Grog

I heard a few cm per year is what they say.

One side is the European plate the other side is the American plate. The tectonic plates are separating. Iceland is actually growing because the plates are splitting apart. Unlike San Andreas where one plate is pushing under the other. Their electricity is basically free, one of the only inexpensive things there. All their power comes from geothermal.

Half on the American continent and half on the European continent. Kids and wife went snorkeling. I don't swim or do well in cold so it was a nope for me. I'm good with pics.

Updated as I got some things in. Just looking for Galaxea color variants, or large form factor palys now. I have palythoa grandis but would like something with different colors. I'm in Bastrop but can drive to Austin to pick up and pay cash. PM me pics and prices. Grog

This tank is now FOWLR. (Except for the hitchhiker gulf corals and anemones which are NPS.) Prepping for the 180-gallon upgrade. All corals are back in the 40-breeder. 40-breeder will be my reef tank. Yes, it is overstocked. Yes, the tang police may show up at any day. This is all going to the 180 so them being in the 75 is temporary and way better than the small 20-gallon tanks they were in at the LFS. Many of these additions were done to combat algae and it is working. Algae is going away slowly but surely. Nitrates got a little high with the heavy stocking and heavy feeding. So, I've been VERY good about water changes at 10% weekly. Nitrates coming down. These guys eat like pigs. This tank gets easily 4X the food than the 40-breeder. Speaking of water changes, mixing the water is the worst part for me. I can get both tanks done in 30 minutes! No excuse to not do it. Quick photo attached because everyone likes FTS. No post-processing on the photo as I'm in a bit of a hurry. Did manage to get the entire family in the shot though. Current Stocking List Fish Lemon Peel Angel "Lemon" Foxface "Banana" Blue Green Chromis X5 Black Clown Niger Trigger Red Toothed "Wrangler" Yellow Tailed Blue Tang Sailfin Tang Lawnmower Blenny Inverts and Corals Peppermint Shrimp 5 Various Hermits Blue Eyed Hermit 2 Blue Knuckle Hermit 1 CUC Snails 20 Dwarf Cerith 30 ish Lightbulb Anemone (Hitchhiker) Berghia Nudibranch X6 (MIA, likely dead now the aptasia is gone. If anyone knows how to catch them, let me know and I'll rehome.) Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber Black Urchins X3 Red Mantis Shrimp Giant Knobby Creeper Snail

Right on, thanks!

I got a kryponite candy cane coral about a month ago. What is the growth pattern of these things? Do the heads split, or do they grow new stalks and heads? Never had one before but this one is definitely fattening up more than when I got it. Just wondering what to look for. Thanks.

Thinking more about sump design and heading towards simple and effective. I was bored and felt like doodling in Visio. Gonna likely use one of these totes as a sump. The tank has right and left rear side drains and returns. So, I'm thinking one sump plumbed like this. Have two drains and two returns, as a backup in case something clogs or fails. One pump is larger, and it will have the longer run of pipe. I don't think this distance or head height will matter much but it seems like it would be better to not further Nerf the smaller pump with a longer run. This is sort of to scale. This will leave space on the right for electrical stuff and gear storage. Simplifying the overall sump layout too. See below. Simple overflow on the drain side, small weir on the return side to keep any critters out. Plan to keep this cryptic for sponges, some worms, and a chocolate chip star. No macro, and I won't need to have a light. I'll run the ATO in there and an air stone. I won't start this until after my leak check. I had some critters coming in and USPS delayed the deliver till Saturday. So....... I will likely stay home this weekend and work on the stand. Once the stand is done, and leak check passed, I can add some dimensions to the ideas above and start roughing in plumbing and the sump.

Gone

Been doing some rearranging. The idea now is that the 40 breeder will be the mixed reef. The 75 (180 to be) will become FOWLR, or very lite reef. Slowly relocating corals from the 75 over to the 40 and rearranging it. Moved one Galaxea and the Palythoa Grandis rock yesterday. Next, I need to figure out how to move the large rock I have in the 75 with my Purple Milka Stylos over, and have it fit. The little Galaxea will be easy, but that large rock will be a task. There is not a lot of room here. Also found a lawnmower blenny in the tank. My only assumption is that it was on the Palythoa Grandis rock when I pulled it from the 75 and came over. Otherwise, it has been in the tank for a long time, and I still have two in the 75. 😃 Today's FTS. I'm liking this better.

Finally got off my butt yesterday and resealed. Finished cleaning the joints, wiped down with acetone, taped, and siliconed. Pulled tape off after. This stuff STINKS, as in smells horrible. Entire garage was polluted. Left it overnight. I goofed one corner joint. Looks functionally sound but I tried to smooth it when it had already become tacky. Looks bad but it is not noticeable from outside. Just way too much silicone. I'll build the stand this weekend or early next week, then leak test. In other news, the Sicce pump I wanted was part of Amazon's one day sale yesterday. They marked it down from $199 to $159. I also had been looking for a mini-rake for my sand bed, it was $3 off too. SCORE! And that little black pad is the best thing ever for your knees. Great for this job and if you are ever laying flooring. Gorilla Grip is the brand and I prefer to use this over strap on knee pads.

Small update here. I've got all the boxes off. The magic eraser helped some, but the 'stains' are still there. Oh well. I'll see how it looks filled during leak test. Worst case, the stains remain and are visible. It's on the side and back, so not a big deal. I've removed 90% of the sealing seams. I need to go over it with a razor tonight and some acetone. Then tape off for resealing. I'm not removing the top trim or the side glass or the center brace. They are fine. Hoping to do this over the next few days but work keeps getting in the way. Made a bit of a directional change though. I'm leaning towards not having any coral in this tank and going FOWLR. Moving all the corals from the 75 back into the 40 breeder. This will be a huge cost savings in lights rock etc. I can toss some cheap Hygger lights on top of the 180 and be done. Also, this will allow me to have macros in the sump sandbed, and not worry about the DOC impacting corals. (There are two rocks with corals in the tank, then two galaxea colonies. Should fit in the 40 fine.) I'm liking the more predatory, non-reef safe inhabitants lately, and kinda want to focus on that. (I have a trigger now. ) Maybe have a small section of softies in the DT fueled by a spotlight. Or a GSP back wall. Light availability to a region will limit the GSP spread. Lots of random thoughts.

I made that mistake myself in previous builds. Steel palys are cool looking until they choke out your expensive, more colorful, zoanthids. Steel palys are great but very weedy. Don't see them offered much any more.

Better lighting this time of day, and I got out my lens filters. So, who would have thought that I'd have better zoa pictures today? I'm happy with these zoas. Doing well. Each on their own 'islands' so they can have their own zones and not compete with each other. Eagle Eyes are my favorite, but I like them both. I'm also really happy with the improvement in my photography skills. I look back at my old photos and I used to be terrible. Eagle Eyes Fire and Ice

Haven't posted about the 40 in a while. Life gets in the way sometimes. Tank has had some ups and downs. Went through some bacterial issue and lost all the hammers and bird's nest. Didn't seem to impact the stunner, zoas, candy cane, or gorgs. It hit hard and fast though, killing some of the hammers in days. Then I had an algae bloom from hell. Was doing very frequent water changes and it was just keeping it level, not improving. 'Life Rock' arch got removed and replaced with more TBS rock. I'll get another order into them in a few weeks and add about 20# more so I get an arch look between these two islands. Here is a FTS shot and shots of some of the livestock. Sad to lose the hammers but as long as the stunner is growing, I'm happy. I'm liking all the encrusting I'm seeing in the tank, and the sponges growing in the HOB filter. Added another fire shrimp as well. You may notice some angular dark lines in the FTS. That is shade from the dowels which support my screen. That was shading the stunner, so it has been moved and rotated. You can see the spot with low growth where the shade was on the stunner. Not adding anything new to the tank, other than that rock in a few weeks. Gonna let it all settle out. After that I'll adjust the lights a tad, and try to get some better colors out of the stunner.

Got some new live rock in from TBS for the 40 breeder. The 'life rock' stuff was just a hair algae factory, so it got yanked and replaced with more of the Gulf stuff I like. And another new hitchhiker. Red thing in the center. Looks really cool but hard to photograph. Red with very faint small brownish green spots. Maybe the diameter of a dime. Some kind of sponge? I love all the freebies that come with this rock. Found a mantis in the 75 the other day.

Welcome back!

Extra stuff from a used system I acquired. Old LifeReef acrylic refugium, could use as a sump, good condition, no leaks, plugged it to test for leaks. You can see a bit of a drip mark but that originates from my threaded plug, not the bulkhead. Good condition with only a few scratches. There are not plants in it. That is a reflection. Includes an older Corallife 24" T5 for the refugium. Works but I'd recommend replacing the bulbs. One bulb out, but I confirmed the fixture is good by swapping the bulbs from side to side. I also have the sump for this system. If you buy the above, you can have the sump for free. I've done no testing of the sump.

Totally edited this idea. I almost fell victim to over engineering something when there was a cheap commercially available solution. I found large sponge sheets that I can cut to fit the width. So baffle B will look like this from a front view. Black and white is baffle. Brown is representative of the sponge.

Working on sump design. Plan to use a 75 gallon tank as the sump. I'll go to Lowes and get all the acrylic cut by them once I solidify the plans. Will silicone these in. Drawing not to scale. Idea is sponge for mechanical filtration. Deep sand bed across the tank. Bubble filter, and isolation to keep sand out of return. Return pump Baffles A. First baffle on drain side, intend to have it spaced about 6" from the wall so I can get my hand in there. 15" high. B. Odd baffle with a ledge. This will hold some sponge material for physical filtration, held up by the ledge, easy to remove to clean. Haven't done the math but it will be about 9" long. C. 9" high, leaving about 2-3" gap between B and C. Overflows into the DSB. D. 8.5" high, goes into bubble trap. E E. 7" high gap in bottom. F. 7" high flowing into return. Spaced about 6-7" away from pump side depending on size of return pump. Any feedback on this design is appreciated. Thinking emergency cut at top of B in case a sponge gets SUPER clogged. Also maybe have C a little higher to have more water on the sand bed....

Star is awesome.

I'll go with the ASI They have it on Amazon and BRS. It is rated at 500# tensile strength. BTW: I'm NOT being a wild man and removing the top trim. There are 20# of silicone on that top trim. It is going to be used as is!

Getting ready to reseal the 180. I'm almost done with the cleanup. Looking for reef safe silicone. Apparently, all the GE products now list themselves as 'mold resistant' so that is a bit concerning to me. Found these two on the web. Anyone use either before, and have opinions about them? I'm leaning towards the ASI based on reviews from around the internet. Also, thinking 3 tubes will be more than enough for the 180. I'm not a caulk noob so I won't waste much. Thanks!

Hmm thinking about the above. Maybe it would be better to use that unused return hole for the water change drain. Put a strainer on a stand pipe about 6" high behind rock work. Would eliminate the need for risers on the drains and I could drain the tank as much as my heart desires.

I'm thinking of keeping dual overflows with the stand pipes and PVC screens on top. Easy! But, I'm strongly considering only keeping a single return with one large return pump. And plugging the other return hole completely. Less plumbing, heat, space, etc. Thinking one of the Sicce Syncra 1321 GPH models, as that would give me 7.25X tank volume exchange per hour, for about an amp in current draw. (Been using some other Sicce gear lately and liking it.) I may keep a smaller spare lying around for emergencies. Next, I'm thinking that the heater(s) belong in the sump. Where do ya'll run them? In the deep sand bed portion of the sump seems logical to me, but I'm open. Also, I think it would be a good idea to plumb in a drain in the overflow or return line down in the sump area, with a barb and a line to facilitate water changes. Open valve and pump water out. Yes, I know I need to vacuum the sand bed, but sometimes we just don't have time. Having the drain valve would make lazy day water changes possible. I think the overflow would be the preferred location. I plan on 20G water changes weekly/biweekly in this thing. For those doing math, the water may drop below the stand pipes before I get 20G out. I intend to have 'risers' on the stand pipes so I can control water level. I'll likely put a pump in my Brute can to make pumping new water into the tank easier. Having flashbacks to my old system. Thoughts?