comycus

bro what lights are you using and what's your photoperiod? The main culprit in your case could be temperature swings or insufficient light. Was the bta full bloom 1 day and gone the next day or died a slow death? Mine slowly melted away when my lights went kaput and I didn't do anything for quite sometime due to work commitments. The good news is my tank didn't crash. All fishes still healthy and going strong, only my snails up lorry, probably more sensitive to changes. zoas, shrooms and other soft corals also not affected. I don't really think the bta death had much detrimental effect to my tank. The bad news is your tank volume is smaller than mine, so that may affect how well your tank copes as well. To play safe, I suggest running chemical filtration such as chemipure as a temporary stop gap, and do more water changes over the next few weeks.

Strongly suggest doing away with sandbed if you don't mind. Everyone likes clean white sandbed that mimics the oceanbed and looks more natural, but the reality is you will probably be fighting all sorts of algae growth like diatoms, red slime to name a few. Anyway to answer your qn: the easiest method would be add 1)sand, 2)scape rock, 3)NSW delivery. Just push the rocks deeper into the sandbed to prevent them from sand shifters. If you are using salt mix, unless you have a huge container to mix your salt (or its a nano tank), most likely is add 1) water into tank, 2) mix salt, 3)sand, 4) LR. If you are not going for SPS, strongly suggest going through NSW, less hassle and hard work. Check with LCK if they do delivery.

Sounds like ID from hell! Keep us updated. Btw, are we going to see a new tank build for your new place?

Once your tank is fully cycled, ammonia readings should be zero. Don't really need to measure ammonia. Anyway in my exp, this test stip is quite insensitive to changes. Probably will be too late once it registers ammonia readings. If you are serious about getting ammonia readings, the best is to buy one of those test kits to measure.

I have alternated between using the night mode for my MP40, and in reef crest mode. Made no difference to the tank inhabitants. My personal preference is to run in night mode.

Razali does provide many options to mount your stand, including the mazarra stands. imo excellent service at a reasonable price when I got mine from him some time back. Suggest you talk to him to custom build your stand according to your specifications.

lol full tank shot la, your coralline seems to be growing well!

Bro how about a fts?

Lol let's not bore TS with the various sch of thoughts for denitrification. It would be good if bros utilising plenum+sulphur beads chime in (perhaps in a seperate thread) on their successes with this system, otherwise, I'm as skeptical as bro eniram. My advice to TS if she's considering this in future is to consider running biopellets. I had my doubts initially but good user feedback prompted me to try and I have had moderate success in controlling nitrates. TS, your equipment list looks good.

Sulphur denitrification is not new, but haven't heard much about sulphur beads below sandbed. It just sounds messy to me. Anyone has any experience? TS should just keep it simple, save the $$ for lifestock.

If you are not keeping SPS, can consider running this tank with ventilation fans clipped on the back. I have seen a reefer keeping his temperature constant at 27-29deg with sump included. Key is to use energy efficient equipment. 1 small wavemaker, 1 return pump and probably MCE600 will do the trick. Just have to watch out for evaporation.

Neat setup bro! love the laminates you chose. Now I understand why you went for 4 sides crystal glass... Looking forward to seeing your scape!

maybe to broaden your requirements slightly, my preference would be to go for a tank maker who offers the following: Neat and minimal Silicon work Neat carpentry and laminate work Advice from tankmaker on tank and sump layout and dimensions Timeliness Warranty and after sales service Can give Coral Reef a call to ask for quote, many reefers here and myself have had good experience with them. PM me if you need contacts. btw, I suggest to go rimless (no bracing) if you don't intend to build a hood or built in cabinet. Its unsightly. Not necessary, but can go for bottom brace for peace of mind, its just an additional piece of glass surrounding the perimeter of the bottom inside the tank.

Bro candy appl and purple zoid still available? I'm interested.

bro, suggest buying another pump to chiller and back to DT. One of the disadvantage of pumping to chiller and back to DT compared to back to sump is you need a stronger pump due to head loss when travelling back to DT. If back to sump, can use a pump with smaller footprint. I have heard that the Europeans favour the 'closed loop' system. Water is drawn directly from DT, pumped into chiller and back into DT. This is a separate loop and water doesn't go to the sump. Advantage is your chiller can still operate when you are doing maintenance in the sump, and less head loss due to no head loss from the "suction and pressure side". No idea what it means, maybe the engineers can explain.