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Cultivated Reef

TJ's Bust'em Up Custom Reef - Big News!


TJ_Burton

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Since I rarely post coral shots on this thread, I thought maybe I should haha. I picked up a few Aussie acro frags from my lfs. They weren't mounted and extremely pale from being shipped, but had great polyp extension which was a good enough sign for me to give them a try. One resembles Wolverine, the other two are kind of like shortcake in color. Hard to say what they will become, but hopefully in a few weeks they will be looking much better!

 

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A quick FTS update. Tank is looking less coralful now that I've removed the majority of softies and LPS that i wasn't intending to keep. I did pick up a Derasa though! I'm currently babysitting a blue Maxima for a friend as well.

 

Now I can focus on gluing down all the corals on the frag rack and getting the rack itself out of there.

 

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12 minutes ago, markalot said:

Good news on the T5 fixture. :D  Can;t wait to see those acros color up.

 

Might go with a hybrid solution in the future ;)

Seriously tough, I do love the Radion. I have had great success with them in the past, but just don't have the time to fuss with it right now. T5HO has always served me well when I've used it so it was a no brainer.

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Decided to restore an old mistreated 4 bulb T5HO fixture and breathe new life into an eyesore. Figured the guts were still good, so no reason to toss it aside.

 

Should be finished on Monday!

 

Started with a build-able primer over the textured powder coat.

 

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Gave it a sanding and then on went the paint.

 

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After base coat and top coat it is looking pretty good. Throwing a few clear coats on and then time to reassemble.

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5 minutes ago, DaveFason said:

Make sure you get a really good clear coat for this. The heat can do odd things, believe me I know! 

 

-Dave

 

Solid tip!
I actually used automotive paint and clear coat for this fixture because I was worried about heat. I figured if a car can sit out in the sun all day and get hot enough to cook an egg, the fixture shouldn't have issues. Fingers crossed!

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Managed to get it all finished (less the cord wrap which is still on its way). Now to find something to use it on... maybe I will do a planted tank or something later hahaha.

Since it turned out pretty decent, I might do 2 other fixtures I have laying around.

 

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Not sure what it is with me and rusting aquarium equipment, but I noticed my corals had started to get similar symptoms to the ones in my 20 gal that experienced a rusting sleeve within a Coralife UV sterilizer, so I decided to run Metasorb and Chemi-Pure Blue and noticed improvements within days. That prompted me to start inspecting all my equipment, which revealed that my Icecap K2-50 protein skimmer impeller was rusting at the top of the magnet. JOY! 

So I have discontinued use of that skimmer, and whipped out my trusty old JNS CO-1 to take over for the time being. It is much larger, meaning less room in the sump, but I can't get the K2-50 back in action until I get a new impeller which nobody in my area carries. Might just run the CO-1 until I find a skimmer that fits the color scheme of my Frag Fuge sump, and switch over when swap out and re-plumb the system.

 

In other news...

My wife started having contractions last night! Should be meeting my son in the next couple of days :D

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mitten_reef
46 minutes ago, TJ_Burton said:

Not sure what it is with me and rusting aquarium equipment, but I noticed my corals had started to get similar symptoms to the ones in my 20 gal that experienced a rusting sleeve within a Coralife UV sterilizer, so I decided to run Metasorb and Chemi-Pure Blue and noticed improvements within days. That prompted me to start inspecting all my equipment, which revealed that my Icecap K2-50 protein skimmer impeller was rusting at the top of the magnet. JOY! 

So I have discontinued use of that skimmer, and whipped out my trusty old JNS CO-1 to take over for the time being. It is much larger, meaning less room in the sump, but I can't get the K2-50 back in action until I get a new impeller which nobody in my area carries. Might just run the CO-1 until I find a skimmer that fits the color scheme of my Frag Fuge sump, and switch over when swap out and re-plumb the system.

 

In other news...

My wife started having contractions last night! Should be meeting my son in the next couple of days :D

HAHA, should have dropped in here before making the other thread's comment. That is a very exciting news, and days of butterfly and anticipation! Wish you and yours the best. 

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1 minute ago, micoastreefing said:

HAHA, should have dropped in here before making the other thread's comment. That is a very exciting news, and days of butterfly and anticipation! Wish you and yours the best. 

 

:P I answered you there as well! hahaha. Thanks so much! We are so excited to meet the little guy :)

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Hope your new little one arrives soon, is healthy and a great sleeper!!

I've enjoyed the heck out of both my boys, hope it turns out the same for you with this little guy. 

Also, I had never heard of Metasorb before, but it sounds like a very useful product and I have it bookmarked now. 

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6 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Bummer about the impeller but exciting about the baby!  I have a nephew coming next month, can't wait to meet him!

 

Meh... is what it is! Hopefully Icecap is willing to replace the impeller at no cost.

 

7 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

Hope your new little one arrives soon, is healthy and a great sleeper!!

I've enjoyed the heck out of both my boys, hope it turns out the same for you with this little guy. 

Also, I had never heard of Metasorb before, but it sounds like a very useful product and I have it bookmarked now. 

 

Metasorb is one of the newer TLF products, I think. Honestly, after my run in years ago with that Coralife, I pretty much always have Cuprisorb and now Metasorb on hand.

 

And thanks! Our daughter is now 20 months and just boatloads of fun! Nothing short of pure half-wit entertainment :P hahaha. We are really excited for her to have a brother! Getting the ol'snip snip after this one; I think we will be good with 2.

 

7 hours ago, TILTON said:

Tank looks good man.  Congrats on the newborn coming your way.

 

Thanks :) it is definitely coming along! Hoping for some really nice progress shots in a couple months that include a lot more growth/coral in general!
And thanks!

 

6 hours ago, Sharbuckle said:

Tank looks great. The refurbished T5 looks awesome! Congratulations on the soon to be baby. ExcitIng times. 

 

Thanks for the grats :D
I personally am pretty smitten with how that light turned out! I now have to do the same thing to the 6 bulb unit that is over the reef. I am going to have to start another tank for that 4 bulb hahaha.

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Here is my little rusty impeller from the K2-50. The impeller well is also a little scored on the inside from the rust rubbing against it. I'm glad it started making noise though because I checked it first, and promptly found the issue.

 

Happy to report I'm being sent a replacement pump and impeller at no charge! Yay for awesome customer service :)

 

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