New 125 On The Block - Watch The Process! *Pictures Inside*

[TJcop]

Ok, so now some tank pics. The rock hasn't been aquascaped yet, gimme a few days on that one (gotta let the hands heal up!)

Full tank.

Here's various shots of the stuff in the tank. Some of them are shot from overhead using a plastic bin to see into the water. My camera sucks at these pics, so take that into consideration.

 

[TJcop]

More pics!

 

[tsquad]

Very nice! I hope mine will turn out as sweet as yours! I'm still considering going BB, not really sure. I'm saving up for Tunze, so when I get those, I'll see if they blow my sand around. If they do, out goes the sand. Once again, nice tank :thumbsup:

 

[Morgandy]

Ok T.J. - I just spent about 3+ hours reading start to finish..through part of O'Reilly, other various shows, then split my concentration between this and Rescue Me, and now we're a little ways into The Hitchhiker..so, obviously this has been excellent reading! I took a ton of notes, and have some questions I'll ask another time probably.

I'm just AMAZED at your tenacity in tearing down the whole thing and re-doing. After 3-4 months of our 210 being up, things are measure okay, and livestock act okay, but the system to me just doesn't 'feel' okay, not sure how to describe it.

We've been having problems with our Barracuda, but they're working with us on resolving..will be interested to hear your impressions after its running a bit longer.

Anyways, great read, great education you've given, good inspiration to stick with it when you get discouraged!! thx, Amy.

 

[TJcop]

Amy, thanks for the wonderful comments. Yes, it's a lot of work, but I feel that we have an obligation to take care of these animals as best we can. I chose to have the responsibility to care for them (just like a dog), and I've invested lots of money (more than I wanna know) and time into it. In the end, I think it's more than worth it! :thumbsup:

I hope my new pump holds out. What kind of problems are you having?

I know what you mean about your system not "feeling OK". Remember, yours is still very new. Mine just passed the 1 year mark, and it is now really starting to be stable.

Good luck! I hope I'll have more encouraging stories to share.

 

[Morgandy]

Our 1st Barracuda leaked around the bolts on the wet side, and was noisey. Our LFS replaced it for us, and the second one has now been extremely noisey, and runs very hot. They're thinking it is a ball-bearing problem with this new one. Anyways, couple of other things, but think we'll get it all resolved. Unlike a lot of you, our whole setup is in our t.v. room; we're unable to run plumbing or anything else to the basement/garage or other rooms because of the layered structure of our house.

And yes, believe me, I see this tank and every critter/bug as such a valued piece of life, in addition to our 2 dogs, 3 cats, 3 birds and other assorted things..but this just seems so much more fragile that it still has be a bit nervous. But so worth it!! It's like scuba diving 24x7x365...can't beat it.

Look forward to see the rebuild progress!

 

[TJcop]

Well, here I am 5 days into the new Nude Bottom tank and new sump/refugium. This is what I've noticed so far:
- Haven't had to scrub the glass in 5 days!! I looked at the front of the tank from the side, and I can't even see an algae film. Hmmm...maybe there's something to this Nude Bottom?
- Having problems with low pH. I think it's due to the new lower bio-load, without all the nusience algae growing, there's less photo/resperation going on in the tank. During the day pH is 8.02, at night it's about 7.97. Maybe some w/c's and some time will help.
- I'm having polyp extension on some frags that I've never seen before. The SPS look great! Now I'm going to watch for growth.
- The water is crystal clear! This is the best part. If it wasn't for the shimmering from the lights, you wouldn't know there was water in there.

My new pendant for my frags will arrive on Monday. I've decided against a prop tank, and I'm just going to use one side of the refugium for frags. I'm going to keep them on a reverse light cycle with the main tank, to help with pH. With a large amount of LR in the fuge with the frags, that should help.

Otherwise, things are going great :thumbsup: I'm getting a bunch of frags from ReeferMadness tomorrow morning, and I'm stopping by MattW's house for some frags (frome frags.org). Look for pics tomorrow afternoon.

 

[TJcop]

Just got a BUNCH of frags today.
The first batch were from MattW at frags.org. Drove to his apartment this morning and he fresh clipped some "frags" for me. I say "frags" because some of them were large enough to be small colonies! Very nice stuff, and a great guy. I'll post pics later tonight, but if you want any of his stuff, you're gonna have to wait. He's moving this week and won't be fragging anything until the tank has settled from the move.
The second batch of "frags" was from ReeferMadness. You can guess why I said "frags" again :thumbsup: And, as ReeferMadness usually does, they threw in a few extras. I ordered the 10 frags for $150, and they sent me 12! All of them are very nice. Again, pics to follow.

 

[TJcop]

Ohh...one more thing: ;I just did an average of all the TOTM parameters for the last year. Below are their numbers, followed by mine. Most are within acceptable ranges, but the difference between test kits disturbs me.

Theirs / Mine
Temp - 79.16 / 80.0
S.G. - 1.0245 / 1.0245
Calc. - 415.71 / 410 (Salifert)
/ 350 (Seachem)
Alk - 9.4dKH / 11dKH
pH - 8.13 / 7.97
PO4 - 0 / .25 (Hagen)
/ 0 (Salifert)
Nitrate - 0 / 0
Nitrite - 0 / 0
Ammon - 0 / 0
Iron - ??? / 0

 

[thrlride]

I really like that clam!

 

[thrlride]

I think Iron is hard to detect with hobbiest level kits. At least that's what I've read.

 

[TJcop]

Here's a few pics to tide you over until I have some more time (and a better camera).
The first pics are frags from MattW and ReeferMadness. The last pic is of a purple/pink digitata colony from MattW. Believe it or not, that is only 2/3 of it...the other 1/3 is on the opposite side of the tank. I'd feel guilty if I told you what I paid for it...so I won't! I'm sure I'll be fragging it once it gets established.

 

[FishhyRen]

You're tank is looking great! Where do you get your frag plugs? They seem the perfect size for that grating-

If you make them yourself, please expand on how and where you get your materials-
Thanks!

 

[Morgandy]

I like that, sitting there and going through each totm and calculating it all..talk about methodical!! Those a great figures to have on hand to strive for now (my temp will NEVER stay that low though, arghhh). The frags are great. Very cool about the water clarity.. take some good close shots to show us.

 

[TJcop]

Fishy: I ordered the plugs from bostonaquafarms.com Very cheap and they are the perfect size for eggcrate. Also, super glue gel sticks very nicely to them. They come pre-cured (they are concrete), but I keep them in a pail of water that I change every other day.

Avansickle: Thanks for the great comments. Yeah, it's methodical, but I figure the only way to have the best is to learn from the best!

 

[thrlride]

Fishy: I ordered the plugs from bostonaquafarms.com Very cheap and they are the perfect size for eggcrate. Also, super glue gel sticks very nicely to them. They come pre-cured (they are concrete), but I keep them in a pail of water that I change every other day.

Avansickle: Thanks for the great comments. Yeah, it's methodical, but I figure the only way to have the best is to learn from the best!

You could always keep the plugs in the upper part of your toilet that way when you flush the toilet it does a water change for you. Not salt water but it helps cure the concrete.

 

[elephen]

Looking good man. You should look into a kalk reactor instead of dripping. You might also try running your effulant from the ca reactor into your skimmer, the foam will help the co2 'escape' and raise the pH, not sure if it is noticable but you never know!

Just an idea. I have heard of some people running the effulant out from their ca reactors into their kalk reactor feed to raise the pH of it. Never tried it but I have been kicking around the idea.

 

[TJcop]

Thanks for the tips everyone! For now, everything seems to be doing great! I think removing the sand is the best thing I've ever done. Here's a bunch of shots from this evening. You'll have to excuse my photography skills, as they are weak, and so is my camera. I'm looking into a new camera with good macro functions, so any suggestions would be great!

Also, if anyone wants to ID any of the corals, feel free. I suck at that, and I'm trying to make a photo log with the names for future reference/fragging.

 

[TJcop]

The Pics!

The Pics!

 

[TJcop]