Jim's nps beginning

[fullmonti]

I've been asking you guys questions for mouths now, in preparation for my own nps tank.

My tank is a 36 x 12 3/4 x 17 a bit more than 30gal. It is tied in to my 180 sps system. About 30-40 GPH flows through from sps return pump. Flow in tank is from 3 Tunze nano streams 6025. It has a 2 tube 4' T5 light with one super actinic & one Fiji purple bulb (just happen to have it on hand). My nps tank is in my fish/filter room, same place the refugium was.

I got my first corals a couple weeks ago from LFS. They are pretty basic, but about all there ever is available locally, that's why I keep asking every one where they get there beautiful corals. Still have a touch of brown algae from cycle, but dif on the way out.

This is a little 5gal tank I made for a pod farm. This shot was taken a good bit before I set up nps tank & now has a good pod population going. It is in back of nps tank. It over flows straight into the sps tank.

My feeding scheme is a 1 1/2 gal tank I made, with a small power head to keep food mix moving & a ice probe to keep it cool. I have a Liter Meter III I use for ATO, so I got another pump for it to pump 1gal of food mix from feeder tank into display tank. It pumps a little in every 15mins throughout the day. I have started with some thing very like Danny Dame mix. I also feed some oyster & roti feast, Brightwell zooplankton sm & reef snow 3-4 times a day.

Ended up rapping the feeder tank with foam to keep it cooler, stays about 55 now.

This feeding system has been running for just a few days now, & never been a spoiled smell & still no gunk build up, though I'm sure the gunk will come.

I plan to ad some yellow head jawfish, but LFS hasn't been able to get any so far. Corals stay open most all the time. It took what seems like along time to get going, but I'm very happy with my set up so far.

Thank you all for helping me get to this point!!!

 

[flying_dutchman]

awesome! tagging along

 

[slapshot]

Very nice. The only problem I see is with your feeding system. With so much water and time the food will begin to, if not totally break down. You will be dosing nitrates and PO. Why not just use your chiller and pump. then feed from a smaller container that contains just the food with some water just to dillute? Better yet sell the chiller and get a fridge. Then pump right from inside there. Less food more often. Although, you could start a roti tank and feed live rotis from there.

You have picked up some nice corals and the tank looks sweet. Your rockwork and placement are great. Can't wait to watch it mature.

 

[slapshot]

..... Whoops, sorry double post.

 

[Mikeygo1]

Wow, I whould never have thought to do things like this. I like the idea of the pod tank, what are the needs for the pods? Food, heat, and lighting.

 

[fullmonti]

slapshot I thought about the feeding system for a long time. In the end I like simple & I don't have enough room for a mini frig any way.

Mikeygo1 I think the main thing for a pod farm is not having any thing eating them so they are free to multiply. There are threads on the subject (at least one on nps forum). I'll take a new pic of mine, it is just a small fug, water from return flows through & back into main tank. It has 10K T5 light, & enough algae so that I seldom ever feed them (Just a little flake food now & then).

 

[fullmonti]

slapshot I thought about the feeding system for a long time. In the end I like simple & I don't have enough room for a mini frig any way.

Mikeygo1 I think the main thing for a pod farm is not having any thing eating them so they are free to multiply. There are threads on the subject (at least one on nps forum). I'll take a new pic of mine, it is just a small fug, water from return flows through & back into main tank. It has 10K T5 light, & enough algae so that I seldom ever feed them (Just a little flake food now & then).

sorry don't know how I double posted

 

[fullmonti]

This is all that can been seen of the pod farm now.

There are a hand full of snails 3 or 4 hermits one small brittle star & PODS.

I have added a small amount of biopellets in a TLF reactor. I'm a little paranoid about the extra nps food going into the sps system, even though there is a large reeflo skimmer on the system. So far so good.

 

[slapshot]

sorry don't know how I double posted

Glad it wasn't just me. Something wierd going on last night.

 

[uhuru]

Looks great so far. The food vessel could work if you're diligent about cleaning it out daily. The kalk reactor I had was larger than that and I didn't even cool it. Its not ideal though and the cleaning gets old after a while. You should try to get in touch with DFason (Dave), as he was developing a small food reactor I think with an iceprobe on top that held its temp really well. Last time he posted he said he just needed to drill some holes in it.

 

[chattareef]

Nice job Fullmonti. Could use your expertise/ help on my newbie set up.

 

[fullmonti]

It would be my pleasure to be able to return some of the help I have received on this forum. There are many here that have much more experience though. You must have gone through allot of threads to get back to this one. So I would say start a thread & ask your questions. You are welcome to PM me if you'd rather.