Dying Reef Biotope

Testing out the Ushio 10K, new reflector and ARO ballast. My first electronic ballast. I am impressed how quickly the lamp fires and how clean the light is. Not to mention it is not humming!!!! Picture is of lamp after about 45 seconds of power. First time ever firing so the lamp is cold and color is not developed yet.

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I bought 2 - air king fans http://www.marinedepot.com/Sunlight...g-Sunlight_Supply_Inc-SL2911-FILTACAF-vi.html These are incredible. I set up the metal halide over the tank and clipped the fan in front of it. The metal casing of the reflector, although quite warm, is cool enough to touch. The glass cover, directly under the metal halide, is also cool. Plus I can barely hear the fan. In fact the near silent vortech makes more noise. If you need a fan and can accommadate a 6" fan this is the way to go for sure. Cheap, and very effective. I have it set on low and it works perfectly. Just my 3 cents on cooling.
 
Soaked the dry rock overnight in freshwater. Rinsed them with high water pressure and gave em a scrubin. Now they are curing in the 15g rimless with my live rock. Looks much nicer than sitting in a rubbermaid tub.

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What is everyones opinion:

Should I pour the packet of "reef pods" into the rock while they cure or wait until the fuge is going??? There is not sandbed with the rock and it is being kept at 77 degrees. Circulating with a Tunze 6015. I believe this to be an ideal time to add the pods so they can take refuge. I think it would be better to add them now than to leave sitting in the package until the fuge is ready. Their harvest date was 2/28/10 and "expire" April 4th.
 
i wouldnt pour the pods in with cycling rock. If rock is actually cycling, then there is ammonia cause by die off. ammonia will kill pods.
 
The live rock is cured. I am just "seeding" right now. The live rock has been fully cured for some time now and some it is covered in coraline and even some shrooms and polyps. So the cycling is done.
 
ehhh id still wait and put the things in the tank itself, unless there is some kind of time restriction to have those pods in the tube.

I would assume that when your messing with the rocks, your going to lose some of the pods when you transfer them to the display tank.
 
Got another shipment today. Just need to build the light, get the plumbing and paint the back. Probably be done this week. Can start the actual build real soon. Maybe next week.

Thinking about drilling through the wall behind the tank for an ATO reservoir. Behind the wall is the half bath plenty of room under the sink that is not being used. Better do these things now before the tank is set up. I still need to move the conure to his new perch. He's not very happy about that.
 
It was a nice day in Sacramento today. Went ahead and built up my bravery and drilled.

Tested out my ability on a 5 gallon scrap tank. Good thing I did. I tilted my drill a little bit and cracked it. Learning from that mistake I tried again. Two 1" holes and a half inch hole. No problems. So I went for it and it worked out fine. Taping off to paint the back. Still a lot of moisture in the tank so I am going to let it dry before I finish taping and painting.

Getting closer... looks like I am going through with this.
 
Final post in this thread until I have a link to build thread. If you are interested in seeing the final product keep your subscription to this thread active. I am in the process of building and documenting progress now. Once the reef is thriving and growing I will post my build thread.

Thanks for following along up to now and I look forward to your comments in the future.
 
Very interesting thread! I will def. be following this!

How do you plan to re-introduce corals to the system? seeing as in the ocean the corals would be reproducing sexually and the spawn would float to new undeveloped area's of the reef. I don't think we have that capability in the reefing world but is there another alternative you're exploring that doesn't involve putting frags in?
 
Hello,

Thanks to everyone that showed interest in this project. However, it has been cancelled. On April 2, 2011 my wife passed away in her sleep at the young age of 28. Since then my passion and finances to recreate a reef have disappeared. The system is currently setup inside a closet with electricity to keep the rock from dying. But other than that nothing is going on. In a few weeks I will likely list the whole system for sale on Craigslist.

Again, thank you for your interest. I wish I could report better news.



(Final Reefcentral Post)
 
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