ADA 120-P + Elos Mini dual NPS tank journal

The waratah anemones are here! These guys look sweet. Pretty good size and very plump too. I'll get some pics soon.
 
mike a few things, have you ever heard back on the bubbles in the seams from ADA?
also how many vortechs do you have and where are they located at in your tank?
corey
 
Thanks wireefman.

Corey I haven't contacted ADA directly yet. I plan to do it this week. I know I'm just a reefer and their main market is freshwater so who knows if they even care. We'll see. If this were Elos I'm sure it would have been taken care of as soon as I contacted Jesse the US rep.
 
These waratah anemones are so cool looking. Can't wait til they start reproducing, its gonna be like a coldwater tank. I'll try to get some pics tonight.

I ordered new test kits finally. They should be here tomorrow. Its gonna be interesting to see what my N & P levels are. I know some of you have been asking me about that too. Also got an alkalinity test kit as I am going to start dosing kalk. My pH levels have been dropping low at night, likely due to the respiration from the macros in the fuge and possibly low alkalinity as well.
 
The waratah anemones are here! These guys look sweet. Pretty good size and very plump too. I'll get some pics soon.

These waratah anemones are so cool looking. Can't wait til they start reproducing, its gonna be like a coldwater tank. I'll try to get some pics tonight.

I ordered new test kits finally. They should be here tomorrow. Its gonna be interesting to see what my N & P levels are. I know some of you have been asking me about that too. Also got an alkalinity test kit as I am going to start dosing kalk. My pH levels have been dropping low at night, likely due to the respiration from the macros in the fuge and possibly low alkalinity as well.

psssstttttt......... we need pictures
 
Mike - I seriously keep coming back to just gawk over your tank. I know you are busy but would it be possible to give us a tank tour? How you have it all connected, tanks, fridge, plumbing( I know you dont want to snap photo's of the seagrass tank but I would love to see it ).

-Dave
 
Hey Dave,

My mom got me a canon powershot for christmas that has HD video capability. I want to test it out so maybe I'll do a video tour of my setup. The seagrass tank is struggling as far as the seagrasses go. This is another reason I want to test for alk. I think it is too low (as well as pH). I also think I run my temps too low for seagrasses to really thrive (71-73F). They do grow but extremely slow and they can't compete with the macros, which serve the purpose that I really need them for (nutrient absorption). I also have cyano in that tank which is embarrassing but ok if you really want to see it I'll include that as well :)
 
hi mike
your tank looks very nice!
can you say me how your vortech runs? have you got a wave modus like tunze wavebox?
i got a lot of waste in the sand.. have you the same problems? what do you against it?
alex
 
Thanks Alex! The vortechs do about 1400 gph each since I turn them down a little. I don't use a wavebox in this tank. I use "long pulse" mode. This allows for the momentum of the water to build up and create more water movement that way. The placement of the pumps and how they are synchronized is important too. The rockwork allows for a gyre pattern around the tank. It has worked surprisingly well considering that mp10's are on the small side for this size tank.

This is my first attempt at another video with my new camera. This is just a video of the "fuge" which consists of 6" deep mud/sand bed, caulerpa, ulva and halodule shoal grass. The shoal grass doesn't grow nearly as well as the caulerpa as you can see. Overall I think this tank is a great complement to the system, not only for biological filtration but natural food production. Watch it on youtube and choose the HD resolution if you like!

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Thanks for the video.
Does your OSFF also swim around that frantically?
When you speak of food production are you referring to pods or bacteria, & what is your thoughts on having a fug below the display & pumping water up to display. Do you think the pumping harms the food? Or is it much better to have it on same level & overflow into display.
 
He does that when he's full. The tank had just been dosed with a bunch of food. He'll be hungry again in about 30 min. and you can see why. They're like underwater hummingbirds.

For food production I mean both pods and bacteria. I'm sure ideally it is best to have it overflow into the display but I don't know how significant of a difference it really makes. Mine bypasses the skimmer and ozone but it still has to get pumped up to the other tanks. Also, you know how dendronephthya love it when you stir up the sand bed? They go nuts when I stir up the sand bed in the fuge. I don't stir the deep layers of course but just from doing maintenance with the caulerpa and stuff is enough to get a dust storm going that makes its way into the other tanks. I think the fuge really benefits from phyto dosing as well. I just finished a bottle of phyto feast and the only thing I grow on the glass is bacteria and pods. No microalgae films, and this is with a powerful 6500K light.
 
Thanks Alex! The vortechs do about 1400 gph each since I turn them down a little. I don't use a wavebox in this tank. I use "long pulse" mode. This allows for the momentum of the water to build up and create more water movement that way. The placement of the pumps and how they are synchronized is important too. The rockwork allows for a gyre pattern around the tank. It has worked surprisingly well considering that mp10's are on the small side for this size tank.

This is my first attempt at another video with my new camera. This is just a video of the "fuge" which consists of 6" deep mud/sand bed, caulerpa, ulva and halodule shoal grass. The shoal grass doesn't grow nearly as well as the caulerpa as you can see. Overall I think this tank is a great complement to the system, not only for biological filtration but natural food production. Watch it on youtube and choose the HD resolution if you like!

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1fgA6v1PGs4?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1fgA6v1PGs4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Is the long nose file fish easy to feed... isnt it a coralivore?
 
They are typically very difficult if not impossible to keep long term, however mine has been adapted to eating a variety of prepared foods for 1.5 yrs now. Some still believe that they need coral polyps in their diet though. I throw in browned out SPS corals whenever I have the chance. Here is a video of him going crazy for some Roggers Reef Food which I use a grater to cut into tiny pieces. I feed the same slurry to the corals and other fishes. Basically all of my corals and fishes are fed the same foods.

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You can choose the HD option if you like, not sure how much of a difference it makes. I might go buy a real video camera soon.
 
Ok guys, brace yourselves for this shocker. Here are my water parameters:

Nitrate: 25+ ppm
Phosphate: 1+ ppm
Alkalinity: 9 dKH
Salinity: 1.027 sg

So... I'm going to start looking into the biopellets as well. Even though I'm pretty happy with how the corals are doing, this just goes to show that things can always be better. My main concern is keeping things from getting even higher, so I will start very conservatively. Also don't want to cause the macros in the fuge to crash on me.

With that, I leave you with some pics that make you think, how the hell are these corals happy in such dirty water??

_MG_1099.jpg


_MG_1112.jpg
 
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