Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

[soulpatch]

I did not win anything in the raffle. One guy won 5 different things.

I came very close to walking away with one of those cad tanks though. A little too close when they would not be exactly to what I want. I think I would rather spend double the money to have it exactly like I want it from a bean animal drain down to having a pump/refugium plumbed together.

I did get an foreceps, some food, acan, ricordea, and that alveopora coral we were looking at. I am hoping things settle in tonight and open up for tomorrow.

I was a bit shocked at the cost some were charging for their corals though. I AM totally jealous of the gold torch someone picked up though..........

 

[Cabo2008]

I almost drove up there today....instead decided to drive to every LFS in the area looking for a Kessil 160we.......of course a waste of time.

Soul, you still diggin the Gyre?

 

[soulpatch]

they had kessils at RAP so you should have come.

Yeah I am still digging it. Need to find the right spot for my RW4 so I can counter the sand blowing. ALso need new paddles as a dwarf cerith broke one on me this week when it climbed in during a power loss...

 

[ReefWreak]

I did not win anything in the raffle. One guy won 5 different things.

I came very close to walking away with one of those cad tanks though. A little too close when they would not be exactly to what I want. I think I would rather spend double the money to have it exactly like I want it from a bean animal drain down to having a pump/refugium plumbed together.

I did get an foreceps, some food, acan, ricordea, and that alveopora coral we were looking at. I am hoping things settle in tonight and open up for tomorrow.

I was a bit shocked at the cost some were charging for their corals though. I AM totally jealous of the gold torch someone picked up though..........

Sounds like you certainly didn't walk away empty handed, sorry about the raffle though. I spent all last night acclimating in batches, doing close study work (macro lenses work well as near-field microscopes too btw, nice for diagnosing/looking for issues), and ultimately dipping some corals. Pics to follow when the lights come on today.

No spoiling my spoils!

I almost drove up there today....instead decided to drive to every LFS in the area looking for a Kessil 160we.......of course a waste of time.

Soul, you still diggin the Gyre?

Had Gyre's rep been at the booth, I probably would have walked away with one. They had a friggin booth set up at the event, and there wasn't a single rep there, just a bunch of empty boxes, a few big poster/banner things, and empty chairs. Maybe they were just sponsors and didn't actually send anyone.

I still want to pick one up though. That may be my next splurge. I wonder if the big gyre is too much for the 29g though. I would just always buy larger in case (for when) I upgrade.

 

[Cabo2008]

they had kessils at RAP so you should have come.

Yeah I am still digging it. Need to find the right spot for my RW4 so I can counter the sand blowing. ALso need new paddles as a dwarf cerith broke one on me this week when it climbed in during a power loss...

I ended up driving up today.

No one had a A360we I could buy readily, but talked to the kessil rep and he pointed me in the direction of a vendor that was breaking down and had several new one from his display. So picked one up with a gooseneck mount.

There were still some decent frags but the pricing was a bit "off"......at least for me.

I did win 4 of the b-ionic calcium/alkalinity sets though....so that was cool.

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah there were only a few vendors who had reasonable pricing. The rest were asking either retail or well above since they had a rabid crowd.

Hope you got a deal on the Kessil. I talked my LFS to reach out to them for some demo units so hopefully I can get a deal here shortly and switch to open top.

 

[Cabo2008]

Yeah, I got it and the mount for about $100 less than the cheapest price I found online (besides ebay). That makes it about $150 less than what I could find it at LFS's around here. So I'm happy with it.

I think I'm going to take a little road trip up to the LFS you go to when I decide to pick up some more frags. I'm digging the updates they post on FB.

 

[soulpatch]

Let me know when you decide to come up and I can meet you there. Couple places to grab a beer and food nearby as well.

I am starting to get in quotes for larger tanks and serious considering an upgrade. Though some of the prices I am getting back are mroe then I would have expected even though I would be going custom. 1100 for a 93 gal acrylic cube seems excessive when I could get a marineland glass tank for 550 or less...

 

[ReefWreak]

Let me know when you decide to come up and I can meet you there. Couple places to grab a beer and food nearby as well.

I am starting to get in quotes for larger tanks and serious considering an upgrade. Though some of the prices I am getting back are mroe then I would have expected even though I would be going custom. 1100 for a 93 gal acrylic cube seems excessive when I could get a marineland glass tank for 550 or less...

ugh oh, what did we do this weekend!?

If I had any potential for moving, I would be looking at a large tank too... I'm almost considering a frag setup, but I can't even start getting down that road.

I definitely had upgradeitis after the show too.

I think my acros are growing faster the less room they have to grow though, so that's one good thing!

 

[soulpatch]

Upgrade has been on my mind for a while and was looking at my sports closet this weekend as something I could put a drum in and run a drain line through for auto water changes...

I could do a 93 gallon cube with no changes to my area where I have the cube right now. I would not have as much room on the sides of the tank to walk with the dog crate and daughters book shelf but I can see in all sides. The sump in the bottom would negate the need to walk around as well.

If I hooked up the auto water changer then that solves a big issue for me as well lugging buckets back and forth. I could use the DOS to drain the tank for larger water changes.

I also have an area in my bathroom in the basement that I need to build shelving in already but was looking to add an outlet for that rotifier kit we were looking at.

I am sitting back and looking at livestock though and that is where my concern starts to come in. I would want certain fish (perhaps a tank) and in doing so a 30x30 cube would not give enough swim space.

I need to think about the tank and sump I would need for:

My 2 clowns
tailspot blenny
six line
rainsford goby (if he is still alive as I have not seen him for a while)
cleaner shrimp

and additions
mandarin
some sort of dwarf angel
bangai cardinals (maybe on this one)
and perhaps a tang

There might be other additions as well but that is what I would be looking at.


I am thinking I would leave the BC29 up and running till the new cube came online then would sell my BC29 as I would be limited in space and honestly my focus would be on the new tank. My 125 FW tank woudl also need to go to afford upgrades and get the wife off my back.

Equipment for the new tank would be (planning on the 30x30 right now):

Powerheads:
my Gyre130
rw-4 in sump for chateo rotation
MP40

Return:
Undecided but I have a mag10 I can get my hands on for nothing so go that route first probably

Lighting:
Kessil 360 Tuna Blue I think. I dont know how many I would need though. Probably 3 in a triangle pattern hung from ceiling.

Sump:
Custom cube sump from either synergy or BAO. Leaning towards Synergy though since I like the looks and I might get a large one for my dad as well to replace his.


I will probably hold off till MACNA and head down there to see if I can score some deals. I have some vacations in the mean time to hold me over. LOL. But I imagine this fall is upgrade time for me.



Also as an aside my LFS guy should be coming with me to MACNA. If he can not make it for whatever reason then I will be buying some things for his store and talking to vendors for him which will be cool. I will have to send him pics of tanks to get his buy or pass recomendations. LOL. Should be a fun time.

 

[soulpatch]

Oh and not to forget the $1000+ order from TBS for all of my new rock and sand...

 

[soulpatch]

Ok I talked to the wife through texts today so if she wanted to hit me she couldn't.

It looks like I am not on the move for a tank upgrade. I pinged my LFS to see if he could match a price I saw online for a 93 gallon frameless Marineland Cube. Footprint is 30x30x24. I think 2 kessil 360 should work so it would look similar to this:

I now need to decide on the sump, skimmer, and things of that nature. I will get the tank in house then build my own stand. I think I will ping Synergy reef to build my sump for me custom so I can have the look I want and all the functionality needed. I want similar to d2mini's where he has the refugium seperate from the sump.

I have asked my LFS to ask about both the tank with and without the overflow. If I can get it without then I will get the synergy overflow so that I can utilize bean animal in the tank.

Either way I dont want to clutter this thread much more so eventually there will be a build thread and this thread will die off and progress to a learning thread...


Cabo - I want some feedback on the Kessil before I go that route. I mut say I was impressed with the lights LACK of tuning. IE I wouldnt be able to adjust each color spectrum but simply turn one knob and the light did the rest. This really turned me onto the light when I saw this.

So stay tuned as big things appear to be coming. That or I will post a pic tonight of my black eye as the wife could have tricked me and sucker punches me when I walk in the door...

 

[Cabo2008]

Ha! So far I'm digging the kessil. The look is awesome and I personally like not having to adjust each light/spectrum individually. Right now is running on a sumple on/off program but my control cable should be here Wednesday, so I'll get it dialed in then.

I'm acclimating the tank to the new light, so it's only at like 20% for now.

 

[soulpatch]

Update time.

TOnight I picked up this guy:


I then cleaned the tank with a water change, dipped some rock to take care of some remnant algae, and removed one rock that had become a bit of a nuisance (algae always started on this rock so figure it is rooted deep). Swapped out media, cleaned out the reactor and refilled it, and shifted some rock around after removing that one larger rock.

This week I will be putting my kessil on the tank so I can play with it while I await my larger tank's bits and pieces to get here.

As an update on the larger tank I settled on a frameless 93 cube. I will build the stand myself. I already have an order in for lifereef sump, refugium, and skimmer. TBS knows I want the Walt Smith rock as well. I already have both Kessils and will order some RW8 for additional flow coupled with my gyre. Still trying to decide on if I want to get the DOS right away for auto water change or save some coin and wait. Finally I need to look into a UV as I want to add one to this tank.

Stock at this point would be my clowns, cleaner shrimp, tail spot blenny, six line, kole tank, mandarin, perhaps a dwarf angel, and a couple other odds and ends. Still thinking it over though at this point though the mandarin is def on the list...

 

[ReefWreak]

Very nice new coral. Some fancy acan? I can't quite tell. Maybe one of those fancy mushroom things?

Looking forward to the 93 cube. I'll be sweet.

Did you ever set up those dosers? Might want to get your dosing set up before you get the auto water change business going. I really love those DOS dosers now that I saw that they use stepper motors instead of the standard cheapo motors that all of the other multi-dosing boxes use (profilux, jeabo, etc.). Those motors can move a tiny amount of water, or a ton of water, and do it almost all day long with very little resistance or issues. They're what we used on my 3d printer, which moves a LOT, quickly, accurately, and last a long time too.

Also loving the walt smith rock idea. Looking forward to seeing the new tank coming together!

 

[soulpatch]

rainbow acan.

I am going to simply do kalk with the nano till the new tank is up and running. It should handle my needs for the next couple months. I will worry about the dosing then once the new tank is running. I will get the DOS and probably another BRS pump so I can dose my nopox with the other 2 part. Eventually I might get another DOS but cost is prohibitive with everything else needing bought.

 

[homer1475]

So your going to transfer everything over from small cube to big cube? Personally if it was me and I had the space, I would leave them both running as 2 separate tanks. Or remove the plastic divider in the biocube, and use it as your fuge in the 90.

Very nice looking acan BTW!

PS.
Some of us will miss you in the nano section!

 

[soulpatch]

I might leave both running for a few months as my 93 gets settled in. My 125 freshwater is going bye bye though. I need to start listing the spare lights and parts I have for that to get it out of my house then shortly list the whole tank and such. Should get enough from that for a few decent parts for the new cube. Might even get enough to pay for the life reef stuff.

I dont need the cube as a refug as I have an actual refugium being built for me from LifeReef. It will be seperate from my sump but plumbed in.

I am not sure if all corals will be transfered over. My ricordea, acans, torch, and clams will be but the zoas and one set of palys I have left will not most likely. My frogspawns I am in the air about and I might trade them in for something else at the LFS when I get to that point. The new 93 will have an anenome though for the clowns. That much is certain.

 

[soulpatch]

And I am not leaving the nano section. I learned too much from my nano tank to not stick around. There is a chance the biocube stays running if the wife wants it in a different part of the house but at this point I am more inclined to have to worry about only one tank. It could be a nice QT tank though I guess since it is already running. Perhaps that will be its calling when this is all said and done.

 

[soulpatch]

nervous about leaving my tank for the next 8 days. I topped off the ATO container and the AFS. I told the wife to empty the skimmer cup and spinkle in some food at night. So shall see how this all goes. Hopefully I wont get any calls saying crap went wrong. LOL.


In regards to the other tank. The lights are in and that is about it. HA HA. I need to order the tank and overflow yet. The sump, refugium, and skimmer are slated for October. Rock probably in November/December.

I did talk to the local lumber mill today though and think I will be getting some hickory cut to size for the tank so I can do my own stand (32x33x34 wxlxh) This will allow me to have roughly 30.5x31.5 inner dimensions to give a little room. Since the tank is against a wall this will also allow me that extra length to better hide some of the cords. I might make it 32x32 but thinking I like the idea of the extra length. And since I would get everything from the lumber mill most of it will already be cut to size and simply need pocket drilled and put together. WOOT.