cloakerpoked
New member
:dance:
OK, well a few people have been asking or wondering about what I am up to, so here's the back story. I apologize there are no pictures, I'm hoping to have them by Sunday. Since there's no Steelers that day, I should have a pretty open day.
I had to tear down my tank temporarily for a few reasons, the biggest of them being that I was doing some re-modeling in the living room, that would entail a lot of painting and a lot of spackeling/sanding. Since these activities are not conducive to fish tank health, and I had some other things I wanted to tackle as well, down the tank went and frags loaded up a temporary system set up in my bedroom. That was August.
Fast Forward to November. The remodeling was finally wrapping up, and the tank was sitting with new dry BRS rock attached to an eggcrate base to keep it from moving. I got the tank back in it's place, and added water around Thanksgiving as well as putting the old LR in the sump and my maroon clown who I've had for going on 5 years. I decided to use new LR because aiptasia and hair algae had become a significant problem. The rocks were also huge (going on 30 lbs each) and just took up too much space. My new design doesn't give a lot more room for coral mounting, but it does for growth, so I'm excited about that. Now I just have to wait for it to cycle.
January. The wife has the bug to re-arrange the bedroom, but this fishy smelling bright thing is sitting in the way. I have the bug to get the tank back up and running, so all plans converge and into the tank goes all my livestock. I can't believe how much I had in my temporary system (30 gallon). A lot of it is brown right now from having expelled a lot of the zoazanthelle, but everything is showing good polyp extension, and I believe it will come back. There have been a few equipment upgrades as well.
Flow is now run by 3 K3 powerheads and 2 K2 Evo powerheads. Its a big much in a few zones, and has blasted the tips off one of my birdsnests but it'll adjust. The tissue recession has stopped, so it's not something I'm worried about.
Return is now run by a Mag5 utility pump rather than a Quiet One whatever it was. It's a much faster turn-over.
Drain and returns are now plumbed much differently. Eventually, there will be 2 20 gallon tanks and a 30 gallon tank plumbed into this system. That is to keep my additional 130 pounds of live rock live, have a frag system, and hopefully an anemone/clown fish tank. I can also run water through the chiller or by-pass it in the primary return line.
And the big ones...I got an ASM G2 skimmer for free on a tank I tore down for work. I'm really excited about it, but right now it is in the sump, where the water level fluxuates, and it hasn't had the gate valve mod yet, so these are in works. It will eventually be in the 30 gallon, but getting the whole system together is going to be a process on the order of months. I also just ordered a Lumen Bright 3 Mini Wide SE Mogul Base Pendant from Dave's Aquastock to replace my current batwing reflector. It will require a concession and elimination of the canopy as it is currently configured, but this is a concession I have made peace with. The reflector will hopefully get around my needing to suppliment the tank with some form of alternative light source (i.e. t-5) to better light the perimeters of the tank.
Dang, if you're still reading this, sorry that I got so long-winded. It's just difficult to compress the last 5 months any other way. Pics Sunday! :bounce3: (and isn't that really what we really care about)
OK, well a few people have been asking or wondering about what I am up to, so here's the back story. I apologize there are no pictures, I'm hoping to have them by Sunday. Since there's no Steelers that day, I should have a pretty open day.
I had to tear down my tank temporarily for a few reasons, the biggest of them being that I was doing some re-modeling in the living room, that would entail a lot of painting and a lot of spackeling/sanding. Since these activities are not conducive to fish tank health, and I had some other things I wanted to tackle as well, down the tank went and frags loaded up a temporary system set up in my bedroom. That was August.
Fast Forward to November. The remodeling was finally wrapping up, and the tank was sitting with new dry BRS rock attached to an eggcrate base to keep it from moving. I got the tank back in it's place, and added water around Thanksgiving as well as putting the old LR in the sump and my maroon clown who I've had for going on 5 years. I decided to use new LR because aiptasia and hair algae had become a significant problem. The rocks were also huge (going on 30 lbs each) and just took up too much space. My new design doesn't give a lot more room for coral mounting, but it does for growth, so I'm excited about that. Now I just have to wait for it to cycle.
January. The wife has the bug to re-arrange the bedroom, but this fishy smelling bright thing is sitting in the way. I have the bug to get the tank back up and running, so all plans converge and into the tank goes all my livestock. I can't believe how much I had in my temporary system (30 gallon). A lot of it is brown right now from having expelled a lot of the zoazanthelle, but everything is showing good polyp extension, and I believe it will come back. There have been a few equipment upgrades as well.
Flow is now run by 3 K3 powerheads and 2 K2 Evo powerheads. Its a big much in a few zones, and has blasted the tips off one of my birdsnests but it'll adjust. The tissue recession has stopped, so it's not something I'm worried about.
Return is now run by a Mag5 utility pump rather than a Quiet One whatever it was. It's a much faster turn-over.
Drain and returns are now plumbed much differently. Eventually, there will be 2 20 gallon tanks and a 30 gallon tank plumbed into this system. That is to keep my additional 130 pounds of live rock live, have a frag system, and hopefully an anemone/clown fish tank. I can also run water through the chiller or by-pass it in the primary return line.
And the big ones...I got an ASM G2 skimmer for free on a tank I tore down for work. I'm really excited about it, but right now it is in the sump, where the water level fluxuates, and it hasn't had the gate valve mod yet, so these are in works. It will eventually be in the 30 gallon, but getting the whole system together is going to be a process on the order of months. I also just ordered a Lumen Bright 3 Mini Wide SE Mogul Base Pendant from Dave's Aquastock to replace my current batwing reflector. It will require a concession and elimination of the canopy as it is currently configured, but this is a concession I have made peace with. The reflector will hopefully get around my needing to suppliment the tank with some form of alternative light source (i.e. t-5) to better light the perimeters of the tank.
Dang, if you're still reading this, sorry that I got so long-winded. It's just difficult to compress the last 5 months any other way. Pics Sunday! :bounce3: (and isn't that really what we really care about)
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I have a max of 5 feet, so 120 would've been the biggest I can go. This tank was a gift from my wife about 14 months ago, so in order for everything to stay in harmony (and keep her interested in what I'm doing) this is the tank I have, and will keep for the foreseeable future.
