As Cheap as I can get it - Ghetto Beauty?

[yardboy]

How'd I miss your post. Thanks for checking it out. This tank has been so enjoyable to nurture. Recently I was reading another "tank starting" thread and they stated that they didn't like "frag collection" tanks, which mine is, but it is so much fun to watch them develop into colonies.

This evening I got a shot of an empty astrea shell with resident red featherdusters. The montipora is purple rimmed, but after a year I realized the Astralux bulb has about had it, so I took a risk (mainly because I'm broke) and bought one of the 14000K bulbs off eBay from China. So far so good, certainly brighter than a year old Astralux!

 

 

As I'd mentioned earlier in the thread, the summer heat was rough on the tank, actually all my systems suffered to some degree. The Ghetto Beauty less than some others. My millepora, right in the center of the tank, bleached pretty severely, so I've been waiting for it to die or recover so haven't taken any fts since then.

Happily, it's doing better, and looks to be coming back. Right next to it a Green Bali Slimer has fully recovered, after it completely bleached too.

Here's when it first bleached

And now a month later

Maybe not much but I see the polyps coloring back up so I feel confident it'll survive now. Unfortunately it hasn't grown during this time, so it's way behind.

[diggman08]

i need some more of those dragon eyse i only saved half of my other frag from the pox

[IPv6Freely]

Wow, I had no idea they could grow back like that after being totally white... damn it!

[yardboy]

As long as they have polyps showing they can come back. If you see no polyps the skeleton will pretty quickly develop algae growth and so you'll know it's dead.

Mike, what a great coincidence! I need some cash too! I bought a new impeller assembly for a Mag 18 in my cls, turned it on and headed to work. Later my wife called and said there was a squealing noise coming from my tank. Screwed up the whole pump when I forgot to open the suction line on the pump. Melted the whole rig. Dammitdammitdammit.

Still interested in the purple tipped frogspawn also?

[monkeytrumpets]

Screwed up the whole pump when I forgot to open the suction line on the pump. Melted the whole rig. Dammitdammitdammit.

Oh suck! I'm sorry that happened. Did it damage anything else or just melt the pump?

[yardboy]

Damaged my pride more than anything else. That and my wallet, since I'd just bought a new $26 impeller. Bummer is the new impeller is okay (with some parts from the old one) but the pump is shot. The magnet won't fit inside the housing, too tight, I guess it swelled when it got too hot. $100 shot to heck (that isn't the word I'm thinking)

I've got to liquidate some frags to get a Sequence Dart. That's what I've been wanting anyway. Double bummer was I had a backup pump (Gen-X 6000) that I put in place and it didn't work either. Impeller magnet split and swelled up. Not a good week for my pumps. That's the beauty of nano's, not such a big hit when something needs to be replaced. I just changed out my 70W bulb on the GB for $27!

[c est ma]

Never too late. Are you interested in some? I just had a bag with some stoma's, chaeto, brittlestar and ceriths laying on the floor of my tank room for 4 days and they all survived, so priority mail should be no problem. I've been thinking of circulating a thermos.

 

Isn't that amazing? I've had similar experiences with chaeto & brittles, just sitting in a tupperware container of SW on my drainboard for a week...(actually, the chaeto lasts indefinitely like that...but I didn't mean to take the brittle stars out of the tank, too!).

 

--Diane

[Needreefunds]

Yardboy, great setup!.

And a very interesting thread, thanks for sharing both.

 

Will be tagging along from here.

[dtfleming]

Awesome thread and gave me some ideas for the fuge for my frag tank.

[yardboy]

I've been busy but am trying to keep this thread updated. The GB is doing fine, new bulb from China seems to agree with everyone, which if I haven't mentioned it before is a 12000K 70W DE shipped, $27. Color is good and I've just gotten everyone acclimated to it (started off with 4 hours, now up to the normal 12)

Since I had such great success with the Condy anemone (if you remember, it grew so big I had to move it to a bigger tank) I was wanting another. I've had a BTA in another tank for quite awhile. It's apparently a smaller version of a bta, it's only about 2" in diameter (larger and different looking than majano's in case you wonder) and in the 2.5 years I've had it, it's split twice. So I managed to tease this guy off the rock in another tank and put it in GB. Naturally it didn't see the need to stay where I'd put it, moved up on th ewall under the Echino, but it's moved down since this pic was taken last week and is settling in nicely.

[0823angeles]

Wow!! I just got done reading this thread and it's 2 in the morning.!! Great work yardboy... I was just looking for a forum or thread on how to make a 10 gallon fuge and yours showed up. I was kind of hesitate to read it because it was 7 pages but it was well worth it and now I got the knowledge to make my own. I was just wondering though if you think it would work for a 30 gallon? If you need any tips on the mangroves just PM me, i've been doing bonsai for some time now so I could help you with any questions on your mangroves. The mangroves you're actually growing is a bonsai because it will never grow to it's full gowth. If the mangrove on the right isn't growing any leaves it's because too much light and heat is affecting it so try to put some shade and it'll do just great. Again a job well done keep it up.

 

-EDWARD

[yardboy]

Thanks Edward, I'm sure it would work on a 30g, or likely any size if you just upsized everything.

Both mangroves are growing well, interestingly the one that budded out last is the most robust looking one. They practically look like different species. I wonder......

I'm looking to redo the lights on the fuge, higher up and more intense so the macro will grow but the light will be above the mangroves, the one on the right is starting to bend toward the light. I'd like some info on bonsai'ing them, that'd be too cool. I've got some others in another tank, a small pico tank with a nicely shaped bonsai mangrove would be sweet.

I'm working now on modding a SWCD onto my closed loop so I can get some better water movement. Some of the frags on the overflow are leaning inward.

GB is just rolling along. Every morning it's the first tank I look at, keep the topoff container filled, dose with Seachem Calcium and Alkalinity (Advantage and Reefbuilder), feed the BTA mysis, do WC's once a week.

[travisurfer]

thanks for the offer yardboy. things are rather busy right now with school but i'd love to circulate a thermos around eventually. i am currently a bit limited to what i can offer anyway but i should have some frags in a few months.

[sweetpea355]

Hey yardboy, Love the tank and fuge, I read the whole thread and love it. I have a 10g setup now with a 96w pc and I don't like the color and I want to do the 70w halide like your, Are you running any acttinics and what color bulb are you using? And is the ebay bulb still holding up? Once again love the tank.

Thanks

Joe

[yardboy]

Thanks Sweetpea!

Nope, no actinics, though I've thought of some actinic led's, even got a ghetto setup in the works. Right now I'm running a Chinese 14K, which to me looks great. Obviously I need to take some pics. I'm working on a SCWD mod, heading to Lowe's now to pic up the last parts.

[sweetpea355]

Kool, Make sure you keep them nice lookin pics comin.

[sweetpea355]

Hey Yardboy, What size light and color temp do you have on your fuge?

Thanks

Joe

[Knuckles]

Great thread!

I must have read it through at least 4 times since I joined. Your sump design gives even the average reefer noob like myself confidence in building their own.

Im working on an inexpensive setup right now with everything DIY besides the tank. Hope you dont mind me borrowing your refugium design.

How deep does the drain go into the pvc with holes in it, and what size is the pvc piece that has the notches at the bottom? Also, ever given any second thought about getting that clam you planned for?

[yardboy]

Sorry for the delay, for some reason I'm not getting e-mail notifications so I'm not aware that you are posting.

Sweetpea - first of all, I hope you fared well in Katrina. I moved from Ocean Springs the year before the storm. Whew. To answer your question, the light is a Lights of America Floodlight with a 65W 6500K PC bulb. Costs about $30, unless you score one at a flea market! I'm trying to figure how to reconfigure my refugium light now, as the mangroves have grown over it and I want light for them and the fuge. I'm thinking of using these

bulbs

as studied by Melev on his reef site

Knuckles, I'd be honored to have you use any aspect of the systems I've built.

I read and study and modify what I've seen others do, and people like Melev, who put it all out there for anyone to use are what I believe is the true spirit of sharing in our hobby.

To answer your other questions, the overflow pipe goes about a third of the way down into the 4" diameter PVC pipe. I cut four slots about 2" up the sides of the pipe as an outlet for the overflow water into the refugium. This way it eliminates any possibility of microbubbles travelling back to the return pump. Right now I've got a bag of carbon sitting in there to help remove any organics in the water. Come to think of it though, I probably need to remove that as I'm experimenting with Seachem Reef Plus as a supplement in the tank. Good grief does it make them sps polyps pop out quickly.

I do still want a clam, and I think he'd do well in the tank, but I've not been anywhere in quite a while that has a small one to put in. I've also been broke, guess I shouldn't admit that.

[yardboy]

I've been bugged a bit of late about my closed loop system, it's just kinda laminar, not getting to all parts of the tank, even though some areas get lots of flow, some others get very little. Even worse, the sps growing on the overflow are all heading down current, toward the overflow, not sure how to fix that.

Anyway, I found an old SCWD at "Ye Olde Fleamarket", which I got for a dollar since it rattled and didn't work, but the vendor told me that he'd heard they could be fixed, so I went onto RC, which directed me back here, for instructions on how to repair and mod it, so here it is! Thanks "UndertheRadar", for your experimentation that made it possible. Don't ask how I did it, I took no pictures of the process, but the two links above should give you more than enough info and pics to satisfy you on how it's done. Mine looks a little like both mods, that's the way I do it, "Bend to Fit, Mod to Please"!

More pics to follow on how I installed it on my Mag 3.

[tinyreef]

i've seen you (and others) mention this thread but i never really had the chance to look it over.

 

i didn't realize what i was missing! i love a lot of the ideas you have here, yard! the pvc bubble trap is simple genius. it's stuff like that that re-triggers my interest in the hobby every now and then.

 

i also like the very small frags you worked with. the frogspawn from early on really cught my eye for the "tinyness" of it! great job!

[MyCatsDrool]

Cheap = beautiful.

 

 

Indeed.

[IceTurf]

Well, there's more than one kind or brand, but I've used only these:

http://ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=112&am...=17&level=1

I've heard others claim they are not so good, but it always involves "my friend or my lfs or my cousin says they're no good." I've not compared them directly to the more popular (and more expensive and more difficult to find) NAIS ballast but I like them. Only once did I get a delay in shipping (two weeks instead of 7-10 days) The mod is super easy. Just get a bulb, 350-500W halogen shop light, and the ballast and wire the rascal up and mount it over your tank.

Be careful though. Too close and the UV or intensity or something will bleach your corals. Start up higher and work your way down.

don't those 350-500w halogen shop lights have UV filters?

[BennettOZ]

 

 

Your tank has inspired me to start a 10G... I best finish my other projects first. lol

[yardboy]

MyCatsDrool - yes, the halogen lights do have a glass cover, which absorbs most of the UV, but not all of it (You can buy special "low-E" window glass that absorbs a higher percentage) Not sure if the Astralux HQI I've been using produces more or the thin glass absorbs less.

 

BennettOZ- I'm so glad that I could show a cheaper and easier way to have an object of endless source and fascination, a little piece of the sea. I urge you to give it a go, and be patient with it. (I guess that sounds kind of corny, but gosh, I could sit and stare into that little glass box for hours, unfortunatley I have other projects too!)