Gig 'em @ NDstructible

Good thing you had that tray! Stories like this are exactly why I don't use foot valves to manage my water level. I'm sure there's always a good reason why an ATO keeps running in these cases and every tank needs a bit of growing pains to work through the kinks, but never once have I overflowed my sump with freshwater by running the ATO a few seconds every hour. My method may be antiquated, but it works without ever flooding my floors! Is there a way you can adjust the overflows so this won't happen next time the power goes out?

You have the worst luck with used equipment! Like terrible! I couldn't imagine the replacement pump on that thing is cheap. Good thing your birthday is coming up. [emoji4] Haha yup. Goodbye birthday presents, hello replacement pump

That time you check on your tank on your way to bed and notice the protein skimmer isn't running, then spend a good hour taking it out of the sump, taking it apart and cleaning it, and putting it back in only to realize the pump is dead. That's what I get for buying used equipment on the club [emoji35]

It makes me happy to see that so many people are speaking up in support of the club in response to the recent departures of some members. I have always felt ARC is my go-to forum and that it is such a safer haven than the national forums for good clean discussions. I'm glad people here are making efforts to make the forums better and I will certainly be doing my part to continue to foster a positive and supportive atmosphere.

I wish. Unfortunately I lost a couple of corals this week. I can't explain why, one coral after another started STNing. It seems to have stopped now, but I lost some very nice corals [emoji20] Hopefully it won't start up again any time soon. Thanks for the compliment though!

Took some top down shots with the iPhone while the pumps were off. Sorry for the bad quality, maybe one day I'll get a real camera and editing software, until then here are some raw photos.

Yuck! I hope you find it soon! I would definitely plug stuff back in one at a time and inspect for any burn marks. Sometimes the burned area still smells burned after the room has cleared and you can easily identify it. Best of luck [emoji51]

I agree with Ty. They can't completely destroy their food source or they'd go extinct. Something humans should learn based on the way we burn through our natural resources [emoji26]

I was under the impression that they eat aiptasia and concentrate the stinging cells within themselves for protection against predators. It would make sense then that they're only interested in the cells of the aiptasia because that's where the stinging cells are concentrated. Typically anemones don't have stinging cells in their pedal disk, so eating that part of the anemone would be a waste of effort on the part of the berghia. Just my thoughts on why they leave the base.

Kim, every time you post a FTS, I love your tank a little more! That gorgonian in the middle really gives the tank texture and makes it look like a natural reef. Did the sand get stirred up at all around the time toe acans started looking il? Any possible sudden increase in bacterial populations? Cleaned out a biopellet reactor or any sponge filters? I feel like most LPS and anemones that get randomly sick are suffering from infections, but that's just my hypothesis.

O baby baby!

Yes I am running carbon. I have a BRS dual reactor so I slowed down the flow to the GFO reactor so more flow could be diverted through the carbon today. The corals look fine now and I was able to chop up the dying coral to prevent the necrosis area from spreading. Looks like it worked... so far. Whatever happened in the tank was enough to trigger a RTN event in my purple wild colony. I guess that coral is my proverbial 'canary in the coal mine' for my tank. Too bad it's also the slowest growing SPS I own

I like the double "sandwich" T5s. If I had more room in my hood I would do that!

Yeah that would be the only logical explanation. It's my life-giving presence my corals lacked this week.

On a more positive note, my strawberry cowrie is laying eggs! That would be sweet to have a population of strawberry cowries [emoji1]

I can home from a field assignment last night and found my corals to be pretty PO'd. There was very little polyp extension on my SPS and my most delicate wild acro was starting to STN. All my parameters are in check: Temp: 79.8 pH: 8.2 Alk: 8.23 (was 8.12 three days earlier) Mg: 1140 ppm (down from 1200 8 days earlier) PO4: 0.00 ppm Salinity: 1.027 (a little salty, but it's usually around 1.026). Can't really describe what happened, especially since I haven't been home. The house looks a bit cleaner so I asked my wife if she had sprayed any cleaning solutions in the house and she denies it [emoji19]. The corals look happier this morning with regular PE again. Has anyone ever experienced this unexplained mad coral syndrome? I'm sure something happened, but without being here half the week I have no clue. Picture of STNing wild coral

Cue Ty's giggle. Let's keep this PG. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk At least I refrained from saying "and getting it wet", but seems like the comment has swung in that direction regardless.

Sweet! Can't wait to see this tank erected!

Definitely. Sad thing is though that they really aren't the major source of heat in the house. Looking at the top corners of my vaulted ceiling with the camera, the walls up there are more than 20 degrees warmer than the old windows [emoji33]. 32 years have not been good to the insulation up there and I think that may be a winter project when it's more bearable to crawl around in the attic.

It's hard to tell how warm the skimmer and return pumps are since they're submerged in water. Since water has such a high thermal capacity, it just looks like a solid color. I would have to drain the sump to see their heat. My skimmer is a Mini Bubble King 200. Fits my sump well, the cup is easy to clean, and seems to do a good job scrubbing out particulates.

Well that's a no brainer.... I kind of felt like Predator walking around the house with IR vision. I could switch modes and follow my wife around the house just by looking for her most recent footprints in the carpet. absolutely insane! The coolest thing was being able to see studs and nails through the drywall. Man, who needs a stud finder when you have this thing!!

I did a temperature audit of my house today and took some IR pictures and videos. I mostly looked at walls and ceilings for leaks and areas that need re-insulation, windows I am currently replacing (some old vs new window comparisons), and why not check out the aquarium while at it? Can't see through water with an IR camera, but you can easily tell where water is warmer. Now I know where most of the heat comes from in my tank! Sump picture. The glowing red reactor is the calcium reactor. It makes sense sine there isn't a whole lot of flow in and out of it, but it's constant being recirculated by a hot pump. Ocean revive LEDs (Left) vs Orphek Atlantik LED (Right) Whole tank shot And just for fun/awareness, window comparison. (New double pane on the left, original single pane on the right) Outside comparison of front door, new window, and then old window.

I decided I had had enough of battling the cyanobacteria in my tank with simple water changes and siphoning and decided to declare chemical warfare on the unsightly colonies. I dosed the manufacturers recommendation of Chemiclean over the weekend and siphoned as much cyano off the rocks as I could for two days and replaced the water with freshly treated SW that had the proper dose of Chemiclean in it. It's only been a few days, but man is the tank clean and beautiful looking! I really hope it stays this way. I took the GFO and carbon offline during treatment and haven't put it back online yet. I checked all my parameters yesterday and nitrates and PO4 were at, or close to, 0.00 ppm. I'm hoping since I knocked the population of cyano out and nutrient levels are low enough they won't return. I didn't see any direct negative reaction from the tank inhabitants during the treatment, but I noticed yesterday the my red tabling acro had a little STN on a branch and by the middle of the day half the colony was dead . Popped the colony out and broke off the remaining branches and glued them to a new rock, they all survived and the remaining colony was completely gone by the end of the day. Freaking apoptosis , I don't understand why corals do that. I checked all my parameters and nothing was out of the ordinary so the only thing I can think of is the chemiclean or maybe a compound that was released when all the cyano died off. All other corals are doing well. Took my large yellow H. magnifica out of the tank on Sunday and started treating it with antibiotics since it's health has been slowly declining over the past few months. I wish I could say what has been causing it, but it's mouth has been open for a while and recently half the anemone's tentacles have started curling up and looking misshapen. The first day of treatment I pulled out a glob of black and white 'snot' from it's mouth and I'm hoping that has been the cause of its distress lately and the treatment was the tipping point to get it do eject it. Here's to hoping it pulls through and recovers....

No flow pointed directly at the mud, I didn't want to stir it up and cloud the tank. I'm actually very surprised and pleased how well it sits without drifting away, I thought for sure it would cloud up at least a little. From the feel of it, it feels close to a sandy loam, but I'm no expert. If you notice on the right side of the picture is a piece of black acrylic, this is a wall I built around the PVC outlet that forces the water toward the bottom of the Refugium. Water then has to flow up through the rocks and over the mud to exit the overflow and into the return pump section. There's not a ton of surface flow over the mud, but enough IMO that as critters start living in it and stirring it up there will be more contact. Thinking about getting some marine grasses and planting it in there too and that'll help draw out some minerals. If I start to see some real positive effects from it I may get a larger container and add more in the future.