MockandRoll's Reefer 170 - 1 Month After Moving

[MockandRoll]

36 minutes ago, Indiana Reefin said:

That favia is awesome as well. I love how it is starting to get a red orange from the bright green 

These favia's from legendary-corals are definitely colorful. With their long sweepers I am putting everything close to them on small rocks so I can easily move them when necessary. 

Full Tank Shot from a few minutes ago. 

 

 

[teenyreef]

Wow, looks great! I especially like the rock arch, it's going to look really good when everything fills in. The favias are beautiful but I'm glad you have a plan for when they turn evil

[jamie1210]

I love heavily stocked tanks.  It really makes things a lot more fun to look at!   With that said, your tank's gonna look even more awesome when things get filled in!  Definitely keep us in the loop when they do!

[MockandRoll]

9 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Wow, looks great! I especially like the rock arch, it's going to look really good when everything fills in. The favias are beautiful but I'm glad you have a plan for when they turn evil

 

7 hours ago, jamie1210 said:

I love heavily stocked tanks.  It really makes things a lot more fun to look at!   With that said, your tank's gonna look even more awesome when things get filled in!  Definitely keep us in the loop when they do!

 

Thanks for the compliments. If things go well hopefully most of the rock will become encrusted and the space in the middle will be filled in with sticks. 

[cassianoyoung]

Beautiful setup! Could you share you equipment? Will be trying to copy your arch setup maybe with some Tonga Branch since my tank will be a lot smaller (22G). Love it!

[MockandRoll]

10 hours ago, cassianoyoung said:

Beautiful setup! Could you share you equipment? Will be trying to copy your arch setup maybe with some Tonga Branch since my tank will be a lot smaller (22G). Love it!

Cass, I am embarrassed to show my sump after seeing how organized yours is. I have a lot of equipment. I have a 3.5 Bubble Magus skimmer, 9W UV sterilizer, heater controller and 4 TLF reactors. I am only using 3. They are a Co2 scrubber, combo GFO/carbon, algae reactor (new, currently turned off and no cheato) and a nitrate sponge reactor. My nitrates have been around 4-10 ever since cycling which is not bad. After vacation I am transitioning to the algae reactor and ditching the nitrate sponge. Hopefully I can get down to just scrubber, carbon and algae reactor soon. For everything else I am all apex ( 3 powerbars, dosing, topoff, sensors (ATO bucket, each 2 part container, magn container, return section, skimmer cup) and leak detection (outside floor, inside sump). Also have a UPS power backup that can give me 22 hours with one powerhead and the seaswirl. After that I will use a inverter. Also have a chiller that I only hook up when needed (saved my tank when A/C when out and took 4 days to get replaced). Here is a pic, don't laugh. 

 

 

 

Here are pics to make up for that one. What is the trick for not capturing the lights, raise them higher?

 

[cassianoyoung]

Man!! Those colors on those corals are insane!! Great stuff! You got every that one can fit in a sump there. Surprised you can fit so much equipment in a small sump. Nice work. I know that eventually I will have to think about real state under my stand. I try to be as simple as possible with technology, but it is also so nice to have automation and additional reactors, filters etc. as you saw Inhave a couple of manifolds ready for when the time is right. Now I just need to cycle some rock now!!

 

 Thanks for sharing!!

cheers!

[Lynton]

On 27/07/2017 at 5:24 AM, MockandRoll said:

Here is a gif of the seaswirl modification. 

How did u do this? I have reefer 170 and wouldn't mind doing this to mine. Tank looks great btw, looking forward to how this grows out.. subbed

[MockandRoll]

5 hours ago, Lynton said:

How did u do this? I have reefer 170 and wouldn't mind doing this to mine. Tank looks great btw, looking forward to how this grows out.. subbed

Here are the steps I did. 

1) Took out the return from the overflow box.

2) Filled the U-shaped space left with a glass piece and siliconed. 

2) Modified return line to go out the top. 

3) Siliconed the Sea-Swirl to the overflow lid and connected to return line. 

4) Ziptied powerhead to Sea-Swirl using a Y-shaped nozzle. 

 

I recently contacted Eddie at Sea-Swirl to see how long he thinks the motor will last. His response was "Hard to say but the motor we put in the 1/2" Model is very strong. I know a lot of people do this even though we DO NOT Recommend it. "

 

These things are build great. If you read reviews online they will go for awhile. 

[MockandRoll]

Thought I would do a update. My tank did great while I was gone for 10 days. Having my neighbor monitor alk every 2 days was key. My daily dosing of 2-part went up from 36 to 52 ml by the time the 10-day mark hit. This was because the pH went from 7.90-8.15 to a 8.05-8.25 daily swing.  The bad is I have hydroids and my mandarin was scared by the sea-swirl powerhead, secreted her toxin and killed half my jedi mindtrick montipora. This is the second time this has happened. It was my fault because I lowered the powerhead a little to get more downward flow and it caught her off guard while hunting.  I also switched out my nitrate sponge reactor with an algae reactor. When I went to the LFS to get some chaeto, I found an amazing gorgonian. I don't know if it is a sea rod or sea whip. I have been looking for a way to add movement to the tank. I think this may work. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

The tank is looking beautiful! I'm glad it fared well while you were gone.  That gorgonian is fabulous!  It kind of looks like what I bought once, a purple blade gorgonian (pretty sure that's what it was labeled as). 

[Lynton]

6 hours ago, MockandRoll said:

Here are the steps I did. 

1) Took out the return from the overflow box.

2) Filled the U-shaped space left with a glass piece and siliconed. 

2) Modified return line to go out the top. 

3) Siliconed the Sea-Swirl to the overflow lid and connected to return line. 

4) Ziptied powerhead to Sea-Swirl using a Y-shaped nozzle. 

 

I recently contacted Eddie at Sea-Swirl to see how long he thinks the motor will last. His response was "Hard to say but the motor we put in the 1/2" Model is very strong. I know a lot of people do this even though we DO NOT Recommend it. "

 

These things are build great. If you read reviews online they will go for awhile. 

Thanks a lot @MockandRoll

[MockandRoll]

16 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

The tank is looking beautiful! I'm glad it fared well while you were gone.  That gorgonian is fabulous!  It kind of looks like what I bought once, a purple blade gorgonian (pretty sure that's what it was labeled as). 

Thanks. Hopefully I am able to control the hydroids. 

[MockandRoll]

Here are some top down pics I just took. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kimberbee]

Beautiful! I miss my mandarin so much... looked just like yours!

[MockandRoll]

11 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Beautiful! I miss my mandarin so much... looked just like yours!

Thank you. I really enjoy watching her hunt. I have no evidence for this but I think having minimal fish in the tank keeps stress down and allows them to thrive. I only have one other fish, a yellow assessor that I have never seen out in the open.  

[MockandRoll]

Moonlight pics!

 

 

 

[MockandRoll]

Favia caught a stomata last night. I let him eat it for a few hours then pulled it out after it stopped going down. 

 

 

[NY_Reef]

Looks good.  How have you been combating the hydroids and have you had any luck?

[MockandRoll]

9 hours ago, NY_Reef said:

Looks good.  How have you been combating the hydroids and have you had any luck?

I have taken the contain approach. Besides my zoanthids, I scrub any hydroids that pop up next to a coral. I am doing this daily. The zoanthids have hydroids all over them but they don't seem to be that affected.  I will never be able to eradicate them since they are all over the back of my rock wall.  

 

A photo dump of some pics I took today. This weekend I changed out my radion lense to TIR wide lenses and got a sun coral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MockandRoll]

My tank made it to a year last week. I have thoroughly enjoying watching it mature over this past year.  It is the first thing I check on when I get home from work.  My mandarin is fat and happy and most of my corals are growing and coloring up nicely.  (Except for my bubblegum monti digi). Here are some pics I just took. Hope you enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

7 minutes ago, MockandRoll said:

My tank made it to a year last week. I have thoroughly enjoying watching it mature over this past year.  It is the first thing I check on when I get home from work.  My mandarin is fat and happy and most of my corals are growing and coloring up nicely.  (Except for my bubblegum monti digi). Here are some pics I just took. Hope you enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yay!! Happy Birthday Reef. 

[MockandRoll]

23 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Yay!! Happy Birthday Reef. 

Thank you. Cheers to hopefully many more! 

[MockandRoll]

It has been awhile since I updated. During the holidays I went out of town for a week and didn't give the tank much attention. Still the tank is doing good. I have no real complaints. Most corals are growing and showing good color.  I like my fish selection. I added a female lyretail two months ago. I now have three fish (mandarin, lyretail, yellow assessor). There is very little hostility and my yellow assessor comes out now. My mandarin is fat and is not bothered by either fish.

 

For my complaints: The mandarin secreted its toxic body slime again on my jedi mind trick (2nd time) and sunset monti three days ago. I saw it $%^ ing happen. The madarin got scared by the moving powerhead again. Small chunks of both montis turned white and slimed in a few seconds. I turned the pumps on 100% and blasted the white stringy shit coming from the corals with a turkey baster. It got taken to the sump quickly. No other corals were affected that I saw. Also, I am fighting a green cyno outbreak on the left side of the tank that started about a week ago.   My nitrates got up to 8 on me. I did a 20% water change today and hopefully I can get it under control.   My cleanup crew has taken a beating. Two conchs and one serpent star died along with a decrease in the snail population that started to occur right before Christmas. I will watch the tank over the next few weeks and see if I need to make some cleanup crew additions. 

 

For a first time in awhile I took a few pictures today. I like this one

 

 

 

[MockandRoll]

Encrusting corals have always been my favorite. My goal is rock structure with encrusted coral everywhere.  Hopefully these pieces and a few more along the way can do the job.