OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[Hop]

I check my subscribed threads everyday Just don't post as often...

Yeah, I really like those fish though! They look incredible under the right lighting. Not sure on their schoaling habits, but they have to be better than my chromis which still schoal several times a day and then break up.

I'll be back here soon. My wetroom is almost done and the tank arrived on Ft. Collins Today. So I just need to get the old tank loaded and go pick up the new one in a few weeks. It's much smaller, but I hope it's more interesting

 

[jnarowe]

You know, somehwere along the line I got lost...I didn't know you were getting anew tank. In fact. I thought you were going to move or something. What's going on?

 

[Hop]

I got an attorney who saved my job. Still going to college and working full time. Our goal is to move when I'm done with school, get a knee replacement and start up that business while I do a 9-5 gig There have been some re-vamps, but my home-based business will hopefully be going full bore in five years, maybe sooner

I wound up getting a 190 for no out of pocket expense to replace the 125. Since every time I start a build thread, something happens, I'm not posting one until it's running:lol:

 

[jnarowe]

well, that is indeed good news. Very nice to hear! On top of the world, once again.

 

[Hop]

I guess so, but in a dingy rather than a speed boat

 

[erics3000]

THats great Hop. When it is done then you gota share some pics.

 

[Hop]

I will definately do that! There is some interesting ideas in this build that will likely go against the norm of tank maintining here at RC I've been documenting everything so once it's up and running I'll post a step-by-step and then just update it when new things happen.

 

[jnarowe]

So I decided to try my hand at posting some videos. These are via youtube so the quality is not great, but they are cool to check out. I haven't figured out how to embed them in a post as when I used the embed tool from youtube it did not post properly. I also can't overlay music yet so I need help with that too.

Skimmer vids...

Skimmer vid

Skimmer vid 2

 

[jnarowe]

Skimmer vid 3

Skimmer vid 4

What is most interesting about this skimmer is that it does not have consistent bubble size. Although the body has fairly uniform and small bubbles, because there is so much air converging at the neck and the associated turbulence, the bubbles will combine at times. Also notice that the bubbles in the neck are going up (naturally) but also going down. This I think is the reason why this skimmer pulls out so much waste. It appears to have extremely long contact time and I believe that the larger bubbles are able to support larger/heavier waste.

Tank End Shot

Tank End Shot 2

So this is to just give an idea where I am at right now. The brown algae remains an issue but seems to have leveled off. Water parameters are good and I got my new booster pump hooked up so I am making water fast now.

 

[mrcrab]

How's the CBB doing with the aptasia?

 

[jnarowe]

CBB is great. Aiptasia seem to be dwindling and the CBB is getting curious about the fish food I am feeding. It is no longer timid and schools with the tangs just like it was a tang itself. It will also come up to me and check me out, so all-in-all, a much better experience than expected and I feel a little vindicated of my naso fiasco.

 

[erics3000]

Incredible tank. Can you post some more updated pics? have you already removed your Fuge?

 

[melev]

Thanks for the videos. Your skimmer is definitely working, but I would think it would do better if the bubbles were uniform and tiny. Just a thought, although I don't have a solution for you.

The tank looks nice, what I can see of it. I don't like how YouTube makes everything look like you are viewing it through a wet diver's mask. And you can not embed video links on RC.

 

[jnarowe]

Eric,

I don't have any more shots than what you see on my web site, and the tank is in such horrible condition that I won't be taking any new pics until I get the brown algae and the glass cleaned up. And I hav enot removed the fuge. I just removed the sand from the fuge. It was saturated with detritus.

Marc,

I do have plans for an upgrade to the skimmer, but I just haven't gotten tthe time to do it yet. It is currently running on medium pore Aquatic-Eco stones, and I have a full set of fine pore stones waiting for their turn. The thing is that in the skimmer body, the bubbles are pretty good, but it is a counter-current skimmer so the gravity feed is from the top end, which means that possibly some large air bubbles are getting pulled into the skimmer. When I run the water with no air pump, there doesn't seem to be very much air coming down the pipe though. So maybe it is the dynamics of so much air rising into the downspout that it collects in the elbow. I am thinking about turning the elbow to slightly above 90 degrees to see if that will lower the turbulence. It's a decent theory anyway!

About the videos, I have often seen videos posted on RC that are a thumbnail pic or something that shows the first frame. Would you suggest I post videos to a different service?

 

[melev]

I know what you mean about those thumbnails. I've seen them as well, now that you mention it. I don't know of a better service (free) that will do it as easily as YouTube. My son is so addicted to that site, but I find the videos frustrating to watch unless you don't care about a lot of detail. Maybe Photobucket instead.

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I see a lot of good quality videos though. How about yours? Are yours all hosted on your own server or at your ISP? I just don't want to load my web site up as I have already had to have them give me more space.

 

[melev]

I have them on my site. I put one video on YouTube, and you might as well skip viewing it. It was worthless after all the time I put into making it. It is a video about motion in my tank, and there are 4 seconds of motion of many different corals all pasted together in one showing. Glad I have my own site so I can offer a larger file that is worth the download.

You might need a different hosting company. The one I use provides tons of space and bandwidth. I've been to your page before, and it would seem you would have lots of space available.

 

[jnarowe]

I am sure I could get more anyway for a price. I just have been using it for pictures so I can post on RC, which means that it is sucking up the space fast.

I wonder if I should be doing it a different way?

 

[mrcrab]

anything you change with the pictures you've already posted will delete them from the thread. I use photobucket for mine but you probably have too many photos with the splits. They do have a pay subscription but I don't kow how much space that will allow you.

 

[Atomikk]

hey Jonathan, maybe you can get a school of heniochus butterfly (Bannerfish Butterfly).

Today I got 3 of them for my reef.