Needreefunds Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Oh God I can't control myself I just bought the Reefkeeper Lite Erm, OK, good luck with all three purchases. Link to comment
Yamato Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 I am so jealous of your impulse purchase. They look so cool, just out of my price range otherwise, I would love to have the vortech 10. I debated on even the Nano K...and didn't end up getting one. I am always trying to use what I have and conserve. Excited for you...those Vortech are swwweet. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 1, 2009 Author Share Posted June 1, 2009 May 31, 2009 The new sump is installed and running. Its nice to have my skimmer and carbon reactors running again. I let my dad borrow my camera, but once I get it back I will take some pictures of the newly designed sump in action. Everything seems to be doing well except for my devil's hand which i accidentally knocked onto some frogspawn. It got shriveled up and then my cleaner shrimp picked a big hole in it . I have since quarantined the coral- in hopes that it will make a full recovery. I have the tracking info for all of my new items (vortech MP20, Reefkeep, RO/DI), so now I have to just try and wait patiently for everything to arrive. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 1, 2009 Author Share Posted June 1, 2009 Jan 1, 2009 Last night I decided to see how level my tank was, and of course it was leaning way back. I hadn't thought the new sump position would mess it up, but I guess I was wrong. Now I have to drain my sump, take it out and add some shims in to level the stand out. Not terribly difficult but still incredibly frustrating. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Jun 3, 2009 Okay, I drained the sump and removed everything. Then I put in a bunch of shims to make it level, returned the sump and the plumbing and filled it up again. Things are finally working again. Also I received my vortech MP20 and installed, it is running right now and is pretty amazing. They really move water throughout the whole tank. Its looking better now that the return pump has been painted black. You don't even really notice it anymore. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but things are much less cluttered in the tank now that the MP20 has been installed. It allowed me to remove the 3 other power heads that had been running. Here is my orange spotted goby, he is the oldest fish in the tank. I had him in my original 8gallon biocube. He doesn't really come out very much so I took this rare opportunity to snap a photograph. You can also see my clam on the far left. I have had the clam for 4 months now and it still seems to be doing well. A package arrived today! No more trips to the grocery store Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 Jun 4th, 2009 I have decided to catalog all of my tank inhabitants. So today I will start with my SPS. I am relatively new to the world of SPS so help with more specific identification would be helpful. Pavona sp? Acropora sp? My camera is being weird right now, the actual color is a vibrant green like the spongodes. Psammocora (perhaps contigua?) Monti Spongodes Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 June 5, 2009 My Reefkeeper arrived today! I mounted in on the front of the stand. I also used this time to mount my VorTech controller on the side of the tank, and set up my ATO. Link to comment
PurpleUP Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Don't forget to update the RK firmware. It's wacky right out of the box. Once you've got it dialed in though, it's SOLID. I've been thinking about an MP10 for my rimless tank, but I worry about the waves spilling water over the sides. I only have a 3/4" clearance. Think I'll be alright? Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 Don't forget to update the RK firmware. It's wacky right out of the box. Once you've got it dialed in though, it's SOLID. I've been thinking about an MP10 for my rimless tank, but I worry about the waves spilling water over the sides. I only have a 3/4" clearance. Think I'll be alright? I have mine set to "Reef Crest" mode, which means it jumps around randomly between 0 and 2000 gph (or whatever you set the max to) It does not splash at all. It does do a good job and jostling the top of the water but it is not splashing. I think you would have to put it on pulse mode to make waves. I would never worry about it going over the side, because I have 100% control over what the pump does. If I thought it was to much power I could just dial it down. I would really recommend getting one of these pumps. They are pretty amazing. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 June 6, 2009 Here is a FTS that I took tonight. The tank seems to be doing well. I am really liking this reefkeeper. I caught my emerald crab snipping off polyps from my toadstool leather this evening. He pinched off about 5 of them that little bastard. I am really not looking forward to removing him. Up until now I have never had a problem with emerald crabs although I knew the possibility was always there. I had to do some major trimming on my devil's hand. It had gotten some sort of infection and was looking really bad so I cut off the top 2/3 and I think that is going to save the remaining portion. I have also had to do a bit of coral rearranging because when the Vortech kicks into high gear it shakes some things loose. Other that that I am in love with that pump. It is pretty amazing. I want to design a small frag rack that will allow me to attach corals to the side glass as well as the overflow. I picked up some eggcrate and just need to work out the details a bit more. I am a little afraid to use magnets in the tank, but that appears to be the only way to do it. Link to comment
Needreefunds Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Sweet FTS! Tank looks happy with the Vortech too Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 Sweet FTS! Tank looks happy with the Vortech too Looks great! Thanks guys. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 June 7, 2009 I thought some people might like to see how I have my tank organized. With a mixed reef one of the things that you really need to pay attention to is chemical warfare between species of coral. I have noticed that my leathers and SPS really do not like each other and if they get to close things get bad in the tank. I run a carbon reactor 24/7 to counter act any of the bad chemicals that the corals are putting out, but placement is the most important way to have a happy reef. You can see I have random GSP and mushroom floating around all over. They sort of just do their own thing. Link to comment
reefdan Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 nice reef! are your cardinals schooling at all? they seemed to be in the first pic you posted but not so much in the second FTS. i've been looking at these (and other schooling fish) for my 40 breeder Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 7, 2009 Author Share Posted June 7, 2009 nice reef! are your cardinals schooling at all? they seemed to be in the first pic you posted but not so much in the second FTS. i've been looking at these (and other schooling fish) for my 40 breeder They sort of do their own thing most of the time, but every now and then they hang out together. I would say 75% they ignore each other and 25% they are in a group. Fish usually stay in schools for protection, so if there are no predators/aggressive fish they don't usually exhibit that schooling behavior. In fact some schooling fish, like chromis, can get aggressive and kill each other in an aquarium. Link to comment
fiction101 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 How do you like the bi color blenny? I was thinking about buying one today. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 How do you like the bi color blenny? I was thinking about buying one today. They are great. Very funny personalities. Mine likes to spend most of the day in a hole in my liverock or his shell watching everything in the tank. Link to comment
sakura51707 Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 after reading page 3 of this thread i am getting really nervous because i am currently in chicago attending my brother's graduation. my tank will be left unattended for five days i pray that everything will be okay and i don't come home to a flood. Not much else I can do...hehe However, your tank looks unbelievable. Absolutely in love with it Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 after reading page 3 of this thread i am getting really nervous because i am currently in chicago attending my brother's graduation. my tank will be left unattended for five days i pray that everything will be okay and i don't come home to a flood. Not much else I can do...hehe However, your tank looks unbelievable. Absolutely in love with it Thank You! I am sure your tank will be fine. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 Something pissed off my acropora and caused one of the branches to go into RTN. I fragged it into 7 frags and discarded the dying portion. It has been about 5 days since and all the small frags seem to be doing well. I had planed on fragging it anyways so its not a big deal but I am curious what caused it. It was on a branch that was far away from any other corals corals so it wasn't chemical warfare. Link to comment
plainrt Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 Good luck with rc ntotm.You got my vote.I got the voting up and hope did it all right on there lol......... Link to comment
capsfan Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 My new toy More of a mountain bike guy myself. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted June 25, 2009 Author Share Posted June 25, 2009 I am on the list for Nano Tank of the Month over at Reef Central. If you like my tank, please vote for me. Link to comment
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