Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[m3lacoste]

Lots going on over the last few days. First, I got the last of the plastic rocks and assemble the second and third structures:

Getting that done allowed me to get almost all of the real live rock out and glue the SPS in place!

At the same time I was able to glue the rest of the panels in place, still adjusting and caulking and painting to be done, but you can get the idea:

And I went to the LFS and got one of my favorite fish. His name is Dennis:

I also picked up "George", a powder blue tang:

And finally the first four chromis:

That's an awesome deal, I've been eying that Barbonius pair too. Did you buy both? He's had those for awhile. Did you see the adult pair Dan has in his show tank?

 

[westreef]

Where did you order those fake rocks? They seems to be great for restarts.

 

[mhucasey]

Where did you order those fake rocks? They seems to be great for restarts.

I got them from Ebay, a retailer called atlantis aquariums. They aren't a substitute for Liverock, but If you can have live rock somewhere else in your system they are pretty awesome

 

[mhucasey]

That's an awesome deal, I've been eying that Barbonius pair too. Did you buy both? He's had those for awhile. Did you see the adult pair Dan has in his show tank?

No I got mine from Aquatica in San Marcos. I didn't see the adult pair, I wasn't able to spend as long as I would have liked in the store. Dan is hilarious, like a squirrel on Meth, taking me all over the store to show me stuff

 

[JB NY]

T

Working on one more extra deep drawer and then Ill trim out the end around them. All PVC board on the outside as well, so no rotting or staining ever

Everything is looking great! Awesome job so far, you will love the drawers. I put them in my stand and I am much, much happier than when I had doors on the stand.

 

[mhucasey]

Everything is looking great! Awesome job so far, you will love the drawers. I put them in my stand and I am much, much happier than when I had doors on the stand.

Thanks, its really coming together now!

Two things that I incorporated in this build that are huge improvements over regular stands are removable panels rather than doors, and these drawers.

Removing a panel is easy and gives you so much more access than a door.

I got almost all the aquarium chemicals, supplies, test kits, and tools in the top drawer, I am aiming to have at lest one drawer free for the wife to use, she's pretty excited to get storage for her stuff too

 

[JB NY]

The removal panels are nice when you have that time you really need to get under the stand.

The drawers get filled with junk quick be careful. Mine are 21" deep full extension drawers. On the bottom ones I've got about 2 feet of height that I can fill er up with. One of mine has now got towels, step ladders and extension cords in it, in addition to the usual reef detritus that we all collect.

 

[m3lacoste]

No I got mine from Aquatica in San Marcos. I didn't see the adult pair, I wasn't able to spend as long as I would have liked in the store. Dan is hilarious, like a squirrel on Meth, taking me all over the store to show me stuff

That's funny, spot on description of Dan. I noticed the adult pair of barbonius rule his display tank full of wrasses and tangs. I may pull the trigger on the baby pair as they've been there awhile and to me that's as good as established.

 

[Reefflapper]

Very beautiful tank indeed. Soon very soon will I get back to the headache and joys of SPS, it has been far too long for me.

 

[mhucasey]

That's funny, spot on description of Dan. I noticed the adult pair of barbonius rule his display tank full of wrasses and tangs. I may pull the trigger on the baby pair as they've been there awhile and to me that's as good as established.

Dan obviously loves what he is doing and his stock looks good. Its nice to have another option closer to Oceanside for sure.
As far as the Borbs, it's nerve-wracking having such a small fish with such a big price tag. Being that its a bit skittish, I am always checking to see how he is doing, which seems to be fine. he comes out to eat and has no problems there at least.

 

[mhucasey]

Very beautiful tank indeed. Soon very soon will I get back to the headache and joys of SPS, it has been far too long for me.

Thanks very much!
Hopefully with all the info out there there will be less heartache and more joy!!

 

[biggles]

I'm jealous of your borb, they're $300- here so not a fish i'll ever get unfortunately

How's that bright acro piece doing Matt.

 

[mhucasey]

I'm jealous of your borb, they're $300- here so not a fish i'll ever get unfortunately

How's that bright acro piece doing Matt.

I had a bad day on Sunday, I was making the final mods to the smaller tank and had isolated the SPS tank. Things were going slower than expected, but I was almost finished when I noticed a bunch of gunk in the water of the SPS tank. I had been pretty much focused on the other tank so I went over to take a look.


The Ritteri anemone apparently saw the gates of Valhalla open to him and had tried to merge with the Gyre. Alas, no witnesses. Shredded anemone everywhere. Dead Borb. Dying powder blue, copperband, foxface, and scooter blenny. Skimmer making meringue everywhere. I manually removed as much Nem bits as I could, vaccuumed foam from the skimmer, added carbon, and brought tank two on line, diluting the overall volume.


After several hours everything stabilized but it was a bit heartbreaking. So it goes in this hobby. Yesterday I replaced the powder blue, got a scopas tang for the smaller tank, and a fluorescent pink bubble tip Nem for the clowns, who were freaking out about losing their home. Zero coral fatalities at least. I'll post some pics later today.

 

[m3lacoste]

Matt--how is your powder blue doing? I got one too over a month ago and it's doing well, eating, active and has a very vibrant powder blue color. It's my second attempt with a pbt (my first one I found wedged underneath a rock, not quite sure how it was able to do that). Anyways, I was hesitant to add another because I have a yellow and purple tang but there is little to no aggression.

 

[JB NY]

Oh Matt that is some bad luck Sorry to read about the weekend.

I have had really good luck with getting clowns to host in euphyllia corals, both hammers and frogspawn. The euphyllia are nice and they don't go wandering around.

Again sorry to here about the nem

 

[reefmutt]

Matt!! OUCH!! The hobby is so crazy this way..
Sorry to hear..
Sometimes, no matter what you do, you just can't control everything..

 

[m3lacoste]

woops, sorry to hear, Matt. I posted before I saw you post your weekend update. sorry to hear about the weekend fiasco.

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks guys, it was frustrating but in the grand scheme of things it could have been much worse, like if the Nem did this while I was at work. The acroporas were pretty ****ed off but they look like nothing happened now.

The new powder blue is doing great, no fear and eating hungrily. If you ever have fish that wont eat, try brine shrimp with garlic. Fish can't resist garlic for some reason, in fact the state of California has made it illegal to use garlic in fishing bait...

Oh, another thing I do is keep everything running flow wise. I don't use the feed timers for feeding. The fish seem to enjoy chasing the food a lot more and they get good at clearing the tank.

 

[mhucasey]

So here are some pics:
RIP Dennis

The bright coral continues to stay bright and seems to be doing well:

New Nem:

New Powder Blue aka "George 2":

Both tanks now using basso style overflows, low profile big time. From the side you see a small black stripe, and thats it:

Inside each tank, a flat blue wall. There is a pipe near the bottom connecting the overflow to the old bottom drain in the smaller tank. Its hidden behind some rocks.

The smaller tanks Basso is silent, i created a silent overflow with safety drain outside the tank:

 

[plyle02]

Nicely done!
Loving that soli/efflo