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New dedicated (and mostly nem proof) BTA tank...

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18G frag tank there, that's been running for approximately a year as of January 2018. That big brick you see there is the Marinepure 8x8x4 brick. Houses, grows, and colors up some of the higher end corals at the moment. Planning on doing something very similar to that once I get my replacement 20 gallon AIO.
 
Okay -- here's my two cents on all of the above based on setting up a similar tank (actually two different times with two different sizes. You can see pics of some of the tings I tried in my build thread.

First egg crate won't even stop a medium to med-large Nem. It takes them 30 seconds to get through. The thing to remember is that Nems are 95% water AND they can expel all the water to get tiny. After finding out that egg crate wasn't the slightest hindrance to getting behind the power head wall I went with 1'4" plastic netting. The same stuff used to make a DIY top for the tank. That added perhaps 30 more seconds for a Nem top squeeze through. Next, I overlapped sheets of the 1/4 inch so that the holes were much smaller than 1/8 of an inch. This worked for large nems, but small ones still got through, but the biggest problem with it was there was almost no flow through it and it got covered in algae and grime quickly.

Next step was the usual baskets. I have some very expensive Nem containers with small drilled holes in them and small Nems still get through them plus they get dirty.

So -- here's where I ended up. For most of the tank with med and large Nems @grizfyrfyter power head covers work fantastic. For very small Nems I used small pond baskets till they grew a bit and could be moved.

This worked for me in bigger tanks, but my advice to you in a 20 gallon would be no power heads at all. Use a stronger return pump and it will be plenty of flow for the nems.

now, as to the marine pure balls I used those in the first Nem tank and they sucked. Not because of the aluminum issue. I, and many people, use them successfully in SPS and other tanks. I researched the issue pretty carefully and have no worries at all about Aluminum from them. Long and short of it is 1) the leaching is a short term issue, 2) there are actually two types of Aluminum and the type that may or may not come from MarinePure has no known toxicity to reef inhabitants.

The issue I had with them is Nems hate them. I watched the BRS video where they set-up an early Nem propagation tank using them and went all in. You'll notice they've never mentioned it again because it's not a great fit with Nems. The damn balls move around too much even if wedged in pretty well and Nems can't stand lack of stability. If they are large enough t attach to the glass below the balls they will, but they still end up moving around constantly. Moving Nems aren't happy Nems. You're better off using a 4" brick sitting on the bottom for nitrate control.

Nem tanks take a lot of work. People with a few Nems in a larger system don't realize how much slime and excrement they put out on a near nightly level. Your going to have to siphon stuff out at least every two days. You should be running an oversize skimmer and I highly recommend running a reactor with carbon at all times.

If I can help in any other way let me know.
 
Btw my larger Nem tank had 3 gallons of MarinePure Balls, a four inch brick and two one inch bricks. ICP testing never showed an Aluminum issue.
 
Thanks for the mention Bruce.

I agree that a 20g tank doesn't need a power head with the proper return pump. My daughter's 20g tank has 2 bubble tips, some euphyllia, trumpet coral and a dozen zoas/paly. I was using an rw4 and once I started printing the vortex flow eductor nozzles, I had to take the circulation pump out because even on its lowest setting, there is too much flow.

An eductor nozzle with a strong return pump will provide you with a lot of flow with minimal risk to the anemone. If you get one of the eductor nozzles that change the flow pattern, it won't just be constant stream in one direction.

Here is a video of my daughter's tank
 
Greetings from Kauai! Thanks everyone for the advice... been on the road quite a bit so haven't had a chance to respond earlier.

@grizfyrfyter I have the RFG nozzle in my setup , which is effectively the same I believe... I put up an egg crate divider to discourage bta movement towards the nozzle but looks like that may not be effective based on earlier feedback... there was also concerns or btas getting sucked into the RFG intake vent so may have to rethink the setup...
 
I saw electric flame scallops at Neptune the other day and couldn't say no. Been looking for good electric flames for a long while. So, decided to turn the little return compartment into a scallop partition in my nem tank.
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Something else to consider:
Airlift pumps instead of a powerhead.
Put a vertical 2" pipe, from top to bottom, with a 90 degree elbow at the top.
Put an airstone or two with decent air flow at the bottom.
You would be surprised at how much flow you get.
And Nems can take a ride all they want with no damage.
 
I did not know what an airlift pump was. Might be suitable for my fuge because a powerhead would fill with algae. Do you mean just attach the pipe to the wall so the bottom open end is near the bottom of the tank and place airstones free in there and the airline out through the tank water? What if the airstones sink?

Nice scallop!
 
I did not know what an airlift pump was. Might be suitable for my fuge because a powerhead would fill with algae. Do you mean just attach the pipe to the wall so the bottom open end is near the bottom of the tank and place airstones free in there and the airline out through the tank water? What if the airstones sink?

Nice scallop!

Yes, attach pipe to wall vertically.
Open end near bottom, elbow end near surface.
Zip tie the airstone to the bottom of the pipe.

It is certainly not MP40 powerful, so not for SPS, but it will move the water.
The flow is very dependent on amount of air and bubble size.
For a small fuge, you probably want a smaller pipe also.

There are a ton of ways to make them, but I think that is one of the simplest.
Easy to experiment with at least.

You can also set up an air surge device, rather like and upsidown bucket.
I think they call them geyser airlift pumps.
You get a big surge of water that way.

It also nicely sucks detritus from the bottom and gets it moving, if that is what you want.
 
Something else to consider:
Airlift pumps instead of a powerhead.
Put a vertical 2" pipe, from top to bottom, with a 90 degree elbow at the top.
Put an airstone or two with decent air flow at the bottom.
You would be surprised at how much flow you get.
And Nems can take a ride all they want with no damage.
That's an interesting idea! And I do have a airlift pump sitting around :) thanks for the suggestion!

Currently I am electing not to use a circulation pump for fear of nem suicide so used the RFG instead but seems there are risks based on earlier feedback so may tweak that.

Though the nems seems to want to stay away from the nozzle flow area... so may work out... the scallops are happy right underneath the RFG return too...

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I did not know what an airlift pump was. Might be suitable for my fuge because a powerhead would fill with algae. Do you mean just attach the pipe to the wall so the bottom open end is near the bottom of the tank and place airstones free in there and the airline out through the tank water? What if the airstones sink?

Nice scallop!
Thanks! Love watching the "lightning" effects in their mantles... tempted to buy two more despite already having 2 in the tank already

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Bought 2 more electric flame scallops afterall... moved them all into the sump and currently using the scallop section of them new tank for lionfish training :)

But check out the sparks!
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I'm hoping to see if I can breed these scallops... and by "breed" I am hoping will take it's course due to the number of scallops I have... well, 4... but that's more than 2... :)
 
Forgot to mention, moved the fumanchus over to a smaller 3G bare bottom AIO to make training them to pellets easier

Early success today with one of the 2!

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