Jadette's 140g Rimless Build Thread
- Thread starter jadette
- Start date
solitude127
Proud user of IO Salt!
I, like others, have corals for you too. Let me know when you're ready them. 
Way to stick with it and bounce back.
As far as the clean up crew, since there's not much left to eat and they start to die off, think it might affect your water quality?
Way to stick with it and bounce back. As far as the clean up crew, since there's not much left to eat and they start to die off, think it might affect your water quality?
s2k
Active member
You have time - your tank is still empty
jadette
Member
Thanks Rik! I still have rocks in my sump that are in dire need of cleaning too. I've been slowly moving them into my sump area.
To be honest, I've always had a large clean up crew that I replenish every 18 months or so. The pack I got this time was only 50% larger than the normal crew that I buy for my tank. I see most places like liveaquaria recommend 1 to 1.5 snails/hermits per gallon. I've always followed this rule more because it's just cheaper for me to buy them by the bulk. I've always found it odd when reefers have an algae problem and then decide on picking up <10 snails/crabs in their 75 gallon tanks to handle the situation. I guess if it works for them. I guess I've always relied on a large clean up crew to eat all of the leftover food that I dump into my tank.
Glad I'm not the only one that appreciates a large clean up crew!
Yes!!!!!!! I need to pick up fish!!!! Thinking I should finish most of my new aquascaping before I do though. The last thing I want to do is freak out the fish with all of the rock movement.
Thanks Billy! How's your tank doing? You must have a slew of mature colonies by now. I'll hit you up when I decide on what I want to do with my tank as far as corals go.
Thanks Ramon! How's your T5/LED combo fixture working out for you? Are you getting better growth compared to your old tank/fixture? Will ping you when I'm looking for something, but I think I should be good for now. I think you and Toan will need to be my support group at the fish store to prevent me from restocking my entire tank in one shopping trip!
I'm okay in the sense that I have closure. I'm not sulking in the corner going through "what-if" scenarios in my head. I had a good solid 4 year run with this tank and I've learned a lot through building it.
I guess I should just let you know now that Toan has been holding out on you, Sanh. He has a 90g stashed in his daughter's room chalk full of LE SPS corals.
Thanks Mike! Wow, everyone is just being so amazingly sweet and generous. It's making me rather emotional. *sniff*.I, like others, have corals for you too. Let me know when you're ready them.
As far as the clean up crew, since there's not much left to eat and they start to die off, think it might affect your water quality?
I'll probably lose some snails, but I feed my tank enough scraps (algae pellets, for example) to keep the hermits and emeralds happy. In fact, the hermits will usually attack the snails for their shells anyway. I've been vodka and vitamin C dosing the past month with no ill effects so far. I think my water right now is too clean. Really need to get fish in my tank soon to equalize everything.
Btw, you really need to post a recent FTS on your build thread! We've been waiting too long!
I so want the "LE Chefzilla exclusive rainbow extreme can cause seizures if looked at too long ultimate acro" from you!Shirley, you have been more than generous with everyone. My tanks been doing pretty good and can frag you a bunch of "le" "ultra" "rare" (lol) sps. Especially if you like millies
Are we having a christmas in january party for SFVR?
Well, as long as we learn from our mistakes, then it's not a net loss.
I'm trying to be good with not making impulse purchases, for example. And I'll have to not have thoughts like "I can train this regal to NOT eat my zoas. if I feed my tank enough... If I get it while it's still young... If I get lucky..."Saving some lavender and sage cuttings for you.
So... random information on my "new" tank...
I've gone 100% LED. Currently have 3xHydra 52s over my tank. Found 4 AI Sols for cheap in the used section and might also put those over my tank to provide better coverage (won't run them more than 35%). They need a little work though (stripped screws, etc) to mount them properly.
So far, I'm enjoying the lights. I hate the Director that I'm using to control the lights though. It's really buggy.
I reaquascaped today. Got rid of a lot of rocks. Also went bare-bottom. Not lovin' the look of a bare bottom tank though, so we'll see. Will take pics tomorrow once the "dust" settles.
billyzbear
Active member
Going bare bottom takes some getting use to. It looks cool when a monti or chalice grows across it. Cleaning is much easier and I have added some power heads to blow everything in the corners.
Growth is much better after I changed the lights some. Pulled some leds and added another pair of t5's. I want to add some different leds but my shoulder is still not ok after surgery. They're talking about going in again, we'll see.
Growth is much better after I changed the lights some. Pulled some leds and added another pair of t5's. I want to add some different leds but my shoulder is still not ok after surgery. They're talking about going in again, we'll see.
jadette
Member
Toan and I have been trading rocks for years, so it's quite likely that you have been using my rocks and I've been using yours for years as well. Sounds almost incestuous!
Wow. I'm seeing more and more folks going back to T5s. Never really took to T5s for some reason. Probably b/c changing out the bulbs was always such a chore for me. My GSP seems to be growing onto the bare bottom glass now. I might regret this later, but it actually looks cool and I'm going to see where I can go with this. Bummer about the shoulder.
My knee never fully recovered after I tore my ACL when I was in college. Hope that's not the case for you. So just to show everyone how much I actually lost in my tank, this is the latest FTS that I was able to dig up before the crash. This was taken about a year ago:
This is what it looks like today after I had moved most of my surviving corals to one mound on the right:
Still in the process of getting rid of all the sand. Oh - Forgot to mention a few other survivors. My cleaner and flame shrimp survived. And to my surprise, my lemondrop anemone also pulled through!
Pretty sad looking huh? I picked up a couple of clams and 2 SPS mini-colonies so my tank wouldn't look so empty. Sigh...
Well, here's to a new start!
dodgerblew
Team RC
Shirley, when you mention 160 turbo snail, you're referring to the Astraea variety, not Mexican turbos, right?
MrSandman
Team RC
Hey Shirley. You know what....the ATI T5/LED setup is really nice and the ability to really customize the colors are neat but in terms of coral growing power, you just can't beat the DE lamps + VHO's that i used to run. I still think halides are king when it comes to growing corals.
Good to hear you're back in the game. If you're looking for people to prevent you from restocking, then i'm not sure Toan and I would be the best ones to bring along. haha!
Are you selling succulent frags now? :lol:
jadette
Member
It's sad, but at the same time, it gives me a blank slate. I can basically learn from my previous mistakes (hopefully) and also try something new that I have not done before. I like to push the envelope on things. Especially with this hobby. I don't always post what I do because I'll just get flamed if I fail b/c it's unconventional - but how are people supposed to discover new things with this hobby if they don't try new things?
I remember when I got my first RBTA in ~2007. Everyone on the forums was saying how RBTAs needed pristine water conditions (an established tank that has been cycled for at least 6 months they would say), great flow, and at least metal halides/T5 lighting. I bought my first RBTA - it wouldn't attach in my main tank and would constantly get stuck in my pumps - so I had to set up a separate 7g tank - new rock, new water, crappy compact fluorescent lighting and flow from an aqua clear 30. The sucker thrived in there for a full year before i had to remove it b/c it occupied 80% of the tank space. Kept that same RBTA for 6 more years before I had to give it away b/c it outgrew my 140g tank.
Yes, the smaller astrae snails. Love them b/c they can flip themselves upright without my assistance. The clean up crew did a great job - removed all of the algae in my tank except for one particular type that grew in large clumps. I noticed that the clumps were too big for them to attempt to eat. Looks like I would have to manually remove the majority of the clumps and then the crabs and snails would come in and clean up what was left on the rocks.
The stand is 36" tall I believe. I initially wanted it shorter b/c my tank is only 18" tall and I didn't want to have too big of a ratio between my tank and stand - but it worked out okay.
You may laugh at the succulent frags, but in truth, I am propagating my drought tolerant plants! Wanted to eventually convert my backyard too, so I bought a little greenhouse and started growing snips of my sage and succulents. It's hard work for someone who works full time though. Can only do garden work on the weekends since it gets too dark by the time I get home from work. At least with a reef tank, I can work on it in the evenings.
I really do miss my metal halides, but I really want to have LEDs work for me in the long run. The MH just created too much heat in my family room.
So something I decided to do differently in my tank is to see if I can maintain a large group of chromis long term. Don't really find many success stories as they tend to pick each other off one by one - but I'm willing to give it a shot. The reason being that I REALLY REALLY REALLY want this look in my tank:
(minus the damsels of course - though it WOULD be tempting).
A reef tank without anthias to me is like eating a breakfast burrito without bacon in it. Others may enjoy it that way - but for me.. NEVER! But this time, I also wanted to see them school with chromis.
The problem is - it's almost impossible to find healthy chromis fishes nowadays. They almost always come in with uronema marinum. I picked up 8 of them, and 5 had sores on them. I've had them for about 6 weeks now, and 2 of the 5 (the ones with sores on the mouth) died b/c they couldn't eat. The other 3 had sores on their bodies and tail. They're actually healing up now, and I have a stable group of 6 (though staying alive for 6 weeks isn't really what I would call stable). I will be picking up 5 more soon.
They are schooling nicely with the dispars/ignitus that I also picked up (locally and from liveaquaria).
Going to pick up 5-10 lyretails and 5-10 carberryis to round out the school.
solitude127
Proud user of IO Salt!
Any updates Shirley?
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