Reef nutrition

bondolo's defunct tanks

That's so awesome, I'm jealous. Was it zero's old tank or was it a hookup? :)

Eventually at some point when I understand the corals more, I would love to start a prop tank. :D
 
Yes, my display is a 55G rounded corner. I'd think I would eventually like to upgrade it to a 92G rounded corner but only after a whole lot of other projects are completed. Once I get this new frag tank setup I still have to deal with redoing ATO and dosing, redoing my water storage and NSW mixing setup , LED lighting upgrades, better controller integration, replacement sump and skimmer, additional flow and probably other projects else that haven't even occurred to me yet.

If anyone sees a 92G reef ready curved corner for
 
I haven't got my act together for drilling of the frag tank yet. I think I am going to change my sump and skimmer first to make the final plumbing easier. I am also looking for another Sea Swirl.
 
I bought a 500 liter acrylic sump over the weekend. I have some work to clean it up and will be drilling it so that my return pumps are out of the sump. In order to replace my current CPR skimmer/sump combo I am going to also need to buy a skimmer. I am baffled by the types and features of skimmers out there and would very much prefer to buy something used.

  • ~1000 liter/250 gallon total volume
  • heavy coral feeding
    light/moderate fish load

What would you look for? (brands, styles, sizes) What would you avoid?
 
Highly recommend a SRO. Forget if 3000 or 5000 was the appropriate model number but this should give you the best bang for your buck. ~$600 new IIRC. Not terrible if you can swing it.

If buying used, be sure to get a setup with a quality pump in good condition... Via someone you know is your best bet!
 
I've got a couple really big body skimmers you could have that need a pump. Maybe one has a pump in which case if sell it cheap. Not sure if you have a lot of height to work w or not?
You want your return pump out of sump for heat or what?
 
If I were in the market for a skimmer, I would look into the RLSS skimmers (Tony Vargas highly recommends them).

http://m.rlss.ca/#!Products|page
 
I've been fighting red planaria in my frag tank which showed up some time between March and June despite dipping everything. There has been no sign whatsoever in my display tank, thankfully, despite the two systems being connected by a sump. I think the CPR sump with it's biobale is too long a journey for the flatworms to survive in the dark and that's kept them isolated to the frag tank.

I poisoned the flatworms a second time with Levamisole on Saturday. There were many fewer visible dead ones this time but by Sunday a few were back on the glass. After the first attempt my female clownfish looked cloudy and unwell for a couple of days. This time I coordinated the second poisoning with a careful water change to limit the amount of Levamisole exposure for the fish in the main tank. I did this by isolating the frag tank and sump for 3 hours. At the end of the poisoning period the cleanup water change which is normally 30% of the system was a 70% water change for the isolated system. And yet they remain.

I've read that multiple treatments are sometimes necessary. I am hoping that I can get rid of these pests soon.
 
I added a yellow canary wrasse about two weeks ago (after two weeks of QT and precautionary parasite treatment) to the tank. He unfortunately doesn't seem interested in the flatworms. Has done a good job on the vermetid snails though.
 
Mike, I have red planaria in my main tank right now and I'm trying to get ahold of a blue velvet nudibranch. If I get one, I'd be more than willing to pass him off to you once he takes care of the flatworms in my tank.
 
Hey if it's any consolation, I used flatworm exit for my red planaria, and it took care of everything. Did a 20% gallon water change as soon as I saw them dying off. Used about two or three cups of carbon for the rest of the weeks ahead and everything was just fine.
 
Flatworm exit is indeed what I have been using (Levamisole). I was kind of surprised that a single treatment wasn't sufficient but from my further reading it frequently doesn't catch all of them depending on flow/lighting/substrate. I'll keep nuking every two weeks until they are gone.

A visit from a blue velvet nudibranch would be cool! It's one of those tank critters, like berghia nudibranch, that you try to avoid the pre-conditions which would allow you to keep one successfully. Anyone else willing to admit that a visit from a blue velvet nudibranch might do their tanks some good? ;)
 
Luckily red planaria are pretty harmless. They're just a nuisance. Its just unfortunate that they don't all get killed in coral dips and therefore I ended up with some in my tank. I bought some Flatworm Exit but I've been too scared to use it because the toxins from the dying flatworms can crash a tank, especially a small tank like mine. Aquarium Concepts in Dublin told me they get blue velvet nudibranchs in every so often, so I'd rather go that route and then pass it off to whoever needs it once it runs out of flatworms to eat in my tank. They're such cool creatures that it makes having flatworms a bit more fun :)
 
I've had battles w/ flatworms in my old tank. Never got a wrasse to eath them, at least in noticeable quantities, and the flatworm treatment never got 100% of them. But I supposed as pests go you could have much worse ones if that's any consolation.
 
bondolo said:
Flatworm exit is indeed what I have been using (Levamisole).
I was kind of surprised that a single treatment wasn't sufficient but from my further reading it frequently doesn't catch all of them depending on flow/lighting/substrate. I'll keep nuking every two weeks until they are gone.
Click to expand...

Has it been definitively established that FW Exit's active ingredient is Levamisole? When I checked a couple years back there were plenty of educated guesses pointing in that direction, but Salifert wasn't telling and nobody had done a lab analysis.

My own experience with FW Exit was mixed. Initial dose wiped out perhaps 80% of the visible planaria population, however successive applications were less positive, even at double the recommended dosage. At one point I put a few planaria in a known volume of water, and it required something along the lines of 5 times the recommended dosage for the planaria to begin detaching. It seemed they may have built up some resistance to the active ingredient in FW Exit. :mad:
 
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