Downsizing??? Really???

Rython said:
Wow Ron, every time I check this build thread it gets way more epic! That is a beautiful system. Very cool idea with the display refugium right next to the DT. Just stunning. I'm inspired.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I appreciate your letting me know. I enjoy sharing what I'm doing because it often gets other people to offer suggestions I would never have thought about.

I still have a ways to go, but for the last couple of days I've been working to finish the bathroom rebuild from the 180g tank flood and getting my 65g shallow reef back up to snuff after ignoring it for the better part of 2 months. In fact I just moved 3 more of the crazy pretty rock flower anemones into the DT. One of these days I'll start doing some close up photos of the stuff in the tanks.
 
I've wanted to run the reef leds with a different custom setting than the refugium leds, but the remote control would change both not just one. They have a way to set up separate ID numbers so you can make them different But I couldn't make it work. Even with 'special' instructions from Logan, the owner of Reef Breeders, it didn't work.

Logan called me yesterday and we discussed the issue of changing the 'address ID' on the new fixtures. It's obvious to us we don't understand the proper way to make that work. Hopefully the people who created the programming will be able to give us way to change the 'address ID' which will make modifying the custom program easier.

But Logan came up with a temporary solution (at least I really hope it just temporary). So now I can run 2 fixtures next to each other and have different custom programs. The sps & lps reef gets a blue and white look for coral growth while the display refugium gets a red, green and white look for algae growth. I'm glad to be able to run different custom programs and I really appreciate Logan's help with this! It makes for an interesting look, don't you think?


Here is what it looks like in the late afternoon when both fixtures are running at midday power levels. I may tone down the refugium some as it is running with red, green and white leds at 100% and the blues and violet at 30%. It was basically just a starter program to see if the 'fix' Logan came up with would work. Certainly not my finished product... at least I don't think it is???




This is that it looked like at 6AM when the lights came on in the dark with the room lights turned off.




This is what it looks like at 6AM with lights on in the room. The reef has just some blue leds lit up and the Refugium has just the red leds lit up.




I suppose now it would be a good idea to take the frag rack full of corals out of the refugium and move it to the reef tank!
 
Two small improvements to my aquarium system.

First I added an overflow collection for skimmer fluids. My skimmer is really touchy about the depth of water and it has overflowed into the sump. So I took a container and added a hose. The CadLight skimmer already had a drain with a plug in the skimmer collection cup.






Second, the CadLight tank came with 4 glass panels that make up a cover for the tank. I won't use them so Elaine made up a storage bag for them. Of course the fabric is fishy and she even made individual padded slots for each piece of glass.





I've also started adding fish to both tanks from my 65g shallow reef tank which has been over stocked for several months now. I moved a Yellow tank, a Yellow Chromis and a Pajama Cardinal into the reef along with the Indigo Basslet and the small Scopas Tang. I also moved a Coral Beauty Dwarf Angel and a Half Black Dwarf Angel into the display refugium. So far everybody seems to be dealing with things pretty well. The Scopas Tang kind of had the run of the new tank for 2 months and wasn't thrilled with the Yellow Tang moving in. But the Yellow Tang is almost twice the size of the Scopas, so it didn't put up too much of a fuss. The Yellow Tang appeared not to care much at all about the Scopas and things never really got ugly at all, just one small fish being a bit p'd off! :furious:
 
It's been awhile since I've done an update. The new tanks haven't changed much other than the loss of both Dwarf Angelfish. One to unknown causes, maybe old age, and the second due to a new predator in the tank. I do have a new resident in the display refugium (pic below). I also moved the last 2 pajama cardinals and the 4 yellow chromis into the new reef tank so it's pretty full now. The worst thing was the new clowns are gone. One jumped the tank to go tile surfing overnight and a couple of weeks later the other disappeared and hasn't been seen in weeks. I could see a new pair of clowns in my future, but not just yet.

The 65g shallow reef in the back room has changed. I pulled all the fish and corals out along with all the LR (moved it to the sump). Then I bought 25lbs of LR from TBS. It's very alive with lots of sponges, anemones and more. A small (3" long) Gulf Toadfish made the trip from Tampa Bay into my tank as well. But it hides under the rocks all the time so I almost never see it anymore. A coral banded shrimp is the only other resident still in the shallow reef other than some hermit crabs. It's my intention to add just stuff we collect at the beach or when snorkeling in the Keys. Maybe some harder to find (scuba rather than snorkel) stuff from Gulf Coast Ecosystems (Bradenton, FL) or KP Aquatics (Florida Keys) or even TBS (Tampa Bay Saltwater).

OK, so the new member of the family that has taken up residence in the display refugium is a 3" to 4" Red Reef Lobster from Hawaii. I got it from Fishy Business Aquatics in Ft Myers. I also like Fishy Business because right around the corner in the same mall (2 storefronts away) is Bury Me Brewing Co, a very cool little micro brewery! Anyway, Fishy Business sold this little guy and had to take him back. Although online sites say 'reef safe' or 'reef safe with caution' this one is a cannibal and if he can't find enough food, he'll go after small fish or soft corals (ricordea from what the previous owner said). So the store owner, another friend and I, at Bury Me Brewing Co one night after work, agreed that Hannibal was a good name for the little lobster and after he ate a fish in our tank, my wife now agrees with the name. But he's so cute! And now he'll have the display refugium pretty much all to himself unless we find some other crazy critter to add.


 
Thanks guys.

I just made an interesting discovery. My new tank is just over 3 months old and really just settling down. So I added a few new small fish, 2 small expensive clowns, and a few firefish. I started losing fish with a jumper and then others just started to disappear? At the same time I started noticing a mild stinging sensation when I put my hand in the tank. This didn't surprise me too much as I work with my hands and they do get nicked and scraped and cut, so the saltwater does sting. But then I lost 2 dwarf angles and some of my macro algae wasn't doing very well while others were doing just fine. The fish loss bothered me, the algae was new to me in a new display refugium with very different lighting, so I wasn't sure what was going on.

But 2 days ago, in the late afternoon I put my hand in the tank and it real stung! Yet my hand was in pretty good shape. So what else had changed? It's gotten cooler at night here in SW Florida and I have a big chiller (leftover from a 400g system with MH lighting) and it sits outside behind the house. So water goes outside and gets chilled just due to the night air. That means I need to put the heater in the sump... wait a second... heaters are so often blamed for leaking electricity into the tank!!!

I unplugged the heater and the sting was gone. The next day my 3 leather corals and my gorgonian where polyped out like I hadn't seen in weeks (I assumed it was just slow acclimating to the new tank and constant changes). I had added a nice clam a week ago but it only barely showed it's mantel. By the time I pulled the heater the mantel was still there, but down inside the shell. The clam would still open up, but not put it's mantel out. I suspect it may take the clam considerable more time to recover, so the watch has begun.

In 12 years I've had a couple other electrical leaks into the tank. But both times it was instantly obvious to me when I put my hand in the water. This time is was much less obvious and appears to have had just as much or more effect on the inhabitants in the tank.
 
Wonder if a grounding probe could help if something like that happened in the future. After hearing yours and a few other experience with stray voltage I might consider it.
 
After my previous incident with electricity in the water I bought one. But the wire was too short to make it to a grounded outlet and I just never hooked it up. I'm sure it's around here somewhere. I'll look for it and try the heater in a bucket of saltwater and make sure it's leaking current into the water and then put the titanium grounding rod in the bucket and see if it takes the electricity to ground and I don't get shocked. Good experiment for the weekend. Thanks.
 
gman107 said:
How's everything running ?? Any updates?
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking. Things are going well. I'm having a bit of an algae bloom issue, mostly on the back wall of the DT and on the sand in the display refugium. But it's a new system and these kind of blooms are to be expected. It's been easy enough to keep clean.

My remote skimmer collection reservoir overflowed once. I was REALLY glad I have the PVC tray in the stand! I found that moving the skimmer down a bit deeper in the sump made it a bit less fussy about the water height in the sump. I really need to get around to setting up the auto top off, then the skimmer issue will go away entirely.

I've started to build a cover for the pipes that run from the sump out to the chiller behind the house (and the sump tray emergency drain). I'm using white shelving from Lowes as lumber. And I seal the cut edges with silicone. I'll end up with the pipes covered and a shelf unit sitting on top of it. It will all be easy to remove in case I ever need to get to the pipes.

I have lots of coral frags I want to mount in the tank. And although I love the rockscape I have, I don't like having the backside of the 'island' being fairly useless. So I'm considering a new rockscape idea. A fairly flat scape with just a slope at the back in front of the overflow. I already have a few plating corals mounted on either side of the overflow on the back glass using magnets. And this time I'll drill some 'extra' holes in all the rock for frag plugs to fit in. I hate gluing stuff into place in the tank.

I'll get some new photos up here before I tear the current scape down and then more when I get the new scape done. My old 180g had a rock wall I did almost no changes to over 6 years. This new tank may get redesigned more often. It's easier to work in because it's shorter and there is no canopy.

Ron
 
Ron, Tank looks great. I recently transplanted to Orlando last year and spent a week in Sanibel last year, it was awesome. I searched through your thread and could not find anything about where you get your water from? What RODI do you use? Being new to Florida its obvious I need an RODI unit.
Jim
 
Thanks Jim. I'm just finishing up a master bathroom remodel at home and then I'm going to do a new aquascape in the tank. I need to make room for more coral and less rock.

Welcome to Florida. You get to World Wide Coral very often? I wish we had somebody local who carried such nice coral.

If you ever get down this way again, Sanibel is right nextdoor, give me a shout and maybe we could talk tanks over lunch and a beer. Have you been to the Keys yet? My wife and I go 3 or 4 long weekends a year and our local aquarium club does a group trip in June.

This October we have at least 3 couples going to the Dry Tortugas National Park (70 miles west from Key West) by ferry and camping out for 2 nights. One night to snorkel the outside wall of the fort with underwater flashlights and one night to do some serious star gazing. The Milky Way should be just about straight overhead just after it gets dark.

I got really lucky and a friend sold me his Cirqua RO/DI system. It came out of a coffee house and has two RO membranes that are each 2' long and a huge pressure pump. It makes 30+ gph!

Do you have a tank set up now? Is it new since your move or did it move to Florida with you?
 
Thanks Ron, I never thought I would be moving to Florida and was always jealous of those folks that were! I have been to WWC a handful of times to get my fix since moving here, but my tank is bit running, its set up, but no water. I kept all my equipment with the move, so now I'm just getting started, hence my question about the RODI. Next time I am in Sanibel or Captiva I will definitely give you a shout, which brings up a new point. My family and I typically go to the beach for a week in the summer and this year we are thinking about the Keys. Do you have suggestions? I have a young family with 3 kids so a home would be Ideal and an area with good sandy beach nearby. Any advice for a keys noob would be great.
Thanks
Jim
 
Happy to try and help Jim. My first recommendation is to look over the info in this thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2511350
It's more about snorkeling than beaches and family swimming spots. But there are some recommendations about spots to visit when it rains! And ask the same question there. A couple of people who live in the Keys post there and they may be more helpful.

Renting a house for just a week is possible, but I don't have any leads. As for beaches, the best sandy beach I've seen in the Keys is Sombrero Beach on Vaca Key (Marathon). There are 2 nice beaches at Bahia Honda, one on the ocean side toward the eastern end of the island and one on the Florida Bayside by the marina. The oceanside beach at the western end of the island can be good, but it can also be very narrow at high tide and have lots of seaweed if the waves have been bigger in the previous few days. But if it's acceptable to the family, there is some very cool snorkeling just 100 feet off the beach in 2' of water any it's only 5' deep even out 500 feet or more. I'm sure there are others, but beaches haven't been what we look for. Although we did spend some time at Sombrero Beach one day last summer when the water was way too stirred up to snorkel. We think there may be some good snorkeling nearby to the southwest just on the far side of a channel where there is a small island.

I'd highly recommend the History of Diving Museum and Aquarium Encounters as worthwhile places to take the family.
 
OK, my masterbath remodel is in the final finishing stages and next week I plan to prepare for doing a complete re-scape of both the DT and the display refugium. The current DT has a rock island that is like half a football cut point to point and laid in the sand. Then a split or canyon cut through it front to back with some branching Tonga rock sticking out at the top on one side of the canyon.

Although I really like the look of the current rockscape, I feel it has been rather inefficient use of the space. The back side of the island is steep and faces away from the front glass so it's difficulf to mount corals back there and they would be very difficult to see.

I intend to do a MUCH flatter rock plateau just off the surface of the sand and a gentle slope toward the back that will go up the center overflow but not up the back glass. I'd like to have some of the branching Tonga rock sticking up out of the mound that goes up the bottom of the center overflow. I will pre-drill holes in some of the rocks for frag plugs. The back glass will have coral frags mounted on magnets so they can attach to the back glass and grow out. I already have a few and would like to do at least 3 to 5 more.

I've never spent a lot of time doing any rockscape, so this will be my first hardcore attempt to build something more than just a pile of rocks.

I'll prep a 30g brute with some new saltwater and some old water from the tank. That will house rocks for the build. I'll do the same with a 20g tank for the fish and other mobile critters. The corals can go in my 65g shallow reef as there is room. The fish and critters can't go in there as they would be next to impossible to get back out... and there are a couple of guys in there that might prove 'unhealthy' for some of the ctritters, like a Coral banded shrimp that really doesn't like other shrimp, a Gulf Toadfish and a Calico crab.

I'll clean the glass and take pics before I start the disassembly and then more as I progress through the day.
 
I'm about to start a major redo of my rockscape on Monday. I like the look of the current rockscape, but IMHO, having a tall rock island in the middle of the tank means that the space behind the rock is kind of wasted as far as being used for coral placement.

On top of that, I've never been happy gluing stuff to rocks in the tank. But what do you do with small frags on plugs? It's especially a pain if there aren't any good holes in the rock to hold the frag plug? So I'm taking LR that I plan to use and pre-drilling 3/8th inch holes in rocks that I know will be exposed and used to place corals. I found setting a frag plug in a drilled 3/8ths inch hole (the diameter of the stems on my frag plugs) to feel very firm and solid. I think I'll be very happy with the finished product.

I also took LR that has lots of holes and tried setting a frag plug in the holes. All in all it was far from satisfying. So I took my 3/8ths inch drill and "˜worked over' the existing holes in the rock. Now frag plugs fit in much better and feel far more secure.

Here are a few "˜before' photos so you can see what I'm tearing apart. A typical FTS:




And for fun a photo merge panorama shot:




Looking in from the left end you can see how much room is used for the backside of the island.

 
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