Alan's Rimless 75 build

[AlanM]

Youre welcome to come down to check it out. Quick trip down richter farm and great seneca to longdraft.

 

When I showed my wife the above video she kind of wants the tank out of the house now. 8)

[AlanM]

One quick pic.  I'd gotten a teensy GBTA from QR about a month and a half ago in defiance of the people who say to wait 6 months.  It's doing really well and going on a bit of a walkabout lately looking for a new spot.

 

 

The frags from the fall meeting are all doing well except for the hawkins echinata which lost it's flesh.  They're a bit more fragile in general, I've heard, so I'm not surprised.  I'm more surprised that everything else seems to be thriving.

[matt]

Too bad about the Hawkins. My frag got tumbled around a bit, but that only stunted growth for a while. Maybe a water chemistry thing for you. For mine, that which did not kill it...     I hope

[YHSublime]

Nice looking nem. The reason people say wait 6 months to a year is so you can get your water quality stable. The key is consistency, and younger tanks tend to have more of a flux due to learning curves and just that, they are young. I also threw caution to the wind and added 2 RBTA's 3 months in, they rooted and never moved, until I moved them. Keep an eye on your powerheads and watch your frags, hopefully it wont go for a walk about on all that nice new SPS! 

[smallreef]

Very pretty anemone! I love them!

Your so ontop of everything...don't think you'll have any problem with it...unless it settles somewhere you don't like

[AlanM]

Too bad about the Hawkins. My frag got tumbled around a bit, but that only stunted growth for a while. Maybe a water chemistry thing for you. For mine, that which did not kill it...     I hope

 

Mine turned entirely white and I could see the blue flesh peeling off of it, so I pulled it out.  I had wedged it in a crevice in the rock instead of gluing it on a flat surface.  I also had it up at the top of the tank rather than down below, so it's possible that many things about the placement weren't ideal for it.

 

Nice looking nem. The reason people say wait 6 months to a year is so you can get your water quality stable. The key is consistency, and younger tanks tend to have more of a flux due to learning curves and just that, they are young. I also threw caution to the wind and added 2 RBTA's 3 months in, they rooted and never moved, until I moved them. Keep an eye on your powerheads and watch your frags, hopefully it wont go for a walk about on all that nice new SPS! 

 

Very pretty anemone! I love them!

Your so ontop of everything...don't think you'll have any problem with it...unless it settles somewhere you don't like

 

 

Thanks for the votes of confidence.  I think my system is pretty stable between Rob's big sweater box of old sand and rock and my large refugium and decent skimmer and d120 grow light which is growing macro and also kind of an algae turf scrubber because it fills the macro with all kind of hair algae.  I had played around with the return nozzles and it moved over night to a spot under the rocks.  It was calmer under there, but the next night it moved back nearly to the spot it had been in.  I think it wanted more light.  I give it a very small piece of melted up Rod's food about once per week.  So far so good. 

 

I have Tunze powerheads, which I think will be ok even if it goes for a swim and ends up on one of them.  They seem like they have smaller openings than the MP40 vortechs that I've seen.

 

It's welcome to camp on a coral if it wants.  It's sitting on some little zoas in the picture above. 8)

[AlanM]

Tonight is going to be one of nervous waiting for me.  I ordered some fish from nicewrasse.com that Brett, the owner, has had in quarantine for a few months.   They arrive tomorrow morning by 1030.  I'll post up here with the hopefully good news and some pics in the next few days if they don't all croak on me immediately.

[sachabballi reef]

What did you order?

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

 

[AlanM]

A breeding pair of longhorn cowfish.

[AlanM]

Just kidding.  He is sending a breeding pair of banggai cardinals (which were kind of expensive to get in a mated and breeding pair like that) and three blue reef chromis that have been in his treatment and quarantine for 2 months.

[smallreef]

I was gonna ask how the heck you found a pair of cowfish,lol

Mated cardinals,,,very cool...

[monkiboy]

dang it alan, you needed to let it ride a bit longer than that!

[AlanM]

dang it alan, you needed to let it ride a bit longer than that!

 

Haha.  I know.  After posting it, though, it wasn't obvious that I was joking, and I didn't want it to sound like I was being too much of an a-hole to Jenn by responding with something ridiculous like that.

 

Package arrived well packed and warm with 5 active fish in it at 9:30am after a 5pm pickup in Florida and are acclimating now.  Here are some pics.  Seems to be packed very well, but I've never received any by mail before so I don't know how it compares.

 

 

 

 

To show how much water was included in the bags.  A lot of water!  About 2 gallons total between the 4 bags. 

 

 

 

[monkiboy]

dang, i'm jelly sir. good for you! keep us updated and photos!

[YHSublime]

Nice! The only thing I've ordered online was a clam, and I guess a few corals one. The nice part is the QT aspect.

 

Look forward to an update as well

[AlanM]

The cardinals were on a system without a skimmer, so the water is kind of orange, but it lets me know when I'm exchanging water.  I suspect my problems with getting fish in in the past were due to my rushing the acclimation, so I'm trying to go nice and easy this time.  about 1.5 hours of acclimation while monitoring the temp.

[sachabballi reef]

did you test the shipping water for ph and salinity?

how close are they to your tank?

you may not need to acclimate so long 

[AlanM]

did you test the shipping water for ph and salinity?

how close are they to your tank?

you may not need to acclimate so long 

 

They're pretty close.  Salinity was a bit lower at 33ppm, where I run at 35. I didn't check pH or other stuff. 

 

By the time I'm done acclimating it will match anyway because my ATO is running as I drip, heh.

[sachabballi reef]

if it was me I would just get those two to match up and put it in..

next time check the PH...that is going to be harder on the fish than the salinity.  check it now and get an idea of where its at

[monkiboy]

i usually also try to use an ammonia binder/amquel or the like immediately after getting the bags open. no temp acclimating in the tank which i don't think you did anyway.

[AlanM]

pH is much lower than my tank water which is at 8.1.  Doesn't register on my pH test, actually, so less than 7.8.  Hmm.

 

I put 10 drops of prime in each just now, too.  Good idea.

Edited November 19, 2013 by AlanM

[Cliff Puckstable]

Noice..Those cardinals look big.

[AlanM]

They're all in.  I started seeing blue on my pH test and decided that was close enough.  Since I'm running 1500 gph through my returns and getting plenty of agitation from that and the sump I shut off the tunzes.  No need to be pulsing them all day on the new additions.  Also, I will leave the lights off for the rest of the day.  One cardinal looks great.  The other looks a bit faded.  Everyone is hiding at the moment.  Crossing my fingers that they all do well.

[AlanM]

Hmm.  These chromis don't look quite like what I was hoping for.  I put them in the tank, and the lights are out, so it's possible the lights will change the color a bit.

 

blue reef chromis (Chromis cyaneus): http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2730+113&pcatid=113

blue/green chromis (Chromis viridis):  http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1634+115&pcatid=115

They look to me like the second ones, but I had been wanting the blue reef ones.  Do the "blue reef" ones ever look like that live aquaria picture of them or are they always more faded?  Mine definitely have more green in them than those pics.

[AlanM]

Cardinals are still doing well. Hanging out together in the corner. Chromis have scampered somewhere. They are good hiders. 8) I assume they are doing well too.