hey man, i also have a RSM and just switched out to the TEK 4x24.... the bulb combo i found that i liked the best was 3 ati blue+, and 1 ati aquablue.. i bought a fiji purple and tried that in many differnt combos, and a friend had some other bulbs... and the look i liked the best was the 3 blue+ and 1 aquablue... to each their own, but i think its somewhere in the 18-20k range (could be wrong on that too), but my corals have never POPPED with so much color

Thanks for the input, I ended up leaving the one purple bulb in there. Love the color that I get with this fixture. No regrets here!

Alright! finally I got most of my pictures back up. The site that was hosting my pictures crashed and I temporarily lost them.

Here are some more new pictures. The tank has changed some since I last posted pics.

FTS


FTS up close


New ORA Red Planet Frag






Montipora Confusa Macro

During my break from the forum I have had a fish overhaul.

I removed the coral beauty, he was getting to aggresive.

I purchase two more wrasse's, I am going with an all wrasse tank.

I currently have now:
1 Female leopard wrasse, have had this fish for 6 months now and is growing, fat and doing great.
1 McCosker's Flasher Wrasse
1 Mystery Wrasse

anyone think this is too much for this tank?

So sad to see it go!

But I have no choice I had to sell my large toadstool leather. It has simply just got to big, it will eventually take over my whole tank. It will be moving on to a larger 120, not mine ofcourse. The good part of this, I will have more room for SPS...

You will be missed...

I PMed you regarding the Powerbrites.

Replied

Love your RSM. I have the 130D as well, and has been setup for 1 year now. I actually never checked my Mg levels as I thought just doing regular water changes would do the trick? Are you still dosing anything for Mg? Also, what test kit do you use? My Ca has been right around 410, I may want to bump that up to around 420-430 range. I tried some green stylophora but it didnt fair so well. I had it just about 4-5" from the surface with my stock lights. You seem to have good success with the SPS.

Also, what brand salt are you using? I am still using the Red Sea Coral Pro.

Thanks,
I am still dosing for all three; Mg, Ca and Alk. Below is my weekly schedule

Friday – 4 gallon water change using D-D H2Ocean Magnesium Pro Plus salt mix
Saturday
Sunday – Dose 1 cap of A and 1.5 cap of B
Monday – Dose 3 tsp of Kent Marine Tech M
Tuesday – Dose 1 cap of A and 1.5 cap of B
Wednesday – Dose 3 tsp of Kent Marine Tech M
Thursday – Feed LPS with 2 cubes of frozen mysis and brine shrimp

I use either Elos or Salifert test kits for Ca, Mg and I only use Salifert for Alk. I test my water maybe once a week now.

Do you have a FTS of your tank with stock PC light On with one and two Powerbrites?

Niice! JW how much evaporation are you getting? Are you using an ATO?

unfortunatly all I have is what is on my first page of this thread. They are really brite only problem is they create a big spotlight effect when they are that close to the water. The spotlight affect isnt as noticable when on with the main lights. They are a good alternative way to add actinics.



Thanks bro,

I have to add about 5 gallons of RO in a week, I currently dont have an ATO. I have my chiller in the cabinet so I dont have room for an ATO right now.

Wow 5 gallons is a lot. However, you don't have the stock hood anymore either. I am using stock hood and running a chiller and I only go through 1 red sea bucket a week. I am guessing 2 - 2.5 gal a week. Using the tunze osmolator, I love this thing!

Can you post me some more pictures of your cabinet? What is on the back wall? Did you make your own ventilation wall? Are those shut of valves for the chiller? How long have you had your chiller in there? I am constantly worrying that it will get to hot.

Sorry for blasting you with questions.

After looking at yours, wow do I need to get my cabinet organized.


Sorry one more question What pump are you using to push water through your chiller?

Toadstool question: What size was it when you got it, and how fast did it grow? How did you get it out of the tank without mutilating it? I have one now, and it's tiny, but was wondering how I would remove it if it got too big. Love the tank, btw! Beautiful SPS garden!

Thanks!

The toadstool was only about 3 inches across when I got it and now after about 11 months it is probably over 12 inches across, these suckers grow fast. It had attached itself to one of my main pieces of rock. 3 months ago I re-scaped all my rock work to get more room up top for SPS, I then took the rock that it was attached to in to the garage and took a chisel and hammer and broke the rock where it was attached. Now it is just attached to a small golf ball sized rock that can be moved where ever I want.

When these leathers are big they hold a lot of water, I bet if I were to just take mine out without giving it time to deflate it would take a half gallon of water with it.

wow! I never thought about how much water they would hold. Ok, Well, I guess I better plan. My frag is still on a ceramic disc. Hopefully it can stay on there for a while. Thanks for the info.

Mine was also on a ceramic disc, it basically attached itself to the rock next to where the disc was sitting.

I bought a 4" stealth computer fan and mounted it to the back wall with some plexi-glass to just help ventilate. It does get fairly warm under there when the chiller runs, but I have never had a problem. The chiller only runs for 30-40 minutes at a time. I couldnt see spending the money for the Red Sea fan kit. Yes, those are 1/2" CPVC shut-off valves for my chiller lines. I like things nice and neat, so I hard piped my chiller lines up to the tank. They come in handy when/if I have to disconnect the chiller. I have had my chiller for 11 months now.

What pump are you using to push water through your chiller? The pump I am using barely fits in my tank.

Oh, sorry. Its the eheim compact 1000. I am still using the stock skimmer, so it fits between the skimmer and the chamber of death.

New photo dump, in celebration of the tank's one year anniversary.

FTS Shots





My SPS garden


Some Zoas and Palys




My Lobo Brain collection



Ricordia Garden


Confusa

Finally removed the hydro flo reflector, realized I didnt need it anymore with the MP10 in there. Wow much more water exchange without it. I guess I didnt realize how much it restricted water flow from the pump.

The leather toadstool has been sold. Sad to see it go, no more nice movement in the tank.

Looks good!

Thanks

I finally think all my montipora eating nudibranch’s are DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD!

I added a mystery wrasse to my tank about 1 month ago. I noticed the new wrasse spending lots and lots of time around my monti's, I actually have never seen him eat any but they are now gone. The effected corals have grown new growth over all the areas that were chewed on. I understand that a mystery wrasse with its large mouth would be unlikely to eat nudi's, maybe because the mystery is still really small?

All I know is I am really happy to see my digi’s and caps growing again and not receding!

SO do you think the wrasse ate them? Is that the reason you put him in the tank? Very cool looking rig and coral!!

I was talking to a budy that has a shop and he said that he had a mystery wrasse that would eat anything moving small or large. So yes, I did get that fish hoping it would eat the nudi's and it did.

Thanks,

Agreed mine did the same thing....BUT ALSO ATE MY FIRESHRIMP WHEN HE WAS SHEDING! So watch out if you ever had any shrimp!

I was thinking about selling my Mystery and getting a Rhomboid Golden Male Wrasse they are suppose to be invert friendly.

Tank looks good....

wow beautiful tank man

I also have a fire shrimp... I think my mystery is too small right now to pose a threat to the shrimp. I will be watching though.

Thanks,



Thanks Man!

Awesome looking tank! Nice work!

Thanks Bro!

I finally have had enough with that Tunze nano skimmer, I will no longer have to adjust it every day!


I installed my new DELTEC MCE300 over the weekend and wow I am soooo happy now. So here goes my initial review of this skimmer.

It appears to be built very well; it feels really solid however it isn’t really heavy like the Warner Marine. It took maybe 10 minutes to completely disassemble to clean and then re-assemble. I didn’t remove the needle wheel impeller so no picture sorry.

Here is a picture of all the components


Here are some shots of it put back together








The return is a good design, the degassing plate works really well. I have zero micro bubbles going back into the tank and no water fall sounds.


Check out the bubbles, keep in mind it has only been on for about 10 minutes, I can’t wait until the break in period is over.


In the first two days – keep in mind it also is still breaking in – it had removed more gunk then the Tunze would have in two weeks!

It runs extremely quiet, you can’t really hear the pump, all you can hear is the bubbles.

The only down side so far, is the process in which you start the skimmer. You have to disconnect the intake pipe refill the skimmer with water to flush all the air out of the intake pipe then fire it up. This really doesn’t take that long especially comparing that concern to constantly having to tweak the Tunze.

Overall, I am extremely happy with the decision. I will post some pictures of all the crap that it is pulling out soon.

Nice addition....

Did you sell the Tunze? I am looking for a replacement pump....i can buy it from you?

I did sell it to a budy of mine. Sorry

So that skimmer is a HOB type and doesn't go where the stock one would? BTW awesome tank, I have an RSM that I'm starting and your tank is an insperation for me.

What size chiller are you using??

Yes the Deltec is a HOB and I run the input and output right to where the old skimmer was.

Are you still using the stock skimmer?


Thanks!


I am using the AquaEuroUSA Mighty Pro 1/10 HP, I think 1/10 HP is a little overkill but it leaves room to grow in the future.

So after only four days of operation I am very impressed with this new skimmer. After seeing what the deltec pulls out it confirms my opinion of the Tunze, insufficient.

Here is 4 days of skim, during the break in period too. This is more then I would get in two weeks using the Tunze, not to mention I would be tuning the Tunze every day.

woh. highly impressive. i would be interested to know how your corals are doing after a month or so, if you see a change in the livestock with a better skimmer.

Did you have to alter the intake or outlet pipe or did it fit as is? It may just be the pictures but it looks like the outlet pipe may have been cut down.

What is the really smooth looking large SPS colony in the middle of the tank? It looks like velvet... very pretty.

Also... man that makes me want that Deltec! I've been searching for a better option than my freakin' modded out 10 yr old BakPak... What did that run you?

Actually... I know this is a lot to ask, but could you tell me what the part number is for this part:

Thats what I really need for my skimmer to work...a good fitting aspirator! My DIY version blows...

I know I cant wait to see if there is any improvement. I have been battleing fungus on all my zoas and am really bummed out! I dont know what to do at this point.



I did have to cut down the outlet pipe, about half of it was cut off.



That is a green tip birdsnet colony, it started as a small frag, those suckers grow really fast.

That deltec retails for $225



I bought the whole thing as a package, its the Deltec MCE300

What did you use to cut it down? I need to do it to mine but I didn't know the best way to do it.

I just used a dremel, probably not the cleanest method but it worked.

PICTURES!

Here some new pictures of my wrasses.

Mystery hiding in his cave.








Coral and FTS shots

wow. this looks great!

Thanks alot!

I just wish all my zoas werent dying...