Come with me on my Custom 77 Gallon setup

[Stile2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7190204#post7190204 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
Great pictures. Are you hand dosing two part and topoff water? I've been wondering if that would make it tougher for the sps. Maybe I'm being paranoid. But I like the corals and cool snails too.

I am doing water topoff and dosing Calcium and Alkalinity by hand right now and did in my 29 gallon as well. Marc said that the Pink Pocillopora was a slow grower, but I had pretty good growth. In the pictures above of the Pocillopora, the first one was on Feb 20th, and the last was the other day. So that growth happened in about 2 months.

The auto topoff and calc reactor will have to wait until I get the fishroom up and running.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

Well, some good news and some bad news and some in between, I think.

First the good news, the skimmer is reworked and in the sump.

I took off the Ocean Runner 2700, which was heating my rock tank water 9 degrees and replaced it with a Sedra 9000. I also made the exit plumbing bigger, to get more flow through.

Now the bad news. I obviously do not understand hydrodynamics at all. This is the new drain I built to supply the skimmer.

Can anyone see the problem? since the spa-flex going to the skimmer is below the gate valve it is acting like a venturi and sucking water out of the skimmer instead of pushing water into the skimmer. Opps :eek2:
I will be redoing that after work today. Obviously the drain to the skimmer needs to go above the gate valve, duh!

And the in between. I have had a slight green hair algea outbreak.

I am trying to get people in our local club to do a group buy from Keys Critters, but there aren't a lot of members, so we will see.

That's it for now. I plan on doing a full battery of tests this afternoon as well, will post results. Oh, and put in the PhosBan Reactor, too.

Keith

 

[gkarshens]

Keith, I made a post in my thread recently that you may have missed about Keys Critters. I would be careful ordering from them. I was in Key Largo a couple weeks ago and saw Keys Kritters. Thinking it was the same I went in. I found out they are suing the Keys critters we all know about online for stealing their name of 15 years. He also told me that they get angry calls all the time from people that paid for their order but never got it. Just a heads up.

 

[Stile2]

Gabriel,
I will keep that in mind about Key Critters. Maybe melev could chime in, I know that their club does quite a few group buys from them.

In other news, (and the fact that I forgot this morning), I got a Citron Goby. Cool fish, although he has been sitting in my Acro. He is not the normal coloring, he is green with red vertical stripes. He is pretty shy, I'll try and get a picture tonight (along with all the other things I need to do).

I can't believe no one is laughing at my drain screw up.

Keith

 

[reefarchitect]

Citron Goby, as in a small perching clown Goby?

If so, I have been told be several people that they occasionally nip at SPS polyps.

I have heard that reeftopia.com is a pretty reliable source for clean up critters.

Good luck

 

[Stile2]

Thanks for the info. I am having trouble getting a picture of him, but no nipping yet. We'll hope for the best.

I did get the skimmer working tonight. I am not sure about my drain setup. Makes it very hard to adjust the skimmer. I may have to redesign the whole drain setup.

Again we'll see.

Keith

 

[melev]

If there is a lawsuit going on, I'm unaware of it. Keyscritters.com has worked out well for us through multiple orders.

 

[Stile2]

I built the new drain last night.

Like I said above it makes it very hard to adjust the skimmer. I am going to rethink the whole drain set up. I like the two drains as it is very quiet, but I either need to feed the fuge differently or feed the skimmer differently.

I may even rethink the sump/fuge setup. For right now it is working, so I'm going to leave it be. I also have a ton of other projects to do and if I don't start getting some work done on those the wife is going to kill me.

Skimmer with foam.

Full Skimmer set up.

I also tried to make some melev like food last night.
I'll right a post on that after I get to work.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

My first try at a melev like food product.

Here is what I began with. Ocean Plankton (not enough I ran out), Krill, Squid, Rotifiers, Mysis, Formula One (Frozen) which I hate it won't thaw or chop, Liquid Life Cyclopleze, Garlic Extreme (a few drops) Formula One & Two Pellets

I added some raw shrimp

Added one clove of garlic, see all the stuff in the blender cup (and no I didn't add any NewCastle)

Here it is about half chopped. If all the pieces were chopped I would have stopped here, it is the textue I wanted.

Here it is fully mixed. Much thinner than I wanted, but I will add some thawed mysis and Ocean Plankton when I feed to get a few bigger meaty bits. Next time I am going to use the bigger food processor (wife said it was ok to use it as long I cleaned it :eek2: )

I feed a bit last night and the fish went nuts for it. :dance:

Have a good day everyone,
Keith

 

[melev]

Now that is some sludge!

 

[Cprowler]

looks good Keith, I'm going to try and make a batch one of these days.

 

[Stile2]

Thanks guys,
I would have liked if it had of had more meaty bits left, instead of completely chopped.

Well, I ran a whole battery of tests last night. Some of the tests don't seem right to me, and I remembered that I bought that test kit over a year ago. So I just got my order confirmation from Marine Depot for some new Salifert kits. Anyway, here are the results.

Date/Time 4/20/2006 6:40 pm

NH4 0.50 ppm (I am pretty sure the est kit is bad, corals look great and getting great growth)
NO3 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
pH 8.4 (again test kit made be bad)
Temp 81.7 degrees
Calcium 402 ppm
Alkalinity 8.27 dKh
PO4 0 ppm (but I have some algea growth, so there must be some in there, I will be adding the Phosban reactor this weekend)
Mg 1380
Salinity 1.026

I will redo the tests as soon as the new kits get here.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

I am pretty sure that one of my corals has red bugs, how do you get rid of them.
I will post picture soon.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

Here is a picture. Sorry not the greatest quality, haven't got the macro thing down.

 

[Cprowler]

Interceptor - you get it from a vet.

 

[rdmpe]

Bummer on the red bugs - so far I don't have any corals

So your fish eat that stuff? Looks like it came from a diaper :lol: Seriously, it looks like it is pretty fine. Are the particles big enough that the fish go after them? I've been thinking about making some DIY food as well. I was thinking of doing two batches, one mostly vegitarian and the other mostly meaty.

 

[Stile2]

My vet is at lunch until 1 pm (California time). So hopefully I can get some Interceptor today. If so I'll so the first treatment tomorrow. I guess I get to QT all future corals.

Randy,
So far all the fish I have (Maroon Clown, Royal Gramma, Scooter Blenny, Citrus Goby) love it except for the Goby (I haven't seen him eat anything). Even my Cleaner Shrimp loves it. Every other feed I throw in a little bit of either Mysis or Krill, just for some bigger meaty bits.

Making the food about made me puke!! next time I am going to try making smaller batch and in a bigger processor.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

Well, some vets are a pain. My vet doesn't carry Interceptor any more and won't order it for me. They will give me a perscription, but need to charge me for an appointment and I have to take my cat in. And while they said that they would give the script for 51-100 Dog, even though I take in a 10 lb cat, I was unsure. And NO other vet in my area would even think about selling it to me. One actually wanted me to bring the coral in and they said they would treat it. I told them that it didn't work that way.

VETS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT REEFS!!!:mad2:

Ok, at least the vets I called.

I called my Mom, who has been going to the same vet for 27 years, she has had Rottweilers that whole time. Her vet said, How much do you need, and we don't want to know what your using it for. So Mom is sending, UPS, the meds on Monday, I will do my first treatment on Saturday. It's the only time I have enough time to do the treatment and the water change. I am going to set up a 10 gallon Non-treatment tank for my shrimp and crabs.

I will post treatment procedures and results.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

some good news, for me. I got a new CAD program called Rhinoceros. 3D modeling for the teacher price (sweet :dance:

)

Here is my first attempt at drawing something in 3D

Just thought I would make myself feel better by posting something cool.
Keith

 

[colesy]

I just got done reading through this thread. I have picked up some great info. I am curious how your stand turns out after skinning it. I haven't decided on a wood or metal stand yet, and was thinking about how I could finish off a metal stand.