RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup

[RocketEngineer]

Mine did/does that too. They seem to come in waves. I suspect it's nutrient related. They eat until it's gone then die off.

Maybe the GFO is kicking in too to limit the algae.


Nice set up on the drill.
I missed it. Are you planning an external overflow? Why not just drill the back of 125g?

Waves of stuff makes sense. The GFO will continue for some time to come, without the refugium pulling out nutrients like it did when I full set up the tank I need something to remove the nutrients.

With an 18" wide tank, I didn't want a wide overflow box inside the tank. At the same time, I don't have a lot of room behind the stand for running plumbing. So to solve both of these challenges, I went with an internal/external overflow setup and drilled the bottom of the external box. This lets me use a BeanAnimal overflow setup without needing either a big internal box or lots of space behind the tank.

I had red planaria at one point in time. It was pretty bad. Went to Vegas and got married. While I was gone dad fed my fish and dropped something on my power cord turning off the heater. When I got back home I arrived to a tank with a temperature in the lower 60's. Extremely stressed fish and half dead corals but I never saw another flatworm. Fish and coral recovered. I lost two sps pieces though.

This was much the same, it was a case of one weekend they were there and another weekend they were gone. Because I don't have anyone I know who is really into tanks that lives near me, I have gone to automation. I have come home to some loses myself but I do my best to keep things stable.

RocketEngineer

 

[Graham670]

Just a piece of my experience, I had a pretty bad algae problem as well ( maybe not quite as bad as yours ) but I bought a Sailfin Tang, kept him slightly underfed, and he had cleaned up the algae within, literally, 7-8 days.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Just a piece of my experience, I had a pretty bad algae problem as well ( maybe not quite as bad as yours ) but I bought a Sailfin Tang, kept him slightly underfed, and he had cleaned up the algae within, literally, 7-8 days.

With the 125g on the horizon, I'm reluctant to add another fish. Once the 125g is set up, I plan to add a second tang as well as a couple more snails. For the moment, I am noticing that the grow back time has slowed and there are quite a few areas that the snails have cleaned back to the coralline algae. I hope to slowly get things back on track but hesitate before making any major changes for the time being.

RocketEngineer

 

[RocketEngineer]

While I was cleaning the tank today I got a couple new pictures of the brain coral so I decided to show the progression from the first image to today.

First photo 12-31-10:

3-21-11:

6-25-11:

8-12-11 (one year ago):

11-2-11:

1-27-12:

 

[RocketEngineer]

7-1-12:

Today's pics of the underside:

In the 20 months I have had this coral it has grown from a golf ball to a tennis ball size. The rim of the coral has grown enough to totally suspend the plug above the sand.

RocketEngineer

 

[iwishtofish]

That's a nice piece! Was it one of those Under $15 frags? Would look good in my tank!

 

[RocketEngineer]

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy

Sunday was totally fine. Monday was good until I lost power at 3pm. Power company wouldn't even give an estimate on recovery this morning. Around lunch time today, the power company estimated 6pm FRIDAY! That wouldn't bode well for stuff so this evening I went out and got one of the few remaining generators on the eastern shore. At 9pm I had the generator up and running. Oh and 10:30 the power comes back on :headwallblue:

Known casualty so far: Six Line Wrasse. I found the dried out body under the tank while trying to get the heaters plugged into the one power strip I connected to the generator. We will see what survives and what I have lost.

At least I have the generator for next time.

RocketEngineer

 

[iwishtofish]

I'm sorry to hear about your wrasse. I hope everything else turns out ok. Please keep us posted.

 

[RocketEngineer]

11pm last night the tank was at 65.4 degrees..........At 5am it was at 67.5 degrees. Two degree increase over 6 hours. Today will make or break it.

 

[stevedola]

do you have an extra heater to toss in? if you get to 75 youll be fine.

 

[RocketEngineer]

I only have one small heater left and I would rather go slow at this point.

The tank is at 72 degrees at the moment. Slow and steady.

 

[iwishtofish]

Back up to temp yet?

 

[RocketEngineer]

Back up to temp yet?

74.8 when I got home tonight. I like to keep it at least 75 in the winter. The four fish ate tonight and most of the corals look about the same. The anemone looked really weird last night but looks normal now.

 

[iwishtofish]

Sounds pretty good! :thumbsup:

 

[RocketEngineer]

The hood is starting to look like something. The structure is mostly together and the two LED frames have been assembled. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Hood back and LED frames:

Another View:

Extent of the opening with the frame pushed back:

Oh, hi cat....

LED frame removed:

The board in the middle keeps the two LED frames from being able to fall into the tank and supports the upright. The upright in the middle is where the center magnets will mount to hold the front panels. The magnets on either end will mount to the oak pieces that form the ends.

LED Frame rotated:

The heat sinks will sit on the lip and a splash guard will mount under the rails.

 

[RocketEngineer]

And with the day off yesterday I got two new corals:

 

[moondoggy4]

Nice woodworking skills, love the modular setup.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Nice woodworking skills, love the modular setup.

Thanks. Lots of hours staring at a computer screen, thinking about what I want and how to do it makes the final product much more user friendly.

RocketEngineer

 

[cdrewferd]

I'd love to see some drawings of how that hood is made. Currently trying to make one for my 120 and that design would work awesome.