Dales (HUSKY_1) 92 corner build

[Husky_1]

Southernboy,
I did not make the stand and hood. When I originally wanted this shape of a tank, my intentions were to make one because I did not like most of the "stock" combo's that I have seen. However, no used tanks came up for sale, and I happen to be in Exotic Aquatic the day before their sidewalk sale. I got a phenomenal deal that I could not pass up on this setup.

Craig,
Glad the new picture helped, as you can tell I did move a few rocks around, particularly on the very edges, I moved it in, just enough to get a magfloat or cleaner in.

The temp of the tank is pretty stable right now. I have to check again with lights off. My temp with lights off is 78, my temp with lights on is 77.5. It looks like my evap rate may be high so I am going to experiment with knocking the fans down to 9v and see how this affects everything. In the end I want the temp to be stable. In the event that this is not possible, I would rather have the tank go up 1/2 degree during lighting periods so that my evap is lower. I do also plan on buying one of those 10g buckets like SirJohn found instead of the 5g for my ATO as well.

 

[Southern Boy]

I love the design on that stand and hood.I think I might be stealing it.Mine has nothing at all right now.I made the stand a foot taller for 1 cause I like it up at my level and 2 I needed to get the closed loop piping and pump in along with the sump,fuge and skimmer.I do love your set-up though.I wanted a 92 but got the 54 with lights,stand and hood for 250.Couldn't pass it up.Can't wait to see yours once it's cycled and finished.

 

[mkarston]

faOne I like the way you mounted the MH above the hood, and faTwo those lights will shine bright faDays!

 

[Husky_1]

SouthernBoy,
I know that you said in an earlier post that you would like to see the tank in person. If you are ever down this way let me know, you can stop in.

Craig,
Doggonit, I am glad you noticed....They are mounted that way so that the no light will be blocked by another lights reflectors....

 

[sirjohn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10778506#post10778506 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Husky_1

Looking good Husky!!! I saw that stand and hood a few weeks ago when I was up north staying at the beach. That was a special order that someone canceled after it was made, right? It is beautiful. Only reason I didn't buy it then was because it was cherry and wouldn;t match the furniture in my den.

Will you be adding a background to the back/sides or leaving it as it is?

 

[Husky_1]

SirJohn, I did not know it was a special order....I guess it worked out for me.

The sides do have a background its black, but for whatever reason they look mirrored....I painted my last tank a dark blue, which lightened up considerably as soon as the lights went on. This time I wanted to try black without actually committing...

 

[Husky_1]

Return Pump Broke

Return Pump Broke

So this past weekend, to my dismay, my return pump broke. When I was finalizing under my sump I noticed that some water was coming from the pump around the return section right below where the return hose plugs in. I started taking the return assembly a part and found the nozzle in the OR 2500 broke.

This is when I was thankful that I had spare return pump. I put this in temporarily.

I was able to use some PVC glue to hold it together, but then another piece of it broke. Aquamedic is sending me a new assembly, unfortunately this is considered wearable parts, so I had to pay for it.

This happening reminded me of an article I just read:



http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-05/gh/index.php

 

[Southern Boy]

How far down south do you live?

 

[Husky_1]

Boynton

 

[Husky_1]

So I decided to change out the xm10k for a phoenix 14k. The XM washed the colors way out too much for my liking, and since I could not add more supplement, I had to change bulbs. So far I am very happy with the change, but they bulb has only been in for 1/2 hour. Craig (Mkarston) mentioned that they burn a little blue until break in is complete, so I am looking forward to seeing these progress as its jjust a tad blue for me. Finally though, my colors are not washed out and I think this was the right decision.

I have not updated any pics for a while so here are a few recent pics. They were taken yesterday, and really are not very good. I really need to learn to use my camera better and/or get a new camera. Craig, where are you when I need you . There are some nice things that dont even show up here, like a mint acro, my candycane, a green monti, orange ric, shrooms, zoo's, echino, .... .

This is of the sump:

Another sump shot:

FTS:

 

[mkarston]

Looks great.... yeah like i said, give it a week or two to let the 14k bulbs burn in. Its good to see that perc is happy; its probably been 3 plus years now since I got him originally. Yeah, I find photographing my aquarium to be one of the most difficult things, and having a camera where I can adjust all the parameters manually definitely helps.

Keep us updated, and the pictures coming....

 

[edshern]

Ive got a 92g corner tank also, and would like to buy a hood for it like Husky's.
Anybody know where I could buy one like it, or someone who would build one for me?
Unfortunately, of the limited skills I do have, carpentry isn't one of them.
Thanks
Ed

 

[sirjohn]

Looking good husky. Great move on the phoenix 14k. Much better than the 10k XM in my opinion, or even the Ushio 10k. In my previous tank, I found that 14k was my sweet spot...

 

[Husky_1]

Yeah, the 14k are much nicer. Now that they are close to burned in, I am pretty happy.

 

[Husky_1]

Over the past few weeks I have been very busy. My wife and I had a boy on 10-09, he is our first.

In the mean time, since I last gave a real update. I have added a Solarensis wrasse and a female carpenter. I dont have pics of the carpenters yet, but she has been in the tank for 3 weeks.

I will be adding a male carpenters flasher next, its just a matter of finding one.

Since I have not added any FTS's lately here is one from 10/16:

Another

 

[Husky_1]

Also, I have added an orange Ricordia, 2 new types of zoos and a ORA blue green tort. I don't have any pictures of the tort or the zoos. Unfortunately one frag of the zoos came unglued from the rock and is MIA...

Also, I bought an innovative aquatics, nautilus 2, dosing pump from a local reefer (thanks compulou), and received the tubing and AC controller. I should be installing this by the end of the week.

Here are some pics of other corals.
Ricordia

Echinopora

CandyCane

Shrooms:

Behind the clown you can see the leather

 

[Husky_1]

Current Inventory

Current Inventory

My current inventory of corals includes:

Candycane
Green Monticap
Neon Toadstool
Frogspawn
Ora German Blue
Superman Danae
Mint Acropora
GSP
At least 6 variety of Zoa's (I am not big on names)
Green button polyps
Xenia (I keep it in high flow area and seperated for now)
Various Mushrooms at least 4 different ones
Ora blue green tort
Echinopora (I think its a chalice)
1 small finger leather (this guy was getting stung by GSP and I have not found a happy place for him yet)

Fish:
1 false perc (Craigfish)
1 solarensis wrasse (deuce)
1 Female Carpenters Flasher (porche)

Inverts etc:
2x large Red leg hermits
Bunch of small blue legged hermits
A few Mexican Turbos
Bunch of Astrea snails
2 x nassarius snails
1 x Brown Brittle star
2 x Unidentified bivalves (they were hitchhikers on LR)
Chaeto in the sump

Here was my last water test results:
10/30/2007
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Salinity 1.023
Akalinity (meg/l) 3.5
Ph 8.1 no lights
Temperature 78
Calcium (ppm) 345 (Dosing this up to 450)
Magnesium 1300 (Dosing this up to 1500)
Phosphate meg/l .25 (Or less)

 

[ReefWreak]

Dale the tank is looking great! Any growth on the superman since you got it from me? That was a while ago, did you keep your old tank set up until this one was ready?

 

[Husky_1]

Hey Erik,
Thanks for the compliment.
After I got the superman from you, it started loosing its color slowly. Probably because of the old under powered lights, higher Po4 and tank moves. Because of shared resources, I moved all of my stock to a 10g holding tank for about 2 weeks. By the time I put the guy in this tank, the blue had dulled to a greyish color and the red was more of a maroon. Happily, in the past couple week the blue started coming back and the polyps are more red. I have a feeling that it will be really happy in this tank. The lighting will be more in line with what it needs, but that is the same for all of my SPS. I tried taking a pic of this guy, but since its small and towards the back of my tank, I have a hard time with my old sony P&S 3mp camera.


The German blue I got from you has some growth, great polyp extensions and the flesh has a nice color. I cannot find a sweet spot to get the polyps blue though...Since I have "fragged" (accidental branch break) this, I have a small piece I will move around to find a good combo of lights/flow. From what I have read, they like medium flow, medium light.

The confusa i got from you is MIA. This was one of the few frags not glued and it fell underneath my stack. I did not have it glued because I was looking for a nice spot for it too...When you get back in town I would love to talk about another frag of the confusa though.

 

[ReefWreak]

Yea man, I'm happy to work something out for the Confusa frag. Sorry to hear that it didn't work out well. I'm glad to hear that everything else is doing well though. Let me know when you find the sweet spot for the German Blue. I think I'm going to sell one of the colonies, so I would like to color it up first. I think it liked the 10k XM bulbs more than the 14k that are on it now. I bet it grows like a weed in your tank though.

I'll let you know when I'm coming down again and we can catch up. Take care, and congratulations on your first born (even though that was a little while ago).