HPFUNK's 300gallons and counting

[prop-frags]

Wow! :bigeyes: Just stumbled across your thread. Your comeback looks great! We are in the middle of coming back from a disaster as well (bottom seal rupture on a 300g 6 month old tank), so we can truly appreciate what you have endured.

:fish1:

 

[hpfunk]

Wow! :bigeyes: Just stumbled across your thread. Your comeback looks great! We are in the middle of coming back from a disaster as well (bottom seal rupture on a 300g 6 month old tank), so we can truly appreciate what you have endured.

:fish1:

A Rebuild with the rushed schedule sucks!!! good luck with yours, last one look grate and this one will definitely be better the last for both of us.
My seam left me 4 inches of water, god knows how long it was sitting like that. There was no water dripping, and I had on Gortex boots so I didn't notice that I was standing in water. I just stood there with a stupid look on my face wondering why my SPS had bleached???
Then I notice my tang give a flop at the bottom of my tank and realized that there was no water in the tank.

 

[James404]

Tank is looking great so far HP, great comeback especially after seeing all the damage that was done in the prior crash.

 

[hpfunk]

Tank is looking great so far HP, great comeback especially after seeing all the damage that was done in the prior crash.

Thanks James

This build is very different from most builds in that most people complete the set up, fill with water and slowly add livestock. I added water and livestock, now I want to go back and set it up one year later, with well thought out plans. I am currently redesigning the location of my sump, including raising it off the concrete and cleaning up the wires. I am going to add an acrylic shelf to replace my egg crate and hold the cheto and frags.

I just completed work on the overflow, adding DIY silent overflow to replace the stand pipes shown, and a DIY cap on the top of the overflow. I built the cap to hang over the edge of the overflow and inch or so to hopefully stop the algae build up that seams to happen at the teeth. As the algae builds my water level rises and then I notice stagnate spots on the water surface. The picture below shows the old standpipe (with algae), then the new caps, and a drawing of what each of my overflow's plumbing now looks like (sorry i forgot to take a pic before installation)

I expect to start on the sump project next week.

 

[hpfunk]

April 1st was no joke for my reef

April 1st was no joke for my reef

I found whats left of the new clown tang's carcase this morning... If that didn't suck bad enough my RODI unit mysteriously quite working. I will be tearing it down tomorrow to find out what when wrong. I caught it early and no harm done.

Has anybody heard of a sail fin tang picking on corals specifically Acans?

 

[hpfunk]

RO filters look like poop!

RO filters look like poop!

So the the top off issue was that the RO filters had clogged up and needed replacing. After the switch I was getting a nice flow with only 5ppm out.
While buying filters I picked up on so other supplies including a new set of tongs to try and help me keep my hands out of the tank.

 

[hpfunk]

My tank is a used car lot

My tank is a used car lot

O.K. I give my self a pass.
I never intended to own one of those tanks with nothing but little frag plugs all over the tank, but I also never intended to start from scratch the way I basically have.
I can't wait to have colonies once again, but I don't like the idea of buying colonies. Eventually I would like to grow and frag my favorite corals to help supplement the cost of keeping coral. Aqua cultured corals is all I would ever put in my tank, and I would never want to buy or sell wild corals.

So yes my tank is starting to look like a used car lot of plugs. The 12 acan frags that I just got are not doing the best, I blame it on my acclimation drip process running long causing temp loss in the bucket. Next time I have a new plan. I have almost completely lost every head on one of the acan frags, but the rest seem to be coming around.
I also got a red micromussa, and purple center blasto. So that all was shown a couple of post back in the acclimation process. This week I when a picked up two new chalices and a green micromussa, also the guy threw in a small piece of the orange acro.

Forgive the crap i phone pictures...once again

first a mix of the newbies

and a little close up of the blasto and micro

 

[hpfunk]

Corals Like Fish Food Too

Corals Like Fish Food Too

My favorite coral at the moment

This is not my most expensive piece, but by far the most interactive. The reason this is my favorite is because of the eye catching color and this little feeding routine. I don't spot feed any of my corals but this Scoly is begging me to hit him up.

The i-phone photos below show this coral over a 8~10 min period after I fed my tank the frozen fish food. I am lazy so I only do this once or twice a week, normally the tank just gets flake food once a day. I also added so shots of some of the other LPS that were eating the fish food. The way I feed is to get a half a cup of tank water and add ether flake food or frozen (rod's food) and swoosh it around until it melts and is mixed up.

So I have been tempted to squirt a baster full of this solution at the Scoly!

What do you guys think, is this a bad idea?

 

[d3hree]

scollys really appreciate a bit of target feeding once/twice a week.
Do you have aqualabs food in USA?...D-D have just rebranded it I think..pic below

This is proving to be very popular here and if you can get some then i would deffinately recommend it.

 

[hpfunk]

scollys really appreciate a bit of target feeding once/twice a week.

Thanks for the input.
I think I will continue to use the ROD's Food, but I will at least try to target feed the scollys. I have two on my sand bed and have never done anything for them except keep the other corals clear.

How do you know if the SCOLLY's are thriving and not merely surviving?
Do they split or spawn or what? How do they reproduce naturally?

I just made my first purchase from an on-line coral disturber that I have never used before. I ordered two more scollys for the tank. (I can't help myself)

Can't wait for Monday to come so I can schedule the delivery!!!

 

[hpfunk]

Confirmation that tomorrow morning 10am I will be getting my order!!! This will be my first order from Cherry Corals, can't wait!

Sorry for the small pics but they are not my images.

 

[vipul]

Man Amazing looking Scolly...

 

[hpfunk]

This one had some hitch hikers!!!

This one had some hitch hikers!!!

Man Amazing looking Scolly...

The shipment arrived this morning and this was in one of the bags.

The water smelled of death but I'm trying to save it...we'll see???

 

[d3hree]

I bet you didnt expect that!!
I have never ordered corals to be delivered tbh but the principles are the same as shop bought corals. Whilst i would advocate dipping any coral whether it is a frag from a friend or a mail order I think there is a reasonable expectation that the coral should have been dipped before you get your hands on it and you shouldnt have those hitch hikers.

I have a few friends in the business and whether they get their stock from a consolidator, a direct import or a trip to dejong they always dip their stock before adding it to coral tanks and selling it on.

 

[hpfunk]

I bet you didnt expect that!!
you shouldnt have those hitch hikers.

I was shocked and I am sure that the shipper was not happy, and a bit surprised. My main concern was for the saving the coral, and Im pleased to report that I think it will recover.
This is a prime example of why I need to build a QT tank for Corals and Fish alike.
I am in the process of designing a QT tank, and would like to design it a simple compact design inspired by this reef in the sky thread.http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1767159
I think I will try to use the stand for my 90g and put a 75g tank on it with a 65g sump below. This is still completely in the design phase.

 

[DoubleM 10]

what happen to the tang???? did you ever figure that out?? from the looks of it you acclemated him right into the display?? did you QT??

 

[d3hree]

would you sump a QT tank? This is something I have been thinking about too but I am leaning towards not sumping it. If I was you I think I would utilise the space for two seperate QT tanks, 1 medicated and one for inverts maybe?

 

[hpfunk]

Update...

Update...

what happen to the tang???? did you ever figure that out?? from the looks of it you acclimated him right into the display?? did you QT??

Clown tang was acclimated in my sump area then transferred to the display. Ate on the first feeding and then never took another bit. He was bullied a bit by my two other tangs but not damaged. He wasn't shy but wouldn't eat, he lasted about a week then disappeared, two day latter I found a spine and head...so...he is gone.
I don't have a QT yet but I am working on the designs for one now.

would you sump a QT tank? This is something I have been thinking about too but I am leaning towards not sumping it. If I was you I think I would utilize the space for two separate QT tanks, 1 medicated and one for inverts maybe?

My fish QT is not your typical QT, it is actually another display but this time in my office. I am calling it a fish QT to justify the build to my self. I also plan on moving allot if not all of my softies into this new tank.
I do plan on acclimating and keeping all future fish in my "QT" for a period (not sure how long you are supposed to QT) I don't plan on medicating fish in this QT, just watching them closely.

With regards to this QT, I want a super clean display. I referenced the build thread above http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1767159, so I tried the 3-D modeling program he suggested "google sketchup". Normally I draw my plans in my with pencil and paper. Its been over a decade scene I have used any CAD or modeling programs (construction degree requirement). I tried using it to make a couple drawings for my QT tank. They are the fist thing I have done with this program and they are still a work in progress. But I figured, you asked so Ill show you where I'm at right now.

75gal 48X18X24 QT Tank on a 90gal Stand w/Granite Top Surround

This is the 60gal Sump that would go in the Oversize Stand

The Sump Shelf Frag Rack For RubberMaid Refugeium
...this will be a project that I will be attempting to build after mushroom season...more on that latter...

3-D modeling is allot easier, and more fun than real life modeling

...this will definitely be the next project for me and will also be in combination with the move of the sump and re-plumbing the tank to it.
This will have to wait until mushroom season is over...it just started where I am at, and will last any where from 2 weeks to a month.
If you can find a needle in a hay stack, you can find mushrooms in the woods at the beginning of the season or you can wait until you can't miss them

Aging these are my first attempt at 3-D modelling so please remain patient, I'll get better with time, and tutorials (just found after I spent hours playing around making these drawings)

On a completely separate note...This is my first time getting to frag[/SIZE]
The frag swap is coming to Indianapolis!!!

This will be the first one for me, so I am a bit excited to see all of the coral in one spot. In the spirit of the swap I figured I would contribute. I have never had a tank get to the point that I took frags, although I could have on the 90g that I lost. I want to sell or trade at the show to get some new SPS frags for the tank. The thought of trading is intriguing.

My tank is young and I only put in frags and not colonies, except for the rescues from my 90g, the orange Ricordea and the green Polyps, also the colony of Duncans I rescued from the guy I got my frag of it from.
Not wanting to frag frags I only cut the overgrown colonies, and I only cut enough off for the undergrowth to get light. I also didn't want to leave visible damage to anything, so I thought I would only get a couple of frags. Boy was I wrong, after I was done I ended up with nine different kinds of coral, over 20 pre-cut frags and some cut to order mush and Palyps. I posted all of them on the fragswapper web site. http://www.fragswapper.com/trades.asp?SwapperKey=3882

I hope to have some amazing frags for next year but they will always be homegrown by me just like the ones that I posted.
Hope I didn't do anything against RC rules by posting this, but for me this is the next step of my journey in this hobby.
Thanks

 

[hpfunk]

Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been in the woods hunting mushrooms.
This pick shows my refuge with some frags that I recently took for the up coming swaps in Indy and Dayton, can't wait!!!

I am looking to score some new SPS frags.
This second picture is of a hitchhiker that has been in the tank ever since I added rock in the beginning, but have never taken a good picture because it is only the size of a marble.

I also order two more Scoly and a clam. Again, can't wait. I will post pic as soon as I receive them.

 

[hpfunk]

I have added some new additions to the tank and plan on adding more tomorrow. I just added a new clam, and two new scolys. I now have six and will slow down on collecting these and concentrate on SPS and acans. Also I added a sea hair to help with my algae issues, this was against my better judgement, but after being reassured by a trusted source I went ahead.
I was on a mission today to get a couple of tuxedo urchins and another viaaqua media reactor to add phos ban, but I struck out on both. The sea hair was all I could get today.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I am headed to the frag swap in Dayton tomorrow and intend on picking up some more new stuff.