Blog Comments

did you drill the venture back out after gluing it. It doesnt take much of a obstruction to mess up the air draw

Some really old pictures of the sump, but you get the idea. Still look exactly the same, only a bit dirtier and there is a feed pump for a GFO reactor. I will get more pics of the system later.

No aluminum media used, only GFO. Temperatures recently started getting closer to 82, but I have knocked it down to 76 again (the basement was collecting a lot of hot air, opened up some windows in the house to get some airflow). However, I'm pretty sure the coral was retracted before the temps started warming up for the summer.

before you go and upgrade your skimmer you may want to try NPX bio beads or a similar product, you can probabuly get away with running them in a cheep phosban reactor. im actually really curious to see how they would help your water quality when combined with an effective clean up crew,

now that im running NPX I cant even keep a single turbo alive in my 45 because they simply have no algae to eat

The colt is a hardy coral but needs clean water, strong flow, and good lighting. I had a huge colony in my 29g under PC lighting for several years. Leathers don't like aluminum in the water, like some nitrate extractors use. Also, watch your fish from across the room to make sure none are nipping that coral.

Any chance your tank temperature is getting higher during the daytime, more than what you posted?

A picture of the skimmer, the sump, and the tank setup helps me a lot in assisting you. You didn't mention much in the way of snails. For a 135g I would have about 50-75 Astreas. Ceriths, nassarius, emerald crabs, two tigerrail cucumbers and a fighting conch as well.

Thank you for the compliments. However, that picture is from May of this year, and I wish my tank still looked like that. Trust me, it is quite a bit greener that; I just couldn't put up a recent tank picture as it is embarrassing.

On a side note, looking back I realize the large colt coral in the upper right of the tank has shrunk to about 50% of its original size. I bought it as a large adult colony in April from Premium Aquatics and was completely happy for a month. Then all of a sudden it shrunk and looked like it was going to die most of the summer. However, it has firmly attached to the rock and has been opening up for the past month. Still, it has never looked as good as it did during the first month. I wonder what is going on? All my other soft corals have grown quite a bit and have never skipped a beat.

Nice set up and welcome to RA

It doesnt look bad from this picture You made it sound like a frog pond in july. A few emerald crab will help with the bubble algae. You could try some carbon dosing. Getting your ph and alk up alittle more might help too. Tank looks nice throw up a few pic of the skimmer and how its plumbed up Maybe we can diagnose the problem with it

2x diamond goby, 1x yellow tang, 3x chromis, 2x clownfish, 5x trochus snails, 5x hermits, 1x peppermint shrimp. 135g net system. actinics on 12 hrs a day, 10k on 10 hrs. I run GFO and GAC in a BRS media reactor, no mechanical media except sponges in media reactor.

My skimmer came with a damaged venturi, but I glued it back together with epoxy. I wonder if the fitting still isn't working properly, causing the skimmer to function sub-par. However, it is something like $40 to replace the fitting, and even then Roger wasn't sure if I would get much more juice from the skimmer so I have held off on that purchase. To that extent I am now considering getting a differnt skimmer.

What do you have for livstock and cuc? What size is the tank? How long do you run your lights per day. 100 ml a week thats like 10 tbs something isnt right with that. Any carbon and mechanical media sock, floss sponges?