Atomikk's 65 Reef

yup yup, its coming along pretty nicely. In a few weeks once i move ill be setting up my new tank. I will make sure to start a thread like this one so all you guys can check it out.
 
ga_reefer_guy said:
I forgot to ask you Atomikk what are you growing in the fuge cheato and where did the fuge from?

I got some regular Caulerpa and Grape Caulerpa, with a small ball of Cheato. Got a cucumber in there for add filtration.
 
mrreuben said:
yup yup, its coming along pretty nicely. In a few weeks once i move ill be setting up my new tank. I will make sure to start a thread like this one so all you guys can check it out.

Sounds great. Keep me updated.
 
The totals so far.. and they say this hobby is not that expensive..

Lets see... and this is in canadian funds...

65gal Tank w/ overflow : 220
Stand : 100
Canopy : 0
XM Bulbs : 240
Red Sea Berlin Skimmer : 240
RO/DI 24gpd : 220 (bad deal)
Overflow plumbing : 70
Other plumbing : 100
HOB 10g Refugium: 160
30g Sump (Tank) : 50
2 mag 7 pumps : 260
LR 33lbs : 300
DR 50lbs : 180
Bat Reflector w/ 2VHO and 2MH sockets: 100
PFO dual ballast : 120
Test Kits (Ca, other I already had): 20
Additives (Garlic, Iodide, Strontium, Kalk) : 65
Miracle Mud : 60
MaxiJet 2x400, 600: 70
Corals, Fish, Inverts : somewhere in the 300 range
(I might have missed something)
Yeah DUH! Red Sea Salt 2x: 50
CaribSea Aragonite 60lb : 65
TOTAL SO FAR : $2980 Canadian or $2515 US
 
OK, so my light system finally arrived. I caught the UPS guy and made sure that he delivered it! Freaking had to pay $100 CAN for brokerage fees. Never again will use UPS!

Anyhow.. the light installation was easy and it ran without a hitch. I let only 1 250w MH light on and the difference was amazing!! I couldnt believe how much clear white light there was! Within 1 hr eveything that I had (coral wise) perked up towards the light. Its unreal. I didnt even need the second light.

But, I still wanted to see how it looks with two 250s. It was freaking bright to the point of "who needs this much light". I had the bulbs roughly 8-10" from the water surface. I figure that I might just run 1 light for now until i get into heavy SPS.

I will definitely post some pics tomorrow when the lights in the tank come on.

Another thing I did today. My CBB was found to have some small outbreak of ich. He is eating fine now (i tricked him into eating mysis shrimp from a crevace in the rock), but still scratches from time to time. I found this product by www.nosickfish.com called 'ICK' and was coral and invert safe. The bottle was less than 40ml and ran for 65$ CAN (and that was the cheapest I found it to be, its 45$ US on their website). I had testimonials from fellow reefers (in Toronto), and store owners rave about this product. Apparently 1 drop treats 25g of water. So I bought it and put it in my tank. I am praying for good results. I will keep you all updated on how he is doing and the effects (long term and short term) of this medication.
 
OK The PICS are here...

GSPinMH.jpg

My GSP in MH

NoPickingattheGSP.jpg

My CBB looking at my GSP ;)

MyHorseshoeCloseup.jpg

Ohh my 'little' horseshoe crab.. moving that sandbed around...

PFODualBallast.jpg

The PFO ballast. The thing is HUGE!

TempAssignment.jpg

My temporary assignment of the reflector. I will soon build a new canopy.

TheBIGReflector.jpg

Another shot of the reflector.

TankShotSept0305.jpg

Tank at 3.5 months ( i think)...

TankShot2Sept0305.jpg

Side shot... the lights make it look BIG.

TankShot3Sept0305.jpg

Group shot.. i guess they were all dying for attantion...
 
looking good. Glad you decided to go with the reefer rocks, in no time they will be covered in coraline for you.
 
Scuba Oz said:
looking good. Glad you decided to go with the reefer rocks, in no time they will be covered in coraline for you.

They are amazing eh? I cant believe how porous they are. There are so many crevaces that my CBB doesnt know where too look for food first.
 
A MH generally has a 2 foot coverage area.

You may have some darker spots at the sides but 2 may be too much

looking good

come a long way from earlier on (when i was giving you so much crap)

good luck with the CBB...they are tough
 
Nuhtty said:
A MH generally has a 2 foot coverage area.

You may have some darker spots at the sides but 2 may be too much

looking good

come a long way from earlier on (when i was giving you so much crap)

good luck with the CBB...they are tough

Well thats a nice change :cool: . I will only run 1 for now unless I get into heavy sps (which is likely). For the LPS and soft corals, I will leave only 1 MH. As for the temp increase in the tank, I have witnessed maybe a 1 degree rise... thats it. So the height of the lights is good.

I think the trick with the CBB is to get it to eat the food oyu put inside the rocks. When I bought him, he was eating well in the store. The problem with that is, when he enters my tank (with rocks in it), he forgets to eat out of the water column and starts to swim around the rocks. His natural instincts are to hunt for food within rocks' crevices. So now, I have to get him to eat mysis or brine shrimp from the crevices. Its working so far.

The ick medication seems to be working or at least it seems to be containing the ich on the CBB. There are no new spots. He is hungry, and not lethargic. He is a very active fellow.
 
Here are the updates. The CBB is very, VERY picky at what he wants to eat. He is still active and 'hungry'. The ick is almost all gone (I think). There is still a small patch on the rear fin that cant seem to go away. Its been 5 days, I think, since I started with the medication. I will monitor that patch closely. He doesnt have any dots anywhere except there, so we will see.

As for his eating, man its hard. I even tried tricking him by placing food in the rocks. He does bite into some mysis here and there but that is it. So today I bought some mussels, shrimp, scallops, and salmon fillet. I put in a single mussel and he didnt even sniff it. SO I made him a home-made recipe that I found on the net.

You blend : 5-10 scallops, 50g of Salmon fillet, 4 Shrimp, 3 Mussels (Oysters, Clams), 1 Nori, 10-20 drops of Concitrated Garlic Extract and Salt Water (from tank).

You get an icecube tray, and pour the mush into it. Freeze it and feed accordingly. I test ran the mush recipe into the Cichlid tank, and it was gone in less than 8 sec.

We will see how the CBB will like this ultimate fish recipe. Even I thought about eating the mush (just dump in on the pan, and eat it) .

Also tomorrow I will venture into making the 2 Part calcium doser. I will keep you posted with pics...
 
OK I am officially FRUSTRATED with CBB's eating BS. Right now I have tried everything but shoving food down his mouth. I have tried Mysis (eats one or two at a time), brine shrimp, UltraRecipe (Scallop, Mussle, Shrimp, Salmon, Nori and Garlic), live Mussle, live clam, Omega One flake food....... still NOTHING. He is still hungry looking around the rocks for food (feather dusters, worms). He is still active. He even looks at my hand with food and swims away (he actually comes 1/2" from my hand, and swims away).

I am down to my last hope .. PE Mysis. Apparently people said that it is the ultimate CBB 'prepared' food. If that doesnt work, I am going for live baby shrimp... or I donno what. I am really reaching for help and hope.

He is ick free, but still has a small white patch (fungus?) on his tail fin. I dont think it has a major effect on his eating pattern, but who knows...
 
I've really enjoyed reading your thread. I have the same size tank as you, so seeing your progress is great.

Can you point me to where you found the homemade kalk drip instructions?

Thanks,
Zack
 
6Speed, thanks for your kind comments. I really dont know off the top of my head where I found the recipe for homemade Kalk drip. Maybe here? Its really easy to setup. If you need help setting it up, let me know.
 
SO I tried today krill... I think he looked at it and maybe.... maybe (unless he was trying to bite something else) he took a small bite. Even my little serpent star is enjoying the krill. Man I am mad.
 
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