Someday I will have an ELOS. For now my Aquapod will do. Love the photography. Enjoyed your Kauai pics I can't wait to go out there with my camera for a week in October. Beautiful tank.

no updates, everything's the same =) I'm waiting for things to start coloring up before adding anymore corals. I'm also waiting on a Bellus genicanthus to pop up somewhere =)

hows the elos skimmer working out?

Those sticks still not coloring up for you?

it's not working at all, I think I got a dud, and Jesse and others keep telling me my tank is too sterile, but it's not.



the fireside acro I got from LiveAquaria is actually starting to blue up REALLY nicely now, the other guys are a bit brown still. Nice PE nevertheless and tons of growth.

how can it be too sterile if you have fish? and rock? and bacteria? and nothing is dying of starvation right? LOL...

Maybe see if someone will let you run it on a more mature tank, even for just a couple days

That's what I said, especially since I feed my tank about 6 times a day, have 3 anthias and 5 gobies, and have undetectable ammonia, nitrites, and very little nitrate (go RDSB!).

My phosphates are kinda crappy though, but within a good range.

I might take one of my tunze 9002's off my frag tank and use it on my elos to prove it's got gunk to skim.

The ELOS skimmer does collect tons of skimmate, but it cakes at the bottom of the collection cup instead of up and into the cup. So something's wrong, nobody knows, and it seems like the answer is always "too sterile".

So the RDSB is working that well huh? I may try one on my next tank along with BB, I'm trying to keep it as low maintenance as possible but still want the ULN environment. Don't know if I can handle the zeovit dosing with my school schedule.

zeovit is difficult... lots of discussion about it as well. i never went that route as it seemed to be a lot of work for spotty and inconsistent results. Sometimes it makes a tank amazing, other times it destroys it, with neither person doing something intrinsically wrong or right. I sorta stayed away from that and went with the simple and proven way.

maybe one day when zeovit matures a bit more or something else comes around that's easily usable. I'm sure it's not far around the corner, i mean heck, look at how much lighting and skimming has improved over the years =)

try a RDSB, it can't hurt =)

zeovit worked great for me, actually I think the key to its success is to keep it simple with the basic 4, use a salt that doesn't require adjusting (like RBS), and only add the safer supps like coral vitalizer, sponge power, coral xtra... no need to touch the iron, potassium, spur2, until you are in the final phase

for me, I'm worried I won't have time to dose on-schedule all the time

Hey everyone,

Really a big lack of updates... nothing new has happened in my tank. Three ventralis are healthy as heck, eating like pigs =) My gobies are fat too, those lucky guys get 4 - 8 feedings a day with the ventralis.

The blue on my cali tort and fireside are really kicking in now, but otherwise everything else is colorless.


I will probably be adding a naked clown and a teardrop ocellaris soon. And whenever a female bellus genicanthus pops up, that'll go in too.

I may add one ore two more ventralis as well.

I've been fighting a mini crash in my frag tank. The powerstrip with my pumps failed while I was out of town for 6 days... somehow only a few things died.

Cheers!

Any updates? FTS? How is the frag tank doing? I hope better than before. Pics Pics Pics!!! LOL
Sarah

Genicanthus Bellus yet??? show!!



What ever happened?

update yo

frag tank crashed unfortunately, but I still have all my fish and the shrimp =)

The ELOS is doing well, nothing new... the ventralis got wiped out by some parasite that I introduced with a new pair of ventralis... I should've QT'd the damn new ones.

I have hundreds of baby trochus babies, and some new grown on the corals (though no color).

Skimmer still doesn't work. GO ELOS SKIMMERS! lol

I've been super busy at my startup company, so I barely have time to visit the pages or put in more corals. My RDSB is rocking, my nitrates are incredibly low to almost nonexistant.

Sorry for the frag tank and anthias.

update!!!

wtf I just did?

pictures hahaha

it looks EXACTLY like the last photo. seriously. taking another would yield nothing different =( sorry!

if someone sends me a stick of icefire and a purple monster, then I' could take a new picture

You take the best pics I have seen on this site!!!!

hey man! nice to see your tank is doing fine, but im soo sorry for the losses.. ohh yeah im joining the big boy club now! just got a Oceanic 90RR in cherry with everything

Still looking for a bellus?

why don't you sell the skimmer and get something that works?

Scored an awesome 2.5" Genicanthus Bellus from Live Aquaria. She just arrived this morning to my work, and I took her home to acclimate right away.

I think she is still a juvi, especially at that size. She's smaller than the ventralis I used to have. Beautiful coloration, and ZERO signs of swim bladder problems. She's swimming perfectly, just like my flame angel does (that one's in a different tank), with no bobbing. She hid in the rocks for about 10 minutes, and shortly after came out and swam around with my clowns.

She's going for some bits of stuff in the water, I think she's ready to eat. I'll feed her after work with some mysis and maybe some Rod's food. The clowns I have are still pretty small and showed no aggression or interest in her.

The newest addition:





And a million little black footed trochus snail babies:

Very nice Art. Stop by I have some frags for you if you want.

pretty fishy

any updates?

None =) Corraline has started to build up, probably from a snail, and I have tons of copepods everywhere! That's pretty neat, maybe I'll introduce some corals...

pitchers please

just kidding! but nothing's changed, unless you want to see corraline.

see my pictures here: http://flickr.com/photos/kinetic

Art, how are the ventralis doing?

I was thinking about this, since my tank is being set up with 100% eco rox. I wonder if there is an alternative to using snails for a CUC. That's crazy that you have copepods though.

I don't see why you would avoid using reef-safe snails in your CUC. You could even get collonistas that only come out at night.

wiped out by marine velvet along with all my other fish =( I'm waiting until March to restock.



It's too bad the corraline came in. Definitely from the blackfooted trochus I had. I tried scraping it all off their shells before introducing them, but that was futile for sure. They also brought in the algae, *sigh*.

At least they have something to eat =)

I have tons of pods everywhere, I wonder what the hell they're eating, I'm not feeding the tank anything.

Never heard of those, but basically I want to avoid bringing in coralline. I don't know if that's possible. I know microalgae will find its way somehow, but macro shouldn't if I'm careful about removing all corals from their plugs.

hey art is your frag tank still up? i need some corals for my nanos haha

Kinetic, you still around dude? Anyone know whats going on with Kinetic and his ELOS tank?
I'd also like to talk to him about his photography!

I'm around =) Marine velvet owned my tank about 5 months ago... it's sitting empty with lots of trochus snails that have babies daily, and a nice scarlet cleaner shrimp that made it through.

I'm remodeling a new house I bought, so that should be done in a few months. once that's done I'm moving the tank over and restocking it.

Corraline is building up like crazy =P

Awesome then, no real news and I understand the busy schedule with a remodel.
I emailed you back over on Flickr, but just asked if you were still shooting with a Nikon D80 and if not what you have now? Also what lenses are in your collection? I'm starting to get back into my photography and lots of peeps on here over in the Photography forums help a lot, would love for you to come over there and show off some of your art.

Decided to put some life into my tank. it had been running with no corals, fish, for about a year. All I had was a shrimp and a million baby trochus. Here we go, FTS:

Just an update: It's been about a year since the last fish of mine died from marine velvet. Since then I got rid of all my corals. The tank was running with monthly water changes, no light, just sitting there with a million baby trochus snails and a scarlet cleaner. Finally, a month ago I decided to start it up again.

Fish
Sanjay Black Photon clownfish pair
7x Blue/Green Chromis
3x Barlett Anthias (1.5")

Inverts
Tuxedo Urchin
Millions of trochus
Scarlet Hermits
Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
Dwarf Sea Hare

Corals
ORA Pearlberry
ORA Borealis
Pink Lemonade
Shades of Fall
Blue Tort
M. Setosa
Eddie Purple Monster
Aqua Delight
Green Monti Cap
Rainbow Montipora
Sunset Montipora
Hawkins Echinata
Ice Fire Echinata
... and some others, all frags for now

Equipment Upgrades
It's been awhile, but here are some upgrades I have ordered and have now:
- Geisemann Infinity 2x250watt HQI + 4x54watt T5 (powder coated polar white, being shipped now)
- Bubble King 160 Mini skimmer (to replace my ELOS 500)
- LiterMeter III auto water exchange (changing out 20 gallons a week, automated, so easy!)
- Bubble Magus 3 pump doser (dosing Mg, ALK, Ca)

I'll post pictures when I get the BK 160 and the Geisemann.

Current tank params:
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 2ppm
Alk - 8.2dKH
Ca - 500ppm
Mg - 1600ppm
pH - 8.22
po4 - undetectable


My corals are all brown now, not sure what's up. I have ELOS and Salifert tests for my params, so they're all good. pH is measured by 3 pH probes, two lab grade Neptune pH, and one Hanna standard. Seems to all be in line. Only other thing is probably my lamps on my Aquactinics are getting too old. The Geisemann should be here soon though. Last I heard they were done powder coating the lighting and should be shipping it over.


Not sure if I should stock anymore fish, they eat a buttload! I was thinking of going back to ventralis anthias, a bellus genicanthus, but these fish I have now are so hardy and easy to take care of =) pretty too.

Anyway, enough updates, time for bed!

Looks great! Pretty cool how mature the tank looks now even though you didn't have any fish or corals.

I'd love to see pics/details of your automatic water changer setup.

Thanks!

I can take pictures tonight, but here's the details on the auto water changer:
- 50 Gallon Brute trashcan
- RO/DI unit feeds it with an auto shutoff valve
- After it's full of 50g of water, I shut off RO/DI
- Mix about 14 cups of Seachem Reef Salt (awesome stuff, I love this salt)
- LiterMeter3 with two water exchange pumps do all the work. One pump pulls water from the sump to a sink in my basement, the other pump pulls water from the 50g reservoir to the sump.
- Every 3.5 weeks or so I have to turn off the LM3 and turn on the RO/DI to refill the reservoir and mix the water
- 2 hours every day (once at noon, once at midnight) I have a Eheim 1260 (overkill, but the only extra pump I have right now) turns on and mixes the water to keep it from settling down. In there I also have a heater for the initial mixing only, otherwise I just let it sit cool.
- The LM3 doses 7 Liters per day, so amounts to about 15 gallons a week water change or so in my ELOS.
- Both pumps run at different staggered times so they don't just cycle out the new water. They're easily calibrated, and pump out exactly the same amount of water as pumping in, so it's very precise. The amount they pull out and put in at a single given time is so little that the water level won't change at all. So it doesn't mess with my auto topoff sensor.

This is the most awesome system ever, because I NEVER need to worry about water changes. When the water runs out in the reservoir, I just turn on the RO/DI (basically open a ball valve) and turn off the pumps, then the next day or whenever it's full, toss in some salt, let it run for a few hours with the heater, and then check salinity. If that's good, then I turn off the RO/DI, turn on the pumps to do their thing, and forget about it.

The Bubble Magus doser I'm getting will do the same thing as well. I'll mix 20gallons of Mg, Ca, and ALK, and it'll dose for me. Right now I'll only need ALK, as my Mg and Ca are high (1600ppm and 500ppm respectively).

The Seachem Reef Salt is my favorite of all time. The levels are so high initially that when they're dosed to my tank, it's perfect. It's never the case that I'm displacing so much water at once that it'll be a big hit to the tank which helps stability. All I need right now is ALK additions, which the dosers will give me. I have Ca and Mg ready just in case when my corals really start to take off.

I am selling my Ca reactor, dosing just sounds so much more controlled and will help keep my pH stable.

looks nice! havent seen much from you in a while, almost thought you got outta the hobby :[ thank god you didnt! haha

thanks dude. I'm still here =) been on the down low in NR forums though, do most of my posting over at the BAR forum now.

I just landed a round of funding for my startup, so I just put in my two weeks notice at my dayjob. I might get a ELOS Mini for my new office (a room in my house, hah) =) I'm thinking just a fishless setup with three pieces of SPS: tabling acro, stag acro, encrusting monti, and just leave it like that. Probably dose with aminos or something, but since no fish, less nutrient.

So the Litermeters are precise enough to pump the exact amount of water? Thats impressive. I was thinking the water changer must work off of some type of float valve or water level sensor. I might set up something like that for my large tank.

Yeah, the preciseness of the controller and pumps is why it goes for the price it sells at. I've heard good things about the Bubble Magus for the price, but it's definitely not as precise since with the LM3 you can easily calibrate it depending on head loss (which is usually very minimal regardless), pump variations, and all that jazz. Spectrapure also has fantastic customer support too =)