Mike's 140 Cubish Build

Awesome to hear Jason. Did you end up adding the grounding probe? So BOTH of your tanks are on the upswing?

The hydno and especially the sarco used to concern me in years past but not so much anymore since I've never seemed to have problems attributable to them. I thought that going from ~80 gallons to ~150 gallons would be enough to strike them entirely off the list in my current situation. My frogspawn is looking good too further alleviating chemical warfare concerns at the moment. Would you think I should look down this path further?

I've been pondering a bacterial attack hypothesis, especially after re-reading Borneman's disease chapter last night. Unfortunately, if that's what it ends up being I'm even more at a loss of how to address it.

I have a container of water spinning up in the garage. Checked and adjusted the salinity last night - should be ready to go this evening.
 
That is a bummer, I hope things turn around for the better... I know I had a wierd situation earlier this summer, but I found what I thought was the cause... Number 1, my mag was way TOO low (800 ppm) my fault for not testing. I lost a couple of my favorite SPS... the polyp extension stopped, and soon the sps RTN'd... Now that my mag is stable and in an acceptable range 1375, I have not lost anymore sps, and in fact some of my sps are looking very good. I was also, thinking moving my corals around too much may have caused this.

The one thing that is still lingering and I cannot figure it out for the life of me, is that I have a few SPS that have what look to be inflated tips. Its like someone injected the tips with air. This is only the case on a few SPS not all. It is apparent on a blue milli that I have, and what I believe to be a rommel's watermelon acro. Also, the ridges on the acro appear to be melted and not well defined its actually very strange as I have never seen it before. I read a thread that suggested it may be due to high flow, so I moved them out of the high flow area for a couple of months and nothing changed..


Sorry don't mean to ramble or get off topic... Hope things turn around for you!
 
Topic is as topic does. :)

Glad to hear things are looking up Derrick. Bubbly tips...I've seen it from time to time in my tank but nothing has ever come of it. I freaked out when it happened though. I was sure RTN was right around the corner.

Full stand/canopy shots...you can see where the board is to go that will hide the overflow.
CIMG2766.jpg


CIMG2765.jpg


Tank shots...I would really like to get in and do some re-aquascaping but I want this situation to blow over before doing too much. The 'open sand' idea seems to have been covered with frags for the time being.

New resident - purple tang.


CIMG2792.jpg


CIMG2794.jpg



And a new swirler stein. Think 1/2" acrylic is enough? :lol: Made from tank drop and hastily constructed with WO16. This one is improved over the previous version. The downtube spins on a sealed lawnmower bearing.

CIMG2813.jpg
 
Tank, Stand and Canopy look really nice.... Bet you are happy to have this project come to an end.... Now it is time to enjoy the new setup, and think of upgrading the tank in the not the not so distant future :D
 
Wait a minute I thought you said this would be it for a while.

Looks like you need to go bigger already.:D

I do halft to say it looks awsome!
 
:lol: No tank/stand upgrades are being planned any time soon. I had to give the lovely wife a 5 year guarantee against another tank upgrade request.

I will be making a new skimmer in the coming weeks though. ;) Most of the supplies are in the mail right now. It's going to be a beast.
 
Awesome to hear Jason. Did you end up adding the grounding probe? So BOTH of your tanks are on the upswing?
only one of the three probes planned has been added. only the system with the increased wc's has improved. i'll update my thread when i have more. no need to clutter your build..

The hydno and especially the sarco used to concern me in years past but not so much anymore since I've never seemed to have problems attributable to them. I thought that going from ~80 gallons to ~150 gallons would be enough to strike them entirely off the list in my current situation. My frogspawn is looking good too further alleviating chemical warfare concerns at the moment. Would you think I should look down this path further?
well, isolating suspected offenders is pretty easy for me, not sure how you're set up for additional systems, etc.. my frogspawns were the last to show signs of stress however. i'm far from an expert on allelopathy..

I've been pondering a bacterial attack hypothesis, especially after re-reading Borneman's disease chapter last night. Unfortunately, if that's what it ends up being I'm even more at a loss of how to address it.
you may find this article interesting.
 
No kidding - it does look rather crowded. And I have ~10 frags still to place. Some of those are zoas though so they'll be easy...stranded from the main rock work. The other ones will be a little more difficult.

Thanks for the great link Jason! That looks like a perfect read for my situation. I'm going to have to print it out and read it this evening while performing my next 'operation watch the flame angel' session. I saw him picking a little more last night. That would be too easy if all my maladies turn out to be him being a jerk. He ate a gorgonian right after I got him. He's never touched any of my LPS or my clam. They don't usually bother SPS until after they've starting nipping other stuff, right?
 
My current skimmer is a DIY recirculating skimmer. 6" diameter body with a 3" diameter neck. The body is ~18" tall and the neck is ~8" tall. Sedra 5000 needle wheel. It works well but I would like something with a little more mojo.

The next skimmer will be based on a PowerJet 5000 using concepts derived in the DIY Red Dragon pumps thread (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=13462284#post13462284). The exact neck is TBD but will likely be 6" diameter. The pump will be mesh modded with a custom volute to run ~70SCFH. The body of the skimmer will be made from the water top off container I made prior to making the tank. 9.5"x9.5" square (I'm joining the square skimmer contingent :) ). The skimmer will be a single pass design like an Octo Pro or BK.
 
Sorry to read through some of your troubles, Mike. Hope things turn around for you. I've had my share or recent calamities as well, and I fully understand how you feel. You think you've got everything under control, and one or two little things humble you into the reality that we're mostly just hacks!
 
Yes, I saw your receding tissue photos in your thread. After pondering it for a while, I think your hypothesis is correct. The fact that the bases look smooth makes me think that the impacted areas just faded away due to lack of light rather than died. It's not like there are a bunch of empty polyps that no longer contain flesh. I'm so glad your tank made it through the storm.

Hopefully my situation will turn out to be just a little nipping. I have my fingers crossed.
 
I actually wrote a long winded speculative response then erased it for fear that it would cause more confusion than it was worth. I've been pondering the idea and will post up over there.

Aquamedic. It's my first bucket of AM. Before that it was a mix of Kent and RC. Other than the upgrade to the new tank though I've only done two water changes since Junish 2007.
 
Is it possible the issues started soon after starting to use any of the new salt? If so Id start doing water changes with what you used to use. Or wait and see what it does for me..
 
Thanks Rockymtreefer. Are you in Denver? Have we met at any of the meetings?

Kurt - I did so few water changes last year I'm not sure if any particular brand would be any different than the next. I'm not thinking salt is going to change anything in my case but I'm going to go ahead and swap some gallons JIC.

I don't think it's a bad batch. I bought the bucket off of a guy who had purchased a palet. He's using it in all of his tanks...a brand new 1500 reef, a brand new 900 FO, and at least a half dozen more established med/large systems...mostly SPS.
 
No we have not met as i have not joined any club yet although i am thinking about joining masc.I just started my tank about 4 weeks ago so i am pretty new to all this;)
 
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