RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup

[RocketEngineer]

you need to get that hair algea under control.

LOL, picture this: I took July 5th and 6th off and it only cost me 4 hours of vacation because I had banked 12 hours of OT working the Saturday before and late Monday....The schedule hasn't let up since. Still working OT and Saturdays. Its all I can do to have clean clothes and feed the various animals (the dog gives me dirty looks if she isn't fed but the cat takes the direct route and jumps onto my chair). I do have to admit that the tank has gone 3 weeks without a good algae removal session so if I don't have to work Saturday I plan to have a tank work weekend. Have to keep up with maintenance or it bites me.

iwishtofish, While I don't mind some algae, I have to concede that stevedola has a point. Keeping algae in check is my goal but I don't think the green lawn I have growing on my sand bed counts as "under control".

RocketEngineer

 

[iwishtofish]

iwishtofish, While I don't mind some algae, I have to concede that stevedola has a point.

I'm sure there was some humor in his delivery - I just couldn't see it, of course. I figure you must be getting pretty tired of fielding the algae comments!

I've decided that I won't stress algae in my current and future tank, as long as it isn't interfering with the health of the corals or clogging the powerheads. I will add some emerald crabs if stuff gets out of hand - I've seen them at the LFS plucking and eating long strands of it. First time I've ever seen that! But I've also seen one plucking at the tentacles of a duncan coral, so I guess it's a calculated risk.

 

[stevedola]

Im not trying to hurt your feelings...If you dont mind the algea then keep it going. Its your tank, do as you see fit. I was simply commenting on its appearance to the general public. Its not my taste to have overgrown algea. Some corals dont mind the causes to high algea grwoth however many of my corals(sps) would not tollerate that high nutrient environment.

I will give this antedote:
My fathers 90 had tons of HA on the rock/SB and it was very difficult to get it under control after a year of overfeeding and inadequate skimming. I tried big water changes, GFO, Manual removal, replacing some rock...nothing beat it. Employed the use of biopelets in a reactor and 2 mths later the tank was cleaned out of all HA. THe corals started to look ill but I took the pelets offline and voila...clean tank and corals recovered. Starved the algea to death and fixed the reason to excess nutrients *better skimmer, flow, stopped overfeeding*. Now he just has to maintain his tank with a Cleanup crew and water changes like the rest of us. He almost had me tear the tank down before I used the pellets. While I dont like the pelets as a consistant means of nutrient reduction because of all fluxuating variables, I do like the as a way to suck up all the PO4 in a system to kill off the algea. If I had to do it again I would set up a holding tank for the corals so that they wouldnt be affected by the pelets rapid depletion of nutrients however I think that is a small price to pay for a clean beautiful tank. Just my 2 cents.

 

[RocketEngineer]

I'm sure there was some humor in his delivery - I just couldn't see it, of course. I figure you must be getting pretty tired of fielding the algae comments!

I've decided that I won't stress algae in my current and future tank, as long as it isn't interfering with the health of the corals or clogging the powerheads. I will add some emerald crabs if stuff gets out of hand - I've seen them at the LFS plucking and eating long strands of it. First time I've ever seen that! But I've also seen one plucking at the tentacles of a duncan coral, so I guess it's a calculated risk.

It boils down to "walk a mile in his shoes" mentality. No one knows my life circumstances so I don't sweat stuff like that. I have had lots of snails in the past but recently they have all been dying off even with all the algae in the tank while the hermits are doing fine. Oh well, for now things are staying as is.

Im not trying to hurt your feelings...If you dont mind the algea then keep it going. Its your tank, do as you see fit. I was simply commenting on its appearance to the general public. Its not my taste to have overgrown algea. Some corals dont mind the causes to high algea grwoth however many of my corals(sps) would not tollerate that high nutrient environment.

I will give this antedote:
My fathers 90 had tons of HA on the rock/SB and it was very difficult to get it under control after a year of overfeeding and inadequate skimming. I tried big water changes, GFO, Manual removal, replacing some rock...nothing beat it. Employed the use of biopelets in a reactor and 2 mths later the tank was cleaned out of all HA. THe corals started to look ill but I took the pelets offline and voila...clean tank and corals recovered. Starved the algea to death and fixed the reason to excess nutrients *better skimmer, flow, stopped overfeeding*. Now he just has to maintain his tank with a Cleanup crew and water changes like the rest of us. He almost had me tear the tank down before I used the pellets. While I dont like the pelets as a consistant means of nutrient reduction because of all fluxuating variables, I do like the as a way to suck up all the PO4 in a system to kill off the algea. If I had to do it again I would set up a holding tank for the corals so that they wouldnt be affected by the pelets rapid depletion of nutrients however I think that is a small price to pay for a clean beautiful tank. Just my 2 cents.

No hard feelings. For me this is a HOBBY so stressing out about how the tank looks or posts online is counter-productive. In the end, I enjoy my tank even though it doesn't have the pristine look some go for. In my case, not having the time to fix things mean certain things take hold in the tank that others might freak out over. As long as folks remember this is supposed to be something to enjoy rather than a chore to be done, then maybe they can relax a little more and see what the biology in our tanks turns up.

One of the reasons I went with LPS initially was their tolerance of less than perfect water quality. It has been a steep learning curve from my original 30g to the 75g and now the 125g is over the horizon.

My biggest hurdle with the 75g is not having enough flow through the sump. This means my refugium isn't able to do its job and the skimmer and GFO reactor are both recycling their own water. If I added a biopellet reactor it would have the same problem. Until I fix the sump flow issue, nothing else is going to help. So for now its a matter of keeping on top of what I can do until I get the upgrade done.

RocketEngineer

 

[RocketEngineer]

Well for the last few weeks the citron goby has been really thin. I have been feeding the same things with the same frequency but it wasn't doing well. Tonight I came home to find it stuck to the powerhead, dead. I wish I knew what the issue was so I could fix it but sometimes things just don't go as planned.

 

[iwishtofish]

I'm sorry to hear about that. It's always hard to pin down exactly what has led to a fish's demise.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Today I took another trip to Dr. Mac's after some Under $15 frags. In addition to 7 new corals I also picked up six new turbo snails.

Blue Tip Acro:

Gold Acan:

Minty Maze Brain:

Duncan:

Also got a stripped acan, green alveopora, and red brain coral but no pictures yet.

In other news, I got a picture of two hermits fighting over a mysis:

Also, the birds nest has put out branch buds:

So with 6 turbos in the tank, I have already spotted spaces where the algae has been taken down. In one area there is nothing but coraline algae left on that area of the rock. Hopefully they will be able to get things back under control.

RocketEngineer

 

[RocketEngineer]

Fts

Fts

Given that this is the last weekend in July, I figured I would add some FTS pics.

Left side:

Center:

Right:

And a FTS:

I did a count and currently I have 31 corals including the 7 new ones. Two of them are very hard to see because they are in the cracks of the rock but most of them are in plain site. Definitely time to get a bigger tank.....

 

[RocketEngineer]

Fail

Fail

Went to drill the overflow bottom for the 125g. First while I was drilling the hole in the template, the hole saw caught and proceeded to bend the pilot bit. Once I got the template finished, I clamped the glass between the template and the picnic table and started drilling. When I was almost done I heard a SNAP as the glass broke across the hole. At that point I put it all away.

Today has not been my day.

RocketEngineer

 

[iwishtofish]

Sounds like bad news, for sure - but I'm not sure I understand. This wasn't the bottom glass of the 125g, right? I'm assuming that because I can't think of a way you'd be able to clamp that to the table...

 

[RocketEngineer]

Sounds like bad news, for sure - but I'm not sure I understand. This wasn't the bottom glass of the 125g, right? I'm assuming that because I can't think of a way you'd be able to clamp that to the table...

No, this wasn't any part of the 125g itself, this was one of the pieces of glass I picked up for the external overflow box.

Thinking about it last night I know what I did wrong....The picnic table isn't flat so when I clamped to it I was stressing the glass. Combined with the drilling action, I created a stress fracture that propagated. At $30 a hole to get the glass shop to drill them, I'm going to give it one more shot before I have the glass shop drill the piece. This time I will sandwich the glass between two pieces of wood. I might clamp the backer to the table but it wouldn't be where the glass is, only on the ends.

Lesson Learned: Don't clamp glass you are drilling to a non-flat surface. Bad things happen.

RocketEngineer

 

[iwishtofish]

Better luck this time!

 

[jcw]

Maybe clamp to a big piece of wood then clamp the wood to the table or in a vise. lucky it wasn't the 125g.

I can't recall. Do you run GFO? After a while (maybe the second or third batch of GFO) as long as there isn't a serious underlying problem, the HA slowly goes away.

While I agree that a little HA is not going to hurt much, the issue is that it can be a sign of a problem that if not corrected can lead to a BIG problem later. I know you are fixing it. Best of luck!

Chaeto, vodka/vinegar, GFO and suctioning out my substrate slowly has been very good for me.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Better luck this time!

YA! Thanks.

Maybe clamp to a big piece of wood then clamp the wood to the table or in a vise. lucky it wasn't the 125g.

I can't recall. Do you run GFO? After a while (maybe the second or third batch of GFO) as long as there isn't a serious underlying problem, the HA slowly goes away.

While I agree that a little HA is not going to hurt much, the issue is that it can be a sign of a problem that if not corrected can lead to a BIG problem later. I know you are fixing it. Best of luck!

Chaeto, vodka/vinegar, GFO and suctioning out my substrate slowly has been very good for me.

Drilling the 125g would be easier, its heavy and doesn't move. My plan now is to clamp the glass between a 1X4 template and a 2X4 backer and then clamp the 2X4 to the table. The reason I clamped to the table in the first place was to keep the glass from moving. It definitely didn't work as intended.

I currently run GFO but it needs to be changed soon. I have noticed that the HA has slowed its growth. Looking at the pictures, keep in mind that most of what you see is stuff I can't pull off because its either too short or down in the crevices of the rock where my big fingers can't get down into. I have Chaeto in the sump, have been pulling algae out fairly regularly and now with the snails to get the short stuff I hope things will start turning around. Small steps.

RocketEngineer

 

[RocketEngineer]

External overflow box bottom has been drilled!

External overflow box bottom has been drilled!

This morning I picked up the replacement glass for the bottom of the external overflow box. I decided to test a different drilling setup on the broken piece and when that worked, I decided to just keep going and drill the good piece.

The setup starts with an old closet shelf board that I clamped to the picnic table. I then clamped the glass between the board and the template with the drill guide on top. A spring clamp holds the hose in place. Two secondary clamps hold the opposite end of the template and keeps the hose out from underfoot.

FYI, you can never have enough clamps.

The results:

One drilled piece.

Next step will be gluing the boxes onto the tank.

 

[iwishtofish]

Nice job, and a creative method!

 

[RocketEngineer]

Nice job, and a creative method!

Thanks. A case of making do with what's available.

 

[RocketEngineer]

While looking at the tank last night I noticed that the red flatworms that had previously taken over the refugium were almost nowhere to be seen. No idea why they suddenly disappeared. Weird.

 

[jcw]

Mine did/does that too. They seem to come in waves. I suspect it's nutrient related. They eat until it's gone then die off.

Maybe the GFO is kicking in too to limit the algae.


Nice set up on the drill.
I missed it. Are you planning an external overflow? Why not just drill the back of 125g?

 

[CeeGee]

I had red planaria at one point in time. It was pretty bad. Went to Vegas and got married. While I was gone dad fed my fish and dropped something on my power cord turning off the heater. When I got back home I arrived to a tank with a temperature in the lower 60's. Extremely stressed fish and half dead corals but I never saw another flatworm. Fish and coral recovered. I lost two sps pieces though.