My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics

[slief]

The baby Goldflakes are like having an infant. I'm feeding them several times a day to put some weight on them. The smallest one is just starting to eat well. The other two are putting on weight quickly. I'm sure the smallest one won't be far behind. They are all eating NLS Pellets, Mysis, Reef Frenzy and fish roe. I soak the mysis and roe in Selcon. My frag tank is serving as a make shift QT while I observe and fatten the four fish up.

I'm going to need to relocate my Atlantic Blue Tang before adding the Achilles to the big tank. He's a bit of a tyrant. Fortunately There will most certainly be an issue between those two. Fortunately I have home for the Atlantic Blue. I'm also going to move the lemon peel to another tank temporarily so I don't need to worry about it beating up the gold flakes. I will likely put that in the display fuge or maybe the frag tank temporarily once I'm ready to move the Goldflakes in. A trap with a mirror on the back should make quick work of that. Both are agressive enough that they will go bonkers at the sight of themselves.

Here is a quick video of them. The lighting whacked the color of the video out. Everything looks washed out.
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[dave.m]

Nice vid. I can hear the presidential debate in the background.

Dave.M

 

[slief]

Nice vid. I can hear the presidential debate in the background.

Dave.M

LMAO.. That was SNL!! I shot this today while we had SNL playing off the DVR.

 

[locito277]

Thanks! Yea, I am happy that install is done and the customer is happy! It's getting pretty full with corals in that cylinder tank. The customer is impatient and wants a living reef without the wait so Jim's obliged and been adding a ton of coral.

You guys ain't worried that the upcoming algae bloom is gonna take out a few corals?


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[slief]

You guys ain't worried that the upcoming algae bloom is gonna take out a few corals?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good question. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make em drink. Jim advised her and encouraged her to wait but she wanted the coral and knew the risks. She's not the type that you just say no to and patience isn't her strong point. The tank was running for a few months before the coral went in so hopefully the algae will be manageable but time will tell.

 

[Achilles Torben]

Fantastic trio slief. Trio is must have in this time. O2manyfish also have a trio. Never seen before... I have one baby Goldflake and never see this size in Germany before. And you guys have six together. Amazing

Grüße Torben

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[slief]

Fantastic trio slief. Trio is must have in this time. O2manyfish also have a trio. Never seen before... I have one baby Goldflake and never see this size in Germany before. And you guys have six together. Amazing

Grüße Torben

Gesendet mit Tapatalk

Thanks! I think Dave (o2manyfish) has 4 right now. I saw them Saturday though it may have been 3. His are what inspired me. I'm only planning on keeping two of them and selling the 3rd. They are beautiful fish and pretty rare in this hobby. Daves were the first I've ever seen.

 

[oseymour]

Hey Scott,

I like the way you always organize your electronics for yourself and clients on Youtube. I'm trying to redo my electronics and wiring area. I see how the front is always neat but can you post a picture or a link to a video of what the back of one of those mounting boards look like?

Do you simply wrap and velcro the cables to the board?

Thanks.

 

[slief]

Hey Scott,

I like the way you always organize your electronics for yourself and clients on Youtube. I'm trying to redo my electronics and wiring area. I see how the front is always neat but can you post a picture or a link to a video of what the back of one of those mounting boards look like?

Do you simply wrap and velcro the cables to the board?

Thanks.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the back of the board. I coiled the wires up and zip tied them though. It wasn't particularly neat but not horrible either. Since the back of the board was out of site and out of mind, I only paid attention to the aquabus cables that were connected between the modules. There are other aquabus cables that go between the tank and the outside shed that come into the board as well as the cables for the LED lights we installed which included several sets of wires for the Reef Brite XHO strips as well as the power connections.

Here is the LA Fish Guys Episode that covered the entire installation of that tank including the controller. Part 8 covers the light install and the final wires going into that board. There might be a couple shots of it in part 8 as well as other parts that included the controller install. Like I said though, I wasn't too concerned about the back of the board since it wasn't something that was going to be looked at.


Part 1:
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Part 2:
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Part 3:
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Part 4:
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Part 5:
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Part 6:
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Part 7:
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Part 8:
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[oseymour]

Thanks! I'll check them out.

 

[slief]

When I got home yesterday I decided it was time to try to catch my Atlantic Blue Tank. He is pretty aggressive and I feared he would try to kill the new Achilles tang. I've had a trap in the tank for a few days and figured I would bait it with some nori on a clip. Not 60 seconds after adding the nori, the blue was trying to get into the trap. As soon as it found the door, it was in there. I kid you not, I was on my way to my buddies shop with the Atlantic Blue not 5 minutes after getting home and putting the Nori in there. I felt as I've had him a few years but he was pretty aggressive as mentioned above and he went into another tank that has the same 4'x8' footprint as mine. As soon as I got home from dropping him off, I caught the Achilles and dropped him into the big tank. The Achilles settled right in and started to forage on the rocks within minutes. I guess he likes his new bigger home as he was out and about all night until the lights went off. The Achilles is one of my bucket list fish and I am pretty stoked to have him! He's pretty fast and doesn't sit still long for a good picture so I had to settle for video screen shots.

I also played with my new iPhone 7 plus and a camera app called Lighroom and was able to get some pretty decent pictures despite the blue lighting during the sunset phase. These pictures were from the frag tank.

 

[slief]

A couple more of the frag tank. I will try to get some updated pictures of the main display as well as some growth shots.

 

[slief]

Last night we cleaned all the coraline off my viewing panes. The new fish are doing well. In getting the tank ready for the new fish, I had a trap in the tank to catch the lemon peel so i could temporarily relocate it in an effort to avoid the Goldflakes getting beaten up. Catching the lemon peel was easy but as luck would have it, when I removed the trap, I managed to break a large chunk of my mysterious branching hammer that I'd grown from a pink nail sized frag to a 24"+ sized colony with nearly 200 heads. I tried rotating the hammer and managed to break more of it... Incedental frags you might say. Well last night I finically decided it was time to reclaim most of the space for SPS and fragged it out into a dozen plus chunks which are now in my frag tank. I kept a couple pieces of the colony in the main display and will likely add a couple more once I clear some hairy mushroom rocks out. The rest of the hammer is for sale in chunks. So now where the hammer was are now some nice SPS frags and mini colonies as well as a couple smaller pieces of the hammer which I expect to grow in a hurry as it's always done.

Here are some pictures as well as a video update.
Lots of hammer frags...

Here is a video update shot today.
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[SBV]

Beautiful, just beautiful. He slief thanks again for answering my questions about a aqua uv sterilizer. Been running for a month now and my water is so clear it doesn't look there is water in my tank. Got the 25 watt version. Tank is killer bro.

Michael

 

[slief]

Beautiful, just beautiful. He slief thanks again for answering my questions about a aqua uv sterilizer. Been running for a month now and my water is so clear it doesn't look there is water in my tank. Got the 25 watt version. Tank is killer bro.

Michael

Thank you very much!! Very glad to help on the UV! A lot of people think they are a waste but having run them for 20 years now and having tank both with and without, I am a firm believer in their value. Especially for wate clarity as they can do wonders there. They are also very helpful in preventing bacterial blooms and waterborn algae issues. As such, I see only upsides in having them!

 

[slief]

Today I got a PM from a local member who was looking to get out of the hobby. His wife wants to travel which leaves no time for the tank. The tank is about 3 months old. It's an SCA 36"x24"x24" rimless tank with a custom SCA glass sump. It included a Radion gen 3 Pro with the radion mount. Vortech MP40 Quiet Drive, Ecotech Reeflink, Apex 2016, SCA skimmer, Custom ATO reservoir that fits next to the sump, Tunze Osmolator ATO, UV filter, live rock, Sicce return pump, Jebao Doser (wont be using that), dosing containers, GHL magnetic stirrer, a few corals, a blenny and much more. The deal was such that I couldn't pass it up and went out there today to tear it down and bring it home.

I wish I could connect it to my big system as that would make my life much easier. The only way to do that would be to take down my display refugium but given the amount of hair algae and everything else in that tank coupled with the fact that my main display has absolutely no algae, I know that display refugium is doing it job along with my below tank refugium. As such, I ended up putting this tank in my entry way. I got it home with the help of my friend Jim. I gave him the corals as a thank you for the help along with a refractometer. I spent the last couple hours cleaning up the wires since we had to remove some stuff to transport it. I reset the Apex and got that setup on my Fusion account. I still need to program it but that's easy for me. I will likely fill it tomorrow and use 50 gallons from my main display and the rest new salt water along with his rock which is sitting in foam boxes with wet towels over them and some water in the boxes.

Here it is at the gentlemans house as I was preparing to take it down.

Here it is in my entry way. It actually fits there well.

Below the tank. I still have a bunch of wires to clean up as mentioned above but it's completely turnkey.

 

[dave.m]

Sorry, but an entryway is a poor place for a tank. It means everyone races past the tank and no-one bothers to stay and just observe it. Pretty soon maintenance slips and the tank goes downhill from there. Try to find a place in your home where the tank is the focal point of the whole room so that it gets the attention it needs.

Dave.M

 

[slief]

Sorry, but an entryway is a poor place for a tank. It means everyone races past the tank and no-one bothers to stay and just observe it. Pretty soon maintenance slips and the tank goes downhill from there. Try to find a place in your home where the tank is the focal point of the whole room so that it gets the attention it needs.

Dave.M

I wish I had a better place but it's actually not so bad. It's right next to my living room where the home theater is. When you walk in the front door, it's at the end of the entry way straight ahead just before you turn right into the living room where the home theater is. It actually is visible from the living room though not visible from my spot on the couch. I'll be walking past it several times a day. At this point I have no idea what the heck I'm going to use this tank for. I'd rather continue to fill spots in the big tank and make more spots by getting rid of mushroom rocks in favor or a bonsai rock structure where I've got a bunch of massive rocks covered with hairy mushroom.

I also have several PTZ HD IP cams setup around the big tank and one of them will have a preset for this new tank as well. The cams are setup I can watch the big tank from all sides as well as the display refugium and frag tank. I've usually got all the tank cam's on one of my computer screens on my desk at my office.

:thumbsup:

 

[slief]

I got the new tank all setup. I spend most of last light cleaning up the wiring and getting it ready for water. This morning I used some of the live rock to create a nice minimalistic aquascape consisting of two rock structures with some nice spots for for coral. I drilled and pinned the rocks using 3/8th inch acrylic rods. It'll work for now. I also got the Apex all setup on it. I like the Radion but it's really not enough light for this tank. I will likely put my other GHL Mitras on it. Heck, I was even thinking of putting my Profilux on it but there really isn't room to mount it and the Profilux serves as as a secondary controller on my main system while also managing and monitoring the frag tank and the Mitras LX7 that illuminates that tank. As such, I may just stick with the Apex 2016 that came with this tank.

I filled the tank this afternoon. I used 20 or 30 gallons from my main system and then used new water for the rest. Given that the rocks were already in this system for months, I really don't expect a cycle but I will wait a few days before I put anything in there. The sump has a compartment for a refugium and the tank came with an LED light with red diodes for the fuge. I set that up and figure I will add some Chaeto once the system is stable and has some nutrients.

I will probably switch the Sicce return pump out for an RD3 80W I have here. It will be much more efficient and silent. I can get the same flow with about half the watts using the RD3. The SCA skimmer this tank came with is noisy and inefficient. I'd really like to switch it out for a small Bubble King but on the other hand, I don't want to spend the money. We will seee what the future holds.

Here are some pictures.

The water is still clearing.

 

[acesq]

Nice job Scott! You got a lot done today!!