Comeback Tour - Haggisman14's Eshopps Deskmate Build

[Lebowski_]

Looking real good!

I gotta ask though, what's the deal with those Clowns? They look super cramped in there.

 

[Haggisman14]

Looking real good!

I gotta ask though, what's the deal with those Clowns? They look super cramped in there.

They're super happy. I think the way I have my rock scaped, it can look cramped as when I take pictures and am in front of the tank, they always come out front and center. The tank is actually set up with quite a few caves and caverns and I just snapped this picture. 90% of the time when they don't think I"m going to be feeding them, they hang out right in this section.

 

[tinyfellows]

What are you using for top offs on this tank?

 

[Haggisman14]

I've got a handy dandy little scooper that I believe is about 1/8 a cup. Now that I've got my new lid on that really covers up the tank. It evaporates about 1/8 cup every 2-3 days. With my work schedule at most I'm not in the office for 3 days, and that doesn't present a problem. This winter I"ll have to add an ATO as I"ll be gone for about a week, but It'll probably be a simple gravity fed option...but who knows I might spring for a fancy Tunze!

 

[Haggisman14]

How's everyone doing? My custom lid is made out of 1/8" acrylic. I"m going to need to get a piece of 1/4" or even 1/2" as the Radion is cooking it and warped the back and sides. Also due to the heat, the part that I cracked, is now starting to shoot out to the side too...so I'm definitely going to have to fix it!


Corals are continuing to encrust really well, only coral that isn't doing "great" is the candy cane. It's got good days and bad days. The cyphastrea still is lacking in color for the main flesh, but went from 3 polyps to 21 heads. Favia's are killing it by encrusting, and my chalice keeps growing, and went from 3 eyes to 7.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Nothing much has changed over the last month aside from some decent growth. I was away from the tank for 5 days, and the tank did really well. I sealed up the tank pretty well and did a big almost 4 gallon water change before we left. Had an auto feeder setup to feed twice daily, and left it alone. Came back to the office and hardly any water had evaporated, fish were happy, corals were happy and nothing died!

One "oopsie" i made was I had unplugged my heater (when I did my pre-trip water change), and I forgot to plug it back in. Looks like between the rooms ambient temperature, and the pump, the temp probably stayed around 72-74 degrees. I've since plugged it back in and everything remains happy!

I've also decided to up the intensity of my Radion to see if I can promote a little extra growth. I previously had it at 61%, and just increased it to 71% (using a 7 day acclimation period to ramp it up.

Still no new corals. Looking forward to checking out a different local shop that is near me @Queen City Corals . Prices look good, and quality of corals look top notch too.

Here are some pics from today.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Queen City Corals]

Nothing much has changed over the last month aside from some decent growth. I was away from the tank for 5 days, and the tank did really well. I sealed up the tank pretty well and did a big almost 4 gallon water change before we left. Had an auto feeder setup to feed twice daily, and left it alone. Came back to the office and hardly any water had evaporated, fish were happy, corals were happy and nothing died!

One "oopsie" i made was I had unplugged my heater (when I did my pre-trip water change), and I forgot to plug it back in. Looks like between the rooms ambient temperature, and the pump, the temp probably stayed around 72-74 degrees. I've since plugged it back in and everything remains happy!

I've also decided to up the intensity of my Radion to see if I can promote a little extra growth. I previously had it at 61%, and just increased it to 71% (using a 7 day acclimation period to ramp it up.

Still no new corals. Looking forward to checking out a different local shop that is near me @Queen City Corals . Prices look good, and quality of corals look top notch too.

Here are some pics from today.

Thanks for looking!

The tank is looking good, glad your time away went well. I look forward to seeing you in the store soon and helping to continue fill up the tank with healthy growing corals!

 

[Haggisman14]

No crazy updates over here. Everything is just humming along and continuing to grow. My 1 "single" lord is still very happy, but still hasn't grown at all. My green one has sprouted 2 new baby heads which are continuing to grow. All my favia's are continuing to grow well and keep on encrusting. They have almost COMPLETELY grown over their frag plugs/epoxy, and are now starting to encrust onto the rock .

Other than that just keeping up with my 8-10 day rotation of a water change of 2.5-3 gallons of water, and that's it!

Here's the eye candy!

 

[Haggisman14]

Had to swing by my office yesterday (sunday) a few hours after my light had gone off, and I saw my corals in a totally different "light" if you will. Since my office is dark after 6pm, and by that time the radion is off, all of my corals were FULLY open and all feeder tentacles were out and in full display!

Up to this point I have NEVER once seen my candy can corals open...let me tell you, they were huge! The corals that I was extremely shocked about, is how much all those favia/favite corals open up. I see them extend their feeder tentacles when I feed reef roids or reef chili, but last night it was like 2-3x on polyp extension!

It was very cool seeing this, and makes me happy to know that all the corals really are happy!

As always, thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Snagged 11 new corals from @WWC auctions last night in a last minute play for "i need more corals for the tank and I like what's being auctioned out this week!"

Sadly I missed out on the WWC Contraband that I was REALLY hoping for, but I'm really happy with what I picked up. Got a mix of SPS, LPS and Zoa's, and I really think they're going to help fill out the tank. This will give me a total of 26 corals in the tank, and will really be nice to see the tank start to fill in!

The current corals have really taken hold in the tank and are growing well (having been in the tank for 4 months now), and as we all know, as corals settle into a tank and things stay stable, growth will start to really take off!

I'm also looking forward to using my OctoAquatics frag holder by @cromag27 (won't have to put the frags down in the sandbed this time around!

Corals arrive tomorrow! Standby for pictures!

 

[Haggisman14]

DELIVERY DAY! All 12 corals arrived early this morning, and super healthy! Did my weekly water change, unboxed and aclimated all the corals, and dropped them into the tank on my Octo Frag rack! Turned down the intensity on the Radion for the next 10 days to acclimate the corals and so that they dont' get burrned, and then next week I"ll start mounting the frags!

Acros will most likely all go on the higher side, and I've got a good idea for the rest of the other frags. Really trying to fill in spaces, and keep the tank viewable from the front and the left side (right side of the tank is basically against the wall...but I still want it to be a beautiful tank from all sides!

Now onto some pictures and a little video that I made. Please forgive the colors as it's from an iPhone with no filter.

 

[Haggisman14]

Everything is in the tank and in it's final resting place! I think everything will do well and flourish! Looking forward to everything settling in and growing!

Let me know what you think!
(I swear the tank/corals aren't that blue....stock iPhone camera!)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Everything is in the tank and in it's final resting place! I think everything will do well and flourish! Looking forward to everything settling in and growing!

Let me know what you think!
(I swear the tank/corals aren't that blue....stock iPhone camera!)

Can't wait to see the growth of your tank!

 

[Haggisman14]

Can't wait to see the growth of your tank!

Thanks! Me too! I'm really happy where everything is situated, and I think it'll allow all the corals to grow happily and really thrive!

LETS GO!

 

[Haggisman14]

By next week I should be able to get a halfway decent shot of the corals where it doesn't look so dang blue! Dropping the intensity of the Radion really make the tank look much bluer in pictures than it really is. By next Friday it should be back to 100% of my schedule with is 70% intensity.

All corals are happy, and adjusting well to their placements in the tank (been in the tank for a week now, and glued for 6 days). Only casualty we had was when getting my jack-o-lantern lepto off the frag plug is crack on one size (worked out well b/c now I've got the lepto in 2 different places. One down low, and the other up high...curious to see how it does under higher lighting.

I think i'm pretty set on corals now for at least the next: 8 months or so. I want to see how everything settles in and grows out. Depending on how things encrust next spring I might look at getting a few encursing monti's to go up the top of my rock that can tolerate the higher light...but time will tell!.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Haggisman14]

Here's a better "real" color FTS

 

[Haggisman14]

So it's been another week, and my Radion is finally back to my 100% schedule which is running lights at 70%. My phone's finally able to take better pictures that show the colors "pretty true" to what I actually see without any filters. I did have to move 3 corals around. The leptastria seemed to be getting too much light, so I moved it to the front bottom of the tank. My Space Queen Zoa's also didn't seem to be liking the direct light they were getting, so I moved them to another location that has a bit more indirect lighting. My mohawk zoa's were pretty much at the top of my rocks directly under the Radion. I"ve since moved them to the rock in the back that's about 2/3rds down in the tank towards the back of the tank (they were always open, just not fully open)

Everything else is doing great in the tank. I also removed one loc-line piece from my RFG nozzel to bring it a little closer to the back wall, and give my two favia's on the right side of the tank a bit more direct light.

Here are some updated pictures, as always for those who look...thank you!

 

[Haggisman14]

I"ve seen a bit of an algae uptick in my tank recently, so I decided to try something different and drop the whites in my tank for a few weeks and see if I see any changes.

Previouwly I had the warm whites at 35%, and cool whites at 25%, and the entire intensity of the light at 70%

I"ve now dropped both of them down to 10% for both, and increased the intensity of the overall schedule to 85%.

Going to see if I see an increase in growth since intensity has been increased across the board.

 

[Haggisman14]

Some pretty awesome news, I won a contest from Battlecorals, and have a $200 Battlebox coming my way next week! I've requested a PC Rainbow, and Fox Flame (2 of my favorites), and send Adam a picture of my tank and told him to work his magic!

I'm really really excited to have some BattleCorals back in my tank! Back when I had my BioCube, I picked up a pack from him, and they were some of the nicest SPS frags I've ever seen! Looking forward to getting them in the tank next week.

Rest assured, when the box comes, there will be a a photo dump!

 

[silent1mezzo]

Super jealous, I wish I could ship some battlecorals to Canad