Blog Comments

Here's another part of it that concerns me: moving from a 55 to a 90. I want to transfer the current 55 into the sump, and while I'm adding baffles and such I plan on using my current sump on the 90. I'd like to use some black sand to do a shallow bed in the display with a DSB made of my current aragonite sand in the sump. So I'll have sand ready to go, and I will have the water difference ready as well. I'll drain some of the water from the current tank to the new one, but all of the rock will move. What should that transition look like? Will there be a 2nd cycle? Has anyone tried this before?

The overflow is usually around $60 shipped, but without specifics that is purely a guesstimate.

If you don't want to order those teeth online, you can use eggcrate instead.

Vortech pumps are expensive up front, but the lack of power consumption and a number of other benefits is why I use the exclusively. Here's a review I wrote about them on Melev's Reef: http://www.melevsreef.com/review_vortech.html

Hey Mits! For the teeth you could try something like this:
http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=90

And looking at the Model F, is there a workaround for the refugium's teeth? The tank is glass, and I was planning on having glass cut for the baffles and using silicone. I'd imagine nobody will cut teeth into glass, and the last time I tried to silicone acrylic to glass it failed.

Thanks Melev! I'm way ahead of you on the overflow, I already looked at your site. What's the ballpark for that sort of thing? Can you run the vortechs on a wavemaker? I can get another power strip for my RKL and run the wavemaker function, that is if vortechs won't break the bank. I've never priced them out. I love the idea of a frag tank sitting next to it on the same stand.

Having a larger stand is wonderful, in that you have room for a bigger sump and space around the tank to put things down. In fact, I prefer it. If you are going to go with the 90g, I'd put a couple of Vortechs on the tank for flow and save yourself a lot of plumbing and electrical consumption. If the tank isn't drilled, put a single overflow in the corner, and drill it for a 1.5" drain and a 1" return. You could use a 1" drain and 3/4" return, but the larger size makes more sense to me. If you need a corner overflow, I know a guy that makes 'em. Link!

For the sump layout, I'd suggest you copy the Model F on my site; it is easily the most copied sump on the web from what I've seen in my travels. It's a good layout that allows for flexibility.

Oh, and the thermostat has been relocated so it's not an issue.

Yeah, so the hawkins echinata is pretty much a goner now and the pearlberry is losing tissue at it's base. The only hope on the pearlberry is one branch still has some color and may survive. I'm so pissed at myself. I traded a huge piece of my frogspawn and now have nothing to show for it.

Weather-wise...that's life up here in Northern NE. IME, Softies and lps and Zoanthids especially, are extremely hardy when it comes to "frag neglect" for transport. Acros have such a narrower temp range, but it sounds like those frags got pretty chilly. That second picture looks like its gone, but you never know. The first frag looks promising.
Transport, I (and most in the hobby up here) usually have heat packs or some sort of warmer. FWIW, clipping the corner of the plastic packaging can stretch out the life of the pack as opposed to just taking it out of the package. If I don't have too many bags, I just double bag them and keep them in my coat for the ride. In the past I've asked people at work to "keep a box warm" for me, and once I tell (and show them) it's alive they usually guard it pretty well.
Regardless, it sucks to lose new frags.

Massive stress, I would say. I would also put them on the sandbed for a couple days pending how bright your lights are. Instead of smakin you in the face, that's all they can do I've dome something similar, and thought the water isn't that cold till I got home and felt my tank water.....

I always have a lunch size insulated bag for frags, and have made stops during transit. Just make sure you keep them on your person. never leave in a vehicle cold, or hot. I have taken frags inside a restaurant, among other places. As for your frags its probably stressed induced bleeching, or could even be light induced. (needing to be acclimated to your lighting).

Got my SL2 module and probe, and I ran a hose from the skimmer up to the attic. It seems to have worked. My ph goes between 7.99 and 8.12 throughout the day now.

I don't feed my anemones either. They seem to do fine capturing tiny food or fish waste that happens to blow into them each day.

I pretty much never feed the anemone, but the clowns may drop a couple pellets in there at feeding time. It sits right under the bulb and just keeps growing. Sometimes it looks bigger than in any of those pictures. It's amazing that at one point it was tiny and close to dead after walking into a powerhead.

It looks nice. Sorry to hear you lost your original post to the browser crash. Thanks for sharing.

Do you feed your anemone? It looks very fat.

I think the flashlight example is just color temp coming into play. It seems the LEDs have a higher color temp than the incandescents. Hey Plantguy, have you guys fired up any of those Icecap blue LED tubes you just got in? I'm curious to see how they look.

Thanks. I'm using 2 250w 14k Icecap MH bulbs with a dual PFO ballast, as well as 2 VHO actinics. I'd like to swap the actinics with the new blue LED tubes from Icecap too, but they're a bit pricey right now.

Corals look nice!

I really like the mix of corals you have in your tank. What are you using for lighting?

I just took a similar variety out of my tank, they were like a plague attaching and growing EVERYWHERE, glass, overflow, you name it. I took the main colony out, but still have a them scattered throughout the tank. If mine were as pretty as yours, I may have kept the main colony, unfortunately mine are a bland brown/tan color.