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Supertech99's 15g Triumphant Return to Reefing


supertech99

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Thanks Harry, looking forward to seeing what I can get out of my tank. I decided that I will try a refugium, but even if it does not end up being the way to go I still want 3 sections and I'll place a sock in 1 and then the skimmer in 2. I broke alot of glass trying to cut these sections myself. Did a water test and one baffel leaked. I resealed it and it's curing now. In retrospect, I wish I would have started shorter. I was trying to maxamize water volume but I only have 1 and 1/3 gallon of reserve water space now. That is not a great saftey margin for power outage but hopefully I can manage that with drain and return placement.20160110_152141.jpg

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I know alot of people would never highlight their poor husbandry, but I finally found my po4 source. Been running phosphate filter pads forever and nitrates were always 0, algee was growing with something, could it be this swirling votrex of poo in the back of the false overflow. Eeewwww. Also thats one if my new snails hanging off my filter, trying to comm suicide. I guess if the detritus was not light enough it would not rise up the water column enough to get pulled up into the fluval c4. Did a 2 gal water change from the overflow and sucked it all sparkling clean. I've picked up 5 of these new snails off the outside of the tank or off the floor. What is the deal.

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This is what happens when I get off work early and decide to swing by the fish store to see what they got. I am going with a 1in overflow and a 1/2 return. Shooting for 150gph turnover at 4ft head. Got the quiet 1 1200 which is rated for that. My LFS is not usually known for the best prices but always has the prime livestock. They actually did really well on these dry goods. Everything was the same or cheaper than amazon. I was pleasantly suprised. Once I get my holesaw in the mail I will have everything I need to make this happen.

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Haha swirling vortex of poo

 

Did you put all that rubble in there or what? Definitely a detritus trap!

 

Liking the tank though - it was fun browsing the thread from the beginning. If you drill back there definitely don't put anything in there or it could easily clog the drain.

 

Good luck with the algae cleanup! Might want to consider using peroxide to reign it back under control and then hopefully the CUC can step in and keep things tidy.

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Thanks AJ, the clean up crew has made fast work of any algee that I could not manually get at and they have not been in a week, I expect they will have the diaplay totally spotless within the next 2 weeks. Yes, i put that rock in there, yes it is a poo trap and yes I'll be removing it. All that rock will me relocated to the sump, after a good cleaning in old tank water after a water change. Nothing will be in the overflow, except possibally my heater, have not decided yet on that, I plan on doing WCs from the bottom of the overflow in the future to make sure nothing piles up back there.

I'm a little concerned with diaplay draining into sump with the overflow pulling from multiple different levels in the tank and the drain not having a 90deg turn up. I know it wont drain the whole tank but i dont have a lot of extra space down there. Cant fit a 1in 90 in the overflow. Any ideas?

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Got the second marine fusion light strip installed. It looks great, now I have 27.4w of led from the 3 light strips and it looks great. This will do a nem just fine.

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I LOVE the wp-10 and how the display is really shaping up. The only GHA that is left is on the astrea snail shells backs. I've finally got something I really want to look at and its just rocks:)

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20160115_203339.jpg

I LOVE the wp-10 and how the display is really shaping up. The only GHA that is left is on the astrea snail shells backs. I've finally got something I really want to look at and its just rocks:)

Its looking great! I like the scape a lot.
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Thanks vlangel, The main rock was puttied together from my origional build. The right sided rocks are stacked to come around towards the front and make a kind of peninsula.

Now I have to wait on shipping. My carbon reactor and my hole saw for drilling the overflow won't be here for almost 2 weeks, I picked the free amazon shipping option. I just discovered the local reef club is having a frag swap in April. I may have to wait until then before getting my additional clown fish. In the past I've been able to grab amazing deals on choice fish at this fragswap. I once got a SA onyx pure black and white for 25, of course that was over 6 years ago. Not sure I can wait that long. I contacted a local reefer that used to do club activities. He has a rainbow anonome that just split, and seems to split rather often. Its beautiful and he said I can have a clone when it splits again. I'm pumped. The wait will be painful.

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This is the mother colony of the clone that I will get when it next splits.

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I love nems and that looks like the rose bubble tip that I had. Mine split often which is something to keep in mind with a 15 gallon. They can get kind of big and their tentacles really can reach a long ways. I am not trying to discourage you, just letting you know what could happen.

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Yeah, thanks. I anticipate taking splits to the LFS and keeping 1-2. I don't have any current plans for anything else so it will be her tank, unless this all goes south, then I'll be making this a lps tank.

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Yeah, thanks. I anticipate taking splits to the LFS and keeping 1-2. I don't have any current plans for anything else so it will be her tank, unless this all goes south, then I'll be making this a lps tank.

They are not as easy to remove if they are on the rock work. I was always afraid of damaging their foot. If they happened to move to the overflow or glass then I could get them.

Actually a completely dedicated nem tank would be cool though. Lots of movement and swaying arms in the current. I think that would be fairly low maintenance compared to some tanks. I found my nems to be pretty sturdy.

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I hope you are right about low mantience, I am a big fan of LPS especially for the movement. I had a bicolor fogspawn and a HUGE galaxea colony in my 75gal reef. The galaxea was a big bully and has super long, 6+in streamers that would sting EXERYTHING, but it was super cool to watch it sway and the nem should be even cooler with a wavemaker!

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Went to the hardware store and grabbed some organization stuff, installed a shelf, and got some wires sorted and put the lights on a timer. I measured for skimmer depth and set it at 6in. I also picked up some pvc to make a mechanical filter at the sump entry so I can utilize filter floss. If it does not work well I'll get a sock but I think this will be a easy to clean option with just throw away batting vs. Washing and changing socks.

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I'm thinking of adding a mag mount to my aqueon 500 and using it. Anyone know what kind of DIY magnets I could use that would be reef safe?

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Ok well tried the tube and I think It will just be overflow trouble. I am running the sump to start cycling some new, dry, live rock rubble and break in the skimmer. I'm thinking ill need to go with a filter sock

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So the 2 in pipe did not work well, I thought I'd try some 4 in pvc. I cut 6 inch leinght out of a 4 in tube I had left over from a chicken feeder I made. I cut two strips on it with my table saw and used a small propane torch to heat the tabs and bend it over my vice. Im really hopeing that this fits a sock, I'll head to the fish store and pick up a sock to try out this week.20160124_160834.jpg

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This worked perfect. Super cheap and easy DIY sock holder. I may paint it black to dress it up a bit and hide the scorch marks from the torch.

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