Dave's Life Aquatic (180 build)

[davewbush]

Had 98% full on photobucket yesterday and haven't put anything on. Pics will be back up on the 26th. I'll put some up off of flicker later.

 

[davewbush]

Here is a fts before the lights came on 6-15-10.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709867338/" title="6-15-2010 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4059/4709867338_aa130bcdd9_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="6-15-2010" /></a>

All lights on yesterday.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709251763/" title="6-16-10-1 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1299/4709251763_3e2db6f949_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="6-16-10-1" /></a>

Right side

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709904594/" title="6-16-10-2 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4057/4709904594_0726e535f5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="6-16-10-2" /></a>

Center

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709262221/" title="6-16-10-3 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4709262221_6f9c9174fc_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="6-16-10-3" /></a>

Left side

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709261873/" title="6-16-10-4 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4709261873_012eeeac1c_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="6-16-10-4" /></a>

 

[palmer373]

WOOOOW.... it looks amazing yet empty lol.

 

[davewbush]

It will fill in over time, and not with gha, I hope. I have a few spots left of gha between some of the zoas. Its not growing. I need to not be lazy and pull it out.

I was supost to get my wave maker today, but when I checked the fedex page, the drive had damaged my package and it was sent back to DFS. I called DFS customer service and they checked the fedex page too and sent me out the new order today. I'm getting tired of fedex. My driver doesen't event drop anything off until after 9 at night. I changed the wave maker from the jbj 4 powerhead, to the red sea max. I think I will be happier with this one. I will upgrade the wave maker and korillia pumps in a couple years. By that time something new will be out.

 

[davewbush]

Here is a shot of the 90 gal tank on the Monday that I took everything out of it. Looks so sad.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709901403/" title="IMG_3863 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/4709901403_23bcba29d1_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_3863" /></a>

Had to clean up my mess. Kitchen looks empty now. No more ocean front dinning for the dogs. I still have a little work to do on the t molding between the wood floor and tile.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709846065/" title="IMG_4118 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4014/4709846065_6a44fc3a8a_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4118" /></a>

I moved the tank out back to soak it in vinager and water for a few days to clean it up. I put all my old pumps, heaters, ect, in vinagar too. I will start saleing all my old stuff next week.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709846355/" title="IMG_4122 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4709846355_71e44b935b_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4122" /></a>

 

[davewbush]

Things are coming along nicely. I cleaned the glass Tuesday and nothing has come back yet. I get a little brown around the two side edges of the tank. When the wave maker comes, I will get the flow to hit these spots. Nothing happening that I didn't think would happen. The refugium is doing good too. The sea grass has new stocks growing, I cut the chaeto into 3 pieces (left one on the sand and put to in the bubble trap to see how it does there), and the gracillaris is a deep red/purple. I'm going to leave the 60 watt full spectrum plant bulb in with the 24 watt pc. Getting great results.

Here is a shot of the tank from the couch.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4710486416/" title="IMG_4133 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4005/4710486416_4a163f08ed_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4133" /></a>

Christmas favia, I've had it a year and a few months. Started with 3 mouths. Its true color is a lot more green and red. I'm still working with the camera.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4710485114/" title="IMG_4069 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/4710485114_3a8bc15b6e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_4069" /></a>

I've had these a few years. I have another rock covered in them where they have spread.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4709845809/" title="IMG_4100 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4709845809_ddd3e0e0a5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4100" /></a>

I've had the bubbles sence about 2 months into the hobby. Got it with my first order from DFS along with my pink/red brain. The bubbles have had some hard times. Died all the way back to 3 bubbles once. Been doing good the last couple of years. In my other tanks it was hard to find a place with low flow for it. Found a great place for them right away in this tank.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4710486674/" title="IMG_4139 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4070/4710486674_48b7f03ff0_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4139" /></a>

 

[palmer373]

looking good, any new updates?

 

[davewbush]

Ran the electrical yesterday. We put in 2 15 amp brakers, came out of the main panel below, added a box, ran conduit along the base of the house, put another box on the wall to go into the house, and each braker is tied into a 15 amp gfci receptical (4 outlets). I have one nice surge protctor but I need to get 3 more. I have 3 cheep ones that I'm using now. I will get some pics up soon.

 

[davewbush]

I looked again today and we ran 2 20 watt brakers. There is a box like the one below, below the main braker box on the side of the house. The conduit drops down to the ground and runs along the foundation. This box is where it goes into the house.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4724467067/" title="IMG_4178 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/4724467067_4259f320bc.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_4178" /></a>

The conduit around the house.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4725118934/" title="IMG_4179 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1397/4725118934_f75403e7f7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_4179" /></a>

This is the inside,

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davewbush/4725119898/" title="IMG_4183 by davewbush, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1087/4725119898_f4f611c8d6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_4183" /></a>

I need to build something to hold all of my timers. Below is a link to the stuff I am saleing. At this time I do not want to ship. If I still have suff by the end of the weekend, I will think about into shipping.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1867118

 

[davewbush]

Tomorrow will be 3 weeks for the tank. It is doing great. It went through a small cycle, where I got a little bit of diatoms on the edges of the sand where there wasen't enough flow. The new wave maker took care of this problem. My nitrates and ammonia never went up. My guess is because this wasen't a build from scatch, but a tank transfer.

At this time I'm not running any GFO, my macro algae and the sea grass are growing at a good rate. I'm thinking of addind some GFO after the refugium. I also need to find a place for chemi-pure bags. I don't think they are getting enough flow through them in the canister. The tank doesen't smell, but I don't think more flow throught the chemi-pure would hurt.

I jumped the gun on adding things to my tank. I put a few things in on Thuresday. The corals I put in are doing great, except one acan that didn't do to good in shipping. It had three mouths and is down to one. The one that is left has good polyp extension and color. I know it will come back. Just going to take some time. It was a WYSIWYG coral that had just been fraged. I don't think it had enough time to recooperate from being fraged before I bought it. My fault for buying it. I new better.

I'll start taking pics of the corls today. Just to tease you, I pick up a Northern Lights Chalice, Riddler Mycedium, Mind Trick Favia, a Mimic Tang, and 12 other corals. Everthing I got came from Vivid Aquariums. There is a pick of the Norther Lights of there web page which looks very nice, but doesen't even compare to how it looks in person. I bought corals that I will be able to frag in the future to help pay for the tank. I'm not big on the special corals with names and paying the extra price for them, but I've never had a problem with Vivid, and as nice as ther there stuff looks on there internet, it looks 1000 times better in person.

 

[davewbush]

I'm still not happy with the pics, but here we go.

My new Mimic Tang.

Riddler Mycedium

I've had this Maze Brain for four years. I've had it die off in the middle and come back. Thought I was going to loose it when I put it in this tank. You can see how big it is by looking at the Mycedium. The Mycedium is 1 1/4 x 3/4 of an inch. I had the bottom of the maze in the sand for a week. It will come back.

ORA Red Planet Table Acropora

Purple Eye Lord. The Norhtern Lights are in the back. Not a good pic.

 

[davewbush]

Things are coming along nicely. The rock is starting to color up. I still have a few patches of gha where it was around some of my corals. It is still not spreding or growing. I had a jumper last night. One of my orange spot gobies. I also had a sps frag fall over and get stung by another coral. It died out and the skin came off yesterday. It was a bonus frag I got for free. I still didn't want to see it die. Monday will be 4 weeks up and running.

 

[davewbush]

Start of the 5th week of operation. I've alway had pc lighting in the past as have run my light cycle from 10 to 14 hours. Now with the T5 and leds, I'm running the leds for 12 hours, first 4 T5 bulbs are on for 7 1/2 hours, and the other 8 bulbs are on for 6 1/2 hours. This is still to much light because my corals are bleaching out a little. This has been going on the last 5 weeks. I've been shortening the cycle to try to prevent this. I may back it off another half an hour. My water temp is ranges between 78 and 80, so I'm pretty sure that it is the lights.

Water parameters:
Nitrate-0
Ammonia-0
PH-8.2
Sal.-1.025
Mg-1350
Cal-450-500 (I want to bring it down to 425 to 450)
DKh- 7.3-7.9

 

[davewbush]

I set my lights back another half hour and everthing seems happier. Now I will have to wait a month or so for all of my colors to return. Nothing bleached out all the way, but I can notice the fade in color.

I need to stop being lazy and finsh cleaning up my electrical and build a cabinet around it. I have 15 inches between the tank and the wall. I'm thinking of getting a tank that is 12x20x12h, with an overflow going into my sump, and putting my mangroves in it. I'm thinking of using this as a frag tank or a viewable macro algae tank. I haven't decided yet. Every night I sit on the floor and look at my refugium for about an hour. A macro and mangrove tank may be the way to go. I could put a small frag rack in there too. Who knows?

5-3-2008. My mega three a tade bit smaller.

7-15-2010 My three biggest and oldest corals. I will try to find a pic of the red brain when it was about 5 inches long. Now days it's about 12 inches long. It's had a few issues with the tank change. Spit out some of it's insides when I had it in to much flow. It's recovering well.

Just a shot of some grapevine favas. These have a neon green in real life. The light has not effected these guys at all.

 

[davewbush]

Looking at my pics, my maze has seen better days for color. I think it browned out in my other tank. If it gets to much light now, it bleaches easy. Any ideas on how to get the brown back to grey?

 

[ashtree68]

Nice read, really enjoyed it.

Quick question, you said in your fuge you have the egg crate on legs, so there was flow under it, what kind of legs is it on or is it just the egg crate?

Also, in the middle of your tank on the tower, what coral is that? The white one that looks similar to a birdsnest.

Thanks

 

[davewbush]

In my sump the egg crate is lifted with 3 strips of egg crate. One on each side and one down the middle. I think it is raised up 3/8 of an inch. The baffel between the filter sock/protien skimmer and live rock has holes drilles in it so I get an even flow through the live rock, not just over the top. I think I drilled about 50 pencil eraser size holes 5 inches from the bottom and 4 inches from the top.

Coral in the middle is a pink birdsnest. It is a very faint pink right now coming back. When I put it in, it was browned out from being under my old pc lights in the 90. It went light pink after a few days and then started to bleach. Now its on the right track and getting pinker, not whiter.

While looking in my tank today I noticed that some of my corals that were looking bleached are now stating to look brown. Not sure if i backed my light off to much now. My LEDs run for 12 hours still but they are more for looks and are not putting out enough lumes to benifit the coral. My first four T5 run for 7 hours, I bumped this up to 8 hours today, and the other 8 bulbs are on for 6 hours a day. I'm going to try to lengthen the four bulb cycle first and then up the other to see what happens.

I think I'm having problems adjusting my corals to the lights because my old corals have been through hell and back over the years, poor water quailty, high phosphates, poor lighting, old bulbs, need I go on and now they are under proper water conditions and great light that they are not used too. Just going to take time to get them adjusted, but if I cut my lights back to much, my new corals brown out because they are used to good lighting from the shops they were at. Sounds like a good theory to me.

 

[outy]

looks good bud, i hope my 100g to 215g goes as smoothly as yours.

good luck with the lights, not sure any advise I had would help lol

 

[little bear]

so good, that's a good start!

 

[davewbush]

Thank you everyone. I think I just have to wait it out and adjust the lights slow. I'm not worried about loosing anything, but I don't like to stress out my corals if I don't have to. Even with the lighting problems, I'm still getting good growth.

Red planet on 6-27-10

7-16-10. The base has covered the top of the plug and the top has grown out a little. Not bad imo for 19 days.