megrim
Member
Quick video of how things are coming along.
Can't figure out how to embed, I'll just link
YouTube - Red Sea Max 130D softie tank.
Can't figure out how to embed, I'll just link
YouTube - Red Sea Max 130D softie tank.
Megrim's 130D
- Thread starter megrim
- Start date
Great vid - everything looks real healthy & growing ! Pretty fish too !
megrim
Member
Cheers guys, everything is very healthy so far except for one of my Banggais. He's been slowly losing weight and just doesn't seem to be thriving. He was fine through QT, but has steadily lost condition since.
In more exciting news I'm ordering my lifereef overflow doodad this week. I have a 40 litre tank I'm going to use as a sump, has it's own filtration chambers much like the RSM, so I can move my purigen etc into there and add a second skimmer, I'm thinking the Tunze 9002. I'll keep the stock skimmer though as it's been going great guns for me and the noise hasn't bothered me.
GFO joined the purigen last week and I'm noticing a further slowing of my hair algae. Mostly I just need to be patient, the tank is only 2 months old and already nearly fully stocked.
That sort of impatience is obviously going to have repercussions of a green hairy kind ^_^.
In more exciting news I'm ordering my lifereef overflow doodad this week. I have a 40 litre tank I'm going to use as a sump, has it's own filtration chambers much like the RSM, so I can move my purigen etc into there and add a second skimmer, I'm thinking the Tunze 9002. I'll keep the stock skimmer though as it's been going great guns for me and the noise hasn't bothered me.
GFO joined the purigen last week and I'm noticing a further slowing of my hair algae. Mostly I just need to be patient, the tank is only 2 months old and already nearly fully stocked.
That sort of impatience is obviously going to have repercussions of a green hairy kind ^_^.
Congrats on the addition lifereef overflow (the best there is) and the addition of the sump
megrim
Member
Four (ish) month update!.
Added a little forty litre sump and the Lifereef overflow. It's certainly been excellent in the long run, but has taken a LOT of frustrating fiddling to get the whole system just right.
Troubles have included getting water levels where I want them in both the sump and display tank, hideous noise levels if not adjusted to within a millionth of a millimetre of 'just so' and chronic micro-bubble issues until I reworked the whole water flow through the sump.
Thankfully it's now no louder than the stock skimmer and no more bubble problems! huzzah for tweaking.
Everything's growing along nicely, my water changes are now generally 20 litres, twice a week. Even with the sump and added filtration it supplies, a tank full of nothing but soft corals is a surprisingly high bioload and organics/nitrates climb bloody quickly.
Phototime !
This toadstool was a touchy little bugger for quite a few weeks, seems to have found the proverbial 'sweet spot' finally.
Xenia growing like hormone-fed chickens.
Anthelia hitchhiked as a single, sickly polyp. Looking much nicer and spawning 5-6 baby polyps already.
Macro algae of some type. Quite beautiful, I'd be happy with more of it and less bryopsis =\
Not easy to make out via my terribad photoskillz, but this was a frag of xenia that a mythrax crab chopped off and tried to eat, didn't like the flavour I suppose and dumped the shred into an upturned shell, now growing happily out of said shell.
Clove/Star polyps and zoas, all growing along nicely.
Pretty sure this finger leather is getting steroids from somewhere, grows appreciably in as little as a week. No idea what it's eating, my money's on cyclopeeze.
Non photosynthetic softie, had high hopes - did well for a month until it was torn apart by the afformentioned mythrax crab like a fat kid tearing through a twinkie wrapper.
Freshly coral-glued cabbage leather. Great little guys, growing well so far.
FULL TANK SHOTS!
Almost finished in terms of stocking. I'm still chasing down a nice tree coral, something convoluted and branchy for the top centre of the tank
Added a little forty litre sump and the Lifereef overflow. It's certainly been excellent in the long run, but has taken a LOT of frustrating fiddling to get the whole system just right.
Troubles have included getting water levels where I want them in both the sump and display tank, hideous noise levels if not adjusted to within a millionth of a millimetre of 'just so' and chronic micro-bubble issues until I reworked the whole water flow through the sump.
Thankfully it's now no louder than the stock skimmer and no more bubble problems! huzzah for tweaking.
Everything's growing along nicely, my water changes are now generally 20 litres, twice a week. Even with the sump and added filtration it supplies, a tank full of nothing but soft corals is a surprisingly high bioload and organics/nitrates climb bloody quickly.
Phototime !
This toadstool was a touchy little bugger for quite a few weeks, seems to have found the proverbial 'sweet spot' finally.
Xenia growing like hormone-fed chickens.
Anthelia hitchhiked as a single, sickly polyp. Looking much nicer and spawning 5-6 baby polyps already.
Macro algae of some type. Quite beautiful, I'd be happy with more of it and less bryopsis =\
Not easy to make out via my terribad photoskillz, but this was a frag of xenia that a mythrax crab chopped off and tried to eat, didn't like the flavour I suppose and dumped the shred into an upturned shell, now growing happily out of said shell.
Clove/Star polyps and zoas, all growing along nicely.
Pretty sure this finger leather is getting steroids from somewhere, grows appreciably in as little as a week. No idea what it's eating, my money's on cyclopeeze.
Non photosynthetic softie, had high hopes - did well for a month until it was torn apart by the afformentioned mythrax crab like a fat kid tearing through a twinkie wrapper.
Freshly coral-glued cabbage leather. Great little guys, growing well so far.
FULL TANK SHOTS!
Almost finished in terms of stocking. I'm still chasing down a nice tree coral, something convoluted and branchy for the top centre of the tank
Very nice pictures, corals and tank! Have you tried the airline fix from Lifereef to quiet down the overflow? Directions should be in the Lifereef instructions. Mine runs about silent with the airline trick. I'm surprised you have nitrates problem with only the corals and a few fish - might be due to feeding the cyclopeeze and coral foods, or overfeeding the fish? I think the green macro is Codium:
ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Codium (Short)
Great coral growth - leathers can grow very fast!
ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Codium (Short)
Great coral growth - leathers can grow very fast!
megrim
Member
Thanks for the linkage to the macro algae, looks like that's what I've got ^_^ I wonder if I can propagate it? It's a funky looking little number.
I don't think the nitrates are from feeding, in fact I feel pretty sparingly, every three days or so, about an hour before I do a water change. In all honesty I'm not sure my fish will survive with that little food in the long term.
Earlier I had a mix of LPS and softies, and found that my nitrates went up as I phased out the LPS and added more softies.
I think the difference between a thin layer of tissue over a skeleton and full, fleshy soft corals is the telling factor. Between the chemical warfare and periodic shedding of 90% of the corals in there the organics rise faster than the skimmer can handle.
The tank's also pretty new, and most likely hasn't established much in the way of a DSB yet. I'm not too upset, I rather enjoy the water change process, (coughFREAKcough), and at least softies are pretty tolerant of nitrates if I do 'get my lazy on' and skip a week.
I am using the airline trick for the overflow. I just found it to be incredibly touchy, and the slightest change in water level anywhere requires another 15 minutes of fiddling. I've also found that if the airline hits just the wrong angle it can impede the water flow and that causes some pretty hairy problems if I'm not paying attention to the display tank level.
The lifereef and sump have been frustrating certainly, but I still think they're a good idea and I'm not sorry I got them in the slightest.
I don't think the nitrates are from feeding, in fact I feel pretty sparingly, every three days or so, about an hour before I do a water change. In all honesty I'm not sure my fish will survive with that little food in the long term.
Earlier I had a mix of LPS and softies, and found that my nitrates went up as I phased out the LPS and added more softies.
I think the difference between a thin layer of tissue over a skeleton and full, fleshy soft corals is the telling factor. Between the chemical warfare and periodic shedding of 90% of the corals in there the organics rise faster than the skimmer can handle.
The tank's also pretty new, and most likely hasn't established much in the way of a DSB yet. I'm not too upset, I rather enjoy the water change process, (coughFREAKcough), and at least softies are pretty tolerant of nitrates if I do 'get my lazy on' and skip a week.
I am using the airline trick for the overflow. I just found it to be incredibly touchy, and the slightest change in water level anywhere requires another 15 minutes of fiddling. I've also found that if the airline hits just the wrong angle it can impede the water flow and that causes some pretty hairy problems if I'm not paying attention to the display tank level.
The lifereef and sump have been frustrating certainly, but I still think they're a good idea and I'm not sorry I got them in the slightest.
I'm not sure about how to frag the Codium. I do know that some Codium species are invasive in some coastal areas, so maybe just keeping the one clump would be best. It is a pretty one! OK on the possible nitrate sources. On the Lifereef, I actually have 2 airlines stuck down mine, to get it totally silent. I don't run the sponge in mine either (if they still come with the siphon) as it plugs up too quickly. If you get flow blocking with one airline I wouldn't add another! The two may work for me as my pump is on the low end of the gph that the siphon can drain.
Every once in a while I do have to adjust one of the airlines, up or down, if it starts to gurgle, of if the level in the inner box is too high and I lose my surface skimming. Sometimes just shutting off the return pump for about 30 seconds, then turning it back on, will restore a lower level in the inner box. I'm not sure what happens in these cases, but I've learned a few tricks with the siphon that work in my case.
Every once in a while I do have to adjust one of the airlines, up or down, if it starts to gurgle, of if the level in the inner box is too high and I lose my surface skimming. Sometimes just shutting off the return pump for about 30 seconds, then turning it back on, will restore a lower level in the inner box. I'm not sure what happens in these cases, but I've learned a few tricks with the siphon that work in my case.
Great pics & coral growth - your tanks looking lovely !