Timfish

+1, lead fishing weights might help the chains to hang straight. (But to be honest the first thing that caught my eye was the really clean glue joints on the acrylic. )

I guess I should have said "PVC, CPVC, fiberglass, plastic, acrylic pipe or rods." As far as the putty I would not expect it to stick to anything long term even if it sticks well initially. I do use it to help stabilize structures very occasionally but it's like making a small rock as a "shim" to keep a larger rock from shifting around. As to how fast dissolution happens that's pretty hard to say but obviously it's a very slow process. The density of the rock is a factor and it's difficult to quantify microenvironments that can have a pH low enough to dissolve calcium carbonate rock directly. What I have seen over the years, fortunately very rarely, is rock break along fracture lines I'm pretty sure I didn't see originally and when putty or cement failed algae and/or sponges had worked into the joints.

It would be nice to know the nitrogen and phosphate content of Acropower. The problem some people have with overdosing amino acids may not be the amino acids per se but they've created a nitrogen/phosphate imbalance.

This is a major frustration I've run into over the years. The more I dig into the science the more complicated it gets. Each coral species and genotype can have subtle differences in their photobiology and nutrition is a factor. So one question is has something caused a subtle shift in how those two corals photobiology? I seriously doubt the chemiclean had any direct effect, I can't remember where I heard this first but commonality is not causality, but it does bring up the question of a shift in the microbial processes. We know from Matz's research at UT the different genotypes of a given species can have widely different immune systems and responses to changes in bacterial populations. I can't say how probable but a possible explanation to what you're seeing is different responses to a combination of changes weeks ago. It could easily be two different issues, a small injury to the Undata that caused an infection, the purple digitata growing too fast for the amount of nutrients it could get from the water. I'm inclined to think the Rainbow Stylo just wasn't getting enough light on the underside, this is a concern as an infection can get started though where the polyps have died so super gluing it is prudent.

Amino acids are organic nitrogen which corals will consume along with or instead of inorganic forms. What you don't know is what the daily production and consumption of organic and inorganic nitrogen is in your system. That you saw a drop in PO4 suggests the acropower was probably a noticable increase in the the overall total of available nitrogen. The risk is creating or exacerbating a phosphate deficiency. This paper and this paper done on corals maintained in a ULN system found the coral/zooxanthellae simbiosis is really screwed up when the nitrogen/phosphate ratio gets out of whack.

If any aquascaping is going to be semipermanant I only trust gravity and PVC in holes to hold stuff together. As soon as a system is running endoliths will start to work on dissolving any calcium carbonate substrate. Epoxy putty, superglue, tie wraps and hydrolic cement all work short term and long term can help stabilize aquascaping but I've seen them all fail over time when they are holding stuff together.

Looking good! (post the pictures from your Kessil thread, it's easier to see how it will look.) +1 on more arches/bridges and I would have one tower, either one of the islands or the main structure go all the way to the surface. It looks great just the way you have it but fish feel more secure having places with overhead protection so the more I can work in without getting to "busy" I'll do. They still have the fear of predators attacking from the top and when spooke I see a lot of fish scoot under overhangs but they are still curious and will start looking around so they're not out of sight or fighting for a few hiding spots. Looking at my tanks with a tower going all the way to the surface seems to accentuate how tall a tank is better than a rock wall, kinda the same way a channel going all the way to the back accentuates the depth/width of a tank.

Here's a update, not that anything has changed though: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-04/fijis-coral-exporters-await-clarification-after-ban/9302496

Thank you! For about a decade one of my clients was an artist who illustrated children's books. Since the aquarium was in their studio we ended up having many conversations about the color wheel and color harmony and balance. The "rule of thirds" and Fibonacci ratio or golden ratio also came up and I was pleasantly surprised and got some valuable insights discussing how an artist applied all these to aquarium design. Just like with art every client has their preferences but the basic rules artists and architects and photographers use really helps. (It was fascinating to see Dr. Haas' research at C4 in 2015 showing how the rules developed over time by artists could be used to quantify the health status of reefs.)

Finally got around to testing the water. Nitrate wasn't tested. Got two noticably different readings forn Nyos and Red Sea so tested them against a standard. Red Sea was off by 10X and the Nyos was off by 25X. Checked the Red Sea and it's reagent expired two months ago, Nyos was current but it sits in my van. Fresh water after going through a water softener: Alkalinity 0 dKH (API seemed to show a color change at 1 but colors were very, very faint and I know I don't have the best color perception) Ph >8.8 (API) Calcium () Magnesium >2000 mg/l PO4 (.8) mg/l (Nyos, estimated .5< (.8) <1.0) New Saltwater after sitting about 15 minutes. After going through the water softener and a carbon filter water sits in a barrel that's had Carib Sea's Buffer Plus (calcium and bicarb) dumped in months and months ago, no agitation: Alkalinty 9 dKH pH 8.4 (API) Calcium 480 Magnesium 1600 PO4 (.8) mg/l (Nyos, estimated .5< (.8) <1.0) Aquarium Alkalinity 9 dKH pH 8.4 (API) Calcium 480 (API) Magnesium 1600 mg/l PO4 >1.0 mg/l For reference here's the parmeter's from the last time I tested in March Alkalinity 12 dKH (API) pH 8.3 (API) Temp 75 Salinity 1.024 Calcium 380 (API) Magnesium 1200 (Red Sea) Nitrate 12 mg/l (Nyos) PO4 2ish (API) pH 8.3 And here's a video from this week:

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Tonga did the same thing 9 years ago but it didn't take long to change their minds and allow coral exports. Walt Smith Int. has been working at sustainable aquaculture and mariculture in Fiji since the late '90s so depending on the wording and fine print some items may still be available.

Tyree has sponges available on his Reeffarmers.com website. You can also get them in most cases with a good quality maricultured live rock (I've never seen any on aquacultured stuff but I've also never gotten much and it's been a very long time since I did, someone may have more recent info). If you want to get wild liverock make sure it's transhipped and hasn't been sitting somewhere for weeks. (LivestockUSA.com has several varieties available but it is pricy) Always QT live rock like anything else before adding it.

I would buy you lots of beers of your choice to hear how adding and then removing a 100 gallon tank to your system when you had your AEW infestation 2 years ago doesn't count as a water change. But I have to think discussing what science does or doesn't apply to our reefs would benefit everyone on a public forum. But you are quite right, this is the holidays. And not everyone shares my priorities. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Ty And everyone else!

Yes, when Feldman ran his tests some skimmers on some test runs did pull out that much. But what I also know is when Feldman, et al, did 30 day tests on an actual reef system the average TOC increased by 79%. Weekly water changes would do a better job of removing it. GAC can be useful for removing DOC. I'm trying it continuously on this system to see if there's noticable differences with my other systems I only use it sporadicly or not at all. But it's questionable it removes the DOC that promotes bacteria growth. I have yet to find any research showing it removes the neutral sugars from algae which promote pathogenic bacteria to corals. It's good to see you're doing water changes and it will be interesting to see how your coral growth is affected with just yearly water changes. I am curious if you're still trying to maintain the fiction of going 4 years with out a water change? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I didn't want to hijack Jim D's thrasd but I have some questions about your post and my thread seemed like a good place to bring it up. To start with you were not my target audience. I was letting the OP know what my opinion is based on my experiences and my understanding of the current science. I did said much the same thing about helping inexperienced aquarists to Mike 7 years ago when he took over ARC. Having been in the hobby since '87 and having kept reef systems for decades and learning to focus on sustainability and resilliance I feel I have a unique experience base. What science do I reference that you do not feel applies to keeping reef aquariums? In your opinion what are my assumptions about reef aquariums you disagree with? What are the differences you see between our systems and wild reefs? You say you know "SPS" and "LPS" are just colloqial terms and you're just using them for convenience. But it's not clear if you accept they do not apply to the husbandry requirements of corals. Is this still a point we disagree on?

Here's a snorkler's perspective:

Thank you! Tyree's a good source for cryptic sponges especially for individual that used only dry rock to set up a system. But Ty I would remove your skimmer if you want to make better use of cryptic sponges ability to remove and recycle labile DOC and bacteria. While it is only the stuff that has hydrophobic qualities it's still food for sponges they convert into nitrogen rich detritus for the food chain. The advantage of sponges is they remove and recycle both hydrophobic and hydrophylic stuff. But you still have to do water changes to get rid of the refractory DOC that builds up in systems.

Here's a couple videos with the system lit up with just sunlight. With sunlight getting as high as 500 PAR it was essential the lights not be turned on at the same time. ( I don't know of any corals available for reef tanks that have been acclimated to 900+ PAR. )

Here's a thread to follow the system in this DIY lighting thread I set up with recessed lighting. System is a 220 and has two 40 gallon sumps running about half full. One sump is low flow for sponges after Tyree's "Zonal" methodology (See Vol III of Delbeek and Sprung's "Reef Aquarium" or Tyree's CMAT I & II or Zonal books). The other sump holds the return pumps, a small DIY canister that holds about a cup of GAC and a 25 watt UV sterilizor. Water changes are ~4% with tap water run through a carbon filter. Beside having to design, build and install tightly focused remote lighting another unique difference with this setup from others I have done over the years is the system was run with only about an hour of mid morning sunlight for about 6 months before the lights were installed. Initial stocking during this initial period was challenging as PAR from sunlight was over 400 but of very short duration and varied as daylight changes through the year. What I found really fascinating was after installing the remote lighting the ecosystem started to cycle all over. Algae that showed up and disappeared in the first few months reappeared then disappeared. Hair algae notably was more pronounced and "determined" than I typically see in cycling and maturing a system. The pictures in the 5th post in my DIY thread with the PAR readings are immediately after lights were installed and show how the tank looked after cycling without lights. Aquascaping was a real exciting challenge. Taking in the view from the top and stairs and the way light is reflected and refracted pretty much every spot can be seen. Uniquely a location on the stairs lets viewers see the same area from three different angles. In addition to the wide range of locations and lighting levels I've also found some animals, Euphillia specifically, did not do well with sunlight, presumably the spectrum as PAR was well within their tolerance. One of the cool things is having a lot of locations that are only hinted at from the initial top view or from the front it pulls viewers to keep looking closer and at different angles to see what they might be missing. I don't know how much local limestone I used but I did use about 60 lbs of maricultured live rock from florida and qt it for about 5 weeks first. Besides being an excellent source for cryptic sponges I also ended up with about half a dozen 1" limpets that do a pretty good job of grazing the rocks. Here's a video from this spring. It's taken a day after scrubbing hair algae and was about a fourth of the way through it's cycle. A note on Mangroves: Beside competing with corals for nitrogen and phosphate they also are heavy users of magnesium. They use magnesium as part of an internal "RO" system to remove the salt from saltwater. They then excrete the salt from their leaves. To properly maintain them not only do the need bright light they really need to be spritzed weekly or more often with fresh water. Besides removing the salt from their leaves they also will absorb some reducing their demand for magnesium. The addition of a couple mangroves to this system was aesthetics, because of the additional demands on a reef ecosystem I would not use them if the sole reason was filtration.

Here's a current video of the Purple Tang. The Sailfin that has been with it for a few years now has treid to be dominate for a few months now. The Purple obviously isn't having it and the Sailfin is going to be rehomed after the holidays.

Here's a current video from this week:

Thank you! That the majority of my clients I've had for over a decade is a good indicator too. I definitely turned it off on purpose. Look at Feldman's research I listed in my third post here. Skimmers are doing two things detrimental to the long term health of reef systems. First they are really screwing with the balance of microbial species in a reef system removing species that have hyrophobic qualities. They are removing the labile forms of DOC sponges use to recycle carbon and nutrients in a reef system. It is true all I'm doing is manual removal and using urchins to recycle nutrients for corals to use. Since algae is disappearing from where neither I or urchins or snails or hermit crabs can get to the "holdfast" to stop algae from growing back quickly argues what is happening is a fundamental shift in the equilibrium of the system that favors corals over algae. Dr. Forest Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is an excellent starting place to learn more about this.

Thank You!