Well the plan is long term, not right after Christmas. Here's the update. Two yrs ago got tank, skilter, aragonite, and book for Christmas. Plan was to bring Nemo home. Researched for about six months before adding water. Discussion with the wife about live rock went something like this: I paid $150 to get you started and you want to buy rock at $7/lb at 1 lb per gallon or $210 - I don't think so. We started slow and got up to 30lb. Crushed coral bed in the 30 gal, skilter, got $50 of cleanup crew then introduced two Nemo's (a week after adding some LR). They were history in a day because of ammonia. Restart got up to a royal gramma and two nemo's. Had one bought of Ich and successfully treated it with Kick-ich (no copper and works without hurting inverts). Next Christmas brought a Filstar xP3 to hold TBPC carbon but it wasn't large enough. Nitrates hung around 15 regardless of what I tried. Finally the hair algae showed up. Then got the opportunity to get a 55g tank and CPR for $20. Made the move to the 55g, scrubbed the rocks, and lost a lot of cleaners (think the buckets with out heaters got "cold" while I scrubbed the rocks). Added a lawnmower blenny a couple of months later and then a yellow tang (55g is probably too small for them). The algae was still growing strong and ich showed up again last October. The blue-green chromis were not impacted but I lost everything else to the Ich. I have a routine for changing, cleaning, and bleaching the filter pads, adding Seachem products, vacuuming the bottom every other week, 10-20% water changes and my water is stable. Since building the carbon tubes and getting them on line, my Nitrate is staying around 5. I like the challenge of DIY as part of the hobby. The Right Now bacteria is an O2 hog and I have an oxygen reactor fabricated to boost the carbon tube capacity. (am waiting for funds to get luft air pump to put it on line). Phosguard got the phosphates down from 2 to .01. I am expecting the ASA to be a replacement for the phosguard and clean out solids from the water. Might give Mangroves a try when the skimmer isn't needed. I need to replace the DIY light hood with retrofit kit (2 55W PCs (03/10K, 6.5K) and 20W NO 18K built for the 30g tank. Want to double the PC's, leave room for MH, to be ready for anemone or clam. It also need to look better than the two extensions I added to cover the open ends of the 55g. I am not planning on any more fish until the hair algae is gone. I think this system is going to work for me and I have gotten a fair amount of support for Snake at HDLtd. My goal (believe it or not) is to set up a system that needs very little attention. As I read on a lot of different forums, people have strong feelings on how to do this. I am sharing my journey and am also looking for assistance on techniques, tips, etc. I think there is more than one way to skin a cat and I am intrigued by the aerobic process of Nitrate control.
55g, 30lb LR, 1- 55WPC (1 burned out/broken), 3" crushed coral bed, 250 skilter (with bag of Phosgaurd in it - modified to run an airstone), CPR Bak-pak with Maxi-jet 1200 and air stone (with bag of Chemi-pure), 2 Aqua clear 30 power heads, Filstar xP3 used to filter the water and power the two carbon tubes and provide return plumbing above the tank (modified by drilling larger holes in return manifold), 2 blue-green chromis, sally lightfoot crab (molted this week for second time), 2 emerald crabs, 2 pepperment shrimp (1 molted two weeks ago, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 Hawaiian zebra hermit (mean dude - molted this week for 6th time), 1 scarlet hermit, 1 red leg hermit, 4 astrea, 10 cerith, 2 bumble bee (first ones to something dead) Water test this morning SG 1.025, Temp 80, Nitrite <.03, Nitrate 5, Phosphate .01, pH 8.3, Alk 6, Calc 400. Everything has been stable for a month except the Alk and Nitrate. Nitrate has dropped from 12.5 to 5/3 since putting the carbon tubes on line. Alk has dropped from 9 down to 6 and inspite of increased additions of Seachem Reef Builder, doesn't seem to want to budge. I have some pictures of the tank and am trying to learn how to reduce their size so I can put them in my gallery. Merry Christmas to all, Bob