RocketEngineer's 75g/125g Setup

Swope2bc said:
Awesome! Soon you may find the remains of the ever elusive mantis :-), or in the least the clicking should stop lol.
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It may be a pistol shrimp. Still haven't seen it so I don't know what it is. Richard recommends placing a piece of shrimp in there and see what comes out for a meal.

kenneth wolfe said:
fyi..I have been running mp40 wetsides on my mp10s for months now works great..
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I just have the one MP10 on this tank. I got a line on used equipment so that my soon be replaced with something bigger. MORE FLOW :dance:

cnreef said:
How's the orchid dotty back doing? Is it in qt? Very interested in seeing if he is successful with the mantis shrimp.
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Here it is, out and about:


I didn't put it into QT. I know, I know, I'm running a risk but considering all the other things in this tank, I'm not going to worry about it. Being tank bred, I'm making no guarantees on the shrimp front.
 
Nice looking fish! Please keep us updated on your TBS purchase. I order from them for my 90g about 12 years ago and was astounded with the diversity of life in the order. I was torn between "curing" the live rock and losing much of the life or putting the rock directly into the tank. I decided to put it directly into my system. I actually ended up with an octopus!! Unfortunately, it did not survive and I had a crash in the system. I am hoping and believing you will have better luck.
 
Lavoisier said:
Nice looking fish! Please keep us updated on your TBS purchase. I order from them for my 90g about 12 years ago and was astounded with the diversity of life in the order. I was torn between "curing" the live rock and losing much of the life or putting the rock directly into the tank. I decided to put it directly into my system. I actually ended up with an octopus!! Unfortunately, it did not survive and I had a crash in the system. I am hoping and believing you will have better luck.
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Was the crash due to the rock or after some time and a buildup of nutrients?
 
Lavoisier,

Sorry to hear about the tank crash. From my perspective, by shipping the rock in water there is no need to "cure" the LR because die-off will be minimal. I put the rock straight into this system and the only thing I noticed was some algae coloration on the new stuff and the film on the front glass returned a little faster. Since I also spotted pods in the tank for the first time in several years, I consider it a win overall.

So tonight I checked under the tank and realized that the refugium was full yet again.

Really full.

Not any more.


And here is the end result:


Now there is plenty of room for the algaes that are left to grow yet again.

There are some folks that try to give refugiums a bad wrap and I can understand where they are coming from. Most setups try to do too much and are too small. For me, that area in my sump is for one thing: growing macro-algae to assist the skimmer and Bucket DSB in nutrient removal. When you pull that kind of glob of algae out and leave the remaining algae to grow, there has to be some benefit. Sure it may not do the entire job but I don't expect it to.
 
Gotta love the BeanAnimal drain setup. I came into the living room first thing this morning and heard all sorts of water noises from the tank. Even when I restarted the return, there was still a lot of water going down Durso so I opened up the gate valve on the siphon all the way and WHOOSH, out comes a blob of crud. I then reset the gate valve to where it normally runs and went on with my morning. I love when things alert you to problems while still functioning.
 
Looking forward to fail safes with warning sounds :-)! Of all the methods I've researched BeAnAnimal is the only one that makes sense.
 
So after three years, my 125g setup finally looks like a reef. Tonight I've added 5 lyre tail anthias, the orchid dotty back has decided to get brave and venture out into the open, and there are sponges, gorgonians, and corals scattered across the entire tank. I still want to add a few more corals and change up a few things with the setup itself but tonight, I can honestly say I like this point of the tank's development.
 
For the longest time, my refugium really didn't contribute much in the way of nutrient removal because the algae in there was very slow to grow and fill that part of the sump. Last night, I pulled out just as much algae as I had a month ago. I have no idea when I've ever cleaned out my refugium twice, one month apart because it was full. Now that I've added the auto-feeder it appears that there are enough nutrients in the system to support the refugium growth but also enough critters eating the algae that the stuff in the tank doesn't get a chance to overwhelm the refugium. I'm hoping this trend continues for a long time coming.

Sorry for not posting pictures. The AC adapter on my laptop decided to stop working which means posting pics is a lot harder than normal. Once the new one arrives, I'll have a bunch of new ones to show.
 
I'm sorry for the ups and downs you've gone through with these builds but it's great to see that things appear to be looking up. Thanks for sharing with us, both the good and the bad. It's how we all learn!
 
+1. I've learned a lot from reading this. but, I'm still wondering...where did all the nitrates in the tank come from?



swjim said:
I'm sorry for the ups and downs you've gone through with these builds but it's great to see that things appear to be looking up. Thanks for sharing with us, both the good and the bad. It's how we all learn!
Click to expand...
 
To all those who followed this thread, sorry for no updates but I lost my camera and life got in the way. This afternoon I finally got around to getting a new one so of course the first thing I took pictures of was the tank.

Lets start with a FTS:


The coral garden:


My Strawberry Acropora has decided to be encrusting:


My birdsnest is growing well:


Finally, my Galaxea coral:


The only other thing going on with the tank is the lack of fish. The last time I tried adding new additions to the tank, none of them made it. Since then I've just had the one tang and two clownfish.
 
Nice tank Rocket. How is your 40 breeder doing?

I like the orcid. I've read that they can be pretty aggressive but boy, what a splash of color, eh? I need to read up more on them because as I play the next upgrade from my 40 breeder I was thinking of getting a couple. I'm thinking they will probably behave like some of the damsels and protect their turf.

Anyway nice, thanks for the update.
 
saf1, the 40B is doing good. I'll get some pictures of that next week.

The orchid didn't make it. No idea what the cause was. I'm starting to wonder if the clowns are being aggressive and took out the others. Since the tang is bigger than either clown, they don't mess with it. The new additions have all been pretty close in size and that may have been the issue. Going forward I will be more careful, maybe put in a barrier temporarily. For now, the three fish are all that there are.

Swope2bc, Thanks. Without a camera I've been concentrating on posting answers rather than updates on my own systems. More updates to follow as I get used to my new camera.
 
For a while now I've been wanting to remove a rock on the left side of the tank in order to increase flow and give me more places to mount corals. Here is the result.



I also added a bunch of snails and a few hermits to try and knock down the algae that's been trying to take over recently. I can already see the results. Slow and steady.
 
Thanks. The stand has held up surprisingly well considering the abuse I've put it through. Without the help of a number of individuals it wouldn't have been possible.
 
With the big rock gone I wasn't happy with the look I posted above. Something was just bugging me so tonight I took some time and fiddled with the rocks, moving, removing and adding. This is what I ended up with:


I now have several more places to mount corals and my gorgonian isn't in the way as badly. Plus, I got rid of the flat look I had previously. Overall I'm quite happy with the new rockscape.

Note to self, pay attention to where the super glue is going as super glue in the beard HURTS to remove. :facepalm:
 
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