It was this big... Now its this big...
- Frag Build
- Thread starter F i s h y
- Start date
- Tagged users None
MrsBugmaster
2500 Club Member
Ok I’m awake now!
tcarstens4
Active Member
Decided to go with a couple of these
They aren’t hooked together so I should be able to throw them wherever I need to and I’ll use the larger reactor on my 200g that comes in t minus one week, I have lots of prep to do, even though I’m not setting the tank up until I’m done with school. For the 200g I’m also going to use filter fleece on it instead of socks- I personally hate filter socks now that I’ve been using them for a bit and staying on top of cleaning them
They aren’t hooked together so I should be able to throw them wherever I need to and I’ll use the larger reactor on my 200g that comes in t minus one week, I have lots of prep to do, even though I’m not setting the tank up until I’m done with school. For the 200g I’m also going to use filter fleece on it instead of socks- I personally hate filter socks now that I’ve been using them for a bit and staying on top of cleaning them
crusso1993
7500 Club Member
Get a room.
fishguy242
Cronies..... INSERT BUILD THREAD BADGE HERE !!
Partner Member 2024
Reef Tank 365
Hospitality Award
Midwest Reefer
Fish Medic
R2R Secret Santa 2023
How's about some TTT progress pics??...A few shots of the tank that is going away... time to get it out to make room for the new tank...
MrsBugmaster
2500 Club Member
Watch the O ring seal. They fall out easily when unscrewing it.Decided to go with a couple of these
They aren’t hooked together so I should be able to throw them wherever I need to and I’ll use the larger reactor on my 200g that comes in t minus one week, I have lots of prep to do, even though I’m not setting the tank up until I’m done with school. For the 200g I’m also going to use filter fleece on it instead of socks- I personally hate filter socks now that I’ve been using them for a bit and staying on top of cleaning them
F i s h y
2nd In Command.
Here is the progress...
Tanks and sump are cleaned out and dry. All coral and livestock has been moved. Pics are not in order. I'm to worn out to even try. I forgot how much goes into tearing down a tank. Cleaning all the equipment. Rinsing the sand... its hours of work...
Also look at that pile of electronics... who thought it would be a good idea to put that much stuff near so much saltwater.
Need to pull the stand out from the wall. Remove the rest of the plumbing and the light holders. Then it can be taken to storage.
Tanks and sump are cleaned out and dry. All coral and livestock has been moved. Pics are not in order. I'm to worn out to even try. I forgot how much goes into tearing down a tank. Cleaning all the equipment. Rinsing the sand... its hours of work...
Also look at that pile of electronics... who thought it would be a good idea to put that much stuff near so much saltwater.
Need to pull the stand out from the wall. Remove the rest of the plumbing and the light holders. Then it can be taken to storage.
Nate Chalk
7500 Club Member
serious egg crate work, where did you get a piece that big lolHere is the progress...
Tanks and sump are cleaned out and dry. All coral and livestock has been moved. Pics are not in order. I'm to worn out to even try. I forgot how much goes into tearing down a tank. Cleaning all the equipment. Rinsing the sand... its hours of work...
Also look at that pile of electronics... who thought it would be a good idea to put that much stuff near so much saltwater.
Need to pull the stand out from the wall. Remove the rest of the plumbing and the light holders. Then it can be taken to storage.
F i s h y
2nd In Command.
It is several peices. I zip tie them up.
F i s h y
2nd In Command.
Yes it is! I agree. Can't wait for the 1st
Stang67
KEEP CALM AND REEF ON
Partner Member 2024
Midwest Reefer
Reef Pumpkin Carver
Ohio Reefer
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
The 1st will be a nightmare. So will the week following. I would wait to be happy till about the 15th. Then you will have gotten all the gear back in and running, the lights set, everything back in the pool and happy. Then you'll be able sleep again with out any worry. Or maybe that was just my experience. Your way better at this then I am so your prolly right
F i s h y
2nd In Command.
I am off the 31st, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I have all the equipment cleaned. All the sand rinsed, a list of everything that needs to happen... honestly the part that freaks me out the most is scaping.. I want it to look really good. I don't have a clear picture in my mind yet as to what that looks like.
Can't wait to love on the vlamingi. The fish are really going to be a focal point in the new tank.
Stang67
KEEP CALM AND REEF ON
Partner Member 2024
Midwest Reefer
Reef Pumpkin Carver
Ohio Reefer
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
Everything will go great. Just rattling the cage. You got this.
Nate Chalk
7500 Club Member
Petcrazyson
5000 Club Member
What do you plan on using for scaping? If you got the money Caribsea is really nice!
@Mrs.F i s h y is the scape maker in that household. Her mind will blow yours
F i s h y
2nd In Command.
I have been reluctant to post any of the not so fun things that have been happening in my reefing life... But i think truth in reefing is important so here are a few of the not so great things that have happened recently. Im mostly writing this as a reminder to myself that sometimes bad things happen even when everything seems to be going really well. And that it is a reminder to enjoy the best parts of reefing when you can, accept the worst parts when they happen, and remember that is part of the passion. Fixing, balancing, restoring, growing an entire ecosystem in a glass (or plastic) box in our homes. I don't have dates for some of this but.... it is what it is.. This will be long... for some of you TLDR... but thats ok its really just for me.
EEFW's
A few weeks ago while doing some routine maintenance, Mrs. Fishy mentioned to me that some of the torches did not appear to be as happy as they normally were. I thought it was because i was still dialing in the doser and getting the alk and calcium where they needed to be. I had randomly lost a hammer and a frog head, but only a single of each so thought nothing of it.
About a week later while fiddling around i had a torch knocked over. i picked it up and thought that the skin was peeling on it. Turns out upon closer inspection there were Euphyllia eating flat worms all over the neck of the heads. Immediately i went into fix it mode. i took every one of the euphyllia out of the tank. gave them all a dip and a thorough scrub. then i put them all into a 10 gallon QT tank i set up. The intent was to continue to monitor them, dip them once every 3 or 4 days and keep watch over them to make sure there were no eggs or anything.
I dont know how they got in. i dip everything... learned that the hard way once before, inspect everything, etc. it had been almost 4 months since i had added anything.
Busted heater in QT.
Fast forward around 36 hours from the discovery of the EEFW's. I was at work it was about 4pm. i had an hour to go and i get a message from Mrs. Fishy. The QT tank is cloudy and the water smells awful. there was nothing i could do and she was busy with kids from school, getting oldest son to work, cleaning the house, dinner, etc... So it had to wait... I get home and instantly i know that it isnt good. I immediately go into disaster mode for the 2nd time in a week. I take out anything that even looks half alive. rinse everything in fresh clean saltwater, and then with no where else to put them, drop them back in the DT. The heater had stayed on in the tank. 10 gallons of saltwater heated to a nice 95 degrees F.
in those 2 incidents i lost 70% of my personal Euphyllia collection. I am still losing a few things at this time after a few weeks... most recently i lost 2 heads of torch on saturday. i think i still have a few colonies that are not going to push through and im prepared to take those losses.
Flying Fish
i received a beautiful regal yellow belly hippo tang from a reefer that was getting out of the hobby. i placed it in my Nem tank (all the nems were in isolation boxes because they were for sale). This tang had been in the persons tank for 6 years. it was a beautiful specimen. i had it for 48 hours. Lights out on the 2nd day... it spooked, jumped up 2 inches out of the water, and landed in the isolation box with my carpet nems in it. i heard it happen and had it out in less than 30 seconds. but the damage was done... it lasted until the morning.
Coral show disappointment
Stocked up with all kinds of amazing coral... had a great setup, some amazing help on marketing, lots of positive vibes from all my reefing friends... prepared for a long time. My prices are hands down better than anything anyone else was offering... Sold nothing... i sold about $600 bucks in frags that i had glued to plugs because i broke them off my colonies while cleaning my tank. or they were loose zoas, or a few cuts from a gorg. more than 50% of my sales were nems. Everyone wants frags. Everyone wants single or double head Euphyllia.
Car break in
Last Friday night my vehicle was broken into in front of my home. Some personal items were taken, debit cards that were either not activated or expired, car registration, the amazing painting that my wife had painted that was due to be shipped to a fellow reefer, and a box of lights in the back seat. These were the brand new Noo Psyche lights i had just gotten from another R2R member and one of my Kessils. My intent was to put them over the temporary holding bin for the coral while i worked through the new tank upgrade at the end of the month. People should stay in their own lane...
Temp bin destruction
I had moved all of the livestock and coral to the temp holding Rubbermaid this weekend. Everything went really well, the transition was seamless. And i was able to take my time doing it. Fast forward to today at lunch. i walked in the front door and i could smell the stench of death again. My first thought was the old sump, i had scrubbed it and dried it but i was unable to get all the algae off the acrylic baffles. walked into the fish room and saw the cloudy milky color of the bin. saw the fish at the surface breathing in air... i instantly knew something had happened. Ammonia spike. Turns out i had failures of not 1 but 2 of the power heads that were running to keep the water oxygenated. I dont know how long it had been going and i dont know what other contributing factors there may have been but today i lost nearly all of my fish from my tear down in my temp housing 12 of 17 died. I also lost one of my most beautiful nems, and another full round of coral. SPS and Euphyllia were hit the hardest. I think this was a perfect storm... once things started to perish it snow balled and in the hours between yesterday at 4pm and today at 12pm when i had last checked it imploded. A large water change later, increased flow, and removal of anything that looked like it was not going to last... and ive done everything i can.
Here is the spin...
Stuff happens. My brain is fried today. I am mentally exhausted and physically sick about what has happened in the last month.
EEFW's - i was able to quickly formulate a plan and put it in action. Had it not been for the heater, i think my chances of success were very high. This tells me i am ready should anything else happen that requires emergency action.
Flying Fish - yep these things happen. next time i should keep a lid on the isolation box, or better yet, put the fish somewhere else.
Coral Show disappointment - I think i had a great game plan. i think i was well prepared. This was a great learning experience. i know what to do differently in the future and i believe i will sell lots of coral moving forward. it was worth the experience to be a little disappointed.
Car Break in - yea.... not sure i can spin that one. people suck... did give me a reason to clean out my car again. i wont keep anything in there that i wouldnt be ok with just putting on the curb ever again.
Temp bin destruction - still processing this one. i think if nothing else, it showed that again i can pivot well during an emergency and identify problems and come up with solutions quickly. I gave this my best shot. thats all i can ask.
In the words of one of my favorite movie characters of all times...
Just keep swimming...
Thats all we can do right?
EEFW's
A few weeks ago while doing some routine maintenance, Mrs. Fishy mentioned to me that some of the torches did not appear to be as happy as they normally were. I thought it was because i was still dialing in the doser and getting the alk and calcium where they needed to be. I had randomly lost a hammer and a frog head, but only a single of each so thought nothing of it.
About a week later while fiddling around i had a torch knocked over. i picked it up and thought that the skin was peeling on it. Turns out upon closer inspection there were Euphyllia eating flat worms all over the neck of the heads. Immediately i went into fix it mode. i took every one of the euphyllia out of the tank. gave them all a dip and a thorough scrub. then i put them all into a 10 gallon QT tank i set up. The intent was to continue to monitor them, dip them once every 3 or 4 days and keep watch over them to make sure there were no eggs or anything.
I dont know how they got in. i dip everything... learned that the hard way once before, inspect everything, etc. it had been almost 4 months since i had added anything.
Busted heater in QT.
Fast forward around 36 hours from the discovery of the EEFW's. I was at work it was about 4pm. i had an hour to go and i get a message from Mrs. Fishy. The QT tank is cloudy and the water smells awful. there was nothing i could do and she was busy with kids from school, getting oldest son to work, cleaning the house, dinner, etc... So it had to wait... I get home and instantly i know that it isnt good. I immediately go into disaster mode for the 2nd time in a week. I take out anything that even looks half alive. rinse everything in fresh clean saltwater, and then with no where else to put them, drop them back in the DT. The heater had stayed on in the tank. 10 gallons of saltwater heated to a nice 95 degrees F.
in those 2 incidents i lost 70% of my personal Euphyllia collection. I am still losing a few things at this time after a few weeks... most recently i lost 2 heads of torch on saturday. i think i still have a few colonies that are not going to push through and im prepared to take those losses.
Flying Fish
i received a beautiful regal yellow belly hippo tang from a reefer that was getting out of the hobby. i placed it in my Nem tank (all the nems were in isolation boxes because they were for sale). This tang had been in the persons tank for 6 years. it was a beautiful specimen. i had it for 48 hours. Lights out on the 2nd day... it spooked, jumped up 2 inches out of the water, and landed in the isolation box with my carpet nems in it. i heard it happen and had it out in less than 30 seconds. but the damage was done... it lasted until the morning.
Coral show disappointment
Stocked up with all kinds of amazing coral... had a great setup, some amazing help on marketing, lots of positive vibes from all my reefing friends... prepared for a long time. My prices are hands down better than anything anyone else was offering... Sold nothing... i sold about $600 bucks in frags that i had glued to plugs because i broke them off my colonies while cleaning my tank. or they were loose zoas, or a few cuts from a gorg. more than 50% of my sales were nems. Everyone wants frags. Everyone wants single or double head Euphyllia.
Car break in
Last Friday night my vehicle was broken into in front of my home. Some personal items were taken, debit cards that were either not activated or expired, car registration, the amazing painting that my wife had painted that was due to be shipped to a fellow reefer, and a box of lights in the back seat. These were the brand new Noo Psyche lights i had just gotten from another R2R member and one of my Kessils. My intent was to put them over the temporary holding bin for the coral while i worked through the new tank upgrade at the end of the month. People should stay in their own lane...
Temp bin destruction
I had moved all of the livestock and coral to the temp holding Rubbermaid this weekend. Everything went really well, the transition was seamless. And i was able to take my time doing it. Fast forward to today at lunch. i walked in the front door and i could smell the stench of death again. My first thought was the old sump, i had scrubbed it and dried it but i was unable to get all the algae off the acrylic baffles. walked into the fish room and saw the cloudy milky color of the bin. saw the fish at the surface breathing in air... i instantly knew something had happened. Ammonia spike. Turns out i had failures of not 1 but 2 of the power heads that were running to keep the water oxygenated. I dont know how long it had been going and i dont know what other contributing factors there may have been but today i lost nearly all of my fish from my tear down in my temp housing 12 of 17 died. I also lost one of my most beautiful nems, and another full round of coral. SPS and Euphyllia were hit the hardest. I think this was a perfect storm... once things started to perish it snow balled and in the hours between yesterday at 4pm and today at 12pm when i had last checked it imploded. A large water change later, increased flow, and removal of anything that looked like it was not going to last... and ive done everything i can.
Here is the spin...
Stuff happens. My brain is fried today. I am mentally exhausted and physically sick about what has happened in the last month.
EEFW's - i was able to quickly formulate a plan and put it in action. Had it not been for the heater, i think my chances of success were very high. This tells me i am ready should anything else happen that requires emergency action.
Flying Fish - yep these things happen. next time i should keep a lid on the isolation box, or better yet, put the fish somewhere else.
Coral Show disappointment - I think i had a great game plan. i think i was well prepared. This was a great learning experience. i know what to do differently in the future and i believe i will sell lots of coral moving forward. it was worth the experience to be a little disappointed.
Car Break in - yea.... not sure i can spin that one. people suck... did give me a reason to clean out my car again. i wont keep anything in there that i wouldnt be ok with just putting on the curb ever again.
Temp bin destruction - still processing this one. i think if nothing else, it showed that again i can pivot well during an emergency and identify problems and come up with solutions quickly. I gave this my best shot. thats all i can ask.
In the words of one of my favorite movie characters of all times...
Just keep swimming...
Thats all we can do right?
Similar threads
