Got my first reef tank in 2010, was given a neglected tank and brought it back to life. Following several nano tanks I had a Red Sea Reefer XL 425 for 3 years. I also have an IM Nuvo 40 called “Mollywood” that I set up in late 2018 for my saltwater tank-bred mollies. I’m now using it as a fish and coral observation tank.
November 2020, we moved house so I moved my reef and put it in a temporary 90G sumpless tank. It was there from June 2020 to March 2021. Then it was gradually transferred to my 265 gallon basement sump, which I cycled and set up as a stand-alone running system until my new tank arrived - 325 gallon display, system volume of about 600 gallons. It was not smooth sailing, but I’m moving forward!
Come and watch the fun. 😂 It’ll all be on video for your amusement. 😎
Robert from Little Shop of Coral is amazing. His corals are very healthy and priced well. He is so personable and I feel like a valued customer even though I’ve only been a handful of times! He now has a storefront in Grimsby.
Hi, yes I do but not in the recommended quantities - it would be super expensive for my system water volume. I have about 20 lbs in the sump at the moment.
Apologies for the tardy reply - I don’t know how high/far it pumps but when using this method of topping off water, I usually try to have the shortest hose run possible. The farthest I’ve had is about 5 ft. Thanks for watching!
Wrasse ID sucks… I picked up one from my LFS a while back, knowing it wasn’t was they were claiming. They weren’t even close. I still don’t actually know which wrasse it is… there are soooo many variations. Mine is: Back half and head = pink Band between the head and tail (about a quarter of the fish’s length) = purple Belly = white Narrow streak where fins meet body = blue
I’m sorry I took so long to reply - this didn’t show up in my notifications for some reason. I agree about identification - I think it’s because the fish are often very small when collected and - let’s face it - many ppl are not exactly detail-oriented. So you and I, as reef keepers, notice tiny distinguishing features that somehow the “experts” miss when they collect the fish. I bought what I was told was a Christmas wrasse (how it was listed by the fish wholesaler when my LFS ordered it) and turns out to be a red-lined wrasse. I love the fish now it’s fully grown and I’m very glad it wasn’t a Christmas wrasse because I’ve since learned there are at least three types of wrasse commonly called Christmas wrasse, and at least two of them get REALLY BIG, like, 12” PLUS big. oh, the joys. I hope your mystery wrasse is doing well. 👍🏻
Tank is looking incredible. It looks so full. Did I miss when you did an update on the tank builder? Tried to look back and couldn’t find it. I am about to have a custom tank built and want to avoid the unfortunate circumstance you were placed in if possible
Thank you! No, I haven’t done that video yet, but I’m still planning on it. The builder was Concept Aquariums in Calgary. I believe he builds a lot of store tanks. I suspect my tank was beyond his skill but he accepted the job anyway. I’ve had a hard time this past year finding time to make videos, but hoping things settle down soon. Thanks for watching!
Hi, I bought 600i. The tank just cycled and I started running the skimmer about 5-6 days ago. I guess between not being broken in, a low bio load, and epoxy for the rocks, it is impossible for me to get this right, Either the water level with air is too low, or it overflows. Even when it is set OK, it may overflow, or the level will drop when I check it later. Deltec recommends setting the pump at 7 or 8. That would be impossible at this point. Do you have any suggestions, as well as the optimum water height for the skimmer to sit in the sump? Thanks so much.
Hi, apologies for the tardy reply - hubby had to have some surgery and it’s been hectic around here lately. I no longer run the Deltec but I recall I ran it at level 2 on the controller when I used it. Any higher than that caused it to overflow. I also recall I set it in the water depth recommended by Deltec. I fiddled around with the water level in the tube over the course of a few days until I got it right but I remember it was pretty easy. The Min / Max lines were very helpful in getting the water level right. It’s quite possible if your tank is in the midst of cycling, it might be too soon to have a skimmer running. I don’t know if this helps…thanks for watching!
@@Reefgrrl Hi, thanks for your message. Hope your husband recovers quickly. It is running better, but you are correct that there isn't much of a bioload in the tank right now. Why did you change out skimmers? What are you running now? Thanks.
I have a new tank, so now I have an AquaVitro Division 500, and I love it. I did my best to get the Deltec 1000i but they just couldn’t get their act together to ship to Canada, so I gave up. I’d still get a Deltec in a heartbeat if it were possible. I have a playlist of videos about the new system, which I call CrazyTown Reef. Total water volume is 600+ gallons, with a 325g display and the rest in a basement sump. It’s been quite the ride…😁
It's not algae. That's green cyno. Your new conch snails won't touch it. I've had it twice. To get rid of it use a Cyno red slime treatment. I bet you it'll clear up in a few days. Your tank is beautiful by the way.
Hi, apologies for such a tardy reply (hubby had some surgery and it’s been hectic around here lately). Thank you for the kind words! I finally resorted to chemiclean and it pretty much disappeared overnight. Now I just have to keep it away….somehow….😵💫
Hi, apologies for such a tardy reply (hubby had some surgery and it’s been hectic around here lately). Lol, thanks for the kind words! Time and patience and lots of trial and error. I’ve been in the hobby for about 13 years so experience really helps too. Stick with it, you’ll get there…
Hi, apologies for such a tardy reply (hubby had some surgery and it’s been hectic around here lately). I’m embarrassed it’s taken me so long to reply. The black sharpie line is the level indicator that I monitor every day. There definitely are seasonal evaporation changes. If I see the water level start to creep above the black line, I cut back on the pump run time. If the water level is below it, I add one or two seconds to the run time. So it’s manual, there’s no solenoid, and I’m not sure if one could be incorporated…🤔 It has worked flawlessly every time I’ve used this type of setup. Thanks for watching! 👍🏻
Well my god! I found your channel when you where having issues a few years ago and we spoke briefly. So happy to see everything worked out in the end! I watched your moving vid and now this one, so crazy to see how much its matured :)
Hi, apologies for such a tardy reply (hubby had some surgery and it’s been hectic around here lately). I’m embarrassed by how long it’s taken me to reply! 🥹 Yup, the tank actually does hold water and it’s shocking when I think how quickly it’s filling in. I still have some space but not much, and I’ll be doing some serious trimming in the next couple of months. But I’ve been in the hobby long enough now, to know it could all change tomorrow….🤞🏻 Thanks for watching!
hi rg, tank is awesome. bet your pleased. i swapped food pellets for flakes. hated seeing the pellets just sink to the bottom. argh. flakes stay in water column and get eaten. not sure if anthias eat pellets and flakes tho?
They eat both. I have about 40 fish in here, and they swarm the pellets when I feed them. Some do reach the bottom but I’ve observed the anthias grab them from mid-water. I use two feeding sleeves from the Eheim auto feeder, to drop flakes (not the feeder part, just the sleeves that extend down into the water). This way I don’t need to put my hands into the water, and the flakes drop down slower. Works great!
If I had a dream tank, that tank would be it. It’s absolutely beautiful and amazing. That is lifetime achievement award worthy right there!!! Thanks for sharing that video!!
Your tank is absolutely beautiful. You seem to have a knack for it Do you have any background in marine biology? Also, do you run your lights actinic All of the time? What kind of lights do you run. 😊
Thank you! Not a marine scientist, just have a science brain and a really good memory for stuff that matters. I used to do research for a living, and I’m used to analyzing huge amounts of data from disparate sources. It’s amazing how much of that helps in this hobby. I have a pair of Orphek Atlantik V4 G2 panel lights, plus 4 perimeter bar lights, 2 of which are Orphek OR2 120s. During the day the lights are set much whiter but when the Atlantiks are off, it’s all mostly blue and the bars don’t have any controllability. So all blue for an hour or so just at the beginning and end of the day.
I greatly appreciate the time and attention you put into properly (or attempting to properly) identify the animals under your care. I wish it were more common in this hobby
Thank you for noticing and appreciating that. I do my best to find out exactly what the care requirements are for any livestock I’m considering, and I can’t do that without knowing the taxonomy - then I can find out what their habitat is in the wild and do my best to give them the environment they need. And I agree - I wish species ID was the baseline for information given by vendors selling marine critters, rather than made-up names. I wouldn’t mind the naming so much if it were consistent, but every seller who has a tenuis with blue skin, green growth tips and orange polyps seems to think they need to make up their own name in order to jack the prices. Oops, strayed into rant territory here, sorry…🥺
@@Reefgrrl No I agree, rant on. The naming situation is coral marketing is one of the hobbies worst tendencies. I'd be fine with it, if it included the genus and species, much like botanical names in horticulture. But, instead we get pure marketing nonsense.
Thanks Leighton! It dominates the right side of the tank for sure. And I’ve seen all three of your clowns in and out of there so I’m starting to wonder if they’re going to live in it.
Thank you! I love a mixed reef, though it can be quite a challenge keeping everyone healthy and thriving. I’m not quite there yet but hoping to have some good-size acropora colonies by the time the tank hits the three-year mark. Thanks for watching!
I used waste away and eco balance as directed and it didn’t do anything. I used the products for 6 months, I went to algae fix for marine and worked within a few weeks and I stopped it bc it can wreck havoc to your balance. It has been a couple of months and it still looks good.
It’s such a balancing act. This morning the sand looked the best it has in over two months. I’ve always used parallel methods to try and fix problems. So between 10 new conch snails, cutting feeding quantities in half, and using the waste away and prodibio, I don’t care which one(s) are working - or maybe I accidentally hit the right combination - as long as I’m seeing improvement. The only hard and fast rule I have is to never dose more than one bacterial product in any 48-hr period. I’ve had bacterial blooms and the dreaded white slime and I don’t want to go there ever again. 😵💫 Thanks for watching!
Yes, we have multiple bubblers throughout the system and I run bubble scrubbing overnight. Additionally, the water drops about 7 ft from the overflow down into the filter boxes, which creates lots of gas exchange (300+ gallons downstairs in the sump). Thanks for watching!
Yes! Your tank is amazing. I recently had a similar green algae bloom and it happened around when my clam died. Waste away and bactor7 seemed to do the trick and lots of pods.
Thanks! Yes - I’m pretty terrible about replacing crabs and snails as they live out their life span. I do have two urchins in here, and a third one in my observation tank downstairs that I could move into here if needed, so I think that helps a bit. Thanks for stopping by!
I used chemiclean very early on, before I put any livestock in here and it worked well. I’m going to go through the entire jug of waste-away and see how things go, especially now I’m also using the Prodibio stuff. I do have Chemiclean on hand but there are a couple more things I can do before resorting to it. With so much livestock in here now, I’m trying to be super careful with how I handle the biome…
Lol. I’ve removed it but I did keep a couple of small frags, and put them downstairs into my observation tank. That thing measured roughly 8x10 inches! The view into the front of the tank is much nicer without it. 👍🏻
I’m pretty old-school. I use Seachem Reef Fusion 1 and 2 for my 2-part dosing, I dose about 3 litres of normal-saturation kalk every day, and for supplements I use Sustainable Reef’s Coral Essentials Foundation Pack. But that product is impossible to buy here in Canada so I’ve been importing it from Australia at great expense. Once I use up what I have I’ll be looking for something else. I’ve been adding vanadium, cobalt and nickel based on quarterly icp test results (these 3 are consistently low but all else is about perfect) and if tests show I need to add other elements I will. I keep things very very simple. Thanks for watching!
Lol, no, I’m in Canada so I’m sure I’m not on their radar. I’ve invited March from fragbox to visit but I think he’s pretty busy travelling so it hasn’t happened. I call this system CrazyTown for a reason - if you check out my 600 Gallon Reef System playlist, there are videos of this build from the start - and we’ve done a lot of crazy things I haven’t seen anywhere else. I think what we have here would be really interesting for ppl to see, which is why I need to get more videos out! 😁 Thanks for watching!
Thank you! Nothing. I have just over 600 gallons of water in the system, so dilution is on my side. There are a couple of detritus traps we. end to get cleaned up but they’re down in the sump and not in the display. I fluff the sand daily to get stuff up in the water column so it can be filtered out and I suspect all that extra “food” that’s mostly dissolved might be why the corals are growing so fast. 🤷♀️ Thanks for watching!
Thanks Phil! There’s always something to fight but overall I can’t believe I’m about out of space in under 2 years - and my acros are just now starting to take off so that’ll all be filling in if everything stays stable. I’m super-happy with how it’s all developing and my 40+ fish still have plenty of space to zoom around. Video and photos just don’t do it justice - but I’m sure you have the same thing, with your gorgeous systems! Thanks for stopping by!
