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i just upgraded to a sicce syncra 3.0, the 5.0 is rated at 1321 gph at the mouth, i know they have some that are made for more head pressure just gotta look around and at specs, i love mine super quiet and temp dropped 3 degrees from my old mag 7, they can run internal or external

Sorry I fail!. The specs I gave you were for the Goby Gold pump. I'd check that one out!

I'd check out the Sequence line of pumps. I am currently running a Dart on my tank and it is SUPER quiet, but with the head pressure you are up against I would be looking at possibly a Barracuda. Just running a quick search for the specs I found that its about 2,080 gph at 12' and using about 210 watts. This is a little more flow then you said you were looking for but this would allow you to still run your fuge and GFO off of it. The nice thing about these pumps is that you can dial them back on the output side with a ball valve or gate valve to get the flow you want and they will run at less wattage.

Major upgrade! I found a 2 yr old 250 gallon Marineland DD! I drove 2 hours to pick it up and brought it home in my Subaru Forester (Yeah, it fit in the back!). I worked my butt off this week to set it up and it is about 1/3 full of RODI water now.

I've lost a cleaner shrimp that got sucked into a powerhead in a temporary tank and two of my biggest fish - a foxface and copperband. Don't know why they died because I housed them in the original tank's 100g sump with original water and liverock...maybe just the stress. So far all my corals and smaller fish are doing okay in their various hidey holes in small tanks throughout the house.

Are you getting the same sized tank, or upgrading?

Time for a 3 month update. First, the good news. I finally saw my serpent star again after the "incident" and it is healing. Still really wounded looking, but at least its top appears to be closing:



The bad news, I was only able to find the serpent star because I had to tear down my tank due to a leaking bottom seam. I've got critters stashed in small QT tanks, my sump etc. while I'm waiting on a replacement tank. My serpent star is now in the refugium and may be the only animal "happy" about the situation. Major bummer...

That is honestly one of the craziet things I have seen in this hobby!
Thanks for the picutes.
I love that there is always something cool going on our reefs!

Great pictures. My serpent star lost its ENTIRE top. If I see it again, I will try to catch it and put it in my refugium until it heals...It's good know that it might recover.

The first time I saw it, I was in shock but a few days later it was completely healthy. I actually thought I must have dreamt it. However, the second time I grabbed my camera.

This sounds pretty nasty and interesting!
U have never seen or heard of this before.
Pics by any chance?!

The shrimp too can be picking at the damaged area. If anything, I would try to put it in an isolated area in hopes of it healing. I had a Harlequin Starfish (looks like a serpent starfish) that had the same thing happen a couple of times. It didn't survive the second incident, but it was 100% healed up before that and looked fine. It's a very strange phenomenon to observe.

Hawkfish is the obvious culprit, but I have a hard time believing it pulled an 8" brittle from the rockwork. It should be fine, I smash mine with rocks on accident all the time.

Yeah, I'm kidding...especially considering that I know the genus and specific epithet of the spider!

LOL EW that spider is nasty. And that is one hungry zoa.

Your kidding about the spider right?

Thanks. I just feel sorry for the fishies in their little jails for a month. Guess it is less cruel than unleashing a plague on healthy tank-mates. I now have ReVive to dip new corals.

My clownfish reappeared this morning from the depths of the rockwork. Guess she's a little shy because she disappeared again while I was doing tank maintenance. My tang thinks that the coco worm is a great scratching post so I'm trying to secure it in place with epoxy - every time I wedge it into a crevice, the poor worm ends up in the sand by the next morning! I'm still totally perplexed that we are supposed to put stinky epoxy (yes, reef safe brand) in our "delicate" tanks with their precise controls over chemicals. At least superglue makes more sense because it was developed to bind human flesh!

Good for you with the quarantining process. It's work, but it helps avoid issues down the road. Plus you can teach your new arrivals what kind of food you offer in a zero-competition environment.

Some corals won't tolerate a freshwater dip.

I like your graphs.

Tangs are tricky because they can eat so much. However, they poop out a lot of waste which adds to water issues. If you don't mind those water changes you can stay ahead of it.

Yes, if I could do it over again I wouldn't have used the old seawater - mostly because it had to sit around my house in buckets for 10 days during the initial setup. Although aerated, a lot of it got cold because I didn't have heaters for every bucket and I imagine that it contributed to the tank's first week of high NO3 and PO4, along with some rock die off. My rock volume and quality is really good - very open, porous rocks with lots of surface area. It also has a great abundance of bristle worms, starfish and at least some pods crawling around it.

I'm just feeding the corals for my own fun right now and to learn the process for when I aquire more demanding specimens. I have had fish my whole life, but mostly smaller species in heavily planted FW tanks where they can forage for their own food. Thus, I'd say I'm normally a light feeder. I'm still getting a feel for how much to feed a 10" long tang! He clearly isn't starving and my NO3 is dropping without water changes so I think I've found a good amount - roughly a pea to chick pea volume worth of pellets a day and some nori.

Regarding the feeding of corals, some definitely need to be targets (like Tubastrea/Suncorals) while others do not. The Coco Worm is a filter feeder that really doesn't need that type of attention if you have a tank full of livestock. When you feed your fish, the waste the excrete will be something the worm will capture. Offering phytoplankton, rotifers, or some other micro-particulate food isn't a bad idea -- except if you overdo it and pollute the system's water.

The reef tank has a specific bacterial level that is in direct correlation or balance to the livestock in it. The more livestock you add, the more bacteria is produced to keep up. It is definitely possible to go over-balance and introduce too much livestock and/or too much livestock too quickly. Try to be reasonable and add things gradually. Corals aren't usually a load on the tank like fish would be, so putting in 5 frags of LPS or SPS won't be nearly the same as adding a few larger fish.

You asked about cured live rock and mature (used) saltwater. The question really needs to be "do I have sufficient live rock in the tank to keep up with the bioload?" If some of the rock is base rock, it doesn't count. Real live rock, the stuff that was collected from the ocean and is added to your tank is the natural filtration. Anything dead, dry, or hand-made may or may not be of assistance for 6 to 9 months, if ever. If the rock is too dense, it may never be more than just some rock eating up space in the tank. Mature water isn't necessarily a good thing, believe it or not. It has good qualities, but it also caries the bad stuff with it: nitrate, phosphate, unknown bacteria that may bloom, and so on. Some mixed saltwater that has aged 24 hours and tests with all the best parameters is better for the tank than to transfer over older water that may have some issues within it. This is just one of those things you have to decide for yourself if it is worth the trouble. When I moved my 280g, I brought all the water with it and ended up making 75g or so to get it running again. I wasn't going to set it up with all new water as I had livestock waiting in a barrel.