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Coral Kingdom Of Thras ~ Waterbox 130.4 💦 ~ SPS Filling In


Thrassian Atoll

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Very cool. Im interested on how this system works for you. Im trying to plan out some future equipment lists. So far I am leaning towards a calc reactor. But it will be a long time until I need to worry about that. 

 

Funny about the snails 😆

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Thrassian Atoll
24 minutes ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Very cool. Im interested on how this system works for you. Im trying to plan out some future equipment lists. So far I am leaning towards a calc reactor. But it will be a long time until I need to worry about that. 

 

Funny about the snails 😆

 

Neptunes seems to still be working out some kinks here and there but it’s been going well so far.  I shouldn’t ever be able to blame my coral deaths to alk swings anymore.  😂

 

Not having to manual test has been great though.  It gets rid of the inconsistency and you know exactly what’s going on throughout the day.  Also don’t have to log numbers.  

 

I do not know much about calcium reactors or kalk.  I have only been using 2 part.  The 2 part is pretty easy.   We shall see how much I have to use in the future though.  

 

I know the biggest struggle is going to be with keeping my nutrient levels consistent.  I am making sure this time that nitrates are at least above 5 and phosphates detectable at all times.  I know my issues in the past have always been too low of nutrients and starving my corals.  In the setups where I hardly do anything at all and have some algae were always the best coral wise and I want to continue that here, even with all the high tech gear.

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Thrassian Atoll
2 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Hows the cycle going? Im sure you are itching to get some form of life in there besides bacteria haha! 

Cycle is done actually.  It only took 2 weeks compared to my QT tank that took 55 days.  I actually just put my Hawkfish in a couple days ago and I got my shrimp and some corals in there from my old tank.  I had my 5 gallon tank as a small frag tank and had the Hawkfish in that and I wanted to take it down.  He’s probably the least likely to jump out so I said why not? 

 

I also have a ton of snails from different places, most recently I got an order from reef cleaners.  I chose the 40 gallon breeder amount and got some others too.

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Thrassian Atoll

Here’s a few photos from today.  I am still waiting on some of these dwarf snails to move or I am going to pull them out soon.  I hate having snail shells in the sand.  I don’t know if they are dead or just slow at moving still.  

 

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Thrassian Atoll

5 weeks in.  Lid still isn’t here.  I’ll hit him up tomorrow and see what the progress is.  I really want to get my fish into the main display and order a couple more to go into QT.  

 

Here is how the tank looks today.  I have my corals in there from my old tank, the ones that survived a couple of tank moves.  Also in there are my shrimps, a few crabs and a bunch of snails along with my longnose hawkfish.  

 

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Thrassian Atoll

Here’s the fish stocking list I think I am going to have.  Been thinking a lot about it.  Going to take some time to actually find a couple of these fish and to have them go through QT.  I am going to buy them in the order listed at one each.   What’s crazy too is I am not finding a Bartletts anthias and a blue reef chromis in stock at the same time and website.  Pretty common fish.  I want to get those together.  What do you all think?  I know the regal loves LPS so I’ll probably pull the little amount I have besides the euphyllia when the time comes.  I really want a clam too but I know they pick at those.  Will this be too much in a 120 display?  

 

Already Own

Longnose Hawkfish

4 Line Wrasse

Black Storm Clown

ORA Orchid Dottyback

Helfrichi Firefish

 

Fish I Will Add

Bartletts Anthias - male

Blue Reef Chromis

Lineatus Fairy Wrasse - Male - have yet to see one for sale

Regal Angel - Red Sea 

Purple Tang

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Thrassian Atoll

Talked to the top lids guy yesterday.  He’s still giving me the run around on when my lid will be done.  Almost 4 months now.  I am getting frustrated.  I don’t want to just get my money back because I know it will take months to get one from Clearview, but I really need a lid.  I tried the diy from BRS and threw it in the trash. Thing is garbage unless your making a perfect square.

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Man this is a beautiful set up!!   Really nice work!   I can’t wait to see how it develops!  Definitely following along!  

 

I’ve been spending a few down hours recently reading about Trident, Mindstream, etc.  really excited to see someone one here that can tell us how it’s working out for them.  I’ve been debating adding a Controller to my new set up.  The Neptune systems just seem so intimidating.  I don’t want to buy something that I would have to learn to program to get the full utility out of.  I’m educated, but programming was not my forte in college (and it’s been years).  May wait on the Hydros... but the trident.. if the kinks get worked out, may make Neptune worth while to learn.  Seneye also reportedly is adding alk testing to their Par/temp/ph monitor (but we shall see, it’s been in testing for a few years now I guess).  So many new very cool things coming out right now!  

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Thrassian Atoll
29 minutes ago, Opotter said:

Man this is a beautiful set up!!   Really nice work!   I can’t wait to see how it develops!  Definitely following along!  

 

I’ve been spending a few down hours recently reading about Trident, Mindstream, etc.  really excited to see someone one here that can tell us how it’s working out for them.  I’ve been debating adding a Controller to my new set up.  The Neptune systems just seem so intimidating.  I don’t want to buy something that I would have to learn to program to get the full utility out of.  I’m educated, but programming was not my forte in college (and it’s been years).  May wait on the Hydros... but the trident.. if the kinks get worked out, may make Neptune worth while to learn.  Seneye also reportedly is adding alk testing to their Par/temp/ph monitor (but we shall see, it’s been in testing for a few years now I guess).  So many new very cool things coming out right now!  

Thanks!  There’s a ton of stuff going on in the market right now.  Nobody has made an automatic nitrate and phosphate tester yet, using there own reagents that is.  That’s what I am waiting on.  Hopefully Neptune gets that rolling.  There’s still a ton I haven’t learned how to do.  People use breakout boxes for stuff and programming different stuff in the apex.  I am definitely a novice when it comes to that.  

 

Hopefully soon I can get my dosing of calcium and alk dialed in with the dosand let the trident do it automatically.  The tank is so new still that my numbers are pretty bouncy and I have to up or lower the dosing.  I am only doing 10ml+ or - 5ml of each right now.  Trying to get the numbers right at 8 alk and 420 calcium.  Once I do that and figure out how much it takes to stay stable I can have the trident automate it from there.  It’s not great that you have to know what you want to start dosing at before you can automate it.

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1 hour ago, Thrassian Atoll said:

Talked to the top lids guy yesterday.  He’s still giving me the run around on when my lid will be done.  Almost 4 months now.  I am getting frustrated.  I don’t want to just get my money back because I know it will take months to get one from Clearview, but I really need a lid.  I tried the diy from BRS and threw it in the trash. Thing is garbage unless your making a perfect square.

Damn that sucks, I saw this post on reef2reef awhile ago about top lids closing shop and finding a new place. I am assuming they must have found it though if the website is up? Still.... it sounds like you ordered before they closed shop (and moved???) and he didn't tell you? Assuming this post is correct. 

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“safe-top-lids”.634298/

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Thrassian Atoll
10 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Damn that sucks, I saw this post on reef2reef awhile ago about top lids closing shop and finding a new place. I am assuming they must have found it though if the website is up? Still.... it sounds like you ordered before they closed shop (and moved???) and he didn't tell you? Assuming this post is correct. 

 

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/“safe-top-lids”.634298/

So they got kicked out of the shop they were using.  Apparently Fabio, the owner, was using a place one of his employees was leasing or something and they got kicked out.  So they have been trying to find a place of their own.  The owner has been sending the blueprints to a different company to cut the lids in the meantime.  He’s fired and hired new people.  I don’t think this is his day job though.  Apparently the worksmanship is still good with the outsourced company.

 

  Here is the biggest issue.  He told me that he’s lost like $8,000 since everything happened and gave me this sob story, but this dude is bumping people up and down the list of when they bought a lid.  He’s doing this because people are threatening to get refunds and or getting refunds and going elsewhere.  I told him that’s not how he should do business.  I get it, but if he’s going to continue to bump me further back down the list and move people up that bought one after I did, I am going to request a refund.  I told him that and said he would try and get me my lid as soon as he can.  

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13 minutes ago, Thrassian Atoll said:

So they got kicked out of the shop they were using.  Apparently Julio, the owner, was using a place one of his employees was leasing or something and they got kicked out.  So they have been trying to find a place of their own.  The owner has been sending the blueprints to a different company to cut the lids in the meantime.  He’s fired and hired new people.  I don’t think this is his day job though.  Apparently the worksmanship is still good with the outsourced company.

 

  Here is the biggest issue.  He told me that he’s lost like $8,000 since everything happened and gave me this sob story, but this dude is bumping people up and down the list of when they bought a lid.  He’s doing this because people are threatening to get refunds and or getting refunds and going elsewhere.  I told him that’s not how he should do business.  I get it, but if he’s going to continue to bump me further back down the list and move people up that bought one after I did, I am going to request a refund.  I told him that and said he would try and get me my lid as soon as he can.  

 

That is a big yikes for me. He should not have the website taking new orders. He should have outsourced what was left to get people their lids and stopped taking orders until a new place is found. I guess I don't care about the sob story, that is business. 

 

I got clearview lids and they moved shop but emailed me about it and my lid showed up without me having to bug them for it 😉 Also when one of them had a small crack, they replaced it promptly even a year later at no cost to me. 

 

Octolids is another company. 

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Thrassian Atoll

He said he’s not taking new orders, but I don’t see crap on the website.  I told him to just keep me updated and not lie to me and he hasn’t been doing that.  I went with these guys because they are smaller than Clearview, which I used Clearview for my lagoon, and I thought it wouldn’t take as long to get a lid.  Think it took Clearview 2 months to get me my lid.  Big whoops from me.  I wasn’t a fan of the classic either, but now they have lids like the top lid design.  If I don’t get my lid by October I am going to ask for a refund and go with Clearview.  5 freaking months is long enough for my patience.

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ahh I love my classic lids but my cats need an edge to walk on or they will just walk on the netting. Clearview has great warranty, doesn't sound like you will get that with top lids if they won't even make lids for paying customers let alone try and get them to make a replacement. 

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What a bummer on the lid. You have a right to be upset. I would have already canceled my order but I can be impatient when it comes to sob stories haha. My Waterbox was due this week but the hurricane is delaying orders. Im itching to get started. 

 

I just learned about the Mindstream today. Seems awesome but I believe you have to pay monthly for a service (like $40). If I were made of money id probably do it. Hopefully this Trident works well for you. Im curious what the up keep costs will be like for the testing reagents. 

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Thrassian Atoll
7 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

What a bummer on the lid. You have a right to be upset. I would have already canceled my order but I can be impatient when it comes to sob stories haha. My Waterbox was due this week but the hurricane is delaying orders. Im itching to get started. 

 

I just learned about the Mindstream today. Seems awesome but I believe you have to pay monthly for a service (like $40). If I were made of money id probably do it. Hopefully this Trident works well for you. Im curious what the up keep costs will be like for the testing reagents. 

Think it took me about a month from order to delivery with my Waterbox.  That was straight through the company though.  Wasn’t bad at all.  I didn’t realize I needed the kit for the return line to my return pump though.  So I had to order that later.  

 

The reagents look like they are $100 for 6 months now I believe for the trident.  It’s not bad considering it measures alk 4 times a day minimum and calc and mag 2 times a day minimum.  

 

Mindstream seems like its going to be awesome but when I look at what it measures, I was kind of meh on it.  Most of the stuff I already have probes for and it doesn’t measure phosphate or nitrate.  When somebody delivers those two, they will have something special.

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Thrassian Atoll
9 hours ago, Tamberav said:

ahh I love my classic lids but my cats need an edge to walk on or they will just walk on the netting. Clearview has great warranty, doesn't sound like you will get that with top lids if they won't even make lids for paying customers let alone try and get them to make a replacement. 

Yeah, I better hope it’s good the first time I get it, if I do.  Haha.  He mentioned he would upgrade it for free, which I ordered the top of the line one I think, dang thing was $475.  I told him to throw the fancy light strip that can go around it and he said he would see and that was usually an extra $150 add on or something.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thrassian Atoll

Did a water change and a good tank cleaning today, figured I would take a couple quick photos.  Also picked up some montis from aquasd last week.  This coming up weekend I am going to grab some low end sps from a local.  Tank is almost 2 months old now.  Still no lid.  

 

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Thrassian Atoll

I told Safetop lids to either give me a no BS timeframe of when my lid was going to be on my tank or give me a refund.  Well I got a refund today.  I went ahead and ordered the Pisces Exo from Clearview just now. That will at least take 9-11 weeks according to their page.

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24 minutes ago, Thrassian Atoll said:

I told Safetop lids to either give me a no BS timeframe of when my lid was going to be on my tank or give me a refund.  Well I got a refund today.  I went ahead and ordered the Pisces Exo from Clearview just now. That will at least take 9-11 weeks according to their page.

Good for you!!   That was some bull$&@t!   I love my clearview lid!  Good quality lid and they were early on delivery for the timeline they gave me at least!

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