Kong's Restored BB (90g)

[LobsterOfJustice]

Kong, I am really glad to see your tank turning around. I had the same experience with longspines growing too big too fast. Most other urchins are great however... pincushion, tuxedo, rock-boring, and pencil have been fine in my tank. They do have heavy poop though, not sure any urchin will change that.

[hurleycr]

Originally posted by King-Kong
Hurley: I got rid of him.. he got too big too fast, and wasnt eating enough corraline to justify all of the space he took!

I am interested in finding a smaller urchin however. Oh, also, the longspine's poop was WAY too heavy. The flow in my tank had issues getting it to the skimmer, because they poop these dense hard grains that look like sand.

Thats funny, I just realized BB guys rate their inhabitants by the weight of their poo!!!

[Purple Haze]

Kong,

Did skim mate production increase when you added the RDSB?

I'm thinking mine has with no other additions.

[moo0o]

try a tuxedo, dont think they grow up to be that big.

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by hurleycr
Thats funny, I just realized BB guys rate their inhabitants by the weight of their poo!!!

Some of the hardcore BB'ers rate it by it's taste!

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by Purple Haze
Kong,

Did skim mate production increase when you added the RDSB?

I'm thinking mine has with no other additions.

Actually, the RDSB has really messed with my skimmate production (prolly the filter socks, too) in a bad way. It's been much harder to get consistant skimmate, and during the first 2 weeks, I pulled out very little skimmate.

I think it was due to the dust still coming off of the sand.

I am not sure I will run the RDSB long term, because I installed it assuming I wouldnt figure out what else was killing my corals. Once I stopped feeding that food, the corals came back, which was just a couple weeks after the RDSB was installed -- not enough time for it to do anything.

..and I just cant feel comfortable with all of the resources the RDSB is going to require to keep it happy. It will be a large drain on my alkalinity, and since I only depend on kalkwasser for supplementation I dont know if that can keep up with it. And if I ever mess up and something in the tank becomes too high or too low too fast, I'm afraid it might crash.

If my nitrates stay at ~5ppm without a RDSB (they were at 7 with a real lack of water changes and me not using a filter sock), I really dont see that hurting either the corals, or the fish, but we'll see.

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by LobsterOfJustice
Kong, I am really glad to see your tank turning around. I had the same experience with longspines growing too big too fast. Most other urchins are great however... pincushion, tuxedo, rock-boring, and pencil have been fine in my tank. They do have heavy poop though, not sure any urchin will change that.

Thanks

Which one ate corraline the best?

[LobsterOfJustice]

I couldn't tell you . I have never had much coralline to begin with anyway. If you are wanting it to eat off the glass though, I can tell you that I have only seen the pincushion and the tuxedo on the glass.

[King-Kong]

I want it off the rocks and starboard.

[King-Kong]

I just got in two WIRELESS controllers for my Vortechs... replaced the ones on the left and right, and have them in reef crest mode, so they should be powering up and down randomly very fast.

Very cool feature to have, because really, I dont need crazy flow ALL of the time.. I just need strong gusts every once in a while to pickup any poop.

Since I got the 3 vortechs in and bevelled the starboard, I have had 0 dead spots in the tank. I dont have to siphon anywhere.. it all gets carried down into the filter sock or skimmer.



I am down to 7 threadfins... so I lost 11... very sad. All 7 are eating. Of the ones that died, NONE had began eating yet, so I think that's an important level for them to reach.

The LFS has 5 little ones left.. of which a few are interested in eating, so I will try to buy the ones that are eating and add them to my school.



Corals are all kicking butt.. LPS are growing again and SPS are growing at really impressive rates..


Hopefully I can take a new FTS shortly to show off the new corals I purchased from DFS/LA/DD

[moo0o]

that sounds really good, i have a 90g aswell and your tank is a real inspiration, i just wish i coulda beveled the edges so i dont lose flow there =\.

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by moo0o
that sounds really good, i have a 90g aswell and your tank is a real inspiration, i just wish i coulda beveled the edges so i dont lose flow there =\.

Thanks moo0o

I dont have any readings or etc. to tell how much flow is lost/gained due to the way the edge of the starboard is.. I just wanted to cover all of my bases when I replaced my old board, which was just trapping too much in the cracks.

I also think it depends on how thick your board is; thicker board is going to create deeper canyons for poop to settle, so thin board probably doesnt need any edge work done.

[Rekonn]

Cuttingboardcompany.com offers beveling as a free option if you get starboard from them.

King-Kong, your thread was one that convinced me to not bother with a faux barebottom, and just go for starboard. Glad to hear your system is recovering! I'm debating whether to run a filter sock on my system. I'm wondering if my protein skimmer would be good enough by itself at removing detritus. Have you run your system without one, and did you notice a difference in nitrates?

[King-Kong]

Rekonn; in the future I may try to do a better 'study' on my system's nitrate demands, and the role of a filter sock and RDSB.

A few weeks ago I used to ONLY run my skimmer. Then, in a bid to squash the weird recession, I added filter socks, and a RDSB; turns out neither was the cause of my problems, as it was my food.

I am still running both, however. I like the filter socks. They arent difficult to clean/replace, and spending a couple minutes every ~2 days to clean them out gives me a peace of mind. That said, my skimmate production is DOWN, as there are no large heavy particles to remove.

Ideally, I would test my nitrates/phosphates professionally, then remove the RDSB and test 1mo/2mo's later and see where im at. Problem is, everything else has to stay the same; how much I feed, how often I do w/c's, etc. etc. I'm not sure I can be that consistant

Before I ran both, my nitrates came in at 7ppm. That was also without any real W/C's being done for some time. To me, 7ppm isnt very bad, and I was surprised. This may lead me to just remove the RDSB, but leave the filter socks, perhaps letting my nitrates/nutrients settle somewhere inbetween 0 and 7...

that's what im thinking, at least

[Devtech]

really nice tank kong, sorry to hear about ur almost losses and at the same time glad to hear everything is working out great! would love to see some updated pics of the coral once they get better! hehe

[Swanwillow]

don't remote DSB's not even start working for 8 weeks or so? So removing it wouldn't change diddly.

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by Devtech
really nice tank kong, sorry to hear about ur almost losses and at the same time glad to hear everything is working out great! would love to see some updated pics of the coral once they get better! hehe

Thanks Dev!

It was a pretty rough time trying to figure out was wrong, but I'm glad it's solved and is behind me.

I'll def. take some pics once everything is all healed up

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by Swanwillow
don't remote DSB's not even start working for 8 weeks or so? So removing it wouldn't change diddly.

From what I saw in the major RDSB thread, results varied on how quickly they started working, but I think you're right; I could remove it now and nothing would change.. I'm just not sure if I want to remove it, yet.

I'm torn... both by the fact that I'd like to see what it can offer, and also by the fact that it cost about $70 to setup :P

[RoWall]

I'm obsessed with Your tank, One of the best I've ever seen!
Please, post some more pics! I might go BB.

[ReefWreak]

What food were you using that you felt increased your nitrates significantly?

I'm subscribed to this thread now. So much interesting conversation goes on here. Maybe one day on my way up to Tally I can stop by and see "The amazing 90g with 3 vortechs." I really want to see that faux-sandbed starboard. I want to go BB, but the problem in my tank is that I don't trust my rock work enough to leave the glass bare. I suppose I could let my montiporas encrust the rocks together... but what's the fun in that?

[Devtech]

Originally posted by ReefWreak
What food were you using that you felt increased your nitrates significantly?

I'm subscribed to this thread now. So much interesting conversation goes on here. Maybe one day on my way up to Tally I can stop by and see "The amazing 90g with 3 vortechs." I really want to see that faux-sandbed starboard. I want to go BB, but the problem in my tank is that I don't trust my rock work enough to leave the glass bare. I suppose I could let my montiporas encrust the rocks together... but what's the fun in that?

well if theres not much coral growth up top u can always take the piece that are flimsy down and work with less rock, but one thing i learned with my 90 is that its much easier placing rock with little water in the tank, water in the tank when u placing rock on top of rock it grabs air sooo the rock is flimsy and moves around in which in the long run causes "rock slides"

if u can id siphon out most of the water leave a foot of it in there. then re work the rocks, best thing to is place all your upper body weight onto the rocks and they will connect in some form and become super sturdy. i did this with my 90 when i had every inch in rock i had alot of power heads behind the rocks hitting them directly and not one of the rocks will budge. IF you do this with a BB tank make sure u have the bottom of the tank covered with starboard, or else it u can really scratch the tank bottom.

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by RoWall
I'm obsessed with Your tank, One of the best I've ever seen!
Please, post some more pics! I might go BB.

Thanks Rowall, but there are much better tanks out there!

Leonardo's Tank is one of my favorites: http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76460

[King-Kong]

Originally posted by ReefWreak
What food were you using that you felt increased your nitrates significantly?

I'm subscribed to this thread now. So much interesting conversation goes on here. Maybe one day on my way up to Tally I can stop by and see "The amazing 90g with 3 vortechs." I really want to see that faux-sandbed starboard. I want to go BB, but the problem in my tank is that I don't trust my rock work enough to leave the glass bare. I suppose I could let my montiporas encrust the rocks together... but what's the fun in that?

It wasnt the nitrates that bug me; it was the unknown substance in the food killing my corals! The food was a home-made raw seafood medley that came in a bag from the supermarket; somethig in it was building up in my tank and killing the corals.

I dont know how strong a monti encrustation will be... but here's an interesting thing that happened in my tank:

On the right side of the middle island, my closed brain grew onto a rock that was acting as a slight archway: http://www.d3f.org/misc/fish/90g/a09...tank-angle.jpg

They fused together, and now I can lift up the brain, and take this entire huge rock with it.

I believe these kinds of corals are considered reef "building" corals (versus things like Stags, which are just "weeds"), and I get to see why! Given more time, that brain will also touch the rock underneath, and will further help to fuse the rock structure together.

Use epoxy and lots of elbow grease to get your rocks to fit nicely together, and in the end, let your thriving corals give you height, not some lame rock

[ReefWreak]

Thanks for the suggestions, both of you.

I've got a nice favia colony that is growing like that as well, fusing rocks together. My montipora digitata do it, but I hate monti. digi as they grow so fast and don't look that great. They're starting to fall under the label that my previous pocillapora colony was falling under.... "persona non gratis."

The rockwork thing is funny though, because I'm always debating whether I've got too much rockwork, or too little. I feel it's too little because it's almost the wall, which I hate, but it only extends up to about 6" from the top of the tank. I hate having the back of the tank show because it's covered in coraline and I don't have enough room around the hood without removing it entirely to clean the back of the glass.

If I get AEFW and take my tank apart to treat, or ever just decide to take my tank apart for any other reason, I'll definitely re-do my rockwork in the lower island style, with acros just growing out the sides and tops. Gives a really nice appearance. I just can't ever decide if I want fore-reef like yours is, or an SPS+lagoon style, kind of like how mine is now.

[King-Kong]

I think your tank looks really nice as is. It's a nice balance and you have a nice collection of corals that are of a respectable size.

Just get a razor blade to that corraline on the front/side glass