ramsey

It's hard to tell but it looks like it might be a ball anemone. If so, they're harmless IMO.

If you're looking for opinions, mine would be to not use that chamber for a DSB. The only way I'd ever run one is remotely so I could disconnect it from the system if things went south. I think a much safer bet would be to use that base rock for a cryptic fuge or a lit fuge with macro. While I've read many success stories with a DSB, I've also read horror stories. While I think they work if you do it right, it's a risk and there's a great deal of debate on how to do it right. Just my two cents.

My concern would be running the nitrates completely to zero. I have heard of this happening with zeovit and other low nutrient systems. I agree with Ty it could be very messy and when do you change the media? When the GFO stops working or when it's dissolved? That could cause a potential disaster if it's timed incorrectly. I may call the company and ask some questions.

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I've used both BP and Zeovit. IME, BP were far more aggressive at nitrate removal than zeo.

It certainly looks like GFO from the picture but it seems like a bad idea if it is. The biopellets will break down and you're left with GFO particles being pushed into your tank? These seem to require even more flow and a sponge would get clogged quickly so if it's GFO, how do you stop it from getting dumped into your tank?

When I first read about them, I was hoping it was something that would break down, like biopellets, but actually provide nitrate. In theory, if you added more nitrate for the bacteria, you would lower phosphates. The bacteria need both nitrate and phosphate but far more nitrate than phosphate so not equal portions. This is why most people use GFO with BPs. I've read that zeovit (zeostart specifically) actually contains nitrate for this reason.

It'll be interesting to see how these work.

Give it a whirl and let us know your results!

If you read my build thread, I recently discussed the merits of adding potassium phosphate to my tank in order to dose phosphates to my phosphate-limited system. This allowed for more uptake by my macro/bacteria to assimilate the excess nitrate in my system.

From the description of these biopellets, it seems like the product has added a phosphate source to the biopellets so that the bacteria have enough phosphates to further drive down the nitrates in a system than what normal biopellets can do.

It seems the reviewer might have mistakenly said that the creator added more "phosphate remover" in the biopellets. I believe he meant to say he added a phosphate source to the biopellets. Either that or that's marketing magic to not scare people with thoughts of adding phosphates to a system.

I think you have that backwards. It's nitrates that typically become limited when using BP.

Yup, I'd look at NPS set ups on RC where people feed constantly. They're VERY difficult to keep.

I wish I could take credit for building it but I bought the tank from a guy on ebay called "luckreef". He made my slick black acrylic frag racks. The tank is 16x16x6 and includes the two racks which can theoretically hold 72 frags. Really beautiful construction with the 1/2" acrylic and rounded corners. Its even got an overflow with a bubble trap!

Here's a link for the tank: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271343874427

The pump, plumbing and loc-line nozzle came from BRS. The light is a JBJ Unibody that I used to use for frags in my DT's sump.

Awesome! I just bought a top off container from the guy a few days ago. It was sleek and the price was right. That's an awesome little frag tank!

There's a way to bend the aluminum frame for a bow front, but I'm not sure how it was done. I saw someone do it on another forum. I imagine that he heated it and made a "guide" out of wood and nails to get the right curve. Acrylic would work, but it'd need to be thick and would be costly.

I was wondering if it was the softie that demanded the high price. It's far too rich for my blood, but do you have any close up pictures of the coral?

Gently, like slow boiling water. If you're water gets a little cloudy, don't panic but it might be a good idea to have mixed NSW on hand just in case.

How high are your nitrates? If they're low, you shouldn't have a bloom. If they're high, then you might.

I don't think my nitrates are not high, what is the definition of too high? Or maybe at what level should I worry about a bloom? I might be tumbling them too much right now, I'll turn that down a bit.

Thanks for all the info everyone!

I think the definition would vary depending on who you ask. If your nitrates are less than 10ppm you'd probably be fine. If your nitrates are 60ppm then I'd worry. Those are numbers I just made up to illustrate a point so take them with a grain of salt. Like most everything in this hobby, you can't go wrong by going slow. I'd just start with adding 1/4-1/2 of the recommended pellets to start with and give it 4-6 weeks. If your nitrates aren't near zero, add slightly more pellets.

As someone mentioned, in theory you can't overdose pellets. In practice and by research, I disagree with this. Corals need nitrate to survive so zero no3 is not a good thing. If I had to guess, more pellets make the system too aggressive at removing nitrate and outcompete the coral. Just a guess though. Its a balancing act keeping nutrients low enough to not hamper growth and get good color and high enough to not starve everything.

Keep an eye on phosphate too. Most bacteria based systems do great at lowering nitrate but poor with lowering phosphates. This is because bacteria use more nitrate than phosphate (see the Redfield ratio as an example). Many people use GFO in conjunction with pellets. It's rumored that part of the Zeovit method actually introduces nitrate to further lower phosphate (zeostart3).

I would love to see a price breakdown on how you get to $20,000. There's either an extra 0 in the price or a missing 0 in the tank size.

Gently, like slow boiling water. If you're water gets a little cloudy, don't panic but it might be a good idea to have mixed NSW on hand just in case.

How high are your nitrates? If they're low, you shouldn't have a bloom. If they're high, then you might.

Ok, thx.... I was thinking of cutting up rock? So it would be stuck to a piece of rubble?

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You might able to use a pair of stony coral cutters/snips. That size rock might prove to be difficult though. If the rock is really light and porous, you could probably nip through it. If you know someone with a coral saw of wet tile saw, that would be best.

I'd recommend Darby's in New Braunfels too. They've been around for a long time and it's a neat little shop. The owner (Robert) is a really nice guy. He also has a dive shop in the back of the store.

There's also a few new stores that are probably worth checking out. A couple of them are sponsors on MAAST.

I think Jestep covered it well. Only thing I would do different is actually use less than recommended and then ramp up. I was surprised how little is needed and how quickly it will remove nitrates once the bacteria set up.

+1

Going slowly will likely prevent a bacteria bloom too. A bacteria bloom can rapidly lower the o2 level in the tank and kill livestock.

Is that with the kalk dosing? Those numbers are a bit low but not bad IMO:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

I like keeping alk on the low side, around 7dkh. Also, those parameters will fluctuate if you're low on mag. You will want to check mag levels as well.

In regards to stirring the sand, I'm a big fan of stirring my sand bed and siphoning during a water change. There are varying opinions on this but it's what works best for me. However, I do this regularly (once every 1-2 weeks). If you don't stir it regularly, it could cause a spike in nitrate or even ammonia so be careful. A lot of detritus will build up in the sand if it's not stirred or if you don't have detrivores constantly cleaning it. I get a decent amount of detritus out of mine in just a weeks time and that's with ceriths, dwarf ceriths and nassarius snails, along with various worms, digging around in it.

It's hard to beat a nice big piece of tonga branch. I recently bought a big piece for my 185g:

Kalk will raise calcium and alkalinity levels in unison. It will also raise your ph (as you've noticed). 8.5 is fine but it's at the high end. I think the most important thing is not to swing your ph too much (and your alk!).

Slightly off topic, sorry...

Is this how you 'stabilize' your home ip address? I'm going to add a web server to my Sardino so I've been wondering about that part...

DDNS services just provide DNS for dynamic IP addresses (like your home address). You could use this type of service for an at home web server but it generally requires running a service on your desktop all the time or a home router that has it built in. For a personal server, this would probably be fine but for something more than that, I'd look at a business class option and get a static IP.

Awesome info and pictures. Did you just slowly drip acclimate them over an hour period? Do they exhibit any inter species aggression?

What types of algae do they eat? Would they eat bubble algae?

+1 for montipora. Hardiest SPS IMO.

Thanks for the heads up! I ordered one. $35 is not too bad. I've been wanting something to use to inspect tank critters.

Yeah, it's a little tricky until you the hang of it. It's not bad after you do it a few times though.