Pyronus' SPS 20H

[Needreefunds]

 

Needs some PALYSOFDOOM!

 

[pyronus]

Sure let me just drive down and nab some!

[Needreefunds]

You know I haz plenty!

 

Gonna shoot over to Rutgers and throw some through Markushka's dorm window

[got2envy]

You know I haz plenty!

 

Gonna shoot over to Rutgers and throw some through Markushka's dorm window

 

When u do a drive by through here I expect a pulled pork sammich and home brew thrown through my window

[Needreefunds]

When u do a drive by through here I expect a pulled pork sammich and home brew thrown through my window

No way! When I swing down yur way- Imma stayin fer a spell!

 

 

( I iz a Yankee- how did I do wit the drawl?? )

 

[got2envy]

We have no southern drawl here...More like a Cuban accent ahahaha.

[pyronus]

How about a brick through the window with with a PP Sammich on one side and some paly's on the other.

 

SAY HELLO TO MY PALYS OF DOOM

[Needreefunds]

We have no southern drawl here...More like a Cuban accent ahahaha.

Well, screwd that all up

 

How about a brick through the window with with a PP Sammich on one side and some paly's on the other.

 

SAY HELLO TO MY PALYS OF DOOM

[pyronus]

I got my ATI light hung over the weekend. I also did some organizing and finally got my MP20 and RKL controllers mounted on the stand door.

 

I also picked up some pretty colored sticks over the weekend. I'll get some pictures of the good stuff when they are a little happier. Until then, some crappy iPhone pics.

 

 

 

 

[got2envy]

Looking good!

I think my next money splurge will be an MP10 for my 15g

[pyronus]

Thanks M,

 

I am such a techno nerd so when I was researching the equipment for the tank I had to have an Ecotech pump. You know how good they are.

 

Most of my equipment is pretty high end now so I have no excuses for not being able to make something that looks just as good as your tanks. Seeing as you do everything with considerably less "tech".

 

Just got home, sticks have some okay PE, I put them as high up as I could get them but I'm not sure if that's necessarily the best spot for them. I just did a water change yesterday so I'm going to test Calc and Alk later tonight just to see, it they were at 420 ppm, 9.8 dKH, 8.4 pH last time I tested.

[got2envy]

I have good luck with certain SPS...Acros do not do well for me, mostly because I hate dosing lol

[pyronus]

Yea, I'm working on getting the dosing going. I prolly shouldn't have bought acro's yet, but they weren't super pricey and as long as I don't kill them before I get my dosing set up I wont be super pizzed. I was actually looking for a Birdsnest or Mille frags, but the acro's just speak to me.

 

They were frags from established colonies in the LFS that dont get fragged often. One of them already had growth on the plug, the other was a pretty fresh frag. Its only been a day, fingers crossed!

[Needreefunds]

[divecj5]

The tank "redo" looks great man. Really like the layout of the sump and you're making me wish that I would have drilled my 20H when it was running a few years ago.

 

Looking forward to seeing how the new SPS look. Like I mentioned in my thread, I suggest placing them in a spot that matches, or comes close, the conditions they were in at the LFS. That, or I'd start them a little lower, see how they like your T5s, and then adjust up or down accordingly.

 

I'm sure you're going to be a rockin' SPS reefer before you know it. Just so you know, the colored sticks are just as addicting as acans, zoas, and palys

 

Glad to be following along on this build.

[animalmaster6]

Loving the redo Pyro!

[pyronus]

Loving the redo Pyro!

 

Thanks AM! I'm glad to be back, and back to having an aquarium I can be proud to display.

 

 

So I dropped my RKL head unit in the sump about a week ago, that sucked but only the display was ruined the controller still did its job. I got the replacement yesterday and I figured it would be plug and play, boy was I wrong. The new firmware is supposed to make things easier to set up, but that is just not the case. I'm a pretty tech savy guy, and that was just a huge pain in the ass.

 

Had to remove the whole controller setup from the stand, including the PC4 power controller. Hook the whole shebang up to my computer (No Mac support, good thing I dual boot windows 7). Install myReef 2.0. Hook each element up to the PC for updates. It should have been a 10 minute job. Instead it took almost 2 hours.

 

When I finally upgrade to the Deep Blue 60 cube I've been looking at for the last 2 years (not going to happen soon) I'm just going to build my own controller, or buy something that is not so un-polished. The RKL gets the job done, but setting it up is anti-fun.

 

I wanted to take pictures of the tank last night with the DSLR but the lights were out by the time I got the RKL working again.

 

Also I know its crazy but I originally planned to DIY an LED fixture for this tank. I still have a ton of RB and CW LEDs 24 total, I think I'm actually just going to turn them into DIY stunner strips or something. I would just sell the stuff but I'll never get back nearly as much as I payed for the equipment almost 2 years ago now.

[Needreefunds]

Hoped for pix o stix... I leave disappointed.

[pyronus]

I'm disappointed that I didn't get to take any...

[divecj5]

I couldn't agree more about the RKL....pretty effective for it's price but it can be a really PITA. I got to the point where I've just tossed it in the reef "pile" to mess around with later. My PC4 unit got literally 10 drops of water on it about a year ago and immediately after that, it would flash a "??? error" and start a reboot loop that never stops. Tried everything on their forums and was going to try and flash the firmware but like you, found out there was no Mac support. Not really sure what world some companies are living in, but I can see no LINUX support but not supporting Mac and PC is a pretty big oversight in my opinion.

 

Either way, I'm with you. I'll likely just bite the bullet and get an Apex Jr or something that has all the bells and whistles and expandability so I can use it well into the future. The RKL is great for it's price point but the lack of support and some oversight during the planning/design process really limits it's overall utility.

 

The LED stunner strip idea some pretty cool to me. Might as well use them if you have them sitting around.

 

-Adam

[pyronus]

Picture Dump:

 

The Setup

 

First New Acropora

 

Second New Acropora

 

Armor of God Palys

 

This Ric was a tank traveler and he finally found a happy place.

[divecj5]

Really like the overall look of the setup as I think the sleek T5 always does a nice job of complimenting the dimensions of the 20H.

 

Both SPS appear to be happy and healthy. Looks like they're already starting to encrust at the base and polyp extension looks good. I really like the looks of what appears to be an Echinata of some sort (the second out of the two). Should have some really cool growth patterns once it builds a solid base. The one thing that I realized, at least in my tanks, is that frags tend to like to grow a really nice base before they start to branch out. It's like building a foundation/slab before framing out the house

 

That yuma looks great as well. Gotta love the color.

[pyronus]

Really like the overall look of the setup as I think the sleek T5 always does a nice job of complimenting the dimensions of the 20H.

 

Both SPS appear to be happy and healthy. Looks like they're already starting to encrust at the base and polyp extension looks good. I really like the looks of what appears to be an Echinata of some sort (the second out of the two). Should have some really cool growth patterns once it builds a solid base. The one thing that I realized, at least in my tanks, is that frags tend to like to grow a really nice base before they start to branch out. It's like building a foundation/slab before framing out the house

 

That yuma looks great as well. Gotta love the color.

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

The SPS are doing fairly well, the first frag was encrusting its rock in the LFS, this is the primary reason I picked it up. I know they like to encrust a base before they will branch out more and those white tips are almost purple from the right angle. I think the polyp extension is okay, its great at night when the lights go out tho. This makes me think they are light acclimating.

 

The 2nd frag is either an Echinata or a Lokani. The stores colony looks a lot like the pictures of 20k Lokani that I have seen, but blue echinata seems to share a similar coloration so its pretty hard for me to tell, also I'm not a biologist. I think I'll drop that pic in the ID section to see if anyone knows.

 

I love that yuma too, strangely yumas and ric's are pretty hard to find around here.

 

I got a couple of bottles of B-Ionic 2 part the other day from a friend who is getting out of the hobby so I am going to dose to set my levels, monitor for a few days to figure out my usage and dose manually while I research and save up for a dosing pump. How have you done it in your past tanks? I don't remember ever seeing a doser set up on the 20H, are you planning one for the Elos?

[divecj5]

I agree that it could also be a Lokani as well. I'm with you, I'm just versed enough in SPS to know the difference between a few sub-species so take that with a grain of salt Either way, should make for a great piece!!

 

Even when my 20H was packed full of SPS years back, I manually dosed Ca/Alk/Mg. When things were growing like weeds, I was dosing around 8ml of both in the morning and then again at night. Honestly, I never setup a dosing system because I didn't have money for a really nice one and the 2-3 minutes that it took to measure out the 2-part and dump it in the tank was a breeze. I hear/see a lot of people complain about dosing by hand but I figured I spend at least 15-20 minutes cleaning the glass, staring at things, and generally sitting next to the tank that the few minutes it took was a breeze. That said, if you get to a point where you're dosing large amounts (which would affect pH and other params if dosed all at one time), I would then look into a dosing setup. Since you have a sump, you could always look into some of the Drews Dosing pumps from BRS and go that route.

 

You may find that you can keep up with demand just by decent sized water changes with a salt mix that has elevated levels (DDH20cean, Reef Crystals, etc). If I were you, I'd start testing every few days just to get a sense on how much things are consuming. Probably won't be a lot if any to start with.

 

-Adam

[got2envy]

Looks great Tim! I love the stix you picked