Want to have a reef tank...

[RainSalt]

In early 2012 I had an anemone that disintegrated and I thought it would have been worse - I sucked up the body and did a 10 gallon water change and never really had an issue afterwards.
Zoas scare me with disintegration - some zoas have palytoxin (one of the deadliest toxins in nature) and I always wondered if such zoas die would they affect the whole tank (and what precautions the person should take in clearing the mess)
I always wear gloves - I never trust anything that lives in my tank haha

 

[RainSalt]

This is my Nem. The niger accidentally fed his yesterday by dropping his food over the Nem, right after I fed it too. Haha

The Xenia keeps opening up and closing...it seems to be swaying uncontrollably. Maybe I'll move it to somewhere with a bit les flow

 

[Macscale]

The nem looks pretty good!

 

[mr_X]

Zoas don't release toxin when they die as far as I have seen. I had a tank get electrocuted years ago and a football sized colony of zoas just melted away. The fish weren't even bothered by it (or the electricity!), so I concluded that this is not what happens. Get squirted in the eye by some of that stuff when you are fragging some though, and your in trouble.

 

[Macscale]

So, it's dangerous to us, but not to the tanks?

 

[bribo12]

Yep when you frag them you have to be super careful. I always wear gloves and eye protection when I frag them.

 

[RainSalt]

That is really interesting to know that it only affects us, and not the tank.
So I observed a few things today:
The circulation pump (950GPH) seemed really rough on the fish today. I fed them and when I saw that when they tried to grab the food, the water just pushed them violently to the other side. So either my fish are complete weaklings, or it might be too strong, or I am not utilizing its power the right way (I am leaning towards the latter)
The anemone was fully spread all day today under the day lights, but when I turned on the night time lights ( all blue), within 5 minutes it moved about 2 inches and wedged itself closer into the rock.
The Xenia was a little odd today - I could see the pulsing of its polyps, yet it did not seem fully open. Some of the polyps were half closed, some were half open, some were pulsing, some were not, etc. So I did a little research and read that if there is too much flow, the Xenia might not open fully. So I turned off the 950 GPH pump and put the smaller pump about halfway down the tank. The Xenia is still swaying, but not as much as before.
I do not like to keep night lights on, so it is pitch black darkness for them!
Lets see what happens in the morning.

 

[Mebbid]

That pump isn't too much flow. It might be too direct so you can try bouncing the flow off of a wall but reef tanks generally run up to 40x the tank volume hourly.

 

[RainSalt]

Okay so then stupid question: I have my overflow on one side and the output on the other side. (I am drawing a blank on what the hose that spurts out water from the filter is called)
So where should the more powerful circulation pump go? I had it next to the output and it was directed straight through the whole long side of the tank.

Should i put it on the back wall as to have it bump off of that?

 

[Macscale]

Point to the powerhead at the return for randomized flow.

 

[RainSalt]

Okay, so still having trouble with the powerhead placement. So i put it to bounce off a wall. Turning on that powerhead super excites my snails.
That one is a favorite.
Anyways. The anemone is still fully open but it did move to the back again. Going to leave it alone.
As for the xenia. I see it slightly pulse. But it just does not open.
This picture is darkened so the individual heads are seen.
However without darkening it looks like this (sorta)
After turning on the bigger powerhead it made all its little heads closer together. So I dont know how much flow it likes/requires. I know its not dead but why will it not open?
On a good note, my niger finally got his little ich outbreak under control - however I have no idea where my little black damsel is. Also I had a humu humu trigger before that grew and he got too big so I traded him (I do not keep fish over 4") jn my tank - and I am happy to report that the niger does not pick on my snails or hermits. Which makes me happy.

 

[RainSalt]

Stupidity

So...I am THE single most horrible aquarium hobby-ist (is that a word?!) EVER. My room by my family has been called "The Niagara Falls" due to the loud crashing of water coming from my tank. Now for the past month or so I have been trying to improve my water flow. I bought two power heads and have been trying to figure that out.
FOR THE PAST 3-4 WEEKS I HAVE NOT NOTICED THAT MY PUMP HAS NOT BEEN PUMPING WATER. It has been trickling water. Probably an overturn of 10 gallons a day. I kept thinking that I could not suck out enough air out of the overflow tube and since I saw water going through it, I thought it was okay. I did not notice this during the bi-weekly water change because I was rushing to get it over with and simply suctioned water out and put it back in (Mind you I did not notice the water level drop or the refill from the filter.) My overflow box was high enough for me not to notice the difference in water level and I have been used to the noise that I did not notice the absence of it.
I am an all around moron. My pump does 700 gph and I failed to notice it going down to probably 10 gph. All because it was clogged. Poor fish, their only oxygen was provided by the fact that the circulation pumps are pointed upwards and it put some oxygen in their water. I am sitting in my room and listening to "The Niagara Falls" while silently cursing myself.
If there was a Hall of Shame in this hobby - I would right on top of that list. and and shame and

 

[Mebbid]

Meh, stuff like that happens. Have you looked into ways to silence your overflow though? There's a ton of ways to do it.

 

[RainSalt]

I tried the airline tubing, I tried moving the hoses, I tried so many times I just gave up and taught myself to sleep with my head between pillows. (Slept all these weeks with my head between pillows and did not notice that it was actually really quiet.
The pipes gurgle and the water crashes and the pump rumbles. I gave up.
I just feel so stupid for absolutely not noticing it. I did not notice 700 gph bursting out through a single source...for weeks.
How anything lived in my tank is beyond me.

 

[Mebbid]

Got a picture of your overflow? There's rarely a reason you wouldn't be able to silence it properly.

 

[RainSalt]

Its honestly a super regular eshopps overflow - how I got it is how I left it. Its connected to some hosing. It was very very loud last night (more than usual) - I slept in the living room.
Im going to try to move the position of the whole filter and see if that helps.

 

[RainSalt]

After having a long day, I sat down and stared at my tank for a while.
Stared at my favorite Nassarius Snail hiding in the sand with just one of his "tubes" sticking out

Pretty sure another snail just decided to deposit like 30 egg sacks (is that what they are called) all over the front of my tank. Which I will now feel bad scraping off.
I like my overflow being covered in algae - (as well as the back of my tank) this snail decided its his meal of the day so it went from this
To this in a matter of 24 hours (guess he was hungry)


Ooh also I found an interesting creature
No idea what it is...
My camera could not zoom in effectively. But it looked like a clear whitish body with an orange top that kept curling in and out. On the other end of the clear tube, there were 5 or 6 tentacles(?) that the creature used to climb up the tank. Then it let go and floated to a rock and disappeared.
Probably going to go ask what it is.
Anemone still looks good
The xenia failed to open, so I moved it to a new position.

 

[mr_X]

What was clogged? Are you sure your pump is matched to the HOB overflow? If not, little by little there will be more and more air in that tube until it fails.

 

[RainSalt]

The intake for the pump was clogged. The air in the overflow tube was due to the pump not pumping out enough, so thus the overflow tube had more air in it. Currently it has absolutely no air in it because my pump is pumping lol.
Maybe the overflow is too small and thus makes so much noise. According to the Eshopps website, the overflow is rated up to 300gph but my pump does 700gph.

 

[mr_X]

It sounds like it's maxed out. No ball valve on the pump exhaust to adjust?