JCole's box of rocks

[JCOLE]

Busy weekend! Water is in the tank and running through the system. The focal point of the tank will be SPS. With that in mind, I want a smaller rockscape to allow colonies to branch out and grow. I love an old school rock wall and have always gone with that approach but want to try something a little different now. I will more than likely still play with this rockscape, but this will be the general idea of it. In this picture I have two of the Angel lights up. One on the left and right islands. The plan is to have a total of 9 Angel lights. Three over each island.

Here is a quick video of the trickle filter drum. Seems to work well. I plan on slowing the flow down in a day or so after the new saltwater and bacteria mix up. I might make the trickle holes larger if needed.

I am dealing with humidity already in the wall/canopy. It appears to already warp the wood a little bit. I have some exhaust fans I plan on installing today so hopefully that helps.

 

[JCOLE]

Does anyone know where to get some sponges to seed my cryptic fuge? I tried reaching out to Steve Tyree but have not heard back.

 

[griss]

Does anyone know where to get some sponges to seed my cryptic fuge? I tried reaching out to Steve Tyree but have not heard back.

Did you try here? Maybe @Timfish has a better way to contact him or an alternative source.

 

[JCOLE]

Did you try here? Maybe @Timfish has a better way to contact him or an alternative source.

Thanks. Yes, I used to communicate with him in the past through email, but I haven't heard from him after a couple of my last emails sent to him. I just tried reaching out to him on Facebook as well, so I will see if that works.

 

[JohnL]

Does anyone know where to get some sponges to seed my cryptic fuge? I tried reaching out to Steve Tyree but have not heard back.

He took a while to get back to me.

 

[Timfish]

If a system has been going for awhile it likely laready have some. I haven't seen a systm yet that doesn't have some some place. Maricultured live rock may have some on it. Whenever I order from TBS or GulfLivewRock there's sponges on a majority of the live rock but not all pieces have cryptic sponges. You'd probably need to order a small amount of "premium" from Gulf Live Rock, TBS or KP Aquatics to be sure to get some sponges. Keep in mind it can take a long time for cryptic sponges to "appear" to start growing and thriving. Because they have a high cellular reproduction rate (hours) but slough off cellular detritus almost as fast, they can be stay the same size for very long times even though they are processing huge amounts of DOC.

 

[JCOLE]

@Timfish Thank you for the info, Tim. I sold my last tank and started up a new one. This system is new, with water running through the whole system for a week now. However, I did set up my refugium/Sump over a month ago when I sold my system. I moved some live rock from my system over the sump and kept water running through it before setting the new system up. I will check the rocks to see if there are sponges, etc still remaining on them. If so, then I will move some of those rocks to the cryptic area.

 

[JCOLE]

Lights are up and system is doing well. Inoculated the system with bacteria, carbon, and ammonia and now have a really good bloom and coverage throughout. I checked the fuge and found there is corraline growing throughout the fuge. I will look at start adding the corals from the 20 gallon in the next couple of weeks.

@Reefing102 Thanks again, Shane! This should provide enough coverage now.

 

[griss]

How did you configure the A1Ps and A1s?

Did you get more somewhere? I thought you had 8 and I’m counting 18????

 

[Reefing102]

How did you configure the A1Ps and A1s?

Did you get more somewhere? I thought you had 8 and I’m counting 18????

Don’t forget each light has 2 pucks so there’s 9.

But I sold him my two as well. My system has pretty much crashed and I don’t have time to overtly deal with it. I’ve lost most of my SPS and alot of other stuff isn’t looking great.

 

[JohnL]

I’ve lost most of my SPS and alot of other stuff isn’t looking great.

I'm sorry Shane.

 

[griss]

Don’t forget each light has 2 pucks so there’s 9.

But I sold him my two as well. My system has pretty much crashed and I don’t have time to overtly deal with it. I’ve lost most of my SPS and alot of other stuff isn’t looking great.

That’s what I get for looking without my reading glasses on

Damn Shane. Sorry to hear.

 

[JCOLE]

How did you configure the A1Ps and A1s?

Did you get more somewhere? I thought you had 8 and I’m counting 18????

There are a total of 9 fixtures. 3 A1Ps in the middle of each section and A1s on the sides of those. All linked to the master and the master works off the APP.

I had a total of 8 with the last one acting up. I had 7 to play with. Shane reached out and sold me his two A1s. It really helped me get the coverage I was looking for.

 

[JCOLE]

Don’t forget each light has 2 pucks so there’s 9.

But I sold him my two as well. My system has pretty much crashed and I don’t have time to overtly deal with it. I’ve lost most of my SPS and alot of other stuff isn’t looking great.

Thanks again!

Sorry to hear about your SPS. Give me some time to get mine cooking and I will hook you up.

 

[Reefing102]

Thanks again!

Sorry to hear about your SPS. Give me some time to get mine cooking and I will hook you up.

Thanks! It’ll probably be a bit. The home renovation/sale prep is taking priority currently. I’m half looking at this stock tank and thinking of just starting with all new rock and not trying to get the hair algae and everything else under control.

 

[griss]

Thanks! It’ll probably be a bit. The home renovation/sale prep is taking priority currently. I’m half looking at this stock tank and thinking of just starting with all new rock and not trying to get the hair algae and everything else under control.

That’s likely a good plan Shane:

 

[JCOLE]

Trim is up and now ready for the final paint. I should have the room painted this weekend, and then hopefully everything is done. Then just waiting on fish and acros.

The hole in the wall is for a vent that will go in after the final paint.

 

[griss]

Nice work.

 

[Dustin07]

Don’t forget each light has 2 pucks so there’s 9.

But I sold him my two as well. My system has pretty much crashed and I don’t have time to overtly deal with it. I’ve lost most of my SPS and alot of other stuff isn’t looking great.

Man that's a bummer. Todays April 28, making it about 3 months since our 425l crashed and I can say that when we started rebuilding the Mariner a lot of it was "if you build it, they will come" for me. I was definitley losing my mojo. Yesterday was the first time where the tank started feeling familiar and exciting again in 3 months.

Trim is up and now ready for final paint. Should have the room painted this weekend and then hopefully everything is done and just waiting on fish and acros.

The hole in the wall is for a vent that will go in after final paint.

View attachment 32411496View attachment 32411497

I really like this approach, just yesterday I was contemplating a built in (you know, like 10 years and a lottery ticket down the road) but I always wondered how a person would clean it. you have the solution here.

 

[JCOLE]

Nice work.

Thanks, George! I think it did turn out good considering I was winging it the entire time.