jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[cconnolly]

I saw this blue one which really looks awesome and I wanted to buy except I’ve spent way too much money lately on new stuff.

Mt Vesuvius Fungia

Size: 2.5 inches This Mt Vesuvius Fungia is "WYSIWYG" What you see is what you get so this one is yours!

pacificeastaquaculture.com

 

[jcolliii]

I saw that one - it is totally cool looking and definitely has a volcano look to it! Blue is a tough color to find in reef critters. Purple is everywhere, but true blue seems to be a much more difficult find.

 

[TheWB]

I saw that one - it is totally cool looking and definitely has a volcano look to it! Blue is a tough color to find in reef critters. Purple is everywhere, but true blue seems to be a much more difficult find.

What about something like this?

Product Page | Hidden Treasure

www.hiddentreasurecorals.com

Its not completely dark blue but thats gonna be hard to find without going for another staghorn. Just throwing it out there.
Too bad blue hornets have that yellow skirt, that’s pretty dark blue but a lot of contrast too.

 

[jcolliii]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Unfortunately, nothing is really speaking to me right now. I almost pulled the trigger on a kick butt rainbow echinata, but no guarantee about what colors it will grow out into.

I'll keep my eyes peeled on eBay I suppose and see what pops up there. Can get better deals there on auctions than pretty much anywhere else anyhow.

And, I need to same my pennies for my upcoming DIY project. If you haven't guessed yet from the equipment I posed on the last page, going to set up an auto water change system and set it up on a smart outlet, low water float switch in the NSW tank and use a cole-parmer peristaltic pump with two heads to simultaneously add and remove water at the same time - maybe a half gallon a day or something like that. The smart outlet will turn on 1x or 2x/day for maybe five minutes at a time (outside of dosing and ATO times), that will power up a float switch (in upside down position to monitor a low water condition - don't want water coming out when none is going in), and that float switch outlet will power on the peristaltic pump. I will adjust the speed of the pump so that five minutes changes out about a half gallon or so.

 

[TheWB]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Unfortunately, nothing is really speaking to me right now. I almost pulled the trigger on a kick butt rainbow echinata, but no guarantee about what colors it will grow out into.

I'll keep my eyes peeled on eBay I suppose and see what pops up there. Can get better deals there on auctions than pretty much anywhere else anyhow.

And, I need to same my pennies for my upcoming DIY project. If you haven't guessed yet from the equipment I posed on the last page, going to set up an auto water change system and set it up on a smart outlet, low water float switch in the NSW tank and use a cole-parmer peristaltic pump with two heads to simultaneously add and remove water at the same time - maybe a half gallon a day or something like that. The smart outlet will turn on 1x or 2x/day for maybe five minutes at a time (outside of dosing and ATO times), that will power up a float switch (in upside down position to monitor a low water condition - don't want water coming out when none is going in), and that float switch outlet will power on the peristaltic pump. I will adjust the speed of the pump so that five minutes changes out about a half gallon or so.

That enchinata is bonkers in the pic but you called it, who knows what it will look like in your lighting conditions. Makes shopping for corals online difficult.

I like the ingenuity of the new auto water change system, can’t wait to see how you put it together.

 

[muffinmanXL]

FedEx is horrible all around. I really dread when I get a shipping notification and see it’s them that’s delivering my package

+1 FedEx is atrocious - delays are one thing but crappy tracking and communication/CS are inexcusable
I now actively avoid ordering live goods or time sensitive goods from vendors using FedEx

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Well, the Biocube 16 LED hood crapped out leaving me with just a 9w actinic LED strip that I added on for supplementation. Ordered a Smatfarm 95w chinese LED from Amazon. For $125 bucks shipped, it's 95 watts, has 6 channels of color control, and comes with the mounting bracket! They seem to have pretty good reviews other than for the programming, which seems to be rather cryptic. A couple videos on youtube though, so should be okay. going open top on that one and will cut the upper black trim off and probably CNC a curved acrylic top as the bed on my CNC should be able to cut that in one piece. Have the screen from my original IM cover that I can reuse. Should look nice with the trim removed.

Still looking for blue corals. I have found a couple pieces that I think would look great - none of them are particularly dark blue (which is ideally what I am looking for), but all are pretty nice!

In no particular order...

A bowerbanki that I am not sure what sort of lighting this image was captured under. I assume super blue lighting, but I have asked for clarification and a 10k photo.

An echinata that is just super cool. This one is blue under both 10k and listerine lighting.

Or a similar echinata with a bit more green and purple. Still a neat piece. Right now leaning toward the first one, but without knowing what lighting it's photographed under, I am not pulling any trigger just yet.

I've been eyeballing this blue guy at PacificEast Aquaculture

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

+1 FedEx is atrocious - delays are one thing but crappy tracking and communication/CS are inexcusable
I now actively avoid ordering live goods or time sensitive goods from vendors using FedEx

I've got one package from UPS that's MIA and one from FedEx that's MIA. Just glad neither of them contains fish or corals!

 

[jcolliii]

I've been eyeballing this blue guy at PacificEast Aquaculture

Never bought from them before, but I think I look at their website more than just about all others. Just a matter of time I suppose.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Never bought from them before, but I think I look at their website more than just about all others. Just a matter of time I suppose.

I haven't either but I sure like the pretty pictures lol.

 

[TheWB]

I've been eyeballing this blue guy at PacificEast Aquaculture

That’s incredible. My last blasto, which wasn’t anything special, never grew one new head in two years so I’d be hesitant to spend whatever fortune I’m sure this one costs to try it out, although I’m tempted.

 

[jcolliii]

So far, for AWC project, I've bought(not including shipping):

$150 - Cole-Parmer MasterFlex Console Drive 7520-40 with Head 77200-62. Pump is variable speed, and will be selling the pump head to put money back in to this project.
$36 - 2 Cole-Parmer Masterflex 7015-20 heads for L/S-15 size tubing.
$13 - 1 8' length of new L/S-15 size (#96410-15) Masterflex Precision High-Performance platinum cured silicone tubing. This stuff is usually super expensive, but found a cutoff on ebay.

So, $199 spent so far, but - I'm going to sell that head for $75, so that brings me back down to $124.

I still need:

- 1 NSW container of at least 25 gallons;
- 4 3/16" barb to john guest - 2 per channel to convert the silicone peristaltic tubing to rigid push-fitting type;
- Tubing for the runs to the tank and back to the basement;
- 1 smart outlet for basement
- float switch for the NSW tank to prevent power being turned on to pump in the case of no/low NSW condition

I would prefer a narrow, space-saving tank as we plan on building an off grid small house in the near future, so space will be premium, but I haven't seen anything that I like yet.

 

[jcolliii]

Anyone have any experience with blue sponge? Either the plating or the mounding varieties? That color blue seems to be exactly what I am wanting. BUT... with sponges I worry a bit... I don't want to have sponge growing between coral branches and have to clean it out all the time.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Anyone have any experience with blue sponge? Either the plating or the mounding varieties? That color blue seems to be exactly what I am wanting. BUT... with sponges I worry a bit... I don't want to have sponge growing between coral branches and have to clean it out all the time.

While I think sponges like this look incredible, you can put me firmly in the "I'd never put one purposefully in my tank" camp.

Not blue sponges but I had a sponge recently kill one of my blastos, I have a different sponge that is giving my setosa a big fight, the same sponge that killed the blasto is now all through one of my zoa colonies, and yet another sponge variety is trying to crowd out my alveopora.

All this caused me to start a thread asking how to nuke the darn things and there weren't really any easy answers. But more relevant to your question, I had one person participating in the thread looking for answers to sponges too...and he was specifically fighting blue sponge.

Long story short, it would worry me. But then again, maybe it would outcompete pest sponges and at least would look cool! You at least have the advantage that most surfaces in your tank are accessible.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

So far, for AWC project, I've bought(not including shipping):

$150 - Cole-Parmer MasterFlex Console Drive 7520-40 with Head 77200-62. Pump is variable speed, and will be selling the pump head to put money back in to this project.
$36 - 2 Cole-Parmer Masterflex 7015-20 heads for L/S-15 size tubing.
$13 - 1 8' length of new L/S-15 size (#96410-15) Masterflex Precision High-Performance platinum cured silicone tubing. This stuff is usually super expensive, but found a cutoff on ebay.

So, $199 spent so far, but - I'm going to sell that head for $75, so that brings me back down to $124.

I still need:

- 1 NSW container of at least 25 gallons;
- 4 3/16" barb to john guest - 2 per channel to convert the silicone peristaltic tubing to rigid push-fitting type;
- Tubing for the runs to the tank and back to the basement;
- 1 smart outlet for basement
- float switch for the NSW tank to prevent power being turned on to pump in the case of no/low NSW condition

I would prefer a narrow, space-saving tank as we plan on building an off grid small house in the near future, so space will be premium, but I haven't seen anything that I like yet.

I can't wait to see how this goes. You don't see a lot of AWC setups for smaller systems but it's something I've really been interested in implementing to help with stability (and to give my back a break lol).

For smaller NSF tanks, look into RV water tanks. That's what I use for my RODI storage, and you can get them in a large range of sizes and all sorts of shapes, including nice narrow ones great for fitting into tight spaces (mine had to fit the narrow gap between my washing machine and the utility sink).

 

[TheWB]

I can't wait to see how this goes. You don't see a lot of AWC setups for smaller systems but it's something I've really been interested in implementing to help with stability (and to give my back a break lol).

For smaller NSW tanks, look into RV water tanks. That's what I use for my RODI storage, and you can get them in a large range of sizes and all sorts of shapes, including nice narrow ones great for fitting into tight spaces (mine had to fit the narrow gap between my washing machine and the utility sink).

Where did you get your RV tanks? Is there a pic in your thread, I don’t remember seeing one but it’s been a while.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Where did you get your RV tanks? Is there a pic in your thread, I don’t remember seeing one but it’s been a while.

My tank is by Class A Customs. I was able to pick it up on Amazon but they have their own site, too. The one I have holds 20 gallons. Didn't come with any hardware but is pre-threaded to add what you need. I put a vented cap, water fill line with a float switch which I bult into a screw on cap, and a ball valve with an elbow at the bottom.

 

[jcolliii]

Those look nice and are pretty inexpensive. But I gotta be able to get a pump in there for mixing :-(

 

[TheWB]

Those look nice and are pretty inexpensive. But I gotta be able to get a pump in there for mixing :-(

Yep, need to get pumps in. I’m using a 20 gallon feed bin (basically a trash can) from Tractor Supply to store RO/DI. I had to use a Uniseal because of the curved surface to install the spigot and it has a very minor leak. I’d like to replace it with something rectangular, one for RODI and one to mix so I can do more than 5 gallons at a time of saltwater, but all the options seem so expensive, especially when you add shipping.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Those look nice and are pretty inexpensive. But I gotta be able to get a pump in there for mixing :-(

That's my one complaint, I really wish it had an access port in the top.