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Coral Vue Hydros

Gunguy's BC29, a rebuild 9/10/13


gunguy05

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Well, it all started about March 25 of this year. I was surfing the local yard sale facebook site and found a biocube (Oceanic) with LR, 3 domino damsels, 1 yellow goby, and couple snails, a couple hermits, and LS. $100, no stand, and I had to drive about 40 bucks to pick it up. The NC6 LED retro build that I had built had it's pump die and I figured why not, now is the time for a small upgrade. And for a $100, how could I go wrong.


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I have added a few things, and am working on getting my nitrates down. Going to add a better stand, and clean out and replace all the sand in the next couple of weeks. From what I can gather, this is keeping my nitrates up a little high (about 20-40ppm).

 

The person that I bought the tank from REALLY let it go down. They back chambers were nasty, and I cleaned them out the best I could without removing all the sand.. Not a good idea. I wish now that I had taken it down to the bare bottom. Going to take care of that when I get the stand built.

 

As it sits now I have

 

Mushrooms, couple different varieties

Frogspawn

Plate coral

yellow polys left from old tank, and in rehab

candy canes

 

yellow goby

narssius snails

bumblebee snails

blue leg hermit crabs

fire shrimp

 

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Yeah, I realized that after I posted the photo. It is doing great though. Eating my mysis shrimp like a animal. I will posted a better photo when I get home tonight.

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You got an awesome deal.

 

That plate coral looks dead. Does it have tissue left?

 

Here is a better photo. Just took it tonight after it started munching on some mysis.

 

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Sweet deal!

 

+1 on this ^ Or you could just use a powerhead to blast your rocks and sand whenever you get time. Just stick some polyfilter in the back chamber, and it'll catch all the gunk that's in there.

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I did a thorough cleaning of the back chambers with the pumps off, then put filter socks on the pump side and stirred things up back there and it got a lot of it out, but it still has some gunk in those chambers. I think it is just beyond anything that I can get clean with it running. I really should have done a thorough cleaning when I moved it in initially, but was pressed to get a stand built and it setup.

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Just a quick update tonight. I have been working on a stand most of the day. Got the frame built last night, then added the oak panels today. After 3 trips to the big orange store, I think I finally got it finished... well except for a door. Think I am going to do some sort of magnetic panel on that one.

First there was a box, then some panels.

 

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Finished, except for the door.

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Then some stain

 

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Going to move the inverts over to my old NC6 tomorrow with some of the existing tank water. Put the rocks in bucket with water, and dump all of the sand out of the tank and clean it thoroughly. Got a 30lb bag of oolite sand that I will be using to replace the stuff that's in there now. Will see how that goes. Hopefully I can have it back together sometime before midnight tomorrow on the new stand.

 

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Well, just finished cleaning out the tank completely, including all of the coraline off the back.

 

I don't know how it was doing as well as it was. The amount of detrius in the bottom of chamber 1, and the amount in the sand was WAY MORE than I had imagined. I know that some of the bacteria in there was good. BUT I'm sure that the bad outweighed the good.

 

Moral of the story:

If you every buy a craigslist tank, no matter how good it looks, clean it out!

 

I should have done this the day I brought it home, but I thought all was well and I didn't want to screw with it.

 

Little did I know...

 

Well, back to work. I have all the inverts and goby in my NC6, might keep them in there for a couple days.. will see how the sand settles.

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Got finished filling up the tank with new oolite sand, water (new and old), and rocks, about 5:00p

 

Here was a photo about 3 hr later.

 

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And then about 12 hr later

 

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Need to do some more aquascaping, but condsidering this was with my eyes wide shut, this isn't bad.

 

That oolite is some milky stuff, and I rinsed it very thoroughly.

 

Brian

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Nice stand! That's the powder fine sand right? Looks real pretty, but I've had that stuff in my freshwater tanks before and it just flew everywhere... can't even imagine what it must be like in a reef. You could wash that stuff for a week 24/7 and it would still be milky, the particle size is just too small.

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Nice stand! That's the powder fine sand right? Looks real pretty, but I've had that stuff in my freshwater tanks before and it just flew everywhere... can't even imagine what it must be like in a reef. You could wash that stuff for a week 24/7 and it would still be milky, the particle size is just too small.

Thanks, I wanted to make the stand look descent. The wife gave me a blessing of the corner of the dining room, so I tried to make it match the color. Sorta bums me out now though, I can't sit in my recliner in the living room and watch it.

 

Yes, It is very fine stuff, but I really like the way it looks. It provides a very clean look to the tank.

 

It has settled down even more now, as of this morning. Did a little more aquascaping last night. Just have to take it easy and it stays in place pretty well, just don't aim that powerhead down.

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Not much going on at the moment. I blew most of the play money this month already on the stand and such. I did add a fuge light to the back chamber since I scraped the back glass before reassembling everything. Got the idea from another forum member where a similar thing was done. Just used a waterproof pigtail light socket (it was the cheapest and easiest), a 3 gang box, a plug, a fluorescent light bulb, and a cheap extension cord. Cost about $9.50 plus the bulb.

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Just hung it off of the back hinges of the lid. I didn't have any velcro, but will add that when I can get some.


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Not much to look at for the moment. But it is coming along nicely, and I like to take lots of photos.. so beware.



FTS

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The plate coral

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Frogspawn is looking happy

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All photos are taken with my smartphone. It actually adjusts for the actinics better than my $400 camera, go figure.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not a whole lot going on at the moment. I have acquired a few more frags in the last few weeks. A couple acan frags, 3 different zoa frags. All of them are looking good. Will try and post some pics in a few. Phone is dead at the moment.

 

Just trying to let everything stabilize and "take it slow" . Nitrates are down to 10ppm or so, and seem to be steadily creeping down. I had a diatom outbreak after I added the sand, but that cleared up just a few days ago. Tank actually looks the best I have seen it so far so I'm happy with it.

 

I mentioned more fish to wifey the other night and she said "yeah, you do need some more fish in there"...

 

No need to speak any more.. we will get fish! Just haven't decided what I want yet. A clown of some sort is probably a given, not sure though. Maybe a pair of picaso clowns, or I might go a different route entirely. I want color, and something that won't dig of that sugar fine sand. The damsels I had in there before were the devil.

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Not a whole lot going on at the moment. I have acquired a few more frags in the last few weeks. A couple acan frags, 3 different zoa frags. All of them are looking good. Will try and post some pics in a few. Phone is dead at the moment.

 

Just trying to let everything stabilize and "take it slow" . Nitrates are down to 10ppm or so, and seem to be steadily creeping down. I had a diatom outbreak after I added the sand, but that cleared up just a few days ago. Tank actually looks the best I have seen it so far so I'm happy with it.

 

I mentioned more fish to wifey the other night and she said "yeah, you do need some more fish in there"...

 

No need to speak any more.. we will get fish! Just haven't decided what I want yet. A clown of some sort is probably a given, not sure though. Maybe a pair of picaso clowns, or I might go a different route entirely. I want color, and something that won't dig of that sugar fine sand. The damsels I had in there before were the devil.

 

More fish for sure! Pair of clowns, maybe a smaller blenny, and then a goby

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Alirght... here is a few pics. Picked up a false percula clown today. Also, here are some other pics of the other frags I've added in the last few days.

 

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This guy was a hitch hiker on a rock.. Started off small and looks very happy when the water flow is off of him. Hoping they will spread.

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Nothing too flashy or exciting.. But it's what I'm working with at the moment. All seem to be doing well, and my levels are staying good.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just wanted to post an update. I have Steve's LED upgrade in the mail, should be here today and hopefully I will get some time on this long weekend to work on it. Just a few things that I have added since the last update.

 

Acans

 

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Kenya tree and Devil's Hand (just after I put in the tank and it hadn't perked up yet)

 

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A frag of Monti Cap, and Monti digitata... by my first SPS BTW!

 

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zoas (sorry, I don't keep up with names)

 

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Grape monti frag (still need to mount this one)

 

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FTS including the firefish goby that I added a few days later

 

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