fissues Posted June 13, 2019 Author Share Posted June 13, 2019 4 hours ago, ReeferBray said: Great looking pair where they a spawning pair before you got them? Thanks! Yeah, they had spawned a number of times in my niece's tank. These things have been to hell and back with me a few times in their lives. The most intriguing part to me is that whenever I go to catch them and get one, the other follows right along. They continually display mating behavior throughout the day. Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted June 18, 2019 Author Share Posted June 18, 2019 Despite still not having fixed the Mame I finally took some time to get this thing wired... I still have to go back and clean up a bunch of cable clutter, but I'll wait on that until I add a few more things. Here's what just went on... -Eshopps Cube Nano -IM Mighty Jet DC Return (538gph) -Eheim Jager Heater -Nyos Quantum 12 Skimmer -Neptune Apex -LDK (Leak Detection Kit) -DOS (not running until needed) -Ecotech Battery Backup Next additions: -Radion G4 Pro -Apex ATK -Ventilation fans 3 1 Quote Link to comment
ReeferBray Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Very neat job everything looks great when you adding the first coral? 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 14 minutes ago, ReeferBray said: Very neat job everything looks great when you adding the first coral? Thanks. I've been kind of dying to get some coral in here, but since I'm likely going with all SPS I wanna be extremely careful. That's also why I cured the Marinepure block for 6 months before starting up too. The goal is zero livestock losses. I'd like to wait another 2 weeks. If I can manage to get the light up before the weekend is out, I'll be on a trip next week, and then I'll probably give it one more week after that to establish some algae growth. Then I'll add some snails and start off with a couple less sensitive/expensive pieces. 2 Quote Link to comment
ReeferBray Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Great thinking there going to a amazing setup the equipment you have will give you pleasure and no doubt you'll achieve what you want keep us posted buddy 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 14, 2019 Author Share Posted July 14, 2019 Finally... I've been so slammed with photo and video edits that I haven't had any time to figure out how I wanted to mount the light... But I finally decided last night. I'm still a little too lazy to pull out the good camera, so there are off my LG V40. Basically unedited. 6 Quote Link to comment
Dally Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 Looks awesome! Really like the rockscape. I'm looking forward to seeing this one come along. 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Dally said: Looks awesome! Really like the rockscape. I'm looking forward to seeing this one come along. Thanks! Hopefully I should be adding coral this week. I'm gonna be pretty picky though so it may take a bit to hunt some of it down. 3 Quote Link to comment
ReeferBray Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Just love everything about this tank hope to see clown eggs soon Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 2 hours ago, ReeferBray said: Just love everything about this tank hope to see clown eggs soon Thanks! I'm curious about that too... They already started digging a pit in the sand towards the back of the tank, so it's only a matter of time before they start gettin busy. 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 Update... Getting some things settled before I leave town at the end of the month Got the Apex ATO running, although I had to ditch the float valve to in order for it to fit in the sump... Next I noticed my skimmer hasn't been giving me what I want so I decided to set it up a bit different by removing the stand it was on... It performs way better now... And I've been interested in bumping my pH a bit, if possible, so I decided to connect a CO2 scrubber to at least help, seeing as the idea is to grow SPS. Stuff is still kinda just thrown together, but I'll make it look neat at some point. This is what I'm getting on the Apex today after doing this stuff last night... Don't mind the salinity fluctuation. That's just me correcting mistakes lol. Finally, I'm gonna be testing out the Apex auto feeder for when I leave town so I set it up for this weekend while I'm dog sitting for my parents in the burbs. This is how I'm planning on leaving it... When I'm in town I'll just unplug and remove it so I can still keep that clean rimless look. 3 Quote Link to comment
ReeferBray Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 Everything looks great tell me or you adding a kllid over tank just until you get back? 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 5 hours ago, ReeferBray said: Everything looks great tell me or you adding a kllid over tank just until you get back? Did you mean, "a lid"? I assume autocorrect took over. I know mine's been predicting words that I've never used before in my life too lol If so... Then no. My clowns have never even thought about jumping. I suppose in the future after I add more fish, there's always a chance I change my mind... But I don't plan to get any species that are even remotely likely to jump... And I'm thinking of skipping the ATO container and running a line from the RO/DI under the sink with the Apex solenoid switch. That way it won't matter how long I'm out of town or how much evaporation I have. 1 Quote Link to comment
ReeferBray Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 Lol yes this text. And OK that nice buddy keep us posted and don't stay to long away lol as we need updates Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 56 minutes ago, ReeferBray said: Lol yes this text. And OK that nice buddy keep us posted and don't stay to long away lol as we need updates Yeah, I'm admittedly awful with social media, but I'll try to keep up here... ... Speaking of which, that CO2 scrubber worked like a charm. I'm stoked at where I'm sitting now... Getting all my parameters dialed in right now is gonna make growing SPS so much easier. I don't know why so many people try to rush the process... Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 Well, this happened... 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share Posted July 24, 2019 I've been editing in front of the tank all day, so I took a break and snapped a proper photograph of the new additions... Got 'em from a Chicago local who sells out of his apartment. I realized when I showed up that he used to be a customer at the shop I was a photographer at a few years ago. Awesome dude. I was also getting a lot of salinity/pH swings that corresponded with temperature fluctuations, so I took the time to recalibrate my probes for temperature compensation. Worked like a charm, and I highly recommend it if you're seeing the same swings. Also decided to rethink my chosen temp and go back up a couple degrees to the standard ~78°F, especially with the higher summer temps and the preference to keep the windows open with nicer weather. I'm starting to run out of things that would bother me being away from the tank for extended periods of time. Stoked about that. 3 Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 love this tank. did you get those frags from gunner or xjomi? 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 13 minutes ago, ninjamyst said: love this tank. did you get those frags from gunner or xjomi? Thanks. I don't know who either of those are. I found this guy through a local Facebook group and I'm not sure if he's on any of the forums... I'll have to ask. 1 Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 43 minutes ago, fissues said: Thanks. I don't know who either of those are. I found this guy through a local Facebook group and I'm not sure if he's on any of the forums... I'll have to ask. oooo can you share his contact info??? I want to get some SPS frags too =P. 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 17 minutes ago, ninjamyst said: oooo can you share his contact info??? I want to get some SPS frags too =P. Yeah, he's always looking for new customers. Are you in the Chicago Area Reef Club group on FB? Send me a DM and I'll give you his name. Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 I figure I should have a baseline of my water before the coral actually starts growing, so I did my first first actual set of tests on this setup. Reef Crystals - I know it's pretty basic salt and there are tons of "better" designer salts out there now, but I've had poor experiences even with high end salts in the past, so at this point in my career I adhere to the "pick something and use it" mentality. Even my old shop, which grew tons of SPS, used Instant Ocean after a terrible batch of Tropic Marin nuked a bunch of our coral (Alk tested > 15 dKH out of the bag) . After the switch we didn't have a single issue the following 4 years I was in charge of testing our systems. More importantly RC is available at any generic pet store nearby. Red Sea Test Kits - I was always a Salifert guy, but I was able to snag these for free from a friend. Brand new in box. Calcium: 440 ppm Alkalinity: 10.5 dKH Magnesium: 1300 ppm I think my long term idea is to spend the extra money and send samples out to get lab tested once every month or 2 to cover my a##. Also, is there some sort of profanity clause on here?... Or... ? Lol Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 I stopped by a local today out by Melrose Park. He has a lot of high end SPS and the colors in his tank is AMAZING. He's running crazy amount of light. 2 Hydra 52s plus 4 T5 bulbs on a 120 gallon 4 feet tank. I picked up ASD rainbow milli and a forest fire digi. He has tons of forest fire digi for sale. I am waiting for him to frag his Jason Fox Fox Flame. He has some Orange Crush for $40 right now. He said he doesn't even dose calcium or alk. He just does weekly water changes. Crazy. 1 Quote Link to comment
fissues Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 15 minutes ago, ninjamyst said: I stopped by a local today out by Melrose Park. He has a lot of high end SPS and the colors in his tank is AMAZING. He's running crazy amount of light. 2 Hydra 52s plus 4 T5 bulbs on a 120 gallon 4 feet tank. I picked up ASD rainbow milli and a forest fire digi. He has tons of forest fire digi for sale. I am waiting for him to frag his Jason Fox Fox Flame. He has some Orange Crush for $40 right now. He said he doesn't even dose calcium or alk. He just does weekly water changes. Crazy. That sounds awesome. I would definitely be interested to get his contact info if he's cool with that. My plan is for the Hawkins and the Pink Lemonade I just added to be the most "generic" color varieties in the tank, just cuz they're a little sentimental. I just love the color of the Hawkins under high light since my old SPS tank, and I spent years nursing a tiny frag of Pink Lemonade to a softball size mother colony at our shop. Everything else will be pretty rare, if I can help it. I might do a Fox Flame too, cuz that color combination is sick. That lighting actually seems pretty appropriate for that tank. Since LEDs are point source and that tank has a wide footprint, I'm not surprised with the additional T5s. Having the extra full light really helps get rid of the shadowing on acros. I love hearing that he only does water changes. That method of maintaining water chemistry has been what I recommended everyone for the last 10 years. I only recommend dosing if your parameters won't rebound back to baseline after a 25-50% water change. It's the easiest and most foolproof method, provided you match specific gravity and temperature. The exception starts to become large tanks when those water changes become massive... But if you can't account for water changes on those tanks, then you shouldn't even own tanks that size. Sounds like a couple awesome scores. Make sure you post some growth progress pics! 1 Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 My pink lemonade hasn't grown much in like 6 months. Sigh. But I think I know what I need to change to make my SPS color up and grow better. MOAR FLOW AND LIGHT. 1 Quote Link to comment
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