acropoorer

We have water and Nh3. Been waiting two weeks now and still have high ammonia ~2ppm. Water still looks pee yellow and I soaked my dry rock 3 times in RO/DI for a week before going with salt. I'm new at this dry rock thing but was hoping for faster results. Just changed out my carbon tonight. My plan is to move all my stuff out of my existing tanks to the new monster in the garage. The setup is temporary and halides will move one at a time with the coral. I have the big panworld pump doing all the work and man does it rock. 1850 gal/hr thru my chiller and back to the tank, the final system will only be 1000 - 1200 gal/hr on the returns and the pan world will be closed loop for my chiller only. Borrowed a few items from friends to run temporary for the change over -- deltec skimmer and a phos reactor. Working on my lighting now to get ready to grow some coraline. The skin may be a while, need to get a week off from work. After going over to Mike Delgado's spring break I decided to add 6 finnex led strips for moonlight but will probably run them all the time for supplemental light. They only burn 9 watts per strip and never burn out, so why not. As a moonlight, the view is like going another planet -- never seen anything like it! Thought he put something in my drink! No! It's not what it looks like, the color is from the dry rock.

Enjoy and thanks for the visit.

The superman generally does fine in high light--faded blue will recover it's color as long as the polyps are healthy. Also, I can hook you up with acro advice and nice size sps frags at a very reasonable price if you are interested (post me if you want). Also, there are bargains posting all the time in the for sale section.

Put me down for 5 buckets of coralife.

Pink and white from my iphone so it's a little blurry. The little green spec in the lower right has grown into two more rics since this photo was taken.

I use a Precision Marine Pro media reactor and like it. The three little fishes leak after a while and it's tricky to tighten the lid. PM makes various sizes, but the middle pro size is nice quality for not too much money(around $170). I run rowa phos and have never seen an issue from too much. It's difficult to reduce your phosphates to 0 with gfo as more is always being produced even with a reactor. I've measured the water out of the reactor (merck test) and it is very close to 0 but the tank never falls much below .03 mg/l.

Good to have you on board, You'll find plenty of good advice here!

Sorry, didn't see the other post requesting them.

I'll take the caribbean blue zoes if you still have them.

Incredible pics. Guess I need to get macro lens for my iphone.

The real challenge of a large tank is to build it yourself. If you want to give that a try I would be happy to share my experience. Still haven't got my new tank fired up yet but I'm very close. Hope to get it in the house about the same time as you, but I'm going to run it in the garage in the interim. Sounds to me like you've made up your mind to go for it. Live the dream! Bigger is Better! All your friends think it's a great idea too.

Isn't the challenge why we do it? Bigger, better, more stuff, but not really harder if you get a good setup. More risk is the biggest challenge -- very easy to end up with 10-15k in rare and exotic critters that you have to keep alive. BTW, I can help you fill it with coral.

The flatworms you are describing sound like red planeria. They should be harmless unless you kill them with flatworm exit in which case they can emit a poison that will cause problems in your tank (not a problem unless you have a lot). Generally they require a lot of nutrient in the water, so a cleaner tank will generally reduce there numbers. When I first had them I went with what all the lfs's advised but was surprised to see that the most aggressive eater of these guys was the blue green chromis. Reef stores will sell you sixlines, mandarins and gobbies for the problem but I have only observed blue greens eating them. I have always had them in my system, but never see them in my show tank since adding the blue greens. You can use flatworm exit which in my experience hasn't had any ill effects on other specimens. However, if you have a lot of them you have to be careful about the poison they emit when you treat. Cleaning up built up nutrient will help more (built up crude in sand beds and tank bottoms). I have a bare bottom frag tank and when I let crap build up in the bottom they over populate on the crude. As a rule I don't worry about them as they go away when I clean the tank bottom and the chromis keeps eats most of the ones that are more visible. Treatment never seems to completely get rid of them (come back in a few months) but might if you treat multiple times. Again, they should be harmless to corals unless they are the acro eating type (which will stay on acro's not all over your tank). You should be able to blow or suck them off your coral. Good luck.

I had one for a year and half. It did quite well and ate frozen mysis -- getting it to eat is the trick. If it won't eat mysis try mixing mysis with live brine shrimp to get it started. I lost mine when I went bare bottom -- got stressed when it didn't have sand to sleep and hide in. Beautiful fish and if you can get him to eat he should be fine. Enjoy.

Looks great Brooks! Love the anthias, a real nice touch and my favorite species. Are you going to add a male?

Some triggers eat corals and most get big -- probably pushing it for a 48 gal. A six line wrasse is a good fish to have with coral and might be good for a first fish. Also, clowns are nice for smaller tanks and are fairly easy to keep.

I had a yellow tang and a sailfin that got along great. I added a copper banded and the two of them ganged up on him constantly for a few days then eventually left him alone. Sometimes it's luck.

Thought you would qualify as an expert Clint. I have a question for you on 3 part dosing and trace elements. Mainly what trace elements do you add, where do you get them and roughly what do they run per month for you tank size. Dale

Robb, I am not convinced that AGE uses anything other than silicone. I poked around their tanks and if there is something other than silicone in the pvc/glass joint it is well hidden -- saw/felt rubber on both sides. I did get a quote from AGE, but they didn't quote exactly what I asked for. Based upon their quote, my guess is that to get what I wanted (close to what i built) would have been in the $9K range with tax and drop shipping included. AGE and their dealers will never tell you how they do it, but they will make it sound complicated and technical. That makes them exclusive and they can charge more for their product. Not to say that they don't have a great product because they do. Love the pvc bottom. I have about $2800 in the tank and expect to have an additional $1000 in the stand and hood (lighting excluded of course). I could have saved $400 on the tank if I would have been willing to meet glass cages delivery truck in San Antonio, but decided to have it delivered to my house and part with the cash. The biggest expense on the stand is the Oak for the moldings ($300) and 8 raised panel solid oak doors ($400). Dale

This is a long answer and a secret of those that know. So, I will say that I used silicone and 1" pvc plus a secret ingredient. The pvc is thick for a reason other than it is needed to carry the weight -- think of a channel in a channel -- vertical and horizontal. I used the channel in a channel concept and I am convinced AGE does as well. I already purchased my glass and pvc when I happened to meet the owner of saphire aquatics in Houston and was talking to him about the tank I was building and he shared the other key adhesion secret with me and I don't think he would want me to publish it on the web. So if someone is seriously interested on building a glass to pvc tank I would share the secret off line so that they could have a successful build -- just don't want to publish it. There are also some secrets to avoiding bubbles in the seal that I can share that I couldn't use on my tank (My seams didn't come out as pretty as I'd have liked) I don't believe the brand of silicone is critcal, but I bought mine from glass cages and the brand is Dow Corning 732 multi purpose sealant.

You know I have offered to help you and I've already started thinking about how we would do it. Think about how great those chalices will look through starphire.

Whats a build thread Mike? If you help me I'll do it.

I recommend 3 little fishs from Marine Depot, the have a red color that doesn't stand out to much. It sets up faster than the sticks from home depot and the color blends.

Mike, The film is cut back 1/2" around the overflow and caulked with black caulk. The silicon to plastic is the concern -- there are tricks for that.