Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning

[blacknife]

I've had my 33 sumpless over a year.. Learned lots.

After all summer of being unemployed the tank looking like crap.. And no money to spend on it.. I get home tomorrow after my first 10 days back at work to see what is gone on in there.. How much work am I going to have, what am I going to have to cram into the weekend to make it look good before I go back to work..

I hate working on the road.


time for some more automated upgrades..

[blacknife]

More to follow

[blacknife]

Tank looked good.

HA is still out of control, Pretty sure it is just from to replace my lights, as it never slowed down after getting the damsels out. There was a very slight hint of cyano but not the heavy dose like I had briefly before I went away.

Stopped by the lfs on the way home and got a lawnmower blenny, hopefully he will pick at some of that ha while I'm away at work. Got one peppermint shrimp to hopefully try eating the little apistas that keep magically appearing, I keep trying to kill them and they keep trying to grow back. I have only seen it once since I put it in, hopefully the last addition doesn't make a meal of it. I could not say no to getting a tube anemone though, i've wanted one for a while and they look so purdy. cleaned up the few corals that had fallen onto the sand bed and put it in. I might have to get some more glue just to make sure there are no accidents

too bad I missed the fragfest, oh well there will be more frags



I have been getting an idea for the next tank, the location I have my tank there is no room for a stand it is in bay window kind of thing that has a kind of ledge or sitting area in it so no room for a sump. I want to find or get a tank that is the same depth as the window, and then build a little mini sump/refugeeum/hardware area into the back of it so everything is out of sight, Kind of like the all in one tanks available but fit to my window. I guess I am just looking for any opinions on that kind of setup, or advice that would change the way it gets set up.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

I had HA go nuts in my 60 for the last little while, I found a little brown tang that did wonders for it, as most lawnmowers will only take care of short HA.

Sea hares or dragon gobies will take care of it too.

As for the FragFest there is always next year.

Ken - BWA

[banditpowdercoat]

I hear ya, I am away 22 days at a time. Wife feeds and looks after then. But the tanks are allways in bad shape when I come home. Coraline on glass, needing water changes etc

[blacknife]

I was picking at it pretty regularly all summer and it never seemed to make a big dent so perhaps if both me and the fish pick at it it will make a bigger dent.

I have thought sea hare's but have not seen any on any of my shopping trips, would one sea hare clean out the HA in time and starve?

Would the tube anemone have to be rehoused while the sea hare was in there?

[blacknife]

Stuipid blenny found his way to the floor sometime last night.

guess those little red spot ones are good jumpers eh?


I guess ill just stick to new corals and not get any more new fish for a while.

[blacknife]

Killed a few birds with one stone today.

at least there were no more fish involved.

problem 1: Christmas tree coral :shrinking like crazy.
Problem 2: HOB refugueum that i had nothing to do since i went sump-less
problem 3: lots of hoses and extra power-head in the sump for Phosphate remover+carbon reactor.
problem 4: Cyano and problem algae in the fugue/sortie tank.


solution 1: Isolate non-photosynthetic coral and increase feeding since its not getting enough in the DT.

Solution 2: use HOB fugue to put the coral in.

Solution 3: Plumb the reactors and the HOB off the return, thus freeing up power-heads.

Solution 4: Re-organize freed up power-heads so there is more flow in the tank and the Fugue, hopefully curing the cyano.


So now I guess its time to sit back and see how things work out. The HOB has a small powerhead and heater in it, and I will probably get some more LR rubble. I will try to give it lots of little feedings and the extras can slowly drip out into the system.

I got a few frags from Dez's fragapoloza last week so far all but one look good. Superman monti is starting to brown a little but i kind of expected that.

I have my eyes on new lights for the dt in the very near future.

When that happens i am thinking seriously about modifying the stand, plumbing my old 33 into the system where the 15g fugue is, and putting the fugue above the 2 tanks just as a fugue instead of a fugue/softie/beginner frag tank. Might have to rename it Frankentanks but that's ok because its sitting in my unfinished basement.


To add to the madness the girlfriends sister gave the gf a 50 gallon tank.. which is now full of Fresh water, she plans to start easy, i keep telling her it should be salt so she can have the seahorses shes all ways wanted but she doesn't need extra babies right now with our second one coming out next Monday.

[blacknife]

Baby is out, came out early, brought on by food poisioning or something from some bad fish.

I picked up a 38tall with hopes of redoing the sump for my system.

turns out i forgot to take into account the black trim when deciding it would fit in the stand the glass is 12" the opening in the stand is 12" the trim takes up an extra 1/4" on each side. doh

so I have a new vision

There is room enough room between the DT and the wall and then to the door to the mancave that i could put the 40 there, with only a couple inches overlap in the corner. draining to my 33 as a LRR at the same height, and tied to the 20 gallon sump from the main tank.

i can probably push the tank back towards the wall so there is no overlap, Just have to wait till i have the sump off to drill and drain off most of the water quickly.

Just have to draw up a quick sketch of the stand to figure out how much wood i need, and wait till i have hole saws and the guts to drill.

Tank would be FOwlr or perhaps low light, preadatory reef with the PC lights that are currently on the 40.

the sump should then be able to handle the drainage from all three tanks, and there will be lots more room to play in.

[blacknife]

Got glass hole saw..

got crazy

decided to go with the added sump water,

made a "stand" to put the new refugieum the same hight as my sump.

lined up and marked holes.

drilled the empty tank..

Making a new big batch of water to fill it up.

tomorrows project.. drain and clean the sump then drill it and re-pumb everything that needs re-plumbing.

I think i will attempt to make some of the rock for in there, i will see how that goes. but for now it can just be extra water for stability.