Rebuild 40 breeder softy/LPS

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Nice thanks Paul..,

 

[paul87]

Nice thanks Paul..,

No problem. I like how they offer the penny macro. You never know what you get! Personally I like chaeto. Easier to maintain IMO. I love mine.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

No problem. I like how they offer the penny macro. You never know what you get! Personally I like chaeto. Easier to maintain IMO. I love mine.

My LFS said chaeto likes high flow to help constantly flush it, any merit to this? I wanted to throw a ball of it in my drain section... To the left, resting on the eggcrate.

 

[Gregcoyote]

I would agree. A ball has enormous surface area, so good flow thru it helps keep it healthy.


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[Flaxon-Waxon]

I would agree. A ball has enormous surface area, so good flow thru it helps keep it healthy.


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Cool thanks Greg. But would the drain be TOO much flow?

I'm almost considering creating a box out of eggcrate to plop it in, and can simply remove from the sump to trim when need be...

 

[Sniperhank]

That would probably work well for cheato. Just make sure you rotate it so the bottom of the ball gets light too.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

That would probably work well for cheato. Just make sure you rotate it so the bottom of the ball gets light too.

Yea that little light you see to the right ... I bent it so its shining square on to that drain section from the side. Now time to order some chaeto it looks like..

 

[paul87]

Looks like a great spot for it!

 

[Gregcoyote]

I don't think you can give algae too much flow. If it's not tearing it up or clogging the drain, your good to go.


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[Flaxon-Waxon]

Some recently, poorly executed, and taken photos...

Branching hammer


Trumpet


Branching frogs, green and peach



Elegance


Torch


I don't really like frags per se so I've clumped them together as a potential garden...

 

[paul87]

Everything is looking great! The photos are nice. Its always extremely hard to get it right when the actinics are up high, or if that's all that's on. Reef aquarium photography takes alot of practice and fooling with your camera. Do you take your photos with a phone or camera? (just curious)

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Everything is looking great! The photos are nice. Its always extremely hard to get it right when the actinics are up high, or if that's all that's on. Reef aquarium photography takes alot of practice and fooling with your camera. Do you take your photos with a phone or camera? (just curious)

My phone. Couldn't tell ya where my camera is since it got packed away when we bought our house... lol.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Well not much going on here lately... Got a new-to-me pickup truck tho, which is going to make life a bit easier being a house owner now.

I added a softball size clump of chaeto and am hoping to eradicate some nuisance algae in the tank.



Also added a coral beauty who has settled right in eating the veggie clip I provided!



Forgot to mention the 3 fire gobies who have been hiding in their dart holes! Hopefully they acclimate and become comfortable soon!

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

So I realized that my tank really has not been looking good lately… and I took a little bit of action. I removed a large rock that seems like it was preventing quite a bit of flow back behind the aquascape, as I have been observing quite a bit of fish poo back there and it is not being able to get filtered out... I remove the rock move the couple corals around and it seems like flow increased.

And then I realized that there wasn't that much flow coming out of the Locline return nozzles. I decided to pull my pump out and clean it in the prefilter sponge was absolutely gunked up and covered with nasty brown stuff, obviously the problem of the low flow.

Can I remove the sponge altogether that is in this return pump as I feel like it's trapping junk and causing nitrates to raise? Or is the sponge imperative to the longer lifespan of the pump as it's blocking this stuff from getting in the impeller?

 

[Sniperhank]

A sponge in the return pump? That is odd, never heard of such a thing. I don't have anything to do prevent anything from getting into the impeller on any of my pumps.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

A sponge in the return pump? That is odd, never heard of such a thing. I don't have anything to do prevent anything from getting into the impeller on any of my pumps.

Yeah it's like a little filter sponge in between the intake and the removable casing front part that holds it all together… I hunted around online it looks like it's a pretty common problem for them to get clogged up pretty quick and reduce flow, so I think I am going to just pull the sponge out.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

You can even buy "2 packs" of them… lol

 

[Gregcoyote]

I use hot tub strainers on the intakes of my pumps. They will run for a very long time if you don't run large particles thru them.


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[Flaxon-Waxon]

I use hot tub strainers on the intakes of my pumps. They will run for a very long time if you don't run large particles thru them.


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Speaking of large particles, I think I am going to re-fashion my drain section to include a filter sock. However, I'm still wary on running any form of mechanical filtration.. How often should a filter sock be cleaned out? Knowing what I know (which is minuscule) I would clean it every 2-3 days so food and other detritus doesn't rot away? Any thoughts on that?

 

[Sniperhank]

Weekly is a good idea. I clean/change out my sponges and 'filter socks' weekly. I do it with my water changes.