One more piece of evidence?

[crvz]

Well, after a long battle of hair algae, i ripped out my 4 year old sand bed in december (though i started cooking some of my rock before then). Here is a picture of my tank immediately before with about 40 lbs of my 90 lbs of live rock.



Well i swapped my rock out (i'm now cooking the 40 lbs that is in the first picture), but as you can see i'm in a little better shape now. I upgraded my flow considerably (you can see 3 maxi-jet mods), and added a number of frags to grow out. I'll be adding more rock slowly, but so far i think things are going well. Thanks, everybody, for all the input. I enjoy owning a reef tank again!

[Loverotties]

WOW LOOKS GREAT!Keep it up!

[gwaco]

wow! what difference . it looks a thousand times better now ! great job !

[Wiskey]

I agree with Gwaco, it looks spectacular. You also odviousally put quite a bit of effert into having an open rockscape, it will help you in the long run and looks great.

Could you go into a little more detail on your skimmer setup?

Whiskey

[crvz]

My skimmer setup? Sure. Its not super complicated. I use to just run a 20g tall, but that wasnt really serving as anything but more water volume. I tried my hand at acrylic work. Take a look...




I'd say 75% of the water from the overflow runs to the right compartment with the AquaC EV120, the rest drops into the refugium, and then meets in the middle at the return. I use a MAG 5 to drive the AquaC. I empty the cup about twice a week. The return is a MAG 18, which after the head loss probably drops about 900 gph into the display. With the 3 maxi-jet mods, plus the seio in the back, there is probably about 4000 gph of water flow in the tank. I figure on a 58 gallon tank with about 25 in the sump, thats an adequate turnover.

I plan on adding a little more rock to the tank, but i definitely want to keep it open. I'm also working on an auto top off system. I have already run the hose from the RO in the bathroom, into the attack, and then down behind the wall of the tank (Houston got hot REAL fast, if you were wondering), so now i just need to finish the acrylic work for the solenoids and float switches. I'll post some pics when i get a little further along. Thanks for your comments!

[VWD]

looks very clean, I have to say I like BB also. I do find myself doing more water changes with it. But I have been doing that on all my tanks. I have one DSB and 3 BB's and I like the BB's better

[crvz]

So, i promised some pictures, i guess i should deliver. I used some left over acrylic from my sump build to create a way of mounting my solenoids and float switches. the switches are all wired in series, so if any one of them opens i cut power to the solenoids. however, the solenoids are wired in parallel (i was having a heating problem when one of them stayed open), so really that only protects for a mechanical failure of one of the solenoids. some folks have said that it may be overkill, but i worked in safety for NASA for 3 years, so i'm inclined to be a little over the top. Here are some pictures.




Installed...



But one question, i'm getting a healthy diatom bloom on my starboard. I suspect this is normal. Do i need to do anything to counter-act this, or should the snails ultimately catch up? Anyone else experience this?

[gman0526]

Nice acrylic work, the diatoms are fine, just let them run out of fuel. Do not panic.. at least not yet

[Little Luey]

Nice tank and sump. I love to see clean tanks like that.

[crvz]

Well it's been 2 months since a tank picture, and i wanted to hear everybody's thoughts. I had a little scare for a minute, as some of the rocks started showing some fresh hair algae growth, but it all subsided in time. I've added some more rock to the tank, rearranged some things, and got a few new fish (a half-black angel and a foxface rabbitfish) after getting rid of the 2 damsels and maroon clown (someone traded me a couple of SPS frags at the local club). So there are are a number of new SPS species in the tank, but I have no idea what the names are for them as they were all given to me by other local reefers.



Let me know any comments or questions you have, as I'd love to get feedback.

One question for everybody, though. I'm running an AquaC 120, and I don't get a ton of skimmate form it (maybe 1/3 a cup every 2 or 3 days). I have the water and air ports open all the way (and running a mag 5 with it), and it's in a separate section of the sump thats getting about 70% of the water from my overflow (probably ~600 gph or so). Should I close the gate valve for the water flow (increasing the pressure/water level in the skimmer), decrease the turn over in that section of the sump, or any other ideas? Thanks.

[trueblackpercula]

very nice tank can't wait for mine to look as nice as yours I just love BB tanks......................

[Viv]

Don't know the answer to the Aqua C question, but had to say your tank looks great!

[trueblackpercula]

what are you feeding the coraline algea? looks great

[Wiskey]

Tank's looking great!

What did you want to do with the Aqua C? Did you want to skim wetter?

If so, closing that valve a bit is a great way to do it.

Whiskey

[Waynesworld]

Nice. I like the maxijet mod. Tanks is looking great.