RDA's 15 Gallon Bowfront: It’s happening 👀

[joshthebox]

5 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

🤞 !!! Thats a nice what looks to be Staghorn ? 

Looks like a gorgonian to me! 

[Reefkid88]

3 hours ago, joshthebox said:

Looks like a gorgonian to me! 

 

 You know after zooming in and seeing one of the polyps,I think you are right. 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

14 hours ago, Reefkid88 said:

🤞 !!! Thats a nice what looks to be Staghorn ? 

Spiny orange gorgonian. Overpriced imo, but it's healthy and I have credit with my lfs so I got it.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

You can’t park there, sir.

 

 

Also, bowfront aquariums photograph terribly; pardon the blurry photos 😅

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Made a small order of goodies from KP Aquatics including some cleanup crew because this bowfront is looking ripe. 

 

 

For now I'm using the stock bulbs on the light. lol I'm probably the only person in the world right now running original Coralife T5 bulbs. They seem to be doing fine, but I plan on eventually replacing the relics with some ATI bulbs. Over all, maintenance has been a breeze. I did figured out my ATO setup with the chihiros dosing pump. Apparently the tube in my ATO container was floating up occasionally and it would just suck air. I ended up using a small acrylic tube and attached to the ATO line, aka a stiff pipe holds its shape and doesn't float around like a piece of wet spaghetti. I now enjoy about a week without worrying about it between refilling the reservoir. The few corals I have in here have seen a little bit of growth; I'm happy with the little I've seen based on how new this tank is. I would like to add a few more frags, but my LFS hasn't had coral in what seems like months. I honestly don't know what they sell anymore; every time I go in it's just frag tanks thick with algae and half dead corals that they are selling at questionable prices. I can turn a blind eye to how dirty the store is, but it seems like they are more about making a quick buck rather than being responsible caretakers of their livestock... shame.

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

23 minutes ago, The Rainy Day Aquarium said:

I would like to add a few more frags, but my LFS hasn't had coral in what seems like months. I honestly don't know what they sell anymore; every time I go in it's just frag tanks thick with algae and half dead corals that they are selling at questionable prices. I can turn a blind eye to how dirty the store is, but it seems like they are more about making a quick buck rather than being responsible caretakers of their livestock... shame.

 

I wonder if they are thinking of closing.

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

I wonder if they are thinking of closing.

 

Maybe. Although they've always been like this I feel. Something tells me it's more of poor personal habits and finances of the store owners than anything else. Oh well, not my circus not my monkeys 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

My KP Aquatics order came in safe and sound. The water was a little cold, but everything was active enough. I got a few gorgonians that are still pretty moody, but from previous experience they can take a while to open up after shipping. I’ll try to get pictures of everything when I get a moment in the future.
 

In the meantime, I’m trying not to think about work tomorrow by making T-shirts with the Mrs. I thought this one turned out okay 😁

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Did a small water change on the tank as well as added a few new corals, all of which were SPS. I'm starting out with mostly Montipora types and working my way up from there, although I do have a small frag of green/purple Seriatopora from a friend and a local guy was selling some sticks at my LFS from a small frag tank he set up. I got a 6" Tenuis frag/colony for $50 which I thought was a good deal. It's been in the tank about two weeks and has been doing well with full polyp extension. Before I add any more corals, though, I need to get a test kit so I can see where my parameters are at as far as alkalinity and calcium are concerned. I have a BRS order coming Tuesday with some Brightwell Aquatics Reef Code A and B as well as my favorite bacteria supplement/food, PNS Pro Bio, but 75$ for a Red Sea test kit seemed steep to me so I've been looking around at some alternatives.  

 

I'm really pleased with the direction of this tank. The coral banded shrimp that I got from KP Aquatics is a delight to watch, especially when feeding. I feel like I need one more fish in here though to round things off, maybe a blenny? But I'm pretty satisfied with the livestock that I have. I just need more corals now lol. 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Snagged a pink goniopora from a local guy who fragged his colony. I’ve had pretty poor luck in the past with these so hoping I can manage to keep this one happy (which it seems to be atm).

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On the topic of filtration.

 

At the end of the day, if it keeps your tank clean and stable, what more could you ask for? For myself, I could ask for more flexibility. The options of adding a skimmer, or even a refugium would be nice. Also a better ATO option that doesn’t splash everywhere could be a small luxury that I would not take for granted.

 

I’m sure all of these things could be added via “hang on back” equipment. Although the Tidal 75 is viciously jealous of its surroundings; with a humble 24 inches to work with, it may be hard to convince it to share. An overflow would solve my current predicament, but it creates many more in its place. Draining, drilling, de-decorifying loom against the idea.

 

Besides, this is more of an old school style tank anyways, right? Well, given the sump that I ordered has been discontinued, I think I’ll let it slide..

 

 

a last look before a few changes happen.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Been a while since I've made an update on this tank, although not much has changed to be honest.

 

 

I ordered a sump for this tank and had the intention of drilling it, but after a few weeks of waiting for my order to ship I found out that they didn't have it in stock after all. So I guess for now that plan has been scrubbed and we'll just stick to the good old HOB filter. Also, having Covid (lol who gets covid anymore?) mixed with work absolutely kicking my trash right now, I really haven't had time to deal with my reef tanks. The Mrs. is currently looking into PHD programs for next year and as consequence we're looking into moving again (which might end up being international pending acceptance to schools). So given the seemingly limited time I have, I ended up consolidating all my current reef tanks to this here bowfront. Not ideal, but taking care of one tank is much more manageable; my budget can now be focused on this one tank as well. 

 

I'll be trying to refocus this reef back to my original "low tech" theme and I've been trying to tack down a more rigid maintenance schedule. Especially due to the fact that I have this gross algae thing going on, but nothing some tlc and water changes won't fix. Over all the health of the tank is pretty good. I did lose my banggai cardinalfish; found my coral banded shrimp munching on him, although I don't know why it died? My pygmy angel and small bristletooth tang are doing really well. They follow each other around grazing on the rock and glass; really fun to watch. Also that goniopora is doing well which I am thrilled about.

 

I'll try to get a photo of the tank later, but until then, hope everyone is doing well and happy reefing. 

 

 

 

 

[Reefkid88]

Surpriseeee !!!

[Woodini]

Nice journal and tank!

is that a new nano?? Sick rock

[Lebowski_]

34 minutes ago, Reefkid88 said:

Surpriseeee !!!

Back already?

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 6/9/2023 at 2:07 PM, Reefkid88 said:

Surpriseeee !!!

That rock has some things going on with it lol! Glad to see this is still running dude 👍

 

On 6/9/2023 at 2:22 PM, Woodini said:

Nice journal and tank!

Thank you!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Nothing pretty.

 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Long story short, it's not fun moving a tank with it's stand, but it's back where it belongs.

 

 

It has this algae/cyano thing going on, but not too shabby for months of neglect, multiple out of town trips, and no water changes.

Still trying to build up the motivation to get a water change done and vacuum out the gravel this weekend since I have a bit of down time.

I also have a small trip to make tomorrow to pick up a project tank that I've been searching for years for; pretty excited.

 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

I guess this is turning into a once a month post kind of thing, but I guess working 80+ hour weeks really puts things in their place. Amazingly enough, I still find time to work on my reef tank shenanigans haha.

 

I’ve been better on water changes; doing 20%ish every week. Also I FINALLY ordered a timer for my light which should be here tomorrow. It will be the only automation on the tank as everything else is manually done; it’s less work than I thought, which is surprising to me. As far as new things go, I picked up a pajama cardinal fish the other day, as well as a few more toadstools over the past month. This tank isn’t the most colorful to look at, but one day it will get there 

 

Until next time and happy reefing

 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Got around to making a small video of my tank. I’m a man of few spoken words so enjoy the music and the view. Happy Holidays everyone and Happy Reefing! 🎄🌊

 

 

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

"Twas the night before Fishmas
when all through the sand
Not a creature was stirring
not even a clam;
The polyps were swaying
by the fish in the flow,
In hopes that The Human soon would be there with marine snow...."

Happy Holidays and Happy Reefing 

-RDA

 

 

[debbeach13]

Merry Christmas!

[Reefkid88]

That is so good,I am lmao while my wife is like 🤦 !!! Merry Christmas !!! 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

This tank had a good run, but it was getting to be a little too much to take care of. I figure I'm more of a sub 20 gallon nano reefer lol. I'm actually downgrading this tank to a 15 gallon bow front. I'll still be using the same equipment, mostly, but I'll update this journal with what the plan is moving forward. As for the livestock in this tank, the fish went on to better homes, and the corals were all moved over to my UNS 30A (which you can see that journal here). Sad to see this tank go, but I'm excited for the next little adventure coming soon.

 

Siphoning the water after removing the rock and livestock.

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

The Revision

Welcome to the total overhaul of this tank! Spring is in the air and it's time to freshen things up. I still wanted a bow front style tank, but 26 gallons was a bit much at this point in my life. I settled on acquiring a 15 gallon bow front aquarium (20"Lx12"Wx16"H) from Live Aquaria of all places. Getting it in the mail was giving major Drs Foster and Smith flashbacks (I got everything from them back in the day). It seems to be a pretty well made tank and even though it's only 11 gallons less, it already seems so much more manageable than the 26 gallon. For now this display will be up in my office rather in the piano room; I'll get to actually see it a little more. I'm using all of the same equipment that was on my 26. I LOVE my coralife fixture, but for this tank I'll be instead using a Reefbrite 150w metal halide. The plan is to still have a low tech -or rather "old-ish tech"- SPS reef, but obviously with a smaller water volume. I not sure about fish; fish have always been the hard decision to make for me. I was thinking a swissguard basslet or a pair of clowns of some sort. Like always give me your ideas lol. I'm sure I'll have to make some adjustments here and there, but I'm glad I can share my reefing shenanigans with you all.

 

Until next time, happy reefing everyone.

 

 

It's been a very rainy day today, so I took that as a sign to set up a new tank 😉