howaboutme February 16, 2021 Share February 16, 2021 What's that? top off sensors? Are you running RODI direct to your ATO container? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 16, 2021 Author Share February 16, 2021 6 hours ago, Aquastudent said: This is coming along nicely! I love the aquascape you did. Looks like a great combination of space for fish to swim and corals to grow. The purple paint also gives it that established look. Excellent job with the two-toning. It really looks much more natural! Improvement on the cable management part too! It'll be nice when you get together that full on board but I think getting it functional is an important step... more important than making it pretty at least. I just finished with some initial organization on my setup... Waiting for the RO/DI to drip away is brutal, isn't it? So excited for the next steps in your tank! Thanks! Yeah I've had that 50 GPD for 10 years, because I've always had nanos and it never mattered. Now I'm like......ah. Might need to convince my wife we should remodel the guest bathroom so I can put in a water change station. 6 hours ago, YHSublime said: Looks real clean. You're really using every inch of space! Thank you my dude! Yeah I really dont have an option! And I hate hate hate massive cable balls and disorganized sumps. Spending a lot of time to do it now so I dont have to go back in later to fix it. I'm also trying to make it as intuitive as possible for my wife and potential tank sitters. 6 hours ago, AlanM said: Yeah, I’d worry about humidity and salt spray. A skimmer can really put it into the air in an enclosed stand, as can a durso carrying down bubbles and popping in the sump. Agreed, I think I need to put in a fan or two. Potentially in the hood as well. 1 hour ago, howaboutme said: What's that? top off sensors? Are you running RODI direct to your ATO container? Those are actually the ends of the Eheim Jaeger heaters. They're in the fuge because they're so big and don't fit anywhere else given how crowded the sump is. I think eventually I will replace them with a smaller titantium element that can fit in the skimmer chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 17, 2021 Author Share February 17, 2021 Found this on my skimmer today.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime February 17, 2021 Share February 17, 2021 That's no good, should be warrantied Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 17, 2021 Author Share February 17, 2021 1 hour ago, YHSublime said: That's no good, should be warrantied 8 years old, out of warranty at this point. Just ordered a new pump block, still cheaper than getting a new skimmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 19, 2021 Author Share February 19, 2021 Put my old SWC skimmer in the tank. It’s been running solid for the better part of 10 years. I had a small order of live sand come in from liverocknreef.com. Neat stuff, definitely lots of worms and some micro stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 19, 2021 Author Share February 19, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 20, 2021 Author Share February 20, 2021 (edited) This is where I got with placement of the Vortechs. I have the MP40s up front, on a very mild short pulse/wave mode. The MP10s are in back cranked up full volume on reef crest mode. I have some tinkering to do, to adjust the wave to get it right as the sand settles and firms up. I tell you what, I really do not like the Ecotech Mobius app. It just sucks and I'm annoyed there isn't a wireless module for a cloud enabled app. The Bluetooth app just isn't as user friendly and adjustable as it should be for this product. So, I am leaning towards using an Apex module to control at least the Radions, if not both those and VorTechs. The current app is too difficult to configure accurately for both the light or the pumps. That all said, the MP40s will create an impressive wave. I just need to wait and see if the sand will form up enough to where it will hold. I have seen some spaghetti worms in the main display, which is fast but cool given it's only been a couple of days. Edited February 20, 2021 by tpallas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 24, 2021 Author Share February 24, 2021 Florida live rock arrived today from KP Aquatics. Shipped overnight so don’t see much die off. There were a few dead pistol shrimp in the bottom of the box. Searched for gorilla crabs and couldn’t find any, but it’s very porous rock and babies could be hiding. Overall this is very cool rock. I got 20 lbs total, could’ve gone with less but now I have a rock wall look that reminds me of my tanks from the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 24, 2021 Author Share February 24, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime February 24, 2021 Share February 24, 2021 Looks awesome, that will surely boost some life in there, should have kept the pistol shrimp in the fuge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 24, 2021 Author Share February 24, 2021 56 minutes ago, YHSublime said: Looks awesome, that will surely boost some life in there, should have kept the pistol shrimp in the fuge! I think the odds that there is another one in there somewhere is strong, to quite strong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCReefer1964 February 24, 2021 Share February 24, 2021 Wow that is some nice old school live rock and sand.Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WheresTheReef February 24, 2021 Share February 24, 2021 Sweet looking rock. Now is the time to add it since you don’t have any fish or corals in there. Are you considering to let it run like that for a while so you can kill off any potential parasites? You planning to feed the tank to keep the bacteria alive and seed the rest of your tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM February 24, 2021 Share February 24, 2021 Neat. Between that and the sand that should be a good foundation to start the tank. It's a good idea to put it all in a fuge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 25, 2021 Author Share February 25, 2021 2 hours ago, DCReefer1964 said: Wow that is some nice old school live rock and sand. Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk Yes! It really is great, and not that expensive all things considered. Florida has been poo-pooed as long as I can remember, at least until now since it's one of the very few options. I think that was mostly because of the hitchhiker question mark. Containing it to the sump to seed the rest of the tank seems to be a good option. The sand I would definitely feel comfortable using in the display. 2 hours ago, WheresTheReef said: Sweet looking rock. Now is the time to add it since you don’t have any fish or corals in there. Are you considering to let it run like that for a while so you can kill off any potential parasites? You planning to feed the tank to keep the bacteria alive and seed the rest of your tank? So - good question. I started with Microbacter, and then the live sand, and then TurboStart 900. Meanwhile, my holding tank for livestock started to crash, so I made the executive decision to move my fish and corals into the tank late last week (2 clowns and a few corals). Figured the odds were better in the new tank, the numbers looked good after a quick TurboStart cycle (around 5 days). The thing that worries me is the live rock being added today, obviously. Watching it very closely. The rock was overnighted and there was minimal die-off that I could detect, smells clean, so I'm expecting a minimal mini-cycle. Got some buckets on standby in case I need to move the livestock to temporary quarters, again, and doing some water changes. I will keep the rock in the refugium moving forward. I want to see what develops and if there's any gorilla crabs. Those and mantis shrimp seem to be the biggest offenders from Florida rock. Worst case, they're restricted to the refugium and I don't need to worry about them. Or I could take out the rocks fairly easily. As for other undesirables, particularly aiptasia and AEFW, are Pacific and not on the Florida rock. Interestingly I did see spaghetti worms in the main display the same night I put in the live sand! I'm hoping enough pellagic stuff will populate the main tank from the refugium. I am also getting some amphipod/copepod cultures to add to the fuge and main display. 2 hours ago, AlanM said: Neat. Between that and the sand that should be a good foundation to start the tank. It's a good idea to put it all in a fuge. Yeah it's fun - I do like the idea of having a second tank, basically, tied into the system. I'm thinking it will be a little lagoon type tank for soft corals and macroalgae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 26, 2021 Author Share February 26, 2021 Not seeing any signs of a mini-cycle which is a relief. Everything looks happy as well. Here is the clown pair I have in. The female we bought probably 5 years ago as a bonded black pair. The male unfortunately jumped several tears later. She has since paired with the orange one here, but she did kill one potential mate before accepting this one. She’s pretty big for a home aquarium clown, have to guess she is at least 7 or 8 years old. Also likes to attack my hand in the tank and has drawn blood. Still I like her. Here you can see them hosting in a softball sized Duncan colony. I grew this from a single head that I bought from Steve Valesco 4 or 5 years ago. The bottom part was shaded in the previous tank, hence the poor growth on the one part. Should grow stronger there now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 26, 2021 Author Share February 26, 2021 (edited) This is my pagoda that I also moved over. I bought it as a frag from the Marine Scene in 2008 when I moved back to the States. It has been with me ever since, through a lot of ups and downs as well, at one point down to one polyp. I’ve placed him in the back of the tank where he gets some shaded light and has lots of room and seems happy. Started to recede a bit in the previous tank but that should turn around. You can see on the bottom of the piece, the original frag skeleton from 2008. Edited February 26, 2021 by tpallas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas February 26, 2021 Author Share February 26, 2021 (edited) Moved this trachy over as well Edited February 26, 2021 by tpallas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime February 26, 2021 Share February 26, 2021 Trachy is absolute FIRE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 5, 2021 Author Share March 5, 2021 Probe day! Tight fit, but it’s neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM March 6, 2021 Share March 6, 2021 Nice to see crud in the bottom of that sump. It’s a real system now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 8, 2021 Author Share March 8, 2021 On 3/6/2021 at 9:52 AM, AlanM said: Nice to see crud in the bottom of that sump. It’s a real system now. And even better, going through the diatom phase. Hasn’t been real strong and is tailing off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpallas March 8, 2021 Author Share March 8, 2021 Also took on this project of cleaning up the cables on this rats nest. There’s two FMM modules, one for the ATO and the second for sensors - three water flow meters on the media reactors, and one leak sensor that I installed in the rear of the stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 8, 2021 Share March 8, 2021 Looks clean. That's one thing I still need to work on, I don't think I've ever had my cords and everything organized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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