chrismunn

what i did to add a refugium was scrape the black paint off the back of the tank, but only on the middle chamber. then i added some live rock rubble and cheatomorpha. i also added a clip on lamp and used a 10w spiral pc bulb to light it. this was an EXTREMELY EASY modification to make, it only cost me about $20.oo using stuff from walmart. and im absolutely positive that this application is the single most important system currently employed on my tank! at first i was nervous about having the lamps reflector pressed right up against the glass because of heat related issues, but as it turns out, its more beneficial than i had realized. i have only the stock lighting and no other means of heating or chilling. the heat from the stock lights keeps my tank plenty warm during the day. but when they turn off i have nothing contributing to heating the tank. now i have the refugium light that operates on a reverse photo period. so when the main display lights turn off, the refugium lights turn on. they light the refugium, keep the tank warm in the absence of the main lights and help maintain a stable ongoing PH. PH will lower in the presence of elivated co2 levels. when lights are off, photosynthesis stops, no o2 is being generated, and co2 has the opportunity to accumulate. this accumulation of c02 has the potential to lower your ph, which is undesirable.

those are the side benefits to this mod, the real benefit and the main reason for the mod is obviously the nutrient export capabilities of the system. all the dissolved organic compounds that build up in the tank dont have anywhere to go if it werent for water changes, protien skimmers, and/or refugiums. the macro algae used in the refugium will utilize these dissolved organics to grow, thereby reducing the total percentage of dissolved organics left in the water for the undesirable algaes to use.

i also use the BC nano skimmer. i would use something bigger and better but nothing else will fit! i use that in the fist chamber. you'll notice in this next picture that i have a pad of filter floss placed on a plate that sits over the refugium. this filter pad helps catch alot of the suspended detritus before it has a chance to settle in an area of the tank where i cant siphon it out. siphoning out detritus plays a huge role in water quality. as detritus has time to settle, it also has time to dissolve. if you can get to it before it starts to turn into a dissolved organic compound, the better off you'll be. thats why its easier to catch it as a somewhat solid matter. once it dissolves the only way to get rid of it is with the refugium, a protien skimmer, or water changes. i change the pad about once a week. the material is very cheap. i got mine from aquatek.

in those 29g all in one tanks there is normally enough room for a decent skimmer like the saphire skimmer, or the tunze nano. i would recomend it if you can.

as for carbon, i just have a mesh media bag with about .25 - .50 cup of carbon, and i set it in the area where the water from the second chamber enters the third chamber. i change out about half of that every 2 weeks. this is a neccesity if your going to keep alot of soft corals, and i cant stress that enough! the only way to get rid of the toxins secreted by soft corals is through water hcnages and the chemical absorption properties of activated carbon. if the toxins are allowed to accumulate, not only will it kill everything in the tank (thats what its meant for in nature) but it poses an extreme hazard to you as well. especially in the case of some zoanthids which emitt a very powerfull toxin called "palytoxin". its very noxious stuff that nobody should mess with!

if you'de like you can check out my thread on reef central. it shows the battle i fought with nuisance hair algae, flatworms, and a killer clown fish it really shows the affects that my tiny little refugium had on the whole system! it also shows that it is possible to cram soft corals into every concievable open space someone could possible glue a coral frag!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1401995

+1 for all thats been previously said.

pc's have a fairly short life span and do shift spectrum after about the 6-8- month mark. unfortunatly they dont just crap out and stop working, but instead shift spectrum to one better suited for growing algae rather than anything else. i hand write the date with a sharpie right on the plastic base of the light bulb when i change it to a new one.

i would actually change water a little more ofeten than gabriel has sugested. 2 weeks would be about the longest you would want to go without a water change, and 5g sounds about right. one thing to remeber is that with more frequent water changes comes less frequent dosing. i do 2 water changes a week in my BC14, but they're small, about 1 to 1.5 gallons. this helps to replenish alot of the trace elements without me having to manually add them seperatly, although i do....

i agree with not dosing things that cant be tested. alot of the additives on the market not only encourage coral growth, but algae growth as well. i add 5 drops of iodine per week, and do it very timidly. some times i just skip it. i dont like additives because of the ease of an accidental OD.

jam packing a small tank with TONS of softies in my opinion is fine, except for one thing, the aforementioned "chemical warefare"... activated carbon is a MUST with softies! all it takes is one coral death to start a dominoe affect of die off, chemical release due to die off, followed by more die off and the cycle continues... some corals tolerate it better than others.

the algae can be attributed to number of things. all of the previously mentioned topics will spark algae growth in nuisance perportions. all the rock scrubbing in the world won't help get rid of the algae unless the underline cause is addressed and remadied... ( did i spell that right??? remedy, blah!) over feeding, over dosing, lack of water changes, water changes with tap water, detritus accumulation, lack of nutrient exportation... the list for algae outbreaks goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on..... your tank in particular is easily modifyable to accept a protien skimmer and a fully functioning refugium.

what i would suggest, and what i always sugest, is doing things the full on HARD way! this means add the refugium, add the skimer, follow a more frequent and strict water change regiment, keep fresh light bulbs, keep and frequently replenish a bag of activated carbon, and periodcally test for the entire battery of water parameters.

this sounds like alot more work than it actually is. the bulk of the owrk is simply setting up the fuge and testing the water params. another thing i forgot to mention, but was already mentioned, is how much of a particular product your dosing. gabriel had the 100% right idea about strictly folowing the manufacturers recomendations for dosing, and then cutting thier recomendation in half. for all we know they may base thier dosing schedual on a fully stocked tank of 5+ year old matured colonies when our tanks may be full of brand new baby frags. obviously the larger colonies are going to use more of the product than our small frags are. in which case, if we followed thier recomendations to the T we would actually be dosing way too much. i guess the comparison woud dosing a tank with corals, and a tank without corals.

ill post a few pics of the mods ive made to my BC14. all of them very easy, and very cheap!

pm sent

what are you lookig for exacly?

Is this group buy still open?

yes it is.

my handfull of cheato came with a bunch of pods too. now my whole tank is teaming with various pods. i dont have anything in the tank that prey on them, but they all came from the cheato in my fuge. when i used to have a fluval 404 can filter as a return pump it used to be full of pods all the time.

im not exactly sure how successful this method is, but if you put a black or dark colored filter floss block into the fuge, the pods will eventually end up inside the block. then you can take the block and shake it off into the display. ive never actually had a reason to do this so ive never tried, but i have had a black filter floss block with tons of them. ive also hear of this method elsewhere before. if you have any cheatomorpha in your fuge im sure its colonized with tons of various pods. you could probably just shake that off into the display? i know i could do it with mine.

i dont know if your interested in going in on an order, but beefy tang and i are going to be placing an order together on www.coralmorphologic.com so that we can split the shipping costs. your welcome join in if you'd like?

well it looks like we have a tenative date set for the weekend of the 23rd, this month. if anybody else wants to get in on this you'll save a ton on shipping!

as far as i know the coral morphalogic order is still on. im still in at least. i have to wait untill at least next weekend 8-16, i cant afford it right now. beefy tang also wanted to wait untill the middle of the month.

i would also like to go in on an order from that second site as well. "yourreef" both those sites have about the best deal on frag packs that i can find. coral morphologic has $100 for 11 rics i think? and your reef has 9 - 10+ polyp zoanthis frags for the same price. shipping from CM is like $50, and YR is probably the same? so the more of us there are, the less shipping we each have to pay.

do you want in zcatzmeow?

pm'd

i also found this site that has a pretty good deal on zoanthid frag packs.

www.yourreef.com

http://www.yourreef.com/ZoanthidFragPacks.html

that place is kinda expensive, yikes! the stuff at coral morphilogic is decently priced, i can say right now that im not payin' no $50.oo for a ricordea! im in no hurry to buy just yet. ide like to see if we can get a few more people to split the shipping costs a bit further if we can.

i actually tried to buy those isaurus polyps thier pretty neat huh!

anyways, we'll keep trying to gather people and see where it goes from there?

i was wondering if anybody wanted to go in on some livestock from www.coralmorphologic.com

i was getting ready to buy a few things myself, but when i went to choose a shipping method i was blown away when i saw that the lowest price shipping charge is $49.oo. thats for next day air. the website says they ship out the orders about 5 days after the order is placed. and the shipment will either show up at your door by 10:30 am the next day, or 3:30pm the next day depending on which shipping method is chosen.

they have a nice selection of ricordea, and a mediocre selection of zoas and shrooms, but everything is very beutifull. they even have artwork. i was only trying to order $40.oo worth of rics and zoas, so i wasnt going to pay$50.oo+ for shipping. with that being said i was wondering if anybody would be willing to go in on a group buy to split the shipping costs. i dont know how the logistics of the group buy works, and i was hoping that if anybody was interested, they would know how to go about the purchase. (i.e. money collection/the oreder/recieving/holding/dispurcment)

i was looking at the WYSIWYG livestock, wheich mopst of the website is, and when you choose one of those items nobody else can get that item. thaT might make selecting corals between a large group complicated because more than one person might want the same coral. for that reason this might now work, but we'll have to see if anybodys interested first

i wont be suprised if this doesnt happen, but i just thought ide give it a shot?

thanks-

chris munn

i have GSP growing well under 48w pc.

did he answer yalls PM?

nope

ide agree with the first description being either a sponge or a tunicate. both of which would be fine to leave in the tank. couldnt even guess on the second one, sorry?

i have some tonga branch that ive been trying to get rid of for a while. if your interseted just shoot me a pm. it wont cost you a single cent.

i agree, all mine seem to be good for is making a ruckus now. im constantly finding them in places i dont want to see that hanging out. like for instance, in a place where i just mounted a shroom that mysteriously went missing, or in the middle of a colony of pipe organ.... im not helping sell my trade right now, but its the truth they've become more of a nuisance than anything in my little tank....

i have 4 blue legged hermits that i dont want anymore. i suspect they may have been picking at my mushrooms, but i have no proof. what are they worth to you? ill take 1 turbo snail, some zoas, or a small frag of any softie really? make me an offer. 4 pesky hermits...

is the cheato gone???

just wanted to say thanks cindy and robert for for all the goods, i really appreciate it! i would have loved to stay and talk for longer but i had promised my daughter and wife ide take em to see kung foo panda. its a long drive from manor! it was really nice meeting you, and thanks again so much!!!

just wondering if you have anymore of the coral left? ill be in the area tomarrow around 10am or so. i sent you a pm with my number.

i voted for greenmako.....

could somebody just give me a sympathy vote, please...

that would be great. im actually planning on trying to make it up that way next weekend. pm sent