smarsh Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 I have had SW tanks since i was 12. I have always tried to acheive the breathtaking reef look of a heathy tank. Being young I had learned the hard way that water quality and lighting cannot be ignored. Being discouraged it was fish only until 24. So my most successful reef was 4 years ago. I set up an AGA 10 gallon with two hang on filters and replaced their media with mine. 24" dual powercompact. Long story short I had 4 mushrooms turn into 65+ and GSP everywhere. Never did a waterchange and only poured bottled water in it. Maybe calcium here and there. Got engaged and broke the tank down. Things are much different now. I ordered a RSM with my tax return money. Thanks Uncle Sam! It came in the begining of February. My friend Bobby who was just getting started in the hobby came over to help. With much research on the RSM and its potential filter problems, I went into it prepared. I bought water, LR (25 lbs), LS(20 lbs), and a bunch of bacteria from my LFS. Me and Bobby got started. I have fine filter pad in the first chamber and then a carbon bag resting on the skimmer pump. I am still using the stock skimmer due to it working finally. Microbubbles for weeks. It is loud and I plan to change it soon. By the overflow of the skimmer I put phosphate medium when needed. Chamber of death is empty, thanks StevieT. The tank is almost 2 month old. Last night I built the last area of LR.(top right white rocks) I currently have: 1 Flame Angel 1 Perc. Clown 1 4-line wrasse 1 emerald crab 3 sexy shrimp (which i see 1 a week if im lucky) 30 small blue legs 1 sand anemone 1 GSP 10 various mushrooms 6 ricordia Lots of ZOAS I have attached some pics to show the growth of the GSP in 8 weeks. Any suggestions on the next step in adding corals? Link to comment
jcvkang Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 you might want to check out steve's thread. there are some cool things to learn from his thread and he has a lot of good advice. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...p;#entry1579294 Link to comment
Atlantis Reef Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 ditto to jcvkang advice nice tank though Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 4, 2008 Author Share Posted April 4, 2008 Just took a couple new pics and glued some of my wandering ricordias. attachment=38038:12.jpg] Link to comment
Lalani Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 The tank looks good! If only you could find those little sexies... Link to comment
StevieT Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 i LOVE how we all call it the chamber of death! Coming along nice smarsh! I am looking foward to the updates Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 4, 2008 Author Share Posted April 4, 2008 i LOVE how we all call it the chamber of death! Coming along nice smarsh! I am looking foward to the updates All credit of the chamber of death name goes to , StevieT, why they would design a AIO system that requires you to take apart powereheads to change your carbon....I dunno. Thanks for the compliments on my tank. Link to comment
StevieT Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I can not remember if I started calling it that or another member did. Either way, I like it! There are def a few minor changes i would make on the tank if i was producing it. That being one and not using a POS skimmer!!! Link to comment
Oceanic 30g Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I like the look. It is differnt from everyone else's tank. I am hoping you have enough rock in there as you add bioload. I did 40lbs. Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 4, 2008 Author Share Posted April 4, 2008 Yeah I actually have about 40 lbs after adding last part. Im going to post side views of it tonight so you can see the structure. I used tonga branch and fiji to create the shelf system on stilts. The left side bottom is one honey combed rock that has dozens of entrances and exits. My wrasse loves it. It is probably where my sexies are hiding. Sturdy as hell. the flow behind the structure is insaine. No dead spots at all. Thanks for the compliments. Do you think I should fill in the cave in the center? Link to comment
Oceanic 30g Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 Check out my thread and let me know what you think or if you have any advice. I just put the rock in it yesterday. I have had numerous other reefs, but this is the largest reef tank so far. Link to comment
StevieT Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I like the look of caves, but am not a big fan of them with a reef. They take away from room if you want to pack the thing with corals. It's up to you Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 4, 2008 Author Share Posted April 4, 2008 Here are the side views to show the ability for good water flow. Link to comment
lilredneckman Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 May i suggest uploading the pictures from photobucket and then uploading them to here. The the pictures will be bigger and look better. Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 Sorry pics are a little lurry. Working on getting better shots. So Bobby and I decided to start fraging corals. Yesterday he came by and brought a red zoo frag for me and I fragged my GSP, ! for me and 1 for him. I also gave him some green zoo from my colony. We went to a LFS to get more frags for zoo and riccordia colonies. This store lets things go cheap! Bobby bought a zoo colony with over 120 heads for 30 bucks. and we got riccordias orange, blue, green of all shades for 10 a piece. What a Steal!!!!! So anyways we had a blast fragging and getting such deals on nice livestock. Here is a pic of my tank with the new stuff and Bobby's frags and his zoo rock. I will post pics later when everything opens up of my new frags. Link to comment
CASHOUT Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Sorry pics are a little lurry. Working on getting better shots.So Bobby and I decided to start fraging corals. Yesterday he came by and brought a red zoo frag for me and I fragged my GSP, ! for me and 1 for him. I also gave him some green zoo from my colony. We went to a LFS to get more frags for zoo and riccordia colonies. This store lets things go cheap! Bobby bought a zoo colony with over 120 heads for 30 bucks. and we got riccordias orange, blue, green of all shades for 10 a piece. What a Steal!!!!! So anyways we had a blast fragging and getting such deals on nice livestock. Almost forgot about the 6" green elephant ear I got for 30. Here is a pic of my tank with the new stuff and Bobby's frags and his zoo rock. I will post pics later when everything opens up of my new frags. LOOKS GOOD BRO. Post more pics later and email me the rest. thanks Send me pics Link to comment
c est ma Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Looking very nice, Steve! How did you get your rock stable in that arrangement? It looks great, but would seem precarious. Are the rocks glued or pegged together? --Diane Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Diane Thanks for the compliment. My rock structure consists of 4 big main rocks( check out the early pics). When I stacked them they fit so perfect, that I can bang on them and they dont move. I put extra supports with tonga branch. This make an avalanche almost impossible. Link to comment
c est ma Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Lucky you, but I suppose it was your skill in picking it out in the first place. Really gave you some nice height without having that "mountain o' rock" look. -D Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 12, 2008 Author Share Posted April 12, 2008 I've been having a blast fragging and creating zoa colonies. I also took 5 frags off my GSP, kept 3 and gave 2 to Bobby for some different zoas. Thanks to superglue, Bobby and LFS loose polyps, I now have 12 different colonies of all colored zoas. My camera sucks! It is on my list to get a pod and macro lens. Took some pics of fragged GSP, New riccordias and a full view of my tank. I can't wait to get a better camera! Link to comment
noobofreefs Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 That's a cool 'scape! I do like how you don't have a mountain of rocks...it definitely makes it different. Where are you? I don't care if your in hong kong I have to come to your LFS! Seems so under priced! The tank looks great...I love GSP and yours look so good! Good to see how different another RSM can look! Keep up the good work, I'll be checking in again! NOR Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 I live in South Florida. It is hit or miss here. Some stores sell by the polyp, some are just not familiar with what they have. I found a store that has lots of dying corals and closed up species. So I am able to bargain and it is so nice seeing the specimen open in my tank within hours from the store. This one store has a 200 gallon frag tank with cyano, (red slime) algae all over it. I wish I had the room to save all their specimens. Ebay and online dealers have awesome deals as well. Good luck with yor RSM and keep those pics comming. Link to comment
smarsh Posted April 16, 2008 Author Share Posted April 16, 2008 Just a few updated pics....The POS skimmer that the RSM comes with decided to start with the microbubble nonsense again.....I think it is time to listen to StevieT..Otherwise I think the RSM is F***ing Awesome!!!!! Link to comment
c est ma Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Looking very nice--I particularly like that last pic. --Diane Link to comment
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