Jrpark22000 - 110 rimless tank

Pretty sure borbs don't morph, but i could be wrong. I believe mine is a male? I gave up looking for the cling, if its there its there...
 
Thanks! I wasn't kidding when I went looking for a boulder. There are all kinds of cool things in the rock; small clam shells, xmas worm tubes, coral polyp structures, and more.
 
Qt connected to dt . If u put fish in the and it gets sick then u whole tank is infected. Right? Kinda defeats purpose of qt beside the ease of catching . Looks great i just dont get the qt its more like cool second tank for some cool species only tank :)
 
The QT is quickly disconnected from DT. Essentially it is a no maintance DT expansion until I need a QT, then I shut the valves, undo the hoses and have a seperate QT full loaded with batercia with identical water parameters. My DT fish additions are done, so unless somebody gets sick, the DT would be empty for the forseeable future. This way I use the QT for a DT nitrate bacteria factory.
 
jrpark22000 said:
The QT is quickly disconnected from DT. Essentially it is a no maintance DT expansion until I need a QT, then I shut the valves, undo the hoses and have a seperate QT full loaded with batercia with identical water parameters. My DT fish additions are done, so unless somebody gets sick, the DT would be empty for the forseeable future. This way I use the QT for a DT nitrate bacteria factory.
Click to expand...

Brilliant. So you'll essentially have extra live rock on demand when needed. When you medicate, will you leave the rock in there?
 
It'll depend on what meds. If the meds are safe to be put in a DT, won't attach to rock, won't kill bacteria, then I'll leave it in. Otherwise I'll pull it out and put it into the 25 gal tub I picked up from tractor supply. At only 25 gallons I can fill it with the water from a single waterchange and just toss in a powerhead, similar to how I cured the rock the last few weeks.

The attached QT has many more benefits. It adds an additional 50% of my DT surface volume for air exchange and evap. I T'd my DT return pump to feed the QT so the only additional heat is from the mp40. It's made cooling the tank so easy.

It also essentially acts like a 45gal refuge. I don't have a light over it, so no algea grows on the glass. Bugs galore can be seen as well as so many other cooler thing, including what I think are a couple bryozoan colonies.

It's also a great place to do waterchanges. Simply stop the power head, turn the ball vavles and I have 40 gal of water I can change. I then add the fresh saltwater back, turn on the powerhead and verify the pH before releasing it to the DT. I set the return pump flow quite low, so it takes several hours for the new water with different alk/ca to slowly be introduced into the DT.

By adding the extra volume it makes keeping alk/ca/mg easier to maintain. The extra reserve of water is a nice buffer. My pH graph for a day is a nice rolling wave of about two tenths.

If I were to get in a bind for spare saltwater I can seperate the QT and just use the water from it. Replacing the water when ever my fresh saltwater supply is ready.

The only negatives I see to date are proper sanitization and detritus. I MUST properly sanitize everything after each QT cycle. As for detritus I simply sucked it out before I added the large rock. I'll now keep a close eye on detritus within the rock. Using a powerhead to blast the rock clean monthly as I do to my DT rock. I hope to not have to add a CUC to keep the rock clean.
 
In prep for the upcomong tank anniversay, I've been sitting and thinking about lessons learned over the last year. I can now explain the high ALK incident from last December as I also had a mini event a couple months ago. When ALK gets to 8.5 I get some STN and RTN on select sps species, usually torts. Recognizing the RTN immediatly, a full suite of test showed the elevated po4 as it was time to change GFO. After thought I was finally able to explain why my ALK demand changes every couple months, it's due to the po4. When ever po4 gets above .004 mg/l the tank ALK demands drop noticably. For this last event I had let it get to .007mg/l and it showed.

I've also still been chasing a decrease in nitrates. I'm stuck doing 20-30gal weekly WC to keep it stable, so I added the large pukani rock to increase low O2 bacteria. I had extra pukani so I also replaced all the rock in the sump. It was a mix of rubble and larger peices from Marco-rock. Now a single large block shaped peice is in the sump refug and another in the return chamber. While removing the old rock I did find a lot of detritus from the last 2 years. With the new rock I am able to vacuum the detritus out during each WC, along with the errant cheato clumps. Time will tell what this does to nitrates.

I did remove the Chocolate tang and rehomed it to Juice. The tank is so peaceful now. Even the flameback angle picks on the others less. It's the smallest of the large fish but thinks it's boss. I'd really like to add a male clown and possibly a SA clingfish, but really don't want to upset the balance.

The ORA Green Damicornis has turned into a breeding machine. There are ever growing colonies sprouting throught out the DT. They've yet to get out of control so I've left them be. GSP has really begun to cover the DT back wall. It's covered an entire side of the overflow all the way to the waterline. The nuisance z/p and mushrooms are under control much easier now that I have the Algea Mover Vac. A 3-5 minute session a few times a month is all it takes. No more reaching in the tank with tweezers pulling them out poly by polyp.

With the addition of the 3 mp10s and twice daily simulated storms there is very little detritus to vacuum from the BB anymore. The acans are taking a hit from it. There is just not enough food to keep them growing anymore. Even the sun corals show reduced polyp extension if I even go one day past the normal 4 day feeding schedule. The sps have never had more color and the z/p have slowed in growth (yippie!!, d$mn weeds) so for the time being I'll deal with the receding acans.

Pictures will come after I do the yearly maintenance the first of October. I addition to the normal monthly maintenance, all pumps get taken out and cleaned, skimmer is throughly cleaned, BB marble tile gets lifted to check for hidden detritus, all but the primary rockwork gets moved to get trapped detritus, and magnet shelves all get removed to clean the glass.
 
Thanks Erik. A single male clown shouldn't upset things too much either, I'm enjoying the peace and in no hurry to setup a QT. I'd use a 10-20 gal as QT instead of using the big 45gal, both are too small to need such large accomidations.
 
Ladies and gentlemen ........THAT IS HOW ITS DONE !!! Jr I cant wait to see your tank again its always stunning even with these small issues you have had. I agree a cling will not even be noticed in your tank . Lil turds cant be killed btw .
 
I will gladly trade you a bc14 for your current QT with stand :becky:
jrpark22000 said:
Thanks Erik. A single male clown shouldn't upset things too much either, I'm enjoying the peace and in no hurry to setup a QT. I'd use a 10-20 gal as QT instead of using the big 45gal, both are too small to need such large accomidations.
Click to expand...
 
jrpark22000 said:
In prep for the upcomong tank anniversay, I've been sitting and thinking about lessons learned over the last year. I can now explain the high ALK incident from last December as I also had a mini event a couple months ago. When ALK gets to 8.5 I get some STN and RTN on select sps species, usually torts. Recognizing the RTN immediatly, a full suite of test showed the elevated po4 as it was time to change GFO. After thought I was finally able to explain why my ALK demand changes every couple months, it's due to the po4. When ever po4 gets above .004 mg/l the tank ALK demands drop noticably. For this last event I had let it get to .007mg/l and it showed.

I've also still been chasing a decrease in nitrates. I'm stuck doing 20-30gal weekly WC to keep it stable, so I added the large pukani rock to increase low O2 bacteria. I had extra pukani so I also replaced all the rock in the sump. It was a mix of rubble and larger peices from Marco-rock. Now a single large block shaped peice is in the sump refug and another in the return chamber. While removing the old rock I did find a lot of detritus from the last 2 years. With the new rock I am able to vacuum the detritus out during each WC, along with the errant cheato clumps. Time will tell what this does to nitrates.

I did remove the Chocolate tang and rehomed it to Juice. The tank is so peaceful now. Even the flameback angle picks on the others less. It's the smallest of the large fish but thinks it's boss. I'd really like to add a male clown and possibly a SA clingfish, but really don't want to upset the balance.

The ORA Green Damicornis has turned into a breeding machine. There are ever growing colonies sprouting throught out the DT. They've yet to get out of control so I've left them be. GSP has really begun to cover the DT back wall. It's covered an entire side of the overflow all the way to the waterline. The nuisance z/p and mushrooms are under control much easier now that I have the Algea Mover Vac. A 3-5 minute session a few times a month is all it takes. No more reaching in the tank with tweezers pulling them out poly by polyp.

With the addition of the 3 mp10s and twice daily simulated storms there is very little detritus to vacuum from the BB anymore. The acans are taking a hit from it. There is just not enough food to keep them growing anymore. Even the sun corals show reduced polyp extension if I even go one day past the normal 4 day feeding schedule. The sps have never had more color and the z/p have slowed in growth (yippie!!, d$mn weeds) so for the time being I'll deal with the receding acans.

Pictures will come after I do the yearly maintenance the first of October. I addition to the normal monthly maintenance, all pumps get taken out and cleaned, skimmer is throughly cleaned, BB marble tile gets lifted to check for hidden detritus, all but the primary rockwork gets moved to get trapped detritus, and magnet shelves all get removed to clean the glass.
Click to expand...

This gives me a lot to think about and be aware of. Time to go check my Phos and Alk now. Thanks Josh.
 
NP Walt! It'd be great to help prevent others from having the same pain. Gotta love the martini po4 meter, no more guessing!
 
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