joshky Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 Still a little cloudy but you can get the general idea, I will try to update the FTS again soon. Tower on the left is for a magnifica anemone eventually. 4 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 That scape is just perfect !!! Loving this build,keep it up !!! Quote Link to comment
davy jones Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Youll have to let me know how the skimmer works out! i currently have a vertex 150 on mine but its taking some time to get adjusted which is expected but if it doesnt start working consistently in a month or 2 im looking at the aquamaxx ones. Love that tang, wish i had been able to find one! went with a Kole instead though Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 That scape is just perfect !!! Loving this build,keep it up !!! Thanks, I appreciate it! Youll have to let me know how the skimmer works out! i currently have a vertex 150 on mine but its taking some time to get adjusted which is expected but if it doesnt start working consistently in a month or 2 im looking at the aquamaxx ones. Love that tang, wish i had been able to find one! went with a Kole instead though Will do, right now I'm in the process of trying to get mine running right as well. I read a lot of reviews that the Vertex 150 was hard to get dialed in so I didn't go that route, it scared me off. Hopefully you can get yours running correctly as I think it's probably a really good skimmer after you get over that hurdle. I love my White Tail Bristletooth, it's a great fish. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Something everyone should have for their tank: 2 Quote Link to comment
Elizabeth94 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Tower on the left is for a magnifica anemone eventually. Aren't those supposed be be difficult to care for? Please disregard my lack of intelligence on these creatures. I just thought they were difficult to keep and that they were destructive to other corals, and even eat your fish. Edit: That tops looking good. I paint the mesh on all of my tanks black, makes them less noticeable. Unless, of course, you like the white look. Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Hey Josh, I didn't know (or forgot) you were over here as well. I like the scape! 1 Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Aren't those supposed be be difficult to care for? Please disregard my lack of intelligence on these creatures. I just thought they were difficult to keep and that they were destructive to other corals, and even eat your fish. Edit: That tops looking good. I paint the mesh on all of my tanks black, makes them less noticeable. Unless, of course, you like the white look. Mags are definitely a hard anemone to get in your tank healthy, I have a good bit of prior experience with them however. Once you get a healthy one (usually after treating it with antibiotics), they are pretty hardy, no harder than SPS I'd say. Mags like to be in the highest spot they can, as long as it doesn't feel that there is a higher location to climb to it'll pretty much stay put. Also they do not eat healthy fish. The mesh is clear for light penetration. Hey Josh, I didn't know (or forgot) you were over here as well. I like the scape! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out myself, thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Well it's still not dialed in how I like it, but we're getting there. Came home to some decent skimmate. I'm thinking I made the right choice on skimmers. 2 Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Damn that skimmer is putting in some OT !!!! Quote Link to comment
Giga Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 I do love me some colored sticks! Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Damn that skimmer is putting in some OT !!!! I'm pretty happy with it so far! I do love me some colored sticks! Yeah me too! I can't wait to order some more but I'm going to wait and see how these do for a little bit and get everything up and running. Still need to hook my doser and apex up soon, hopefully next week. Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Went to a local frag swap today and picked up a Hawkins Echinata frag, Red Dragon frag, Oregon Tort frag, and Jason Fox Red Hot Setosa frag. After I got home I tore them off their frag plugs, and then dipped them in 10ml to 1 cup of bayer solution for 10 minutes. After the dip and rinse I inspected them and found out the Red Dragon had red bugs... great! I quickly turned my observational 20g QT into a temporary SPS QT, after a quick water change and building a ghetto frag rack out of egg crate it was ready. I'm hoping for the best but scared for the smooth skins as they went through a lot of stress today. I guess my plan of attack is to continue dipping in bayer until I no longer see red bugs, or should I try to get my hands on interceptor? I apologize for the crappy picture quality, here are the acros in QT right now. Setosa was from a different vendor and it looked okay so it's in my tank. What was sold to me as Hawkins Echinata Red Dragon Oregon Tort 2 Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 Something that I meant to revisit and never did was my plumbing. After getting it all put together and doing my leak test I had a few minor leaks, I was kind of on a schedule and didn't have the time nor the money to put into more schedule 40 pieces and accessories to try and fix it. I ended up going with the soft threaded PVC which overall I think looks okay, just not what I really wanted to do. Also my 6 months worth of Prodibio Biodigest and Bioptim came in today, I went ahead and did the first dose of both of them which was 1 vial of Biodigest and 2 vials of Bioptim. I will be doing that every 15 days for the next 6 months and possibly longer depending on how I feel around the 6 month mark. And last but not least I visited a local veterinary clinic today and put in an order for interceptor, they had to do it through their online pharmacy as they didn't have any in stock so I'm hoping to hear back from the online pharmacy soon to complete the order and get it shipped in. I figured this would be the safest route and if I ever need it again I should have plenty. 1 Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 Small photo update for you guys! 6 Quote Link to comment
JR! Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 can i have some of them duncans lol Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 can i have some of them duncans lol Haha I love the pastel colors under these T5 bulbs, my favorite colony from my old tank. Last time I counted it's over 80 heads so I probably need to frag them soon, just not quite yet. Quote Link to comment
JR! Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 when you do i would love some. hit me up man Quote Link to comment
Wretched Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Beautiful setup! Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 when you do i would love some. hit me up man Will do, thanks. Beautiful setup! Thank you! Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Youll have to let me know how the skimmer works out! i currently have a vertex 150 on mine but its taking some time to get adjusted which is expected but if it doesnt start working consistently in a month or 2 im looking at the aquamaxx ones. Love that tang, wish i had been able to find one! went with a Kole instead though Just wanted to get back with you, I've had the AquaMaxx CO-2 skimmer running for almost a week now and it's been running really great. I ran the skimmer without the cup on for 3 days (not at night time, as it's in my bedroom), and then Friday of last week I put the cup on for the first time. I had to dump 3 or 4 cups of pretty wet skimmate to get it running, but after that it has started to pull out nice dark skimmate. I don't like to run my skimmer super dry, so if that's what you're after I cannot comment, but what I'm pulling out now I'm very happy with. My only complaint is that it's not really a quiet skimmer, which was why I went with this skimmer. I contacted Marine Depot the first day but I didn't reply back to them as I wanted to let it break in first. I'm going to try and troubleshoot it further now that I'm confident it's had enough time to break in. Basically I'm getting a pretty noticeable vibration noise from the pump and a decently loud whistling noise coming from the silencer. It's by far the loudest thing on my tank at night after lights out, as my ATI sunpower is a little noisy from the fans. I find it hard to believe that this is the norm for these skimmers, but at the same time my system is super quiet so perhaps there's only so much they can do to quiet down a skimmer and this is what I should expect. I imagine if I had kept the durso, had regular mp40s (no quiet drive), and had a mag return pump, that I would consider this skimmer quiet, but I don't. Anyways, overall I like the skimmer, just need to figure out the quiet part and I'm sold. 1 Quote Link to comment
davy jones Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Thanks for the update, ive been running the vertex omega 150 for probably a month or so now and i think i finally have it dialed in. Im getting dark green colored smelly sludge. And the tank has a pretty light bioload right now so thats nice. In terms of noise its probably the loudest thing in my system as well but the overflow is literally silent, the return pump is damn near silent and the fan on my ati retro is pretty silent. dont get me wrong, its still 'quiet' as i dont hear much but the silencer pulling air. And when the cabinet is closed i can barely hear it. Wonderful looking system BTW, Ill be keeping my eye on this thread Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Thanks for the update, ive been running the vertex omega 150 for probably a month or so now and i think i finally have it dialed in. Im getting dark green colored smelly sludge. And the tank has a pretty light bioload right now so thats nice. In terms of noise its probably the loudest thing in my system as well but the overflow is literally silent, the return pump is damn near silent and the fan on my ati retro is pretty silent. dont get me wrong, its still 'quiet' as i dont hear much but the silencer pulling air. And when the cabinet is closed i can barely hear it. Wonderful looking system BTW, Ill be keeping my eye on this thread Great to hear your skimmer is running better now! It sounds like we have similar systems as the only noise on my tank is the skimmer running. I love how quiet my herbie overflow is and man do these new QD ecotech products run quiet! If I have to, I can live with the noise my skimmer makes. I think if I were to put a piece of plywood on the back of the stand it would really help, but I didn't want the additional weight and the trouble of making ventilation/cuts for plumbing. I might reconsider that choice down the road, but for now I think it's fine and I'm nitpicking a good piece of equipment. Quote Link to comment
davy jones Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Not sure if the aquamaxx has the same type of silencer that my vertex does... But one thing ive read that helps reduce noise is tossing some paper towels or tissues in the silencer, (you may have to adjust the skimmer a little after that as it obviously restricts air flow) and i thought about doing that but since its finally skimming good i decided not to mess with it lol Quote Link to comment
joshky Posted October 23, 2015 Author Share Posted October 23, 2015 Not sure if the aquamaxx has the same type of silencer that my vertex does... But one thing ive read that helps reduce noise is tossing some paper towels or tissues in the silencer, (you may have to adjust the skimmer a little after that as it obviously restricts air flow) and i thought about doing that but since its finally skimming good i decided not to mess with it lol Very interesting, I'll have to give it a shot sometime this week. Thanks for the tip. 1 Quote Link to comment
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