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New home, new build!
- Thread starter motortrendz
- Start date
motortrendz
NJRC Member
I'll do my best. I've been back in the hobby for a little bit now. I spend alot of time on the other big forum. but I wanted to try to connect again with local guys.
motortrendz
NJRC Member
Heres some more coral shots.. not the best. All taken on samsung with a coral view 20k lens.
Attachments
motortrendz
NJRC Member
So for my fish I'll give a list... (no tang police please..lol)
I have 3 tangs,
a vlamingi which I've had almost 3 years now( he runs the tank)
A blue hippo(please done call her dori, she dont like that when she can remeber)
And an orange shoulder who still has his early transition colors(he was a Petco save)
I have a few wrasses,
A pair of flame wrasses(was a trio, but lost my super male one day out of nowhere )
An exquisite wrasse from the red sea(beautiful colors on him)
A ruby red flasher wrasse
A melanarus wrasse and
a female green bird wrasse(worst reef tank purchase ever btw!)
I have 2 hawks, a flame and a falko
Theres 4 clowns. 2 pairs one is a breeding pair, that's my Donis reef snowcasso and snowflake pair.
And I also have a black storm and a mochavinchi pair.
... theres more....
I have a tail spot blenny and a total gramma...
And a snowflake eel.
I know I'm terrible theres a ton of fish.. but they're fed well and I have a very good nutrient export system.
(Next year I'm probably going to have a custom tank built, which should be a fun transfer since its gotta be in the same spot this one is in hah)
Hope you all enjoyed.
I have 3 tangs,
a vlamingi which I've had almost 3 years now( he runs the tank)
A blue hippo(please done call her dori, she dont like that when she can remeber)
And an orange shoulder who still has his early transition colors(he was a Petco save)
I have a few wrasses,
A pair of flame wrasses(was a trio, but lost my super male one day out of nowhere )
An exquisite wrasse from the red sea(beautiful colors on him)
A ruby red flasher wrasse
A melanarus wrasse and
a female green bird wrasse(worst reef tank purchase ever btw!)
I have 2 hawks, a flame and a falko
Theres 4 clowns. 2 pairs one is a breeding pair, that's my Donis reef snowcasso and snowflake pair.
And I also have a black storm and a mochavinchi pair.
... theres more....
I have a tail spot blenny and a total gramma...
And a snowflake eel.
I know I'm terrible theres a ton of fish.. but they're fed well and I have a very good nutrient export system.
(Next year I'm probably going to have a custom tank built, which should be a fun transfer since its gotta be in the same spot this one is in hah)
Hope you all enjoyed.
Attachments
motortrendz
NJRC Member
Paired off my black storm this week with a mochavinchi. Once the frag tank is up then theyll be moving to their own space. And of course the big momma had to come check the new guy out.
Attachments
DangerDave
NJRC Member
Reef looks great!
motortrendz
NJRC Member
Thanks Dave
motortrendz
NJRC Member
Time for an update:
I've been working on removing my 20g sump from under my tank to a larger system in the basement capable of handling much more load(eventually a larger tank and a very large frag system)
So I acquired a 75g acrylic tank that was basically destroyed for a display but would make a perfect sump. I got a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and made the baffles and water tested them
Set up the sump and 30g low boy(rimless deep blue) in the basement, I build my own version of the eshopps eclipse overflow box, with a modified bean animal drain system. Plumbed it through my floor into the basement and into the sump.
I've been working on removing my 20g sump from under my tank to a larger system in the basement capable of handling much more load(eventually a larger tank and a very large frag system)
So I acquired a 75g acrylic tank that was basically destroyed for a display but would make a perfect sump. I got a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and made the baffles and water tested them
Set up the sump and 30g low boy(rimless deep blue) in the basement, I build my own version of the eshopps eclipse overflow box, with a modified bean animal drain system. Plumbed it through my floor into the basement and into the sump.
Attachments
motortrendz
NJRC Member
And yesterday I decided to make a control board to clean up all my wires. I started with a piece of 2' x4' birch plywood. I beveled the edges and painted it blue... 
And then I got bored... so I made it I to this...
A little 2 part epoxy magic. Do bad its gonna be in the basement where no one will see it. Haha. But I made it to look like wave wash and tide pools. It looks pretty awesome lol.
And then I got bored... so I made it I to this...
A little 2 part epoxy magic. Do bad its gonna be in the basement where no one will see it. Haha. But I made it to look like wave wash and tide pools. It looks pretty awesome lol.
Attachments
motortrendz
NJRC Member
I've been making tables on the side for a while also. I weld up and fabricate the legs as well
Attachments
motortrendz
NJRC Member
I love this concept too. I just need a better heat gun, I need to be able to rub low heat with high air flow to make it. right now it gets too hot and blisters the epoxy when you move the white to make the waves
we definitely need to get together sometime.
motortrendz
NJRC Member
I use the torch for the bubbles. To mimic the waves I use a head gun. Never though of a blow dryer. That makes sense. My wifes gonna kill me when I steal it lol
blow dryer works great. But you can really move and control flow real well with the heat and push of the torch.in conjunction with the dryer.
motortrendz
NJRC Member
Ok so update: this will be quite long!
sump and frag tank have been up and running for 20 days now...
A few interesting observations and one I'm struggling with...
At first with in the first few days the main tank never looked better, colors were incredible on my sps water seemed immensely clearer with less particulates floating.
The frag tank had a dino break out after about the first week of being hooked up, but the main tank remained unaffected.
The second week, the frag tank looked terrible, I've been blowing off the frag racks and frag plugs(ocean wonders pre cured) bc of all the dinos and diatoms and using a 10 micron sock to catch everything to remove. I turned off the flow to the frag tank added a bottle of micro bacter7, the next day I Added a clean up crew, amphipods(from an online source) 2 different types of copepods from pod your reef, some phyto and 3 fish to the frag tank.
Water tests show my nitrates have plummeted from 4ppm to .25ppm and po4 has dropped from .10 to 0.00, and my alk had dropped from 10.0dkh to 8.0dkh
Using a calcium reactor. I figured with the larger water volume(almost double) that I was going to need to readjust my drip rate from my original rate.
The main tank started showing patches of cyano and my acros have started to fade a little.
So in order to try to correct my system
I increased the frequency and amount of feeding and also started dosing reef roids to the system 2x a day to try to bring nutrient levels back up. And started dosing 3ml of flourish a day to bring po4 up to a detectable level. And I raised my calcium reactor drip rate to start bringing my alk back up to where my system has been for the last 2 years.
Week 3, frag tank looks much better, small patches of dinos still exist and small patches of hair algae and dinos (new tank uglies, but getting better every day)
For the main tank, things got dicey, this is the part where I say what I did and where I feel I messed up! And probably what I should have done... so I noticed most of my acros have lost their vibrant colors,now I'm worried, a few look thin(if you have acros you know what I mean) within a 24 hour period i lost 3 frags, stn'd from base edges up.(I havent lost a frag in almost a year, doa not included) Checked my nitrates now at 0.00 with a red sea pro kit even though I've increased my feedings by 200% po4 still reading 0.00 alk was now at 9.5.. I ordered sodium nitrate to start dosing nitrates, increased my po4 dosing and stopped vodka dosing... (I dont know y it took me so long to realize that i was now dosing vodka into a depleted system. (Guess old habbits.. yadda yadda) lost another 3 acros 2 days ago to the same stn from the base edges in. This one hurt, 3 really nice mini colonies (large encrusted frags) died out, my pac man, red planet and a Christmas mirabilis. Had all of these for about a solid year and were doing amazing.
All of my frags that are in my frag tank are doing amazing which is kinda funny. But then I thought of something.... the difference at this point is the lighting. Frag tanks lights are not as intense as the main display. Running 2 hydra 26s(non hds) with about 250 par at the racks the display has 2 ecotech xr30w with par ranging from 350-400 (8-10 inches below the surface) at the top of my rocks the 150-175 at the sand bed.
So I think a made a few rash decisions in trying to chase numbers and old habbits.
I should have known better in hind sight.
1. I should have stopped carbon dosing as soon as i realized nutrient levels dropped so low, and I also should have realized that by doubling the water volume of the system that alone would cut levels in half, plus I added a bigger skimmer and better filtration... and I always ran a higher alk bc I had higher nutrients to support the growth. And with the nutrients dropping out I should have left my alk at 8 or even brought it down lower to 7.5 to ease the stress on the corals, with the added feedings should have been enough to sustain life while attempting to get my nutrients back to a measurable reading. I'm slowly letting it come back down to not shock anything. But I'm gonna target 7.5 dkh
2. I really should have dimmed my lights a bit when I noticed the acropora skin getting thinner to prevent burning. Also with the water being noticeably clearer I'm sure the intensity of the lights reaching the corals increased as well, so it's a double hit to them in this aspect. I waited to long for this idea to come to me and it cost me. I lowered them overall by 25% and will slowly phase them back up after I get the system stabilized.
3. I lowered the skimmer flow volume (dc powered pump)and removed my filter sock to allow more nutrients to stay in the water column at this time.
I have noticed less cyano patches in the main display and the dinos seem to be just about gone in the frag tank since I've made these corrections. And the acros seem to have stabilized. Funny thing is all my LPS and softies still look amazing. And my sand bed has turned white again. And all the acros in my frag tank were basically unaffected and still have intense color and PE. (This still kinda confuses me)
Sorry for the super long post. But I dont want this to be an all positive thread and the oh look what I've done.. I want people to see the downs as well, bc that's the reality of reefing. We make changes, we piss things off and upset the balance of a delicate system. Will my system be better in the long run, I hope so, but it's the knowledge and learning experiences we gain along the way that will help others though their tough times. I've noticed way too many times people only ever share the positives of their experiences. But we truly learn from our mistakes and failures. So heres to hoping week 4 brings an upswing of news...
Thanks for reading.
sump and frag tank have been up and running for 20 days now...
A few interesting observations and one I'm struggling with...
At first with in the first few days the main tank never looked better, colors were incredible on my sps water seemed immensely clearer with less particulates floating.
The frag tank had a dino break out after about the first week of being hooked up, but the main tank remained unaffected.
The second week, the frag tank looked terrible, I've been blowing off the frag racks and frag plugs(ocean wonders pre cured) bc of all the dinos and diatoms and using a 10 micron sock to catch everything to remove. I turned off the flow to the frag tank added a bottle of micro bacter7, the next day I Added a clean up crew, amphipods(from an online source) 2 different types of copepods from pod your reef, some phyto and 3 fish to the frag tank.
Water tests show my nitrates have plummeted from 4ppm to .25ppm and po4 has dropped from .10 to 0.00, and my alk had dropped from 10.0dkh to 8.0dkh
Using a calcium reactor. I figured with the larger water volume(almost double) that I was going to need to readjust my drip rate from my original rate.
The main tank started showing patches of cyano and my acros have started to fade a little.
So in order to try to correct my system
I increased the frequency and amount of feeding and also started dosing reef roids to the system 2x a day to try to bring nutrient levels back up. And started dosing 3ml of flourish a day to bring po4 up to a detectable level. And I raised my calcium reactor drip rate to start bringing my alk back up to where my system has been for the last 2 years.
Week 3, frag tank looks much better, small patches of dinos still exist and small patches of hair algae and dinos (new tank uglies, but getting better every day)
For the main tank, things got dicey, this is the part where I say what I did and where I feel I messed up! And probably what I should have done... so I noticed most of my acros have lost their vibrant colors,now I'm worried, a few look thin(if you have acros you know what I mean) within a 24 hour period i lost 3 frags, stn'd from base edges up.(I havent lost a frag in almost a year, doa not included) Checked my nitrates now at 0.00 with a red sea pro kit even though I've increased my feedings by 200% po4 still reading 0.00 alk was now at 9.5.. I ordered sodium nitrate to start dosing nitrates, increased my po4 dosing and stopped vodka dosing... (I dont know y it took me so long to realize that i was now dosing vodka into a depleted system. (Guess old habbits.. yadda yadda) lost another 3 acros 2 days ago to the same stn from the base edges in. This one hurt, 3 really nice mini colonies (large encrusted frags) died out, my pac man, red planet and a Christmas mirabilis. Had all of these for about a solid year and were doing amazing.
All of my frags that are in my frag tank are doing amazing which is kinda funny. But then I thought of something.... the difference at this point is the lighting. Frag tanks lights are not as intense as the main display. Running 2 hydra 26s(non hds) with about 250 par at the racks the display has 2 ecotech xr30w with par ranging from 350-400 (8-10 inches below the surface) at the top of my rocks the 150-175 at the sand bed.
So I think a made a few rash decisions in trying to chase numbers and old habbits.
I should have known better in hind sight.
1. I should have stopped carbon dosing as soon as i realized nutrient levels dropped so low, and I also should have realized that by doubling the water volume of the system that alone would cut levels in half, plus I added a bigger skimmer and better filtration... and I always ran a higher alk bc I had higher nutrients to support the growth. And with the nutrients dropping out I should have left my alk at 8 or even brought it down lower to 7.5 to ease the stress on the corals, with the added feedings should have been enough to sustain life while attempting to get my nutrients back to a measurable reading. I'm slowly letting it come back down to not shock anything. But I'm gonna target 7.5 dkh
2. I really should have dimmed my lights a bit when I noticed the acropora skin getting thinner to prevent burning. Also with the water being noticeably clearer I'm sure the intensity of the lights reaching the corals increased as well, so it's a double hit to them in this aspect. I waited to long for this idea to come to me and it cost me. I lowered them overall by 25% and will slowly phase them back up after I get the system stabilized.
3. I lowered the skimmer flow volume (dc powered pump)and removed my filter sock to allow more nutrients to stay in the water column at this time.
I have noticed less cyano patches in the main display and the dinos seem to be just about gone in the frag tank since I've made these corrections. And the acros seem to have stabilized. Funny thing is all my LPS and softies still look amazing. And my sand bed has turned white again. And all the acros in my frag tank were basically unaffected and still have intense color and PE. (This still kinda confuses me)
Sorry for the super long post. But I dont want this to be an all positive thread and the oh look what I've done.. I want people to see the downs as well, bc that's the reality of reefing. We make changes, we piss things off and upset the balance of a delicate system. Will my system be better in the long run, I hope so, but it's the knowledge and learning experiences we gain along the way that will help others though their tough times. I've noticed way too many times people only ever share the positives of their experiences. But we truly learn from our mistakes and failures. So heres to hoping week 4 brings an upswing of news...
Thanks for reading.