Steely185's rimless 75 edge

[steely185]

I decided while the reef was rebuilding it would be a good time to upgrade the skimmer. I pulled the trigger and ordered a Reef Octopus Extreme/Diablo 8 Inch XS200 protein skimmer. It's rated for 200 gallons so it should work great with a future heavy SPS tank. No upgrading on skimmers for a while. I just look forward to it arriving.

[steely185]

My setup is nice and clean now. I hooked the calcium reactor back up and have my power center (power strips, controllers, etc..) up and arranged. The organized power center really cleaned things up. The only thing not hooked up is my auto top off. I need to get that worked out still. I currently don't have biopellets running. I will probably set them back up when the new skimmer shows up. I will have to remove some rock from the sump to make things fit with the skimmer and biopellets.

[steely185]

I picked my corals back up from my coral sitter. My final survivors are: a few frags of tricolor, green birdsnest, half my blue milli colony, a small portion of blue tenuis (doubt it makes it), bird of paradise, six acan lords, a lobo, about 1/3 of my gorgonia, and a handful zoas that are finally opening up. I think it's going to take things a while to color up again.

 

I may pick up a few pieces this weekend. Looking at picking up an ORA chips acropora and a cali tort frag.

 

I failed to mention that I completely cleaned out the sump this past weekend. No more detritus and no more old dead frags. It should be nice and clean other than rock in there right now. The new skimmer arrives thursday so that should be exciting.

[21093r53]

you need tonga branching rock to achieve that jap look

[steely185]

I've got some more. Just wanted to get my corals back first before adding more to any rock structure.

[steely185]

New skimmer arrived today. Might as well skim right with this fresh start. Excited to try it out.

 

 

[d'Espresso]

Skimmer look like a beast mode!

[steely185]

It's a beast. It takes up most of the sump. It's got a bit of a hum to it. It's going to take a little getting used to but if it performs I will forgive it.

 

Not much room for live rock in the sump. I will eventually remove some and maybe add my biopellet reactor. Right now it's just skimmer and rock for filtration.

[chachew]

Just read this entire thread, man its ashamed what happen to all your awesome corals. Im sure this new setup in the tank will go even better!

[steely185]

Thanks. I will have it running better than ever in a few months. I'm just taking some extra steps now to help improve the long term results.

 

I kind of like starting fresh. It gives you a blank canvas to paint and room to improve on what you had previously. I will try some new corals and new placement as well.

[steely185]

Anxious to check out what's collected today. Last night was mostly small bubbles coating the neck and moving. This morning was a nice thick foam gaining color but not reaching the cup. I had to adjust my water level and I imagine I will have to as it gets a little more broken in.

[steely185]

Right now my current coral list is as follows:

 

SPS:

Chips Acropora

Cali Blue Tort

green birdsnest

bird of paradise

pink birdsnest

blue tenuis (not sure this one will survive all of the crash)

wild blue millipora

tricolor (browned out from all the stress we will see if it survives)

 

LPS:

purple and green lobo (still coloring back up)

7 different acan lords

tyree babies breath favia

random green and gold favia

 

softies/clams/etc.:

random zoas/palythoas

derasa clam

blue crocea clam

blue maxima clam

ORA grube's gorgonia

 

These are my survivors. No fish were lost and the tank is doing much better now. Just getting everything back to healthy again. I've got a few more corals lined up. I've got some ORA hawkins echinata and ORA purple stylophora waiting for me. I'm looking locally for some red planet (sucks that I lost mine because it was really looking good) and pink lemonade.

 

Here's a look under the tank with the new skimmer and organized power center. It could be a little better under there but the calcium reactor and CO2 tank take up some space.

 

 

bad picture

 

[jam77]

Just curious what kind of container you are using for your ato water ?

[steely185]

I haven't set it up yet. I was using a 30 gallon black rubbermaid tote. Not a trashcan but a storage container.

[steely185]

I'm giving a serious consideration to switching back to T5s for a bit. I'm interested in a 6x54 ATI dimmable fixture. I like how two channels can be programmed to ramp up and down from 100%. It adds a nice look and a PAR filled output. I'm just curious if any shimmer is visible if I supplement with some LEDS. Any thoughts.

 

I'm in no way opposed to keeping what I got.

[d'Espresso]

No shimmer in my t5s but I did supplement with 2 moonpop from ledtric.com and it gave an incredible actinic shimmer. I am trying to save up to get a reefbrite for supplement like rehype have on his but the moonpops will have to work for now only. Lol

[steely185]

Just thinking it over right now. Too many home projects right now but if I can swing it then I will. The dimming capability is really appealing. It allows a nice way of tweaking colors by changing intensity without going the route of LEDS.

 

Here was an example I found in another post:

 

"2. can u dim individual bulbs so you can tweak color or is this more a novelty for a sun rise and sun set effect ?

 

Both. But we can not dim every single bulb seperately. We have two dim-channels in our Sunpower. Two bulbs on the first channel and the other bulbs on the second channel. In this way it is possible to play around with colors if needed. For example you can place two purple plus on the first channel (more red) and Blue plus on the second channel. If you think that it is too much red in your tank you can dim the first channel at 50%.

This is just an example...."

[steely185]

I found one of my blue eyed cardinals dead and stuck to the mp40 when I came home yesterday. I think he was the runt of the 4. He was the outsider that didn't stick with the other 3.

 

I may pick up some hermits this weekend to help cut back on some algae. The new rock has finished it's cycle and has begun it's algae cycle. I will probably throw some GFO back on line again this weekend to help kill it off quickly.

 

I will hopefully be picking up 4 more frags this weekend. I've got some ORA hawkins echinata, ORA purple stylophora, ORA red planet, and shades of fall all lined up. I'm slowly getting some things back in shape with the tank. I will try and update some pics this weekend after making some minor changes to rockwork and mounting some corals.

[Arkayology]

Dang, seems like your tank is taking the move really hard Steely. I hope that it starts to stabilize and recover quickly.

 

I will hopefully be picking up 4 more frags this weekend. I've got some ORA hawkins echinata, ORA purple stylophora, ORA red planet, and shades of fall all lined up. I'm slowly getting some things back in shape with the tank.

 

That is a good list of coral to add. I am looking to get a frag of shades of fall and purple stylo as well.

[steely185]

Thanks. I will be adding a pink lemonade as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[steely185]

You can notice the rocks going through their algae cylce in the pics. I may have to pick up some hermits to help knock it out. It should drop off on it's own. This weekend I may hook up my biopellets again or just hook up my GFO reactor again. I figure knock out the phosphates early on in the tank.

[steely185]

I'm debating on heading to the fish store this afternoon. They had a 4-5" maricultured piece of acropora chesterfieldensis or so they claim it to be. It's got a decent yellow color to it at the store and that says a lot since this store happens to have some of the worst lighting in town. I use them for dumpster diving and finding diamonds amongst the other browned out pieces of coral. I have a feeling it would light up quite a bit under my radiums.

[animalmaster6]

Looking good! Glad to see you're recovering from the setback.

[the gzaa]

I finally finished catching up on your thread. Can't wait to see how well this tank will turn out!

[Rehype]

Really love the new scape dan....its going to look sick when everything grows out.