koden's 32gallon m-tank

[Quash]

For the "how do I feed em formula 1?" What I did was after letting the stuff break up in a cup of water, I used a turkey baster to target feed, first my fish then the shrimp. Because if the fish didnt eat it, the shrimp sure did!! This way I limit any food that doesnt get eaten from collecting on the sand or rock. I found that if I just dumped the cup in then the fish and shrimp would be in a mad dash for food, but then get tired and not look around for pieces on the sand or rock and wait for my turkey baster

 

As for the "cleanin algae off the acrylic?" I've seen people use the edge of a credit card, or some card like that to scrape algae off.

 

Any chance you can take the flame back for some 30 dollar store credit? My LFS was always willing to trade for the exact amount I got it for if it was within a respectable few days. Hope you get that flame taken care of. Good luck bro

[kinetic]

For the "how do I feed em formula 1?" What I did was after letting the stuff break up in a cup of water, I used a turkey baster to target feed, first my fish then the shrimp. Because if the fish didnt eat it, the shrimp sure did!! This way I limit any food that doesnt get eaten from collecting on the sand or rock. I found that if I just dumped the cup in then the fish and shrimp would be in a mad dash for food, but then get tired and not look around for pieces on the sand or rock and wait for my turkey baster

 

As for the "cleanin algae off the acrylic?" I've seen people use the edge of a credit card, or some card like that to scrape algae off.

 

Any chance you can take the flame back for some 30 dollar store credit? My LFS was always willing to trade for the exact amount I got it for if it was within a respectable few days. Hope you get that flame taken care of. Good luck bro

 

I'll call the LFS I bought it from. The people seem nice, and I've bought tons of stuff from them already, they should be cool with it. Problem is now I have to catch it.

 

It was doing great, didn't nip at any corals, and then today it went crazy. That's dissapointing. If I get an angel in the future, I think I'll frag some stuff up, buy it but leave it at the LFS and put frags in there to see if it'll nip them. If not I'll keep it, otherwise I'll sell it back to the LFS. Who knows =( Maybe a local reefer will have a reef safe one to sell to me one day.

 

This really bums me out big time. I had such healthy corals, and now they're all eaten. It didn't touch any of my hammer coral, or xenia. I have to fish this guy out somehow.

 

Any tips on how to get him out? I can already see it'll be a problem.

[kidphc]

I am working on a 80 gallon acrylic custom cube which will have a Oceans Motions SuperSquirt, which is a 20x better "wave" making equipment than the SCWD.

 

But hey, I may change my mind... I was considering this:

Two spray bars down the side back corners of my tank all the way down verticle connected to the scwd. Might be cool =)

 

I got my Squirt and revolutions.... My lord they are much bigger then I thought.

 

By the way just thought I would pass that on, but a couple of people have warned me to be diligent with the piping to avoid micro bubbles.

 

Talking about clam tanks, here is a link to a guy's that works at a LFS. Its pretty cool if you ask me.

 

pandabehr's clam/SPS tank with 4 side overflow

[kinetic]

I got my Squirt and revolutions.... My lord they are much bigger then I thought.

 

By the way just thought I would pass that on, but a couple of people have warned me to be diligent with the piping to avoid micro bubbles.

 

Talking about clam tanks, here is a link to a guy's that works at a LFS. Its pretty cool if you ask me.

 

pandabehr's clam/SPS tank with 4 side overflow

 

thanks for the tip on piping. I'd definately be really careful on my 80g.

 

thanks for the link, looks interesting =)

[Quash]

To catch my fish, I took out all the rock. And then rocks with corals I put into a bucket with some water, enough to cover the corals. Had a net that was a little big and got him by trapping him against the front glass. Then again I had a 10G. You have a 32, you might be able to get away with just the big net

 

Quarentine tank comes to mind for the corals. Ah, such and endless list of things to tweak our tanks with

[kinetic]

I dread moving my LR. I can never get them back in the arrangement I had before, and I always liked the way it looked prior to me moving it, lol. I'll just bait it in a fish net and 2 liter bottle.

[Izzue]

WHY bother-- you already lost your corals--lol

 

Make it a fish only tank....

[kinetic]

WHY bother-- you already lost your corals--lol

 

Make it a fish only tank....

 

lol. I actually only lost two digitata frags. The others are doing ok.

 

I'm more into reefs right now than fish. Once I setup my 80 gallon I'll look into getting some serious fish.

 

BTW I'm thinking of going through with purchasing a custom made 80 gallon cube, and transferring everything from my m-tank to the 80 gallon...

[kidphc]

I thought I would pass this along. I put it in here since this is the main M-tank thread on the forums.

 

HISTORY:

I wrote an e-mail to Finnex, since I need some help. My Quiet One 3000 would empty the return sump without a ball valve. Even with this ball valve almost completely open it would empty the sump and overflow the display area. As it stands there is less then an 8th of an inch to the top of the tank. I felt as thought I was loosing a large amount of the pumps capability to refill the sump instead of circulating through the display. I wanted to have a minimum of at least 4 inches of water in the return sump.

 

By the way Finnex rocks as far as support goes. They recommended drilling 8 3/16" diameter holes towards the lower left side of the tank, on the same side as the stock overflow. They said that this should help with the flow and allow the sump to maintain the water level with the additional pump. They also believe this will improve circulation in the tank.

 

Now for the intresting part.

Looks as though they will be revising the 32 gallon M-tank some time down the line. This is from an e-mail with Ken at Finnex.

 

The new tank has a bigger return water sump, and a smaller skimmer chamber,

added eight 3/16" dia. holes. We only test our new pump (475 gph). We have

not had a chance to test a bigger pump yet.

 

Looks like they will be addressing some of the things I wish they had. Cool thing is I didn't even have to say a word to them. Too bad they didn't get the dual halides out before I ordered my new light. Would of loved to keep the look of the stock M-tank.

 

KOGDEN:

 

Try using a big net and a small net. Use the small net to drive the Flame Angel towards the big net using the small net. Good luck. I can see the brace getting in the way of this.

[kinetic]

Thanks for the information!

 

I'm still weirded out by why your 3000 would overflow your tank. There is at least one other member who has a 785gph pump hooked up without a problem. I wonder if you're Quiet One 3000 is much stronger, maybe accidentally it is a 5000 or something.

 

About my fish ordeal: my nets won't even fit in the tank between my LR. I have 30 lbs of LR, and there's barely any room. I'll have to catch the guy on the right or left side of the tank where there's more room. I feel like the m-tank is a bit too narrow for my taste now. I'm thinking of getting a custom cube made, 30x30x26"

 

But that will probably be next year. Otherwise the m-tank rocks.

 

Go finnex.

 

I thought I would pass this along. I put it in here since this is the main M-tank thread on the forums.

 

HISTORY:

I wrote an e-mail to Finnex, since I need some help. My Quiet One 3000 would empty the return sump without a ball valve. Even with this ball valve almost completely open it would empty the sump and overflow the display area. As it stands there is less then an 8th of an inch to the top of the tank. I felt as thought I was loosing a large amount of the pumps capability to refill the sump instead of circulating through the display. I wanted to have a minimum of at least 4 inches of water in the return sump.

 

By the way Finnex rocks as far as support goes. They recommended drilling 8 3/16" diameter holes towards the lower left side of the tank, on the same side as the stock overflow. They said that this should help with the flow and allow the sump to maintain the water level with the additional pump. They also believe this will improve circulation in the tank.

 

Now for the intresting part.

Looks as though they will be revising the 32 gallon M-tank some time down the line. This is from an e-mail with Ken at Finnex.

 

The new tank has a bigger return water sump, and a smaller skimmer chamber,

added eight 3/16" dia. holes. We only test our new pump (475 gph). We have

not had a chance to test a bigger pump yet.

 

Looks like they will be addressing some of the things I wish they had. Cool thing is I didn't even have to say a word to them. Too bad they didn't get the dual halides out before I ordered my new light. Would of loved to keep the look of the stock M-tank.

 

KOGDEN:

 

Try using a big net and a small net. Use the small net to drive the Flame Angel towards the big net using the small net. Good luck. I can see the brace getting in the way of this.

[zoomin]

Now for the intresting part.

Looks as though they will be revising the 32 gallon M-tank some time down the line. This is from an e-mail with Ken at Finnex.

 

The new tank has a bigger return water sump, and a smaller skimmer chamber,

added eight 3/16" dia. holes. We only test our new pump (475 gph). We have

not had a chance to test a bigger pump yet.

 

Thanks for this timely info; I am just sorting out the plumbing on my still-dry 32g m-tank.

 

So they are suggesting these holes be drilled into the skimmer chamber or the return chamber?

 

How many GPH is the stock pump that comes with the 32g m-tank?

[kidphc]

Kogden

 

I agree the tank is too narrow. I wish the tank was at least 18" in the display. That would of allowed much better aquascaping. All the tanks I looked at prior to buying the M-tank were at least 18". Unfortunately, they were also 90+ gallons. I still love the M-tank. but I have learned my lesson. All my future tanks will be custom made.

 

I have no clue what is going on with the pump. Wish it would stop being such a problem.

 

Here is some more OceanMotions information. If you get the Revolutions make sure that they are perfectly straight up and down. Also, I needed to take a syringe and pump some air under the ring to get it to work right. I hope OceanMotions comes out with a Nano revolutions. It is almost the size of a soup can the way it is. I had fun watching a small hermit go tumbling to the left of the tank, get up then get knocked the other way. It finally tried to get to the rock and the revolution hit a new pattern, and caused him to tumble towards the glass.

 

As far as your Angel goes. Feed the fish some flakes, when he comes to the surface to eat. Ninja grab him with your bare hand. j/k Good luck on getting him out.

 

ZOOMIN

 

The stock pump is suppose to be 343 GPH. So if you are using the stock pump you should be ok. With Finnex drilling out the next gen M-tank, with a 475 GPH pump, I image somewhere between there you're going to need to drill for more flow through the overflow or put a ball valve in to dump water back into the sump.v

 

M-tank specs

 

The funny thing is, the pumps I got were identical for the skimmer and the return. They were both marked as 1200 models.

 

For the holes here is the e-mail from Finnex:

 

One of the way to increase the flow is drill holes in the black

separation wall at lower skimmer chamerber area. From front view will be at lower

left area. 8 holes with 3/16" dia. should be sufficient. This will help the water

circulation/filtration not only from the top but also from the bottom.

 

I'd probably stick to their recommendation. Only since I personally, don't want a huge amount of water going through the return sump that hasn't touched the skimmer, refuge etc...

[kinetic]

kidphc:

I'm glad at least the ballvalve trick works. I'm thinking I might restrict my flow when I connect the return pipe to a 1/2" to go through the overflow wall back into the main tank which keeps it from overflowing. I too have less than an inch from top of the tank to the waterline.

 

What do you mean about the revolutions being straight up/down? I don't have one so I'm not too sure what you mean =) Do you have this installed? Any pix?

 

I was thinking of getting the angel with chopsticks

 

ZOOMIN:

You can do a test run with tap water to see if your overflow will handle the pump. My 780GPH pump works perfectly wth the overflow without flooding. Maybe yours will too. Try that first would be my recommendation =)

 

About the pumps: The older M-Tanks M-3000 I believe came with two 320gph pumps, one for the skimmer, one for the return. That's why kidphc and myself have identical ones. THe newest mtank, M-3001 comes with different sized pumps. As far as I know =P

 

 

 

Kogden

 

I agree the tank is too narrow. I wish the tank was at least 18" in the display. That would of allowed much better aquascaping. All the tanks I looked at prior to buying the M-tank were at least 18". Unfortunately, they were also 90+ gallons. I still love the M-tank. but I have learned my lesson. All my future tanks will be custom made.

 

I have no clue what is going on with the pump. Wish it would stop being such a problem.

 

Here is some more OceanMotions information. If you get the Revolutions make sure that they are perfectly straight up and down. Also, I needed to take a syringe and pump some air under the ring to get it to work right. I hope OceanMotions comes out with a Nano revolutions. It is almost the size of a soup can the way it is. I had fun watching a small hermit go tumbling to the left of the tank, get up then get knocked the other way. It finally tried to get to the rock and the revolution hit a new pattern, and caused him to tumble towards the glass.

 

As far as your Angel goes. Feed the fish some flakes, when he comes to the surface to eat. Ninja grab him with your bare hand. j/k Good luck on getting him out.

 

ZOOMIN

 

The stock pump is suppose to be 343 GPH. So if you are using the stock pump you should be ok. With Finnex drilling out the next gen M-tank, with a 475 GPH pump, I image somewhere between there you're going to need to drill for more flow through the overflow or put a ball valve in to dump water back into the sump.v

 

M-tank specs

 

The funny thing is, the pumps I got were identical for the skimmer and the return. They were both marked as 1200 models.

 

For the holes here is the e-mail from Finnex:

 

One of the way to increase the flow is drill holes in the black

separation wall at lower skimmer chamerber area. From front view will be at lower

left area. 8 holes with 3/16" dia. should be sufficient. This will help the water

circulation/filtration not only from the top but also from the bottom.

 

I'd probably stick to their recommendation. Only since I personally, don't want a huge amount of water going through the return sump that hasn't touched the skimmer, refuge etc...

[kidphc]

I'll try to post pics tomorrow of the revolutions.

[Reefer Addict]

BTW I'm thinking of going through with purchasing a custom made 80 gallon cube, and transferring everything from my m-tank to the 80 gallon...

You got the 'Addiction' bad....Your tank is just 2 months old and you are thinking about upgrading to an 80g!!!!

 

You might as well place the order for the 250g tank now in order to stay ahead of your 'reef craving'..

[Quash]

You got the 'Addiction' bad....Your tank is just 2 months old and you are thinking about upgrading to an 80g!!!!

 

You might as well place the order for the 250g tank now in order to stay ahead of your 'reef craving'..

 

 

LOL thats too funny, When I first started my nano, alls I had was a ten gallon. But then could keep only 2 fish, a shrimp some corals, snails. While I was happy. The thirst for MORE MORE is apparent once you start sayin holy ###### wtf is that coming out of my rock after tank is done cycling. If you ever been scuba diving let alone snorkeling alot of fish live in a huge area. I want I want I want

 

I just say that I am member number 3 thousand and something...what is that like Im the 3000th member of this site??? Thats crazy I thought this site was older than that. I dont even remember how the hell I even happened on this site. I just know I was here first and then added myself to reefcentral. I dont know anyone with a salt tank. Thats madd odd.

 

I hope you got the bastid lil flame angel by now man, and got you a tasty lil i dunno. A lawnmower blenny?

[kinetic]

I can't catch the angelfish! I'm about to give up. The M-Tank is way too narrow. I have 30 lbs of rock, and the smallest net I could find can't even fit anywhere. Also the lip of the tank is so wide, that I can't press the net against the glass. I got the angelfish twice in the net already, but the mtank is so oddly shaped I can't get it out of the water without him escaping.

 

I've been trying all day. Draining the tank doesn't do anything, because he still goes behind my rockwork. I don't want to move any rocks because crap gets kicked up everywhere, and all my corals will flop all over. My clown fish keep going in and out of the net. Geeze.

 

The angelfish ate another acropora through the mesh of a strawberry basket. He somehow squeezed in far enough to start picking at it. eventually he ate one side. It's starting to bleach now, and I think it will die.

 

He also started eating my xenia, bit by bit. It picked at my open brain some more, ate part of my frilly mushroom, picked at some zoas. Attacked my goby and bit my ocellaris a couple times. One of his fins looks like nemo =(

 

I hate this stupid fish!

 

I thought they would be nicer than this. I've learned my lesson. Never get another angel again.

[artarmon42]

Sorry to hear about the angel.

Beautiful but very risky in a reef.

 

Try over-feeding the fish.

That might stop it from nipping at corals (but then again it might not ).

[kinetic]

Sorry to hear about the angel.

Beautiful but very risky in a reef.

 

Try over-feeding the fish.

That might stop it from nipping at corals (but then again it might not ).

 

I overfed the fish, but it still eats all my corals. I had a huge algae bloom the last two days because I'm way overfeeding. Today I changed 15% water and replaced my phosphate absorbing media. Should stop the bloom now.

 

I'm catching the angel no matter what!

 

I might not get anymore livestock, maybe one more randalli goby, or a pair of purple firefish.

 

Then it's off to my new 75-80gallon acrylic cube design =)

[Quash]

I am sure there are at least a couple of pieces of rock that you can take out without wreaking havoc on your aquascape. If the formation is really stable just take it out and put it in EXACTLY how you had it. Remember the indentations on the rock and such and where you put them in.

 

All this if you didnt glue them together or something.

 

Oh yeah you have a lil tiny fuge right, can you catch it with the net and then trap it there with your fuge or hell even your hand? RRRR even this angel is ###in me off

[kinetic]

I am sure there are at least a couple of pieces of rock that you can take out without wreaking havoc on your aquascape. If the formation is really stable just take it out and put it in EXACTLY how you had it. Remember the indentations on the rock and such and where you put them in.

 

All this if you didnt glue them together or something.

 

Oh yeah you have a lil tiny fuge right, can you catch it with the net and then trap it there with your fuge or hell even your hand? RRRR even this angel is ###in me off

 

Hey quash, thanks for the help!

 

The lip of the m-tank makes it impossible. I'm going to get another net today at the LFS.

 

I'll remove a couple pieces of LR and put it in a bucket for awhile.

 

The fuge is in the sump area in the back, so can't use that.

 

I'll definately get this guy. He's attacking my little clown, my larger one fights back. he also chases the blackray goby back into its hole whenever he sees it.

 

This is a VERY mean flame angel! I don't think I'll ever get another one.

[kinetic]

my goodness, so today I get back from work + gym + studying at 11:15pm, and wam, my thermometer says 82.4 degrees!! HOLY SMOKES. It's never swung more than .8 degrees ever. I think my ViaAqua pump went ballistic on me. It's a 80gph pumping into my small fuge. After turning that off and doing a water change to bring the temp down slowly to 78 degrees again, I had no spike in temperature. I'll probably drill a hole near where the skimmer outlet is, so I'll get a small flow from that.

 

Anyway, all livestock seem fine, though the hammer wasn't open as big as before.

 

One of my clowns was acting strange, sitting in a low flow corner, but after I fed them they perked up, especially since it cooled down.

 

Working with this M-Tank, i really realized I'm yearning for something better, like a full fledged sump, and more width space.

 

I'm going to go forward with my 82 gallon project, and transfer everything there. It'll take about 6 months or more, but it'll be worth it.

 

I'll take everything much slower this time to get it exactly to spec. I've learned a lot with this M-Tank. And again, it's a wonderful starter tank. Connected to a real sump, it would be an awesome tank. Problem is the display area is so narrow! That's my only gripe.

 

Anyway, no more mods for my tank for awhile. After the flame angel's gone back to the LFS I'll be collecting more Acropora and other SPS. The LFS was cool, they said they'd refund me the angel, plus they'd give me all the corals that I lost from him. VERY NICE! I'll do that this weekend.

 

The acropora that I saved is doing well, maybe a too well. It's having a blast inside that strawberry basket, and is also so close to the surface that it's getting tons of light. So is my montipora aguiasdf;laksjdf;lkjasdf piece. The orange digitata frag I also saved. That guy started bleaching because of the lighting. I put him to the side of the tank, and now it's back to it's bright orange again.

 

I know it's a general rule that the redder the color, the less lighting it needs. THe bluer, the more lighting. Cool =)

 

So my death toll stands as this:

1x Digitata Colony, brown with light blue tips ($45)

2x Digitata Frags, brown with baby blue tips (from a frag swap)

1x Acropora Tenius Aquacultured frag, pink with purple tips. Was beautiful. ($32)

1x Acropora Aquacultured Bali colony, light green with blue tips ($66)

Total money dead: $45+32+66 = $143. Not too bad.

 

I'm glad I kept one digitata alive and healthy. I'm glad my angel stopped nipping anymore LPS, and doesn't touch anything. It went after my digitata but couldn't get through the strawberry basket enough.

 

I'll try again with another dwarf angel, but maybe later when I get my 82 gallon setup. He'll probably be a little nicer and hopefully less prone to eating my digitata's. I'll find a small one, 1" max size, put it in a qt with a piece of LR with algae on it, and a piece of LR with nori rubber banded on it. Then I'll constantly feed it flakes, frozen, and mysid. I hope it learns to eat those kinds of foods, and when I introduce it, it won't touch the corals.

 

I"m thinking of taking tons of strawberry basket type mesh, and enclosing all my SPS with them. If the SPS grow large enough, I'll replace the mesh. I'll need to find acro crabs to keep algae down to a minimum on the base of them.

 

Do acro crabs fair well on digitatas?

 

Thanks for listening to my rant =)

[Quash]

Hell yeah cool LFS for refunds including corals!

[kinetic]

I'll try to catch the fish again today =P updates soon. btw check out my upcoming 82 gallon =) in the plans include a watenabei or blackspot angel planktivores! hopefully they'll do better.

[kinetic]

More pictures:

 

Flame Angel!

 

Caught red handed

 

My randalli goby!!!! Finally got one

 

Scarlet Reef Hermit

 

Xenia doing well, clowns want attention