got ethical husbandry?

Kinetic's ELOS 120

the vinegar knocked out a ton of junk from the "input" line. I did a test at 10mL/day and it seems like the input set to 13.71 and the output to 10.00 works perfectly, even after a calibration. I wonder if my controller is just busted.
 
a while back I got an aquacultured clam from Neptunes, it's awesome, but it came with aiptasia. I've never had a tank with that before (even through all these years). I kept killing it with Joe's Juice, but it kept coming back. It was only a few on the side of the clam, but now, I just realized the aiptasia has spread.

I started the tank totally sterile, no live rock, and only frags into the tank (never with the base). But with these clams, there's nothing you can do about it. I'm sure I also brought in bryposis etc. from the clam or from various turbo snails I got as well.

Lesson learned, anything you bring in will come with some pest, no matter what. So why try in the first place?

So I'm currently battling:
- My stupid Liter Meter III, it sucks. calibration never works.
- Bryposis. Dosing with Tech M now.
- Aiptasia
- Skimmer: never skims, then all of a sudden overflows. Happens every 4 days and skims very little in between. I've gone through 3 skimmers now, wtf?

It's hard to stay motivated, but I think the mentality of these tanks is that, things will never be easy. So see them as stepping stones to maintaining a successful tank.

We always see beautiful pictures of people's tanks, and say: "why can't mine be like that?" but you never see behind the scenes. They're probably just treating their challenges differently.

I'll battle the aiptasia with Joe's Juice daily, try to kill Bryposis with the Tech M, and probably try to mod my auto feeder to feed less. One day... one day I'll get my tank going again.
 
But you take such great photos of what you have, no one will ever know it was not a huge success from the photo documents. Mine on the other hand could have poetic verse and the pictures shout over that.

No such thing as primary inoculation in reef tanks. It, whatever it is, is already there, or it is too difficult to see or remove from introductions.

On a bright note from your tank to mine, the snails are munching away at the algae on the rocks. Growing snails must eat much more than adults. They are also not so heavy yet to pull all loose frags to the bottom of the tank.
 
yardartist said:
But you take such great photos of what you have, no one will ever know it was not a huge success from the photo documents. Mine on the other hand could have poetic verse and the pictures shout over that.

No such thing as primary inoculation in reef tanks. It, whatever it is, is already there, or it is too difficult to see or remove from introductions.

On a bright note from your tank to mine, the snails are munching away at the algae on the rocks. Growing snails must eat much more than adults. They are also not so heavy yet to pull all loose frags to the bottom of the tank.

Thanks for the motivation =) Glad the snails are working well for ya!
 
Update:
- Aiptasia gone (thanks to three peppermints)
- Bryposis gone (thanks to a ton of tech m)

My LiterMeter III water change system sucks. Just last week a pump stopped working. The flow rates are totally inconsistent so my salinity fluctuates like crazy. I'm getting a replacement, but it's sad.

I lost two monti caps and a shades of fall with some RTN for some reason last week, but everything else seems good. Growth is incredibly slow, but at least my favorite coral I've never been able to keep is doing well (Hawkins Echinata).

I'm thinking of downsizing my tank. I'm moving this year and there's no great place for a 4x2 foot tank. Also, I think that size is a bit in a limbo. You can't get big fish, and you can't get too many small fish. If you have a dozen coral, they'll outgrow the tank pretty fast, and if you have too few, it looks funky. It also looks really big unless you have a large room and high ceiling (in my opinion).

I either want a big 6 foot by 2.5 / 3 foot, or a smaller one.

I might go for a 36"x24" and just put 4 SPS colonies in there and let those grow without any fish. Might look pretty sweet. I was thinking an A.G.E. starphire tank with PCV white bottom, and a LED pendant or even that ELOS one. Whole system connected to my current (large) sump and equipment. Without the need to feed any fish, it might be kind of like a living art piece.

I'm bored I guess =)
 
kinetic said:
I might go for a 36"x24" and just put 4 SPS colonies in there and let those grow without any fish. ... Without the need to feed any fish, it might be kind of like a living art piece.

I thought about doing this once :)
 
No fish means you will definitely need to feed the sps then :) I know just the product :lol:

Oh, dibs on the Elos120 :)
 
I hear you on the deep and wide tank. I am hoping with the new job I can go ahead with plans for Gen to build a larger hex for me. Good luck getting the dimensions you want.
 
GreshamH said:
No fish means you will definitely need to feed the sps then :) I know just the product :lol:

Oh, dibs on the Elos120 :)

Haha I'll definitely need some SPS food ;)

I think I'll keep the ELOS just in case, or use it as a sump o_O
 
Wanted to send out an update on what's going on.

I've been super busy lately, but for good cause. I have just sold my first company. The acquisition was a modest one, not in the magnitude of a YouTube Google deal, but very very successful.

I might be downsizing and keeping a tank with just corals, or maybe no tank at all. I'm planning on going traveling a lot in the short term, and I really don't have the capability of maintaining the tank right now. I won't be back to check on it at all and the animals deserve better!

So anyway, making some plans. Probably won't be selling anything this time ;) I'll eventually set this tank back up!
 
Thanks guys! I'm probably getting back from some travels by mid september. I'll probably startup a new tank then. I'll keep the ELOS running for now.

I'm thinking of going custom and ordering through Robert @ Neptune. 36 x 24 x 24 braceless, black silicon, and white pvc bottom. 32" tall cabinet (elos style with apple white semi-gloss color). Going to get some AquaIllumination LED lights (3x SOL Blue). Good thing is I can probably reuse most of the stuff I have already, other than the light, and the water volume is actually pretty close just different dimensions.

There's a chance I'm going to route the sump to the laundry room which would be nice. Don't have to worry about cabinet space for a big 'ol sump.

About the contents of the tank, I might just have three pieces of coral, a clam, and that's it! Not even sure I'm going to have snails or anything. I wonder how hard it would be to keep the tank running like that. Anyone try it before? No real inverts or fish? Just coral, clams?
 
kinetic said:
About the contents of the tank, I might just have three pieces of coral, a clam, and that's it! Not even sure I'm going to have snails or anything. I wonder how hard it would be to keep the tank running like that. Anyone try it before? No real inverts or fish? Just coral, clams?

I've always wanted to start a small tank like this, Art :)
 
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