Diving The World's 80g Acro Wonderland!

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DivingTheWorld

DivingTheWorld

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I wrote this up in the question of the day, but thought people in this thread might find it helpful as well. What do I do when I leave for vacation? If I'm gone 5 days or less I don't change a thing. A week or more and I get my tank set up for the trip.

A few of the things I put in place:

Power - Our home is backed up by Tesla powerwalls. I also hard wire my Apex to prevent any possibility of losing connection.

Wifi Thermostat - In case it gets crazy hot during the summer or crazy cold during the winter, I can monitor room and tank temps and adjust the thermostat remotely if needed.

Feeding - We have a pet sitter who stops by every other day and drops in frozen food. I add a floating cone to the tank and have pre-filled bags in the freezer that she just pours one in the ring each visit. I DO NOT allow sitters to decide what and how much to feed. I also set up an auto feeder to feed NLS pellets once a day into a separate floating ring.

ATO - I put a brute next to the tank and fill it with more than enough RODI to cover the length of time I'll be gone. I zip tie the tube/cables together as well as to the brute so they can't be bumped off or pulled down by our cat. I also have a backup ATO pump that I just leave on top of the brute. It's an easy swap out should the original stop working.

Auto Waste Collector - I use an auto waste collector for my skimmer. This allows collection of up to a month of skimmate and will automatically shut off my skimmer if it fills up.

Monitoring - I have a camera facing the tank from two different directions so I can see at a moments glance what's going on. I can direct my sitter in realtime if something needs to be fixed.

Labeling - I've labeled all key items under the tank, dosers, ATO, skimmer, top off , etc. Along with the cameras, this helps me direct whomever is watching the tank what to do. Instead of saying, drain that big white and clear thing with the gunk on top, I can just say "skimmer" and they see the label and know what it is.

Remote Testing & Control - The biggest stress anxiety reducer for me has been Alkatronic. When we leave home, within a day or two CO2 in the house will equalize and the pH goes up and levels off. This in general causes Alk to go down. With my Alkatronic and Apex, I can monitor my Alk and make adjustments to my doser pumps to balance it out. Once balanced it generally stays very steady for the duration of our trip.

Here's some pics of some of the things I do. Note: these are old pics so if my corals look different, that's why!

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Michael Gray

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I'm in this boat in 16 days. 10 day texas vacation I'm doomed. Expect everything to be dead. Dog sitters are gonna feed and dose my zeo stuff but still expecting death. So nervous I don't even wanna go on this vacation. Won't be able to enjoy.
 
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I'm in this boat in 16 days. 10 day texas vacation I'm doomed. Expect everything to be dead. Dog sitters are gonna feed and dose my zeo stuff but still expecting death. So nervous I don't even wanna go on this vacation. Won't be able to enjoy.
Mike, sometimes you just have to wing it and hope for the best. 10 days isn't too bad. Thank God I don't do that Zeo stuff though! :p Try to enjoy yourself!
 

Michael Gray

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Mike, sometimes you just have to wing it and hope for the best. 10 days isn't too bad. Thank God I don't do that Zeo stuff though! :p Try to enjoy yourself!
Well father will be here 5 of the 10 days he will dose and feed per directions. But I have a co worker doing 2 days and a buddy doing 2 days lol. Watching my dog and feeding and dosing. It's gonna be scary! No point in me stealing your jolt for it to die in 2 weeks ;)
 
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BC Hyperberry

Long road for this coral. I got a frag and put it in apparently a bad spot. It browned out and looked terrible for months. I then moved it back onto a plug and banished it to my back frag rack. At some point it vanished. The plug was still there but the coral disappeared. Am I the only one that's happened to? Fast forward at least 6 months and I was looking at pics I took of other corals in the tank and my son asked what that little coral was in the corner.

443.jpg


Turns out it was the lost BC Hyperberry!

So I plucked it out and put it back on a plug. Over the next month or two it started coloring up and looking better and better. I moved it back to my rocks and it started encrusting. So here's where we're at now. I think it's finally found it's home!

444.JPG
 

Cory

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Beautiful corals! Are the colors the same to your eyes in real life with your t5 setup and reefbrite led, or is it because of your filters for the vibrant the colors?
 
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Beautiful corals! Are the colors the same to your eyes in real life with your t5 setup and reefbrite led, or is it because of your filters for the vibrant the colors?
Hey Cory, I try my best to take the pictures as accurate to my naked eye as I can. In some cases I can get very close, but in all cases the corals look better and more vibrant to my naked eye. I can get pretty good Pop with my one Reefbrite XHO, but it’s not nearly as good as if I were running all LED or LED with Reefbrite supplement.

IMO, LED provides a better viewing pop to corals, but T5 provides better colors to corals if that makes sense. The best is to have a combination of the two. Again, this is just my opinion.
 

Cory

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Hey Cory, I try my best to take the pictures as accurate to my naked eye as I can. In some cases I can get very close, but in all cases the corals look better and more vibrant to my naked eye. I can get pretty good Pop with my one Reefbrite XHO, but it’s not nearly as good as if I were running all LED or LED with Reefbrite supplement.

IMO, LED provides a better viewing pop to corals, but T5 provides better colors to corals if that makes sense. The best is to have a combination of the two. Again, this is just my opinion.
Nice. Yeah i was just wondering if thats how they looked or they were enhanced some way. Ive got a used metal halide/t5 fixture and want to add some new t5s. Curious if thats the t5 effect.
 
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Amazing tank! What bulb combination are you using for the ATI fixture?
Thanks! I run 4 B+, 2 C+, 1 P+, 1 Actinic, all ATI. I have lots more details here:

 

TheWyatt174

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BC Hyperberry

Long road for this coral. I got a frag and put it in apparently a bad spot. It browned out and looked terrible for months. I then moved it back onto a plug and banished it to my back frag rack. At some point it vanished. The plug was still there but the coral disappeared. Am I the only one that's happened to? Fast forward at least 6 months and I was looking at pics I took of other corals in the tank and my son asked what that little coral was in the corner.

443.jpg


Turns out it was the lost BC Hyperberry!

So I plucked it out and put it back on a plug. Over the next month or two it started coloring up and looking better and better. I moved it back to my rocks and it started encrusting. So here's where we're at now. I think it's finally found it's home!

444.JPG
Forgive me if it has been asked and answered already, what is the blue/purple acro in the first picture here? And where did you get it?? I really really need to find a piece have been looking for a nice blue like that for awhile!
 
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Forgive me if it has been asked and answered already, what is the blue/purple acro in the first picture here? And where did you get it?? I really really need to find a piece have been looking for a nice blue like that for awhile!
That’s Sapphire Milli. Very hard to find! I got mine from Nick (Schnitzelreef) in LA. I think he’s since taken down his tank though. I usually have frags available locally.
 

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