good luck with the move!

Thanks a bunch Tim...I already have the RO/DI over there and running to see how much makeup water I can have ready by the time it's needed. I'm washing sand and getting as much preliminary stuff done as I can.

"T - 13 hours, and counting"

Hope the buckets I dropped off this morning is enough. If you need more let me know.

How early do you get up dude? I was going out the door for work this morning and saw them....it was like "Holey Moley!!!! Buckets galore." Those are great size too. What do you get in them?

I think they are more than three gallons. Perfect size for lifting up to put into high tanks and not kill you to carry two up a set stairs. We use them at the print shop for ink. Go through about a hundred a month. The lids are the best at keeping liquid secure. I've had someone pull out in front of me when going home from the lfs to get water, and when I slammed on the brakes I could hear the buckets thundering around in the trunk. Not one of the five buckets I had cracked a lid or spilled a drop.

Yup, they look like really sweet ones for our purposes. I REALLY appreciate them.

"T - 10 hours....and counting...."

The move went very well, all considered. I lost my beloved Possum Wrasse, but he must have been hiding in a rock, because he emerged from the rockpile today! The fuge took a little hit and broke, so I need to get some silicone to affix a plexiglass patch on it. Thus I'm just running the T5's and kicking some flow with one Koralia 4 with the heater hanging in the main display. I really like the way the scape turned out which is kind of amazing because I was really mostly just piling the rocks up and aiming at a cave in Stoney Island. The Tominio tang is being pretty shy and hiding a lot, but maybe this will end up good, as he has been pretty aggressive again lately. I will get some pics when I get the fuge fixed and the plumbing put all back together, but thanks to my outstanding support team (5 fellow reefers) and those who shared stuff, like buckets and such, it went off very well. We started at about 10 am and everybody was gone by 6:30 pm. Not too bad!

glad everything went ok mitch, got mmyn tank setup yesterday, go check it out, it's the first link in my sig.

Thanks Nick, I will definitely check it out.

So far so good...I still haven't ad the time to work on my fuge and the tank is still running without the sump or fuge in line. Hopefully I will have it fully functional before the end of the weekend. I have seen my Possum Wrasse, so the fish roll call is complete.

It seems that I have lost one SPS colony and unfortunately it is my fabulous Acropora desalwii. It started to RTN last night and by this evening it was over 1/3 gone. I immediately fragged what I could and will see if any of it makes it. I am really upset about that, but so goes life. Let's hope the frags make it.

Anyway, I really like the way the scape looks. Pics will follow after I get the fuge and sump in line and the rest of the equipment hidden.

This is getting very upsetting. So far I have lost my Acropora desalwii colony, my Neon Flashlight Acropora chesterfieldensis colony, my Frog In a Blender Seriatopora hysterix birdsnest colony, about half of my Hyacinth Seriatopora hysterix birdsnest colony, over half of my Acropora valida Tri-Color colony, my ORA Bellina frag, a hunk of my Montipora confusa, my frag of Quadricolor Acropora and a big part of my Chips Acro and part of my ORA green birdsnest. The parameters are all good, I cannot figure it out at all. I did a big water change but the RTN continues. Hopefully some of the frags I cut of some of the things will ride it out and I can always grow them out again.

I guess this would be what they call a crash, but I am still holding onto the faith. Let's see what corals really are hardy!

I did get the whole system put together and everything seems to be working completely.

I'm sorry Mitch!!

Thanks for the thoughts. I'm really saddest about the entire colonies and frags that I lost that are all I had. I mean the ones I was able to save clippings of will always grow back. I mean I really started with frags of just about all of them. I just want it to stop. Every day I have another one go south on me.

Ouch.

I have decent frags of the Chips, the green birdsnest, the desalwii and the tri-color. I also saw some RTN starting up on my ORA Blue Millepora so I chopped the main part off and got it away from the RTN. I'm really seeing SPS devastation here, but I gotta keep my chin up. I can grow it all back over time.

Fortunately we should be here until we buy a home of our own. Then it will be a stable setting to start good in. Til then I will do the best I can and hopefully have a nice system.

So sorry Mitch. I hope the rest - and the frags - pull thru.

Hang in there.

Dang mitch, that sucks. Hope the frags pull through for ya.

so sorry. hope the rest thrives and makes the tank look even better than before!

I am hoping for the best. I don't see any new RTN tonight. One frag, the tri-color valida is looking questionable, but the others seem okay so far. I can get another frag of the desalwii from a friend who grew out a frag of my mother colony. Luckily most of them are in a number of local tanks.

I'm keeping the positive view, as these things happen. It's just the nature of keeping such delicate creatures. I think the worst part is wondering if more will be hit as the days go by.

I really appreciate all the support I am getting. This forum is a great place with cool and caring members. The well wishes go a long way.

Sorry to hear about this Mitch....I've been there myself.

Yup, thanks for the good words Jkunz...As of now all I have lost is my very best colonies. The ones that everybody said "OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo....." about. It's never the mushrooms and nuisance ugly palys that go....or those stupid yellow polyp cockroaches.....

It's amazing, I know.....I hope the RTN stops so you can get back on the growing path.

I'm not ready to jump off a bridge over this, but it is really hard to not get discouraged. Some of these colonies were truly massive. A couple are still in there, just way too bright white...I cannot wait for the coralline to cover the stumps.

Okay, I got home from work this evening and the power was out! About an hour all told, but I was getting more than a little bit worried....

Anyway, I don't see any new death happening....maybe I have seen the worst of it. I certainly hope so. This has been miserable. I will watch for a few more days then assess the whole damages. I really like the new scape, but I don't really even want to take any pics until I get the RTN stopped and get some things placed for the replacement grow-out.

Lots of loss....

It seems that the death has stopped....knock wood....the total death toll was stunning, but I managed to save frags of a few of the victims. Hopefully it has levelled out and I can finish chopping out the victims' skeletons and get some regrowth started soon. I will try to bring myself to get a few pics before the weekend is over. The rest of the house situating is taking a high priority now that the tank is fully operational.

New pictures coming tonight......if I can find my camera cord!!!!

Okay, so I finaly got my shirt together and took pictures and found my camera cable, so here is a BIG post with lots of new pics after the move. I'm going to start with some death and destruction shots after the RTN storm....

Here is my JC Quadricolor Acro mini colony....I still have some of this one but it looks bad....


My beloved Acropora desalwii colony...it's completely gone but a friend has a frag of it for me....


The ORA Hyacinth Seriatopora hysterix birdsnest....still a little bit of life, I'm going to frag off the alive part and start it again...


My ORA Blue Millepora...I have a pretty good hunk of it still....


This is my huge ORA Chips Acro colony....I saved a few frags of it as well....


My amazing Tricolor Acropora Valida is dead, but I saved some of it too....


The ORA Rose Millepora took a hit, but it's still hanging in there....I need to chop out the dead part so it will start to grow again...


This is what's left of my ORA Neon Green Birdsnest colony....


Now...on the up-side....here are a few of the great saves....First, this is my frag fo the Tricolor valida...


Here is my big frag or small colony of the ORA Blue Mille....


The Purple Slimer managed to dodge the bullet....


And so did the ORA Oregon Blue Acropora tortuosa...


This is part of the remaining Quadricolor Acropora, you can see some RTN damage on it....I have another nice piece of it too....


This little guy is a Neon Green Caulastrea Candy Cane coral that is a real Survivor....It fell down through the rockwork and into the deep darks about a year and a half ago....I found it when I tore down....


And now...here are a few shots of the whole system...I love natural "rock pile" aquascaping and am quite happy with how the islands turned out.....



















I look forward to getting a few nice new sticks, and a bunch of the old ones and seeing just how wild I can get them to grow out!

Thanks for looking,
Mitch

I'm digging the new rock works, sucks about the sps but they'll grow back. Hopefully sometime down the road we can trade again.

Yup, sounds like a plan to me....as for the scape, I was just trying to get the rocks in and as many corals positioned for appropriate lighting as I could, with a cave for the fishies, with intentions of coming back for a proper scape. Then I looked at it a few times and really liked what I saw. Before the main colonies died it looked REALLY good. And it will again!

I have had a real outpouring of support from my local reef community taht it warms my heart. Numerous folks have said they will share frags of anything I need to replace, and nearly everything I lost has been offered. A fwew frags that I was just starting out are still missing, but it's been amazing as I have multiple offers of several items. I guess the old addage whatever goes around comes around is ringing true for me. I try to share as much as I can, and I suppose Karma is smiling upon me now.

It does a soul good.....

The rebuilding begins. I took the rock that my Tricolor was growing on and chopped all that off of it. The spot is now home to my ORA Borealis acro. I guess it's time for the old "from the ashes" thing to begin. This weekend I am going to try and get together with a couple of people who have frags for me and start getting the new reef going. I'm getting several Acroporae and Seriatopora birdsnests to begin with. I will put up some pics as things come into the tank.

Tank looks great but sorry for all those sps's that you lost man I've never seen that many acro's and what not all white,is that all from RTN I hate that damn rtn really puts strain on you and feel like stop having sps's all together. well wish the best of luck in the future..

Yup, every one of those were dead within a 4 day period. And others were totally unaffected. Strange. Like a lot of things in this hobby. I will grow most of them out again. It will just take a lot of time (and two-part)

I think it's funny how those of us that keep SPS get smacked in the face like this and it makes us want to come back for more.

I'm glad you included yourself in that comment Young One

Once bitten by the SPS bug it's hard to shake it.....

Stay tuned this weekend. There are going to be a few new pieces! I am also going to mount some frags on the Islands.

I feel like I've been talking to myself here lately. My thread is a ghost-town and I'm going to try one more post to see if there is any interest in it before I move on.

I just spent the weekend at MACNA and must say I had an amazing time. I spent nearly the entire time on the Exhibit Floor as I was working the event for Ocean's Blend and every time I took a break I was working the floor trying to find the best deals. I ended up with 12 T-shirts, a couple of boxes of dry goods, a new Koralia Evolution 1050, two fantastic Blastomussa wellsis, a nice hunk of what is supposed to be a Tyree Blue with Pink eyes chalice, a big colony of Neon Green Gonastrea and a Blue-rimmed Tridacna derasa clam. All that for right at $50!!!! I did well I think!

Here are a few update pics of the tank, starting with a tank walk-around then ending up with a few coral pics. I didn't get any detail shots of the new items but will soon....





























And hey Morgan, if you're watching that last pic was for you. Is that "true" enough Purple Cap????

wow..very nice tank

Thanks fragfreak...it's been an ongoing effort, as they all are!!!

Move on??!? Move on???? MOVE ON !!???

C'mon Mitch we all love this tank!! Please don't go!!

Awesome pictures! Great to see it bouncing back.

Mitch the tank still looks great! I need to come see the new place still.

I'm sad I didn't get to go to Macna, but I wouldn't have been able to get the time off work anyway...

Very, very nice.
I really like the Goniastrea and the Purple Cap.
Was Morgan at MACNA?

Wow! great colors in this tank!
I am sorry about the SPS
but looks like you were able to save some frags

WOW, what a good deal.

Looks like its bouncing back, good work.

Yup, I met Morgan and Johnny. Great folks. I hope that we can get together again soon. They finally bought a Display Tank. Hopefully we can get them to post a tank thread here. I believe the new tank is like a 40G or something. Starfire Reef Savvy tank. Really nice.

Yeah Richie, it seems to be right on the rebound. SPS's are growing really well. I need to watch my Calcium after adding the clam. We named him Happy Isa Clam. I think it fits. He came from The Frag Farmers.


One Blastomussa wellsii is looking all pi$$ed off, but I have faith that it will do fine, it's just being shy. The actual colors are the green you can just make out is the base color and the red, orange and yellow is a starburst center and skirt. This was from Unique Corals.


The other Blastomussa was a freebie. Unique Corals was there and I was purchaser number 1 for their MACNA 2010 trip. Joseph was running the booth and when he was boxing up on Sunday I went to express my thanks for his participating he said I got the first of his corals, so I got the last one too!


I was helping the guys out at The Frag Farmers with their final breakdown and they gave me this colored down chalice for helping. It was down amongst the rocks for several days. I cannot wait to see how it ends up!


That along with the Gonastrea pictured yesterday are my take.

Finally saw your tank thread and the bleached sps , has any of the sps grown back any?
Oh and looking awesome!!

Nice scores! Hope that blasto makes it.

I'm pretty sure it will. Like I said it's having a major issue with the new tank. I'm running charcoal to give it a little boost. I may pull it out and give it a CoralRx dip if it doesn't puff up soon....They had samples too! (Along with Reef Crystals, Kents, Tropic Marin, Alternative Reef, Wave Point lighting gave me new T5 bulbs for the frag tank, Oceans Blend products, 4# of Lignite, I also got enough bumper stickers to make a 68 Microbus weathertight! )