Little Rimless Radium Tank - 2 years of progress

Okay i can see the yellow tang has taken 2 months to travel 6" - he needs a walking frame.........:p
Seriously though mate, you're going to need extra bracing on the tank seams soon as there's going to be a coral borne explosion at some point - beautiful SPS display as always :thumbsup:
 
Okay i can see the yellow tang has taken 2 months to travel 6" - he needs a walking frame.........:p
Seriously though mate, you're going to need extra bracing on the tank seams soon as there's going to be a coral borne explosion at some point - beautiful SPS display as always :thumbsup:

Thanks for the compliments.

I had another FTS with the tang somewhere else, but my Enchinopora reached out and zapped a chunk of my efflo and he just so happens to be hiding the dead spot ;)

I tried to pick up a 150 gallon a month back or so from a guy on the socal forum but we missed each other in a game of phone/email tag and I had to get back home for work. I'm hoping if he didn't sell it yet I can pick it up my next trip down.

I'd really like to add more volume to my system even if it's only in the form of a larger sump or frag tank. I had to go out of town for work and when the trip was extended unexpectedly I ran out of ALK just 1 day before I was able to return. My DKH dropped by almost 5. I don't like having such a large daily draw so I'm hoping if I doubled my water volume the same demand would result in it's draw being decreased by half. At least that's how I think it should work?
 
Looks Great Mammoth! How many fish in there and how often are you feeding? The colours are fantastic...
 
Awesome looking tank! Those metal halides seem to really be doing the trick for you..
I cant believe how jam packed full of acro's the tank is...
 
Was trying to get a picture of something tonight but it didn't work so I snapped a quick FTS. Some corals moved around after I went AEFW hunting and popped some stuff off the rocks. I need to spend some time taking photos of individual pieces. I also found some pieces were starting to get shaded which was causing recession and needed to be moved.

Progress from 3/28 - Today (68 days)

original.jpg

original.jpg

Awesome - Love packed tanks and your color is great. One of the best tanks!
 
Thanks everybody for the kind words.
Looks Great Mammoth! How many fish in there and how often are you feeding? The colours are fantastic...

I think is still a lot of room for improvement with my colours There are some corals that sort of blend in that really did pop at one point in time. For fish I have 2 clowns, a dotty back, algae blenny, starkii damsel, and a tang. In the frag tank is a wrasse, so seven total. I feed pellets daily Nori and Mysis maybe a couple times a week.

Do you does carbon like vodka Etc?

For the first 6-8 months of the tank I used biopellets, but I haven't ran them proboly in 2 years now. Only GFO/Carbon and water changes. I've thought about putting them back online or hooking up dosers for Vodka & vinegar to see if it helps with the SPS colouration but I'm really reluctant to change things around at this point. I've got my hands full with Aptisia, AEFW, and this pest algae that grows between the acro branches killing what's under them and in the summer I spend a lot less time with my tank.
 
Last edited:
Hi MammothReefer,
Beautiful tank you have there. I am very interested in learning more about the AEFW, if you don't mind, I would like to ask some questions about them.

So when you blast the corals with Turkey baster or MaxiJet.
1) can you actually see the AEFW fall off the corals? Are they that big that you can see with naked eye?
2) How hard do you have to blast the corals? Does the AEFW fall off easy or they really hang on?
3) Do you have any fishes to eat them or once they fall off the acro, they will die by themselves?
4) Do you only blast the corals to control Aefw or do you also dip the corals as well?
5) The flow from a MaxiJet 1200 is very powerful, it doesn't damage or peel off the skin of Acro when Acro got hit by the current? Which MaxiJet model are you using?
6) Does your Acro recover within an hour or so or it takes a few days to recover after being blasted?
7) I read in your thread that you only blast them once a week right?
8) Do you point the MJ's output directly at the Acro for a few seconds?

Sorry for so many questions but I really want to understand this process more in details so I can apply it to my own tank.

Thanks,
Bao
 
Hi Bao

Sorry for the late response.

1) Yes you can see them floating around. If I see them going back for another coral or in the rocks I try to blast them again towards the fish.

2) It really depends sometimes they come off quickly other times you have to fish around and shoot for the right angle. Depends on the size and the coral shape.

3) Yes almost all my fish will eat them when they are free floating. I don't know if they will die on there own before they can get back to another acro it would proboly depend on how packed your tank is, I also don't know how far they would normally travel or how long they can live without eating or if say they can walk across a monti without getting killed.

4) I've done both. For a while I was dipping with Revive but I had some bad results on sensitive corals so I went to baste only. At some point I just didn't give my tank the time it needed, didn't keep up with basting, and things got a little out of control, so I had to to switch back to dipping corals that I knew could handle being dipped and basting the rest so I could the AEFW back to a manageable level. When I ran out of revive I went back to basting only until I got a hold of some RPS all out. I then went back to dipping everything (and still basting). After a few dips I ran out of RPS and switched to bayer, sadly dipping with Bayer resulted in the loss or partial loss of a couple pieces so right now I'm just basting and thinking of getting more RPS all out. Although not to jinx myself I haven't seen any in some time now, so I think maybe rounds of dipping with All Out, and the last dip in bayer may have broken the cycle. I could also redip everything but a couple pieces in Bayer if I need to it but so far things are looking good - Fingers are crossed.

5) I use a 1200. Yes at first it will peel or cause the acro pull back the skin they get used to it after a few times.

6) They recover in terms of PE within the hour if not 10 mins or so. I can't say how long it takes for the AEFW bites to heal or the colour to start to improve that is dependent on what else is going on with my tank at the time.

7) I change my basting routine depending on a couple things. If I am dipping then I dip first and only baste when I do a water change that way I'm not blowing AEFW around the tank if I know I'm just going to remove them in a dip. If I'm not dipping I try to baste once a week with a maxijet. I also have a turkey baster laying around that I use to baste and kick up detritus whenever I am lurking around the tank and have some free time or if something looks off and I want to see if it has been infected with AEFW.

8) Yes I point it right at the acro and trying to move it around to get the acros from as many angles as I can so to dislodge whatever may be on there. I also go around the whole tank just to kick up any detrius and get it into my filter sock at the same time.

Hi MammothReefer,
Beautiful tank you have there. I am very interested in learning more about the AEFW, if you don't mind, I would like to ask some questions about them.

So when you blast the corals with Turkey baster or MaxiJet.
1) can you actually see the AEFW fall off the corals? Are they that big that you can see with naked eye?
2) How hard do you have to blast the corals? Does the AEFW fall off easy or they really hang on?
3) Do you have any fishes to eat them or once they fall off the acro, they will die by themselves?
4) Do you only blast the corals to control Aefw or do you also dip the corals as well?
5) The flow from a MaxiJet 1200 is very powerful, it doesn't damage or peel off the skin of Acro when Acro got hit by the current? Which MaxiJet model are you using?
6) Does your Acro recover within an hour or so or it takes a few days to recover after being blasted?
7) I read in your thread that you only blast them once a week right?
8) Do you point the MJ's output directly at the Acro for a few seconds?

Sorry for so many questions but I really want to understand this process more in details so I can apply it to my own tank.

Thanks,
Bao
 
just a quick update with some photos from the other day. Moved some things around due to shading that were starting to recede, fragged a couple pieces, unfortunately lost a couple pieces after giving a Bayer Dip a shot, and I had a bit of a funky spike in demand that threw me off for a few weeks (I'm guessing due to the increase in temps) but everything else seems to be on track.

original.jpg


original.jpg


original.jpg
 
Stunning tank Mammoth, are you using the brs diy two part and pumps? Im still up in the air about what pumps and two part im going to use.
 
Thanks, BRS for the 1.1ml pumps and 2 part. I had a stand alone GHL but exchanged it for a Apex that I haven't setup yet, still using the ACJR. One day I'll get it switched over to the Apex so I can taper my dosage to combat my daily swings.
 
This is my new favorite tank! I just started my first SPS tank and my wife says it looks bad having just frags. I let her look at your pics as what my tank could possibly look like and her jaw dropped. Your tank is my inspiration going forward.

Thanks for taking the time with my PM questions. Beautiful tank.
 
Back
Top