Ryan S September 5, 2012 Author Share September 5, 2012 (edited) Looks great Ryan!! Thank you! most your sps look brown? or is that just the photo? Partly the photo, but some of my cheaper SPS frags are brown in color anyway. They are starting to color up more though. If you look at the frag rack to the left side of the tank, you can see my nicer SPS pieces and they are very colorful. I will mount them amongst the crappier color SPS pieces in the next few days. Muddy357 (Jake) has offered to come over and snap some photos, so in the next month or two, I will definitely have him do that. That alone would make my tank look 50 times better than my crappy digital camera does. Edited September 5, 2012 by Ryan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 5, 2012 Author Share September 5, 2012 For details on the "Chaeto Box" that I just installed, please see here. I am hoping that with this new addition, my nitrates and phosphates will remain at zero, no matter how many fish I have or how much I feed them. (I'd rather over-feed and have fat fish than under feed and have hungry/aggressive fish). Plus having a cope-pod shelter will be great for my future green mandarin that I hope to get! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 6, 2012 Author Share September 6, 2012 (edited) A couple of things on my mind this morning related to the tank. As a background, I'll be getting married on June 29, 2013; then away on the honeymoon from July 1-10. Our current lease is up July 31, 2013. We currently live in a 2br apartment in Bailey's Crossroads, VA; Shannon and I share a room; and the other is our roommate (Shannon's friend). While I would like to move into a new house as a newly married couple; advice we have received is that the 5% we could put down isn't enough; we need to rent for a couple more years and get to 20% down before buying. I am worried we will miss the ideal buying market and end up paying a higher interest on our mortgage, but I digress. So we'll assume Shannon and I will move from one apartment to another next July (moving weekend will most likely be July 27/28). The apartment will likely be in East or West Falls Church. 1. I could sell my Marineland stand, canopy, and 9" extension platform next July. I could get someone, such as YBeNormal, to build me a custom stand and canopy for the tank. I could probably cover the cost of the new stand with the sale of the old stand? This would allow me 2 potential upgrades. First, the current stand only has 30"x30"x24" of usable space inside. I could get the new stand to include 40x40x32" of usable space inside, which would allow for a 40g breeder sump to be installed (I would buy it at petco for $40 and get Adam to install the baffles for me), plus leave room for my reactors, UV, skimmate locker, and dosing jugs. I could get an Avast Swabbie at this time, since the current stand is too short to accommodate it. The canopy could be built taller to accommodate a single lumenarc 3 400w MH over the tank (with some 36" T5's on the sides perhaps) if I am not happy with the radions by next year (unlikely, but still an option). The other canopy option would be something that I could remove without needing someone else to help me lift it off, especially if it just needs to hold my 2 radions 8" over the tank - so something more lightweight maybe? Finally, if the new apartment has double doors or something, to get the bigger stand inside, I could do without the additional "extension" piece all together, and just get the taller stand alone. I am thinking it would probably be smarter to get a new extension with the new stand, which would allow the stand to stay under whatever width doors are (28"?, 30"?). So, in conclusion, the new stand and canopy would allow me to: 1. upgrade from a 20g to a 40g sump; 2. be able to use an Avast Swabbie on my skimmer; 3. give me a lightweight canopy that I could remove by myself, w/o needing assistance. 2. I have moved tanks several times in the past, successfully. I moved a 135g tank and its contents from Kansas to Virginia without losing anything. However, my corals were limited to softies, lps, and a couple sps pieces. I expect by next July, most of my sps frags will be large frags (or mini colonies if I'm lucky?) Since sps are much more fragile than leathers, zoas, etc; I am wondering how one goes about moving 40 sps pieces from location to location without losing anything? (I can't imagine how someone with BIG sps pieces could do this - like ridetheducati for example?) Luckily all of my sps pieces are on plugs that were epoxied to the rocks. I can pop them off easily enough, so that's a good start. But how do I move 40 sps frags or pieces without breaking them or killing them? Could I get someone like Vince to come over and bag each of them individually, then keep them all bagged for a few days for the tear-down and move? Is there another way to move them all without just dumping 40 sps pieces loose into a rubbermaid so they move all around, break, touch each other, etc? Assuming a week down-time (2 is probably more accurate?); is there a good way to keep them alive in another small tank or rubbermaid? Perhaps I could buy a small piece of eggcrate, put it into a 20g rubbermaid with a small heater and powerhead; and hang a radion over the tank/rubbermaid to light them for the 1-2 week period? Okay. That's what's on my mind. Comments, Advice, Opinions, are always welcome. Happy Thursday everyone. Edit: I forgot one thing. Another idea I had was to buy a 75g tank, and turn it into an external sump. Depending on the apartment (or if we rent a house ideally), I could run pvc from the DT to an external 75g sump tank. I was imagining having a cabinet built to hold the sump about 5-6 feet to the left of the DT. The cabinet would hide the sump. I would buy a bigger return pump of course. Then I could use the inside of the Marineland stand to hold additives, dry food, refractometer, testing equipment, misc like that. Edited September 6, 2012 by Ryan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 September 6, 2012 Share September 6, 2012 You don't need 20% to buy a house. I put 3.5% down and seller covered all closing costs. I went FHA and rate is like 3.2 (lowest my lender ever locked in without buying it down), but with the FHA stuff comes out to 4.something APR... Still the lowest they have been in the history of Mortgages. It is a buyers market. Get your house with 5% down at a killer price with a killer interest rate. As far as all that tank stuff... goodluck with whatever you decide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtFully Acrylic (Adam B) September 6, 2012 Share September 6, 2012 If you are going to plan to have the tank down for a week or two I would strongly suggest you find a fellow reefer, or even ask Vince if for a fee maybe, who can temporarily house your coral in their tank. I think that long without being in a tank will not turn out well. A rubbermaid with proper flow and lighting may work, bagging won't. The highest chance of successfully keeping everything though is certainly the temporary home. Congrats on the upcoming marriage also ....or condolences from the perspective of some . As for the house, not sure where that "advice" was coming from for you to save 20% as that sounds ridiculous. Especially if you are a first time home buyer there are a lot of programs available out there. They aren't as great as they used to be before the crash, but they are still there and you should certainly be able to get into something with 5% down...worst case 10%, but 20% is absurd unless of course your credit were completely in the toilet which is doubtful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad September 6, 2012 Share September 6, 2012 Tank moves are a pain in the ass. No question about that one... but so long as you make a plan, to do the move in a logical fashion, move expediciously through the plan, and don't expect to do much more than the tank move during that time (i.e., on a local move DO NOT plan move the same time as other household goods), you will have no problems regardless of your SPS. I agree with Mike, I'd probably go ahead and buy. My wife and I are waiting to close on a house in Virginia Beach right now, even though we will likely only be there for 3-4 years because of the historically low rates. We haven't locked in yet, but I expect it's going to be something insanely low like 2.875%... Even paying PMI and taking any other APR hits, now is a pretty good time. I recommend downloading a couple of amortization schedules and playing with it. Howerver, ultimately the decision will come from you and soon to be wife, just because now is broadly a good time to buy doesn't necessarily mean it's a good time for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 6, 2012 Share September 6, 2012 5% should be fine for most mortgage products, Ryan. You would need 20% if you were trying to avoid PMI (private mortgage insurance) payments. Factor in other expenses that you'll have to bear prior to and at settlement. A lender or a buyer-broker can help you with that, if you decide to enlist the help of an agent. Alternatively, you can, if you're willing, try to find a FSBO (for sale by owner) and execute the sale yourself, saving on agent fees, though you'd be well advised to still enlist the help of a settlement attorney for settlement. We sold our Ashburn home as a FSBO to another private individual last year. It saved us a bundle of cash to do it this way, and we split those savings with the buyers to give them a better price and help at the settlement table. They were comfortable with FSBOs because they had bought and sold this way previously. As for moving the tank, try to find Dave Sun's (DaveS) thread about replacing his tank at home. He had a setup where he used one or more 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tanks, setting lights up over each and tying the tanks together, I believe, as a temporary setup that lasted several weeks. If you're tank is going to be down for as much as a week or more, you may want to consider something similar. Bagging them or going with relatively small QT tanks is probably not what you want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 6, 2012 Author Share September 6, 2012 Thanks guys. We'll be talking to a bank and a realtor next week hopefully. Just to see where we'd stand if we bought today vs saving up more for down the road. I see the advantage to a 20% down payment and avoiding the PMI; but the interest rates may be higher by then; and if we went in today with 3.5%, with the current low rates, and got the seller to cover closing costs, it might be worth it. So we'll talk to the bank and see what they say. Do you guys have any thoughts on #1 and the "Edit" in post #878? Should I consider a new stand and 40g breeder sump; or an external 75g sump in a cabinet? I was thinking that I could even put a frag tank on top of the cabinet to help cover reefing costs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swffan September 6, 2012 Share September 6, 2012 There are loan programs out there with low rates that go up to 97% with NO monthly MI if your credit score is high enough and your debt to income ratio is low enough. If you need help with other options after talking to your bank, let me know. Side note, there are also refinance programs out now that we can help with for people "under water" on the current home. We have some that will exceed 175% LTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 6, 2012 Author Share September 6, 2012 There are loan programs out there with low rates that go up to 97% with NO monthly MI if your credit score is high enough and your debt to income ratio is low enough. If you need help with other options after talking to your bank, let me know. My credit score is 704, so maybe not high enough for that. I don't know Shannon's. My debt to income ratio is probably crappy though, as I owe $200,000 in student loans still. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swffan September 7, 2012 Share September 7, 2012 My credit score is 704, so maybe not high enough for that. I don't know Shannon's. My debt to income ratio is probably crappy though, as I owe $200,000 in student loans still. :( The middle of the 3 scores is used to qualify. 720 is what is needed to avoid the MI in most cases. If the student loans are deferred in most cases they will be excluded from the DTI. Rates are insanely low now, even using and FHA loan and paying the MIP you can get in cheap. When you talk to the bank, ask them for a Good Faith Estimate that you can take with you. That will allow you to shop around and compare apples to apples. I'd be happy to quote you as well. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John September 7, 2012 Share September 7, 2012 This thread is better than drama TV...I am canceling my cable service... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 8, 2012 Author Share September 8, 2012 The middle of the 3 scores is used to qualify. 720 is what is needed to avoid the MI in most cases. If the student loans are deferred in most cases they will be excluded from the DTI. Rates are insanely low now, even using and FHA loan and paying the MIP you can get in cheap. When you talk to the bank, ask them for a Good Faith Estimate that you can take with you. That will allow you to shop around and compare apples to apples. I'd be happy to quote you as well. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions The loans have been in repayment for 5 years. Never missed a payment or had a late payment, but I would gladly defer them to get them excluded from the DTI! I bet I could get the 704 to 720 in a few months too. Hmmm... A lot to think about! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 8, 2012 Author Share September 8, 2012 This thread is better than drama TV...I am canceling my cable service... But I charge 1 frag a month... That kool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incredible Corals September 8, 2012 Share September 8, 2012 I color corrected and played around with the shadows a bit to clean up the pic you took. You can see the amazing colors of the SPS on the frag rack. Hope you don't mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 8, 2012 Author Share September 8, 2012 I've really got to learn how you do that. It looks much better. I need to get you over here some day to take pictures. I'll send you home with frags and beer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf September 8, 2012 Share September 8, 2012 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 September 8, 2012 Share September 8, 2012 Hey Ryan, I live really close by and my system is up and running. I would be happy to house most if not all of your stuff for a few days if you need me to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John September 8, 2012 Share September 8, 2012 The loans have been in repayment for 5 years. Never missed a payment or had a late payment, but I would gladly defer them to get them excluded from the DTI! I bet I could get the 704 to 720 in a few months too. Hmmm... A lot to think about! DO NOT DEFER PAYMENTS!!! Interest is still accrued while in deferment, which means once your deferment is over, your payments go UP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 10, 2012 Author Share September 10, 2012 (edited) DO NOT DEFER PAYMENTS!!! Interest is still accrued while in deferment, which means once your deferment is over, your payments go UP! I'd only do it to avoid the DTI, so it would be temporary. If you're even allowed to do that at all. Anywho. FTS from 9-9-2012. All frags mounted. The ones on the rack are dying or dead. I'll have Evan confirm this week. I tried to adjust the colors so the photo looked better. I also placed all of the rics around the rocks, as was recommended by several folks in this thread. I really need to get 20 more rics to spread amongst them to get a good "border" around the rockwork. Edited September 10, 2012 by Ryan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds September 10, 2012 Share September 10, 2012 Do u know why the frags are dying or dead? What happened to cause that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incredible Corals September 10, 2012 Share September 10, 2012 Do u know why the frags are dying or dead? What happened to cause that? +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan September 10, 2012 Share September 10, 2012 (edited) Are you using GFO to reduce phosphates? Too much will cause SPS to lose polyps and bleach. Edited September 10, 2012 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S September 10, 2012 Author Share September 10, 2012 (edited) I don't know, but I asked Evan tonight to stop by this week and take a look. (If any other SPS experts will be near 22204 this week, you are welcome too. He is just the closest that I know of, so I am always bugging him to come over and check things out!) I don't see any flatworms or red bugs. Here are some high-res photos. You can zoom in pretty close. Any ideas? Not enough light? Too much light? Not enough flow? AEFW or red bugs? Not enough Alk or Cal? My Mag was too high for too long? The reason I am concerned is that - I spent $500 on new SPS from Evan and Graham, and they are amazingly colorful right now, greens, blues, purples, you name it - and I don't want them dying and turning into these! And as for my other older sps frags, I'd say I had 30 total, and 5 died, so MOST are doing okay. They are growing, have fully encrusted their frag plugs and are growing on to the live rock, etc. I am using GFO. 2 cups changed every 2 months. I could reduce to 1 cup? Or remove it entirely? I am also dosing vinegar and just added the large amount of chaeto... Edited September 10, 2012 by Ryan S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan September 10, 2012 Share September 10, 2012 (edited) Top down bleaching could be SG too low. Too much GFO. Cyano. Algae. Temp. Anything, really.but you have some that are bleaching from bottom and side up too. I dunno. I had bleaching from top down after I doubled the dose of GFO in my reactor. Polyps just blew off healthy SPS with a turkey baster. Edited September 10, 2012 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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