Our 375g reef tank build & fish room

[edandsandy]

Thanks Alan

 

[EnglishRebel]

Hey guys, what's going on with your setup? It's been 10 days and no update.

 

[edandsandy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14394186#post14394186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnglishRebel
Hey guys, what's going on with your setup? It's been 10 days and no update.

Hi Alan,
Ed has been very busy with work, so the few projects on the room have slowed down.
After our mishap with the Kalk reactor, I had to step back and reevaluate what I am doing.

On a lighter side,
We went to our LFS last week end to purchase a larger clean-up crew, the owner approached us and said he was sorry to hear about our loss.
He reassured me that everyone in this hobby has and will have a set back.
After much discussion on what happened, he again reassured me that I had done a fantastic job on the 120 that I will again do a fantastic job on this tank too!
He asked me has the tank settled down?
Have you been testing the water? etc.....
I was starting to believe in myself again.
He then said I would like to help you rebuild your stock,
I was thinking to myself, what?

He said here is a gift from us to you;

14 BEAUTIFUL frags!

I couldn't believe it.:eek2:

We thanked him over and over again. I still can not believe it!

So the new babies are settling in their new home nicely!

I can honestly say, that I have learned a very $$$$$ lesson here.

Post and ask as many question as you can here on RC, and if you are still not sure, keep asking!

DON'T PUSH YOUR HUSBAND TO JUST HOOK UP THAT LAST PIECE OF EQUIPMENT!

I'm lucky he hasn't tried to talk me into making this a FOWLR tank!

 

[EnglishRebel]

That's great Sandy. What a nice gesture on their part. I'm sure you'll be shopping there a lot.

 

[edandsandy]

Thanks Alan,
It was an incredible nice gesture on their part.
You have no idea how often I stop by and neither does Ed.

 

[Bax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14406036#post14406036 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edandsandy
Thanks Alan,
It was an incredible nice gesture on their part.
You have no idea how often I stop by and neither does Ed.

:lol:

... My wife does not want to know!

 

[edandsandy]

The weather has been warming up here and the fish room is really warming up. The temp in the tank is rising to 82 degrees! YIKES!
I have all the light turn off when the temp rises. I have an exhaust fan in the room, but I think it is undersized
Trying to get the A/C guy back out here has been a full time job.
I need him to upgrade the fan. You would think he would at least return a call!
I think I have to keep calling the General Contractor to stay on the A/C guy. GEEZE!

I am going to stager the MH times, so all 4 are not on at the same time for now.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Sandy
One more thing, don't forget to dip those corals before putting them in your tank. My fuge got to 82 last week. and I'm only running a 24" PC. My equipment room (Where the fuge and sump are located) rarely got above 65 so it must be the small volume of water that I have in the system (around 40 gallons). I took the covers off the sump and that seemed to have dropped the temperatures (more evaporation). I'm concerned that in the summer I may need a chiller. I hope not though.

 

[edandsandy]

Double check that Alan.

 

[EnglishRebel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14407478#post14407478 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by edandsandy
Double check that Alan.

Yes, I read about someone who got red bugs from a frag. He had to tear down his tank. :eek2:

 

[edandsandy]

Well I cannot believe it has been so long since I have posted to my thread....

A lot has been happening since the crash of the tank.
I can honestly say that was a very difficult week for me, Ed was out of town for a convention and I had to deal with the tank and the AWFUL smell all by myself.

We have been able to recover from the crash, BUT I still have Ed's misfit island in the tank :lol:

Thanks to jdieck, he helped me turn my GEO calcium reactor into a well oiled machine :thumbsup:
We also purchased a flow meter for the reactor, WOW this is a great piece of equipment. No more measuring with a cup and a watch!
We are also going to upgrade our PH controller from the Milwaukee SMS122 to a Pinpoint PH Controller, I am not looking into using the Milwaukee on the Kalk reactor just to measure the PH, Ed is not so sure about this.
The Kalk reactor is now working properly. I just want to look at a monitor to see when it is time to add/replace the Kalk.

It sounds like I am getting a little spoiled with the automation

We have also made the water change out very automated.
Ed will go into detail on that later.

We have the protein skimmer's self cleaning head hooked up now so it cleans its self two times a day! :dance: cleaning the skimmer is not my idea of having fun with the tank!

We purchased some LR from some of our local reefers, a few pieces had GHA on them. I had no idea how fast that stuff grows and how hard it is to get it off the rocks. it is like a weed in the garden,

what is the saying " if you pull on it, and it pulls easy it is a plant, if you pull on it and it is will not budge, it is a weed!

Ed and I have been battling this for a while now. Ed has a stainless steel brush he scrubs the rock and I use a siphon hose to remove the loose pieces. We have been doing this for weeks now. We still have a GHA problem in the tank, but I started using Alagefix Marine by API, I hope this product will live up to the reputation it has here on RC.
I will let you know how it works for me later.


We have a pair of false perc clowns, they have turned into a mated pair! We have been watching them go through the motions of YOU KNOW WHAT, well the other day I went to a friends house to pick up a few frags and I notice the clowns were acting a little different, this is what they were doing:

I grabbed my camera as fast as I could, so these are not the best shoots.
This is first time we have seen eggs.
They are hosting a hairy mushroom, we have a small BTA in the tank, but they like the mushroom better.

It is a shame the babies will turn into fish food

I asked Ed if we could set up a small tank for them to breed in next time, right now he is saying NO!


I will take some FTS this week end and post them later.

 

[Bax]

Thanks for the up date Sandy. Glad you're recovering from the Kalk issues. I've found balancing the Alk to be one of the more challenging aspects of keeping a fair sized SPS dominated tank.

Don't worry about your clows for now, my false percs spawn every 2-3 weeks. You'll have plenty of oportunity to raise them if you decide to try.

 

[edandsandy]

Thanks Bax,
I agree with you on the challenging aspects of maintaing cal. & Alk. in a larger system.

I am going to monitor the spawning events of the clownm fish.

I have not been able to talk Ed into starting 2 more tanks at this time............. YET!............. :lol:

 

[tcmfish]

Try putting a small tile down where they spawn, this way when they spawn, you can easily remove the eggs for rearing.

 

[GlassReef]

Great pic of your spawning clowns, Sandy! Sorry about the troubles with your tank - I know it's a little late but, somehow, I missed it.

 

[edandsandy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14753938#post14753938 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tcmfish
Try putting a small tile down where they spawn, this way when they spawn, you can easily remove the eggs for rearing.

Thanks for the tip!

The mushrooms are on a piece of tonga branch, which is easlily removed.
I almost have Ed talked into starting another system for the clowns.

 

[edandsandy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14754940#post14754940 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GlassReef
Great pic of your spawning clowns, Sandy! Sorry about the troubles with your tank - I know it's a little late but, somehow, I missed it.

Thanks Tom,
How is your build going???

We had to do some maintance on the lights the other day, with the rack being movable it sure made the job easier!
Thanks for all your tips again!

 

[Oldude]

great build thread.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Sandy
Good to see that you are back posting - now I know why you have been away for a while.
My granddaughter is visiting me from England at the moment and I told her that I would take her to the LFS to pick out a couple of Nemos. She was so excited.

 

[Ed Reef]

What a great update Sandy - when you update, you really update. Great pictures of your spawning clowns