Let me introduce you to my tank

[ReeferKris]

Hello folks,

I must say that the past few days have been very busy as I am vigorously interviewing for jobs. For those that I am late on PMs back, Im sorry. Anyway I recently suggested that another member of this board use their H.O.B power filter as a sort of mini refugium. I will now take a second and share my thoughts on this theory a bit.

I personally use a system in which my display tank is quite literally my filtration. I have a 30 gallon sump that is divided into 3 chambers. The first chamber is the water entering the sump, the second is a mini fuge that includes ROCK and macro (all died in move). And the third is the return to the tank. It is not fancy but it is very efficient and its efficiency is the surface area that is crucial to host the bacterial cultures needed to de-nytrify the systems water.. My display filtration employs about 120lbs of fiji and marshal live rock, a very shallow sand/crushed coral bed, 3 maxijet 1200's, a modified maxijet 900, the return pump (Mag9.5) and a maxijet 1200 used to power my Remora skimmer. I will continue to add flow as needed; but the idea is that the more flow I can get over more rock and substrate(without adversly affecting corals by direct flow), the more oxygen rich the environment producing thriving colonies of various types of denytrifying bacterias.

With your H.O.B power filters,

It is now proven knowledge in the hobby that any sort of filter "pad" or floss material is a Nitrate factory. If you keep a reef like I do, you want to eliminate ALL sources of nitrate to the best of your ability and by removing the filter media packs which are usually covered in floss material, you will eliminate that much more nitrate. By replacing the filter media pads with CRUSHED LIVE ROCK you will provide a nice safe place for copeopods to reproduce as well as a really nice place for extra biology. I use a carbon filled NYLON filter sock once a month or so to polish the water by simply placing it on top of my little live rock refugium and thus in direct path of flow to the filters return to your tank. The slow flow is not a problem in this style set up because it is constant and steady and oxygen rich. You may be able to find mini clamp on pc lights if you find yourself to be watchful enough to find them at a WalMart or Home Depot.

With my thoughts on filtration I must say that it is extremely important in my opinion that bi-monthly water changes of at least %10 is a must. I will now show you some recent pictures of my 75 gallon reef. We recently moved to Kyle from Arlington and all I lost was my macro algae (donations accepted at the meeting if anyone feels generous) Swimming inhabitants include:

Snowflake Moray a.k.a. "Eely"

Lawn mower blenny a.k.a. "Lenny"

Regal Blue Tang a.k.a. "Dori-Dori" (How'd you guess?? LOL)

Green Reef chromis a.k.a. " Nope, no name; he's just a chromis

Marine Betta a.k.a. "Midnight"

Blue throat trigger : Name not yet released. New fish and need to find suitable name

Ocellaris Clown Pr. a.k.a. "Frick and Frack"

Psychedelic mandarin a.k.a "swirly"

Enjoy and dont be too critical as it is not finished and it was recently moved. Also, you will notice that I am having a slight algae outbreak in the front left side due to a brief rise in nitrates after the move. Should be gone soon.

[cmanning]

Your tank looks great, even from such a recent move. Keep it up and you will have that tank almost, emphasis the word almost, the way you like it. Like always, we reefers have to tinker with it .

Cindy

[Headless_donkey]

Very nice tank! You should start a blog and keep us up to date with changes and progress.

[Sushi]

wow, gorgeous tank! I've got plenty of macro growing in my tank, I'll pull some of it for you and bring it to the meeting, just remind me.... I'm very forgetful >.< lol Ut-oh... Isn't is bad luck to name you're fish?! (j/k) ^_~

<edited to add question I forgot to ask... told you! lol> Is that Kryptonite Candycane? If so thats one of my favorites!

-Kat

Edited July 15, 2007 by Sushi

[chatfouz]

i may be slightly confused. why is floss so bad?

just so i get this right because it mechanically filters out stuff that stuff rots

and as it rots it adds nitrates??

but isnt that slightly to be expected? if you dont use floss how else do you

mechanically filter the water? can there be any way expected to filter the

water without the downside of the caught stuff rotting?

but i love the idea of a hob as a mini refuge. do you actually use this or this just an

idea? because many or most small hob have high flow rates for the small space, and

that would not be a bad thing? mabye it would be great because the bacteria is well

oxygenated. but cant there be too strong?

i really want to try this. i have so many penguin filters that i have nothing to do with

and i cant stand buying those overpriced replacements.

[CaptainBob]

I use a sponge in my power filters, just for the mechanical filtration aspect, but I get around the nitrate problem with a big mess of macro in a suction cup shower caddy stuck inside the tank just under the filter output, this has the benefit of being under the reef lighting, and that much algae right under the lights burns nitrate faster than my reef inhabitants produce it, and I've got my dwarf lion in there, so you know there's waste being produced.

[KarenM]

I use a sponge in my power filters, just for the mechanical filtration aspect, but I get around the nitrate problem with a big mess of macro in a suction cup shower caddy stuck inside the tank just under the filter output, this has the benefit of being under the reef lighting, and that much algae right under the lights burns nitrate faster than my reef inhabitants produce it, and I've got my dwarf lion in there, so you know there's waste being produced.

How to you keep the chaeto in the shower caddy? Tiny bits of mine is always floating out (most of it is weighed down with small rocks). Plus I can't keep my critters out of it - my snails go in there, and my sixline wrasse goes in there and stirs it up. I'm down to a very small amount now, and will have to get more.

[CaptainBob]

i actually use more grape caulerpa than chaeto, and the trick to keeping the macro in the caddy is keeping the lip of the caddy just above the surface of the tank, my snails crawl in there every now and then, and the lion got stuck in there once, but has since learned that there's no food in the big green mess and he leaves it alone now. Stirring the macro up isn't really a problem, I routinely reach in and shake it around a little every couple of days to get some the micro organisms into the rock and sand below it... which is great for my anemone and all of my LPS.

*edit*

the other reason I prefer grape caulerpa to chaeto is actually a little strange, if you pull a handfull out, rinse it in clean fresh water and put some rice vinegar on it it makes a great salad for human consumption.. I've only gotten to eat one since I implemented my caddy-fuge 2 months ago, but it's actually quite tasty.

Edited July 22, 2007 by CaptainBob

[KarenM]

i actually use more grape caulerpa than chaeto, and the trick to keeping the macro in the caddy is keeping the lip of the caddy just above the surface of the tank, my snails crawl in there every now and then, and the lion got stuck in there once, but has since learned that there's no food in the big green mess and he leaves it alone now. Stirring the macro up isn't really a problem, I routinely reach in and shake it around a little every couple of days to get some the micro organisms into the rock and sand below it... which is great for my anemone and all of my LPS.

*edit*

the other reason I prefer grape caulerpa to chaeto is actually a little strange, if you pull a handfull out, rinse it in clean fresh water and put some rice vinegar on it it makes a great salad for human consumption.. I've only gotten to eat one since I implemented my caddy-fuge 2 months ago, but it's actually quite tasty.

I googled it and it's very nice. I may try some of that for my tank. As for my salads, I think I'll still to lettuce and spinach. After pulling out that stinky dead anemone last week, I barely put my hands in there.

[+dapettit]

I am very interested in the HOB mini-fuge. I have an extra aquaclear 50 and would like change it into a mini-fuge for my 50. CaptainBob moght you start anoter thread showing photos of your mini-fuge/shower caddy w/possible step-by-step set up. I belive it would be very beneficial to all.

Edited July 22, 2007 by dapettit

[CaptainBob]

here's a link about seaweeds that are routinely grown for human consumption- http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/006/Y4765E/y4765e0b.htm

I'll stop now before I totally hijack this thread.. but in all seriousness I don't think I'd eat anything else I grow in my tanks

[+dapettit]

Sorry ReeferKris I got so confused as to who started this thread that I asked the wrong person my question.

BTW, your tank looks awesome!

Dave-