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ADA 60-F Shallow in Texas


chippwalters

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chippwalters

Looking good in der Chipp!! I too am glad to see ya back here!!!!

Much thanks.

 

Here's a FTS with the new anemone.

 

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Your tank looks great. Any truth to the rumor Chris Marks had to add more servers just to keep up with the activity on your message thread?

:lol: I think he did it for Albert actually.

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Drift Monkey

I actually got to sit back and go through this thread and wow...what a journey. I've never had a chance to visit fishy business...but it seems I might have to go with some rock from Shane for my next build. ...and maybe crushed coral. People on ARC are all about the crushed coral...interesting.

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chippwalters
I actually got to sit back and go through this thread and wow...what a journey. I've never had a chance to visit fishy business...but it seems I might have to go with some rock from Shane for my next build. ...and maybe crushed coral. People on ARC are all about the crushed coral...interesting.

 

Yeah, been a trial-- and now I'm watching this BTA with my fingers crossed as its moving in and around the main rock. Not sure why I even did THAT!

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chippwalters

Another nice tank sir!

 

Thanks, but I think I've got a very long way to go...

 

Love to see you back chip

 

Tanks JR!

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  • 4 weeks later...
chippwalters
Update: Of course the gbta doesn't want to behave, and has now crawled around back. So far, it hasn't harmed anything, but I'm still moving corals around 'just to be sure' until he settles down.


I have to say, I did have some doubts for awhile there about this whole cryptic sump business, but it really is working great now. I clean the glass maybe every other week-- I've let it go longer with than 2 weeks with still no notable algae or scum. So very low maintenance as all I do is add some live bacteria solution, change out the filter each week, and top off the water. I've been doing 33% water changes every 2 weeks lately and pumped up the lighting as well to 100% from the Radion and things are looking really good. No skimmer, just a bag of charcoal and one of Purigen every couple months and I've been good.


I recently bought a beautiful cleaner shrimp, but the powerhead got him the next day. Ouch.


A couple pics from my iPhone:


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Oh, and I did splurge for one of these:


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It's called an Ogle Macro Viewer (for aquariums) and it's supposed to work great with smartphones. We'll see.

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  • 3 weeks later...
chippwalters

Update: Got rid of the GBTA. It hid in the back and just didn't seem to be doing too well. So, I replaced it with a nice krypto hammer. And, the big news is I finally bought the right camera rig for me to be able to take decent shots with. Ended up with a Lumix G5-K micro 4/3 which has just been reduced to $400, and also bought a nice Olympus ED 60mm f2.8 macro lens. Just playing around and took these shots:

 

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How haven't I seen this before!?! Awesome tank! The macros are sweet, especially the dendro/sun coral! Sucks that you had the silicon poisoning though.

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chippwalters

How haven't I seen this before!?! Awesome tank! The macros are sweet, especially the dendro/sun coral! Sucks that you had the silicon poisoning though.

Thanks for the nice words. It's still in build mode. Need to figure out how to handle the substrate. It's working, but not pretty...

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chippwalters

Tell me more about the cryptic fuge. Very nice macro shots BTW.

Thanks about the macro shots. Need to work more on setting the focus..

 

A cryptic fuge has many definitions, but most all of them reference the absence of light, where sponges, turnicates, and worms grow. In my case it's my sump where I have a lot of very porous live rock. The sump has a sealed 'waterfall' chamber where water comes in and is aerated. The sealed waterfall area keeps the noise down and prevents any sort of salt creep. The sump size is a 20 gal tank (for my 8 gal DT-- hopefully soon to be a new 20 gal ADA DT) and sits below my DT in a closed cabinet.

 

There are no filters on the inlet side and the water makes it way through the live rock chamber into the skimmer chamber (I don't use a skimmer now as I haven't found the need for one yet-- though I do have a brand new Reef Octopus in a box just waiting!). I have a Tunze ATO sensor in the skimmer chamber and a couple of heaters. Then there's a large foam filter between the skimmer chamber and the return pump chamber.

 

I dose the sump once a week with a couple of ounces of bacteria starter-- not sure it's necessary, but it seems to be working. Every month or so I'll siphon the detritus from the skimmer and return chambers, but I'm told it's not necessary. The bacteria has reduced all the detritus to nothing more than a bacteria active 'mud' and if left alone (which it is in the LR chamber), it just settles to the bottom.

 

There is zero algae or salt creep in my sump. It looks as new as the day I put it in. In my setup, it seems to work very well. I've seen the same design at a local saltwater store where the owner has used it for over 10 years without any maintenance other than cleaning the foam filter once a week, and siphoning off excess detritus every month or so. Here's a link to his webpage describing them:

http://www.fishybusinesstx.com/our-products

 

One thing I like about them is they are hand-made using stock glass aquariums. No acrylic to scratch. He mentioned he's made over 2700 of them! Something must be working. Another nice feature is the quality of his LR. Incredible stuff. Folks travel for a 100 miles to just get his LR. Nothing much on it, but it's super clean and cured and alive and great for starting out.

 

The best feature is the maintenance free aspect of it all. No nasty Chaeto to get into everything, nor do I need to worry about the 'dirtyness' of a sump/refugium.

 

Hope this wasn't too long a reply!

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Thanks Chipp. I guess I have somewhat of a cryptic fuge in the rear chambers of my tank even though ambient light does get there. I have a ton of sponges and filter feeders growing in there.

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chippwalters

FWIW, I found this bit of info on the impact of detritus in THIS article on cryptic fuges:

 

"When looking into a cryptic zone some time later on in its life, we will usually find a settled out layer of detritus on the bottom. Whilst at first we may think this isn’t a good thing ‘especially seeing as we try to minimise detritus build-up in the main tank. It should be remembered that this material is just the ‘inorganic’ remains and silt that’s left over ‘after’ the biologically available nutrients have been assimilated by the organisms above, so it represents absolutely no danger to the system in terms of nutrient load. If anything, this silty layer provides yet more habitat for a variety of scavenging worms and micro fauna that burrow through it in search of any missed morsels."

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  • 2 weeks later...
chippwalters

Added some Zoas and took more pics:

 

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And took some pics of my buddy's tank:

 

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(yep, that's a Mollie)

 

 

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chippwalters

Whoa new camera? Very ultra macro. :)

 

Yup: Lumix G5-K micro 4/3 (Lumix just came out with G6 so the G5's are on sale), and also bought a nice Olympus ED 60mm f2.8 macro lens.

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Deleted User 4

Nice! I have no knowledge about the good cameras these days. Hopefully I get a nice one like yours one day. :)

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  • 1 month later...
chippwalters

Just received my new ADA 60-P. It's exactly the same footprint, only twice as tall.

 

I found some really nice legacy dried coral which I'm going to aquascape and add some dry rock. I plan on running to two tanks off the same pump until the 60-P is ready, then I'll transfer all corals and fish from the 60-F to the 60-P.

 

Here's the legacy corals:

 

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Nice shot of new green leather:

 

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Also, new (LAST?) FTS: (newly 3D printed snail guard on return).

 

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