50b Sumpless Mixed Reef Build!

[BigJohnny]

Wow, your qt tank looks better than my display one cool stand. Bet it is a good feeling of doing things yourself and seeing the result.

Haha I doubt that, but thanks bud! It sure does feel good. That was the first time I have built any sort of furniture (really anything with wood at all) and it was very rewarding. So much so that I bought a bunch of new tools and plan on doing more projects in the future[emoji106]

 

[Miguelh1302]

This is getting way to excited lol

 

[Isaacs55]

Haha I doubt that, but thanks bud! It sure does feel good. That was the first time I have built any sort of furniture (really anything with wood at all) and it was very rewarding. So much so that I bought a bunch of new tools and plan on doing more projects in the future[emoji106]

That's how I felt when I built my stand for my 55 gallon tank after I sold it to get extra stuff for my 40 breeder lol I make stands for my locals to pay for my build lol

 

[BigJohnny]

That's how I felt when I built my stand for my 55 gallon tank after I sold it to get extra stuff for my 40 breeder lol I make stands for my locals to pay for my build lol

Haha cool man. Yea, I really enjoyed it.

 

[BigJohnny]

Ladies and gentlemen, the first additions in QT:

Most of the corals are pretty closed up from the journey from lfs/dip/acclimation but look better by the hour. I will post some updates tomorrow when they are hopefully wide open. Decided to start off with some easy guys before I throw down on some more expensive lps sps. [emoji41] pretty stoked to get this going finally!

Oh btw I added 500 mixed copepods and 60 amphipods to my main display. Had never seen amphipods before they are way bigger than I expected and really cool lil buggers. Super active and fast swimmers. Been feeding them plankton feed once daily. Got them from Sachs Aquaculture (strongly recommend), they sent me extra of everything and are a smaller more personal operation than reef gen/poseidon/any of the other mainstream vendors. Really high quality and fantastic customer service.

 

[BigJohnny]

Here are some slightly better pics (cell phone still unfortunately). The lighting is really low because I'm acclimating the corals.

 

[BigJohnny]

I know, not that exciting yet haha. Once they are in the tank and doing well I'll start buying the good stuff and my first fish. Haven't been able to get fish yet because I'm only home 4 days a week and prefer TTM (have to be home for 12 days straight) instead of copper. Should be able to do it shortly though.

 

[Swope2bc]

Oh, Big... Those are indeed exciting! I would have comment but I've been distracted by wildfires surrounding our valley.

 

[BigJohnny]

Oh, Big... Those are indeed exciting! I would have comment but I've been distracted by wildfires surrounding our valley.

Haha oh my! Stay safe.

It's def exciting to have frags but I have lofty goals for this tank with some fancy lps/sps so these corals in crappy cell phone pics don't quite get me going[emoji6] .

The duncan and ricordeas look great actually but can't tell in the pics. The candy canes got some sneaky red algae in between the polyps so unless I can eradicate it I'm probably dumping it. Not one of my favorite corals anyway.

The GSP was a free gift from the lfs which I plan on putting on my preskim overflow box which should look pretty cool.

Planning on switching over the inverts to the main display tomorrow and the corals shortly after unless I see something narly after I redip.

Next up, an acan colony or some frags, red/green/purple monti caps, green birdsnest and ponape birdsnest. SPS attack

 

[Swope2bc]

Haha oh my! Stay safe.

It's def exciting to have frags but I have lofty goals for this tank with some fancy lps/sps so these corals in crappy cell phone pics don't quite get me going[emoji6] .

The duncan and ricordeas look great actually but can't tell in the pics. The candy canes got some sneaky red algae in between the polyps so unless I can eradicate it I'm probably dumping it. Not one of my favorite corals anyway.

The GSP was a free gift from the lfs which I plan on putting on my preskim overflow box which should look pretty cool.

Planning on switching over the inverts to the main display tomorrow and the corals shortly after unless I see something narly after I redip.

Next up, an acan colony or some frags, red/green/purple monti caps, green birdsnest and ponape birdsnest. SPS attack

Can't wait for more pics!! No immediate danger from the fires but a 35,000 acre fire is currently burning less than 7 miles from my house! It's on the opposite side of a mountain though.

. This is the nighttime view... But wind is pushing it back into itself at the moment.

 

[Isaacs55]

Awesome corals Johnny! Looking forward to seeing them in the DT. I'm going sumpless with my 40 breeder till I support my floor. But at least everything will be ready. All I'll have to do is add water to the sump.

 

[BigJohnny]

Can't wait for more pics!! No immediate danger from the fires but a 35,000 acre fire is currently burning less than 7 miles from my house! It's on the opposite side of a mountain though.

. This is the nighttime view... But wind is pushing it back into itself at the moment.

Wow that is nuts! Glad your not in harms way. I'll hopefully have some happier pics tomorrow [emoji6].

 

[BigJohnny]

Awesome corals Johnny! Looking forward to seeing them in the DT. I'm going sumpless with my 40 breeder till I support my floor. But at least everything will be ready. All I'll have to do is add water to the sump.

Thanks man, I'll post some pics stat.

Welcome to the sumpless club haha. As long as you have good flow and a great hob skimmer you'll be fine in the meantime. I have a brand new reef octopus bh2000 if your interested? I'll give you a fantastic deal on er, maybe even close to half price! It's only been used for 5 minutes. Supposedly really nice but opted for the aqua c remora s in the end.

Regardless I wish you well on it and keep us posted with a build thread!

 

[scubasteve3]

Ofcourse my RO/DI, ghetto rigged to my shower since my house is so old it literally is the only place I can hook it up (when needed) without installing a new fixture or permanent piping. Luckily I have big holding containers so it's not an issue, I pump it into them directly then put the unit away until next time.

My wife is going to love this one

BTW, what lights are you using on your DT and your QT?

 

[BigJohnny]

My wife is going to love this one

BTW, what lights are you using on your DT and your QT?

Haha yea mine loves it too.........[emoji48] . My equipment was detailed earlier in the thread if you want pics n details but on my display tank I have a 36" ATI Sunpower 6x39w and on the frag/qt observation tank I have a 24" Odyssea 4x24w.

 

[Isaacs55]

Yea man for sure!! Half price sounds sweet!! Message me how much and I'll see what I can do. I just maxed out my available allowance for this month haha (my wife keeps me on a allowance or I'll go nuts with this hobby lol it works though)
In the mean time check this out!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500306&page=4

 

[BigJohnny]

Yea man for sure!! Half price sounds sweet!! Message me how much and I'll see what I can do. I just maxed out my available allowance for this month haha (my wife keeps me on a allowance or I'll go nuts with this hobby lol it works though)
In the mean time check this out!
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500306&page=4

I will shoot you a message and check out your build thread! My wife and I have mutual and seperate accounts and only discuss expenses pulled from the mutual. We don't have kids yet though so I assume that will change [emoji6] luckily I work in finance and handle everything, so she wouldn't know either way[emoji48] . Having said that, I don't mess around.

Get that budget in early so you can buy my skimmer in september! Haha

 

[BigJohnny]

Ok folks, here are some updated pics! Everything is wide open and looking better than ever. I actually detected some ammonia and nitrite (verrrry small amounts) but no I'll effects as that was 2 days ago. I think a snail/hermit died but I have been unable to locate it. Luckily the bacteria population has been able to handle it since then (thus far) and I plan on moving all inverts over to the display shortly and will find it then.

These are still cell phone pics so keep in mind they look nicer than this and the colors don't show through as nice as they should. I took pics with actinic and actinic/daylights. Everything is still in QT:

FTS

Green Ricordea

GSP

Torch (this somehow ended up off of the frag rack and down on the bottom of the tank overnight. Pretty sure some snails/hermits teamed up, got drunk on coral frenzy, and went coral tipping[emoji6] )

Orange Ricordea

 

[BigJohnny]

Kryptonite Candy Cane

Duncan

 

[BigJohnny]

Don't know if anyone noticed but two of the corals have some nuisance algae on them which I plan on removing. That is why everything is still in QT (I'm also still light acclimating as my display lights are super powerful)

The Kryptonite Candy Cane has some green, brown, and possibly reddish algae (how rude of it to try and bring that ish into my house!)

The Duncan coral has one bubble of bubble algae (I think, I guess it could be a super glue blob covered in a film of algae, but I doubt it)

Atleast the torch has a hint of coralline[emoji106]

And a moment of zen just to break up the stress of nuisance algae! One of my dogs looking possessed while sleeping: