20xL mixed rimless - SELLING?

[d9hp]

Great tank. This tank makes me wish I had a shallow tank. Keep up the great work.

 

Thanks...just checked yours out! Awesome growth. Looking forward to seeing some updated photos.

 

Looking good -

 

Hows the growth coming along?

 

Thanks...

 

It's okay. Not really all that great. Hoping that the new D-D Salt will help. GSP and frogspawn are growing. Hammer is extending wonderfully. Monti caps are growing over their plugs but none of the acros are really doing anything. Lost color...not sure what is going on. Waiting to see what the deal is with the nitrate levels though I just did 3 back to back daily 10-15% water changes.

 

The lighting on your tank is amazing!! You have the perfect color! GREAT JOB so far!

 

Thanks a lot! As much as I like the color I am beginning to think MH w/ T5 is the way to go for SPS growth. The LEDs just aren't doing it for me currently. But this is what I've got and this is what is happening!

 

Hey a raleigh reefer! Tank looks great man! I just moved here recently, where is REEFSMART? I've never been to a swap and would like to check it out.

 

Awesome! Here's the information. Lots of parking...free entrance fee. Literally no reason not to show up!

 

Might want to get there before 1PM though because things start to get picked over. But then again at the end of the show people lower their prices on almost everything they bring by like 50-75%

 

I'm definitely going to be there. Been looking forward to it for a long time because the prices are so great and the selection is better than all the LFS in the area combined...in one place!

 

December 4th, 12pm - 4pm

Wake County Commons Building

4011 Carya Dr.

Raleigh, NC

[TheNordCelt]

Thanks, think I'll be there.

[FLNanoReefer]

Wow. Nice looking tank. I love your GSP. Have they grown a lot since first adding them to the tank? I just added some GSP to my tank 4 days ago and they are already taking hold of the rock and growing!! I also love your hammer coral. I was hoping to get one after christmas. Do you think that it is a fairly easy coral to keep? They grow pretty slow, correct? Have you had any problems with it stinging any of your other corals at night?

 

Also, if you wouldn't mind looking at my tank thread and posting a comment that would be awesome. I could really use some advice and a second opinion on a few things.

[Reef Casa]

your set up is amazing!

congrats on the stand and canopy they turned great

scape = wow lights = wow corals = wow everything is wow

I'm trying to a hang a light canopy I just built do you have tips on hanging one?

[d9hp]

Thanks, think I'll be there.

 

Awesome. I think they are going to give out name tags so everyone can put their forum ID and name on them. (Most of the people going also participate in www.CarolinaFishTalk.com, which is where I normally get my livestock as their WTS forum is AWESOME for finding local stuff)

 

I'm Dustin. If you see me don't hesitate to say hello.

 

Wow. Nice looking tank. I love your GSP. Have they grown a lot since first adding them to the tank? I just added some GSP to my tank 4 days ago and they are already taking hold of the rock and growing!! I also love your hammer coral. I was hoping to get one after christmas. Do you think that it is a fairly easy coral to keep? They grow pretty slow, correct? Have you had any problems with it stinging any of your other corals at night?

 

The GSP are going ballistic. Already had to cut a 2" square mat. Amazing. The strain growing in the upper right is the most brilliant green I've ever seen. Thanks about the hammer. It's growing well. It was fragged straight off a large colony at the LFS and I just slid it into a crack in the rock (reefcleaners.org dry rock is amazingly porous). It has since grown about 2cm vertically and there are two little heads growing out of the side (that's what it looks like but I think these things split mouths to form new heads). It looks as though it's about to split as well though.

 

The frogspawn (which is also in the Euphyllia family) was just a single small head when I got it and now it officially has three distinct mouths! Rad.

 

As for growth, everything except GSP, Xenia, Anthelia...etc grows 'slow'. It will take months to see a tank fill in when just purchasing frags the way I did. But I barely have $300 in livestock in this tank (including fish) and that's something I am relatively proud of. Also, I don't have any pieces that weren't taken from someone else's colony except the acan, which I do not know the history of.

 

your set up is amazing!

congrats on the stand and canopy they turned great

scape = wow lights = wow corals = wow everything is wow

I'm trying to a hang a light canopy I just built do you have tips on hanging one?

 

Thanks a lot. Really is nice to have people comment those things because I put a lot of effort into them.

 

I will honestly hang every canopy I build this way from now on. I can't find a picture of what I did at the ceiling but it's easy. I just used LARGE drywall anchors (90+lbs each) and hung 4 individual triangle looking 'hangers'. I then cut galvanized steel wire to size and hung it to the canopy from little eyelets. My roommate helped me measure and hang the thing:

 

And in case you didn't see this here it is again:

Thanks again for the kind words.

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------

So my salt was supposed to arrive today but I won't be there to accept it and I forgot to leave a not. So I'll have to wait a bit more for my first D-D water change. I hope I see results in just a few weeks though.

 

Nothing really crazy to report but I turned my LEDs WAY down. After using the new screen top my SPS started to color up more. It's only been like one week?! The tabling acro that started going brown (not bleaching) now has purple spots all through it. So I've toned things down a bit and reduced my photoperiod to just 7 hours.

 

It's amazing how many variables there are to this. I don't think most of them are real concerns but I see how easy it could be to fail in this expensive hobby.

 

ReefSMART is tomorrow and I can't explain to you all how excited I am! I'm hopefully going to finish off the stocking in the tank other than a few random pieces I find locally through other reefers.

 

Updates to come, of course.

[d9hp]

Frag expo was pretty fun. Snowed a ton today as well. Got lots of awesome stuff all at pretty remarkable prices.

 

Here's the picture of the tank with the top on I promised:

 

Winston:



 

New sunset monti....HUGE POLYPS!



 

The clowns toying with the idea of diving into the torch:



 

My caveman cleaner:



 

Coming out for some tasty spriulina flakes



 

New crocea that's about 3"



 

Florida ricordea and another acro I'm not too sure of.



 

A ton ton of growth on this green monti.



 

And the FTS with cyano included....may the growout officially COMMENCE!



 

[J-Ranko]

Frag expo was pretty fun. Snowed a ton today as well. Got lots of awesome stuff all at pretty remarkable prices.

 

[...]

 

And the FTS with cyano included....may the growout officially COMMENCE!

 

Your tank's been up since September and it's already looking densely packed with corals! I should probably get more frags this month, I feel like I'll never catch up...

[Wilioli]

really love your tank -- thanks for puttin up more pics -- been waiting for those! Really amazing!

[Rehype]

really love your tank -- thanks for puttin up more pics -- been waiting for those! Really amazing!

 

 

+1 Tank looks fantastic.

[d9hp]

Your tank's been up since September and it's already looking densely packed with corals! I should probably get more frags this month, I feel like I'll never catch up...

 

Well I've been fortunate enough to find a number of local individuals that are also in the hobby and in need of some minor project work.

I've made lots of friends and spent very little money comparatively.

 

Today was my second ReefSMART (frag swap/sale) and I only have three peices that weren't taken from another person's tank locally.

 

You can pack your tank too dude...I have a local forum and I just watch when people are tearing a tank down and I go help them clean shop if I have a free lunch or something. I've done that twice now, which is where I got like a bajillion SPS pieces for $20. LFS charge $50-60 for a piece and I don't spend more than $10 on anything special unless it's something really special. Then fifteen dollah onlee.

 

really love your tank -- thanks for puttin up more pics -- been waiting for those! Really amazing!

 

Thanks. I really appreciate all the compliments.

 

+1 Tank looks fantastic.

 

Thanks Hype. There's going to be lots of fragging in the coming months and I'd love to send some stuff to the cube.

[jae4571]

I love that sunset monti! Beautiful.

[briansbelle]

Hard to believe that is only a 20 long..it looks much bigger! Awesome!

[Rehype]

Thanks Hype. There's going to be lots of fragging in the coming months and I'd love to send some stuff to the cube.

 

That would be awesome

[JBM]

wonders how you made that slick looking top

[dontgetbit]

Very nice tank! I am in Raleigh and was at ReefSmart on Saturday. I just setup my 10g last month and its my first saltwater tank. ReefSmart was a great experience and I think we are lucky to have such a great local reef community. I found just about everything except my heater on CFT so far and even picked up a couple of free frags. I will probably buy my fish at one of the lfs but coral is so much cheaper and larger from other reefers.

[d9hp]

I love that sunset monti! Beautiful.

 

It's without a doubt one of my favorite pieces in the tank.

 

I think it would be awesome if you could isolate this thing and let it cover a HUGE rock but I'm not that patient so it goes to monti land.

 

Hard to believe that is only a 20 long..it looks much bigger! Awesome!

 

Thanks a lot belle. The 36" really gave me some options for placement and everything.

 

wonders how you made that slick looking top

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=212941 +

 

wonders no more?

 

Very nice tank! I am in Raleigh and was at ReefSmart on Saturday. I just setup my 10g last month and its my first saltwater tank. ReefSmart was a great experience and I think we are lucky to have such a great local reef community. I found just about everything except my heater on CFT so far and even picked up a couple of free frags. I will probably buy my fish at one of the lfs but coral is so much cheaper and larger from other reefers.

 

Sweet. It's always nice hearing from other Raleigh reefers. CFT is a great resource. Most of my stuff comes from there too. I got all my fish from Down Under in Garner because I think all the other stores in Raleigh are WAY WAY overpriced and most of them are total #######s to me because I don't spend more than $20 there...ever. I don't have any problem supporting local retailers but not if they're ########s. I'm just a grad student so most of the time they don't even acknowledge me in their store because I'm either too young or they don't think I'm going to spend the money.

 

ReefSMART was awesome. I think 60% of my coral has come from there at this point. Good luck with the 10g I'll have to check it out.

[d9hp]

Finally got my package of stuff. Salt seems really well packaged and I've got my first batch mixing now.

 

Tested magnesium at 1200ppm and added 10mL (called for >20mL) of the ESV stuff to the tank to try and bring it up to 1350 over the next few days, which is where the new salt should be at.

 

Nitrate test kit results were something I was REALLY REALLY interested in because I did 4 back to back water changes and I still had algae. Honestly I was expecting it to be like 20ppm even though my API kit has NEVER registered > 0ppm.

 

Tested twice. Both times it was between 1 and 2.5ppm with the new salifert kit. I'm relatively happy with that. I think 1ppm is something to shoot for though. I don't feed very much and I really want to get rid of the little bit of algae on the sand bed.

 

So all in all I have to trust the API kit. It's not supposed to be able to register values that low nor could I read it even if it was like 5ppm.

[tundrashaul]

Those new pieces are looking great, awesome pick-ups.

[TheNordCelt]

Awesome. I think they are going to give out name tags so everyone can put their forum ID and name on them. (Most of the people going also participate in www.CarolinaFishTalk.com, which is where I normally get my livestock as their WTS forum is AWESOME for finding local stuff)

 

I'm Dustin. If you see me don't hesitate to say hello.

 

Didn't end up making it out, closing on a house in 10 days and had to go check some repairs made by the current owners.

Your new stuff looks great though, I'll have to go to the next one.

[d9hp]

Those new pieces are looking great, awesome pick-ups.

 

Thanks man.

 

Didn't end up making it out, closing on a house in 10 days and had to go check some repairs made by the current owners.

Your new stuff looks great though, I'll have to go to the next one.

 

No worries man. I know how it goes. Thanks for the compliments!

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

Well today sucks. Did my first water change with D-D H2Ocean. Lost my ####ing cleaner shrimp. Second one. Done. Gone. Salinity was spot on. Temp was perfect. PH in the new salt was exactly 8.3 and my tank is just a little higher than 8.1. It wasn't even a damn gallon of water. That's what pisses me off. I am trying to take it easy during the transition but are you serious? Are shrimp THAT sensitive? I mean...that's insane. He immediately went nuts and then looked as though everything except his legs were paralyzed. Terrible to have to watch.

 

Seriously...it was like 5% of the water volume and the shrimp just lost his ####. Won't be getting another one of those for a few months I guess. Everything else is absolutely fine. New clam looks like magic. Great PE from the SPS. Real pissed off though.

 

So that's a huge bummer. Don't really like to see things die. Who does though?

[Wilioli]

that doesnt' make any sense.. I was gonna get some cleaner shrimp, but... -- wow, I always figured they'd be more withstanding to changes like that... did a search on wetwebmedia after I read this, and apparently they are sensitive to salinity changes? And that the water has to be stored for a week, and matched to systems sg..!!!!!!! Anyways, useless fact there -- ur sg was spot on.. sucks dude

[sandcruiser]

that's weird as can be

shrimp are a little sensitive to salinity, but the normal ocean varies much more than a point or two ppt on an hourly basis.

 

a rainy day can drive salinity down for hours, if not a day or two

 

shrimp survive

 

something else is going on- maybe pH, but more likely something .... else

 

sorry

[TheNordCelt]

That sucks about the shrimp, I've had peppermints and they're tough as nails.

[d9hp]

that doesnt' make any sense.. I was gonna get some cleaner shrimp, but... -- wow, I always figured they'd be more withstanding to changes like that... did a search on wetwebmedia after I read this, and apparently they are sensitive to salinity changes? And that the water has to be stored for a week, and matched to systems sg..!!!!!!! Anyways, useless fact there -- ur sg was spot on.. sucks dude

 

Yeah I'm positive the sg was fine because I check it at least twice in both tanks just before I change it. Not to mention all the other times I check during mix it. Using a calibrated refractometer.

 

that's weird as can be

shrimp are a little sensitive to salinity, but the normal ocean varies much more than a point or two ppt on an hourly basis.

 

a rainy day can drive salinity down for hours, if not a day or two

 

shrimp survive

 

something else is going on- maybe pH, but more likely something .... else

 

sorry

 

Well I didn't know that but what else could it be. I obviously can't check every single parameter and I know I'm using 0TDS water and all my mixing containers are cleaned every other week. Never had a problem before (except for these damn shrimp)

 

 

That sucks about the shrimp, I've had peppermints and they're tough as nails.

 

Yeah I had a peppermint and he eat a few hitchhiker aiptasias and I never saw him again.

[tundrashaul]

That is weird, are you dosing iodine and did you ever get your calcium levels up?

 

Everything is looking great D, really becoming one of my favorites.