Chipp's ADA 60-P

[chippwalters]

Well, I finally converted over from my ADA 60-F to the 60-P. It's exactly the same footprint, but twice as high. The front profile is supposedly a golden rectangle. I measured. Seems pretty close.

 

So, this probably adds about 40-50% overall water to my system, which I'm thinking the corals will like a lot. MetroKat thinks I should put a school of yellow tangs in there, but I'm thinking just 2 or 3. But I do want to take Albert's advice and add a shark as soon as possible!

 

So, you may be looking at this and thinking to yourself, "nice aquascape, dude." Yep, it's not. But, it's the exact same layout as my 60-F, and for a very good reason. Last time I 'moved up' there were some losses, but even worse was the whole recycling business-- esp with the algae storms. So, this time, I'm trying to keep everything exactly the same, so that there will be *hopefully* minimum algae issues. I had just gotten to the point with my 60-F that I didn't have any algae issues whatsoever. Glass cleaning once every 2 weeks max, and not because it needed it. So, I want to try and see if I can't maintain that equilibrium. Fingers crossed!

 

Literally, just yesterday my clown, "Pat," took a midnight stroll. Didn't know she/he/it was a jumper. I'm keeping the water level down a bit for now as my snail guard overflow design is the determining factor...but I'm 3D printing an adjustable height overflow/surface skimmer which I'll use when it's done.

 

I would like some fish recommendations if anyone has some ideas. Remember, this tank is smallish-- 18 gallons-- 24W x 12D x 15H, so other than the "school of Tangs and lemon shark", I need to keep the family critters small.

 

HERE's a FTS:

 

 

 

And some macro shots 1 hour after setting up!

 

 

 

 

[kveekx]

Looks sweet, welcome to the 60p club!

[JR!]

wow very nice chip. how loud is that overflow?

[chippwalters]

Looks sweet, welcome to the 60p club!

Thanks! I'll have to check out the other 60P's.

 

wow very nice chip. how loud is that overflow?

Pretty quiet actually. As I mentioned, I'm creating a different overflow design and 3D printing it out. It will add some better surface skimming as well as an adjustable height-- which I like for cleaning the tank. Once complete, I'll post pictures of it here.

[VABumpkin]

just wondering, do you dose kalk? very beautiful btw

 

edit: i would recommend a pair of helfrichi firefish if you want a mid-water swimmer. you could also try a pink streaked wrasse.

[ExSmoker]

Very nice.

[JR!]

Thanks! I'll have to check out the other 60P's.

 

Pretty quiet actually. As I mentioned, I'm creating a different overflow design and 3D printing it out. It will add some better surface skimming as well as an adjustable height-- which I like for cleaning the tank. Once complete, I'll post pictures of it here.

sounds good chip. excited to see it.

[Hexadron]

Looking awesome. Can't wait to see more.

[Subsea]

Chip,

With the increase in your tank height, I think that you may want to add something with vertical height. I have a single Tonga Branch that has been in my systems for 20 years. I just recently thinned out my 75G Jaubert Plenum. It is my early Christmas present to you.

Laissez la bonne temps roulee,

Patrick

 

PS. The picture would not upload with my iPad.

Merry Christmas, you can wrap it with some dragons breath alternating with green sinularia for a nice Christmas seasonal theme for your tank.

[chippwalters]

just wondering, do you dose kalk? very beautiful btw

 

edit: i would recommend a pair of helfrichi firefish if you want a mid-water swimmer. you could also try a pink streaked wrasse.

 

 

Nope, I use an additive, Tropic Marin Bio-calcium (has alkalinity too). I used to dose Kalc but I (and others) seem to find it promotes cyano in some sort of weird way...

 

I did purchase some firefish, but one of them left the tank. Funny, I can't find him on the floor. I wonder if he got caught in a powerhead and my crabs ate him? I was gone for a couple days and when I got back to the tank he was gone...

 

Very nice.

 

Thanks!

Looking awesome. Can't wait to see more.

 

Appreciate it. I've followed your tank build for some time, but it appears 'life' has gotten in the way!

Chip,

With the increase in your tank height, I think that you may want to add something with vertical height. I have a single Tonga Branch that has been in my systems for 20 years. I just recently thinned out my 75G Jaubert Plenum. It is my early Christmas present to you.

Laissez la bonne temps roulee,

Patrick

 

PS. The picture would not upload with my iPad.

Merry Christmas, you can wrap it with some dragons breath alternating with green sinularia for a nice Christmas seasonal theme for your tank.

 

Thanks Patrick. I've already added a 'bridge rock' and it's now higher than you see. I'll post some more pics soon.

[chippwalters]

A year later. Been through some ups and downs, but I told a friend I'd post changes. Lot changed. Switched out the crushed coral for Tropic Eden Reeflakes Aragonite. Had a crash and lost the hammer and zoas. Added in a Samosa months ago and it's doing fine.

Had a bit of a flatwork outbreak and bought a 6-line and it seemed to take care of it. Just upgraded to the new single Radion and I think it makes a difference as it is brighter and has UV.

Here's what it looked like a few weeks ago. You can see 1) the UV BMLED fixture (orange) I 3D-printed and the old Radion:

 

Here it is today:

 

Added a chalk bass which really gets along well with the 6-line... who would've thought?

 

 

 

And these ACANs have been with me now for years. They've survived total destructive tank crashes. They are amazing and I really enjoy feeding them.

 

 

 

Hopefully, I'll update again sooner than a year!

[JR!]

good to see you back chip!!!

[chippwalters]

Another update. Inspired a new iPhone 6+ and wanting to check out the video camera stabilization feature.

 

Here are 2 videos. In the first one, the fish were on strike and decided not to show. After lengthy negotiations with their agent, Mr. Cleaner Shrimp, (and involving some frozen mysis shrimp), they showed up and played to perfection their award-winning 'swimming fish' roles for which they were hired.

 

 

[hey]

looks great very clean aswell

[niQo]

Nice tank!

[Drift Monkey]

Why all the crashes?

[chippwalters]

AFAICT, the biggest crashes have to do with my sump silicone not being fully cured before assembly.

 

This is a rather small tank and I believe there is a delicate balance between things going well -- and not. Lately, things have been doing much better.

[chippwalters]

My once a year update :-)

New Vid:

New pics:

[JR!]

Awesome to see you again chip!

[chippwalters]

Thanks. I still lurk from time to time. Busy on many fronts, aren't we all?

Been having so-so luck with this build. It's been up for years, and stability isn't a strongpoint. The Samosa is doing great, doubled in size of the past year or so. My tricolor frogspawn goes great guns. So does the torch. Having a heck of a time with various acropora, just can't seem to get the formula right.

 

Recently I was too low on phosphates. Turned off my skimmer and reloaded reactor with just Purigen (no GFO) and things got better. Trying to get rid of cyano, and just got too low for the corals.

 

Couple things I have found out about cyano. Doesn't seem to grow in crushed coral (but I hate how it looks), so I tried a medium grain sand substrate and soon the cyano popped up (within 6 weeks). Removed it successfully once with one of the off the shelf antibiotics but then some part of it came back and the same dosing didn't work.

 

I struggled for some time until a friend who owns a saltwater only store told me to use StartSmart Complete. It's a bacteria mix used for 'starting' tanks and overall general maintenance. He said to dose twice maintenance levels. Tried it and it worked like a charm. ZERO cyano since.

 

He sold it from his store. Not sure where one gets it online. Still, it is worth sharing my experience :-)

 

[chippwalters]

7-2016 Update

 

Tank looking decent these days. Gave away the clam as he was getting too large. Picked up another ocellaris. Had a bad outbreak of both brittle and asteria stars (as in multiple hundreds) and bought a harlequin shrimp to help out. Ate all the asterinas in a week. Sheesh! I think he paired down the brittle stars, but they're harder to get at inside the tukani rock.

 

Ended up buying a choc chip starfish to feed the little guy while I look for another home. Took him all of 10 minutes to flip him over and begin.

 

Saw him fighting off a larger bristle worm today! Funny, now I have 4 different shrimps in this little tank. The pistol (which rarely comes out), the cleaner shrimp, the peppermint shrimp (which hides in the dendro feeding tank upper right), and now the harlequin. They all seem to get along okay. The cleaner runs the peppermint around-- the harlequin 'owns' the cleaner and the pistol pretty much stays to himself.

 

Timfish, a good friend, brought me an all but dead Japanese Dendro, and I setup a feeding tank for it and another I had, and they seem to be doing really well. He also brought me some really nice Duncans.

 

Here are the images:

 

FTS

 

 

The Peppermint Shrimp and Dendros

 

 

The Harlequin shrimp and bristle worm standoff

 

[metrokat]

Nice to see you on the forum Chipp.