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Drakkor's 29BC


drakkor

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Thats a nice DIY ATO. Nice livestock additions. I like your style B)

 

Thank you thank you. Sorry to hear about your firefish, you've got some amazing looking corals, can't wait to see how that 20H looks in a year!

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Went to a LFS I hadn't been to before called Neptune Aquatics, they had an amazing selection of corals and I ended up going home with a few.

 

IMG_4665.jpg

Acrapora, Chalice, Duncan

 

Now I just gotta figure out where to put them.

 

I'm also a little concerned about that toadstool leather, I've read that they don't play nice with lps, though I've had it with my lobo for many months, not sure what to do.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Picked up a birdsnest coral this weekend. The other frags are doing pretty well except for the chalice which had some damage when I bought it. Might be some slow necrosis so I dipped it in an iodine dip last night for 10 min, we'll see how it goes.

 

IMG_4995.jpg

 

I also swapped the rock on top with the GSP and leather, with the rock on the right side. Now the leather isn't leaning away from the front of the tank and I really like the layered look on the right. Also this gives me lots of room for sps at the top :)

IMG_5005.jpg

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Magnesium's really low today. Went from 1200 to 1050 over the course of a week, not sure what's pulling it down but I'm going to start dosing mg, picked up some today. Ironically the salt I use tested at 1480ppm.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's crazy, I dosed all week and was barely able to keep it above 1200 the whole time, then I did a ~5gal WC (which measured ~1500ppm) and the next day my mg was back down to 1230... Something's sucking it right out of the water :( Not sure if it's my chemical media, evaporation or something living but damn!

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FINALLY! the magnesium levels are in the mid 1300's, whew! I have a feeling the calcium in the water was soaking it up and it wasn't until just now that it got to the point where it can't take any more. I'm not a chemist though so I have no idea, that's just a guess.

 

Got my current 1/15hp chiller today :) Been seeing pretty big temp swings already and it's not even summer yet, this is going to be great!

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  • 4 weeks later...

This weekend I picked up a couple of frags from the lfs. The first is a goniopora. I'm well aware of the stigma of these coral, I've done the research and I am up for the challenge :) It's a beautiful magenta color, short polyp, at least for the time being, so I'm not entirely sure what kind of goniopora it is but i'm leaning toward the ones refered to as "red carpet of love", Gonioporia stutchburyi. We'll see though.

 

Initial introduction into my tank, beautiful color:

IMG_5482.jpg

 

Next day, polyps starting to come out to play:

IMG_5486.jpg

 

I also got a free frag that appears to be a colt coral, though it may be a nephthea, I haven't decided yet.

 

After introduction:

IMG_5483.jpg

 

Next day:

IMG_5484.jpg

 

If anyone wants to verify or identify them, please do :)

 

And.. I'm excited for BAYMAC!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not long after I installed my chiller the temperature controller wouldn't let me set the temp anymore. Current was great though, they sent me a new controller module and now it's working again, just hope it stays that way.

 

The goniopora hasn't really acclimated yet, the polyps just come out for a little bit when the MH's kick on then go into hiding after a few hours. I've tried brighter light, now I'm trying lower light and more flow, picky bastards aren't they? :)

 

The Duncan I got is having babies, and the birds nest is growing like crazy, wish I could figure out why my zoas won't grow. Pics soon.

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Update to the diy ato that I posted a while ago. I have since replaced the air pump with an aqualifter and am running the AC voltage through a relay instead of through the switch. The main reason for that change was to extend the life of the switch.

 

To do this I had to pick up a 12VDC relay capable of handling a 120VAC load, a 1N2004 diode, a 12VDC power adapter, soldering iron and some heatshrink. The relay is a pcb mount, there are probably better choices but that's all radioshack had, it works.

 

First I removed the switch from the extension cord.

Then I soldered either side of the extension cord to the relay pins that coorespond to the relay switch.

I soldered one of the leads from the 12VDC power adapter to one of the the coil pins on the relay.

The other lead from the power adapter I soldered to one of the float switch leads.

The other float switch lead I then soldered to the final coil pin on the relay.

 

This way when the DC power adapter is plugged in, current will flow through the float switch, then through the relay coil which will then close the relay switch and apply power to the pump. When the float switch opens, the current stops flowing through the coil and the relay switch will open, stopping power to the pump.

 

One problem is that when the float switch opens and the magnetic field collapses, a very high voltage spike goes through the float switch in the opposite direction, and since the switch is open it often arcs across the switch which shortens the life, defeating the whole point of adding the relay! To solve this problem we add a kickback diode across the two coil leads on the relay. A regular 1N2004 works great for this. When the field collapses the diode shorts the extra current to the adapter's negitive line directly instead of having it jump across the float switch.

 

Solder the diode to the coil leads on the relay. The line on the diode is the negitive side and should be soldered on the same pin as the negitive lead from the DC power adapter. It was clearly marked on my adapter so the first time I plugged it in the relay didn't work. I reversed my diode and then everything worked great!

 

As you work you'll need to put heat shring around each of the leads. Here is a picture of the completed assembly before I taped it up. Thanks for reading.

 

IMG_4784.jpg

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jeremy0411

That isnt a colt coral from what I can tell. Its a kenya tre coral. I have one and I thought the exact same this but after a little bit of browsing NR soon discovered the truth.

 

Happy Reefing! Great Scape!

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That isnt a colt coral from what I can tell. Its a kenya tre coral. I have one and I thought the exact same this but after a little bit of browsing NR soon discovered the truth.

 

Happy Reefing! Great Scape!

 

Cool, thanks for the feedback, how did you identify it vs. a colt? I poked around the web too but didn't find a good a vs. b discussion.

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Picked up a couple nice pieces at BAYMAC for pretty cheap:

 

~30 heads of Blastomussa Merletti (I've always wanted some blastos)

IMG_5827.jpg

 

Some lavender Leptastrea

IMG_5826.jpg

 

A hairy mushroom

IMG_5829.jpg

 

A piece of blue polyp scrolling montipora.

IMG_5824.jpg

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I don't see many growth over time pics, so I thought I would share some of my favorites.

 

Duncans

duncancomp.png

 

Birdsnest

birdsnestcomp.png

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The scrolling montipora appears to be bleaching. I had moved it about 3" closer to the MH's and put it in place with more flow about a week ago so I'm suprised. I don't see any nudibranchs, salinity and temp are very stable, only real change other than moving it is that I've been dosing alkalinity since it was too low, never heard of that causing bleaching though. I've read that this particular coral has been observed gorging to avoid dying when bleached, so I'll keep feeding it just in case until it makes a recovery.

 

The goniopra has been moved into a shadier part of my tank with more flow, it seems to like that better though still no real polyp extension yet. Today some polyps were a little swolen, enough to see some tenticles so I spot fed it some coral frenzy, hopefullly it ate. Not much hope for that guy but I've got my fingers crossed.

 

I picked up a soap dish holder from walmart, going to add one of those soap dish refugiums, and hopefully get more pods!

 

That's your news for now, more at 11 :P

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Tank looks great, Drakkor.

 

Question, I noticed that you use a chiller for you're BioCube. What kind is it anyway? And how much, because i can't for the life of me, get my tank under 82. I'm wondering how I'm gonna add coral and fish when the temp is this high, i need is significantly lower right?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Tank looks great, Drakkor.

 

Question, I noticed that you use a chiller for you're BioCube. What kind is it anyway? And how much, because i can't for the life of me, get my tank under 82. I'm wondering how I'm gonna add coral and fish when the temp is this high, i need is significantly lower right?

 

Hi and thanks :)

 

The chiller is a Current USA Prime 1/15hp chiller, and it does a great job of keeping my tank at 80 +/- 2. Fish and coral can survive at higher temperatures, but the reason I bought a chiller is to avoid temperature swings which is much more stressful than high temps. Some things don't do as well in hotter temps, but if your tank is stable at 82 I wouldn't worry about it too much ;)

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Looking great!

 

 

So what's your weekly routine? In regards to dosing, wc,salts you use etc...

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Looking great!

 

 

So what's your weekly routine? In regards to dosing, wc,salts you use etc...

 

I do a 5gal wc each week. I'm using seachem reef salt at the moment but I don't like it so next bucket is going to be something else. I don't dose unless something is low, for a while I was dosing mg and alk as they were both way too low but now they have leveled out to where I want them. Feed every other day, alternating between flake, cyclops and mysis. I put in some coral frenzy during one feeding each week and usually drop in about 70ish drops of phytofeast every other day as well. ATO takes care of top-offs and timers take care of the lights :)

 

Go bears! I used to live in chi town a few years back, and I do miss it.

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