Spencer7 Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Poopy iPhone pic for y'all lol Added them into the tank 30 mins ago, the magenta mille lost a branch in shipping but otherwise everyone looks fantastic! Now we just pray that everyone survives the night...the tank has no dosing schedule and hasn't been tested for any parameters. Hmm...well maybe I'll test Alk today lol. 1 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Awesome !!! Hey,look at it as another frag lol. You're a sps guru I'm sure it'll be fine. Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Awesome !!! Hey,look at it as another frag lol. You're a sps guru I'm sure it'll be fine. Haha, yup! No worries. And thank you, I try... Let's hope I can keep these puppies alive and see some colors darken over the next week. Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted December 13, 2015 Author Share Posted December 13, 2015 Tank Update: Five frags chilling in the tank. Nothing special, they're still acclimating. I have to leave the tank for a month during winter break so I haven't glued them down (will probably store them at a friends). I just did maintenance today, cleaned the glass, changed carbon and GFO, and did a three gallon water change. Right now the left Par38 turns off at 4pm and the right one turns off at 6pm (why it's like that in the pic). During the break I'm going to get the socket needed to hook up the 3rd Par38. The line you see coming from above is the ATO line. The beautiful green specimen in front of my tank is my grass garden lol, just gave it a interesting trim today...quite relaxing lol. I have finals for this week, which has been brutal. School is definitely work. Tank looks good, it's clean and simple and not doing much since I have to work around winter break. I'm excited to get back from break with some more frags, clean everything up, glue everything down, and put something together worth an FTS. Sorry this is going slow, kinda what happens when working with dry rock in the middle of nowhere with little time or resources lol. Peace out and happy holidays everyone! 1 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Looking Spencer,I'm sure everything will be fine for the time you're gone. Anyone around that could pop in and swap out a few gallons for the time you're gone ? That's the only thing that would worry me. In due time this thing will be amazing as usual. 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Looking Spencer,I'm sure everything will be fine for the time you're gone. Anyone around that could pop in and swap out a few gallons for the time you're gone ? That's the only thing that would worry me. In due time this thing will be amazing as usual. Thanks man, you're 7g is coming along nicely as well. And no, they lock the dorms up for break. This is why I haven't really gone crazy with tank additions, it's young and I have this big break of uncertainty. Tempted to just leave all the corals here and see what happens. Not sure how they would do without any dosing for a month, could starve. Since there are only five and they are still babies, I don't anticipate the frags really growing, meaning Ca/KH depletion isn't my concern. Temperature, light, flow, and salinity would all be constant as well (and they seem fine in their condition currently). We'll just have to see! Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Thanks man,I appreciate it. It's coming along slowly. I still need to mount everything. Gotta pop in more often,always have shit going on in my thread lol. Oh damn,that's crazy. Shit if it were me,I would let your friend hold them until you're back. No sense in being away for a month and all the pieces be skeletons when you get back. Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Back home and spending time with family Merry x-mas everyone and I hope you're tanks are all flourishing! -S Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Hey Spence I noticed there arent any acans in your tank ...care to explain 2 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Hey Spence I noticed there arent any acans in your tank ...care to explain Haha, I'll snag a few beauties just for you when I see them Tank's still young and I used dry rock...I also knew ahead of time that I would be leaving for a 9-day break (Thanksgiving) and a month-long break (Xmas) so it made no sense to really try to stock it. Long-term it will mostly be acros, if that doesn't prove to be impossibly difficult with the canister filter/college setup lol. A few choice LPS pieces will do. Rainbow frag looks great! 1 Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Haha, I'll snag a few beauties just for you when I see them Tank's still young and I used dry rock...I also knew ahead of time that I would be leaving for a 9-day break (Thanksgiving) and a month-long break (Xmas) so it made no sense to really try to stock it. Long-term it will mostly be acros, if that doesn't prove to be impossibly difficult with the canister filter/college setup lol. A few choice LPS pieces will do. Rainbow frag looks great! Well it looks great so far. You can definitely do the SPS tank with a canister filter setup you just have to stay on top of your water changes unless you plan to add a doser. Thanks man wait till you see a pic of a head I got yesterday 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted January 20, 2016 Author Share Posted January 20, 2016 Only the hardiest shall survive: The green slimer, purple stylo, and pink mille are alive post-break. They survived via a canister filter, timed lighting, an ATO, a heater, and nothing else for a little over a month while I was gone. No equipment failed, the ATO had enough water, and no rocks fell over. I need to get some water to do a water and clean up some of the diatoms/algae that popped up in my absence. From there I'll have to find a way to snag some type of coral...with pretty much $0 in pocket lol. At least the tank will get some goodies in the summer xD when I take it home, move should be fun Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 If I had the money...I would totally play around with getting a 150w Halide for this tank or just in general. I see such consistency with the halide/calcium reactor combo but have never really been able to get hands-on with either. I don't care about heat or energy at this point, I would just wanna see how a halide would do, having never owned one. T5's are fine but changing out 6+ bulbs every six months was kind of annoying. Tank is practically empty, just chilling. I don't have any money to do like a $$$ order or something (plus no LFS). I'll get some corals in march when I'm back home for a bit. Tank will get spoiled during the summer, wanna have something nice set up for next year. 1 Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 If I had the money...I would totally play around with getting a 150w Halide for this tank or just in general. I see such consistency with the halide/calcium reactor combo but have never really been able to get hands-on with either. I don't care about heat or energy at this point, I would just wanna see how a halide would do, having never owned one. T5's are fine but changing out 6+ bulbs every six months was kind of annoying. Tank is practically empty, just chilling. I don't have any money to do like a $$$ order or something (plus no LFS). I'll get some corals in march when I'm back home for a bit. Tank will get spoiled during the summer, wanna have something nice set up for next year. Im pretty sure you would fall in love in with halides if you took the chance. Its something special about them.. 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 Im pretty sure you would fall in love in with halides if you took the chance. Its something special about them.. Ugh, you fricking kill me! Yea, working at LFS for 7 years let me see plenty of diff lights in action. First tank had compacts (58g reef when I was 10! Mostly passive tank with pipefish, two seahorses, and a mandarin), then I've had multiple LEDs and T5HO's. My store probably has some old fixtures and ballasts lying around in the basement, hopefully I can do some free mix-n-match and see if I wanna go with it. I really wouldn't mind pimping the tank out over the summer, SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! The biggest struggle will always be water. No LFS, no personal bathroom, etc. I will probably bring 50g worth of salt to school and have to make CVS trips by bus for distilled water for topping off and water changes. That's the biggest inconvenience. Also, I'm tempted to get a mini sump. Enough room for media, a small filter sock, heater, and a return pump. Plus I would have a 5g reservoir attached to it. That way I don't have to have a bucket on the floor and a float switch and heater in my tank (plus rely on a little, inefficient, canister filter that is kind of annoying to deal with). I have a really good acrylic guy back home that could definitely make something fricking sweet for like $250. I have a doser, but I'm not sure I wanna hook it up. It is a ton of tubing and hassle, and I would have to have the containers etc. Rather do by hand. Flow wise, I'm fricking set xD with the MP40 lol. I probably will try going bare-bottom for the first time as well, now the tank is cycled I am confident I have enough bacteria between the media in the filter and the rock. I will also change the scape as well, something with more space for coral. If I ever grow some pieces out to be nice lol, then I will consider rescaping to accommodate. Thoughts ReHype? Quote Link to comment
Rehype Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Ugh, you fricking kill me! Yea, working at LFS for 7 years let me see plenty of diff lights in action. First tank had compacts (58g reef when I was 10! Mostly passive tank with pipefish, two seahorses, and a mandarin), then I've had multiple LEDs and T5HO's. My store probably has some old fixtures and ballasts lying around in the basement, hopefully I can do some free mix-n-match and see if I wanna go with it. I really wouldn't mind pimping the tank out over the summer, SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! The biggest struggle will always be water. No LFS, no personal bathroom, etc. I will probably bring 50g worth of salt to school and have to make CVS trips by bus for distilled water for topping off and water changes. That's the biggest inconvenience. Also, I'm tempted to get a mini sump. Enough room for media, a small filter sock, heater, and a return pump. Plus I would have a 5g reservoir attached to it. That way I don't have to have a bucket on the floor and a float switch and heater in my tank (plus rely on a little, inefficient, canister filter that is kind of annoying to deal with). I have a really good acrylic guy back home that could definitely make something fricking sweet for like $250. I have a doser, but I'm not sure I wanna hook it up. It is a ton of tubing and hassle, and I would have to have the containers etc. Rather do by hand. Flow wise, I'm fricking set xD with the MP40 lol. I probably will try going bare-bottom for the first time as well, now the tank is cycled I am confident I have enough bacteria between the media in the filter and the rock. I will also change the scape as well, something with more space for coral. If I ever grow some pieces out to be nice lol, then I will consider rescaping to accommodate. Thoughts ReHype? If you could have someone make you a custom sump like you described for $250 Id be all over that if I were you. I know securing water can be a hassle but if your willing to make the trips for distilled water and keep up with water changes theres no reason why this tank couldn't be relatively simple to upkeep. Id probably keep the lighting simple though just to keep evaporation down considering the lighting situation. One of Daves nanobox beams would be super low profile,relatively inexpensive and give you enough light to keep pretty much anything. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Why not just get a $15 10g some acrylic to really set the sump up the way you want it and save yourself time,money and all that shit. I know it won't be the prettiest thing in the world,but hey... Or just get Advanced Acrylics to make you one ? How are all the pieces doing ? Dead,alive,hanging in there ?! Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 Why not just get a $15 10g some acrylic to really set the sump up the way you want it and save yourself time,money and all that shit. I know it won't be the prettiest thing in the world,but hey... Or just get Advanced Acrylics to make you one ? How are all the pieces doing ? Dead,alive,hanging in there ?! It would be more than $15 of acrylic and I have really worked with it. The guy I'm talking about does a awesome job and has done my past two sumps. If I get it, you'd understand. I have three shitty pieces in there lol. Tank had some weird biological blooms that clouded the water and pissed off the frags. Discouraging but at the same time, experience will tell you not to get frustrated. Things like this will always happen in the beginning of the tank and so I'm really moreso just looking forward to the summer when I can spend some time/money on it. By then it should certainly be more settled. Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 Got bored with empty tank lol. Five weeks of school left! I got a really big paid summer internship doing research at an engineering company (only a freshman too! ;D). Lot of plans for the summer...not having to do with the tank lol. That said, everything will be set to go when stocking time comes...I'll have some time and money and the tank is fully cycled/healthy. Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Looking awesome man. Congrats on the intern job,what're you going to be doing ?! Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 Looking awesome man. Congrats on the intern job,what're you going to be doing ?! Well my field is material science and I will be working heavily with silicon carbide composites. That said, I haven't started yet and when I do, it will be top secret (which is obviously a blast to say xD ). Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 Update! Tank is doing well! Take a look at my updated run-through, I will be adding some more info tonight (watching movie). The setup is super low maintenance but very easy on the eyes. It looks clean and attractive on my desk, the fish and coral are happy, I had algae growth but a emerald crab completely kicked ass (eating pretty much everything). There are three frags in the tank that are about two weeks old, I can't say they're growing lol--I haven't been dosing the tank at all and I haven't done a water change in at least a month--BUT they are still alive and keeping color. If I feel like it, I'll add some more pieces in and actually give them some love lol. The mangrove pods were given to me for free because no one wanted to water them at the shop, I just dropped them in the corner for the #### of it. 3 Quote Link to comment
Squared Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 is that a filefish pair? Nothing wrong with keeping it simple and low maintenance! 1 Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 is that a filefish pair? Nothing wrong with keeping it simple and low maintenance! Alas, it is a mere lone wolf lol. Amen, this is the easiest tank I've kept, as easy as my high-end Amano freshwaters if not more (since those involved a lot of careful trimming). I'll probably get bored and move on to make things more complicated on myself (only to later regret how things once were xD). Quote Link to comment
Spencer7 Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 Some serious upgrades are coming along Little did y'all know, this tank was merely a temporary mash-up of old and impractical equipment as I saved and designed my TRUE college tank lol #CustomAIO Quote Link to comment
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