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MJ's 20L Formerly-AIO, now with a sump!


Militant Jurist

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Militant Jurist
so is it like, 2 shakes, a fist bump, a thumb twist with a shake finish, and then an explosion?

 

You've got it! Welcome to the Team. B)

 

You may now wear the badge with honor. However, there are a few rules:

 

1) You do not talk about Team T5HO.

2) You do NOT talk about Team T5HO.

3) You must fight... erm, use T5HO on your tank.

4) You must continue to use them until your bulbs tap/flicker out.

5) You must never surrender to the anti-T5HO forces (aka MH people).

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Militant Jurist

UPDATE:

 

Well, I re-organized things a while back, and made the mistake of placing my RDE zoas too close to the shrooms. As a result, nearly all of the RDEs are wiped out. The other corals all seem to be doing great, and the monti cap, duncans, and trumpets are all showing good growth. I've also recently added a K1 for additional flow to compensate for the loss of the right chamber pump, the additional display volume, and to simply ramp up the random flow.

 

Oh, and I tore out the right side chamber, because it had become more of a PITA than it was worth. I figured I could use the extra space for corals! B)

 

Pictures coming soon!

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Militant Jurist

Pictures!

 

FTS:

August2009004.jpg

 

Frog, shrooms, and trumpets:

August2009005.jpg

 

The full Monti!

August2009015.jpg

 

Acans and duncans (there are several more heads on the backside of the duncans):

August2009010.jpg

 

Trumpets gone wild!

August2009009.jpg

 

Chalice:

August2009017.jpg

 

Rusty mushroom:

August2009016.jpg

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Militant Jurist

I went to go get a relatively inexpensive frag of birdsnest, but when I got to the LFS, that tank was emptied for cleaning, and the frags were nowhere to be found. So instead, I picked up this green slimer frag! It's even starting to encrust onto the plug, so I'm very happy with it.

 

August2009withGreenSlimer009.jpg

 

And an updated FTS, to give an idea of the placement:

August2009withGreenSlimer011.jpg

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Militant Jurist

Already, the green slimer is starting to extend its polyps! However, I noticed a fairly sizable drop in Alk and Ca today, so it looks like I'll need to really keep on top of that.

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Militant Jurist

I finally broke down and bought new bulbs for my T5HO setup. I purchased 2 of the ATI Blue Plus and 2 of the ATI Aquablue special. I'll post pictures of the current bulbs (stock Nova Extreme bulbs) vs the new bulbs over my tank to show the difference.

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Militant Jurist
I just bought new bulbs as well, you and your tank have been busy!! I really like that chalice. Are they LPS or SPS?

 

Indeed! I've had some extra time to work with my tank, due to working from home lately. The chalice is also one of my favorites! The LPS / SPS distinction is not a very fine line, at least as I understand it! The chalice coral is one of those corals that fall in between the traditional LPS and SPS corals. I consider it to be more SPS than LPS, because there really aren't distinguishable heads to separate each mouth from the other. In that way, it's more SPS. However, it's got a more LPS type attribute in that the mouths are a bit larger. I kept this coral successfully before I really even considered keeping "SPS," and it requires a lot less light that you would think for an SPS.

 

As such a confusing coral, I generally introduce it to folks as here are my LPS corals, here are my SPS corals, and then here is my chalice. ;) HTH!

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Militant Jurist

According to the FEDEX website, my new ATI bulbs are on the truck for delivery! I'm going to wait to put them in until this afternoon, so that I can get a good last FTS with the stock bulbs, and a comparison shot with the ATIs.

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Militant Jurist

And here they are! The new bulbs are all by ATI. I got two Aquablue Specials and two Blue Plus bulbs. The order, from front to back, is Blue +, Aquablue, Blue +, Aquablue. If you've got an alternative order you'd like to suggest as performing better, feel free to post it! I'm using this pattern currently because the majority of my high light corals are at the rear of the tank, and this way they will be beneath the high PAR Aquablue bulb.

 

Without further ado, here are some comparison FTS shots, and then a few new photos of the corals under the new lighting.

 

FTS with original bulbs:

100_0787.jpg

 

FTS with new ATI bulbs:

100B0790.jpg

 

Corals under new bulbs:

100_0800.jpg

 

100_0802.jpg

 

100_0804.jpg

 

100_0803.jpg

 

I'm also picking up some new frags tomorrow from a local reefer, so there will be more pictures tomorrow!

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Militant Jurist

New corals!

 

100_0805.jpg

 

- purple monti cap

- green monti cap

- red/orange monti cap

- birdsnest

- yellow scroll

 

Total: $30

 

More photos to come after lights up!

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Militant Jurist

These new five corals are from a local CORA reefer.

 

Sideshot:

100_0807.jpg

 

The birdsnest already has polyps extended:

100_0809.jpg

 

The yellow scroll doesn't seem all that happy right now...

100_0810.jpg

 

The green monti is next to the yellow scroll and the purple monti on the right... it's a difficult angle to get!

100_0811.jpg

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Militant Jurist
$30!?

 

Thats a sweet deal.

 

The new corals look good.

 

Thanks! I was originally just after the green and purple montis, but with the prices on everything else, I just had to go with it! The red/orange monti was a freebie, because the guy said he's got a 500g tank and a red/orange monti about the size of a basketball. I think I also got a brittle star as a hitchhiker. I can't wait to see these guys once they aren't pissed off any more.

 

I'm thinking about getting another tall piece of dry rock to put in my tank on the right side. With the chamber on that side gone, the display seems a bit lopsided. Thoughts or suggestions?

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Militant Jurist

Some new shots!

 

The new coral group update... there appear to be brittle stars hiding underneath the purple cap and the yellow scroll, but they won't come out for pictures...

100_0815.jpg

 

Let the yellow scroll polyp extension begin!

100_0817.jpg

 

It looks like the frog is finally starting to split!

100_0816.jpg

 

ALIENZ!!!!!!!!

100_0821.jpg

or a new frogspawn starting (hopefully starting, anyways)

 

Also, here's an update shot of the tank stand. I finally got around to cutting a sheet of plywood to fit in between the legs so that it fits from side to side and front to back. I also reinforced it by securing two 2x4s beneath the sheet.

 

100_0814.jpg

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Militant Jurist
Wish I could get a deal like that tanks looks great!!!! Did you order them or you just picked them up in a usps box?

 

Thanks! I just picked them up like that. There's a local reefer with a 500 gallon tank, whom I guess typically has a couple hundred frags available for local pick up. He was a really great guy, and even tossed in the red cap as a freebie.

 

For now, I'm thinking that I'm out of room for coral. I need to find a way of fragging though yellow polyps off of the rock with the acans (it's beneath the frag rack in the first photo of my last post). Unfortunately, taking the rock out of the tank for fragging is out of the question, because it's a structural rock. I've heard that you can sometimes take a straight edge and cut the rock from beneath the frags, so I may try that. If I can get them out of the way, I might have room for one more frag.

 

I'm contemplating adding another piece of dry rock to the back right corner, a tall and skinny piece, to re-balance the tank. It would also allow me to mount most of the frags I've got.

 

Another idea I'm floating (maybe as a christmas gift to myself) is to convert the 10 gallon below into a sump / frag tank, rather than a WC mixer. Of course, I'd need to find a good overflow (something that doesn't lose the siphon) and a return pump. However, if I pull this off, I can do away with the in-tank sump, and that would give me even more room for coral!

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Militant Jurist
hey just wondering, did you treat that egg create with anything b4 you put it in the tank?

 

I know there's a lot going around the site about egg crate causing algae growth, but I haven't had problems. What I did was, after cutting it to size, I soaked the piece in vinegar and water for a few hours. Then, I gave it two coats of Krylon fusion paint. The vinegar cleans the surface and the paint seals any other potentially bad stuff in. It's worked great for me!

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Yeah I wish I've read more about it beforehand I think thats what messed up my tank, All my zoas and yellow palys have been closed for a while now. It hasnt really affected the frogspawn or toadstool theyre doing great. I just took it out last night and put in some kents phosphate remover, so I'm hoping for the best.

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Militant Jurist
Yeah I wish I've read more about it beforehand I think thats what messed up my tank, All my zoas and yellow palys have been closed for a while now. It hasnt really affected the frogspawn or toadstool theyre doing great. I just took it out last night and put in some kents phosphate remover, so I'm hoping for the best.

 

If you're just using it as a frag rack, I'd sit the frags on the sand bed for a day while the rack is cleaned and painted. Krylon fusion dries amazingly fast, so if you have the time to put in across a single day, you could get it cleaned and painted within one day, and back in action as a frag rack.

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Thanks! I just picked them up like that. There's a local reefer with a 500 gallon tank, whom I guess typically has a couple hundred frags available for local pick up. He was a really great guy, and even tossed in the red cap as a freebie.

 

For now, I'm thinking that I'm out of room for coral. I need to find a way of fragging though yellow polyps off of the rock with the acans (it's beneath the frag rack in the first photo of my last post). Unfortunately, taking the rock out of the tank for fragging is out of the question, because it's a structural rock. I've heard that you can sometimes take a straight edge and cut the rock from beneath the frags, so I may try that. If I can get them out of the way, I might have room for one more frag.

 

I'm contemplating adding another piece of dry rock to the back right corner, a tall and skinny piece, to re-balance the tank. It would also allow me to mount most of the frags I've got.

 

Another idea I'm floating (maybe as a christmas gift to myself) is to convert the 10 gallon below into a sump / frag tank, rather than a WC mixer. Of course, I'd need to find a good overflow (something that doesn't lose the siphon) and a return pump. However, if I pull this off, I can do away with the in-tank sump, and that would give me even more room for coral!

 

Nice I need to find a local reefer around here and get that hook up lol. There's a reef club in Chicago but it all the meets are like in the far suburbs to lazy to drive an hour especial since we only have my wifes truck which chugs gas for 6cil.

 

Out of room UPGRADE TIME!!!!!! ;) Hey Christmas only comes once a year spoil yourself.

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Militant Jurist
Nice I need to find a local reefer around here and get that hook up lol. There's a reef club in Chicago but it all the meets are like in the far suburbs to lazy to drive an hour especial since we only have my wifes truck which chugs gas for 6cil.

 

Out of room UPGRADE TIME!!!!!! ;) Hey Christmas only comes once a year spoil yourself.

 

Lol yeah, I just don't have much room or cash for spoiling. ;) I'm graduating with my J.D. in January and taking the bar exam in February, so I won't be able to work during those two months, and I'm starting my own practice after I get the license (hopefully by June or July). Money will be tight, but I'm hoping to have enough frags grown by then to pay for any upgrades. :D

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