High Tide Aquatics

Alex’s IM 150 EXT

I got these two green beautiful plating montis from Andy / @ReyDeFarts and Derek / @derek_SR - currently parked in the nano tank but I am planning to move them soon to the IM 150. Thank you so much for them!

Since I want to mount them vertically plating away from the rock I came up with this brilliant idea to glue two small pieces of frag plates so that I can easily glue them to the rock while keeping the coral horizontal to the substrate. My hope is that once they grow over these plates this construction will not look as ugly anymore haha :).


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Alexander1312 said:
Cannot wait for my return flight as I am buying too many things here (Germany), and suitcases are already maxed out (still one more week to go). Looks like this will be the first time in years I will have to ship things back.

I have been looking at this pump for quite a while as a future replacement of my gyres, or at least the two vertical gyres I am using, potentially keeping the two below the water surface.

I got now a great deal for one pump in a store I had not been to before and thought I would try it out. If it works out I will buy another one for the other side. I do not think they can be properly positioned below the water surface, but I will still try this too.

I still think that gyres produce superior flow, but the cleaning is not fun, and every time I do I worry about breaking something - I bought a couple of new impellers for the XF350 while here since they cannot be purchased anywhere in the US from what I know.

These pumps seem to not need a lot of cleaning, apparently only every 6 months or less, and their flow seems massive. Will report back once I had a chance to try it out.

Turbelle® stream 3 - Tunze

Hi-Tech für Aquaristik
www.tunze.com www.tunze.com

View attachment 70124
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I saw this video today when it was pushed out by Marine and Reef. Looks like this pump is 8 years old (!). Surprised nobody mentioned this or knew.

The interesting comment in this video was that it can connect to a Hydros controller while I thought this was not possible.

I asked the Hydros Facebook group and it looks like it can connect to the 0-10V quad cable and the Wave Engine. I did not know it had a cover on the top of the controller for the pump that, with the correct adapter cable from Hydros, would connect to the quad cable and then to the Wave Engine for custom flow.

If all of this works out, this could be a serious (vertical) gyre killer, and possibly could be mounted below the water surface (will try that).

www.saltwateraquarium.com

Hydros Pump Adapter Cable - TUNZE 0-10V Pump Adapter

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

 
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Darkxerox said:
Pretty cool your lord and candy cane aren't fighting on the corner of the tank, or do they shoot out filaments at night?

The borb looks pretty happy with its shaded overhang too.
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Since you mentioned this, the situation deteriorated and they started fighting and the candy cane seems to win. So I will need to cut this candy cane too (cut the other one and gave several frags away recently), but have no space to put all the frags :(.

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I am planning to move this LCH Hybrid Blue Zing colony which grew over the past 9 months from a small frag and is now getting close to various sorrounding corals.

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While I have collected various corals over the past several months and kept them in the frag tank, I am far behind my administration and recording of their names etc. I want to move the above coral and replace with it with a nice smaller frag, but I do not know which one deserves the primespot haha. Also, the frag tanks nutrients are all over the place because I struggle with the overpowered skimmer which is terrible to adjust (Nyos 120), so I am not sure how their actual colors would like it if this is better dialed in - including trace elements.

Below are some options, and happy to hear thoughts on which one you would replace this with? And if you happen to have their names :)?

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After more than a month in Kenny’s / @under_water_ninja care, I picked up the Yellow Tang. Thanks so much again for doing this, Kenny! It will be on me now to maintain his healthy levels and after a few days, it is not clear if I will be successful, as eating in my tank continues to be a challenge. I am expanding the feeding at the moment which will be a separate post.

I also picked up a springeri damsel from Kenny to further attempt to manage my flatworm population. As expected, both Blotched Anthias made sure he would stay in the corner, far away from any flatworm population.

The yellow tang never likes to be filmed and the damsel had no choice. They also had no say in the music choice or the editing done on this little video.

 
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He loves mysis! He was eating mysis like a champ for me, chasing it all over the tank! After the initial 5 days of not eating, any foods I put in, mysis was his first choice. He got pellets, flakes, mysis, spirulina brine and occasional nori. Good luck buddy, he’s nice and fat again
 
under_water_ninja said:
He loves mysis! He was eating mysis like a champ for me, chasing it all over the tank! After the initial 5 days of not eating, any foods I put in, mysis was his first choice. He got pellets, flakes, mysis, spirulina brine and occasional nori. Good luck buddy, he’s nice and fat again
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Yes, there is something or someone she does not like in my tank. The trigger and borb anthias pair dominate the feeding, then the fox face and the white tail. Clowns always get leftovers and royal gramma and the new joiner / springeri damsel find ways to eat despite being bullied. No one demonstrates aggression against the yellow tang, and he is right in the middle of the feeding but does only look at the food and moves away. Same with the nori. Seaweed pellets seems the only thing she is partially interested in.

Update: Looks like he loves (!) Seaweed Extreme Pellets (Hikari) - this is great news. This was also the only thing he ate yesterday and today we tried it again and he kept eating this.

We normally feed a mix of varioys types of food - frozen: LRS, Rods (various blends), PE Mysis. Dry - a large number of various types various sizes of TDO, Seaweed Extreme, Reef Jerky, Fauna Soft pellets and others.
 
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Nitrates and Phosphates remain rather high in this tank - 28 mg/L and 0.32 mg/L, respectively.

I have been using 5 ml Elimi NP daily, which keeps parameters from exploding, but I believe I simply feed too much and have potentially too many fish in there.

Also, the skimmer - Reef Octopus Elite 200 INT - does not seem to do a good job - skim mate is very light in color - not the dark stuff which @Darkxerox pulls out of his tank. I played around with all the settings for weeks, and it does not seem to change anything. I am planning to replace the skimmer temporarily with a DELTEC 1000, thanks to Justin B, who was super kind to lend me his spare skimmer to try out if this solves the issue.

In addition to the skimmer, I am planning to address nitrates and phosphates separately.

I will be starting to address phosphates first.

LC would give me results, but I am not feeling comfortable with using this potentially longer term. I have been thinking of trying out a product from Fauna Marin, which they released in 2018. It is an adsorber similar to GFO, but they do not disclose what is in there. The current assumption is that it is a blend of GFO, aluminum adsorber, and other adsorbing media. The main benefit is supposed to be that it would not go below 0.04 mg/L of phosphates.

www.saltwateraquarium.com

Phos 0.04 Phosphate Remover (475g) - Fauna Marin

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com

The downside of this product is that it is not cheap, not sure how long it will last, and that it needs to be in a media reactor with very little flow 25 - 50 g/h.

I bought this media reactor a while ago for similar purposes, but its pump is far too strong.

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I am planning to attach a Sicce Nano or Sicce Syncra 1.0 to it, but not sure how it can fit the 3/4 inch hose (ID) it comes with. Also, I am not sure if either are weak enough at their lowest settings. I would be curious to know how others get their pumps to be lower in flow. Ball valve? Something like this?

www.saltwateraquarium.com

PVC Ball Valve 3/4" S X S - Generic

Shop The Best Saltwater Aquarium Equipment & Supplies at Saltwater Aquarium. We Carry Everything you will Need for your Fish Tank.
www.saltwateraquarium.com www.saltwateraquarium.com
 
Any skimmer can pull dry skimmate - I suspect @Alexander1312 and @MichaelB that you are not adjusting your skimmers to skim this way if that is your goal. You are simply describing a wet skim.

Skimmers all basically do the same thing, and what you are paying for with the “high” end skimmers are materials, a nicer pump, features build quality, etc.

It’s possible your skimmer is oversized for your bioload, and is still skimming too wet despite your adjustments. It’s also possible your skimmer is so shitty (or defective) that it simply doesn’t function correctly - but doubt this is the case.
 
derek_SR said:
Any skimmer can pull dry skimmate - I suspect @Alexander1312 and @MichaelB that you are not adjusting your skimmers to skim this way if that is your goal. You are simply describing a wet skim.

Skimmers all basically do the same thing, and what you are paying for with the “high” end skimmers are materials, a nicer pump, features build quality, etc.

It’s possible your skimmer is oversized for your bioload, and is still skimming too wet despite your adjustments. It’s also possible your skimmer is so shitty (or defective) that it simply doesn’t function correctly - but doubt this is the case.
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In theory, yes. Reality is that skimmer body shape and more options with pump settings and water levels can make a meaningful difference in skimming overall. By the way, I am familiar with wet skimming vs. dry skimming, but this skimmer either skims wet or nothing in my tank.

I also previously thought the issue was the bioload vs. skimmer size theory. However, if that was the case, why would it not pull out more stuff if nutrients continue to rise?
 
derek_SR said:
Any skimmer can pull dry skimmate - I suspect @Alexander1312 and @MichaelB that you are not adjusting your skimmers to skim this way if that is your goal. You are simply describing a wet skim.

Skimmers all basically do the same thing, and what you are paying for with the “high” end skimmers are materials, a nicer pump, features build quality, etc.

It’s possible your skimmer is oversized for your bioload, and is still skimming too wet despite your adjustments. It’s also possible your skimmer is so shitty (or defective) that it simply doesn’t function correctly - but doubt this is the case.
Click to expand...

I'm currently using the nyos 120, has a air intake nob, and a bigger button that adjusts water level I think. I've played with both every way I could for over a hour more than once. With none of those type of results. I've follwed suggestions in videos with no results except for raising the sumps water level allowed it to skim more wet.

I have other skimmers I could swap out from other tanks, though two of them would probably be crazy oversized. The one on my frag tank could possibly work. Yet I assume the nyos 120 would be the better skimmer???

1.) Bubble magnus curve 5 (currently used on frag system)

* rated for up to 120 gallons
Linked below:

Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer

Curve 5 Sizing Recommendations Light Bioload: 120 gallons Medium Bioload: 90 gallons Heavy Bioload (most common): 55 gallons Specifications Footprint: 7.28" x 7.08" Height: 18.5" Recommended Water Height: 9.5" - 11" Pump Model: SP1000 Power Consumption: 8 Watts @120VAC...
premiumaquatics.com

2 .) Redsea rsk 300 (Not used currently was plan for 210 gallon tank combined with the eshopps one)

*Rated for up to 225 gallons
Linked below:

www.bulkreefsupply.com

RSK 300 Reefer Internal Protein Skimmer

Protein Skimming Reinvented Efficient | Quiet | Ergonomic Red Sea Recommends for tanks up to: Light Bioload - 225 gallons Medium Bioload - 150 gallons Heavy Bioload (most common) - 75 gallons Red Sea Reefer Internal Protein Skimmers are designed with the hobbyist needs in mind. From...
www.bulkreefsupply.com www.bulkreefsupply.com

3.) Eshopps s 200 cone skimmer (currently used on 100gallon stock tank)

* rated for systems up to 250 gallons.
Older version linked below:

www.reef2reef.com

Eshopps S-200 Skimmer. Brand new in sealed box.

I was lucky enough to acquire a couple of these great skimmers. I decided not to use. Like I said. These are brand new and under 100% warranty. 299 and buyer pays shipping. Save big. Descriptions The Snow Cone Skimmers are affordable cone-shaped skimmer that boasts compact design, has a silent...
www.reef2reef.com www.reef2reef.com

Do you all think one of these would be a better option?

Sps tank is around 50-60 gallons including water in sump.

Frag system is 60-70 gallons including water in sump.
 
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