleopathy (chem warfare) in a tank, your waterchange is a good idea, and id bet your acans were "downrange" flow wise from that leather and getting most of the chemicals to the proverbial face. if you do not see improvement within the day add more carbon and run as much chaotic flow as you can to get the mucus off the corals. a very brief gentle direct hit with a hand held powerhead to blow them clean may also be in order, just hold the frag when you do so and move it into the flow then out. watch at night for the torches feeder tentacles, if they get near the acans that may also be the culprit as above. i have seen 4 inch+ tentacles off of them before so worth a check

they can, however a well fed angel is very unlikely to pick continually. you may find a few nips on the mantles though sometimes the fish will go after the clam pretty much as soon as it is comfortable in the tank, be ready to move or protect the clam til you get the fish or clam out if that occurs, and it is fairly easy to tell if that will be an issue. heavy feed asap though to prevent most "problem behaviors"

no problem sir, glad it sold for you.

I am not sure, but they have a vendor forum here that might get the question answered faster, or at least alert them to your question. you may also call them during whatever operating hours they have and ask. I know in the past if/when AWI was coming to a meeting to show off or raffle gear away, they would offer to bring customers orders there with them for pickup. unknown if they still do but worst you can do is ask and get told no right? hth Jager

forrest if you have access to any of the strawberry type containers, (especially clear ones) you can cover the corals they are bothering and the clowns will bang on the container til they find a new shiney thing to play with. once they are locked onto something it is best to deny them the item via cover or getting a tank divider for a bit or screen or w/e you can deal with looking in the tank. if it gets bad move the coral to a completely different area with a higher flow. clowns have issues with high flow in one direction, so i used to hide their wanna be host in an area underneath a power heads laminar flow with th same light the coral loved, the clowns couldn't get close, the coral was happy in the calmer zone underneath the power heads "stream" and the clowns re hosted to xenia which i didn't care about.