A Reef Tank in the Desert - +/- 1,400 gallon system

I believe I should test drive those Achilles before you place them in your DT to make sure they are durable.


Sent from my iPhone using Siri and Tapatalk.

But once their in your tank you will never be able to catch em again.

My past experience with Achilles
If they survive acclimation they are durable unless someone bully them
Like the powder blue so social acclimation is a must.

Catching Achilles or any tangs are very,very easy at night few hours after total darkness and less stress on the fish
 
So before Sam left back for school, he came over late one night when the lights were winding down. When he was here, one of the randomly programmed storms commenced.

My Radions are randomly programmed (storm mode) for a 20% cloud coverage and 20% chance of storms. So every few days, randomly, a 5-7 minute storm occurs.

Sam didn't have his good camera with him, with all the macro lenses, filters, etc., but he did manage to shoot this quick video and attach some music to it. It's not very long and the color isn't the best, but it give you the idea.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TzZrzJJ5LCc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


this vid is just nastyyyyy lol..amazing technology there..everytime i see it, i fall in love everytime... i would only dream to have 3 of theses and 2xmp40s synched on a laptop together.pffffff wake up wake up lol
 
Does anyone know what type of fish Dmorty's avatar is? It looks like a sailfin tang, but the colors are way more varied and vibrant than what i've seen... thanks for any insights on this one...
 
Hey dan, I hope all is well. What happened with your dialyseas? I thought you were using it to change water as well?

Erwin,

I am glad to see that you are still following along. How are you?

I never hooked up the Dialyseas. As a matter of fact, I just told Mike at Simply Elegant Aquatics to sell it for me. It is a great system, but, I am afraid that I am just too anal and would not use if for its full potential.

I don't feel comfortable, at this stage in the game, trusting a machine to remove SW and add freshly made SW to my tank. That doesn't make great sense. While I trust my Apex to monitor conductivity, I still check my salinity the old fashioned way too, with my refractometer. I feel more comfortable making 200 gallons of SW, verifying its salinity, etc. before doing a water change. With the Dialyseas, you are basically adding a high concentration of SW (basically out of a 5 gallon bucket of sludgy SW) as it removes water.

I am 96% set on ordering the Genesis Renew System. I still want to speak with a couple more users. I will still do my regular gravel vac and some water changes, but, I would like to have something perform 5-10 gallon changes daily.

So if you know of anyone wanting a Dialyseas...
 
FedEx Friday Episode XVI

FedEx Friday Episode XVI

So this weeks FedEx Friday is going to be interesting...

I mostly had dry goods coming... the new Ozone Generator, an order from BRS...nothing real special. I forgot though, I ordered a dozen portions of live brine shrimp and some feeder shrimp for tomorrow from Reefs2go.

One lil problem...

Today, while working at the office, I had the Arizona vs. Colorado basketball game (PAC-12 Conference Tournament) on in the background. My 13 year old kept texting me from school asking me for updates. Somewhere around halftime I got the idea, that if Arizona won, pulling my son from school tomorrow, flying up to Vegas and having a "Dan & Son" weekend and attending all of the games.

Well, Arizona did win and with my wife's permission, instead of driving him to school tomorrow, I am surprising him and driving to the airport. I booked a flight and emailed a Casino Host to get me some tickets and a nice hotel room. So what he has three (3) tests/quizzes tomorrow. This is Arizona Basketball!

I am sure that it will be one of the quietest Vegas trips I ever had. Won't be a Bachelor Party, Gambling Trip, Guy Trip or Hangover...But I am sure it will be one of my most memorable and a lot of fun.

Back to my lil problem.... my wife is going to have to acclimate my 12 bags of brine shrimp and then pour them into the shrimp tank. Not her cup of tea. She is also going to have to feed my seahorses 3x each day and twice daily for all my other fish. Should be interesting...
 
Dan, looking good as always!:fish1:

Thanks Dave!

Your tank is rocking! I keep checking your thread to see if your little one has added any new toys to your sump.

I think you should buy him a remote control submarine that he can operate in that monster!

I hope that you don't mind, but, I have copied your acclimation box designs with a few adjustments. I have the plastic/acrylic company making me two 26" boxes that I can hang across my tank with some pvc or acrylic rods. After I gave them the dimensions, I showed them the photos of your invention. So if there are some copyright or royalty fees...just let me know.

If there is a consolation, I will be naming them the "DCA Acclimation Boxes."
 
So this weeks FedEx Friday is going to be interesting...

I mostly had dry goods coming... the new Ozone Generator, an order from BRS...nothing real special. I forgot though, I ordered a dozen portions of live brine shrimp and some feeder shrimp for tomorrow from Reefs2go.

One lil problem...

Today, while working at the office, I had the Arizona vs. Colorado basketball game (PAC-12 Conference Tournament) on in the background. My 13 year old kept texting me from school asking me for updates. Somewhere around halftime I got the idea, that if Arizona won, pulling my son from school tomorrow, flying up to Vegas and having a "Dan & Son" weekend and attending all of the games.

Well, Arizona did win and with my wife's permission, instead of driving him to school tomorrow, I am surprising him and driving to the airport. I booked a flight and emailed a Casino Host to get me some tickets and a nice hotel room. So what he has three (3) tests/quizzes tomorrow. This is Arizona Basketball!

I am sure that it will be one of the quietest Vegas trips I ever had. Won't be a Bachelor Party, Gambling Trip, Guy Trip or Hangover...But I am sure it will be one of my most memorable and a lot of fun.

Back to my lil problem.... my wife is going to have to acclimate my 12 bags of brine shrimp and then pour them into the shrimp tank. Not her cup of tea. She is also going to have to feed my seahorses 3x each day and twice daily for all my other fish. Should be interesting...


THAT IS AWESOME! Nothing beats the feeling when you see the look on his face. Even if LA sent you 5K worth of corals for free tomorrow. Like that would ever happen! lol

I can't wait until my 2 boys get older so we can go to games together. A few weeks ago my wife was telling me to come up stairs quick! She was shouting "this is your proudest moment". So I go upstairs and my oldest son (turned 2 this past Sunday) was fighting with his big sister over the TV. She wanted Yo Gabba Gabba and he was crying and throwing a fit, he kept saying basket ball basket ball. So I took him down to watch the rest of the Knick game with me. He was glued for an entire 4th quarter. He's got a Stoudemire Jersey and she rocks a Melo jersey just because she needs to get something every time he does!
 
That trip will be awesome, I love march madness!
Love your fish selection and the QT setup with MI being fed by live brine etc is a dream.
Have you looked into setting up your apex to perform automatic water changes?
All you need is a couple of float switches, pumps, a container to hold salt water and a place to get rid of the old water. I've read about a few profilux owners doing this, and I'm almost certain Apex should have the same capability. The benefit of being integrated into your controller is warnings, control through apps, etc...
 
So this weeks FedEx Friday is going to be interesting...

I mostly had dry goods coming... the new Ozone Generator, an order from BRS...nothing real special. I forgot though, I ordered a dozen portions of live brine shrimp and some feeder shrimp for tomorrow from Reefs2go.

One lil problem...

Today, while working at the office, I had the Arizona vs. Colorado basketball game (PAC-12 Conference Tournament) on in the background. My 13 year old kept texting me from school asking me for updates. Somewhere around halftime I got the idea, that if Arizona won, pulling my son from school tomorrow, flying up to Vegas and having a "Dan & Son" weekend and attending all of the games.

Well, Arizona did win and with my wife's permission, instead of driving him to school tomorrow, I am surprising him and driving to the airport. I booked a flight and emailed a Casino Host to get me some tickets and a nice hotel room. So what he has three (3) tests/quizzes tomorrow. This is Arizona Basketball!

I am sure that it will be one of the quietest Vegas trips I ever had. Won't be a Bachelor Party, Gambling Trip, Guy Trip or Hangover...But I am sure it will be one of my most memorable and a lot of fun.

Back to my lil problem.... my wife is going to have to acclimate my 12 bags of brine shrimp and then pour them into the shrimp tank. Not her cup of tea. She is also going to have to feed my seahorses 3x each day and twice daily for all my other fish. Should be interesting...

Keep yourself out of the dog house and bring her back something for taking care of the fish.

Joe
 
Erwin,

I am glad to see that you are still following along. How are you?

I never hooked up the Dialyseas. As a matter of fact, I just told Mike at Simply Elegant Aquatics to sell it for me. It is a great system, but, I am afraid that I am just too anal and would not use if for its full potential.

I don't feel comfortable, at this stage in the game, trusting a machine to remove SW and add freshly made SW to my tank. That doesn't make great sense. While I trust my Apex to monitor conductivity, I still check my salinity the old fashioned way too, with my refractometer. I feel more comfortable making 200 gallons of SW, verifying its salinity, etc. before doing a water change. With the Dialyseas, you are basically adding a high concentration of SW (basically out of a 5 gallon bucket of sludgy SW) as it removes water.

I am 96% set on ordering the Genesis Renew System. I still want to speak with a couple more users. I will still do my regular gravel vac and some water changes, but, I would like to have something perform 5-10 gallon changes daily.

So if you know of anyone wanting a Dialyseas...

Hey Dan im doing well! I hope you and your family are doing great as well. Of course im still tagging along, your thread has made me log into reef central religiously lol. Well that just cleared it up for me. I understand your concerns and with a system like yours I would go about it the same way. It sounds to me like your doing a smart thing and asking the hands on users of the product to get their knowledge and input about the genesis. It sounds like a cool system but you definitely do not want to go that route without the assurance of a fail proof system. I hope it works out well for you and keep up the good work buddy! I cant wait to see the new achilles, idols, and sohals in your system. Good luck and keep it up!

P.S. enjoy your trip with your son! I would have loved for my dad to have done something like that for me. Oh and like Made2Rock said I would definitely bring something home for the misses! Have a good one bud.
 
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Looks good sir
I love to have 2 Achilles and 2 PBT on my rebuild

Hey! Remember, "sir" is my dad!

I am anxious for my Achilles, Powder Blues, Purple, Clown, Sailfin, Vlamingi, etc. all to become good friends. I should have my new acrylic boxes when I return.
 
Wishing you and your son a very safe trip. Cant wait for you to return and update us with the game(although i will know the results from ESPN). But ESPN cant update your tank for us either.
 
Trip & FedEx Friday Updates

Trip & FedEx Friday Updates

What a day! What a night!

Let's see... So this morning things worked out perfectly! I was driving my son to school and it took a while to notice that we were heading in a different direction. He absolutely flipped when I told him that we were heading to the PAC-12 tournament in Las Vegas.

When we arrived in Vegas, I had an email letting me know that a room was booked for us at the MGM. Our friend, Hostess, works in the executive offices of the Bellagio. She was having difficulties getting tickets as they had been sold online and not in the hotel. I figured that I would just scalp seats. When we arrived at the Hotel I received a call that she was able to get tickets and to come see her.

We took a cab to the Bellagio and went into the Bellagio shops to get her a little gift. Well, it definitely paid off. She got us two floor seats, right behind the UCLA bench, for the AZ vs. UCLA game, the Utah Oregon game and tomorrows championship game.

We lost the game due to some bad calls, terrible officiating, technicals and stupid plays...but we had a blast. My son kept getting text messages from friends because we were on TV a lot. He took pictures with Bill Walton, Rich Rodriguez - the Arizona Football coach, Oregon cheerleaders... he/we had a lot of fun. Tomorrow we will hopefully cheer Oregon on to victory.

FedEx Friday came off without a hitch. My wife, I lover her so, :love1::inlove: didn't complain about pouring the brine shimp into their tank, feeding the fish, or her hands getting "fishy smelling" from the bags of shrimp.

I know that my new Ozone Generator came in and I should be able to connect it Sunday evening.

We may be able to hit Blue Reef Aquatics or a couple of LFS's here while in Vegas. We'll see how much time we have tomorrow and Sunday. Our big plan right now is Carnegies Deli at the Mirage for brunch tomorrow morning.
 
Yea that was a bummer. Not as bad as that Richmond game when that dude shot like 20 free throws in 5 seconds. I am glad you and your son had a great time. Be safe.
 
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