Soulpatch's 150 SC build

[soulpatch]

Got my fish in today and they look awesome. Below is the trigger acclimating. Also got in a bristle tooth but no pic. Both already eating as well

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[Fuel Doodle]

Exciting!


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[JonezNReef]

Makes me want to run out and get more fish

 

[electronaught]

Makes me want to run out and get more fish

Ha! Exactly what I did today!
Just one... gold watchman goby.
Can't go crazy until the big reef is set up and running. :sad1:

 

[soulpatch]

Well went out and bought a drone today so doubtful any more fish and such fit a while.

Though did get new go pro so should have some underwater video shortly

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[homer1475]

Don't forget to register that drone. It's a pretty hefty fine if they catch you with an unregistered drone.

While I don't own a drone(takes no skill to fly IMO), I have done R/C planes since I was a kid.

 

[soulpatch]

I have done planes and helicopters. Helicopters are a blast when done right but so easy to destroy.

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[homer1475]

Heli's are fun, but super hard to fly properly. I've definitely smacked up my share of planes and heli's. Over the course of 30 years and several plane builds and rebuilds, I still haven't spent what I have on this hobby in just 2 years. lol

Planes on a dead stick can usually land without too much damage, helis with a dead stick, you might as well just go buy another. lol

Out of all my R/C planes, I still love my indoor micro's the best. Super acrobatic, and takes about 10 minutes to charge the batteries. Our club has flying privileges in a large pavilion they use for town events, and that's where we fly indoors in the winter. Summer time we have a small airfield we have privileges on to fly the larger gas powered planes.

 

[ReefWreak]

Planes on a dead stick can usually land without too much damage, helis with a dead stick, you might as well just go buy another. lol

Out of all my R/C planes, I still love my indoor micro's the best. Super acrobatic, and takes about 10 minutes to charge the batteries. Our club has flying privileges in a large pavilion they use for town events, and that's where we fly indoors in the winter. Summer time we have a small airfield we have privileges on to fly the larger gas powered planes.

I miss RC planes Been thinking about getting some micros, but I just could never bring myself to purchase a non-fossil-fueled RC :spin2:

Trigger looks great, can't wait to see everyone else once acclimated and in the tank. Went LFS hopping with a friend, but just can't bring myself to get any more anything for a while....

 

[homer1475]

I miss RC planes Been thinking about getting some micros, but I just could never bring myself to purchase a non-fossil-fueled RC :spin2:

I was the same way for a very long time, "battery operated just isnt a plane!". It took me going with a buddy to see exactly how acrobatic the micros are, and the short turn around time to be back in the air for it to quickly change my mind. Plus if your an AMA member and go to other fields to fly, quite a few now that are within city limits don't allow for gas planes anymore. Gas planes are slowly going the way of control line flying.

Went LFS hopping with a friend, but just can't bring myself to get any more anything for a while....

You need to upgrade!!! I so want to pack more in my tank, but until I can get this algae under control I feel like I'm just hurting my coral, as none are "puffy" like they should be.

 

[ReefWreak]

I was the same way for a very long time, "battery operated just isnt a plane!". It took me going with a buddy to see exactly how acrobatic the micros are, and the short turn around time to be back in the air for it to quickly change my mind. Plus if your an AMA member and go to other fields to fly, quite a few now that are within city limits don't allow for gas planes anymore. Gas planes are slowly going the way of control line flying.

You need to upgrade!!! I so want to pack more in my tank, but until I can get this algae under control I feel like I'm just hurting my coral, as none are "puffy" like they should be.

Too bad about the gas planes thing. Does that apply for nitro as well, or just gas ("gas" to me is usually the really large gas fliers).

I'll be upgrading when we move (maybe/hopefully). Only upgrade on the horizon is family size. We're having a baby girl in January (surprise!). After that, we'll see how life pans out.

 

[homer1475]

Yes it applies to nitro as well. Gas, nitro are grouped together as far as the hobby goes.

Its basically because of lost planes(you can fly them out of sight), and the noise.

 

[soulpatch]

Well nothing scientific BUT I switched my salt and my coral issues went away. I basically dumped 100 gallons of salt water into the bin unused which hurt a bit. Figure that was $50 wasted between the salt, electric to mix and keep agitated, and the RODI use...

Either way system is no longer receeding and some of my acans who are still around have started to puff up again.

Total loses:
1 random SPS
1 of Reef's sps frags
1 SPS Mille
1/2 an SPS acro
4 rainbow acan frags
2 regular acan frags

Basically $200+ in coral loses... Least it is taken care of now though.


Onto fish - My new bristletooth and trigger are doing great and eating like champs. My trigger has come to equate me with food and I got him to eat out of my hand last night. Not something I will continue to do as those teeth will become nasty but still. TTM finishes Wednesday and I will throw them into either my 20 gallons or a 40 gallon to finish out their QT.

I believe I am picking up a mandarin tonight. I have added over 10k pods to my tank in the past month so I should be good. HA HA. If not I will order more to keep things going. Since they have unique slime coat and difficult feeding habits no QT for this guy. He can carry ick I guess but the probability is low and he needs to eat so I will risk it with him.

Corals - Getting rid of a couple corals tonight I believe as I trade them in. Might grab another SPS piece or two to fill in some gaps, a plating monti so I can cover a weird area in my rockwork, and perhaps some zoas to fill in some gaps in the rocks...

Money is tight given the new drone and still paying off my shoulder surgery so only a couple of little things.

I got in my CO2 tank finally so I have everything I need to set that up but with my losses and my current shoulder condition I wont be installing for a while longer. Plus I dont need it on the tank at this moment.

Finally going to FINALLY empty and clean the BC29 this weekend. Small chance I use it as the QT tank for my trigger and tang but not sure yet. I need to get the sand and such out of it first before I worry about that though. It would make things easier to just use that as opposed to a tank on the floor though....

Lighting - I have only been running the T5 on the tank recently. While I miss the shimmer of the Kessils I find that I have less algae on some of my rockwork. I think I will move one back to the BC if I use it for QT and liekly sell the other one to possibly offset the cost of an actinic reef bright strip to attach to the framing of my ATI mount. That way I get the shimmer still btu without some of the spotlight effect I have with the Kessils so close to the top of the tank currently...

 

[ReefWreak]

That's a lot of learning experiences in one post...

Sorry for the coral losses. Wonder if you could have used the salt for QT? A friend of mine locally just did the same with a batch of HW Marinemix from BRS and went back to Fritz salt, because his ORP kept dropping like a stone after a water change, and it would take a week for it to bounce back. Always weird with these salt brands. They're consistent and everyone is happy until they aren't...

I'm glad to hear that the fishes are doing well though. Let me know which SPS frags of mine you lost and I'll make sure you get a new one next time we see each other.

That mandarin better be happy, I could probably survive for a while eating 10k pods....

Heal up before doing too much heavy work, and that stuff will be there when you're ready. I'm glad the T5s are able to step in and keep everything moving. Rakie and I have been talking about it in nanoworld, and it's kinda the same story over and over of LEDs just aren't there yet. Every generation gets better and better, but still never plug and play....

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah I have seen no decline running the T5s only for about 2 months now. The only thing I miss is the shimmer. I think I can add some LED strips around the hood to add that back and not actually do anything for the corals though if I wish. Just something I would need to remove the hood for and that is not on the docket for a few months.

Yeah with the salt it is not something I will avoid. RC is just so cheap that it is hard to break free from. PLus for me to have an AWC the mix needs to sit for some time in my 75 gal drum (up to 2 weeks) and a lot of the other salts just do not stack up for that.

I did not think about having the RC for my QT tanks. Though with the quick decline in the corals I am not sure that there was not something that could affect my fish. I saw no decline but you never know. Better safe then sorry.

I will dig up pic of the corals I lost later so you know. I am HORRIBLE with names...

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah I have seen no decline running the T5s only for about 2 months now. The only thing I miss is the shimmer. I think I can add some LED strips around the hood to add that back and not actually do anything for the corals though if I wish. Just something I would need to remove the hood for and that is not on the docket for a few months.

Yeah with the salt it is not something I will avoid. RC is just so cheap that it is hard to break free from. PLus for me to have an AWC the mix needs to sit for some time in my 75 gal drum (up to 2 weeks) and a lot of the other salts just do not stack up for that.

I did not think about having the RC for my QT tanks. Though with the quick decline in the corals I am not sure that there was not something that could affect my fish. I saw no decline but you never know. Better safe then sorry.

I will dig up pic of the corals I lost later so you know. I am HORRIBLE with names...

 

[mountainraised]

I always learn so much from these tank build posts that have been going on for months to years...

 

[soulpatch]

I will do a year end summary of mistakes that I went through and things I would have done differently. I need to be off for a few days to do that one though to put all of my thoughts together and onto paper (internet forum). I also want to ensure I have time to yank some pics and potentially shoot some videos so it is not just a boring read.

So stay tuned for that in November or December. I will start to work on it slowly now.

 

[JonezNReef]

Not sure if you said or not but what salt did you switch to?

 

[soulpatch]

I had a box of HW Marinemix reefer pro sitting in my basement I am using now. I might order more of it but likely to go back to reef crystals at least for my AWC mainly due to cost. Hard to justify going from 50 bucks for 200 gallons to 75 for 150 gallons...