kgoldy Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 Over all happy with mr coral? Overall, very satisfied. Reported DOA crab and two plugs that had nothing on them (melted softies I guess) and was given credit for them immediately. Response time to multiple e-mails about 10 minutes on average. Missed my UPS delivery guy (was using a power saw in my shop so I didn't hear the bell) and was contacted by Mr. Coral about the failed attempt of delivery right away... which meant I could simply drive down the road and catch UPS. I've heard people whine about the size of the frags, so I knew what I was in for when ordering from the $10 section. But at a sale price of $6.63 per frag, delivered with some very high end stuff in there, every frag being a different species, and an alive-arrive guarantee, I'm more than happy with what I got. Seeing the duncan open up in the Coral Rx dip pretty much convinced me Mr Coral sends out healthy frags. Also- I should note, I asked Mr Coral to hold all frags for about two and a half weeks to allow for healing time, which was no problem with them. lol, I love the title of this thread goldy. Kindof reminds me of some whiny little ##### on here that needs to grow a pair. Oh and btw.. Look at you man!!! You build the sickest stuff honestly. You've got skill bro. Aww.. you changed the title.. Which title, "plz comment so i can post more pics"? Or the "where money goes to die"? Link to comment
Zer0 Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 "plz comment so i can post moar pix." That one. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 +1 Totally agree. Thats such an awesome use of a HOB fuge... Perfect frag tank What do you plan to use for lighting? The use as a frag tank is temporary for me... But if I were to build these things to sell them, I would market them as an either/or type thing. This thing is just the right size for DSB/Frag tank/Bare Bottom Macro Refugium... The only problem with using it as a frag tank is that observation of the frags over a 90 like mine (or it could be used on a 120) or a taller cabinet is a pain in the butt. Over a 75 with pendant lighting would be pretty sweet though. edit- Lighting is going to start with a single 36" Ecoexotic 8k White Stunner Strip. I'm beginning to think that's a bit too little, but I'm not sure. People have wide ranging opinions on what it takes to grow macro. I bought a few things from LEDwholesalers.com to experiment with over my original fuge, so some of that could end up on the top fuge. I don't know... we'll see. And thanks all for the compliments. "plz comment so i can post moar pix." That one. I change my threads to that any time I do a big photo-dump. Tank threads without pics are boring... I hate looking through pages and pages of text. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Mantis for bottom fuge. Moved the frags out of the HOB fuge to put in mud and macro that I got in the mail today. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 Here are some night pics- Still acclimating corals to light... Only running actinics. Macros look like complete poop under Mu lighting, by the way, since there's a complete lack of light in the green and red spectrum. This is right to left of the display, with most of the frags taken off the plugs they came on. Not planning to add any livestock to this tank at all for a long while. I want to watch everything grow out. I'll have a second try at maxi-minis some time in the future. ...Just realized you can't see any of the frags in those pics... Really gotta play with some settings... Link to comment
kgoldy Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 Alright, a lot has happened since the last update... Important things to note- SPS doesn't do well under tank sitter's supervision. I lost almost ALL of the SPS and LPS frags I had while I was away for work for two weeks. Why? No idea. Probably over-feeding by the sitter and a nutrient spike. Softies are loving it though. I got some torch and hammer coral from a LFS so there's something fun to look at, since all the frags I had were teeny-tiny. Saturday was my birthday, so I got like $400 worth of livestock. Bunch of wrasses, two clams, some peppermint shrimp (to banish to the mantis tank)... And a crazy SPS rock with like 30 different colored christmas tree worms in it. Can't get good pics of it, but it's freakin awesome. Also got a new BSJ, since the previous were suicidal. Speaking of carpet surfing, I finally got around to making a screen top. I used white framing, which I'll either have to paint black ASAP, or I'll build another out of black anodized aluminum. At the moment, the light reflecting off of it from the LEDs is just painful. Got some well established livesand from two local reefers and added it to the display and mangrove fuge, so the bio diversity is insane. Got a big breakout of pod-eating flatworms... Apparently my system doesn't want me to have tons of pods without them being predated by something just a millimeter larger than them. ORA YWGs have spawned at least once- I found one of them incubating a clutch of eggs in it's mouth. They've become nasty and territorial since laying the eggs, so they're listed on the FS Livestock forum. Want to get rid of them, and replace them with yashas, or something similar in size. Mandarins are FAT, look like they're going to explode. Well, look like they swallowed marbles. To the point I'm concerned they're over eating. Jose the algae blenny has a big round belly too. I've been broadcast feeding like crazy with ReefCleaner's filter feeder formula, which seems to make everything in the tank super happy. And... It's pic time. (Okay, apparently photobucket is being slow right now... pics as soon as they're uploaded.) Link to comment
kgoldy Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 All photos were taken with a Cannon G-9, standard lens, with the "leaf scene" option and flash... I've figured out this is a pretty accurate representation of the colors I see with my eyes... Greens of the macro I'm growing look better in pics than in reality, and the oranges (like the darth maul paly's) look worse in the pics. ORA clam. Looks happy... as... a clam. Dendro has improved a lot. It's tentacles are out and about 90% of the time. I'm convinced it's because I just left it alone, quit trying to make it feel better, and have been broadcast feeding the tank instead of feeding it directly. Other clam, and angry momma (or poppa) ORA YWG. These zoas have been growing like mad compared to the rest in the tank... Not sure why. Maybe because it's partially shaded from the LEDs... Poor purple gorgonian got abused by the insane growth of the chaeto in the mantis fuge while I was away for work... It's making a comeback though. This is the right side (kitchen view), right where the waterfall from the mangrove fuge is. Link to comment
BoostLED Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 Tank looks great. Looks like you are growing a coralline farm! Link to comment
kgoldy Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 Trying to encourage GSP to grow on the overflow... It doesn't seem happy here. Maybe not enough flow... Maybe too much light. Not sure. Harem of fairy wrasses, harem of flashers. Poor barberpoll has been hiding in there since the YWG starting breeding... New BSJ! No way I'm letting this one jump! He's tiny though... Hope he doesn't look too hard for cracks. Mushrooms in the shadows... This pic of my Darth Maul's are why I will never be successful at selling frags. They look AWESOME in person. Pics, suck. Who can ID this LPS for me? It's growing new heads like crazy. Looks like it's going to take over this whole rock... Coco (or Christmas tree) worm rock. Who can ID the SPS that's growing with them? Jose, the fat*ss Algae Blenny. Damn worms don't like the camera.... Only really surviving SPS from whatever happened when I went away for work... I think it's a green slimer... Tough little bastard. Also should note- I started skimming pretty heavily... And.... I don't do water changes. Seems to be working out alright for me. I'm thinking all the mud I added will keep the levels of trace minerals where they should be for a while. The addition of the remote DSB has really improved the health of my system. I've been pretty active on the Marine Depot forum moderated by Dr Shimek, and have been following his advice closely. Link to comment
ry05coupe Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Trying to encourage GSP to grow on the overflow... It doesn't seem happy here. Maybe not enough flow... Maybe too much light. Not sure. Who can ID this LPS for me? It's growing new heads like crazy. Looks like it's going to take over this whole rock... Looks like it could be a grape coral, or maybe a torch. Link to comment
mbarton2010 Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 this will look sick in a few months Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 Okay, more pics coming... So, tank notes. Survived hurricane Irene without power going out, despite the eye of the storm going directly over my area. Got a battery back up, and it became useful almost a week after the storm when they kept killing the power to plug my neighbors back into the grid. I now know that even with all the lights on, the battery backup will run my whole system for 30 minutes. Yay for LEDs. And that's before the Vortech backup even kicks in. So that gives me plenty of time to set up a generator, and refill generator gas tank in the future without my skimmer even getting upset. Piorites of the x-mas tree rock got it's full coloration back quickly after being placed in high lighting. Nice and bright fluorescent green. Polyps won't extend during the day, but they do at night when the lights are off. Worms also don't come out during the day... I didn't know they were light sensitive... (are they?) so I guess I need to find them a happier place. Or maybe some of the fish are picking on them... ID'd the LPS I was asking about one or two posts up... It's galaxia. From what I've seen in my LFS, it's nasty, aggressive #### with long sweepers... so I guess I'm going to have to find another spot for it. The direct middle of the tank isn't a great spot for something that wants to kill the rest of my tank. Darth Maul paly's grew a third head, which is sweet... Some zoas are taking off like crazy while others remain the same as they looked the day I got em. Palys mostly look the same. One of the torches I have, the lighter one, keeps sending out sweepers. It stung the crap out of my x-man paly's, which thankfully survived. I moved it, then moved my hammer to keep it safe from the aggressive torch... Then my hammer fell on my derasa clam and stung the crap out of about a third of it's mantle. Ugh. Maxima clam keeps moving. Just can't seem to find a happy spot for more than a few days. BSJ is a jerk, he decided to move out of his nice pre-fab home and burrow under a rock, moving tons and tons of sand. One of my wrasses became obsessed with the idea of carpet surfing. Somehow he managed to jump into the screen enough times to jar it open a little bit, then he got through the hole... Then flopped around on the screen for a few seconds, then when he realized he couldn't commit suicide while I was watching, he slithered back into the tank. 20 minutes later I come by the tank and he's gone. Haven't seen him in three days now... Got a new mystery macro that showed up in my tank that I'll post pics of... The mermaid's fan and brush that I got from ReefCleaners is growing like weeds... Going to have to try to sell some because it's overgrowing too much of the sandbed. Pics still uploading to photobucket, they'll be up soon. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 The following pics came from two different cameras, and some were taken months ago... so things may be out of order. Playing with different camera settings on both... Neither capture pics the way I see them with the naked eye... I'm a ####ty camera guy. Woah, after looking at these pics ^ all blown up to size on the comp ....That's pretty accurate. Sweet. I think I've got this figured out now... This is what it looks like when my fish see me pick up Reef Cleaner's Filter Feeder Formula- Everyone clusters by the waterfall where I always drop it. New mystery macro that popped up. More pics when I get some comments so N-R doesn't lock me out for too many pics in a row... Comment away, go! Link to comment
wimby Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Kris it looks great. My fish also go nuts when I put that food in my tank. Actually everything goes nuts for it. :0) Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 3, 2011 Author Share Posted September 3, 2011 Thanks Kim! Compare this pic to the one from a week ago- Look how quick the coloration came back. And... The following pics suck... They were taken a few months ago, when I added a bunch of maxi-minis to the tank. Three died as a result of shipping, and when the first melted, I took pics and figured the system could handle it instead of siphoning it out. Learned my lesson as the tank began to crash, and I lost ALL the maxis, plus a torch. I posted about the bad few days on this thread, just lost the cord to this camera until now. I'm going to post because these things were beautiful- and deserve to be remembered. And, I deserve to be reminded about how crappy of a caretaker I was when I lost them. RIP Maxis and torch... The End. Poor Maxis... Having a maxi garden was one of the things I was really looking forward to when planning this tank.... Okay, reg pics again. I think this is more stuff that's old because it was trapped on my waterproof camera. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 Here are some shots of the other pets. Video- Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 Full system video- Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 Reef Cleaners' Filter Feeder Formula = Awesome. I broadcast feed my tank this way every day. Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 UPGRAAAAAAADE. Installing now. =] Link to comment
metrokat Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Hey what happened to the baby mantis you found? Link to comment
kgoldy Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Hey what happened to the baby mantis you found? Baby mantis got crushed by a burrowing snail. But, I got a little smasher for my fuge from ReefCleaners. So- updates... Got a RKE from 1fishmonger (nice guy, would do business again) and spent an entire Friday night and Saturday troubleshooting it and trying to program it. Lost about 2-3 gallons onto my floor as a result. But- eventually I got it figured out, and am devising a way to "floodproof" my skimmer (and sump) with some float switches. Hopefully I get that figured out before my trip to India. I leave a week from... almost exactly this moment. Still have to hook up the MLC and all the moon light pods he gave me... But I'll save that for when I've got more time to mess around. I finally got rid of my BC29HQI... traded it on Manhattanreefs.com to a guy out East on the Island. The dude is a pretty experienced reefer with a really nice five year old system. He's cutting and fragging almost every coral he owns in trade for the tank I gave him, which included all rock, sand, stand, heater, etc. The deal is he cuts it over the next week, then I go and pick it all up after my return from India... So everything should have about 3 weeks to heal. I'm super excited. The guy has some really, really nice looking stuff. I can't wait! Link to comment
metrokat Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Your puppies and kittens are adorable! Have a safe trip. Don't come to my house of the puppies kittens and tanks and fuges are missing...... Link to comment
kgoldy Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 Kat- Feel free to borrow the puppies any time you want. But you have to bring them back at the end of the day because they're not city dogs and refuse to use the sidewalk as a bathroom. It's very stressful to them, they're such good puppies. Well, I've been back from India for a week now... Broke my Cannon G9 like 3 days into the trip and had to use my underwater camera for the rest, so most of my pics stink. Also, I forgot what settings I had been using to take good pics of the tank while I was away. Grrr. The guy I made the above mentioned trade with finished fragging his stuff last week, so I'm going to pick up the frags this coming weekend or next. Then, it's picture time. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough that I'm going to consider the tank "fully stocked" when it comes to coral, and just let everything grow out into colonies. While I was away, the SPS from Mr Coral have finally started to encrust significantly, so it looks like the no-water-change chemistry has settled into where it belongs. Monitoring my pH via RKE, it seems the pH is now averaging around 8.2-8.4, which is likely due to the longer fuge lighting schedule I set up to compensate for possible over-feeding while I was away. =] Much of the paly's and zoas have grown like weeds... and I can see they're going to be a problem in the future, overgrowing stony corals... I'm think I'm going to start placing rubble on top of the zoa/paly colonies, letting the mat Link to comment
metrokat Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 BTW I signed up for the dec frag swap Link to comment
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