Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

Justintegra said:
Exactly why my wife and I went BRS dry rock instead of live rock. my brother in law and the LFS both told me I was dumb for it because of the cycle time, but I also will not have a tank with multiple worms and who knows what else pests that he is fighting right now.
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The counter to that in a reef tank is that you miss out on many of the items in the rock that would facilitate a fuller ecosystem. I know I will get crap in the TBS rock I order in but I also will get instant life and a more rounded eco system.

My tank now was started with the reel reef fake rock that is spored with bacteria. I still have items in my tank that have hitched on other things like corals, fish, or even equipment. I have at least one bristle worm I saw one night, pods, certain snails, and more that should not have been in my rock and yet I have them.

I dont think one can stop it honestly without some serious QT of corals and such to ensure nothing gets in. Honestly in my tank I have nothing that is troublesome outside of algae. Some of my vertmid snails are a pain for where they set up but otherwise are harmless.

After my vacation I also have a bit of red cyano issue that I need to address. I will do a water change tomorrow night (Dishwasher on fritz stopped me from doing that tonight). Media in reactor and such needs changed out as well. Otherwise the tank is stable. I am seeing some decent recovery fromt he bug issue I had on a few of my acans which is very promising. My alveopora seems ****ed still since I have been back so I might have to move it to another location to see if it will reopen. It is not extending as it once was.

mav - Thanks. The point of these threads is for people to see both successes and failures so hopefully they can either avoid them or at least see how we tackle them. Been almost a year with the cube and had a bunch of ups and downs. Tank is fairly stable and self sufficient at this point though. I merely feed and dose no pox. So it should be in good condition to transition to a QT/grow out tank.


In the mean time I have to start posting crap on ebay so I can get more funds for some fun items for the next tank. I have old freshwater gear to offload and some of my remote control helicopters I no longer play with. See what other odds and ends I can find as well so that I can get some new toys like a DOS, calcium reactor, ect.
 
soulpatch said:
My alveopora seems ****ed still since I have been back so I might have to move it to another location to see if it will reopen. It is not extending as it once was.
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Mine was open for like 4 days after RAP, but it hasn't really opened since. It's still red, so probably not dead, but I'm still working on trying to figure out what makes it happy. I have a frag plug rock holder on order from Amazon, so once I get that in the tank, I'll be able to move the alveopora around a bit and see if I can find somewhere that it'll be happier.

My platygyra and favia are doing much better since I moved them to lower flow shadowy areas of the tank, so maybe I have to do that for this too. Let me know if you figure out how to make it happy (without a constant stream of zoo/phytoplankton)
 
I will probably move it to the bottom of the tank and start from there. Give it limited light and flow and see if I can get anything to pop back out or move from there. Need to move it to a plug for now so it is easier to move around without making it too mad.
 
Might pick up a blue spot puffer tonight for the tank. QT it for a month then throw it in the cube to see if it will get along with my other fish and corals. If not then he wont make the move to the 93 and go back to LFS for credit.

I am giving my LFS a Kessil to borrow for a bit on his tanks to see if he likes them or not (not as UV as his radions/chinese lights) so he owes me as is...
 
I didnt come home with the one at the LFS. Not yet anyway. He was actually in a reef tank till the owner took it down. Blue spots arent normally that bad in reef tanks if fed unlike some of the other breeds.
 
I shoudl also note that I dont mind some coral nipping depending on what corals they chose to mess with. I have an ultra rainbow acan that I would NOT be happy about if it started to be attacked. But my palys I would applaud the puffer as they grow so quickly.
 
My wife really wanted me to get a valentini puffer. I do like puffers, but I just wrote it off as too risky, especially since I have no immediate upgrade plans.

You also know that if they're going to go for a coral, they're going to eat your most prized coral first, right? That's how the hobby goes!
 
Everything we do is risky in our tanks but somethings you just need to try. I find the puffer too cool to not give it a shot. I need to wait till the 93 is ready for water though before I go down that path.

There are 3 "risky" fish that will be in the new 93. The kole tang, blue spot puffer, and mandarin. The mandarin only being risky since I need to have the refug going strong with enough pods.
 
Just make a tisbe pod culture and keep it healthy, you can feed mr. mandarin from that and he'll stay nice and happy.

Actually, make 2, in case 1 crashes....backups are a good thing :)
 
Yeah, the kole tang should be fine. I love those bristle-toothed tangs. I used to have a tomini tang who was excellent at chewing down anything on the rock. The puffer, we'll see. The mandarin, we'll see too, but at least your TBS should be filled with crap for him to hunt/eat. And if you have any trouble, you can always pick up that culture bucket system from Reef Nutrition
 
the new sump has a refugium portion that will be a chaeto/pod farm so hopefully that is sufficient. He will be a late addition to the tank though once I deem it stable.

If needed I have the space and Reef and I saw a cool product at reefapalooza for raising pods so I can go that route...
 
ReefWreak said:
And if you have any trouble, you can always pick up that culture bucket system from Reef Nutrition
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Ha literally posted this at same time. That prod sure did make an impression.

For those of you who want to know *** we are talking about look here: http://apbreed.com/product_compact_culture_system.php

Apparently this would also be great for pods if one removes the floss on the center stack. Could get 2 units to make the food for the pods in one and use the other for the actual pods.
 
You don't need all that stuff.

A bucket, air pump and line, seawater, phyto, and some pods to seed it. You're good then.

Although I have added in something for the tisbe's to cling on to, makes it easier to "feed" the tank. You can just use a sieve though if you want.
 
Ok so I started to get some goodies in over the past week for new tank.

I have gotten my sump (Trigger ruby elite 30"), skimmer (life reef svs-24), and ato (tunze 3155). Now I need my tank, stand, return pump, plumbing, and TBS order to get going and should be doing those slowly over the next couple months. Slower then I thought but want to do this all right.

Going to dress up the sump area with colored plumbing, manifold, led lighting, and more since we all know many of us spend a lot of time tinkering in the cabinet.

Also need to find some good solutions for mounting all of the electronics. I think I am going to do a board on sliders that I can pop out the front door when opened. Still trying to think that one over as I want it clean and show worthy BUT it has to be accessible.



As for the cube I added 2 emeralds and a porcelin crab the other day per the wife's request. They have already found my culpera and seem to enjoy whacking it down. I also touched up the remainder of my CUC as I was out of all hermits after my bug treatment. Everyone is currently in clean mode.

To do for me this weekend is a vinegar bath for my skimmer, power heads, and all pumps. This is the one part I hate with our nanos as everything is a pain to get to whereas a bigger system the seperate sump makes things easier.
 
Thanks. I have been slacking lately with updates though... I need to do a cleaning and post some fresh pics this weekend.
 
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