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Electrobes
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Electrobes' sumpless 40Br
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Electrobes
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Here's a pic of the coral that self fragged in the carbon/GFO replacement fun:
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Electrobes
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Some things I will be doing in the near future and as part of my maintenance regimen:
- I will start siphoning sand during my weekly water changes, and cleaning it. I did the very stupid thing of keeping my sand bed originally when I moved the tank to the new home. I had been moving my house for 16 hours, and just got lazy when I hurriedly set the tank up.
- I switched my Vortech from Lagoon mode (Yellow) to Long Pulse (Purple). I think this is more appropriate for my softy dominated tank, and already the corals actually look better.
- I got in a 40Br clean up crew from reefcleaners.org about a week ago. I really needed a janitorial refresh for the tank, but am still giving them time to move around until I start hunting for the few that died during transport. I don't like having things on my sand, but I'll have to be patient.
- My T5 bulbs were: 454 X 2, a 10K Aquasun, and a 12K blue plus. I ordered another 454 and a 12K blue plus. The new arrangement will be 2 X 454, and 2 X 12K Blue plus. Soft corals are found in deeper waters anyway, and I like the extra blue.. though this will probably slow the growth of my corals. I already have to be patient since I am going for the fewer but large colony corals look for the tank.
- I will start siphoning sand during my weekly water changes, and cleaning it. I did the very stupid thing of keeping my sand bed originally when I moved the tank to the new home. I had been moving my house for 16 hours, and just got lazy when I hurriedly set the tank up.
- I switched my Vortech from Lagoon mode (Yellow) to Long Pulse (Purple). I think this is more appropriate for my softy dominated tank, and already the corals actually look better.
- I got in a 40Br clean up crew from reefcleaners.org about a week ago. I really needed a janitorial refresh for the tank, but am still giving them time to move around until I start hunting for the few that died during transport. I don't like having things on my sand, but I'll have to be patient.
- My T5 bulbs were: 454 X 2, a 10K Aquasun, and a 12K blue plus. I ordered another 454 and a 12K blue plus. The new arrangement will be 2 X 454, and 2 X 12K Blue plus. Soft corals are found in deeper waters anyway, and I like the extra blue.. though this will probably slow the growth of my corals. I already have to be patient since I am going for the fewer but large colony corals look for the tank.
mcdonaldtj
New Member
Tank looks great, I have a 40 gallon regular and I have been trying to figure out why my rocks arent gettig that deep purple that I have seen on other tanks and I think that the 40's with T5's like ours dont get that purple, is that what you have noticed as well?
V/Tim
V/Tim
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Electrobes
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Tim to be honest I've always had the worst luck with coralline algae. I've been at this 8 years, almost all with a 40Br with VHO's and I still couldn't get it going. I've tried a lot of things from transplanting coralline algae from other very purple tanks, to keeping my parameters slightly higher than normal.. none of which has worked. As silly as it sounds I have easily grown some difficult SPS corals (Including very dead looking ones) but coralline has always been shy around me. :xd:
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Electrobes
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That's a gargonian frag that I scored at a LFS for a great price.
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Electrobes
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Arnaldo - Here is a picture of the supplies:
It's surprisingly not that complicated. The marine battery and the trickle charger was found at walmart. Not pictured above is the battery box (Also found at walmart), the 1.3mm connector (Found at Radio Shack), and some wire.
Basically you place the battery into the battery box, and put both where ever you want the permanent place to be. Hook the trickle charger up to the battery (Simple enough). The trickle charger plugs into the wall. Take the extra wire and the 1.3mm connector and hook them to each other. Take the two ends of the wire (That is connected to the 1.3mm connector) and put one wire to the negative end of the battery, and the other wire to the positive end of the battery. Then you plug in the 1.3mm connector into the Vortech controller (Next to the main power plug in port of the controller). Voila easy peesy!
Below is the set up in my last home (The battery is in the battery box, the trickle charger sits on top of the battery box and the white thingie going into the Vortech controller is the 1.3mm connector.
HTH!
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Electrobes
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Arnaldo - No problem!
cichlidtx - I got lucky with that gorg, definitely a nice find for a softy tank.
Tips for the tank? I try to keep things as K.I.S.S. as possible. I have madd ADD and really have a hard time trying not to tinker with the tank. Once my regimen actually became a repeated regimen things really start to take off. I really can't wait to see the tank a year from now!
One more thing I am adding to the regimen is now when I do water changes, I am going to start siphoning small chunks of the sandbed and clean it out, and then put it back. It's not fun and I don't want to do it, but I feel the benefits of it would far outweigh my lack of enthusiam!
cichlidtx - I got lucky with that gorg, definitely a nice find for a softy tank.
Tips for the tank? I try to keep things as K.I.S.S. as possible. I have madd ADD and really have a hard time trying not to tinker with the tank. Once my regimen actually became a repeated regimen things really start to take off. I really can't wait to see the tank a year from now! One more thing I am adding to the regimen is now when I do water changes, I am going to start siphoning small chunks of the sandbed and clean it out, and then put it back. It's not fun and I don't want to do it, but I feel the benefits of it would far outweigh my lack of enthusiam!
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Electrobes
Valuable Member
So I did a water change today. I first turkey basted the tank knocking all sorts of stuff into suspension. I then started to suck up some of the sand that I plan on cleaning and returning bit by bit. I decided to start getting rid of all the vacated shells on the sand bed as I am going full steam in trying to have a spotless sand bed. Once I get that done within the next few waterchanges, I'll start doing full sections of the sand bed and touch bottom.
I'll take more pictures once I finish the whole surface of the sand bed and razor the tank. I am looking forward to it!
I'll take more pictures once I finish the whole surface of the sand bed and razor the tank. I am looking forward to it!
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Electrobes
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Man! I completely razored the tank, got a lot of shells off of the front sand bed, and everything is looking great. The corals still looked a bit mad as usual during a water change, but I really wanted a photo to show y'all.. and of course right when I reach for the camera my lights cut out on it's usual time! Doh! Oh well, tomorrow is another day. :xd:
In other news I entered in the Blog contest, and you should too. All you have to do is create a blog here at R2R... info can be found here.
Here's my blog post.. a good summary of my tank, routines, and goals: My Blog
In other news I entered in the Blog contest, and you should too. All you have to do is create a blog here at R2R... info can be found here.
Here's my blog post.. a good summary of my tank, routines, and goals: My Blog
mizzoumed02
Active Member
Very nice. I like how you have everything run behind the tank into the storage room. That really makes for a nice clean looking set up!
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Electrobes
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Thanks! Though it was a bit of a PITA it's definitely worth it. My last tank was a mess electrical-wise and when I moved I vowed to fix that problem. I have to admit I got really lucky with the house and the wife telling me the tank had to go to the front where it could be seen. I think she just wanted all that stuff hidden in that room!
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Electrobes
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Mo' pics, taken today!
Things are looking better! After instituting the combo of waterchange and sand cleaning yesterday, and razoring the tank, I took some shots today to show the results. I am happy to report that the tank is looking better than ever and the only draw back from messing with the sand bed is the expected dusting on the right side of the tank.
On to the pics!
The mandatory FTS:
Some side shots:
Some arch sides:
And some coral shots:
This guy is a trooper, almost died off and now is making a comeback!
Trumpets getting a warning from the mushroom:
I love this gorg!
The leather healing wonderfully after self fragging:
Things are looking better! After instituting the combo of waterchange and sand cleaning yesterday, and razoring the tank, I took some shots today to show the results. I am happy to report that the tank is looking better than ever and the only draw back from messing with the sand bed is the expected dusting on the right side of the tank.
On to the pics!
The mandatory FTS:
Some side shots:
Some arch sides:
And some coral shots:
This guy is a trooper, almost died off and now is making a comeback!
Trumpets getting a warning from the mushroom:
I love this gorg!
The leather healing wonderfully after self fragging:
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Electrobes
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Thanks man! I just found out my tank will have a major test coming up shortly. My wife and I will be surprising my mother in law for her birthday (Bringing our infant son on a 11 hour drive!). I will be gone for about six days and to give you of an idea about finding a reef baby sitter... I am one of two to three reefers in the county let alone the city that I am aware of. Luckily I have good friends, and realistically I can only ask them to feed my tank once a day. Supplements or water changes are out of the question for that week... I guess we'll see how it all goes. I am nervous as all get out! This is because my tank is not only my baby but at the same time it also represents my business (Reef on the Rocks). Regardless I will report on the damages when I get back. :sad:
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