Kasey's Kube

[kaserpick]

Thanks Mike! So, does anyone else have suicidal snails? I have around 8 nerite snails; half are one species (medium, the only one I've had before), and the other half are a larger species. The large ones continue to tell me that my stand and dry sides of the tank are NOT clean enough. I keep waking to find them moving around outside the tank. A few have even attempted to vacuum the carpet.

 

[KafudaFish]

Yes on the snails.

 

[kaserpick]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Test results:
Ca: 440 ppm
Mg: 1410 ppm
Alk: 7.3 dKH
pH: 8.2

I dosed accordingly to raise the Alkalinity around 8.1 dKH. I'm really surprised to see the numbers in such good shape otherwise. I know I don't have much in the tank that'll utilize these elements quickly, but I expected much lower Ca/Mg numbers and much higher Alkalinity. I'm using Instant Ocean. I think I'll be adding Kalkwasser to my top-off water, but that might not be until later.

 

[sancho153]

p.s. tagging along

 

[sancho153]

love the setup. props on the skimmer,
dont think im skilled enough to make one myself!

 

[Jurassic]

seriously love that aquascape!

 

[moga]

like this one better tho..

this one is more natural feel.~ bonsai needs to be some of empty space to ease~

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks the kind words, everyone!

 

[kaserpick]

Well, I had made a Diver's Den purchase at Live Aquaria at the end of last week. They shipped it yesterday, and the contents are now in my tank. It's only one piece, one from my list of 5. Hopefully, in an hour or so it'll open more, and I'll snap a pic.

As a side note, it's always great to hear of honest and reliable vendors. I never mentioned it before, but I bought my snails from www.reefcleaners.org. They're great people to work with! Many of the species they offer can be shipped through regular USPS Priority mail. When you couple this with their amazing prices, you end up with healthy hardy cleaners for a fraction of the usual price. I highly recommend them! :thumbsup:

 

[kaserpick]

Well, I didn't post the pic yesterday due to time issues, but here's what I bought:

Acropora Millepora, Green:

A welcomed guest that came along for the ride:

A family portrait of the fish:

Just for kicks, a shot of the surface turbulance caused by the MP20:

I'm not sure how I'll place the Millepora just yet. The concern that I always have with maricultured pieces is flow. I'm worried if I don't have enough, some of the tighter growth (clustered in the middle) could sufficate. I've also never been a huge fan of the mounts they come on. I may cut it off the mount or cut it up into 3-4 frags and mount them all near each other on the rockwork. For now it'll sit there, on the bottom, resting and acclimating to the system. I hope the color holds under the LED's.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Hey, what ever became of that cube (was it a cube?) that you had setup a few years back. I remember seeing the thread for it, and i also remember you battled some HA for awhile in it...but i never seen what became of it.

Great looking tank here btw, crisp and clean!

 

[plyle02]

Kasey, Man, I just read your entire thread, I saw you out there on nano and just commented without checking the whole thread, I am sooo sorry you went through some nasty algaes...ughh... Sounds like we have had similair journeys, keep up the great work, this tank is going to be stunning! Way to go bro!

 

[kaserpick]

Hey, what ever became of that cube (was it a cube?) that you had setup a few years back. I remember seeing the thread for it, and i also remember you battled some HA for awhile in it...but i never seen what became of it.

Great looking tank here btw, crisp and clean!

I'm not sure if I know what tank you're talking about. I've dealt with AEFW, hydroids, aptasia, monti eating nudi's, and Dino's. I battled HA in my first tank back in '04; it was a 10 gallon. I take that back; I did have a Mr. Aqua 25g cube that had HA for about a week. The rock I bought was leaching phosphates. I had to break it down and sell it when I moved to Greenville. I'm glad because I like this tank better!

Kasey, Man, I just read your entire thread, I saw you out there on nano and just commented without checking the whole thread, I am sooo sorry you went through some nasty algaes...ughh... Sounds like we have had similair journeys, keep up the great work, this tank is going to be stunning! Way to go bro!

Yeah, it's been a tough road with this tank at the beginning. I almost quit. But, I decided to reboot the tank, and keep moving forward. Thanks for the encouragement, Perry! I think we both have tanks that we can actually enjoy, now. Speaking for myself, that's something that I've been missing in this hobby for a while.

 

[kaserpick]

Reefkeeping history:

30g Softie and LPS: (I moved it and had a toxin spike because I didn't take care of my sand bed, lost everything except some polyps and fish)

Same tank turned SPS dominated after the crash (I broke it down to upgrade):

 

[kaserpick]

65g gallon upgrade (eventually came to its demise due to an AEFW problem...first time I learned about them):

Probably my favorite tank of mine, it was the hardest to lose.

I never could get rid of the AEFW's; I ended up starting completely over only to encounter them again. I thought if I bought from trusted suppliers, I'd be ok. The two following tanks were broken down from this problem.

30g Neo-Nano:

90g Semi-cube (leftover corals from Neo, never completely rid of AEFW)

 

[kaserpick]

Mr. Aqua 25g cube (broke down due to move to Greenville)

That brings us to the current tank I have now. After battling the Dino's and rebooting, I'm hoping to keep this thing simple and enjoy the hobby. It sure has been a hard road.

 

[sahin]

Dude...your 65G brings back memories. Thats my favorite of all your tanks. Lets hope both our new tanks go well. At least we have more experiance behind us.

 

[KafudaFish]

Really liked the 65.

You can definitely see a reoccurring trend with your scapes and corals.

I mean other than awesome.

Have you always felt that was the best for the way you place your corals? I do think that you worked well in 3 dimensions and often times we seem to focus on just 2 of them.

 

[kaserpick]

Thanks, Sahin. That was one of my favorite tanks as well. Yes, let's hope! We've both had our far share of challenges with the Dino's!

Mike, many of the corals transferred to multiple tanks, but even still I've always had a particular trend in corals. As far as aquascaping goes, no matter the design of the tank, I like top-down viewing the most. Usually I design my rock work with that desire in mind. Many times there are corals you won't be able to see in my FTS's. I don't want a wall of coral; I want a reef. In the past that's come to fruition as a mini reef, but this tank is going to be more of a chunk of a reef. Still, with 5 species of SPS, there will still be a 'mini' feel to it. I hope that makes sense.

 

[KafudaFish]

Yes because you are in my head taking my ideas before I can do them!

5, 7, maybe 9 corals repeated through a tank.

Ok a dozen for a 300 but that is it.