Uptown Reef: In the Work
- Thread starter Macbeth417
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Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
As I suspected Mike, I will need a larger closed loop pump. The returns are fine. Right now the loop is a heavy drool at best ; ) Ill just toss some PHeads in there untill I can get a new pump in next week. The pattern of the flow is great though so far as I can see from mixing the salt. Tonight I'm just going to move things, then this weekend I'll get the rockwork up on little stilts and up to par looks wise. Should be real nice to work with once it is all wrapped up.
-Erik
-Erik
Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
So far so good:
Finished transfering everthing yesterday and this morning thing looked in good shape. No slimming, sluffing, stn or excess bleachine. There is polyp extension, even axial, on almost all of the acros and the clams are open (night-time open).
The Tale:
I ended up setting up a temp tank (old sump) with old tank water a skimmer heater, ph monitor and tempgage, and transfered all the stock from the old tank to that, so the coral were only in buckets for about 20 minutes for each trip (my old house is only 5 minutes from my new). I started mixing the salt at 9am and at about 6:30pm I had the ph and salinity dialed in, however the temp was too high. I bought two bags of ice tossed and them in, which got that in line. Next I used some two part to push the ca/alk closer in line, which wasnt too hard, as I purposely stopped dripping Kalk for the last five days on my old tank to bring the ca/alk closer to newly mixed IO salt. I toss a about 2tbs of vinegar in to shave off the ph spike from the two part I dosed the let it all sit for about another hour. Then, I emptied about 40% of the new tank water and replaced it with water from the old tank that I strained through a filter sock. I proceeded to put all the Rock that didnt have colonys encrusted on them into the new tank and then went back to the old tank for the last batch of coral. Now that the temp, salinity, ph & CA/ALK (more or less) were in line and the new tank was about 40% old tank water and 60% new water that was very very close in parameters, I piled up the rock and transfered all the colonys and frags over. Within about two hour I could see decent extension and all sliming had gone away.
Work to be done:
Tonight I need to mount the lights and set up the Kalk/Nielson Reactor.
This weekend
I will be replacing the Drain-line stand pipe with a larger gage bulkhead and lines, as I don't like the how fast the water is hitting the sump (a tad too loud).
Make a canopy
Order another Bulb, a stronger closed loop pump & the remaining parts to setup my CA/CO2 reactor (I've been running neilson only for about 8 months).
Thanks for all your help the second half of the day Elmo!
I will get some pictures up when I get home.
Think "no die-off"
-Erik
Finished transfering everthing yesterday and this morning thing looked in good shape. No slimming, sluffing, stn or excess bleachine. There is polyp extension, even axial, on almost all of the acros and the clams are open (night-time open).
The Tale:
I ended up setting up a temp tank (old sump) with old tank water a skimmer heater, ph monitor and tempgage, and transfered all the stock from the old tank to that, so the coral were only in buckets for about 20 minutes for each trip (my old house is only 5 minutes from my new). I started mixing the salt at 9am and at about 6:30pm I had the ph and salinity dialed in, however the temp was too high. I bought two bags of ice tossed and them in, which got that in line. Next I used some two part to push the ca/alk closer in line, which wasnt too hard, as I purposely stopped dripping Kalk for the last five days on my old tank to bring the ca/alk closer to newly mixed IO salt. I toss a about 2tbs of vinegar in to shave off the ph spike from the two part I dosed the let it all sit for about another hour. Then, I emptied about 40% of the new tank water and replaced it with water from the old tank that I strained through a filter sock. I proceeded to put all the Rock that didnt have colonys encrusted on them into the new tank and then went back to the old tank for the last batch of coral. Now that the temp, salinity, ph & CA/ALK (more or less) were in line and the new tank was about 40% old tank water and 60% new water that was very very close in parameters, I piled up the rock and transfered all the colonys and frags over. Within about two hour I could see decent extension and all sliming had gone away.
Work to be done:
Tonight I need to mount the lights and set up the Kalk/Nielson Reactor.
This weekend
I will be replacing the Drain-line stand pipe with a larger gage bulkhead and lines, as I don't like the how fast the water is hitting the sump (a tad too loud).
Make a canopy
Order another Bulb, a stronger closed loop pump & the remaining parts to setup my CA/CO2 reactor (I've been running neilson only for about 8 months).
Thanks for all your help the second half of the day Elmo!
I will get some pictures up when I get home.
Think "no die-off"
-Erik
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Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
Charging batterys right now for the camera... Threes days since the move, haven't lost anything. One clam isn't fully open yet, but so far everything looks fantastic. I have to treat for bugs tomorrow, then just sit and watch. I think this tank is going to be just gorgeous in 3-4 months.
-Erik
-Erik
Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
Well I know some of you are more into the "natural" slice of the ocean look, but what really does it for me is the Japanese bonsai style tanks. So, here is what I have done with my move. I need to add about 30lb more rock to raise every thing a bit... but ... here is a teaser... more pictures to come : )
What do you guys think?
-Erik
What do you guys think?
-Erik
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Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
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Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
A quick snapshot of her for you.
-Erik
-Erik
flugelnuss
Clownfish
Wow Erik! Looking great! I wish I could plumb like that. Love that Angel!
Jeff
Jeff
Katchupoy
Well-known member
My goodness.... I love it... did i miss the lighting specs? what is it... very nice color...
That is a great looking job Erik. Why do you want to add more rock tho? The way it looks now, you are going to have plenty of room for growth and won't have to worry about crowding for a while.
LakeEd
Achilles
I agree with Charlie. Its lookin AWESOME right now guy!!! Allows super room for growth!!!!!!
Nicely done!!!!!!! *Big Smile*
Nicely done!!!!!!! *Big Smile*
Katchupoy
Well-known member
I agree with charlie. But if your worried that thse liverock will not be enough in terms of its biological filter.... then maybe you can add LR to your sump or some external inline source....
Macbeth417
Reef Monkey
Thanks for the kind words guys, I truelly appreciate it. After a week of staying up VERY late and franticly trying to finish the tank by thursday as I had to be out of my old house I was rather stressed out that I would loose some livestock of the tank wouldn't pan out right. So far I'm just elated with how everything is doing.
As far as the rock, the far right is made up of small fist-size rocks that used to be in my sump. I would like to replace that with two large piece of figi to get nice little bommie then move the the small pieces back the sump.
Cesar, the lighting is Double Ended 250watt Hamilton 14K bulbs in Sun Light Supply Reef Optix III pendants which I spliced to PFO extralong cords to run on a PFO dual 250watt HQI ballast. I have been using the hamiltons for the last 2-3 months and absolutely love them. For those of you that were dissapointed with the recent XM 15KK discoverys, I HIGHLY suggest the hamiltons.
As far as color goes, it actually isn't up to my standards right now. I got a batch of red bugs from some recent frags which have and almost instantanious impact in my eyes as I have seen the tank with and without bugs. To all you interceptor niegh-sayers... the truths in the coral. I've seen my whole tank infected and my whole tank clean twice now and it is night and day for color and growth. I will be dosing for them this morning.
Ordering one of the new-style 100rlt iwakis or possibly a panworld ( as suggest by maxx) this weekend to get the loop up to snuff. I also would like to cut small segments of pvc and cover them in pvc glue then roll then in Playsand to use as tiny little stilt to lift the rock just barely off the bottom of the tank as there are still some areas that will block detritus and let it build up, which I want to avoid.
Also, I decided to keep the Euroreef 6-2+ in there even though it is heavily overated for the tank as it has been pulling out great stuff and it would really help with the true sps BareBottom system.
Thats if for now I guess. I may contact Brad and Reed to see about having you all over after you stop at Elmo's on the tank tour as we live about three minutes from eachother.
Time to get my kalk reactor hooked up and make some top-off for the week.
Any suggestion or questions?
Thanks again for the kind words,
-Erik
As far as the rock, the far right is made up of small fist-size rocks that used to be in my sump. I would like to replace that with two large piece of figi to get nice little bommie then move the the small pieces back the sump.
Cesar, the lighting is Double Ended 250watt Hamilton 14K bulbs in Sun Light Supply Reef Optix III pendants which I spliced to PFO extralong cords to run on a PFO dual 250watt HQI ballast. I have been using the hamiltons for the last 2-3 months and absolutely love them. For those of you that were dissapointed with the recent XM 15KK discoverys, I HIGHLY suggest the hamiltons.
As far as color goes, it actually isn't up to my standards right now. I got a batch of red bugs from some recent frags which have and almost instantanious impact in my eyes as I have seen the tank with and without bugs. To all you interceptor niegh-sayers... the truths in the coral. I've seen my whole tank infected and my whole tank clean twice now and it is night and day for color and growth. I will be dosing for them this morning.
Ordering one of the new-style 100rlt iwakis or possibly a panworld ( as suggest by maxx) this weekend to get the loop up to snuff. I also would like to cut small segments of pvc and cover them in pvc glue then roll then in Playsand to use as tiny little stilt to lift the rock just barely off the bottom of the tank as there are still some areas that will block detritus and let it build up, which I want to avoid.
Also, I decided to keep the Euroreef 6-2+ in there even though it is heavily overated for the tank as it has been pulling out great stuff and it would really help with the true sps BareBottom system.
Thats if for now I guess. I may contact Brad and Reed to see about having you all over after you stop at Elmo's on the tank tour as we live about three minutes from eachother.
Time to get my kalk reactor hooked up and make some top-off for the week.
Any suggestion or questions?
Thanks again for the kind words,
-Erik
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I like your idea of using the pvc to get the rock off the bottom, that should work great. Have you looked into some branch or other type of rock that would provide ready made places for frags?
That Iwaki pump will make your closed loop haul some serious current, I like it!!!!
That Iwaki pump will make your closed loop haul some serious current, I like it!!!!
