Grog

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?

Thanks Tim. My thought is that I'll have the 180 resealed and a stand built in about two weeks. I don't want to do a leak test with salt. Expensive leak test. I'll do it with hose water. I'd like to do a PAR test with a few lights at that depth, during the leak check, to see what I want to do. I have ideas. Some are more expensive than others. Also, want an eyeball check on what kind of coverage the lights get, spread, and visuals too.

If everything else is the same: same lighting, same sensor placement, same depth in the water, same temps... Would a PAR reading in fresh water be different than salt water? I'm thinking it would have an impact, due to difference in density in the two liquids, and that salt would have more of a PAR loss at depths than fresh. Do PAR meters have switches/toggles for this? I'm curious because I wonder if tests could be run in fresh water, for simplicity and cost savings, and if fresh water based test data would be meaningful to salt water applications.

Got both overflows removed. That one was stubborn. Cleaning the sides one at a time with a razor blade and vinegar. Vinegar is great for dissolving the coraline. First side progress below. There is a stain under where the overflow box was. I cannot feel it with my hand. I've tried the blade and vinegar, but no success. I'm going to try a Magic Eraser tonight. Kind of odd. I wonder if the silicone caused permanent discoloration or etched it some. hmm Two pics attached. Easier to see the stain from the outside. Overall the tank is looking way better.

I started on the overflow boxes and clean up process. Good thing we decided to remove them and replace with stand pipes. Like I said, I have ape strength. Got one overflow out completely, but I broke the other box on removal. 🤪 Big shocker there. I've decided that I will remove the old coraline from the sides. Looks ugly on the sides IMO. Back panel I'm still deciding.

I will most likely reuse the 2 SB Reef lights I have over the 70g tank. I'm going to have a little less rock and coral than most reef tanks. Want to add some larger fish. The tank will likely have some more and some less lit areas, but I'm ok with the 'open water' area not having super high PAR. The idea with this upgrade is to make more 'open water' for things like tangs to swim around. Worse case, if I end up not liking it, the SB Reef lights are only $150 each and work pretty good. I run them way less than full power. Adding one extra would be a simple and cheap fix. If this is confusing, I run the Kessil on the 40g tank currently. And yes, if I were running Kessils on this I'd definitely get more than one for this application. Overall, I'm happy with the SB Reef lights. They are not as sexy as the Kessil by any means. The company's communication is terrible, but you get your product, and it works. It would be hard for me to recommend them to others, just because their customer service is so spotty. I'd love to have Kessils over this tank. Just buying 3X of them would really hurt the old wallet.

Small first post to start the thread. Pardon my messy garage. The 75 wasn't enough for me. I knew this would happen. Got a used 180 gallon today. Thanks Tim! Gonna fix this up and upsize the 75 gallon to this tank, moving all the live stock and live rock over. I have a lot of work ahead. Removing the overflows, redoing the silicone, new plumbing, building a stand etc.... Gonna be a while, but it will get done. Pulled one overflow out today. I'll get the other one out tomorrow and start working on the old silicone. Apparently, this tank has a name, "Heavy". I'll keep the name. Renaming boats is bad luck, and probably bad for tanks. "Heavy" it is. Thus, it begins.