Aquabacs' Cadlights Artisan 50 Azooxanthellae Tank build

[Aquabacs]

Matt, in each compartment there is 1/8th of a teaspoon of FM MinF, 1/8th of a teaspoon of FM SeaFan, 1/8th of a teaspoon of FM Clam (each is rounded not leveled so you can say it is slightly over an 1/8 each). Each compartment is then administered over a 2 hour period of time.

Mike

 

[Matt_Wandell]

So you fill the whole feeder up daily then? And I take it the way you say "administered over a 2 hour period of time" that the feeder works by slowly turning like a timer rather than dump the components of a single compartment all at once?

Out of curiosity, why not mix all the different powders together into a "super mix" for easier loading?

 

[Aquabacs]

For the feeder, I refill all the compartments evey night. That is correct for the "administered over a 2 hour period of time" part. Caught my choice of words The food slowly goes into the feeder ring over a 2 hour period of time. If you want to change the frequency; you can add more of the red pins or change their position.

Actually the only reason they are seperate right now is because when I bought my last batch of FM food, I didnt buy all equal size containers (out of the Clam in the large size). So right now as my supply is getting low I am dosing this way. My all means mix them up, it is sure easier that way.


Mike

 

[Aquabacs]

Should be coming in on Friday (as long as UPS is on my side) from Aquacave for my refrigerated feeding system. The Bubble Magnus dosing pumps are good for the price but I wanted to have additional contol over my dosing regime with my Profilux. By adding a fourth pump this also allows me to add an addition product from Reef Nutrition :bounce2:




Mike

 

[Aquabacs]

Super stoked right now! Got message last night and I have one of my dream fish coming in next week (hint: shipping with a decompression kit just in case). Keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives alive.

 

[slapshot]

Nice, can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[Aquabacs]

Mike

 

[uhuru]

biopellets?

 

[Aquabacs]

Yep, Warner's. I have had some interest in their application for our tanks but honestly never been sold on them. I have been carbon dosing (FM Ultralith system) for a few years and been using the Ultralith stones (zeolites) as a bacterioplankton generator. Now, how well the pellets will keep nitrates and phosphates at bay in a heavily fed azoox tank tank could be up for discussion or the volume of pellets needed to achieve this. Only really concerned with enhancing bacterioplankton generation. Water changes will still remain as scheduled and FM ultralith will remain in sump.










Mike

 

[slapshot]

Hey Mike question for you. So I changed up my dosing pumps to something I can control by the seconds instead of minutes. I will be coping your fridge design soon but I set it to feed my mixture 15 seconds every hour. What do you think? Not enough food at one time?

 

[Aquabacs]

It is something you are going to have to play with. During those 15 seconds every hour how much food will being dosed and of what? You are going to have to see also how it effects your skimmer and tank parameters. How long, if any, effects the skimmer foam production? Build-up in the skimmer neck...and most important how your corals react to it.

Mike

 

[slapshot]

It is something you are going to have to play with. During those 15 seconds every hour how much food will being dosed and of what? You are going to have to see also how it effects your skimmer and tank parameters. How long, if any, effects the skimmer foam production? Build-up in the skimmer neck...and most important how your corals react to it.

Mike

Ok, its the same amount of food I used to dose in a 24 hour period just hourly instead of every 6 hours. It does not affect the skimmers. The water passes through two 55 gallon drums before hitting the first skimmer. I have three skimming variuos sections of the system. Anyway, it seems to not affect the foam. I pull a lot of junk out of the water with the skimmers. I'll just keep an eye on things. Thanks.

Don

 

[Aquabacs]

No problem Don. Might I ask, what are the two 55 gallon drums for? Just a pass though section to add more water volume to the system or a different function?

Mike

 

[gruenburger]

this is one of the most beautiful tanks i have ever seen. good work, man.

 

[slapshot]

No problem Don. Might I ask, what are the two 55 gallon drums for? Just a pass though section to add more water volume to the system or a different function?

Mike

It is an interesting part of my system. It started as a way to add water volume so I could put more in the display, feed more etc. but it has kind of duplicated the deep water environment in the ocean. They are plumbed in series. the first one, the sides are now completely covered in white sponges. The second one is now covered with tube worms. The interesting part to me is even though the environment is the same there are no tube worms in the first and no sponge in the second.

I run outside air through bubblers to help with the PH so it is not an oxygen issue. I am not sure what to make of it but I figure it must be adding to the filtration. The only problem is I have to syphon out the bottom every other month or it starts to form a dead zone and then the ole rotten egg smell is there when I do syphon. I was tempted to leave it because I figure it must be consumming Nitrates but the thought of poisoning the system scared me.

 

[uhuru]

That is awesome I wish I had the room for that. You know, if you rearranged the order so it went through the tube worms first then the sponges you might get even more growth from both barrels.

 

[Aquabacs]

<object width="400" height="270"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5929294&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5929294&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="270"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/5929294">Beneath the Blue</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2111938">ART HOWARD</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Not sure if you have seen this video before or not but it is pretty awesome! Click it to full screen and enjoy.

Mike

 

[slapshot]

That was just plain sweet. Thanks for sharing.I forgot about that one. No one realizes that we actually have a reef the size of the Great Barrier Reef off of North Carolina. a 1000 feet deep but there.

 

[Aquabacs]

It is an interesting part of my system. It started as a way to add water volume so I could put more in the display, feed more etc. but it has kind of duplicated the deep water environment in the ocean. They are plumbed in series. the first one, the sides are now completely covered in white sponges. The second one is now covered with tube worms. The interesting part to me is even though the environment is the same there are no tube worms in the first and no sponge in the second.

I run outside air through bubblers to help with the PH so it is not an oxygen issue. I am not sure what to make of it but I figure it must be adding to the filtration. The only problem is I have to syphon out the bottom every other month or it starts to form a dead zone and then the ole rotten egg smell is there when I do syphon. I was tempted to leave it because I figure it must be consumming Nitrates but the thought of poisoning the system scared me.

That is pretty cool Don!

Is this them

Mike

 

[slapshot]

That is pretty cool Don!

Is this them

Mike

That is them!

That is awesome I wish I had the room for that. You know, if you rearranged the order so it went through the tube worms first then the sponges you might get even more growth from both barrels.

I don't know if they would stay that way. This is the way they developed. The sponges must extract something that keeps them from spreading into the second barrel. I have no idea why there are no tube worms in the first. There is no light in either so it is cool to see stuff living in there. I did one time find a baby Bangai Cardinal in the second barrel. I could not catch him but he vanished as mysteriously as he appeared. I am guessing he got sucked out as he must have lived in there long enough to grow to a size I could see him.