700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

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i did a 150 gallon water change sucking the stuff off the sand bed. there was a 1/8" plus layer of crud on the sand bed.
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then i went away for four days, first real break since starting the house last year. when i returned this is what it looked like. yuck!
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from the top the water is amazingly clear. no photo.

i was at the Marine Aquarium Expo two weekends ago and couldn't resist getting a couple of corals. i didn't want to put them in with my exisiting corals so the new tank became the QT tank.
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i will try not to add anything else for a few weeks. except maybe a clam or two that don't have a good place in their present locations.

the good news is that the sand bed is coming alive.
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couple more pix
bubbles bubbles everywhere. i think my tank care person may have overfed the tank the Brine Shrimp Direct food.
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they have all turned a little browner than they were when i got them two weeks ago. interesting.

PAR values today, a very sunny day peaked at about 1200.

the birds's nests are looking a bit bleached on the tops so i put some eggcrate over them.
 
It looks to me like your nutrient export is not high enough to be putting corals in yet. THe slime algea looks like typical NTS. If your birdsnest is bleaching, I'd say it is a combo of NTS, high nutrients, and an elemental imbalance.

IIWM, I'd throw one mother of a skimmer on there if you are placing corals in there already.

If I have read correctly, you only have the temp sump setup now, no refugium for MA growth, and a horribly undersized skimmer...is that correct?
My guess is that light/PAR is not going to be a concern for you :D You could look into theatrical Gels for "tinting" the light that comes down the skylight if you want a slightly bluer look.
 
i'll try to measure m nutrient levels today.

this tank has much higher light levels than where the corals came from, if they are lightening up i think it is the cause. it is only a little and on the top of the corals, birdnest only.

most of the rock in the tank is very established, years old rock and some base rock.

a handful of corals in this tank is not overstressing the system IMO. man people quarantine their corals in a bare system with no live rock or anything,

you are right, no refugium, and only the one Aqua C EV-400 skimmer with ozone. which is not Horribly undersized for the amt of input into the system. ORP is staying about 425. the nutrient inputs to the system have been minimal so i would not expect much export to be needed. the skimmer is producing some skimmate.

nutrients are being taken up by the organisms growing in the new sandbed and base rock also.

i have heard of these gels. we have a coral farmer here in So Cal that uses them or blue acrylic over his outdoor growing tanks.

i like the light so far. i am concerned that it may be much higher than some corals need/can take. and even acclimating new corals that demand/can take high light may be a problem.


Carl
 
themuck you are seeing is natural and happens in every tank when it is finding its balance but your lighting is far more intense then any of our halides could ever hope to be so I think thats why your having such a large breakout...it will mellow out in a while! I know I read earlier but remind me of what you are using for flow in the main system?
 
the flow right now is two Oceans Motions four ways, each connected to a Sequence Hamerhead, about 5800 gph each.

i know it all takes time. i have read Eric Borneman's paper on tank maturation. a great bit of information. http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic23945-9-1.aspx

my Mantra
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I like that article!!! My nephew started a tank recently and no matter what I told him I could not get him to stay patient, he wanted to add everything all at once like most new reefers do and lucky for him, he was mostly succesful! but I think he suffered a few lsosses that could have been avoided.

So whats the next move for your system?
 
It is hard not to add it all right now. It is an expensive lesson most of us have to learn the hard way. Sometimes more than once.
 
Thanks for the link, thats a good read.

What do you have for clean up crew? I've always had good results with diadema and tuxedo urchins.
 
i too have learned that lesson. i hope not to repeat it again.

right now i have two diadema urchins and a lawnmore blenny, and a few small 1/2" snails.

and 100's of Mysis, what do they eat?

Carl
 
Mysis will eat most of the same stuff that pods will eat (just think of them as big pods). If they're closer to full grown you'll be able to just feed them detrius.
 
Gooli-

whatever they are do you want some? come by and i will shake a rock out into a bucket and you will have a bunch.

the mature one's are about 5/8". they must be finding stuff to eat because there are a lot of them now. i am being given a long nosed Hawkfish next week. i am thinking of putting it in the tank and letting it fend for itself.

i will eventually be putting a Flame Hawkfish into the tank. will they fight?

should i?
 
Carl,
Regarding topping off with a surge tank, you simply set your topoff controller at the lowest level the sump achieves (ie: when the surge head tank is full, ready to fire).

If at all possible, yes, have the fuge feed the surge tank.

Regarding failure of a surge valve, yes a valve can fail, but I always put an overflow standpipe in the head tank. I always put an overflow in a CSD too, as they are not immune to failure either.

This is from the St Judes thread. I was telling Scott how I built one. This works great! Your outlets would be submerged, bubble and noise free.
"Spazz,
I've built a few valved surges too and LOVE them for their lack of noise and air entrainment.

I built a large Pneumatic valved surge system for a touch tank, with 2 head tanks. Very similar to what you have there. My touch pool could handle both tanks emtying all the way (500g total), but just barely. It was brimmed!

I set my dump timers with one slightly longer than the other. This would keep them offset for the most part, but when they caught up to each other and fired at the same time, look out!

This is a point you may want to check into with your sump. If both surges fire at the same time, can it handle it? You may have to set both timers the same to keep them offset from each other. Even then you will never balance the flow exatly to each head tank, and at some point they will fire together.

You could have one timer relay override the next so that they electrically cannot fire at the same time, or put a float switch at the high level of the sump (& tank if the overflow cant keep up) to shut the surge valves.

Barring that, youd have to standpipe the valve fittings in the tank so you never surge that much water.

I'm sure you guys are all over this, just putting in my $0.02 and past experience.

Can I ask why you dont close the valves before they suck air? Thats my favorite part about valved surges- no air!

You all have done a great job there. LOVE the plumbing.

Heres the big surge I did:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...446#post9910446"


This one was for a 250g hex tank. Thats a 100g surge tank, fed by a 2" electric ballvalve:)
mini_Ballvalve_surge_1.jpg
 
h20eng: I really like the surge tank. Would definitely try this out on a new tank.

I live in Hawaii, but I don't have the all access pass to the back of waikiki aquarium.
 
mouscacha- what do you do living in Hawaii? corals are illegal.

the back stage area is cool, surge tanks, skylight over the 5,000 gallon tank, etc. see my photos on the first page.
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love the Waikiki aquarium. Charles Delbeek told us the CSD have been running continuously for many years with no maintenance. after all there are no moving parts.
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here he is pointing out the skylight over the tank. you can really see the difference as the sun moves across the tank that is already lit by 5-6,000 watts of halide lamps. the sun makes the rest of the tank look like it is in the shade.
 
H20ENG

the link did not link to your project.

i understand what you are saying about needing an overflow safety.

wow, 100 gallons on a 250 gallon tank. those must be some big overflows.

i have 70 linear inches of 3" tall teeth overflows in the tank with 5 2" bulkheads. i hope that is enough to accommodate a surge should i use one.

more info please about the Pneumatic valved surge system.
 
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