RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup

TheFishMan65,
It already went to the dump. PM me a zip code and if you are close, I will save you a bag next time I pull some out.

RocketEngineer
 
Well, I woke up this morning and while looking at the tank I found the Kole tang belly up behind the rocks. Very disappointed. Not sure what went wrong as it had been eating well and looking good. I will get another in the future but for now nothing new will go into the tank.

RocketEngineer
 
At the moment, I don't have any good test kits (The ones I had were all over 2 years out of date when I threw them out) so I am using dip strips. According to one this morning, the only thing out of range was pH at 7.6 so that may have caused the problems. I think this week I will go pick up some new test kits so I can actually run a series for valid numbers.
 
Now I have lost my female clown fish. The only thing I have noticed is that her skin looked a little roughed up and she was breathing hard yesterday. No spots though. The problem is the male clown has the roughed up skin as well. Not a good week for fish.:furious:
 
I bought a Sera test kit for Nitrates and love the test, it has different colors for the samples instead of 5 shades of pink. I think you can buy it for 10 bucks.
 
Well, the male clown has also kicked the bucket. That leaves two firefish and the yellow wrasse left.

Greenmaster,
I'm going to pick some up Thursday night. I need at least pH and alkalinity but I'm not sure what to get beyond that.

moondoggy4,
Never heard of those and not sure where to ge them. If I could find them locally, that would be great. Otherwise I'm going to have to stick with the Salifert ones.

RocketEngineer
 
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate/PH are the big four that I would check if I was having any kind of "event". I would also check the temp and maybe check to see if it is swinging up and down throughout the day.
 
Well the profession verdict is likely marine velvet which would cause the "shedding" symptom, the heavey breathing, and deaths. I did spot the second fire fish so the final deaths are two clowns and the kole tang. For the time being no new fish but I will be moving towards corals.

To that end I went to Dr. Mac's looking for test kits. While he was out of them, I was able to ask him about water chemistry. According the good doctor, I need to keep tabs on Mg, Ca, and Alk and as long as those three are in balance, pH will balance out where its going to be based on the air in the house. So, until I get some test kits, the kalkwasser setup is on hold but I have everything ready to go once I can accurately measure my chemistry.

And in other news, LET THERE BE LIGHT! I broke down and bought the IceCap 4X54W pre-wired retro fit from Bulk Reef Supply and their included bulb deal. All it took was a screwdriver and socket to put it together. Now for the pictures that I know you scrolled straight to:

What showed up in my garage:
LightRack001.jpg


The bulbs came in a seperate tube:
LightRack002.jpg


All four bulbs wrapped in bubble wrap top and bottom:
LightRack004.jpg


The Retrofit Box:
LightRack006.jpg


Label Closeup:
LightRack007.jpg


The fixture, extension harness with cord, and reflectors:
LightRack010.jpg
 
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Wiring harness on top:
LightRack011.jpg


Right side of the wiring:
LightRack013.jpg


Left side of the wiring:
LightRack014.jpg


Fired up:
LightRack016.jpg


The colors:
LightRack018.jpg


Now, to build the surround.

RocketEngineer
 
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Tonight is a small victory for the technologically challenged. I got my wireless gaming adapter setup and connected to the wireless network. Now I can connect into the AC3 Pro without having to wire it directly. Once the datalog gets some decent temperature data, I will post a graph. Also this weekend I hope to have the wood for the hood cut and ready to start getting that finished.
 
Your kole tang story reminded me of when I got a small yellow tang at Pacific East...there were like 5 in the coral tank, and it still took like 20 minutes of unstacking rocks, moving racks, bumping clams, etc. before teamwork on our parts prevailed. Always fun.
 
mudskipper1, I've seen those and wouldn't know how to go after them. Speedy and lots of cover in the coral tanks.

Kevinshoemake3, Thanks.

Temperature Datalog:
October18thto19th.jpg


The hood pieces are cut and I have started drilling pocket holes. Hopefully this weekend I will get everything cut and start in on the paint and polyurethane.

RocketEngineer
 
I took a few pictures today and grabbed another data log:

Scinaia Algae:
020-1.jpg


Halimeda Algae:
023.jpg


Coralline Algae:
025-1.jpg

Considering this was just a bare white piece of stone a couple of months ago, the number of different things that have taken up residence is very cool.

Datalog 10-21-10 to 10-23-10:
October21stto23rd.jpg


mudskipper1,
I hope it stays this stable. Given there is 90+ gallons of water in the system, I don't expect anything to happen fast. But stranger things have happened.

TampaReefer79,
I thought I had but I cleaned out my in box before my contract changed hands. The last two weeks have been very chaotic at work with folks leaving the program, others coming back in, new management, redoing all the paperwork, all the stuff that happens on the first day applied across 175 people. Yuck. Let me know what you need fresh and I will get back to you.

GO GIANTS!

RocketEngineer
 
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