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Yep, you bet I'll watch that tip everytime I open the sump. The mess took some 20 minutes to clean, wearing gloves just in case, and another 15 minutes to setup a new silicone flexible hose and the new tubing into the sump. Not to mention that KH was probably out of whack.

Mine slowly clogs above the water line... at least it's easier to see it happening when the line is not submerged. I've never had a blow-out though, looks like it made quite the mess!

I've heard that the tip of the tubing can clog up above water as well as submerged. It just seems like those need to be cleaned from time to time to maintain consistency.

Sorry to hear about your mess. Better clean it up completely so you'll be able to spot another issue down the line.

Since it is in the sump, it seems easy enough to get rid of. But I've handled stuff in a similar fashion where I just ignored it since it wasn't affecting the main display.

Since we can't see the top, this is purely a guess but I'd say maybe a Limpet? I've had Keyhole limpets in my tanks for years - nice grazers that never do harm.

I think it may be venturi effect to create the air bubbles you're seeing. There are hose barb connectors you can use between tubes, but they may clog up from time to time. Just another area to keep observing.

I caught it from the substrate and moved it onto a rock, two days ago. It apparently is staying put for the time being, although short and retracted. What a pity, it was looking great when it was expanded and open.... I hope it goes back to its old behavior soon.

Yes, move it with the rock it is holding, and then perhap try feeding it a small piece of krill. Maybe it will think that's a great spot because there's food there.

Maybe you can put something around the pump to create a protective barrier if you don't have the foam screen that comes with it.

Thanks for the tip melev. I went to check the anemone and it was gone... a chill ran down my spine, could it have committed suicide in the MP10? After searching a while I found it on the substrate holding onto a small rock piece that broke off a rock recently. Not sure how it got there so fast... maybe it "jumped" from the glass? Anyway, it is all shrunk and shriveled, I hope it gets back to normal shape soon. I'm considering if I move it (move the rock it's holding to) to a new position with good lighting and flow or not. Don't want it wandering on the glass again... definitely don't...

Thanks for the extra details.

You can remove it from the glass with a credit card (hotel room key card), and then place it where it can put its foot into a crevasse in the rockwork.

In this picture you can see how the closed loop works, some fancy tubing work, but all DIY:

And this drawing gives an idea how the overflow and return work. The three corners without the glass triangle on top are the overflows. The one with the triangle is the return. (in this drawing the box doesn't have the hole in the middle of the base for the closed look because it is the nano I mentioned, where the closed loop is done with a pump inside the tank, hidden).


In a previous model he had more than one tube connecting to the overflow collection base, but he simplified it to one in his latest models.

This drawing complements the one above, with the custom DIY tubes that connect into the overflow and return boxes under the tank. Forget the red arrows and small strips of glass, that is for a nano model and not relevant to this tank I blogged about:



Finally, how the DIY tube connector is made:



Its face is glued flush to the bottom glass, where the hole is, then a small glass box is built around it to hold it in place. Since there is no significant water pressure, nothing leaks nor fails. Nor does anything accumulate because everything is flush, no steps.

I didn't take good pictures of the sump, but I found a picture someone else took. It is a little old, it shows two skimmers but the current sump has only one skimmer.

On the left you see the return tube going up, with a T to send some water back to the sump, kepping turnover at 1 to 1.5 volume/hour, and most importantly circulate the sump reducing deposits and feeding the scrubber and skimmer with organic matter. Right behind that you see a white thing which is the ATO (water coming from a cabinet to the left of the picture) and some pĺastic tubing that come from the balling (containers also in the cabinet to the left). In this picture there was only one plastic tube, balling under maintenance, currently there are three (KH, Ca, Mg).

On the right you can see the algae scrubber, at the time it was almost empty. Two lights, one red and one growlux. The water box that feeds the scrubber is fed by the return tube, back right hand side, and some supplementary water coming from sump via a small pump.

In the middle, top, the closed loop, with a Tunze DC, but not using any wavemaking motion. His newest design doesn't use an external closed loop, but a pump hidden inside a false rock at the center of the DT, pointing up. Saw that in a nano built with the same system. He claims it is even easier to clean as long as you have enough power wiring coiled with the pump, so you can pull it out without undoing any rockwork or substrate.



[Edit]
Forgot to mention three things:
1. Scrubber lamps on from 9AM to 3AM+1
2. He has a heater in the sump
3. He has a small sock with carbon in the sump. No flow directed through it, just sitting there in the sump.

It actually moved onto the (deactivated) MP10, then moved out and in the middle space between the two MP10s, but almost at the water surface.... I re-activated the MP10 I had turned off, and now I'm watching....

Is there any safe way for me to remove it from the glass and put it on a rock again? Seems like it is lost, looking for good light and flow, and there is a spot on a rock that would do that just fine....

The Vortech pump has a sponge that can be installed for times like these. Less flow will end up causing the anemone to wander more, in my experience.

It looks really lush and healthy. Thanks for the blog and information. Did you take pictures of the sump beneath? Is the closed loop draining through the base and pumping up through the base as well?

The anemone moved around the tank, over the substrate, then strated getting close to one of the Vortech MP10s... dangerous, dangerous.... so I turned it off, and now I'm observing it...

I'll be out of town for a few days, will post more on the anemone (and the Mg test) after I return. The peppermint was picking on the anemone's side with it's pincher claws, I positively saw that. Not sure if it was being able to do any damage to the tissue, but it was trying, I'm absolutely sure. And the anemone was trying to shrink away from the pinches, I could see it slowly deflating to get away.

I caught the crab in a similar position today on the Leather, and scared it away again. I guess it doesn't have much "scare memory" when it is hungry..... Oh well, with the auto feeder on for the next couple of days they'll have more than enough to eat, as I'm not able to regulate it to drop only the same amount I give by hand...

Leathers are pretty hardy, and can shut down during their sloughing/growth phase. The crab could even be eating that stuff rather than the coral itself. Obviously, keep an eye on it.

Be sure to post a picture of your anemone too. You can edit this blog and insert the extra image above. Peppermints may try to steal food, but outright attack an anemone doesn't sound normal.