375 g Reef/ 600 g System stuffed in my office

[Bax]

FINALLY!!!!

I have a working heater in my shop area where the holding system is kept. In fact a brand new one, much better than the monterous old unit that my landlord wasted two cold weeks trying to find parts for! And none too soon as it was in the 20's last night, last few nights actually, and did not get over freezing until about 1 PM today.

Maybe now I can get these 100g & 75g displays up and running!

 

[Lightsluvr]

FINALLY!!!!

Maybe now I can get these 100g & 75g displays up and running!

About bloody time!

LL

 

[Bax]

LL

You ain't kidd'n!

In the long run, it was worth the wait for the new heater. The old one was assembled before the word efficiency even appeared in a dictionary. I belive my persistence with my landlord now has got his attention and we'll resolve a few issues that have been really making me resitant to persuing the set up of any display tanks at my office, much less a monster like the 375. Hate to set something like that up only to pack it up and move again!

I can also cut back on the layered cacoon that has shrouded my holding system to trap and hold heat through this cold snap. I only uncover to feed the fish once every other day or so. And only when the ligths have the water temp at the peak of the day. I've just been able to keep it above 75 deg F at the day's low!!! And I am even more conviced my corals don't really need me as despite this lack of attention, they look fantastic! I've never had the growth, color and PE I have now. I just hope they look as good after I move them to my office!

 

[Lightsluvr]

Wow... the less you pay attention, the better the coral look - I am so jealous.

By the way, your coral are amazing -- congrats on whatever you're doing - don't change anything.

Good to hear from you again.

LL

 

[Bax]

Thanks LL!

I am sure I'll mess them all up by paying too close attention to them again!

 

[Bax]

Happy New Year! Here's year end/begining some coral pics, first the frags!!!

In the 90g, there are three frag racks, and they are brimming!

A gomezi frag I got from an LFS. I was told it's a slow grower but that does not seem to be the case. Looks a lot like my torts!

In the foreground is a pearl berry and behind it a borealis that a friend was kind enough to bring me back from MACNA!

I rarely frag the blue prostrata except by accident!

This was a small piece of Miami orchid, it's now a frollony

I also rarely frag the torts, but this is a nicely growing piece from the ORA cali tort.

 

[Bax]

This is the old defunct behemoth of a heater that is now gone.

Even with the new heater, I have to keep quite a few layers of Styrofoam, plastic sheeting and blue tarps draped over the system to keep it at stable temps.

 

[Bax]

These are some of the bigger pieces still on the racks ...

These two blue accules pieces have really grown a lot. I am beginning to think it's the longer MH cucle I've been running since it got colder.

Pokerstar really laying down some growth across the acrylic.

Purple haze, growing to the the nana frollony next to it and taking a beating but alsoo puddling well

 

[Bax]

These are just a few shots of the colonies from around the 90. No touch ups to colot, just cropping...

The blue millie/prostrata

... another view

... just playing with the macro setting

... still playing

This is an ORA taor, cali , I think

... rasberry & pink prostrata

... a. nana, just sprawling!

The nathan's green is growing like ceazy too!

Happy New Year! 8)

 

[Leonardo_]

Very nice collection of corals Very good growth indeed. Best wishes to you too!

Leonardo

 

[Last Version]

wow.. very nice coral look like good healthy!

 

[Bax]

Thanks Leonardo & Last Version and Happy New Year to you both!

 

[edandsandy]

Everything is looking good Bax.

 

[Bax]

Thanks Sandy & SKCMO !!!

Maybe soon I'll have a display!

 

[Bax]

Well, it's been a while. But Finally! I've started putting up the start of my enclosure. I'd hoped I'd get this done around the holidays, but fortunately, business has been pretty good for this time of the year so it's going slow with the enclosure and system mods. But that's OK, gotta pay for reef'n some how!

Over the last week I've setup the main wall to separate the sump and equipment from the arctic cold of my shop. That's allowed me to use the pink foam sheets as a makeshift roof and the blue tarps as a door of sorts. This has really stabilized temps and I have the room to service the system! My skimmer was truly foul!

That, in turn has allowed me to actually look at my holding tanks for more then a moment or two. The 90 houses my SPS colonies and choice frags, the 75 g the nem clones (I thought they'd all found Tunzes), caps, zoas, and a few LPS. Now I've joked here that things were going great on their own, and for the most part that's been true. First thing I noticed is that my flow lovin torts in the 90 were not looking their normal eye poppingly awesomeness. Closer inspection revealed that my Tunze that pushes the main flow across the top of the reef structure spit its prop, so it did not alarm as they do when they freeze. It was probably like that for a week or more. As soon as I swapped a spare Tunze in all SPS produced better PE immediately. In just a couple of days things look much better again.

My params are still surprisingly solid despite my CO2 bottle running dry about 2 weeks ago. I was lucky enough to catch that fairly quickly and swap the bottle out. Whew! I need to do a good sized WC as it's been easily 6 maybe 8 weeks since I've been able to do one with the pink and blue cocoon in place as it was.

So, I want to get the real roof up. It'll support an elevated RODI vessel, SW mix vessel and the chiller. Giving me more room to relocate equipment to even more servicable stations. I'll then change the return manifold in preparation for some display tanks in my office, SOON! Not the 375 just yet, but the 100 & a 75 for now. Just need a little more confidence in the economy before I spring for the effort to set up of the 375 beast :fish2:

 

[erics3000]

beast it is...

 

[Oldude]

Sweet looking corals!!!

 

[Bax]

Eric
Yeah that thing is huge! You forget just how massive 3/4" 8' x 30" x30" tank really is until you move it... anywhere! Even just across the shop it is a truely harrowing experience. But, now it is on dollies so I can manuver it around to work on the braces that still need to be replaced. (I removed one a while back, but have another cracked brace to come out yet). I will clean up and resilicone the seems as well.

To keep it out of traffic, it is in a back room which, although not totally unheated, is colder then the rest of the cold shop, so I'll wait six weeks ar so until the frigid temps are by us and begin work on it again. Probably not the best idea to work on really cold glass, even if it is 3/4" ... :bum:

Old Dude
Thanks! I take that as a huge complement coming from you, your coral collection is sweet, and I lurk through your pics all the time. :spin3:

My SPS corals are, for the most part, recovering from the lack of flow caused by the Tunze failure. My beautiful ORA tort took the brunt of it and I may frag it down today to avoid algea going invasive on the bare spots.

Last night I stopped by and made a bunch of cuts to wood that will frame out the roof of the enclosure. That should all go up today and I may even have the enclosure essentially done, accept for a proper doorway. But, a blue tarp will more than suffice while I focus on re-situating equipment. With the equipment in the enclosure finally situated, I'll set up the 100 & 75 (long term the 75 will get swapped for the larger tank) in my office along with a 75 g QT and then I can start having some fun again with my system :beer:

Although I'd love to be done already, all in all, these 6-7 months that have passed since I moved in here have shown me what I need to know to set up a system that can survive my kind of "industrial reefing". This is not like having a tank in your home with automated central heat and AC, R19 insulation, and all that foofoo comfort stuff! Oh no, not by a long shot! But, there are advantages like: skimmate on the floor is still gross ... but OK; having four or five generators stored 20' away if there ever a power outage is kind of cool; and when I do add more tanks, she rolls her eyes ... but really doesn't care! It's the ultimate man cave! :bounce1:

 

[erics3000]

I agree there really big advantages to having the equipment in that type of room. That was one of the best ideas to put everything in the garage. There is always some type of flood in there weekly. The only thing is all the humidity in FL. I just started wiring a exhaust fan right over my sump and think I am going to pick up a humidifer also. My tools have really got a lot of surface rough and I am getting worried about my car in there.

 

[Bax]

Yeah. At my old shop I discharged the vented air right out into the shop. Above some shelving. When we moved, I found that all the items stored on the shelving near the vent duct rusted like crazy! I'll figure a way to exhaust outside this time. And given the location of the enclosure, that will be a bit of a challenge. But doable!