capekate

Hi Terry
thank you for explaining it to me. I really do not know anything about SW tanks, set ups or the fish. BUT I do know what I find pleasing to the eye.. and that is a true SW tank.. set up and fish!!! :-) I can sit for hours in front of a SW tank with live rock... coral.. and all the other fancy things that grow and move around in the tank, besides the fish. Your tank is gorgeous... and looking real good. Any chance of any videos on youtube?? I love checking out the SW tanks there. The markings on the SW fish are amazing! Natures paintbrush at its finest.

passion3

i have a 34gallon redsea max tank i want to know how u adjusted your skimmer. im getting alot of air bubbles in the tank when the skimmer is off there is no bubble.

Terry

Hi. I've been away a long time - sorry about not answering. I started a Red Sea Max (RSM) Club post elsewhere and the thread has gotten so large that it's had to be split 12-14 times already, with each split 40 pages. Keeps me busy!

On the skimmer, I replaced the skimmer shortly after I replaced the RSM hood. My RSM skimmer never really skimmed anything into the cup. Right now I'm running an AquaC Remora - a big hang on skimmer hung on the back lip of the tank - does a great job! I've also had a Tunze 9002 skimmer for months, that I may finally put in the back to see how that does. I have a lot of options to do things in the back without the closed hood on. Currently I'm running a cannister filter for my mechanical/chemical media filtration, and a Tunze ATO for top-off. I have DIY media basket made by someone else that will slip in under the gate, and I'll then remove the cannister, which even with weekly cleaning has had my nitrates increase (they were once at zero).

A lot of things have changed inside my tank too. I removed the huge top rock that was on top, and used it to set up a 9g Nanowave tank that I got a deal on. Using rock from the RSM gave me no measurable cycle in the little 9g tank, plus gave me room to put some smaller cured rock on top of the RSM rock, and allowed me to to try some new corals (SPS types).

The new 9g with the top rock (and corals) removed from the RSM. The flame angel will eventually go into the RSM, when the Foxface I got for the RSM (to totally eradicate Bryopsis algae) gets too big for the RSM:



Current RSM picture, with new SPS on top and a frag of orange monti cap that has already put on some new growth in about a week. I still have more corals on the way (superman montipora, red micromussa, and some green and blue duncans) to place in the tank after they arrive. The tank looked pretty ugly for a while, with a lot of cured, but white, lfs rock put on the top, to replace the big hunk I removed for the 9g tank. I'm starting to like it better with the green Acropora, pink stylophora, and orange monti that were put in a couple weeks ago:

Under my 420/460 actinics:



With the metal halide also on:

agsansoo

Tank progress is excellent. It's great see you around here again. How long have you had your Foxface ? How much has it grown ?

Terry

Hello again agansoo. I've had the foxface about 2-3 months now and thankfully it hasn't grown too fast - maybe about 3 inches now. I got it only as a last resort. After about 9-10 months of no algae I had Bryopsis algae start to show up, and it was starting to overgrow some of my zoa colonies. I'd pull it out manually, blow sediment out of the places it had a foothold, but it would just grow back. I tried the elevated magnesium levels (1600+) that some people have had success with. The Bryopsis started to lighten up in color, but I saw some negative effects on things like GSP not opening up, so I stopped the Mg additions and got the foxface. Within a week the foxface had eaten every piece of Bryopsis and I've had none since. Beautiful fish, and it eats anything I put in the tank like a hog - flake, pellet, mysis, dried algae, etc. It tries to eat from my hand when I submerse flake food in the tank, but I'm pretty quick since they do have venomous spines, and I don't want to get spiked by one! It's non-aggressive - it bothers none of my other fish, and the other fish don't bother it. If any of the other fish seem to threaten it, the foxface just extends all its fins, and leans in their direction, almost as if saying "here - bite this & you'll be sorry!". It used to be funny to watch, but it doesn't happen much anymore as the other fish have gotten used to the last addition to the tank now. The slower it grows the happier I'll be.

COBettaCouple

The tank is looking great!

Terry

Hi COBettaCouple - thanks! It seems like I'm always changing something or adding some new coral or piece of equipment. Even a small tank takes a lot of maintenance, but it's worth it (I think LOL).

COBettaCouple

Yea, the work shows.