FarmerTy

I snap the bottom off with a pair of cutters and then glue the disc to the rock. Your coral will grow over the plug in a couple months anyways so not much of an eyesore.

Do yourself a favor and check out Richard's setup if you get a chance. I manually dosed, then went with the 2-part dosing, and now I have a calcium reactor hooked up. All have their pluses and minuses but I am happy with the calcium reactor. Calcium, alk, and mag are the big three like Richard said. Nice thing about adding the big 3 to your system via dosing and reactors for nitrates/phosphates/organics is that you there is less of a need for water changes. Almost two years going strong without regular water changes. I will do an occasional sump vacuum out session where I remove all detritus that has settled in the sump about two times a year however. -Ty

The removal of the SPS colonies came out better than I imagined. Good luck with the fight! -Ty

Affordable Aquatic Supplies has them too Jesse.

When I dipped a frag in the exact same situation as you Kim, it looked like nothing happened during the dip. After a day or so, the bryopsis slowly died off. I did a couple more dips after the initial once (1/week) until it never came back again. The zoas were ticked but nothing they couldn't come back from. Hope my experience with it helps. -Ty

I would aim to share sumps if possible like Victoly said. Clams supposedly have a pretty high demand for calcium/alk (akin to running an sps tank) so you might as well tie it into your main system so control of parameters should be easier to maintain. Plus... more stability for everyone. The clam tank would almost be like a mechanical/biological/nitrate filter for your main system.

Can't even cut a guy a break on his birthday? Haha. Thanks all for the birthday wishes and thanks Chad and Belinda for being the arbiters of birthday appreciations on ARC!

Don't worry... that small piece will become a colony in no time! Trust the community on that one! If you plan to not let it take over the tank, try to keep it isolated on certain rocks only... though sometimes they will break off pieces and float them in the tank to more fruitful locations. I think we all started with a sincere fascination of the pulsing motion and some don't care for its invasiveness while others enjoy it throughout their tank.

+1 on temp. Mine is usually about 81-83... though I would recommend most keep it around 78-80 if possible. -Ty

Oops, didn't realize you had a build thread going already. I was already bugging you for more details about your setup in your introduction post. Sounds like a nice setup you got there! -Ty

Awesome! Welcome to the club! Give us a little history about your tank when you get a chance. How long you've had it setup, livestock, equipment, etc. We're all extreme aquaholics here so even an equipment list will get me excited. Scary, I know. I am seeking help. :-) -Ty

Quick and simple setup. Got it downloaded and running in under 5 minutes. Seems comparable to the ios aquanotes. Not a huge fan of their graphs but you can't win them all.

Just a quick heed, it's called AquaController Apex on Google Play. If you pull up Aqua Notes, you will get an interesting CD cover for a band. Thanks Mitch!

Thanks all! Brian, I am only shooting with a camera phone so I think I am maxing out my abilities already! haha. Thanks for the offer! -Ty

Paranoia will take you far in this hobby! I stare everyone morning with a flashlight to look for signs of flatworms and red bugs on my beautiful SPS. I used to stare for nudibranchs on my zoas but those colonies are so old, if there were any, they wouldn't have made it this far. The SPS are newer (only started keeping a year ago), so I am constantly staring at them, making sure nothing is snacking on my precious SPS. Haha. -Ty

Excellent, looks like you got it covered! I just wanted to mention just in case... I hate to see people on their first venture with a coral tank to be put off because of a bad start. Once it spirals... it's a pain!!! I actually use the Smartstart myself, seems to help out when I need it. Keep us updated on all the goodies! -Ty

Looking good! Keep testing the water for nitrates, phophates, and ammonia. Hopefully the denitrifying bacteria in your tank is keeping up with the added bioload quick enough. Dosing some bacteria if you aren't already doing it should help avoid possible spikes while your system adjusts to the new bioload. Keep an eye on the bubbles. Typically when I see bubbles on my rockwork, it is only bad news. During the initial stages, the bubbles were a first indication that my tank was still cycling... which is not a good thing if you already have fishes and coral. Ammonia in a system can kill things very quickly. During the latter stages, bubbles could be possibly dinoflaggelates, cyano, or some type of nuisance macro algae forming. No, you're not in imminent danger, just noting to keep on eye on it just in case. Could be no big deal at all. My old nano used to bubble all the time and I never had nuisance algae and it definitely wasn't cycling for 6 years. Haha. Give a shout out to the club if you have any questions! Glad you are jumping right back into it after getting rid of the bigger tank. -Ty

Good ole' koralias... can't quite afford the 3 MP40's yet so koralia's and a nano wavebox will have to get the job done.

Some FTS progressions. I am proud to say everything in my tank was either a 2" or smaller frag (minus the red cap and the pagoda cup... ok... you got me... and the fishes). 2-14-2012 5-14-2012 10-18-2012 12-31-2012 Looking forward to adding the last shot in February 2013 for a full year look-back.

I contacted Neptune and they said keep an eye on their facebook page today and tomorrow. Hopefully it is a link to the download to the android app and not just an update on its status! Crossing my fingers!!!

Thanks Rory. I made that all too difficult. I was trying to put brackets on it and such...

Whoa, WesReyn, you posted so fast that it scared me! Thanks! The PE is sometimes a bit annoying on some coral (can't see base color) and great on the milles. Think it has to do with no mechanical filtration (lots of stuff in the water column) and a higher Mg level (1400). -Ty

Hmmm, anybody know how to inbed a youtube video?

A little too late to be starting a build thread but just wanted to start a thread where I can post updates on my tank. Rory's (Juiceman) filming and photos of his tank inspired me to try a little myself. All were shot with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S3) and edited on the computer afterwards. Don't laugh too much, I don't consider myself artistic in any way or even handy with a camera. Just looking for another way to enjoy a hobby that gives me so much already. Enjoy! -Ty My Video - give it about a couple more hours on the video... Youtube is editing out the shakiness of the picture. Best watched in HD and NOT fullscreen... I only shot at 720p to save space and it didn't come out as sharp as I would like for fullscreen. Next time I won't skimp on 1080p. Sorry I'm so stingy with my storage guys... Video is kind of long, almost feel asleep to it myself while editing last night. I will give you kudos points for making it through the whole thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUp197OYMlg Here are some pictures I took and edited with my phone. Pretty neat to do since I used a simple android app to edit the photos to my liking. Chips Acro: Green Goni: Maricultured blue tip Tenius: Purple Stylo: ORA Hawkins Echinata: Skittles Stag: Special Edition Mr. Saltwater Undata (go Mark!) and Green spongades?:

Sweet! I wonder if the new android app is available too?