Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)

[markalot]

4 hours ago, GtTap said:

Been a long time Mark i see your tanks are doing amazing loving the colors man.

 

Hey, thanks, nice to see you.  Is your 75G still running?

[GtTap]

1 hour ago, markalot said:

 

Hey, thanks, nice to see you.  Is your 75G still running?

No its down the room i had the 75 in we changed around and that tank was too big for what we were trying to do so now im back to my 29 gallon that i started with way back when. I'll have to start a new thread about it i miss coming on here seeing all the tanks.

[markalot]

1 hour ago, GtTap said:

No its down the room i had the 75 in we changed around and that tank was too big for what we were trying to do so now im back to my 29 gallon that i started with way back when. I'll have to start a new thread about it i miss coming on here seeing all the tanks.

Good.  Give me an @markalot when you start the thread so I can follow.  

[Orangutran]

Man, love coming here to check out your thread. When my own tank is in the dumps, I come here for inspiration! 

[markalot]

On 8/15/2018 at 12:50 PM, Orangutran said:

Man, love coming here to check out your thread. When my own tank is in the dumps, I come here for inspiration! 

 

Thanks.  Sorry your tank is in the dumps.  :(

 

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Found this video today, made back in June.  How to grow coral.  We've visited the Georgia Aquarium and this reef display.  So far it's the best we've visited in a public aquarium setting.

 

 

 

 

[specore]

7 minutes ago, markalot said:

 

Thanks.  Sorry your tank is in the dumps.  😞

 

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Found this video today, made back in June.  How to grow coral.  We've visited the Georgia Aquarium and this reef display.  So far it's the best we've visited in a public aquarium setting.

 

 

 

 

Definitely a very cool place

[markalot]

Almost 2 gallons of 2 part later.  Alk 6.5, Calcium 450

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Jeeeeze! Looks amazing man! I’m jealous of that growth 🙂 

[Christopher Marks]

😲

[markalot]

On 8/27/2018 at 8:51 PM, HarryPotter said:

Jeeeeze! Looks amazing man! I’m jealous of that growth 🙂 

 

23 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

😲

 

Ha, thanks to you both.

 

So my female clown got spooked by my hand, apparently and jumped into the overflow while I had the lids off.  I had my long net and was screaming at her to get in the damn net, pounding on the glass .... and she swam into the net.  I didn't know what to do I was so shocked, but she let me get her out and back into the tank.  Drama Queen. lol  So she's been on the floor behind the tank after viciously attacking me and now she's jumped into the overflow ... what's her next trick? 

[Christopher Marks]

How's the clownfish doing after its little adventure? That'll give your heart a good workout! 😯

[markalot]

20 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

How's the clownfish doing after its little adventure? That'll give your heart a good workout! 😯

 

Laid eggs 3 days later.  Didn't miss a beat.   :)   Much less stress than when she jumped behind the tank! lol.     My wife forced me to clean up and re-arrange the reef cave so this weekend I will be finishing up.  Lots of new all-plastic 'chest of drawers' to put stuff in.  I get more space, but it has to look nicer than my usual junk pile.  

[markalot]

September update.  Corals doing well.  Even the blue stag is putting on some new growth.  Another month and I'll see if I need to trim and move.

 

 

 

Neon Goby playing hard to get.  The cleaner shrimp are completely ignored in favor of a good Goby cleaning.

[markalot]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one almost died but man, what a recovery.  It's still stuck, very slow base growth, but great color.

 

 

It's near impossible to get top downs on the left side of the tank.  Might need to trim some.

 

 

[teenyreef]

Wow, the lokani is making a great recovery! The colors are fantastic Mark, it's really hard to get reds looking that good. 

 

The green slimer top down is the best though. The contrast with the blue slimer makes it that much brighter. 

[markalot]

4 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Wow, the lokani is making a great recovery! The colors are fantastic Mark, it's really hard to get reds looking that good. 

 

The green slimer top down is the best though. The contrast with the blue slimer makes it that much brighter. 

 

Thanks Teeny.  That's the Hawkins echi in the pic above.  The Lokani has recovered but has a long way to go to get back to how big it was.

 

 

I have two frags of it now though.  

 

Hard to get a pic of the pink milli.  It's a very light pink, and very hairy.  

 

And speaking of hairy, here's the only top down of the hairy horrida.

 

[pal]

woah! Your tank is amazing. I'm going to read through these 222 pages and try to steal some of your tricks. Beautiful

[markalot]

1 hour ago, pal said:

woah! Your tank is amazing. I'm going to read through these 222 pages and try to steal some of your tricks. Beautiful

Thanks pal.  Might want to skip the parts where I killed everything.  :)

 

KH 6.7 this morning.   I am still doing the 12 hour dosing and it's working quite well.  Doser comes on at 10am and goes off at 10pm.  Amount adjusted for the 1/2 day does.   This is keeping daily Alk swings lower than the 24 hour dose, though I'm not sure it matters.

 

 

 

[markalot]

Right side MP40 motor died.  Grumble.   There goes $350 to a new one.  At least this gives me a backup basket and the new quiet drive with the black controlled.   LIKE I CARE WHAT COLOR THE CONTROLLER IS!   😄 

[markalot]

The motor did not die, the cord broke near the pump.  I noticed this only after taking it off.  Not sure why it would break there, should not have been under any stress.   

 

When the motor stopped it fell out of position and the wet side dropped down onto the frogspawn which broke the front off.  It looks better that way but the piece that broke off is too big for even my 40 gallon!  The thing is HUGE.   The clowns have eggs, as usual, right next to where the wet side sits so I was worried as to how I was going to retrieve the wet side without being killed by mama clown.  Fortunately the wet side stuck to my scraper so I was able to slowly extract it and then deftly place it back into position while distracting the female clown with food.  The male clown is too dumb to realize anything was happening.  lol.   

 

The new QD dry sides have a LOT more power than the old loud versions.  I'm using the same wet side and when I turned it on full blast to make sure everything was seated correctly it created a storm in the tank.  Very nice!   The dry side has had a few design changes as well with different attachments based on glass thickness rather than a single fitting that you turned to adjust (which never worked quite right).   It is quiet.

 

I'm going to try and repair the old dry side so I can use it as an emergency backup.  

 

 

[jedimasterben]

1 hour ago, markalot said:

The new QD dry sides have a LOT more power than the old loud versions.

Yeah, they upped the motor power on them. They also removed the small vents on the underside, which is a strange move in combination with added power draw, but they may have switched some internals for ones with a higher thermal threshold.

[vlangel]

I had lots of catching up to do on your tank Mark, but glad to see that it's as beautiful as ever.  Actually more than beautiful, downright spectacular!

Don't ya just hate the law of entropy in regards to our tanks?  At least you got an improvement in flow with the MP40.

[vlangel]

O yeah, I smile when you talk about your female clown.  Mine was just like that, so hormonal!  My pair mated 2Xs a month's for years until I sold them.  I liked them but I had to use a net to keep her from biting me any time my hand was in the tank and I don't miss that.

[markalot]

24 minutes ago, vlangel said:

O yeah, I smile when you talk about your female clown.  Mine was just like that, so hormonal!  My pair mated 2Xs a month's for years until I sold them.  I liked them but I had to use a net to keep her from biting me any time my hand was in the tank and I don't miss that.

Hi Dawn, thanks for dropping by.  

 

Yea, it's fun to complain about the clowns but gets really annoying when I have work to do.  Mine have also started to lay eggs more frequently.  It used to be about 7 days between hatching and new eggs, now it's down to 4 or 5 days.  

[specore]

21 minutes ago, markalot said:

Hi Dawn, thanks for dropping by.  

 

Yea, it's fun to complain about the clowns but gets really annoying when I have work to do.  Mine have also started to lay eggs more frequently.  It used to be about 7 days between hatching and new eggs, now it's down to 4 or 5 days.  

I think the most frustrating part for me is I still jump every time mine bites me.  It's not like it really hurts, and you'd think by now I'd be expecting it.  Yet it still seems to take me by surprise about 50% of the time causing me to flinch and splash tank water everywhere.