Introducing....my new tank! 40g Breeder

[cody6766]

I've got some new pics for you all. I was in OKC over the weekend and had to see what Village Frags had to offer. I left with some nice pieces to fly back to Florida with me. All was well when I added it to the tank yesterday, so I hope it will be when I get back in about 3 weeks. I had to go TDY to Colorado for flight school, so the reef is in my wife's hands.

anyway, enough talk...on with the pics!

Pink Mili

Granulosa (spelling?

Efflo (IIRC) with acro crab. It's the white in the pic

Deepwater Acro

a great looking little maxima clam. I wish I could capture the intense glow of the light blue

and some LFS finds around Pensacola

a nice piece of ORA Tricolor from a Pensacola LFS

Green Acro...maybe a frag of the Tricolor. The pic sucks, but the color really is accurate. It looks damned near radioactive

A better pic of the above Acan
It's colors are accurate, just a little saturated

This was sold as a cherry bomb chalice. The mother colony was interesting and the guy gave it to me cheap so I ran with it. Names aside, I like it!

 

[happysak]

Cody, I'm first in line for a frag of your chalice:lol2: LMK

 

[cody6766]

I'm not sure how fast it'll grow, but I could try to help you out one of these days. I've never fragged a chalice, but I guess I'll have to learn one day. Its only about the size of a quarter right now. I'm glad you like it!

 

[happysak]

I like it a lot, beautiful colors. I will be waiting:celeb3:

 

[Tek]

Great idea for the frag tank. I am going to set something similar up, but it will be half frag tank and refugium. Mine will be sitting in a seperate cabinet as the main tank will be on the kitchen island.

 

[hunnicuttz]

It's a great footprint, isn't it?

I just got a new acan and some new zoanthids from a LFS down here.

Which LFS did you get them from?

 

[cody6766]

I cant think of the name of it right now. It's near 9th and Langley in Pensacola. The guy has a pretty good LPS selection and some healthy looking fish. There wasn't much there that is on the 'rare' or 'high end' but the coral I saw were healthy and priced well.

 

[happysak]

Cody, how is vodka dosing go? Did you look at NP biopelets?

 

[cody6766]

The vodka dosing is rolling along w/o any ill effects. I started last Wednesday, so I'm not expecting a whole lot of immediate results. I guess the algae has subsided a little, but I could be imagining it too. I have some small clumps and a little on the sand, so it's hard to judge right now. I also added 2 Koralia Evolutions and a new TEK fixture to the tank in the last week, so that could be changing things too.

I haven't looked into the pellets yet. I'll have to do that tonight after work. I've been busy with parachute ejection/water survival training the last few days, so I haven't had a whole lot if internet time. It's done, so I'll be back to my light days for a while.

I can say that all 3 have the tank looking better than it did 2 weeks ago. I'm still light acclimating, so I don't burn all 6 bulbs yet, but the TEK light is great so far. I'll get pics for you guys soon.

 

[cody6766]

Back with another update!

I installed a 36" 6 bulb TEK fixture along wiht a pair of Koralia Evolution 750's. I also finally went to the garage and spent the 30 minutes needed to cut and stain the trim pieces for the stand. I've been putting it off and am now kicking myself for not doing it earlier. Damn being lazy

So the pics

This shows the hardware, angle on the top piece and the trim. the trim in front of the tank is to hide the blue foam sheet. It just sits there so i can remove it to move the tank. I still need to rub some stain on the door edges, so forgive that aspect

The tank color isn't 100% accurate. It's actually a little more blue than that. I'm running 4 ATI Blue Plus bulbs, 1 Aquablue Special and one Fiji Purple. I'm going to replace the AB Special with a GE 6500K. The Blue Plus with the AB Special just make the tank too blue.

This is the in-stand area. The frag tank is lit with 2 T5's with individual reflectors. Unfortunately I screwed up plannin the stand so the light had to suffer. It's just 3 pieces of plywood holding the bulbs. The 'legs' are removable so I can get in the tank. I have to pull the legs out while holding up the top and then remove the lights very carefully. I needed to leave another 4-6". BUT! It does work, so I'm not too heartbroken. As previously mentioned (maybe mentioned anyway) it catches part of the DT's overflow and then drains to the sump.

 

[Lytehouse]

very nice cody

great job on the rock work

 

[cody6766]

Thanks! pics don't really show it, but there is very little rock in full contact with the sand. The big structures are mostly open underneath and have a lot of crevices and caves for fish and water to move through. The fish like it and hopefully it makes maintaining good water quality easier

 

[mikencarol]

Cody...everything of yours looks great...either that or you are a camera whiz!!!!! Hey...how far is the oil...can you see it when youre flying or are you yet??? Give us a sickening update on that crap......B-good

 

[cody6766]

I'm definitely no camera whiz! The tank is in good shape aside from a couple of acros and montis that are having hell. the montis bleached out for some reason (before the new lights) and the acros are showing some STN signs around the bases. The bird's nest is doing okay and the scroll and cup corals are doing wonderful. All LPS and softies are in stellar shape too. I'm guessing they're still having hell from the alk/Ca drop that happened while I was gone. That was 2-3 weeks ago though...


I wish I was flying! I'm still on casual status down here, meaning I work a temp job and do a whole lot of nothing in reality. Some of the other casual LT's only show up to muster in the morning and then go home. I work half days in Air Crew Flight Equipment shop (formerly life support for anybody that knows/cares) don't little odd jobs for the enlisted folks busting their asses to keep the pilots' gear in shape.

The beaches are still okay from what I've gathered. I've heard of tar balls washing up on Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key, but the beach at the NAS seems to be in good shape still. I guess the sheen is a mile or so out and the slick a several miles off. The pilots said they can see it when they're out flying, but the beaches look the same while driving by. It's not that bad yet.

 

[indoreefer]

Nice set up? I have problems finding the breeder tanks any suggestions? I was curious about the bubble trap in the frag tank. I couldn't see from the pic very well, but how does it trap bubbles?

 

[cody6766]

I bought mine at Pets Mart down in PCola. I saw them at both PetCo and PetsMart in OKC when I lived there though.

The bubble trap works just as it does in a sump. It flows in, over a baffle and out to the bottom of the water column. Basically, there are 2 baffles, the first at the tank's bottom, the next above the bottom by about an inch. There is then a piece of glass laid perpendicular to the baffles to make them into chambers

 

[cody6766]

I tweaked the aquascape a bit to allow more swimming room, more open sand and more holes/gaps for water to pass through the rock structure. I think it cost me some overall space for new coral, but it made the coral I have look...more filling (I guess that's the best word choice).

 

[Lytehouse]

very nice Cody

How's life?

 

[cody6766]

Life is well down here. I'm still 'struggling' through the day to day tasks of a Lt on casual status and let me tell you...4 hrs of non-strenuous work is tough! haha. I'll get what's coming to me in a few months though. I'll go from 4hr days to 12hr days + several study hours when I start nav school.
Jennifer is going to school for sonography (ultrasound stuff) and we spend the rest of our time playing with our 3 birds, cooking and heading to the beach. They're not bad out here at all; just a tar ball now and again.

 

[happysak]

Cody, how is chalice doing? Everything are look very happy. What you got in bio-cube?