StevieT Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Wow, what a deal I guess, even if it is more snails than you need. haha, i bet it does look like an army on the glass. Link to comment
kveille Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Nice pics. Sorry to hear about the firefish. I ended up getting a regular firefish, but he hangs out in the rock all day and I never see him. As StevieT said, that is a mushroom. Did you add something to one of your return pumps? Also, what does the extra piece on the end of your Hydor Koralia do? One came with mine and I wasn't sure about it's purpose. I am glad you submitted an update, I was begining to think the RSM build threads had come to an end. I will be submitting an update in the next few days. I ended up re-aquascaping, adding a ton of zoa frags and a few other corals. I just want to clean up the tank before any pictures are taken. Link to comment
mrnugget Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Nice pics. Sorry to hear about the firefish. I ended up getting a regular firefish, but he hangs out in the rock all day and I never see him. As StevieT said, that is a mushroom. Did you add something to one of your return pumps? I am glad you submitted an update, I was begining to think the RSM build threads had come to an end. I will be submitting an update in the next few days. I ended up re-aquascaping, adding a ton of zoa frags and a few other corals. I just want to clean up the tank before any pictures are taken. Thanks for stopping by! I had been slacking on updates as I wasn't getting much by way of comments... didn't think anyone was paying attention. Holidays also take some time... Yep, forgot to mention I added the Hydor Flo to one of the return jets. Took a bit of futzing to get it to stay on the loc-line (had to 'stretch' the adapter just a bit to fit around the outside diameter of the loc line), but it hasn't moved since in spite of getting bumped by the mag float a number of times. I have it set to break up the surface a bit, but it wasn't keeping the film off the way I'd hoped, so the other jet is set to break the surface as well... both still need some tweaking. I've got some GHA growing in the return jet, I don't think the snails can get to it while the pump is on. Thanks for the comments! Open to suggestions on additions / layout... just winging it at this point. Link to comment
kveille Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 mrnugget What heater did you replace the stock heater with? My stock heater is starting to crap out on me and with these cold temperatures I want to replace it with something more reliable. It seems that the stock heater just stops working and I have the wiggle the wire, shake it and tap it to get it working again. It is driving me crazy and I am worried about my livestock. Link to comment
StevieT Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I put a stealth in mine. The stock RSM heaters are JUNK! Link to comment
mrnugget Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 mrnugget What heater did you replace the stock heater with? My stock heater is starting to crap out on me and with these cold temperatures I want to replace it with something more reliable. It seems that the stock heater just stops working and I have the wiggle the wire, shake it and tap it to get it working again. It is driving me crazy and I am worried about my livestock. Stealth heater, around $16. Haven't had a problem with temp since. Link to comment
kveille Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Which model or how many watts? Link to comment
mrnugget Posted January 22, 2009 Author Share Posted January 22, 2009 Which model or how many watts? Pretty sure it's the 150watt model, which should be the same wattage as on the RSM version. If you look at Drs. F&S, I think they have them listed under Visi-therm Stealth Link to comment
furious george Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 WOW!!! Great looking tank! keep up the good work. Link to comment
coralcor Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 WOW!!! Great looking tank! keep up the good work. Link to comment
ReefKing Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Your RSM is looking great! Can't wait till all the coraline covers my back wall like yours. Btw, what are your livestocks? Link to comment
mrnugget Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 Your RSM is looking great! Can't wait till all the coraline covers my back wall like yours. Btw, what are your livestocks? Good timing on the livestock question... just got back from the LFS with Purple Firefish II. The first try didn't end up so good, but it's time to try again. Other than the firefish, the CUC is a mix of snails (turbos, astreas, ceriths, dwarf ceriths, and nassarius) as well as some very small hermit crabs. On the coral side, keeping it simple to start: Star Polyp Zoa "Combo Colony" (two different zoa types and a plain paly) Zoa "make up your own cool name" (blue centers with kinda reddish/orange) Green-centered Favia Solomon Island Calvularia (a type of polyp) After the 'false start' with the firefish, and then the bryopsis treatment, we're going to try to run the playbook for the fish stock (Purple Firefish > Neon Goby > Bengai Cardinal > Yellow Assessor > Pair of clowns) over time. I just finished (last night) setting up a 10 gal AGA with some of the old liverock rubble (deadrock now) and a scoop or so of livesand to act as a QT tank for the neon goby and the rest before they go into the display tank. Not sure it's completely necessary, but I had the tank and a spare pump, and I needed the distraction. Thanks for checking in! Link to comment
Elite Twit Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 pichers please You update worse than me, and I'm busier than you! Link to comment
mrnugget Posted June 9, 2009 Author Share Posted June 9, 2009 You update worse than me, and I'm busier than you! True dat. I'll see what I can do.... should probably take a few pics and update before I tear out some rock - found some bryopsis when I was putting in the new frags, hate to go thru that again... Link to comment
JLwaves Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 Looking good, the color on your rocks looks great and looks like the additions are doing well. Link to comment
mrnugget Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 I've been reminded that I am way overdue for an update, and this thread needs pictures! Since January, when I last updated (wow - been a busy winter/spring i guess), I added the neon goby and bengai cardinal as planned. Unfortunately, the goby went missing some weeks later, and shortly after that the cardinal met his demise. The cardinal loss was mostly my fault: I had done a feeding, and was out doing something else and asked my youngest to turn on the pumps after an hour. He reported that he did, but I didn't check. Turns out, he turned off the heater rather than turn on the pump, and it was a rather cold night. By next day, cardinal was crab food. The goby was never seen again. About a month ago, I got around to getting another neon goby (this one even smaller than the first for some reason), and added another bangai cardinal last weekend (tank raised, but also on the small side). I'm not a huge fan of the cardinal (seems to hide in the back most of the day, comes out when it's dark), but Mrs. N. likes it. The next fish will be the yellow assessor (if I can ever find one), or I'll have to look at other options. The bryopsis problem which had gone away came back, at least somewhat. I found some growing on the original clove polyp frag and some in the sand. I removed the frag (the cloves had spread somewhat to the adjoining rock, so not a complete loss) and scooped sand and bryopsis and disposed of both. I thought this was the end of it, but noticed last weekend when placing some new frags that there is a small patch in a crevice in the lowermost liverock. Right now, I have it covered with some black plastic, but after reading others horror stories, I'm not convinced this (along with the Kent Tech M I've been dosing) will be enough to wipe it out. I'm seriously considering tearing down the left side of the rock structure, taking out that rock, and flame throwing the offending section. Maybe I can save some of the other stuff (misc. cloves and the Combo Colony Zoas) that have spread on that rock. It's a nice piece of rock - has a good hidey-hole for the firefish, so I'm a little worried about stressing him out when I remove it. We'll see how it goes. Figure the plastic can't hurt, but I'm not sure it's going to fix it - and it looks crappy. The new frags come courtesy of Amnestesia (I'm sure I botched the spelling and will have to edit) but more directly from EliteTwit, a local member who was good enough to share shipping costs with me and provide some fragging services along the way. The Blue Tubbs, Black Cherries, Kedds Reds, and my single Horizon polyp (the freebie) were all picked up last week after being cared for by Elite for some weeks after fragging the Tubbs. Somewhere over the past months I also picked up a torch frag, a small acan frag and a frag of duncans. Come to think of it, there was also a nice frag of GSP from JamesnMandy which has filled in nicely, along with a handful of cheato that has more than doubled in size. I have half in the back chamber of the RSM (next to the skimmer), and the other half in the 10 gal AGA QT tank (along with another GSP frag that is holding it's own but not really growing under that single crap bulb). The cheato seems to love that single bulb though - I think I get more growth on the AGA tank with the crap bulb than I do in the back chamber of the RSM with the two 5watt halogen bulbs (got the last one in the USA, I think!) Anyway, on to the pics, will make some notes as I post. First, the FTS: I guess the good news about not knowing what I'm doing with frag placement is I've never glued anything down. Should make it easier if I have to take rock apart. On the other hand, I do put up with the frag plug look until they get covered. Kedds Reds (I think), Tubbs, and Torch (nice growth since the single head frag I picked up in February) Tubbs Blues on the left, duncan on the sand (got a bunch of babies coming along), the remains of the original cloves on the rocks behind (haven't looked the same since the bryopsis Mg treatment), the single Horizon zoa polyp (looking forward to see how that fills out), the J&M GSP, and the other original zoa colony behind. On the left side, the original zoa/paly combo colony (not crazy about the palys, but they seem to like it), the acan on the sand, Favia on the rocks behind, and the Tubbs blues in the upper right. Also, the black plastic covering the bryopsis sprouts. Center of the tank, Favia, Black Cherries, Tubbs and Torch. The favia has shown some good growth as well, looking back at the pics earlier in the thread. I was going to skip this pic, but it's the only one where you can see what is left of the cavularia cloves. They didn't do so well earlier this year, and I thought they were gone for good. I did find a single nudibranch on them, but by the time I did, it was too late - most had melted away. Within the past few weeks, they seem to be starting to come back, and don't show any signs of 'munching.' Had a hard time getting a shot of the acan - my camera doesn't like to focus on stuff near the glass, and I can't find my tripod, so there's a bit of shake in these pics. Will try to get a better shot next time. This started as a single head with two half-heads (if there is such a thing), and likes to eat the Rod's Food. Not sure what's up with these zoas - they seem to be struggling lately, and can't figure out why. Haven't found any pests on them, and as you can see, the other zoas in the tank seem to be doing well. Sorry for the blurry pic - hopefully it will look better before I get a clear shot. The most recent additions. Horizons. Tubbs Blues (and guest appearance by neon goby) Kedds Reds (or black cherries, they look similar to me) Black Cherries (or Kedds Reds, someone can straighten me out here) Duncan and GSP And finally, the Mushie hitchhikers... starting to spread, as StevieT predicted. oh, and the neon goby again - he likes getting in the pics. Thanks for looking! Link to comment
Elite Twit Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I've been reminded that I am way overdue for an update, and this thread needs pictures! The next fish will be the yellow assessor (if I can ever find one), or I'll have to look at other options. The new frags come courtesy of Amnestesia (I'm sure I botched the spelling and will have to edit) but more directly from EliteTwit, a local member who was good enough to share shipping costs with me and provide some fragging services along the way. The Blue Tubbs, Black Cherries, Kedds Reds, and my single Horizon polyp (the freebie) were all picked up last week after being cared for by Elite for some weeks after fragging the Tubbs. Kedds Reds (or black cherries, they look similar to me) Black Cherries (or Kedds Reds, someone can straighten me out here) Thanks for looking! About damn time! I've got some PD's and NG's if you want some of those as well. Or some of my pinks/pink and blues. Those two have really taken off. Come down my way, Will at Aquatic Obsessions in Avenel just got in Yellow and Blue Assessors. http://www.aquatic-obsessions.com/ Tanks looking good! Next order next month if you want to get in on that. Still deciding where I'm gonna order from. Also taking a ride to NYC to check out UniqueCorals.com if you want to car pool. And you got the frags right. Kedd's have the shiny red, Black Cherries have the ring. Link to comment
smarsh Posted July 14, 2009 Share Posted July 14, 2009 Looking good mrnugget. Nice coraline growth! Link to comment
mrnugget Posted August 17, 2010 Author Share Posted August 17, 2010 Hope everybody has had a good year! Didn't realize it had been so long since I've been on NR, guess life gets in the way. Having a problem, and looking for ideas... In brief - bryopsis is back. Over the past 6 months or so, I've been fighting a losing battle with the beast - it has slowly established a foothold in almost all of my liverock, and worse yet, in the cracks around the return screen (impossible to get it all off there). Every two weeks, I've been doing manual removal and dosing Kent Tech-M, but it comes back just as strong. I'd post pics, but it's embarassing. Last week, freak t-storm browned out the power, and my RSM hood more-or-less died (no lights, and the led's just blink). So, now comes the question - tear it all down and quit? Tear it down and restart? Or replace the hood and keep trying? Link to comment
mrnugget Posted August 29, 2013 Author Share Posted August 29, 2013 Guess I can add to this thread - thought I had posted at least something here in the last 3 years! Short story: Replaced the hood from the above (so now I have a semi-non-functioning hood just BEGGING for an LED setup - maybe later) Hurricane Irene - lost power 3 days, lost some fish Winter storm (snow in October) - lost power 5 days, lost rest of fish and some coral Hurricane Sandy - lost power 10 days, pretty much everything else gone. Mixed in there were some half-hearted efforts are re-stocking, a kitchen remodel project which had me tear down the tank and move it into my home office, and then about 6 months of live rock / salt water tank sitting here staring at me while I got a backup generator for the house. So, this week did a big water change and cleaned up much of the yuck that has accumulated on the rock, replaced the RSM bulbs with two that I hadn't used yet, and about ready to change the media (Chemi-pure and purigen) before I add some new livestock. Oh, of course, my MP10 is making all sorts of dry-side motor noises, so will need to get that repaired, but I can work on my restock plan while I get that sent off to EcoTech. So - thinking I may just start back up with corals, and see how that goes. I know I shouldn't look at the fish different than the corals, but I've had better luck (and better survival rates) with the coral - at least, the kind I've stocked in the past. (Better being relative, as they were all pretty much wiped out in the end.) So, looking for suggestions on some coral adds to get started, Been looking at the selections at Pacific East and Unique Corals, along with Cultivated Reef. Want to start with enough to make the shipping worthwhile, but also want to make sure I get some interesting pieces with varied color - hard to do all from one site. Anyway - what's been going on around here? Is StevieT married yet? Link to comment
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