Surprise Attack! Trying Something New!

[Marc.The.Shark]

Zoas island is going to look amazing...already does!

How's the assessor temperament....peaceful or dickish?

Super docile! Got the ORA captive bred from Unique & the clown chases it a little here & there, but no big issues. The orchid is okay too. He was picking on the assessor at first, but no more.

[teenyreef]

My white slime still seems to be at bay. Been battling zero NO3/PO4 tho & started dosing Spectracide a couple days ago, also went down just a tad in my lighting as well. I have a lux meter, but no par meter for whatever that's worth. General idea I guess. Well, the addition of the Nitrates from the Spectracide immediately perked up some stubborn zoa's. Added a 2nd dose today and hopefully we'll see the trend continue. Here's a pic of my zoa rock, a bunch from my old tank & a few new ones I recently aquired. This is the rock on the right of the tank. It should look good when they start to fill in. Also my yellow assessor is out constantly all day long & the orchid dotty most of the time. Need another fish, just can't decide on what, something colorful. Also, ignore my photo skills.....shitty! Lol, looks better in person. Maybe I'll have to bust the Oakley's out again & use the lens for a filter! Lol, gotta find 'em.

 

Looks great!

 

My golden assessor is very peaceful too, but he's not shy. He's really a great fish for a small tank.

[Marc.The.Shark]

So, Looks like I'm getting a diatom bloom, yay! Why yay, you say? Well, I never really had much in the way of diatoms before the white slime/fuzz reared its ugly head. So I take this as a good sign that I'm finallly get back to where I need to be. CUC is starting to work on it, but I'm not worried at this point, happy to see it! PO4 is still zero on the Hanna ULR and NO3 is almost undetectable, so I've been dosing Spectracide every few days to keep some in the tank as feeding wasn't helping. Also, broke out the Oakleys to take some actinic shots. These are a better representation than the earlier crappy pics that I posted. Also, my green psammocora that I thought was for sure a goner, may make it after all. I cut it at the base that was encrusted on a plug and pretty awful looking. Also trimmed a few nubs that were dieing & it seems to be on the mend. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Zoa Rock....

 

Rock to left. Added some encrustiers. You can see my RFA at the base, still a little hidden but better. Still can't find the other one that disappeared into the rock, been a couple weeks now

 

One of my acans...

 

Bubblegum Digi starting to color back up from shipping.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Tank's doing better & better, finally starting to settle in. Haven't seen any white slime in quite some time & have been getting some sporadic algae & diatoms on sand/rock. Starting to clear tho and coral are looking better. I added fish #4, a Salon Wrasse a couple weeks ago. Been hiding a lot in my multiple caves, but not shy when I come up to the tank and starting to free swim more and more.

https://instagram.com/p/BNs72cpB2Dy/

Also, I didn't lose my green psammocora like I thought I would. It was looking pretty bad & I trimmed it back & took off a few branches and cut it off the it off the encrusted base as that was dead. It made a come back & healed over the spots I cut off & is looking very good. That's good cause I hated to lose that piece!

https://instagram.com/p/BNs7yzOBiJA/

Also ordered some frags

JF DayGlo Favia

Psychedelic Favia

Pink Digi

JF Pink Stylo

JF Grassy Fields Stylo

Reef Gen Yellow Sponge

Sunset Monti

JF Burning Banana

BioReef Anacrapora

JF Special Porites

Not all open yet as they have only been in the tank a few hours when this pic was taken.

https://instagram.com/p/BNs5E5-hfdo/

[Marc.The.Shark]

Time for a new FTS. Don't know what happened to the pics above from instagram POS! Lol, whatever, went to Photobucket mobile app that StevieT suggested & it works good. Still have some frags to clean off the sand, but it's coming together. Have a 24k Lepto dead center& boy is that thing bright!

[Muraki]

Haven't been into your build in a while. I have missed a lot. Tank is looking excellent. I think you may have motivated me to re-plumb my tank with all PVC and get rid of the flex tubes.

[vegasgundog]

Coming along very nice

[Marc.The.Shark]

Haven't been into your build in a while. I have missed a lot. Tank is looking excellent. I think you may have motivated me to re-plumb my tank with all PVC and get rid of the flex tubes.

Hey buddy! Long time no hear! Yeah, it's finally starting to come around. Startup issues like any new tank, but the slime was surely a PITA! You know how it goes, bumps in the road for you in the beginning too! I love the hard piping & having it out of the way for sure, but I think I put in one to many 90's, took forever to get it quieted down! Lol. Dead silent now tho! How's your tank, been updating your thread?

 

Coming along very nice

Thanks gundog!

[Muraki]

 

Hey buddy! Long time no hear! Yeah, it's finally starting to come around. Startup issues like any new tank, but the slime was surely a PITA! You know how it goes, bumps in the road for you in the beginning too! I love the hard piping & having it out of the way for sure, but I think I put in one to many 90's, took forever to get it quieted down! Lol. Dead silent now tho! How's your tank, been updating your thread?

 

I have been horrible about updating my thread sadly, overall not to much has changed. Haven't been buying corals either. I remain a rookie in the reefing game mainly because I am trying to fine tune everything while remaining "lazy" before I continue stocking. Been experimenting some slowly, but eventually I will probably get to updating my thread again. In the mean time, I enjoy just reading thru everyones posts. Also very glad to see many of these long tanks running.

[jack1978]

Looks great, Marky Mark!

[Marc.The.Shark]

Looks great, Marky Mark!

Might look better with a Disco Ball... hmmm....

[jack1978]

Might look better with a Disco Ball... hmmm....

I ...

[Rehype]

Wow bud you knocked this one out of the park. Dont know how i missed this thread but I just finished reading through it and your attention to detail and DIY skills are to be admired. Seriously great job man looking forward to seeing this mature.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Wow bud you knocked this one out of the park. Dont know how i missed this thread but I just finished reading through it and your attention to detail and DIY skills are to be admired. Seriously great job man looking forward to seeing this mature.

 

Thanks, helluva compliment coming from some of the best looking tanks I've seen in your threads! I'm sure you won't disappoint me on your new one either. Too bad I'm already set up.....can't steal any more ideas! lol

[Marc.The.Shark]

Well, been a while since I posted pics, just been plugging along getting things stable. An occasional loss here & there, but nothing major. Put some Digi's in a while back to test the waters & they seem to be doing good along with an Anacropora & a Setosa & my green Psammy that made a nice comeback. Just ordered a SPS pack & we'll see how that goes. Been battling zero Nitrates and have been dosing some to help that. Had some washed out colors, but since I've been adding NO3, everything is coloring back up. Been super busy with work & a 2 year old & we are building a new house, so I'll have a tank move in the fall.

Limited pic taking skillz! Lol, best I can do.

 

 

 

 

[RIP Sebastian]

I frickin' love this tank. Looks great! The dimensions are perfect.

[Marc.The.Shark]

4 hours ago, RIP Sebastian said:

I frickin' love this tank. Looks great! The dimensions are perfect.

Thanks! My intent was to give the illusion of it being bigger than it actually is. Worked out well with the dimensions & aquascape.

[Marc.The.Shark]

Always looking for something to improve upon my random flow situation. I have no powerheads in my tank by design, relying on a Jebao DCT 8000 running @ 90% along with a SCWD that switches every 10 seconds. This does quite well kicking the flow around, but it could always be better right? Well, I came across something called a RFG Nozzle by a new startup called VividCreativeAquatics (.com). This looks very promising. It looks like a flow accelerator, but the internals are designed differently. They snap on to standard LocLine and I will try a couple in place of my standard nozzles. Videos on the site look encouraging and if works as advertised, should make my flow setup that much better. Stay tuned for an unbiased review...

[Rehype]

1 hour ago, Marc.The.Shark said:

Always looking for something to improve upon my random flow situation. I have no powerheads in my tank by design, relying on a Jebao DCT 8000 running @ 90% along with a SCWD that switches every 10 seconds. This does quite well kicking the flow around, but it could always be better right? Well, I came across something called a RFG Nozzle by a new startup called VividCreativeAquatics (.com). This looks very promising. It looks like a flow accelerator, but the internals are designed differently. They snap on to standard LocLine and I will try a couple in place of my standard nozzles. Videos on the site look encouraging and if works as advertised, should make my flow setup that much better. Stay tuned for an unbiased review...

 

Tank looks beautiful man...im a bit jelly. Thanks for the heads up on the RFG nozzle I just ordered two  I was looking into buying a flow accelerator but this is even more promising. Let me know what you think of them!

[Marc.The.Shark]

45 minutes ago, Rehype said:

 

Tank looks beautiful man...im a bit jelly. Thanks for the heads up on the RFG nozzle I just ordered two  I was looking into buying a flow accelerator but this is even more promising. Let me know what you think of them!

Will do. I have them in hand, but have to install on my second set of return mock ups, then swap out. I tried to snap off the damn LocLine flow nozzles In the tank, but I've went from PVC to CPVC to LocLine & Im scared I'll break the bond between the CPVC & LocLine, which is fragile at best. 1/2" CPVC looks a lot less intrusive on over the top returns, but posed a problem in converting to LocLine, for which I solved in a somewhat fragile marriage. Hopefully this weekend for swapout.

[Weetabix7]

6 hours ago, Marc.The.Shark said:

Always looking for something to improve upon my random flow situation. I have no powerheads in my tank by design, relying on a Jebao DCT 8000 running @ 90% along with a SCWD that switches every 10 seconds. This does quite well kicking the flow around, but it could always be better right? Well, I came across something called a RFG Nozzle by a new startup called VividCreativeAquatics (.com). This looks very promising. It looks like a flow accelerator, but the internals are designed differently. They snap on to standard LocLine and I will try a couple in place of my standard nozzles. Videos on the site look encouraging and if works as advertised, should make my flow setup that much better. Stay tuned for an unbiased review...

 

Hmmm, this sounds interesting, really looking forward to your review. 

Also really enjoying reading this thread. 

2 yr olds, work and a building a house can take up A LOT of time, and it's even more impressive what you've done in light of that. 

 

[jedimasterben]

I've actually used an eductor kind of like that design, they do work, but it's nothing revolutionary without a looooot of pressure lol.

[Marc.The.Shark]

5 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Hmmm, this sounds interesting, really looking forward to your review. 

Also really enjoying reading this thread. 

2 yr olds, work and a building a house can take up A LOT of time, and it's even more impressive what you've done in light of that. 

 

Thanks! Yeah, I've got my hands full at the moment. My son loves to "help" me with the tank! Lol. He helps fill the ATO and "Quish" the fish! Hahaha, that's his way of saying feed the fish with the Turkey Baster! Lol, I guess that's the sound it makes to him when he squeezes the bulb, plus it just sounds really cool!

3 hours ago, jedimasterben said:

I've actually used an eductor kind of like that design, they do work, but it's nothing revolutionary without a looooot of pressure lol.

Yeah, I'm hoping I have enuf behind it to do what I want. My returns are in either corner & I still get a bare spot in the front center sand with Reefflakes, so we'll see. I do lose a lot of flow with the SCWD & the over the top returns cause of all the 90's, but oversized the pump to compensate. Not a huge investment if it doesn't pan out & I have a big graveyard box of parts that these would look sweet in (right next to the oxydator)! Lol. To be honest tho, I have used that oxydator on occasion to dose peroxide, so it's not a total dog!

[Marc.The.Shark]

Well, still haven't gotten the RFG nozzles installed. Hectic life = no time! Lol. Shooting for the holiday weekend to try out & clean my pump/swap SCWD. But I did get a little better pic of the tank thru my Oakleys! Ha

 

Have a few acros to try out. The ones I mounted are doing ok, PE and starting to color back up. They were maricultured, so always a crap shoot. I have a few on a frag rack on the back/bottom that are browning out, so gonna move them up on the back wall with a magnetic rack to more flow/light and see if I can get them going.

 

My second Solar Wrasse disappeared. First one went missing, nowhere to be found after 2 months in the tank. Bought a second one a month later, somewhat smaller and after about 1.5 months...vanished. Been leaving the top off, but didn't find either on the floor. Only explanation is my feeding habits, the tank gets fed 3-4 times a week because of my work schedule & maybe with the wrasses being so active, I'm starving them. All my other fish are fine with this schedule, but will look for something more tolerant when I purchase another fish. Neither one looked to be malnourished tho, so idk.

[RollaJase]

Tank is looking great mate.