Forums / Marine Systems and Husbandry – by Anthony Calfo / Archived Forums

Strontium salt?

Superman — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:47:33 GMT

Anthony, you mentioned in your book that you can use strontium salt for strontium suppliment instead of the liquid form like Kent Marine makes (and is expensive for a dilluted solution!) Who makes a strontium salt that one could use in a marine aquarium? Thanks for your help!

Propagation demo, Raleigh NC

redsonja — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:58:27 GMT

The Raleigh Aquarium Society will hold its 24th Annual Workshop and Auction Feb 29th-March 2nd at the NC State University Centennial Campus, Engineering Building 1, 911 Partners Way, Raleigh, NC 27606. Further details may be found at http://raleighaquariumsociety.com/main.html

I'm honored to have been asked to demonstrate E. quadricolor propagation, to be held on Saturday, March 1 at 2:30pm. RAS is a wonderful group and the workshop is always fun and informative. I highly recommend attending for anyone that can make it.

Thanks!

-Sonja

Closed Loop vs. Powerheads

Mr. Tang — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:59:37 GMT

Just trying to come up with new ideas for flow!!!

Humidity control fish room

120gallons — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:42:21 GMT

Any advice on humidity control in a fish room. I've got approximately 450-500 g in a basement fish room. Most tanks are covered (though not sealed) yet humidity is high as expected (60% or so). I tried a bathroom fan on a humidistat and it just runs and doesn't seem to help.

I'm exploring an ERV or HRV, but just wondering others ideas.

Anthony Calfo - Moving on from MD forum

Anthony Calfo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:57:31 GMT

cheers, my friends

I must say it has been a pleasure knowing, reading, and sharing so much information with you. I am moving on now from formal duties running this forum... but you will still see me on occasion and I can be called back to visit/help most any time!

My departure is for many good/blessed reasons... but partly to pursue other wonderful hobby/science activities. It is an "opportunity cost" reckoning of sorts.

Time is so precious for all of us, and two of my great passions call me every day: my fishroom/greenhouse cultures, and pursuit of images, articles and stories for my magazine (and other writings). The online community is still a very important part of the education process for me (both learning and mentoring).

I wish you all the very best and look forward to seeing you around... online here, elsewhere, or in any country that our paths cross.

With kindest regards,

Anth-

www.ReadingTrees.com

Ugh, red cottony algae!

MeNoNemo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:30:44 GMT

HI Anthony. I have a coral farm in Orlando (we've met and spoken a few times at conferences) that's been very sucessful until I recently had to stop production due to an outbreak of red algae that kinda resembles cotton candy. It's very invasive and I've tried just about everything to get rid of it. I've used a syringe to blast it with alkalinity...this seems to work for a day or two...turning it very white, but it just comes back several days later. I've raised the alk in the entire tank to about 14..this caused a major "snowstorm" which also looked to have killed it off, but again, it came back. I've scrubbed it off, cursed it out and now have the entire farm in a black out for the past 5 days....the corals are losing some color, but not the algae. It's still quite pink/red and seems to be doing well. I've stopped all feeding, done massive water changes (up to 75%) and still no go...just keeps coming back. I use Tropic Marin Salt, my RO/DI system is changed out regularly and I also run catalytic carbon. Any other thoughts? It's growing in several different systems under T-5's and MH. I've never met an algae I couldn't beat in the past. Even sea hares won't touch it! This stuff seems indestructible!

How to get rid of vermetid snails?

xroads — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:58:14 GMT

I dont mind them too much other then they throw out their spider webs making a mess of everything. Do they have a natural predator?

Thx

Craig

Tank disaster x 10

chessmanmark — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:17:06 GMT

Hey Anthony, I'm a beaten man and thought I'd come here as a last try. You see my tank has crashed in the last few days and everything is dying. I have a 90 gallon tank that is three years old and it was mostly SPS dominant. I started having problems a few months ago with cyano and my zoas all closed up. They barely opened but only a few died. The blue zoas went first. Then my acros started to STN one by one. I would remove them and dip them in TM PCC and never found any pests. My skimmer was filling up every four days, I run a phosban reactor and a UV. When the problem first started I siphoned the sandbed and changed 25-50 gallons of water a week, but just couldn't get my tank under control. Then this week I treated my tank with red slime remover and my tank just crashed. First it was the acros, then the montis, birdsnest, pocis. Now my fish aren't looking too good and my hammers and frogspawn are even retracted. Amazingly one little 1/2 inch frag of an Oregon tort is holding on. My cyphastreas look ok as well as my echinophyllias. What frustrates me the most is I can't fire up my skimmer as all it does is overflow. I keep changing out carbon and doing water changes as fast as I can make up water, but 10-15 gallons a day doesn't seem to be making a difference.

My tank in better days

Sump design

Safedad — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:00:31 GMT

Attached find my latest sump design. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It will be supporting a 90 gal mixed reef with tangs, clowns, etc.

Is anyone going to IMAC?

fazgood — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:39:53 GMT

I would like to meet a few of you folks that have been so helpful. I hope to have my plan in full gear by then.

Anthony, what is going on at your workshop?

Faz

"Bleached" RBTAs

radiata — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:51:36 GMT

Over the past years I have have had a few "bleached" RBTAs. My hypothesis is that the smaller of a split RBTA anemone winds up in a rock crevice with no light and that it looses all the Zooxanthella in their tissues. After month or two, the result is a small white anemone with "neon pink" coloration at the tentacle tips.

My question is... what can I do to facilitate this bleached anemone capturing and retaining new Zooxanthella to get a better coloration?

Thanks,
Bob D.

Ailing hammer

Sherri — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:52:25 GMT

Hi Anthony --

Chuck recommended that I ask you how to frag my hammer. I have read some stuff that basically says dremel the skeleton and cut the flesh. I am scared but this guy is sick. Can you look at the picture and tell me what you would do? It has been in a QT for three days getting 20 minute daily soaks in betadine 3 ml to a litre of tank water. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

DSB Help

Jane — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:25:46 GMT

My 75 gal bowfront with 6" argonite DSB is 7 years old. I have a terrible HA problem that I have been battling for 6 months. Water params are in order but I have not had proper flow. I have added a phosban reactor and upped the flow greatly to correct my error. My main question is for my DSB. I need to know if I should replace it completely or in part or just try to reseed it. I have been doing many water changes and recently moved my live rock to do a really good cleaning. In doing this and the amount of sediment I am pulling out I feel I have too much detritus built up in the DSB. What is the best course of action?

Farming and keeping the cash flowing

fazgood — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:21:34 GMT

To all,

First off I want to thank everyone I have chat with so far in regard to farming operations. I have yet to be scared off but I see some holes in my early planning stages that need to get filled before I move forward much further.

Some of the upfront costs I discovered are more than expected. My partner and I have a diverse skill set but some of the CPA/Tax issues seem to be our “strongest weakness” so outsourcing will be required here.

To look at this in a really general fashion, the growing seems to be the “easy” part. To be successful you will need a good product of medium size (not frags), lots of it and most of the easy stuff but a decent percentage of unique items to drive customers to your products. Having a flexible plan is also important as well as understanding the customer base.

I am working through many of these questions to get answers and plan for them but I have a major problem that I can’t get past that will be a show stopper unless I can resolve it. This issue is getting some method of a cash flow a lot sooner than the 12 to 14 months after the launch of the commercial phase. I believe I will need to sell something during the 3 to 12 month timeframe to be able to keep from getting in a cash flow hole.

Here is a thought but please remember, I am early in the planning phase and I have not posted all of the work that I have done so far. I was considering making a few large purchases of uncured live rock from some collectors like W. Smith and curing the live rock at the facility then selling that to retail outlets in the region. Large tanks are not too expensive and I thought that the water from water changes could be used to clean and age the rock to maximize the use or raw materials. I was thinking in the neighborhood of a couple thousand pounds to start then see how it goes from there. I just need to find out some of the costs associated with shipping a large order like that. My longer term plan included manufactured live rock but that would be in the 2^nd or 3^rd year.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Faz

Size of Berghia Larva?

radiata — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:01:21 GMT

Berghia larva are apparently too small to be seen by the naked eye. Does anyone know the micron size of Berghia larva when they hatch?

Thanks in advance...

KH high and pH low?

Geoffkx250 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:47:31 GMT

Hey everyone-

Two of my tanks (90 ga and a 6,000 ga) currently have a pH of 7.8 with a high KH. I thought this problem would be easy to investigate, but it turned out not to be. Luckly they are both fish only, containing species of fish native to long island sound that can easily tolerate a pH this low. My main concern is for the 6,000 ga because the pH has dropped as low as 7.6. I was using an alkaline buffer to raise the pH, but the pH would soon drop. Both tanks have a crushed coral substrate, have sumps and are well aerated, and I dont beleive I over feed (I use clam, squid, silversides, sand eels). - I measure the amount of food I put in the tanks so nothing has changed in the feeding department. I perform 25% biweekly changes with RO/DI water. I have used a pH monitor as well as a chemical test just to make sure one wasnt off - and I used two different KH tests which both came up with similar results. The parameters of both tanks are below:

6,000 gallon - pH 7.8

KH 12 dKH

SG 1.022

90 gallon - pH 7.8

KH 17 dKH

SG 1.022

Thanks alot everyone!

-Geoff

Another source of Phosphates & Silica?

90overflow — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:11:13 GMT

When I spray paint something of importance I hold off using antiperspirant/deodorants till I'm done. I can get "fish eyes" in the paint, and the only way I can undo the damage is to go down to the bare metal, and start over. Got me thinking, what does this do to my aquarium when I have my short sleeves rolled up, and past elbow deep in the aquarium. Looked up antiperpirants/deodorants, common ingredients listed are Phosphates and Silica. I'm not a chemist, but it got me wondering.

Sand- clumping/fusing aragonite?

Anthony Calfo — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:21:59 GMT

an interesting post from a very nice message board in South Africa (follow the link in time for possible posts/followups that differ from this thread):

http://sareefkeeping.com/forum/showthread.php?p=11475&posted=1#post11475

Hi Anthony

I want to install a DSB in my sump. I have already built the sump campartments and am currently waiting for my aragonite. In my main display I have a DSB of normal coral sand of aroung 100mm thick, which varies from 80mm wide to 200mm wide on the other side. So in essence not very large.

I was going to add the aragonite to the new sump. But I have heard a few horror stories of the aragonite going solid. Is this true, can it happen and if so why? How do we prevent it from happening?

Would it be better to move the coral sand from the main display to the DSB and put the aragonite into the main display.

Or should I leave the coral sand in the main display and use the aragonite in the Sump. I know the coral sand in the main display is alive and moving it would disturb the aerobic and anaerobic processes, but I do find it a little too coarse. Probably in the 3 to 5mm diameter.

Today, 06:10 PM

Anthony Calfo

SA Reefkeeping.com Honoured Guest

Join Date: Jun 2005

Location: Pennsylvania USA

Posts: 75

while its true that aragonite can clump and fuse in some places... its not inevitable and it is preventable. It usually occurs from mismanaged water quality and/or dosing of supplements... namely from causing pH spikes (dosing caustic chemicals like calcium products) too much or too fast. Or... it can occur from simply allowing exceedingly wide and low pH swings. The latter scenario is as common as the former. Too many aquarists do not appreciate or uphold the value of a high natural (reef) pH of 8.3 minimum(!).

At best, most folks break 8.3 by day, yet it plummets rather low at night. In well-insulated living spaces, the dyanimic is made worse by accumulation of CO2 that depresses pH in the aquarium.

But with proper small, daily doses of pH influencing supplements and maintenance of a strong and steady pH (8.3-8.6 ideally), you will have little to no trouble with clumping aragonite.

Xenia problems

Tim Parkinson — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:04:23 GMT

Wondering if anyone can help with ideas on how to get some pulse xenia to grow.

I setup a 55litre tank last September to house some xenia in an effort to grow and trade frag with a local store so it would help out with the food bills if nothing else. The idea was to see how it went as a little tester before trying my hand at a shed based farm.

however since then the xenia hasn't grown

I started with a frag from my lps tank which was not doing well and beginning to die back; this made a recovery and now opens well enough but doesn't grow much. So to see if it was the set up or the xenia itself i bought some more from a local store. This was loose as at the time non was in stock apart from some which had grown on a tank wall. When i got back all the loose xenia was attached via superglue and has stuck and opens well enough and based out over the original attachment. However this is the same a month or so later and no real growth.

The tank is 55 litre with a depth of 13" water (15" tank) 18" long and 12" wide. diy wier is fitted toone corner for surface skimming, 50w heater and some filter floss exchanged weekly. The tank is bare bottom with a 400lph newjet pump running the wier and a maxijet 1200 for circulation. lighting is a 70w halide with 10k blv lamp. filtration is via a piece of quarantined liverock not sure on weight, its about fist size (how professional does that sound )

livestock includes a tailspot blenny and a derasa clam aswell as the 4 xenia elongata frags.

any help would be appreciated, if i can't grow xenia i'm doomed.

ORP levels

Reefski — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:35:04 GMT

i have a new orp probe for my Red Sea ozone machine. what kind of levels should i be looking for.

what are ORP levels in the ocean on a reef?

my levels are about 310 now. all i have in the new tank is some of the live rock, maybe 1/3 of the final amt in the tank.

remote dsb

00nothing — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:30:46 GMT

hey anthony glad to have found u alive and well with a nice new place i read a great deal of the rdsb thread on that other forum and found it to be a great filtration method but i jsut have a couple of questions

first i will start by telling you about my tank it is a 135 gallon with a 40 gallon sump it will be on the heavy side of stocking as i am keeping preds in it so the rdsb seemed to be perfect for me anyways onto my questions

a) is there a reccomended size for a specific tank (i.e.. one bucket for x amount of gallons, 2 buckets for x and above) and if not is there any benefit to running 2 buckets or would i be best served by jsut replacing the first bucet sooner

b) how often should the bucket be replaced

Coral farm build (take 2)

Alti — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:39:13 GMT

Hi Everyone,
After all the new tanks and construction we did on the coral farm last year,
it was a real kick in the butt when the landlord told me that the building was
going to go have major renovations done in the spring. I cant risk having my corals
exposed to that kind of construction environtment so we decided to buy a new
property and start all over. We have been working on it on and off for about a month
now. Its hard since the new place is about 70 miles from where we live now and
I have to go back and forth to keep up with the old farm and spend some time with my
familly. For the most part all we have done til now is basic construction, but hopefully
we will get to water related construction soon.

Some pics of the building before we started.

What looked like a few small stacks of wood in the attic turned out to be a real mess.

Our first batch of supplies.We tried to use as much recycled material as we could.
We got alot of lumber and some other supplies that were going to the landfill. Its
more work to deal with it, but garbage is free and I'd rather use it than have it rot
at the dump.

Some progress shots of construction. We Should have 90% of the basic framing, insulation,
electrical, sheetrock, windows and doors done this week. The heating system will be next and
thats turning out to be alot more work and money than we expected.

Anemone Prop system build

eeorrandy — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:03:46 GMT

Well... this project has been in the works for sometime now.. but I finally finished putting the saltwater in tonight.

The tanks were built by a fiberglass company here in Sacramento and the stands are 4' X 8' pallet racks. The pallet racks have turned out to be really nice to use and didn't cost much more than it would have been to make them myself.

Tank is roughly 4' X 8' X 16" with about 13" of water. Total system measured out to be 370 gallons. Circulation is being provided by a Hammerhead. I'm putting in a couple of used seaswirls tomorrow. The flow in the tank looks really good.

I am putting about 200 lbs of live rock in the unlit sumps tomorrow, and the RDSB holds 200 lbs of sugarfine aragamax. Light is 2 400 watt MH in lumenarcs (XM 10K)

The garage has been insulated and is being kept at a nice 70 degrees by a small heater. Cooling in the hot summers may be more of a problem but I hope to accomplish this by installing an air conditioner in the next couple of months.

I hope to aquire a used chiller soon, and will install it for those real hot days... just in case.. but I hope it won't be needed much.

I plan on installing a 30g refugium cheato on the rack above the tank and reverse lighting it. It will be fed from the sump, but I'm not sure whether to drain it back to the sump or into the main tank.

I'm using 5 2" drains, one of which feeds the octopus skimmer, each with a 4" adapter to increase the overflow length and thin the surface water. I will put gutter guard around them of course before any animals go in the tank.

Still a lot of work to do, but it's been a lot of fun and a real challenge working through a million details.

I want to say Thank you to Anthony and to a lot of others on this forum for the knowledge and inspiration and the willingness to share that knowledge for the good of the hobby and the animals we keep and enjoy.

Killing Bryopsis with Elevated Levels of Magnesium

Bemmer — Wed, 09 May 2007 10:33:25 GMT

Hi Anthony,

Hope all is well with you. As the title states I'm looking for your opinion on the idea of using high levels of Magnesium to kill off byropsis.

There are some very interesting threads going in RC about killing bryopsis with elevated levels of Magnesium. At Mg levels of 1500-1600 byropsis has died off.

Here are the links...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...um+and+bryopsis
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...um+and+bryopsis
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...um+and+bryopsis

Do you think I should try this? BTW, I have tried all the other livestock/natural ways of killing the stuff...to no avail.

Thanks for your time.

Rebecca

DIY Protein Skimmer and Aragonite Questions

Burks — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:11:04 GMT

Hello Anthony and fellow Depot members,

After reading your first and second book I had a question concerning your protein skimmer design. By searching I found the answer to a question I had originally had (how much flow, 300-600gph is what I found) but cannot find my second one. How far down the skimmer do you like to suspend the airstone? I'm having issues trying to visualize where to insert and suspend the airstone. Once I figure that out I will be doing a build of the skimmer with some local club members. The skimmer will be used on my coral vat (and possibly many more, stay tuned). I've used skimmers in the past but am just having a terrible time visualizing this one.

My second question regards aragonite. I'm trying to locate more than 40lbs at a time. By my rough estimate I need around 500lbs and my friend closer to 800-1,000lbs for our various tanks. The problem is I cannot locate that amount in bulk. We have three large stone and sand companies but they cannot get it or help us locate a company that can. The closest we could find was what they called "Florida Beach Sand". Do you have any ideas on finding this amount? We might be needing more than that down the road.

If you have time I'd like to ask you some business related questions privately. If not, I completely understand as you are very busy and your time is valuable. If this is ok, we can go via e-mail or anything you prefer. My e-mail is nygburks@yahoo.com

Thank you Anthony and the Depot members for your time and advice.

How do we book speaking times?

xroads — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:24:17 GMT

We need a speaker for our November Reef Conference in the Quad Cities. Are you interested?

Thx

Craig

Seagrass Refugiums

charlesr1958 — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:42:36 GMT

Since I am attempting to put together a little article about the Philippine seagrass beds and how such beds can be applied to our keeping of a reef ecosystem, I am in need of a few seagrass aquarium photos for the article along with the information on how it was set up and how it is maintained. If you can provide such photos, information, please email me at charlesr1958@pacific.net.ph, and for you spam bots, no I do not need to buy any stocks nor have any part of me enlarged, Thank you.

Chuck

getting some hair algae, and return of other turf like algae. Need some input please.

IPT — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:41:13 GMT

I need some help troubleshooting an algae issue.

I am running a Aquatinc TX5 and am recently getting a growth of Hair Algae, as well as some other alage (Looks like HA but is a coarser and not as free flowing or mushy as HA). I also noticed some new Leafy MAcro Algae that was never there before (seemingly dormant until recently) on my rocks. Where it is growing there is just my old rock and new base rock which was not live but dead/dry rock before use) I had an issue with it (this other coarse/turf like algae) in the past when I was running PC's. A good scrub down of the rock and bulb change seemed to eliminate it until now (probably over a year).

Things I changed before this HA/Algae return (possible triggers) -
Upgraded to a larger tank (20 gal to a 50 Gal) with larger skimmer (ER RS80 now).
Upgraded light to Aquatinic TX5 (with, these bulbs I think - AquaSun 6500K, Actinic, AB, B+, Ocean Pro (20K))
Added maybe 30#'s of Eco Rocx (dead dry base rock) from 2 Part (didn't cook or rinse prior to use which was probably a mistake).
Used some "Great Stuff" and Epoxy for Aquascaping.
Feeding more with Frozen foods (used to just use flake) inc Oyster eggs, Prime Reef 1, Mysis shrimp, Brine Shrimp, + Selcon.

Things I've done since algae issue is progressing - added Phosban reactor with ROWAphos. Coral color seems to be improving slowly, but no change in Algae situation (I will also add my glass doesn't usually get much if any algae growth for a few days after cleaning it).

Nitrates and PO4 regularly test zero (I know about false zero reading's of PO4). I do a 5 gal Water change (about 9% total volume) weekly. CA usually around 400ppm, DKH 8, salinity 1.025, Mg last checked at 1280. I top off with RO water and 1.5 TSP of Kalk per Gal. Using IO salt mix with RO water.

I am open to any ideas and thoughts about this issue. Do you think the spectrum changed in the bulbs in 8 months enough to cause this? ANy other ideas or suggestions? I'm all ears (or eyes as it may be...)

Designing new sump

Safedad — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:59:42 GMT

Below is a written description of a new sump I am designing. Suggestions and questions are welcome. I am going from a 55 gal to a 90 gal. I will be building a stand for the aquarium using the Wuf's design (see OceansMotions pix). My tank is being drilled now to use the barrel circulation technique, Iwaki 70 pump for closed loop, and BlueLine 40 for return pump.

Water into sump: 55 gallon, 48” X 12.5” deep X 18” high

Section 1: clean large material, easy to change filter bags, oval holder for filter bags, what is good adhesive for plastic get into skimmer ASAP, recycle water in this section, size needs to be large enough for recycle mod on ASM G-3 skimmer?? 15” DIY dosing units feed into here [15 “ of 47.5” total space]

Transition: under baffle #1: ¼” – 15” off bottom – 1.5” gap from bottom/ 1.5” gap between over 12” high baffle # 2: ¼” [15”+ ¼”+1.5”+ 1/4” = 17” of 47.5”]

Section 2: RDSB: sand 10” high X 13” front to back, 15” long - [17” + 15” = 32” of 47.5”]

Isssue: how to cycle new DSB before putting on line with new tank: possible solution -run one of two return lines from the tank and use BlueLine pump back to the tank: each week remove 1/8 of sand in the existing sump until half removed: save some capacity for new owner of old system,

Transition: over 12” baffle # 3: ¼”, 2” gap, cartridges to hold carbon, Chemipure, etc., egg crate layers; under 15” baffle # 4: ¼”, 1.5” off bottom, over short baffle #5: ¼”, 5 “ high - [32 + ¼” + 2” + ¼” = 34.5” of 47.5”]

Section 3: Return pump supply and topoff switch: want to hold 9 gallons to do water changes 13” long X 13 deep X 12 high. Drill two outlets in this chamber for bulkheads: one for return pump and one for water changes through valve/quick disconnect to garden hose. Pump from makeup trashcan in garage back to tank with Mag 12. [ 34.5” + 13” = 47.5” of 47.5” ]

Thanks,

Bob

I have been talking about this for at least 6 months... My Farm build has begun

WarDaddy — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:49:28 GMT

Anthony's spoke at the a club meeting in Southern California last summer, and then the following day at the Reef-a-Palloza event. Since those meetings I have been focused on building out a small garage based RBTA farm. I have had several set backs since last summer, the least of which was moving 2500 miles to Tampa Florida.

In January I started building my 77sqft anemone farm. I will have 500 gallons of production water and 240 gallons of saltwater mixing barrels available to me. Well enough of the talk... here is where I am.

My Garage came coated with epoxy, that is nice, and I have painted the walls with 2 coats of oil based primer/sealer and then a coat of a very hard oil based enamel. the Enamel was so hard and slow drying that each coat would take nearly 72 hours to dry. Crazy stuff, but is sure cleans easy!

I have my 2 BIG tables built, 80" long, 40" wide and 47" tall. Each will have a 110 gallon tank on top and under, and a 60 gallon barrel on top and under.

Here is an early construction picture:

4x4 posts, doubled up 2x4 upper frame.
And here is a completed stand (still needed paint on the plywood at this point)

...and here you can see both the big tables

I am now working on my electrical, plumbing and climate control. I will post pics as I make progress.

I still need to build the 2 level table for my 55 gallon tanks that will be the final 100 gallons of the system.

****
This design will not be the easiest to work on.
I have to lean under the table to work on the lower tanks, and stand on a stool to reach the top tables.
Given the 77sqft that I have to work with, it is the best I could do.
****

I am also working and tweaking my Business plan weekly, and have consulted with an accountant and the Florida State Agriculture department. I plan on making some money with this, and as a result I am making sure I am compliant with state and local laws, and have all the necessary permits and certifications.

Anthony, thanks for helping me take my hobby to a whole new level, both my wife and I are very excited about getting this going.

--Bryan

I switched to T5's

PCIALF — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:01:00 GMT

Hi Anthony

I figured I would share a pict of my new TEK 8 bulb T5 setup it is amazingly brighter than my hqi setup. I will be measuring the par soon when I get the meter back and then compare it to the reading I have with the hqi's for more solid data comparison but I am impressed and the fish adapted to the brighter light

Persistant tank cloudiness

NicoleC — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:59:35 GMT

Anthony & all,

Over a year ago, I broke down my large system, saved a few select corals, fish and rocks and a portion of a very, very live sand bed. I trekked cross country with it but due to extreme conditions, the sand bed was sacrificed to save everything else. When I arrive at my destination, I went ahead and cycled the tank with just the sandbed until it was ready for the other denizens, who had been living in a cooler.

I was hoping to that SOME life in the sand bed would survive, but it didn't. In retrospect, keeping the sand seems like a bad choice. For the past year, my little 15g holding tank has been getting lots of care with frequent water changes, and everything has been doing well, until I started to battle algae outbreaks. Nothing worked, so I bit the bullet, bought some new sand, prepped at 100% water change, and removed the old sand bed. I had a small sandstorm effect that caused tank cloudiness, but thought nothing of it.

Well it worked -- the turf algae and cyano outbreaks are gone. But for several weeks now, the cloudiness has persisted. It's not a a sandstorm. At one point it turned green... a phytoplankton bloom. Multiple 100% water changes did not resolve the issue. Running carbon did not resolve the issue. Using a flocculating agent stripped the phytoplankton, but the pale white cloudiness remained. So I turned off each pump one at a time (a HOB filter for surface agitation and running carbon, plus a Korallia for circulation) for several days to exclude very small microbubbles as a cause.

Neither the fish nor corals nor macro nor snails appear stressed. pH is normal and other parameters are unchanged and within normal ranges. I have, of course, tested for ammonia. No detectable phosphates or nitrates. I have nothing that could be spawning, nor would I think it would continue for this long. I don't think anything would precipitate for this long, and I am not using any additives. Bio-load in this tank is very low and there is ample biological filtration. I have no suspicious smells from the tank.

Although it still looks like a sandstorm, I suspect I have some sort of very stubborn bacterial bloom. Any thoughts from the folks here on a resolution? At the moment, the only other thing I can think of is to do nothing for a while.

niraductors

saffa — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:12:37 GMT

Help needed

I have recently help a friend by installing a aquamedic nitraductor onto his system, his system nitrates are 50ppm(way high), there is a redox probe on the nitaductor , it has been running for about 3months now, there is a slow flow through but we cant get the redox below -57 without completely turning off the flow.

But the wierd thing is that the NO3 coming out from the Nitaductor is way higher than the Aquarium water. Any comments?

I dont have much experience with type of filter , i prefer the traditional DSB as simple is better.

Sweet

Sand Dissolution Trials

captbunzo — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:36:58 GMT

In another thread in this forum, some lively debate has been progressing between two of our resident reef gurus, Anthony and Eric. This discussion has been absolutely fascinating and has discussed the probability of sand to dissolve in our marine systems.

Amazing magnesium from Seachem Gray Coast Sand

I asked recently the question, how can we test this in a relatively scientific manner. The resulting answer from Eric was as follows:

Agreed on multiple tests from lots of people. Every tank and every sand bed will likely show high variation. I would suggest samples from multiple places in the same tank, homogenizing, and distributing between replicates and replicate testing of params. Then, do the light/dark thing. Then do food additions, or calcium alkalinity additions, water flow, calcifying species, different substrate types, etc. Ideally, porewater pH testing and/or carbon loading. You could combine multiple variables and do multivariate analyses but these can get complex and without larger numbers of replicates may not be as rigorous. KISS works well here.

Literally, this could take one week with a dozen closed top containers holding a liter of water to get some good numbers if a number of people participated. the only issue would be consistency of reporting (i.e you don't read blue the same way I read blue if the same test kit is used).

I think this would be a really neat experiment to try and would love to work on this. So I was hoping we could have a little more discussion as to the best way to follow through. Eric, could you describe in a little more detail some of the options described above?

And to all, thank you for the time and the great discussions!

Nitrate problem help

tom-tangzone — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:22:31 GMT

Hi Anthony,

I attended your Ottawa conference and was very please with it. Got a lot of info and answers that I was looking for. I also have been reading avidly your propagation book wich is about the only book I have been reading cover to cover for years.

And so I have a nitrate problem... what is new about that pff please enlight me with your opignion and the best course of action.

I have a Mixed SPS/LPS 130G total volume. Got 2 tangs, 2 clown, 1 mandarin, 6line wrasse. I am feeding 2 soup spoon full of DT evryday. Adding nori/granular for SPS/1 cube of mysis per day.

I run under cabinet in sump an AquaC 180 (rated 100-200G), refugium/cheato.
Water change 5 gallon per week

So now after 1.5 year of running the system I keep my nitrate in check at 10ppm. But lately with my latest SPS that are crazy beautifull I've been trying to feed a bit more in order to help em adapt. After 2 weeks I am at 20ppm.

I will be correcting the nitrate with some heavy water change meaning 5 gallon evry day.

But then what? if I m going to heavy feed like this? Should I add an OZone producer or should add another external hang on skimmer sort of like the AquaC Remora/tunzeDOC.

The option of an Ozone machine is more apealing since evrything would stay clean in the cabinet and not hanging on the tank. And the AquaC ev-180 has an JG fitting specialy for an OZ injector.

IF I would use OZone injected in the skimmer would it be dangerous for the plastic.. I rtead somewhere that OZ can damage plastics. And wich machine would you recommand.

Tam

red algea

reddo — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:03:59 GMT

what is this stuff? it grows away from the rock, and looks to have a somewhat rigid structure. i got the rock from a buddy and he said it was fiji rock.

Farming in Ohio?

fazgood — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:39:02 GMT

I recieved an email from the Aquaculture Group of Ohio informing me of a upcoming TV show on coral farming. Is anyone in Ohio that might be able to record it for me, or take some notes? PM me if you can. Here is a snip from the email.

>>>>>This Sunday, February 17^th at 11:00 am on WOSU, an Ohio aquaculture farm will be featured on Our Ohio, a TV show produced by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. They will be featuring Reef Systems Coral Farm in New Albany, OH. It’s a fascinating place and always great when Ohio Aquaculture has the opportunity to promote itself>>>>>

Thanks

Faz

Sulfur Media

saltdog64 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:59:36 GMT

I recently purchased the sulfur media sold by Marine Depot. Have not setup the unit as of yet so my question is : How to use it? I have heard from another source (RC) that a user had his turn to "mush", what ever that means. He said it clouded the water in his reactor that's all I know. I plan on use matrix first, then a foam, then the sulfur media, a other foam then out it a calcium reactor to help control the pH.

Any thoughts on this matter ??? as ALL help is appreciated !!!

THX in advance !

Dick

Most amusing typo in BOCP ed. 2

JoshF — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:05:31 GMT

First off, I'm loving the book! I'm reading cover to cover, and I've made it to page 139 in between the rest of my crazy daily activities. I was already obsessed with starting a small aquaculture test set-up to determine rates of production per unit area in my care, and the arrival of this book has only bumped that up to a fever pitch! My wife and friends just look at me out of the corner of their eyes and shake their heads a bit...

Regardless, the typo that made me almost spew some coffee on my otherwise pristine new book is on page 139 and reads:

"Aside from PUBIC water, nitrate is most commonly introduced into captive seawater systems through food products."

So, repeat after me; "propagation tanks ARE NOT Roman baths...."

I'm enjoying the work (obviously) and it's simply wonderful that there are whole communities of people out here to understand the levels of .... interest ..... in marine aquaria!

Josh

Salt Testing

fazgood — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:43:48 GMT

This is quite interesting. My question is, why did they not use a mix of 35ppt instead of the 7 grams in 200ml?

http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

Still a good read unless it was funded by the one with the best results.

Faz