{ RoT_Reef: {[ PicO_20G, NanoBox_Duo, KZ ]}} // New pics 12-16-2015

[Rehype]

Looks great man....love your scape

[defender.TX]

Looks great man....love your scape

 

Thanks! Everything is doing great - Acans are exploding under this new light.

[defender.TX]

Good news! The Nano in 90 competition moderators decided this build thread was evidence that the tank was not started until after July 1st, so even though I didn't take the proper pictures of the tank empty they are going to let me participate anyway. Pretty excited about that.

[farkwar]

Hope you win.

 

Its not like one can actually grow a tank in 90 days. What keeps someone from just taking thier best stuff from their large tank and gluing it into a small tank?

 

TaDa!!!!

[defender.TX]

Hope you win.

 

Its not like one can actually grow a tank in 90 days. What keeps someone from just taking thier best stuff from their large tank and gluing it into a small tank?

 

TaDa!!!!

 

That's a good point because that's basically what I'm doing. There is a $500 budget for all coral and they have "fair market value" set for everyone moving coral out of one tank into the nano. It's usually per polyp or colony size. So, for example, even though I've only spent $39 on actual coral for this tank, I only have about $100 left in my budget because I moved so much from my other tank.

 

It's really more about aquascaping and to see what people can do with a $500 coral budget when starting a new tank. Also, coral/livestock losses count against you, so you have to be careful and show that you can manage a tank (at least in the short term).

[farkwar]

Well, it just looks way too easy to rig, by any account.

 

But I wish you, and any other NR big good luck for first place.

 

I see Austin Aqua is a sponsor.I watched a vid with them about 6 months ago. And ive been tracking them via saved vendors on eBay. No luck for me doing thus.You look like youre neighbors, cool on that.

[defender.TX]

Well, it just looks way too easy to rig, by any account.

 

But I wish you, and any other NR big good luck for first place.

 

I see Austin Aqua is a sponsor.I watched a vid with them about 6 months ago. And ive been tracking them via saved vendors on eBay. No luck for me doing thus.You look like youre neighbors, cool on that.

 

Yea, it does seem kind of easy to rig I guess. It's a small community so I guess it doesn't hurt to run on the honor system. I actually got all of my Acans from Austin Aquafarms, it's a pretty nice shop. My only complaint is that the name "Aquafarms" makes you think they aquaculture the coral so you can imagine I was hugely disappointed when I found out all my Acans were wild harvested in Australia .

 

As for updates, I just bought an ORA Purple Undata Montipora and have it attached to my arch. Looks really cool. Hopefully I'll find time to get some pictures soon.

[defender.TX]

Did some tank maintenance this weekend and took some pics. Maintenance was the standard fair, water change, cleaning the glass, etc. I've been dosing 1 drop of KZ Coral Vitalizer every day and 1 drop of Sponge Power every other day. I'm going to let my existing stock of blue bottles run out and switch to the Red Sea Reef Care Program (Foundation, Energy, and Colors). Seeing decent growth on the Stylophora and have tons of new polyps on the People Eaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wildbill79]

Looks good! Love the acans!

[defender.TX]

Looks good! Love the acans!

 

Thanks! I turned the blues way up to see what they look like under the actinics since I run my tank around 12K during the day. I was surprised to see green and red fluorescent proteins in the acans that normally just look kind of brownish.

[defender.TX]

New gadgets! I got my CADLights PLS-50 Elite skimmer in the tank. So far I'm basically just running it to break it in, I haven't messed with tuning that much. This skimmer is shockingly quiet. I can't hear it at all over the ambient tank noise. So far I have to say that the build quality on the skimmer is very impressive, big ups to CADLights so far. We'll see what kind of skim I can pull off over the next few weeks.

 

 

Also - I'm moving in two weeks to a new house! Yikes. I always hate moving tanks, so I hope it goes smoothly. I have some Acropora plans for the tank but I don't want to do that until I move - no need to put new corals through added stress.

[TeamIM24]

New gadgets! I got my CADLights PLS-50 Elite skimmer in the tank. So far I'm basically just running it to break it in, I haven't messed with tuning that much. This skimmer is shockingly quiet. I can't hear it at all over the ambient tank noise. So far I have to say that the build quality on the skimmer is very impressive, big ups to CADLights so far. We'll see what kind of skim I can pull off over the next few weeks.

 

 

Also - I'm moving in two weeks to a new house! Yikes. I always hate moving tanks, so I hope it goes smoothly. I have some Acropora plans for the tank but I don't want to do that until I move - no need to put new corals through added stress.

How is the new skimmer working?

[defender.TX]

How is the new skimmer working?

 

Great! I really, really love the skimmer. Whisper quiet and is pulling some nice skim. I also moved the tank to my new house and everything made it! Very happy that it's finally back up and running.

[TeamIM24]

Congrats on the move. I am sure you are glad to have that stress behind you.

[Pesciolino69]

Congrats cawboy!

[evanski]

Did I mentioned we are moving to Austin? Looking at houses tomorrow!

[defender.TX]

Did I mentioned we are moving to Austin? Looking at houses tomorrow!

Congrats cawboy!

Congrats on the move. I am sure you are glad to have that stress behind you.

 

Thanks! And that's awesome that you're moving to Austin. It's a pretty nice place.

 

Coming up, I just bought another PicO Naked 12" Cube from Chris. He was testing a new clear silicone and I thought the finished product looked good so I bought it . It's going to be my wife's tank.

 

 

It's going to have another NanoBox, heavily planted, CO2, and Crystal Red Shrimp. Because I really like nano-reef I'll probably put some pictures of it in here.

 

I also have massive growth on all my coral right now - my people eaters have gone from 3 polyps to 12, ten or so new polyps on my Acans total, and the Monti and Stylo are growing like crazy. I'll have updated pics soon.

[rocksmom]

Thanks! And that's awesome that you're moving to Austin. It's a pretty nice place.

 

Coming up, I just bought another PicO Naked 12" Cube from Chris. He was testing a new clear silicone and I thought the finished product looked good so I bought it . It's going to be my wife's tank.

 

 

It's going to have another NanoBox, heavily planted, CO2, and Crystal Red Shrimp. Because I really like nano-reef I'll probably put some pictures of it in here.

 

I also have massive growth on all my coral right now - my people eaters have gone from 3 polyps to 12, ten or so new polyps on my Acans total, and the Monti and Stylo are growing like crazy. I'll have updated pics soon.

 

You'll have to post pictures when you get your CRS tank set up. I miss mine, I had them in a 60F. Didn't have a ballin' nanobox over it though!

[defender.TX]

You'll have to post pictures when you get your CRS tank set up. I miss mine, I had them in a 60F. Didn't have a ballin' nanobox over it though!

 

Oh I will! In all honesty I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to Planted Tanks - I've had one Fluval Spec with Cherry Shrimp that had low light plants but they never really flourished. My wife has always been really interested in planted tanks so this is going to be our first attempt.

[rocksmom]

 

 

Oh I will! In all honesty I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to Planted Tanks - I've had one Fluval Spec with Cherry Shrimp that had low light plants but they never really flourished. My wife has always been really interested in planted tanks so this is going to be our first attempt.

 

Have you been on plantedtank.net? Really great forum. Lots of plants and shrimp on the classifieds too. I bought my neos and crystals from a guy named speedie on there. My blue neos were bulletproof, I swear. They made their way into every tank I had and even survived a winter outside in whiskey barrel pond. Here's what my 135 gallon looked like thanks to everything I learned on that site:

[defender.TX]

Have you been on plantedtank.net? Really great forum. Lots of plants and shrimp on the classifieds too. I bought my neos and crystals from a guy named speedie on there. My blue neos were bulletproof, I swear. They made their way into every tank I had and even survived a winter outside in whiskey barrel pond. Here's what my 135 gallon looked like thanks to everything I learned on that site:

 

Wow, beautiful! The red plants are very impressive, I understand those are difficult. I did have a build thread on Planted Tank with my Fluval Spec but I just never had much success (admittedly because I never put as much time into it as I have on my reef).

 

Unfortunately, my Firefish "Fred" was stuck to my MP10 this morning . I've had him for around a year and it's a tough loss. Frankly, he never took to the move very well. He didn't find his original hiding cave (even though it was in the exact same place) and he would go 3 days between feedings.

 

So, I need to replace him. I'm thinking about a Jaguar Goby but I haven't made up my mind yet.

[defender.TX]

So one pretty big bummer was that the custom PicO Chris made for me was lost in transit - I believe someone stole it from the front porch. He's been really helpful through the entire process and I plan on ordering a replacement soon.

[defender.TX]

I noticed over the weekend that, even though my PLS-50 Elite skimmer is pulling out some really nasty skim, my glass is covered in brown algae about 2-3 days after cleaning it. Nitrates are undetectable using a Red Sea Nitrate Pro test kit. I figure that must mean I have some phosphates in the tank that aren't being dealt with.

 

Right now I'm running a pure Berlin filtration system: live rock, water flow, and protein skimmer only. No chemical filtration of any kind (although I do use Poly Filter Floss pads from InTank). To deal with Phosphates I figure I can throw in a bag of Chemi-Pure Blue OR get fancy and buy a CADLights NR-1 Pro nano reactor and run GFO in it.

 

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[rdck99]

I'd have a LFS test for phosphates before investing in anything. I've never detected phosphates in my tank, nitrates have never read more than 5-10, and I do a weekly 25% water change, but still get some algae on the glass from time to time.

[evanski]

Did you move to N Austin?

 

We are in the Domain in corporate housing, closing on a place in N Austin later this month...then will be setting my IM 16 up. The Fluval 2G Spec is in rough shape but everything except a monticap made it.