iwishtofish
Active member
The gorgonian is looking very healthy - and great shot of it! Thanks for the picture. I would try one when I feel my tank is ready, but I think I've overdone it with flow. :worried:
drummereef's 180g in-wall build
- Thread starter drummereef
- Start date
gary faulkner
New member
Check out this site http://www.centropyge.net/ and you will see that these might be considered reef safe by some but your coral will suffer from these fish.
And then check out these http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/fishes/angels/genicanthus/ They are the only ones considered reef safe.
HTH
drummereef
Team RC
Thanks dzhuo. It's a photosynthetic gorgonian. I don't know for sure if it eats prepared foods but it will catch floating particulate in the water column, even flake food.
Thanks! This one doesn't seem to mind a lot of flow. Polyps stay extended as it waves around. Unless your flow is extreme, I wouldn't see why you couldn't keep one.
Cool, thanks for the links Gary.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Brett,
We have a pair of Bellus Angels and they are model citizens. We also have a Regal Angel who taste-tests everything we add to the tank. She pretty much leaves the SPS alone (except for an occasional nip), but we found out the hard way she has a taste for brightly colored zoo's and she devoured our Elegance Coral. We're not willing to take any chances with a clam. We had a Flame Angel for 10 years who did nip at our SPS on occasion, but not enough to do any damage or cause issues w/polyp extension.
We have a pair of Bellus Angels and they are model citizens. We also have a Regal Angel who taste-tests everything we add to the tank. She pretty much leaves the SPS alone (except for an occasional nip), but we found out the hard way she has a taste for brightly colored zoo's and she devoured our Elegance Coral. We're not willing to take any chances with a clam. We had a Flame Angel for 10 years who did nip at our SPS on occasion, but not enough to do any damage or cause issues w/polyp extension.
110galreef
New member
In regards to small angels & reefs.
I have a coral beauty & she nips at a few of my acans & open brain occasionally. Hasn't seem to do any damage, just ticks the corals off for a short time frame. In a large tank ~ 125g+ I don't think most of the angel listed above will do any 'harm" to kill a coral, just make it mad for a short period of time.
Ohh and, yet to have seen nip my clams or sps or zoa's.
If you truley are concerned you may lose polyp extensions, don't try any angel other than the swallowtail.
I had one of these in the past ...No sps, but never bothered a thing and was a cool looking fish. Also everything I have read & seen is they are reef safe. As most others are "caution" in a reef.
I have a coral beauty & she nips at a few of my acans & open brain occasionally. Hasn't seem to do any damage, just ticks the corals off for a short time frame. In a large tank ~ 125g+ I don't think most of the angel listed above will do any 'harm" to kill a coral, just make it mad for a short period of time.
Ohh and, yet to have seen nip my clams or sps or zoa's.
If you truley are concerned you may lose polyp extensions, don't try any angel other than the swallowtail.
I had one of these in the past ...No sps, but never bothered a thing and was a cool looking fish. Also everything I have read & seen is they are reef safe. As most others are "caution" in a reef.
110galreef
New member
Brett, one more tid bit of info regarding PO4 .....
In the past 10-14 days I have switched to more of a dry skimmate, nothing excessive also been feeding a bit more.
My PO4 has gone up from the .0153/.0184 to .0303 range. Nitrates still at 0.....
I am going to wetten up my skimming just a tad & see if it will get back to the .015 range next week. When I say wet, i mean like skimmer cup about 1/2 full after 2 days & drier was like 1/3 full after 3 days.
Something to try if you want to try bumping your PO4 up a tad....skimm a tad drier.
In the past 10-14 days I have switched to more of a dry skimmate, nothing excessive also been feeding a bit more.
My PO4 has gone up from the .0153/.0184 to .0303 range. Nitrates still at 0.....
I am going to wetten up my skimming just a tad & see if it will get back to the .015 range next week. When I say wet, i mean like skimmer cup about 1/2 full after 2 days & drier was like 1/3 full after 3 days.
Something to try if you want to try bumping your PO4 up a tad....skimm a tad drier.
drummereef
Team RC
Brett,
We have a pair of Bellus Angels and they are model citizens. We also have a Regal Angel who taste-tests everything we add to the tank. She pretty much leaves the SPS alone (except for an occasional nip), but we found out the hard way she has a taste for brightly colored zoo's and she devoured our Elegance Coral. We're not willing to take any chances with a clam. We had a Flame Angel for 10 years who did nip at our SPS on occasion, but not enough to do any damage or cause issues w/polyp extension.
Thanks for the info Mike. those Bellus Angels are beautiful fish.
Great thanks for the heads up on the fish. I've noticed since I've been feeding more the skimmate has been drier. Since I started the tank dialing in the skimmer has been a challenge. I think it was because my bio load was so low for a long time the skimmer always wanted to skim wet. It's definitely settled down in the last month or two so I have more control over it. I'll do some testing again today and let you know what the PO4 and NO3 levels are.
cromedogg33
Member
Brett,
The time has come for me to decide on which ATO I want to use. I went back and read about your Tunze. Do you still like it and have you had any problems with it?
My only real concern is my ATO failing and with it hooked up directly to my RODI that I'll just keep pumping water in my tank. Does the Tunze prevent this in anyway? I've been debating just hooking up an aqualifter to the neptune apex and putting it on a timer to just pull out the water I need every 30 minutes or so....so that if the valve/float switch off my ro/di ever fails it will just overflow a 5g bucket and go down the drain my room.
The time has come for me to decide on which ATO I want to use. I went back and read about your Tunze. Do you still like it and have you had any problems with it?
My only real concern is my ATO failing and with it hooked up directly to my RODI that I'll just keep pumping water in my tank. Does the Tunze prevent this in anyway? I've been debating just hooking up an aqualifter to the neptune apex and putting it on a timer to just pull out the water I need every 30 minutes or so....so that if the valve/float switch off my ro/di ever fails it will just overflow a 5g bucket and go down the drain my room.
Greenmaster
New member
Can you tell that everyone is trying to nudge you into buying more fish. Although people haven't been giving many threats like "you better get more fish or else :fun2:"
It's all good I'm excited to see your tank progress.
It's all good I'm excited to see your tank progress.
dzhuo
Active member
It's a photosynthetic gorgonian. I don't know for sure if it eats prepared foods but it will catch floating particulate in the water column, even flake food.
Where did you get it? Does it have a name?
110galreef
New member
Brett like to hear to as well.
Crome, I have to been kicking around the aqualifter on my apex and running it for say 10 mins x times a day to keep the evap in check overall. But from what I hear these are not the most dependable pumps, have a tendency to die in short time....~ 1yr?
I also may just use a smallpump in my RO container, controlled via the apex with some float switches in the sump.
My holding container only holds about 25g, which is enuf for about 8 days of TOP OFF. Worst case my sump could hold all the extra water & my salinity shouldn't drop really bad on ~300 gals of total volume. I could also put a command to turn off that outlet if salinity drops below say 33.8ppt.....
I feel this is my best bet. Also for the RO/DI I manually fill the holding container when it's low. So this is just a 1 time a week deal. And really no issues of flooding or dropping salinty too much.
I like a few FAILSAFE failsafes!:lol2:
Plus one time my skimmer went nuts & I happened to be draining it to a drain line. .....well It drained my sump, a few inches of water in my DT and frag tank ~ 60gals pulled!.....so imagine if my RO was directly feed to holding tank & refilled itself or if was feed direct to sump. minimum 60 gals of fresh water would have been added or more. My skimmer stopped draining when the sump emptied!
Now my skimer isn't draining anywhere now. I manually empty that too
dzhuo
Active member
Aqualifter is not reliable as a dosing pump because the dosing rate is not precise enough. But as a top off, it's about perfect. I would be very surprise if it dies in a 1 year. The problem with running top off for a predetermined number of minutes is not reliable as evaporation changes. This should be done using an ATO instead of a timer.
Other than the problem of pouring too much RO/DI (or kalk) into the tank, you need to make sure your return pump doesn't run dry. For example, you should have at least one ATO to sense the return section being too low and turn off the return pump. I have heard horror stories when this happen during vacations during the hotter months with evaporation is high and people run out of RO/DI in their reservoir. Depending on your return, this has the potential of starting a fire and burn down your house. It's scary.
Taqpol
New member
No angelfish (besides the Genicanthus, their mouth shape makes them planktivores) is considered 100% reef safe, but I have also heard that Potter's are more reef safe. It really comes down to the individual angelfish's personality. Of course, I heard feeding heavily also helps.
The cool thing about Genicanthus angels is that they are very easy to sex, and watching male/female interactions in fish is always interesting. They are also beautiful, but I have heard some people don't think they have as good of a personality as the dwarf or large angelfish and that they can be more skittish.
What it comes down to in my opinion is whatever makes you happy. Since you are going to be stocking less fish then other people do, I personally would spend a little more money and get very beautiful fish. There are very few fish prettier then a Potters angel, in my opinion.
The cool thing about Genicanthus angels is that they are very easy to sex, and watching male/female interactions in fish is always interesting. They are also beautiful, but I have heard some people don't think they have as good of a personality as the dwarf or large angelfish and that they can be more skittish.
What it comes down to in my opinion is whatever makes you happy. Since you are going to be stocking less fish then other people do, I personally would spend a little more money and get very beautiful fish. There are very few fish prettier then a Potters angel, in my opinion.
110galreef
New member
As for a pump running dry, the way most are ran, it cannot pull water below the inlet, thus the pump will sit in water at all times, at least a few inches. Plus i'd imagine most all submersibles will swell & freeze before ignition!
I do plan to have a LOW sensor in the return section to prevent frying the return pump
dzhuo
Active member
The inlet doesn't matter because all water would be evaporated. It's not that the return pumps all the water into the display, it's when you run out of top off water, the return section of your sump continue to evaporate until all the water are gone and your return pump sits in a dry section.
Yup. You don't want that to happen. Also, depends on what ATO pump you end up getting, you need to make sure this pump doesn't run dry as well. I have heard mixed experience for Aqualifter. Some said it can run dry for a long time and others said no. I had a couple occasions where mine ran dry for a few hours which doesn't seem to bother the pump. I currently do not have any preventive measure to protect the ATO from running dry but I am pretty sure before I take a vacation, this would have to be set up before I feel comfortable leaving the house. Not to mention I will properly switch out a much larger RO/DO reservoir before I do.
cromedogg33
Member
I'm not concered with the evaporation changes, they won't be extreme and with my WC schedule I shouldn't run into big problems. Mainly the change from summer/winter, but with my tank being in a basement it's pretty steady year round.
I'm already manually topping off daily right now which isn't the best, but I haven't found a solution I'm sold on.
110, I never really found a reason to use a salinity meter on the apex but that may be a failsafe that makes sense. I'm not as concerned with water on the floor as others may be since mine is concrete with a drain in it.
gary faulkner
New member
I have heard mixed experience for Aqualifter. Some said it can run dry for a long time and others said no. I had a couple occasions where mine ran dry for a few hours which doesn't seem to bother the pump.
Aqualifters can be used as air pumps, so no problem with them running dry.
drummereef
Team RC
As you know I use the Tunze Osmolator. After almost a year of use I can say it's a great system. Expensive yes, but extremely reliable and accurate. Directly connecting any ATO to your RODI feed has a potential danger. The Tunze has 2 devices that maintain top off level, an optical sensor and a mechanical float switch. I have mine set up where the optical sensor is the top off sensor and the float switch is the "high level sensor". When/if the optical sensor should fail the backup float switch is triggered and shuts the pump off.
Now, this doesn't prevent your RODI from overfilling the top off reservoir and/or staying on if the Osmolator were to completely fail. The solution to this would be put a solenoid valve on the RODI and have either the Apex or a separate timer control it to power on for ~30 minutes per day. This would allow the top off reservoir to fill each day but limit the amount of available water if the top-off pump or device should fail.
Now, if the Apex, solenoid and Tunze fail at the same time... you've got a serious problem. :lol:
Yes. :lol: Thanks for sticking in there with me Green, much appreciated.
I got it from Nanook, a local reefer friend and mod here on RC - great guy. I don't specifically know what kind it is except it's just a photosynthetic type gorgonian.
I agree, the Potter's is an amazing looking fish indeed. Colors are absolutely amazing. Thanks for the info and heads up. I'll continue to search for the new additions.
Greenmaster
New member
Sorry drummereef but I'm going to hijack for a second.
What do people think is the best schooling fish for a community reef, for looks/temperament/staying together.
P.S. it's for a 320g
What do people think is the best schooling fish for a community reef, for looks/temperament/staying together.
P.S. it's for a 320g
drummereef
Team RC
Anthias if you can feed 'em, Chromis if you can keep 'em. :lol:
