Best reef ready tank deal of 2024 - whose looking for a new tank?

[legionofdoon]

Mine didn’t quite fit right, I rotated 180 degrees and now it fits perfect

You got a ato lid?!!

Yes, I received an ATO lid. It's clear. The sock compartment lid doesn't fit right, and I've rotated it about,1000 times and it still doesn't

 

[VintageReefer]

I'm 6'0", not crazy tall, but tall enough where I find most stands to be too short.

As for the ATS/Fuge argument, I don't run a Fuge only for nutrient export. I run a fuge like a 2nd mini aquarium, different species of macroalgae (never chaeto), rocks, sand, lights, etc. It's mainly for growing my own food sources (Pods and Macroalgae) and pH control with nutrient export being a secondary concern (hence the skimmer). While ATS's are exceptional at nutrient export, they offer very little in the way of pH control or fish food farming.

I’m 5’ 11. I get it

Scrubbers do contribute to ph increase at night.

If you ditched the socks and skimmer, you could use a ats for nutrient control and fill the rest of the section with nice pours live rock, and stock that with pods. Eliminating the socks and skimmer allows food to make it to your pod stocked cryptic zone of pods and sponge and worms

Or. Make a dedicated macro / pod tank out of a 20g or 40b on sale

 

[legionofdoon]

Just saw VCA makes a dual version of this with two random flow generators splitting off of a single 3/4” lock line connection. Am considering that in combo with the eFlux 1900. Could point each RFG in a different direction.

Not planning on adding any power heads until corals go in.

Overkill?

Not over kill but, they are still going to be facing the same general direction so probably redundant.

 

[VintageReefer]

Cryptic zone be like

 

[legionofdoon]

I’m 5’ 11. I get it

Scrubbers do contribute to ph increase at night.

If you ditched the socks and skimmer, you could use a ats for nutrient control and fill the rest of the section with nice pours live rock, and stock that with pods. Eliminating the socks and skimmer allows food to make it to your pod stocked cryptic zone of pods and sponge and worms

Or. Make a dedicated macro / pod tank out of a 20g or 40b on sale

I'm taller than both of you and I don't understand what you are talking about the height of the stand. The overhead inside the stand or the total height of the stand? Either way it's not a problem for me. I can fit my giant size skimmer underneath, and I can touch pretty much the entire bottom from a standing position. Am I missing something that I should be concerned about is later on?

 

[legionofdoon]

BTW are we all just night owls or in different time zones

 

[JNalley]

I’m 5’ 11. I get it

Scrubbers do contribute to ph increase at night.

If you ditched the socks and skimmer, you could use a ats for nutrient control and fill the rest of the section with nice pours live rock, and stock that with pods. Eliminating the socks and skimmer allows food to make it to your pod stocked cryptic zone of pods and sponge and worms

Or. Make a dedicated macro / pod tank out of a 20g or 40b on sale

ATS get most of their CO2 from the free air not the water, so the pH rise isn't as pronounced as a full on fuge or macro reactor. I've run an ATS on my current tank before for a short while, pH at night hovered around 8.1, during the day was 8.3. With a full fuge I get 8.3 at night and during the day, the crazy thing is, I also dose Kalk and have a CO2 scrubber because they're necessary (which also makes the skimmer necessary, unfortunately). I dunno what it is about the air around here, but it must have a ton of CO2 in it, cause otherwise my tank sits at like 7.8 pH without all of this... :-|

 

[JNalley]

I'm taller than both of you and I don't understand what you are talking about the height of the stand. The overhead inside the stand or the total height of the stand? Either way it's not a problem for me. I can fit my giant size skimmer underneath, and I can touch pretty much the entire bottom from a standing position. Am I missing something that I should be concerned about is later on?

stand height determines tank height. I HATE having to bend over to view the inside of my tank. If I can see over the top of the tank, I am not happy, lol.

 

[VintageReefer]

I'm taller than both of you and I don't understand what you are talking about the height of the stand. The overhead inside the stand or the total height of the stand? Either way it's not a problem for me. I can fit my giant size skimmer underneath, and I can touch pretty much the entire bottom from a standing position. Am I missing something that I should be concerned about is later on?

For me, my issue is standing and looking in the tank. I have to squat or bend to see stuff in the upper rear section

 

[VintageReefer]

BTW are we all just night owls or in different time zones

Central time night owl here. 2:30 am. Feeding infant a bottle but in general I only sleep 4 hours a night

 

[JNalley]

BTW are we all just night owls or in different time zones

Central time night owl here. 2:30 am. Feeding infant a bottle but in general I only sleep 4 hours a night

I'm also central time, and also only sleep about 4 hours a night, lol... especially right now, last semester of school (I'm 43 but going back to school) and have a 25 page paper and 30 minute presentation due as my capstone to graduate. Paper has to be original research, and I have a 4 year old that keeps me occupied during normal waking hours, lol.

 

[VintageReefer]

ATS get most of their CO2 from the free air not the water, so the pH rise isn't as pronounced as a full on fuge or macro reactor. I've run an ATS on my current tank before for a short while, pH at night hovered around 8.1, during the day was 8.3. With a full fuge I get 8.3 at night and during the day, the crazy thing is, I also dose Kalk and have a CO2 scrubber because they're necessary (which also makes the skimmer necessary, unfortunately). I dunno what it is about the air around here, but it must have a ton of CO2 in it, cause otherwise my tank sits at like 7.8 pH without all of this... :-|

I agree with everything you said. Multiple ways / strategies to run a tank and clearly you have an understanding in multiple types and picked what works best for you.

My ph is 8.2 at night. I never measured in the day. I don’t do water changes, I don’t run a skimmer or socks, I don’t auto dose anything.

I figured out my weekly drop and calculated my dose of all for reef to maintain / counter that drop

2x a week I add fw top off and I put half the dose of AFR in there

Ya. I don’t run an ato either I do manual top offs. About 1 gallon every 3-4 days

K.I.S.S method (admittedly not a sps tank so I can get away with some things )

 

[VintageReefer]

I'm also central time, and also only sleep about 4 hours a night, lol... especially right now, last semester of school (I'm 43 but going back to school) and have a 25 page paper and 30 minute presentation due as my capstone to graduate. Paper has to be original research, and I have a 4 year old that keeps me occupied during normal waking hours, lol.

I should stop distracting you lol

 

[JNalley]

I agree with everything you said. Multiple ways / strategies to run a tank and clearly you have an understanding in multiple types and picked what works best for you.

My ph is 8.2 at night. I never measured in the day. I don’t do water changes, I don’t run a skimmer or socks, I don’t auto dose anything.

I figured out my weekly drop and calculated my dose of all for reef to maintain / counter that drop

2x a week I add fw top off and I put half the dose of AFR in there

Ya. I don’t run an ato either I do manual top offs. About 1 gallon every 3-4 days

K.I.S.S method (admittedly not a sps tank so I can get away with some things )

yeh, I tried everything under the sun to keep pH stable. But growing my own Macro Algae for my herbivores and larger snails along with pH stability at night was the original plan for the fuge, and then I got a mandarin so now it's also pods. I ended up getting a Hydros to help me with my pH problem because it was just so hard to keep stable. Now it's rock solid, and my Alk stays around 10. I have some SPS, but it's a mixed reef.

I should stop distracting you lol

Naa, I wrote 9.5 pages today. I am on wind down time now, lol.

 

[JNalley]

Oh, I also run sockless, and the refugium is before the skimmer, so most of the larger detritus gets dropped into the fuge section first. There are all kinds of crazy critters down there, worms have migrated there, so have some ultra tiny can only be seen with a jewelers loupe crab looking things. The fuge has got it going on :-D

 

[VintageReefer]

yeh, I tried everything under the sun to keep pH stable. But growing my own Macro Algae for my herbivores and larger snails along with pH stability at night was the original plan for the fuge, and then I got a mandarin so now it's also pods. I ended up getting a Hydros to help me with my pH problem because it was just so hard to keep stable. Now it's rock solid, and my Alk stays around 10. I have some SPS, but it's a mixed reef.


Naa, I wrote 9.5 pages today. I am on wind down time now, lol.

In 23 years of keeping reefs - from 75g sps to 75g mixed to my current 75g LPS dominate, 1.1g nano, bio cube 14, nano cube 28, fluval evo 13.5, 40breeder, 36g, Waterbox 15, etc

I have never tested ph once until last week lol

And I only tested because I had a new fish that didn’t make it and the vendor wanted to know my ph so I had to get a kit to find out

Why are you writing about for your paper ?

 

[JNalley]

In 23 years of keeping reefs - from 75g sps to 75g mixed to my current 75g LPS dominate, 1.1g nano, bio cube 14, nano cube 28, fluval evo 13.5, 40breeder, 36g, Waterbox 15, etc

I have never tested ph once until last week lol

And I only tested because I had a new fish that didn’t make it and the vendor wanted to know my ph so I had to get a kit to find out

Heh, if my pH hadn't been 7.8, I'd have been the same way. I didn't test for the first 20 years either, until I moved to the KC area and my coral looked terrible and wasn't growing. I think I tested pH maybe 3-4 times during new tank setups previously and it was always 8-8.1 in Florida. Here, 7.8 with the windows open.

Why are you writing about

What caused the Gothic migrations in late antiquity in Rome. The current prevailing narrative is that the Huns invaded and displaced them. However, my hypothesis for the paper is that the dominant force behind both the movement of the huns and the movement of the goths was climate change. It was a dry period in the Pontic Steppe preceding the Late Antiquity Little Ice Age that had the Huns searching for better grazing land for their horses, which lead them to the shores of the black sea inhabited by the Goths. So it was a domino/ripple effect. I'm Majoring in History with a Minor in Geology and an Undergraduate Geographic Information Systems Certificate, so I am trying to utilize all 3 in my paper.

 

[VintageReefer]

Climate change certainly could be a driving force for migrating and exploring. It’s a good theory!

 

[JNalley]

Climate change certainly could be a driving force for migrating and exploring. It’s a good theory!

Lol, well, throughout history Climate Change has been the dominant force in nearly all mass migrations, human and animal alike. So I didn't really see why this should be any different, and it turns out my hypothesis at worst warrants further investigation, because it turns out there's a ton of evidence in paleo-climate models of the region for the time period that suggest I am correct, and it was climate driven, not a Militaristic move made by the Huns.

 

[VintageReefer]

I will admit. I’m no expert in history. With history I’m probably around a 4 grade level lol

Everybody’s good at something though