Back from the Grave!!

KniLLifer

KniLLifer

Premium Member
Guys....

To all my Alabama folks that may or may not miss me....

I'm back in action and starting my in wall build. We are in the process of finshing our basement which will add about 600 sq/feet to out living space. That aside, I will finally have a fish room.... not like Gflat who has a "fish home" but just a fish room, lol.

I'm ordering my tank this week which will be (245 Gallon) 72x30x26 w/ starfire front panel from a local Michigan tank manufacturer (10 minutes from my house). Great Lakes Aquariums.

Lighting will be LED, more details to come - I bought those today.

I will start a build thread in the comming months as the whole thing comes together.

I may need some help stocking back up...

Hope all of you are doing well! Miss ya'll.

BTW... We had a new addition to our family on 10/10/2012... his name is BROCK.
(3) Boys... I blame the Michigan winter for that one, not much to do!
 
Congrats on the new addition....hubby and I was just talking about you the other day and was wondering how the family was and if you ever started a tank yet. I'm sure it's gonna be super nice and I'll be sure to follow the build. Tell the family hello and let's see not only the new tank but a pic of Brock
 
LovenBama said:
Congrats on the new addition....hubby and I was just talking about you the other day and was wondering how the family was and if you ever started a tank yet. I'm sure it's gonna be super nice and I'll be sure to follow the build. Tell the family hello and let's see not only the new tank but a pic of Brock
Click to expand...

Hey, i thought that Andy was the only one that cared! LOL.
How are thing with you? Hope the tank is doing well.

I'm starting to build the fish room and actually finsihed constructing the stand last weekend. It was a pain in the butt to level becuase the floor was like a bowl. I used the auto-level concrete mix and turned the bowl into a mountian. :mad2: I have 150 buck of concrete under and around the stand now but at least its level and not going anywhere.
The stand measures 96"x31"x40" to hold the 8 foot 320 Gallon Tank.

Pic of the stand before I put it in the wall. Yes thats a 5 gallon bucket!
<a href="http://s233.photobucket.com/user/KniLLifer/media/IMG_0267.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/KniLLifer/IMG_0267.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0267.jpg"/></a>

Floor mounted forever!
<a href="http://s233.photobucket.com/user/KniLLifer/media/IMG_0281.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/KniLLifer/IMG_0281.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0281.jpg"/></a>

Stand is in the wall
<a href="http://s233.photobucket.com/user/KniLLifer/media/IMG_0284.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/KniLLifer/IMG_0284.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0284.jpg"/></a>

Side View
<a href="http://s233.photobucket.com/user/KniLLifer/media/IMG_0286.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/KniLLifer/IMG_0286.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0286.jpg"/></a>

And Brock
<a href="http://s233.photobucket.com/user/KniLLifer/media/IMG_0615.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee214/KniLLifer/IMG_0615.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0615.jpg"/></a>
 
he's so handsome...looks alot like the other two boys and the stand is looking good too. My tanks are doing ok had a new stand built for the 125 bout the time ya'll moved, and moved it to sit between two rooms in front of a bar so you can view all sides and ended up losing lots of stuff on my stupidity but that's a part of it .....on the plus side is the skimmer is awesome that I got from you and the main reason I had a new stand built cause it would not fit under the old stand
 
That is one good looking fellow. Lovenbama is right he does favor his brothers alot. The stand looks good too. Keep us up to date with the build.
 
Hi Art,
Good looking young fella you have there congrats, I have three boys also they will keep you busy for sure. I upgraded to a 150 this year and most of my big SPS came from your frags. Miss you down here in AL but glad things going well in MI, tagging along with your build.
All the best. Mike
 
Your right about it dying.....but that's a lot of chapters to that tale and we'll leave it at that. Hope all is well with the family. Going to tag along on the build thread.
 
Just wanted to impose here for a second and say hi. I'm new to reefing and live in Mobile. If anybody has any suggestions for a good reefer club, please pass along the info lol. Thanks!

Knil- can't wait to see your tank progression and the little man is adorable.
 
Throwing this out because I am unsure about what you are going to stock in the tank.
Have heard from a couple of different sources that LED lighting lacks the correct frequency to cause photosynthesis in SPS corals.

If I am incorrect, then I apologize but wanted a little known issue (that seems to be hush-hush) stated for discussion. Seems that everyone is switching to LED's and possibly doing long term damage.
 
Hey Art:). I'm still around, but have been kicked around a bit by this and that;). Haven't been on the forums much over the last few years. I keep adding on to the home system, though;). I had an awesome SPS tank up until about a year ago. Life and stupid choices... Decided to go with Nori from the Asian Foods Store (10 sheets of the stuff made for aquariums for $15 or 100 sheets for $15...), not thinking that it's chock full of phosphates. How do you make algae grow at faster rates? Feed it PO4;). Phosphates went from .03-.05 to .5 in three months before I figured it out. A friend started using the same stuff around the same time and experienced the same type of issues. Between the skyrocketed PO4 and the blue asterinas eating everything in the tank (I used to argue that asterinas aren't a problem until I got the blue ones. I've watched them sit on zoa polyps and devour them from head to stalk, then move to the next, run stripes of death through the middle of monti colonies, eat acans from the edge in, acros from the base up, etc.), the main display is a pale shadow of its former self. Now I'm trying to rebuild. I've got a few frags that are growing back out.

Got lots of everything else, though. I added on a 4'x4' frag tank (joined it with the 75 in the bedroom, through the window into the sunroom). The filter room is complete for now (4'x18" frag tank, 5'x2' frag tank, and the 150 and 100 gallon rubbermaids). Dave from Atlantis has gotten into the nice high end stuff, so I snag what I can when I cut for him. He's doing well these days.

I think the club is on failing life support. When the only 'full time' open store sponsor drops the club, it's hard to keep it going. I guess when you are the main game in town, why give discounts to those who have to shop there anyway, right? The hobby seems to be growing in Montgomery, though (or so I hear). The market here is just small compared to surrounding areas (primarily Memphis and Nashville-not much in Al anymore in the way of clubs...). If we could just get a social gathering together every month to look at people's tanks again, I think it could be revived despite the lack of a sponsor.

Glad to see you're back in it. Andy had told me he'd heard you were setting up again. Can't wait it all up and running.

BTW, I've been running LED's for a while and have had pretty good success with them for all coral types. Variety in color of the LED's is important, I think, but I've been running only royal blue and cool white. I'd like to add some other colors at some point, but I'm getting good growth and color. The hardest thing I've had to work around is giving too much light. It's easy to bleach things under LED's (quality LED's, anyway). I've got a par meter now, though, so I should be able to dial them in better. I've pretty well switched everything to LED over except for the MH on the display. They'll be replaced soon with LED's. The display is the tank that has taken the hit, while my frag tanks have done pretty well (except where I've left them neglected with no WC's and swinging parameters). It's all on two systems, now, so I'm making a concerted effort to keep the parameters in line. I'm ready to get some sticks growing again...

Tell Shannon and the boys Jenn and I say hi:).
 
BTW, I think a lot of the North Al folks have migrated to the other site (those that are still around, anyway). I see Tomoko at every Nashville swap. H@rry hasn't been around as much lately at swaps, but I think he's still in it? Will got out of the hobby a year or so ago, and Julie is getting out now...
 
gflat65 said:
Hey Art:). I'm still around, but have been kicked around a bit by this and that;). Haven't been on the forums much over the last few years. I keep adding on to the home system, though;). I had an awesome SPS tank up until about a year ago. Life and stupid choices... Decided to go with Nori from the Asian Foods Store (10 sheets of the stuff made for aquariums for $15 or 100 sheets for $15...), not thinking that it's chock full of phosphates. How do you make algae grow at faster rates? Feed it PO4;). Phosphates went from .03-.05 to .5 in three months before I figured it out. A friend started using the same stuff around the same time and experienced the same type of issues. Between the skyrocketed PO4 and the blue asterinas eating everything in the tank (I used to argue that asterinas aren't a problem until I got the blue ones. I've watched them sit on zoa polyps and devour them from head to stalk, then move to the next, run stripes of death through the middle of monti colonies, eat acans from the edge in, acros from the base up, etc.), the main display is a pale shadow of its former self. Now I'm trying to rebuild. I've got a few frags that are growing back out.

Got lots of everything else, though. I added on a 4'x4' frag tank (joined it with the 75 in the bedroom, through the window into the sunroom). The filter room is complete for now (4'x18" frag tank, 5'x2' frag tank, and the 150 and 100 gallon rubbermaids). Dave from Atlantis has gotten into the nice high end stuff, so I snag what I can when I cut for him. He's doing well these days.

I think the club is on failing life support. When the only 'full time' open store sponsor drops the club, it's hard to keep it going. I guess when you are the main game in town, why give discounts to those who have to shop there anyway, right? The hobby seems to be growing in Montgomery, though (or so I hear). The market here is just small compared to surrounding areas (primarily Memphis and Nashville-not much in Al anymore in the way of clubs...). If we could just get a social gathering together every month to look at people's tanks again, I think it could be revived despite the lack of a sponsor.

Glad to see you're back in it. Andy had told me he'd heard you were setting up again. Can't wait it all up and running.

BTW, I've been running LED's for a while and have had pretty good success with them for all coral types. Variety in color of the LED's is important, I think, but I've been running only royal blue and cool white. I'd like to add some other colors at some point, but I'm getting good growth and color. The hardest thing I've had to work around is giving too much light. It's easy to bleach things under LED's (quality LED's, anyway). I've got a par meter now, though, so I should be able to dial them in better. I've pretty well switched everything to LED over except for the MH on the display. They'll be replaced soon with LED's. The display is the tank that has taken the hit, while my frag tanks have done pretty well (except where I've left them neglected with no WC's and swinging parameters). It's all on two systems, now, so I'm making a concerted effort to keep the parameters in line. I'm ready to get some sticks growing again...

Tell Shannon and the boys Jenn and I say hi:).
Click to expand...

Hey Gary... nice to hear from you. Hate to hear about your issues with the tank(s). Knowing you, I'm sure that they will be what they once were in no time. Michigan has lots to offer for our hobby. There are some wonderful stores around here but its a little bit of a drive to some of them. You can get whatever you want and spend hours or even days at some of them.

I'm starting back up. Went big but it should be nice once its all done. You know what it takes to get a big system going and running, lots of patience and time. I have (3) boys now, the little guy is 9 months old and he's priority one at this time.

If want you can follow my buil thred in the Large Tank Forum:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2302364

Thanks and keep in touch. I may need some sticks some day soon.

~Art
 
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