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Originally Posted by
serval
]I was wondering how your tank was doing! Some pictures would be nice. :)
I'll get some pics up ASAP. Haven't taken any of the tank recently...
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I have some Clavularia (one of my favorite looking corals right now) and though it spreads slowly, it is controllable. I sort of rip it off (feel bad doing this) the rock followed by scraping that part of the rock with a metal toothbrush (the stainless kind found in auto parts stores), perhaps 4x/year.
Thanks for the tip. I haven't thought of scraping with a metal brush. Probably very effective - but makes me nervous of polluting the tank with softie ooze. Perhaps I will try this during my next water change so I have my siphon handy.
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Although our test kits tell us we have undetectable nitrates and phospates, my suspicion is that the levels of these nutrients that can spell trouble are quite a bit lower than we may have thought.
Agreed. My Maiden's hair and Clavularia are obviously fueled by latent nutrients.
Bioload: 5 inhabitants that I actively feed.
3.5" Foxface
3" Starry Blenny
4" Longnose Hawkfish
2.5" Percula Clown
2.5" Red Scooter Blenny.
Side note: I still have a Pajama Cardinal that I had in my first Nano. He must be going on 5 years since purchase. He got quite bossy in my main display, and was later picked on by other tank mates. Relocated him to his own tank at my workplace.
Other inhabitants that are passively fed include:
6" Derasa Clam,
Tigertail Cucumber
Tuxedo Urchin
Various Nass/Astraea/Turbo/Fighting Conch snails
One scarlet hermit, and one zebra hermit
One Pistol Shrimp (has lived w/o goby for 3 years).
All but the Foxface have been in the tank for at least a year, most much longer. I switched from Rod's Food to PE Mysis. 1/2" square per day. PE Mysis is very concentrated, big FW Mysis with little to no added water. For corals and my clam I also feed a small 1 TSP dose of Phyto-Feast, Roti-Feast, and/or Oyster-Feast on a rotating schedule.
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I think maybe there is no liquid color-comparison style kit for PO4 that really tells you much and perhaps NO3 is almost that bad. I compared results from my Elos kits for N and P, where I routinely see no color at all, with a LaMotte colorimeter and I see I really DO have N and P, but at levels too low for Elos kits to see. Something on order of (memory here) of 0.4-0.8 for N and 0.03-0.06 for P.
I must confess I do not test for N & P too often. I test for those when there is a sudden change or mystery to troubleshoot...probably once every 3 months or so... Ca/Alk/Mg I will be testing weekly until I figure out my 2-part dosing regime, and probably monthly after that for adjustments.
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And, a question. You say, "My Pocillopora has gained color and size since I lowered it to the sand bed..."
I have a fragment of Pocillopora (purple) that never does anything; doesn't grow or change at all, which seems odd. What am I doing wrong? It is on a rock about 3 inches above the sand bed, and not close to any aggressive corals.
My Pocci was on a rock about a foot under my LED fixture. It did OK at first, but eventually lost the bright green color it once had. I switched to T5 HO, making sure to acclimate everything carefully by starting the fixture higher up for comparable PAR. Months after I had the T5 fixture in its final position, I noticed that the Pocci was fading further, so I lowered it to the sand bed, where it probably receives about 250 PAR at the tip and probably less direct flow. Now it is back to a much deeper green color, and looks noticeably bigger.
I also had a problematic crab that came with the Pocci (and another with a Birdsnest coral I once had). At first I thought it was commensal, but then noticed tissue loss and some other areas of irritation. I excavated the crab, probably a few months later than I should have.
The Pocci also budded at one point, since I noticed an offspring attached to the side of my Derasa. It is still there today, but no bigger than a 1/2" nub.
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Aiptasia: I had a few and they kept popping back up. I got a pair of Peppermint shrimp and haven't seen Aiptasia since. However, these shrimp have grown pretty large (relative to other inverts in the tank); can they get destructive? Is that why you have not added any?
On a whim I added two Peppermint shrimp to my tank a year or more ago (before my Aiptasia problem, and before the Longnose Hawkfish). I carefully acclimated them, and watched them hide in the LR that evening. Over the next week I searched and searched for them (lights on or off), but never saw them again. Perhaps I should try again...
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Your comments on the sump and skimmer are interesting. I haven't cleaned my sump (been over a year); is this bad? I do siphon from there during water changes once/week, but I let all manner of things that grow in the dark live on the glass. It is not pretty!
I like when sponges, tube worms, and turf-like algae populate the surfaces of my sump, as long as they do not clog pumps or tubing. I did have several aiptasia that occupied my ATO (refugium) chamber. That made me very angry. :madmad: My main motivations are usually to rearrange the equipment for better function, and to clean out the float switches, pumps and tubing (including the outlet plumbing). To my dissapointment I found that the System 70 drain pipe cannot be removed without separating the corrugated tubing from the fittings. I am thinking of re-plumbing the drain with PVC pipe complete with unions for easy disassembly.
I am becoming a strong believer in what I call the "settling chamber". Instead of having filter socks, design the drain chamber of the sump to have flow that allows for detritus to settle for easy siphoning during a water change. My last configuration with the System 70 sump excelled at that, this one less than half of the previous...so I may have to re-evaluate. The only difference in the two configurations is the direction that my drain pipe faces and a nominal increase in flow due to cleaning.
I am also thinking of keeping my sump 100% dark so algae does not grow inside the skimmer and return tubing. Not sure if this will make any difference. If I add a lit refugium it will probably be outside the stand.
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As for the skimmer, I still don't get them. I still use the Elos that came with the system and it draws out perhaps 1/2" medium tea colored material with biochunks every 3-4 days, no more than that. That seems kind of paltry to me. Do you skim out more from your system?
Biochunks....mmmm.... :D
I love the Elos NS500's lift-off collection cup, compact (and reconfigurable) footprint and construction quality, but I was never too impressed with its skimming ability, nor with the finicky way in which it operates. I've had it in my sump four times over the past few years (minimum of 3 months each time) just to see if it was tank conditions or operator error. I have never been able to obtain as much or as dark skimmate as my RS80, i-Tech 100, or even my H&S 90-F1000 and ER Nano (Dual) 3.5. The difference is not staggering, but for a $600 retail skimmer, one should expect comparable (if not superior) performance.
Looking at the skimmer, one wonders why the reaction chamber and neck are not a good deal larger, why the injector is placed in a location that obstructs the rising bubbles (creating excessive turbulence just below the neck, supposedly a "down-draft" feature, but IMHO outdated design), and why the air intake has to be restricted as much as it does...when most competing products instruct to barely restrict a skimmer's airflow if at all. If I were to redesign the NS500, I would increase the reaction chamber by 1", increase the neck by 1/2" and make the injector more like the NS100 (lower and/or angled). This should allow for the air intake to be increased a fair amount.
I have a flow meter, but never thought to measure the air intake of the NS500. Perhaps I will and report back a comparison with my other skimmers.
With all that said, I am (sort of) past obsessing about skimmers or worrying too much about what is left behind. Routine water changes (with detritus siphoning), ample LR and a deep (well-maintained) sand bed will take care of the rest. If I only had the NS500, and was thinking of trying a "sanity check" skimmer without breaking the bank, I would probably try to buy/borrow a used RS80 or buy a Vertex 100 when on sale... usually around $169.
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Anyway, your post was great to read! I should update mine sometime...
I will keep on the lookout for your update, and will try to get some pics up soon...
-Scott