rck Posted July 1, 2010 Author Share Posted July 1, 2010 2 more fun things showed up! ReefKeeper Lite and all the goodies for it... Here it is installed on the side of the stand. And my ER-nano skimmer! Pretty much plug and play.... Drop in and adjust here and there and nice foam! It's a ER... duh! Now just need to get the float switch and set up a fan... It's been running like 83 so i need to get it down b4 I add the fish... rck Link to comment
Clavius85 Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 Tank looks good. Is that a Euro-Reef skimmer? Didn't they go out of business or something? And I'm so tempted to get one of those RKL's. Link to comment
rck Posted July 2, 2010 Author Share Posted July 2, 2010 yup its a euro-reef nano skimmer thats used. Yes they sorta went out of business... the company split up and is now 2 companies and nanoreefsystem.com now makes that skimmer I have. Yes the RKL is one of the best things you can get for your own peace of mind... I had one when I was in the hobby years back it's called ReefKeeper JR back then... They are one of the best things to get... save on space and time having one do all your work for you, lights, temp, fan, pumps, ATO, and all the sensor probes and ####..! worth it all the way and thats why I bought one as soon as I found one used! Link to comment
edge121212 Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 looking good! can you see a difference between the starfire and regular glass? Link to comment
rck Posted July 4, 2010 Author Share Posted July 4, 2010 Come to find out thats all they make anymore in the tank.. Yes it not as green a glass 4 sure. Link to comment
rck Posted July 7, 2010 Author Share Posted July 7, 2010 Did a water test the other night after all the addition and everythings right on the money... I plan on doing a water change at the end of the week and start me down the road of 5gal wc a week for the next few months to try and keep any algae issues at bay. I am starting to see "rust" on the rocks and what not so it's coming. DA ATO switch and parts are showing up on friday so I can get that all going. I already have the RKL up and running all of my other stuff. If you can get one do it! They are a life-saver for heat/cooling/lighting/ATO and much more. I love how you can set the heater, fan and lights all to work together and then there's all the monitoring stuff too, ph, orp and so on. I personally have never been in a "monitoring" mode on previous tanks... but maybe this one I will... For now... basic #### and get the tank where I want it.... I have a bunch really nice marshal island rock that my sister had taken out of her tank to kill the GH algae that had covered it. Its all dried out and I plan on power washing it to get the dead off and then re-structure my rock... I want to try and create a nice arch/cave area so I can hide lower light stuff and fish/critter haven and also a higher shelf for more light loving SPS to live n grow. What are people doing as an alternative to the dual "lock-line" as a return nozzle? Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted July 14, 2010 Share Posted July 14, 2010 i love your rocks and the scape is nice too! What kind of rocks are they? I got you on the list also, thanks for letting me know. sorry for the wait Link to comment
rck Posted July 28, 2010 Author Share Posted July 28, 2010 Marshall Island rock from Premium Aquatics out of Indy... i love your rocks and the scape is nice too! What kind of rocks are they? I got you on the list also, thanks for letting me know. sorry for the wait I added a couple of zoa's frags and a few snails and crabs. My clown made the leap of death so a screen is in the works before I add another fish. Been doing weekly WC of about 5gals and combating green hair algae. Plans are to get a goby/shrimp pair but need to work on a good "cave" spot for them by the glass so the kids can watch in on them... Right now working on getting rid of 2 large brittle star's and a urchin that picks up everything and eats coraline off my rocks before I add any more critter/fish. Link to comment
rck Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 So far this has been a great tank and VERY easy to maintain and VERY quiet! I have had a several tanks from a 7g mini bow nano up-to a full blown 75g display tank with fish-room and a total 400 gals running in sump, fug and frag tank... and I like this tank the best so far! One key factor is access to the rear of the tank or the filtration system. I placed my tank on a wood floor and put sliders under the feet so that I can move the tank "at will" to access the rear for cleaning and any kind of maintenance or pump exchange's. This is huge to me since I have always hated not having good access to the back of tanks. Since this was set up with the contents of a older tank there was a lot of "crap" that came with and in the rock and this stuff got all stirred up and ended up settling all over in the back of the filtration system and having the access to turn the tank and get down into the chambers and suck it out was awesome! suks as a job but nice to be able to see and clean it so not to get a surprise spike down the road when you least expect it. I did this 2 weeks ago and I turned the tank around last night while installing the new light and it was still sparkling clean in all the nooks and cracks! So far so good and making the small upgrades have all been good. Currently in the rear I run a Euro-Reef nano skimmer in the first chamber, then filter media on the top of the second like stock, then in the middle/lower I have 3 stage filter, on bottom is a pond filter, then bio-balls in bags and on top a charcoal bag. SO far seem to be working well on keeping clean and micro-bubble stopper. May go the bio-filter with algae but need to get a good led grow light for it. I just up-graded the lighting from a Sunpod 150w w leds to a Sunpod 250w w these cool Evilc66 Sunpod LED Bars that add 6 3x Cree XR-E royal blue LEDs with 80 degree optics. These slide right into the tracks used to place legs on the fixture and are plug and play. They really provide some nice "VHO like" color which is hard to achieve with just a halide bulb. I put it on last night and WOW these little bar are killer! Only other thing I can see me adding is a full LED light down the road when its more cost effective. Link to comment
rck Posted August 13, 2010 Author Share Posted August 13, 2010 Added a tiger pistol shrimp and a pink and blue spotted Goby is coming next week to be his buddy! I re-scaped the rock.... took out some and added some... and set up a cool little viewing spot for the pistol shrimp's cave, I set a piece of rock and pressed it up to the front glass and set a few piece around it but when the shrimp went in and made his home u can now watch him inside his little cave like on a discovery show...! My kids LOVE it and so do I! Link to comment
rck Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 Got my new fish yesterday and he's FREAKING huge! But it's really pretty! I took him home yesterday at lunch to acclimate and then release. He was hiding behind the LR and had not found his new friend yet... Got home and he was in the cave with the tiger pistol... Sweet! They are buddies now! Pics will come this weekend... Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 Any new updates? Pics? Link to comment
rck Posted September 3, 2010 Author Share Posted September 3, 2010 Ok Update's and photo's..... It's all been doing great! Love the tank! SO easy to maintain and quiet and the new Sunpod with the Evil66 Cree LEDs is FREAKING AWESOME! Moved and replaced the rock work... Had this killer dead coal head rock with all these great spots to place coral and decided to use it as my main focal rock and build a cave around it. I used the stock "Y" and pointed one of the pump outlets behind the rocks to get good water movement and not be a detritus camp-out... Left side shot: Full stand and all... pulled away from the wall for cleaning of the rear chambers. I slide it out and suck out the w/c water from the rear and try and suck up all the trash that collects in the nooks n crannies... Everyone's happy and doing well... the new shrimp and pistol are great buds and it's fun to come home and see what the shrimps been doing all day! Here's Bubba the pink n blue spotted gobie! Doing a 5g week change and adding small amounts of cal. and marine snow. Add a screen to keep fish in... 2 have made the leap so far! Coral shots... New SPS frag from local reefer... A zoa pic... Can't wait till the SPS grow out! Link to comment
txbonds Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Looking good! Are you sliding that stand out while the aquarium is full of water? That would make me nervous. Just curious. Link to comment
rck Posted September 3, 2010 Author Share Posted September 3, 2010 Yup. I placed hardwood slides under the feet. It moves very easily... Link to comment
txbonds Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Yup. I placed hardwood slides under the feet. It moves very easily... Cool. I just got a used solana and put the stand together last night. This is to replace my second cracked biocube 29. I'm hopeful the cube holds long enough to get the new solana setup and transferred. Not sure I'll have the guts to move mine, but think I might get some of the hard wood sliders to put under it just in case. Are yours the type that have the felt material under the plastic puck? Link to comment
rck Posted September 10, 2010 Author Share Posted September 10, 2010 they are hard plastic so they slide... just off the shelf stuff from lowes Link to comment
rck Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 Update 9\17 SO far so good.... Nothing out of the ordinary to report... Few new pics and a new piece of coral but for got to shoot it... Picked up a blastomussa merletti at the LFS this week... I always loved those LPS. Bubba and his buddy Pistol Bubba Cave Sps Link to comment
rck Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 Anyone have a suggestion for a 2nd fish? Bubbas pretty good size (5") but I want something a little more top-tank fun and moves around more and is colorful... So not looking for the typical clowns or 6-line... something like a flame angel or coral beauty angel as long as they dont eat my sps.... any thing else anyone can suggest...? Link to comment
pink4miss Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 a pair of orchid dottybacks? their color is awesome and they will mate and have eggs in the tank and are sweet to watch Link to comment
bruce922 Posted September 17, 2010 Share Posted September 17, 2010 Looking great so far! Link to comment
rck Posted September 19, 2010 Author Share Posted September 19, 2010 Thinking I might go for a swissguard basslet... really cool and very colorful... just need to source a local shop versus a online store I think... there like $79-129... versus there over priced buddies... These are crazy $$$$ this ones $899... i dont see that big of a difference for 730 less! Link to comment
pink4miss Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 i agree very close in looks those two Link to comment
rck Posted September 20, 2010 Author Share Posted September 20, 2010 Well I bought that exact fish above... it was a WYSIWYG item in the divers den on Dr.Fosters... Should have it tomorrow! Link to comment
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