pbnj

If you're anything like the average reefer, you'll wish you went bigger after you've set-up a smaller tank. If you upgrade later on, it will cost you much more than doing it now. That said, only you can justify your expenditures and if it's feasible.

I started with a 75g a little over a year ago and now I'm setting up a 240g. It would have been a lot cheaper to go big right off the bat, but I did learn a lot with the 75g that I can now apply to the 240g.

As for pipe rust, even if your pipes are not PVC, any saltwater gets washed away by all the other regular water that goes down the drain normally, so I can't see it happening. On my new 240g set-up, my old saltwater will go down the washing machine drain.

Just don't make a decision based on fear or inexperience. I remember I originally didn't want to use a sump because I was so fearful of what it would take to do it right. Looking back now, it was really ridiculous and unnecessary to feel that way. There so much suppport on this forum to help you with any problem, ranging from novice to expert.

Nope, I wouldn't even know where to start.

Guess there will be some extra fish food for the tank in the next week or so.

My mated-pair of Clarkii's have been more psychotic than usual in defending their cave entrance, so i decided to take a closer look.

Low and behold....eggs!

Great sale today, Jake.....as always.

Nothing beats reef shopping with a free beer!

Just bought some liverock and this guy decided to tag along. Huge sucker....each arm is about 6 inches.

Is it a Brittle or Serpent Starfish (or something else)?

Reef-safe?

Coral-safe?

Wow, nicely done. Good for you.

You don't usually see these full systems go....and so soon too.

(darnit, no frags/colonies for me)

At first glance, they all seem very stunning, but after about 5 minutes looking through my SWReefKeeper eyes, I was bored with them.

I'm sure this is a great hobby....just not for me.

Shrimp add very little to the bio load and I have kept them for extended periods in live rock vats such as you describe.

Cool....good to know. I always thought Peppermint Shrimp were very sensitive/fragile.

I'll chuck a couple in too.

I'm just going to move all of the rock into a wider, more shallow tub (36"x24"x8"). The rock won't be going into my new tank for a few months, so that should give me plenty of time to rotate it and hunt for Aiptasia to blast with Aiptasia X.

Thanks everyone for their input.

Individual treatment of each rock would be the only option then. Though changing the lighting and/or water chemistry by moving the rock from a lit tank to a tub will likely bleach the coralline. Coralline is very sensitive to lighting, pH, calcium and alkalinity changes.

Actually, I've had the rock sitting in a tub for about two months under T5s with just a Koralia 3 blowing and suprisingly the coralline has held up nicely.

Anything that changes the pH up or down enough to kill the aiptasia is going to kill the coralline. You best bet if you are worried about the coralline would be to take each piece out and apply Joe's Juice (or similar compound) to each aiptasia individually. The caveat to that would be you can only get the aiptasia you can see there will likely be others that you won't see that would survive. What exactly are you trying to do and why are you so worried about the coralline as it will grown back quickly under good tank conditions.

I have some amazing pieces of rock that are almost completely purple with coralline. I'd hate to lose that algae.

The rock is not in a display tank. It's in a Rubbermaid tub.

Can anyone recommend different items to dose (or overdose) into the tub that will kill the Aiptasia, but allow the coralline algae to survive? Adding livestock (e.g., peppermint shrimp) is not an option as there is no filtering device on the tub.

1) Joe's Juice?

2) Kalk water?

3) Lemon juice?

4) Vinegar?

X comes out like Elmers glue, very dense and sinks quickly, it goes exactly where you put it (if your flow is off)

Hmmm.....any similar products that are more viscous?

I wonder if I could just add large doses of Aiptasia X or something similar to a tub of live rock.

I'm only concerned with the survival of any coralline algae.

I'm wondering if there's a certain water temperature below which Aiptasia will die.

Thoughts?

Usually, Bassletts (like dottybacks) are Firefish killers.

Well, you could diy Lumenarcs and I made my own hanging pendent.

I used this for the material (makes 2) this pattern (see below)

Nice work and a good idea.....unfortunately, I flunked Arts & Crafts. If I tried this, I'd end up with some very large ashtrays.

I'll take the Coral Beauty too.

Also I highly recc dimmable ballasts like coralvues. they overdrive or underdrive the bulbs at the turn of a knob. very helpfull when acclimating new corals. Also it allows some fine tuning of the color temp. cranked up (overdriven) 20k bulbs burn less blue. turned down (underdriven) they burn bluer. I like this feature alot.

I was just looking at the Coralvue 400watt Dimmable Electronic Ballast.

It says "Recommended not to use our electronic ballasts with GFCI".......I wonder why?

Please save Efrain a piece or two of really infected live rock.

I'm going to make two 48" aluminum racks (removable). Also, the size of the front doors on the canopy will allow plenty of access to the tank.

Since I won't need top access, do you think I can fit 4 Mini's and a 4 VHO's (two 48"s in front & back)?

It is going to be difficult to squeeze the vho's in there since the minis take up allmost all of the 24" width. I am barely able to squeeze just one strip of actinic t5's across the back.

Really?

I thought the Mini's are only 14.5"W x 14.5"L x 6.5"H? How can they take up all of the space on a 24" wide tank? Is it because of the mogul sockets extending out from the reflector?

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm working on the lighting plan for my 96x24x24. After consulting with JohnG, I've decided to pass on the combo fixtures and go with individual reflectors, but I can't decide on the MH reflector and VHO bulb combinations.

What do you think? FYI, this will be a mixed reef, but heavy on the SPS:

Option A: 4 x Lumenarc III Reflectors (400W bulbs) + 4 x 48" VHO bulbs

Option B: 4 x Lumenarc III MINI Reflectors (400W bulbs) + 8 x 48" VHO bulbs

Sorry to see an ARC member go.

Best of luck selling the entire system. If you're not able to sell it all in one shot, I'm sure people will be lining-up to buy things if you part out (me included!).

I'll take it all for $1/lb.

PM me you address and a good time to pick it up today.