Austin goes Rimless - Dudester's 203g mixed reef

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Jonathan - If I would have seen RoBolton's meter I would have gotten it, but I'm quite happy with mine. It's super easy to use.

Marc - Mine was $250 and RoBolton's is $320. It might be worth searching on ebay for a deal but this brand does have a very good reputation at this price level.

bbehring - The strainer is working out perfectly well, thank you. It's large for a reason. The more surface area, the less pressure applied to each individual 'hole' in the strainer. The brittlestar I foolishly tried to "rescue" from the strainer was in no peril at all, and in fact I find it atop the strainer with great frequency. My little Swales basslett occasionally camps out near the strainer during feedings, awaiting small morsels of food to be brought toward the strainer for some stress-free dining as opposed to fighting the other fish in front of the wavebox. I don't foresee my strainer ever getting clogged, but if it gets dirty I can easily remove the rock sitting upon it for maintenance. Your use of 2 drains for redundancy is smart.
 
I got a bunch of stuff done today. I ran some tests and it seems I finally have my Ca reactor dialed in properly. No adjustments have been made to it in about a week and the alkalinity was 8.5 dKH, perfect for my ZEO tank. I also have been replacing potassium for quite some time now and it's finally at ~375 which is just about where it needs to be. Next I did a 5% water change and siphoned the sand. Lastly, I mounted all of my new frags and adjusted the return pattern on the 4-way. I hope that tomorrow all of the corals remain where I put them. In the past, most of my mass coral mountings were met with a few fallen soldiers. I will get some pics soon, promise.
 
Sorry everyone, I just got back in town today. I've been gone and off-line since the 21st. I was reluctant to post since I don't have pics yet, but I didn't want to be rude. Actually, now that I think of it, it's probably more rude to post without pics than not to post at all. I'll try to snap some shots this weekend and get them posted on Monday. Really, I will!

Things actually fared pretty well in my absence. The house sitter added topoff water to the reservoir, fed the fish, stirred the ZEOliths, and added a few ZEOvit additives for me while I was gone. The new corals are all where I originally mounted them, and all are alive except for a small tank-raised elegance coral that didn't make it. I can see signs of decent growth from some of the frags, and most have kept their color pretty well. A Miyagi tort is pretty bleached, but happily the cali tort is still a fairly dark blue. On the fish front, the powder blue tang has ich on the pectoral fins as well as some spots on the body, but it ate aggressively and doesn't look thin at all. I'm hopeful that this isn't the beginning of the end for this fish. I don't know what happened, but the emerald crabs look like they've doubled in size. I saw an empty green shell and some claws on the sand, and the crabs are very shiny, so I know they've molted, but dang I can't believe how big they are!

Tomorrow I'm doing a water change, changing out the carbon, siphoning the sand, and changing out the filter socks, along with whatever else I end up doing. Hopefully that will include taking some photos. I hope everyone had a nice holiday, and thanks for following along.
 
Thanks for the reassurance, GSMguy. Nori going into tank. I also want to try broccoli for its nutritional value. I can't remember where I read it but I seem to recall it should be blanched to soften the broccoli fibers before adding it to the tank. I'll search for the proper method.
 
Ahh, here it is, from MaxxII (hope you don't mind me quoting you).

"Broccoli is probably the best non marine vegatable to feed herbivores in the reef tank. The main drawback to it is that the fibers of the plant are so tough, that the fish have a difficult time digesting them completely. So you basically cook the broccoli florets on the stove on high heat in a frying pan for a few minutes til their bright green. The heat breaks down the fibers pretty well. After that, I put them in the freezer. When I need to feed, I pop a floret in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, which defrosts it, and further breaks down the fibers. The freezing does the same thing. Also, you can steam the broccoli for 10 minutes and then freeze it/microwave it."
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11477294#post11477294 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
Thanks for the reassurance, GSMguy. Nori going into tank. I also want to try broccoli for its nutritional value. I can't remember where I read it but I seem to recall it should be blanched to soften the broccoli fibers before adding it to the tank. I'll search for the proper method.
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Dude

I am with GSMguy on that. When I see my rabbit's eyes getting even a little cloudy or YT getting a little thin, I soak some Seaweed Select in Zoe and feed it. They clear right up!

I generally feed the fortified seaweed once a week but really give it an extra soaking when I see potential health issues. I find too much of the vitamins add lots of nutrient.
 
Thanks for the "second," Bax. I blanched the broccoli, added a couple drops of garlic extreme, then clipped this along with some nori and placed it in the tank. The yellow tang attacked the nori and I didn't see the powder blue take any, although it usually only ate a small amount even when it didn't have ich. The yellow has sampled the broccoli a little but I don't think the PBT has touched it. I'll leave it in for a while today to see if it gets eaten. I may even try some banana.

As for the broccoli, I have an easier technique than Max's, and I assume it's just as healthy for the fish. Just get some frozen organic broccoli, and when you want to feed some, pull out what you need from the bag, nuke it in the microwave, and you're ready to go. That's what I'll do in the future.
 
I've never heard that about broccoli. What I'd heard was to blanch it in boiling water for 15 seconds, then place it in the tank. The quoted information is significantly different. Perhaps the 15 seconds was more about killing off any pests and remove any pesticides.

I've put banana in my tank before and my Purple Tang loved it. Spock just watched and wondered what the heck was going on. :lol:

One fish store was rubberbanding a wedge of orange (with the rind) to a piece of rock, and placing that in any tank that had tangs. I never heard how that worked out.
 
Our local PetSmart puts orange slices in all their tanks. I figure if they are doing it, I should definitely NOT do it! :lol:
 
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