Chad

hahahaha.... Yes, uh, wait... uh, yes. It shrivels up every few months for a week or so at a time, then gives off a bunch of mucous and comes back like no one's business. Softies do that from time to time.

Thanks, y'all! Chip, nice having coffee with you too! You know, I ran into a guy the other day that asked about you when he found out I moved from the DC area and was active in WAMAS... A bigger guy named Jim (didn't catch his last name) who said he started CMAS with his wife when they lived up there, anyway, he said hello and was considering heading up to the winter meeting. Chuck, no, I am not planning on using natural seawater... although I am sure I could find a few places that would make it worthwhile, the logistics of moving water around, storing and processing it aren't something that I want to tackle! Man, RO fill is going SLOOOOOW!

Thanks, Tom. I like Virginia Beach a lot. The area is really nice and it's great to be closer to the ocean with all it has to offer. Job-wise, I guess I'm still getting the hang of it, but I like it as well. So things here are going well. Elsa isn't working full time yet - few prospects so far, but she is finding some relief work and volunteer stuff to fill her time. So things are going pretty well thanks for asking! Thanks, Laura and Frank, I'm looking forward to seeing it unfold too!

Finished up the garage plumbing... And it begins...

So, the sunburning issue I had really made me step back for a moment and think about what I am doing... Ever since I got rid of the seahorses, I have really felt that my tank has been aimless and without direction, but since I had so many larger colonies, it really added a lot of inetria to a direction change. I even described the tank as my directionless reef on several occasions.. One of the things that I really think makes an individual tank pop is a peculiar focus and overall theme or goal - something that I think only a few people are good at and fewer really even try. So losing many (probably 40%) of my corals including all but one of my gorgonians (it is in the sump tank), most my acans, and all my large leathers has really caused me to step back and think about what focus I want the tank to have and what direction I want to take it. After much thought - and a bit of accompanying delay - I have decided on where I want to take this tank... So for this one, I'm going to focus on a few tabling acros that are framed a bit with "bottle brush like" corals and place anthias hovering above the corals heads. I have a few other facets to the vision that I have right now, but we'll just see where they go

So, I was doing some standard maintenance and standard putzing last night (recalibrating dosing pumps, pH meters, installing an additional temperature probe, etc.) and I was encouraged to see for the first time that most of my badly sunburned corals that didn't completely die are showing growth edges and improvement... Yay!

^lol, Jim, I want on that list too... do you scuba dive yet?

LOL... yes, yes I am talking about that issue!

Thanks, Laura, I only wanted to do that for the stuff that's in the house... I won't be doing it for any of the plumbing in the garage, but it probably would have been nice to know Mike's trick (I didn't!)... Oh well, it only took a few minutes Thanks, Tom! By the way, the three penetrations are for the drain (1.5"), return (1"), and emergency dry drain (1.5"). I've learned the hard way many times that if something can fail, it probably will... You may remember my issue a while back, well I drilled a hole in a tank with water then and decided all future tanks would have that dry drain. In this case, I am also using the emergency dry drain to run the wires from the DT (powerheads and lighting) and to run an RO line that I'll use for the initial fill... I currently have the "fishing lines" run through that pipe now.

Wow, this really looks great, nice job!

Progress has been a little slower recently since I've been pretty busy at work the last two weeks... but some minor progress over the weekend that I'm just not uploading pictures for... Wall penetrations: Fit up: And after I sanded all the piping with 600 grit sandpaper (to remove markings and give it a matte appearance) and glued everything up:

So around two years ago (I think) now, I was looking at replacing my return pump. At the time I went through and created rating metrices for a bunch of different pumps and concluded that I probably couldn't go wrong with any of the tunze silence recirculation pro, the flowstar 3200, or the water blaster 10000. Since it was a couple of years ago, the water blaster was still a fairly new pump and I didn't feel they had the runtime that I was comfortable with, so I put off the replacement (since my mag 9.5 was and is still going strong - sucking lots of energy for what it does - but still going strong). So, for those of you who have had a water blaster pump for more than a year, what do you think of it? Thanks!

I usually just drop my PHs in warm vinegar water and let them run for a few hours then scrub away with an old toothbrush. Yes, coraline will affect flow, but it's not that much. It's definitely the sponges you want to get rid of, but those come off easily.

^agree... Also, Pacific Island Aquatics carries females (and females are important).

lol!!

I'd have to!

^what manufacturer? I suspect that's an exception rather than a rule. (cool tank size, by the way!)

I had my current rimless tank on it's side for quite some time while I was cleaning it, drilling it, and storing it... this is all before I leak tested it and set it up... it's fine.

Sure, that's why both the tank and stand are 27" tall... they both fit through a standard door.

Thanks y'all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and looks in the space... I'm actually not 100% done with the stand... I ordered a piece of stainless steel trim that will go in the gap around the top... Unfortunately, it came in an inch short, so I need to have them cut again. Today I'm working on doing plumbing and my wall penetrations for the plumbing... Jim, I'm not sure of a how-to, but what I would do is do it in two "layers." For mine, the two layers are the frame and the skin. The frame is exposed on the inside and gives a lip for the door to set into. On mine it's pretty tight, so I could probably get away without them, but I added cabinet magnets just to hold it in place. I'll take a couple pictures to show you.

Progress is being made...