CDNess's 125G Build Thread

[cdness]

So I tried to snap some more recent pics and the camera didn't want to cooperate. Here is the best one I got from the end:

Updates:

- The clown pairs are getting along well

- I got a ton of new corals from someone kinda local tearing down his tank. They are settling in well and I'll have more pics soon.

- Last night my wife pulled out a 8" long bristle worm from the tank. It took some work but she was able to get it out.

More to come!

 

[revhtree]

Looks great man! Love the clowns and anemone!

 

[cdness]

Yeah that nem is one of the reddest nems I have ever seen. The clowns love it!

In the next pics I'll have the LTA as well and maybe I'll catch the saddlebacks hosting it when I take the picture. It is still a little small for the two of them but the female tends to like it.

 

[cdness]

Well there was some agression between the yellow tang and the female saddleback clown. I moved the nems again to put the RBTA in the center of the tank and the LTA to the side. The yellow doesn't go over there as much and it seems to have lowered the agression level in the tank. I am glad to see this is better.

I was playing with my camera recently and decided to try take a few more pictures. I had to edit them a bit within photobucket as they just didn't look right. Here are some new pics:

 

[cdness]

Some zoas and palys:

Do these have a name?

The LTA:

 

[Mike Cruz]

Love the variety of corals and the clean look!

Good luck with the contest!

 

[cdness]

Love the variety of corals and the clean look!

Good luck with the contest!

Thanks! I am looking forward to trying out some more LEDs on my tank.

So just an update without pics :(

A local reefer was converting his SPS tank to softies due to time constraints. I ended up trading frags of basically EVERY/THING soft in my tank for the following:

8" Deresa clam
1.5" Maxima Clam
3" Green Mille
2" Blue Mille
3 or 4 branch Orange Digitata
Tricolor frag
Chips Acro frag

I will have pics to post as soon as they are used to my lighting. The Maxima may not be doing so well but it wasn't before the move so we'll see.

I ended up pulling a TON of frags out to send with a friend to the TCMAS frag swap next weekend to raise some money for suppliments. I am running super low and need some more ASAP. I have been contemplating making my own Soda Ash for alkalinity and just ordering some calcium from BRS. It seems easy enough...

My LTA decided it was going to take a short walk and found itself a new home. It is wedged so deep in the rock there is no way I am going to be able to move it. I ended up breaking a couple SPS colonies apart trying to remove them so the nem wouldn't sting them to death. Oh well more frags... lol

I am contemplating selling some corals online to see how shipping goes for me. I'll probably just start out with a test with a couple packs to see if they make it alive to the destination. I don't think it will be all that hard to find someone on the sale threads when I am ready who will want a freebie starter frag pack with the only cost is the shipping. I'll make someone a happy reefer. The reason for going to online is there are too many people locally who have my stuff. It is getting harder and harder to move frags.

Well back to work I go. I'll try get some pics uploaded one of these days.

 

[cdness]

So my wife decided to clean the corraline off the back of the tank to help out a bit and clean up the tank. All was going well until she hit a rock just right and it caused an avalanche... Corals fell on top of corals, rocks fell into SPS colonies, the large birdsnest broke it's plug and fell as well... She was so sad but as we all know, corals get broken (fragged) all the time and they continue to grow so all is well.

After about 3.5 hours of breaking rocks with a hammer, moving corals around, arranging, gluing, epoxying, holding, dripping, and a little bit of foot tickling by my 15 month old the tank is almost back to where it should be. I ended up tossing out many small pieces of coral that wasn't worth gluing to frag plugs. I busted apart some rocks to help balance things better and epoxied them together for strength. My next tank will be drilled with acryllic rods for sure.

So onto some pictures. I have some of after the rock slide to show what the tank looks like now. Not everything is placed yet as the epoxy has to cure. The slide happened on the right side of the tank.

I kinda like how the rock looks a little better this time around as I was able to remove 3 or 4 pieces but keep the height leaving it more open.
Here are some full frag racks... What am I going to do with all these frags?

 

[revhtree]

Wow that baby is FULL! LOL!

 

[cdness]

That is for sure Rev... Which is why a rock slide causes so much fragging...lol.

Just think I sent about 20 - 25 frags with a friend to that swap and my racks are full again. I really need a small frag tank to hold these so they don't clutter up my display. It was looking so nice with the racks out then this happened :(

 

[cdness]

Some of the new stuff:

 

[cdness]

YAY! I have moonlights!

I finally got my ACIII and the Lunar Sim working. After troubleshooting and a DOH! moment it is all good to go. I'll try capture a picture when it is at a higher intensity.

 

[GeoHawk]

Nice Colors!

 

[cdness]

New Addition: Desjardini Sail Fin Tang... The Yellow seems a bit territorial, but they are calming down. They have been together over the weekend. The Sail Fin is a bit smaller than the yellow, and they yellow is close to 10 years old so it is grumpy.

 

[cdness]

Well long time no post in the build thread... Here's what has changed:

The yellow tang was too grumpy and has been in the sump for awhile to tame it down I hope. He will be introduced back into the main tank soon.

I had an alkalinity stability issue which caused me to lose a couple colonies. It dropped too low and the colonies receeded. I have corrected it but it sure seems like I am using lots of alkalinity.

I bought a used calcium reactor from another reefer in a local club. It is a Shuran Jetstream 1 and came with the tank, regulator, solenoid, and some media to get me started. I will be getting this all set up next week hopefully. Here are some pics:

Anyone know the brand of that regulator?

 

[robf]

Nice build. I like how far you've taken this thread. It reads like a good book. Let me know how the calcium reactor is working. I've got a used one as well to install on my system. I've got no experience with them. BTW. What is the piece of gear in the center of the display? I'm assuming it's some brand of powerhead? It's a disc about 3" diameter. Just curious.

 

[revsgirl]

Your tank looks amazing!! Great pics!

 

[robf]

Your tank looks amazing!! Great pics!

DITTO! Amazing.

 

[cdness]

Thanks for the complements!

So for an update on the current tank status... The Calcium reactor is still dry. I have been coming up empty trying to find parts that fit this thing. I think I am going to have to contact them directly to get the parts so I can get this thing running.

I ran into an isolated issue with my Hyacinth B-nest colony a few days ago. In a matter of 2 - 3 hours it went from perfectly healthy to 75% bleached out. I tested the water and as expected everything is right where it normally is. ALK was a bit lower than I like it but not out of tolerance. Just so it is specified 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate, 440 Calcium, 8 Alkalinity, 1440 Magnesium, 1.025 salinity. I decided to pull the colony out and frag off what I could to try save some of it. What I ended up with was a frag rack with about 15 frags of the birdsnest. The rest was shot. I lost a few of the frags too and am down to about 10 frags. I hope some of them are OK and can re-grow the colony. It seems like the ones I cut further away from the bleaching are the ones that are doing much better now.

I won the R2R Supporter contest and am receiving a shipment from SexyCorals hopefully tomorrow. I added a few things to the order and it sounds like he is adding some extras into the box as well. It will be like Christmas in September. I'll be sure to post some pics when they are all acclimated to the tank.

 

[cdness]

DOH! I was going to post pics of the stuff from SC. I'll post them up here in the next few days and do a better update.

I had an alk issue and lost a couple other corals but things are better now. Time to really get those dosers or the calcium reactor going as I am using between 100 - 150 ml of alk daily now.