The "my wife doesn't like fish tank furniture" build

[MockandRoll]

28 minutes ago, Jrodinnola said:

1) The main reason I've been absent on the forums so much (besides spending all my free time working on the business) is that my wife and I have a fresh cut Frag that has arrived!  Our first son, Jace, was born July 26th and is doing well!  

 

2) My service company is starting to do pretty well, and I may be able to do installs and maintenance full time soon!  I've partnered with a local fish superstore around here to do all of their maintenance and installs, and I'll be at MACNA standing with them (aquatic sealife) at booth 330, so feel free to stop by and say hello!

Congratulations on the arrival and health of your boy! Also good to here your startup is doing well.  How did you do with the flooding? Did any local tanks get hit?

[gogeta]

Such awesome corals!

[Jrodinnola]

11 hours ago, MockandRoll said:

Congratulations on the arrival and health of your boy! Also good to here your startup is doing well.  How did you do with the flooding? Did any local tanks get hit?

Thanks!  He's our most expensive frag yet, lol.  Also, we did fine with the flooding and none of my maintenance tanks were affected either, thanks for asking!  It was crazy that a random summer storm caused so much flooding... apparently some of the city pumps weren't operational, and weren't pumping out enough water downtown.

10 hours ago, gogeta said:

Such awesome corals!

Thanks!  I'm looking into adding a few more "high-end" pieces into my collection, but I'm going to take it one step at a time, lol.

[Jrodinnola]

Random update - I was staring at some bowsers I purchased almost a month ago, thinking to myself that their color is looking much better than when they first arrived.. so I took a picture and the before and after is pretty nice!  Hopefully once I bring them up into higher light I'll get more intense coloration.

[Christopher Marks]

Quite vivid, they look really happy now!

 

How about a fresh FTS this month? I love watching this one progress! Have you mounted any new frags?

[.Boris]

On 2016-10-19 at 7:04 PM, Jrodinnola said:

This is what underneath the tank looks like:

 

 

Oh, only 8 gallons. That must be so simple and easy to care for!

[Jrodinnola]

9 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Quite vivid, they look really happy now!

 

How about a fresh FTS this month? I love watching this one progress! Have you mounted any new frags?

We'll, I've made a few frags to help pay for the WD acro, so I'll have some reverse growth shots.. lol.  I'll take a fts for you anyway, lol.

 

5 hours ago, .Boris said:

 

Oh, only 8 gallons. That must be so simple and easy to care for!

I originally used the 8g to just save money on filter media, salt mix, and cleaning time since we had a new baby and I was in college, but I configured the filtration setup for a 35-60g so I could just swap the tank whenever I was ready.  It's now a 41g and only takes me about 20-30 mins to mix my water, do a 25% wc, change the filter sock, clean the skimmer, change out all filter media, change out the top off water, and clean up all my buckets and tools... so it's not too bad.  It also has automated dosing and top off, and I'll probably reinstall my apex AFS soon as well just to keep things stable.  I'm starting to run out of room in my electronics cabinet, lol.

[.Boris]

1 hour ago, Jrodinnola said:

I originally used the 8g to just save money on filter media, salt mix, and cleaning time since we had a new baby and I was in college, but I configured the filtration setup for a 35-60g so I could just swap the tank whenever I was ready.  It's now a 41g and only takes me about 20-30 mins to mix my water, do a 25% wc, change the filter sock, clean the skimmer, change out all filter media, change out the top off water, and clean up all my buckets and tools... so it's not too bad.  It also has automated dosing and top off, and I'll probably reinstall my apex AFS soon as well just to keep things stable.  I'm starting to run out of room in my electronics cabinet, lol.

My comment was meant as a joke related to your picture of a small cube on top of a cabinet full of tech stuff.
Very nice work by the way!

[Jrodinnola]

43 minutes ago, .Boris said:

My comment was meant as a joke related to your picture of a small cube on top of a cabinet full of tech stuff.
Very nice work by the way!

 Lol, its hard to tell sometimes, and thanks!  I've had a lot of people comment on other threads like "that's a hell of an 8g", but it was never meant to stay that way! Lol

[Jrodinnola]

So, as I've mentioned before, I own an aquarium maintenance and install company, and sell a few choice frags.. pretty much all collector stuff.  Well, MACNA was here in my hometown this past weekend and one of my longtime clients stopped by to check out what they had to offer... one thing led to another, and now I'm growing out a Homewrecker frag for him, and we're going to split it and sell a few.  The thing I'm most excited about is that people trust me enough to give me the chance to do this... It's a great feeling.

 

You can read a little more about it on my local forum that actually organized MACNA this year (link has verification photos and all):

 

http://www.bayoureefkeeping.com/forums/topic/16925-jf-homewrecker-acro-a-new-level-of-trust/

 

 

I'll keep y'all updated as this progresses!

[HarryPotter]

$$$$

[Jrodinnola]

3 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

$$$$

You know it. Lol

[Jrodinnola]

Double update:

FTS of my DT as requested by @Christopher Marks

Everything is doing well, but I'm going to start dosing nitrates as my sps coloration is a bit in the pale side.  I tried just feeding heavier, but the algae growth really accelerated.  I purchased some stump remover and have tested it on both my QT tank as well as my frag tank, and will start KNO3 dosing early next week on the DT. 

 

MACNA was awesome!  I got to meet a lot of awesome people and local forum (Bayoureefkeeping) members, and even picked up a few pieces to add to my collection.  Aside from the HW, I now have frags of TSA Bill Murray, PC rainbow, Paletta pink tip, and an extra bubblegum digi (I already have one, but TSA's were gorgeous).  I also just picked up a Tierra del Fuego and a sniper blue last week... I really won't have room for these to grow out.  Lol

 

And a fts of my coral QT tank:

 

I keep a few random pieces in the QT tank along with one snail and one hermit, just to keep the tank ready for any new coral- whenever I buy some.  Whenever I get a new piece/pieces, I just put a magnetic rack on the front glass and put the new stuff on the racks.  I take the rack out when I'm not in QT mode so it doesn't look like a QT tank, Lol. 

 

Lastly, since adding the HW, I've added an additional battery backup... with all the storms slamming the coast lately, I'm trying to be proactive instead of reactive.   Hopefully I'll find a good deal on a generator soon, lol. 

[Travis]

I had the opposite issue in my tank. I ended up haveing to dose PO4 to get it up to 0.04-0.08ppm. 

 

Those battery backups for ecotech pumps only?

[reefhugger]

That is nice. Really  really nice.

[Jrodinnola]

9 minutes ago, Travis said:

I had the opposite issue in my tank. I ended up haveing to dose PO4 to get it up to 0.04-0.08ppm. 

 

Those battery backups for ecotech pumps only?

Yeah, I've been doing some research on nutrient imbalance, and it seems having one or the other too low can really cause  your corals to do weird stuff.  Anyway, we'll see how it goes. 

 

And yep, those are Ecotech specific battery backups.   If you're using another type of plan, you may consider looking into a UPS battery back up.   I don't have much experience with them, but I've read that a lot of people like them 

[Travis]

1 minute ago, Jrodinnola said:

Yeah, I've been doing some research on nutrient imbalance, and it seems having one or the other too low can really cause  your corals to do weird stuff.  Anyway, we'll see how it goes. 

 

And yep, those are Ecotech specific battery backups.   If you're using another type of plan, you may consider looking into a UPS battery back up.   I don't have much experience with them, but I've read that a lot of people like them 

I was looking at the icecap ones. They come with adapters for several different dc pump plug styles. 

[Jrodinnola]

2 minutes ago, Travis said:

I was looking at the icecap ones. They come with adapters for several different dc pump plug styles. 

I haven't seen those?  I'll have to check into them.. that would be super convienient with the extra plugs!

[Jrodinnola]

58 minutes ago, reefhugger said:

That is nice. Really  really nice.

Thanks!  I think it's come out pretty nice too.  I also just realized this build has been going on for 2.5 years.. lol

[Jrodinnola]

So these came in yesterday...

 

 

Took almost 3 weeks to get them, but I wanted the XHO's in the silver casing that would match my ATI fixture vs the standard black housing that most retailers carry. 

[Travis]

Nice! Time to get that shimmer and pop going huh? lol

[Jrodinnola]

1 hour ago, Travis said:

Nice! Time to get that shimmer and pop going huh? lol

Lol, that and I watched a talk about saturating coral in blue light for better coloration... and these come ready to mount to an ATI fixture, lol.  Adding two fixtures was probably overkill though. 

[Christopher Marks]

Nice addition! You should shoot a little video to get some before and after clips with and without the LED shimmer! I bet it will really sparkle  

[Reefkid88]

Now lets see some good pics !!!