John's SPS Shallow 90g Peninsula-Lagoon build

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Very nice! Yeah just about all are pending pickup now. Glad you still got some pieces, I've got small frags of both of them that popped off while busting them up and will let them grow out again :) I had to get out my 12v oscillating saw to get threw them. Man those bases were thick! I think the other piece you got from me was maybe that multi color polyp from Malaysia? Hope so, that one was looking real promising but locked up and went dormant on me. No polyps extension and just a funky pinkish flesh color overall now.

Looks like a good temp setup. Hope you have a smooth transfer and reconfiguration of the new layout! Gonna be killer when it's done
Nice! Yeah, it's amazing how deep and hard those bases can be. When building a strong reef, it's all about that strong foundation. Malaysian, that's it. (sorry, had a brain-fart) It's a super cool piece and I bet it's going to look nice when bigger, so many colors. I think I'm going to have to up my heating game for the next couple weeks, as the outside temps are going to fall in the high 30's, so I'm going to add another heater or two. This morning when I checked the temp, it was 75.5 with one 300w heater. I definitely need to get some more heat in there.
 

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Thanks! Yeah it's a little disheartening, but ultimately, this tank turned into something other than what I had envisioned and this is the result of trying/experimenting with something new (Triton). It never really took off, nor did it really recover long term. Even with going back to old school methods. I think it's missing a few things (biology-wise), so I'm going to correct those and start with some nice ocean rock and really take my time. The plan is to have one or two corals/colonies per rock and also have one clam per rock (for the larger pieces). I really wanted to capture that shallow reef that I saw in Tahiti, so that's the plan and I'm going to stick with it and take my time. The center piece will be an old school purple monster, with some millies, smoothies and hopefully a humilis and maybe a gemmifera? I'll have a stag or two that will grow from tiles in the substrate/sand, so they'll give a little depth. The metal halides will give me everything that I was missing before, so I'm excited and look forward to the journey. Patience and a few IPA's or margaritas will do the trick. :p
Honestly I love the idea. You don't see many tanks that give good space for larger colonies. It will take patience but the result will be great!
 
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Honestly I love the idea. You don't see many tanks that give good space for larger colonies. It will take patience but the result will be great!
Yeah, the hardest part will be to resist impulse buying, but I'm so busy I really don't see that as being a problem. Plus, I will most likely set up a long term frag tank in the garage, so I can always collect frags and put them in there? :p
 
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Well, the move is over and the fallout begins. A couple pieces took a hit, while others are hanging in. I lost my male anthias during the move. I found him dead the next day, so the stress must’ve did him in? I also had to remove the filamented flasher to the nano, as he was harassing the anthias and the McCoskers. So he could’ve caused more stress? While I was removing everything, there was a moment when there were just a couple pieces of rock left in the tank and it looked awesome with all of the open area exposed. So, I’m definitely going to go minimal on the rock work for the reset. In fact, I may pick up more Solomon island LR and make this a very specific tank? Tahiti/Solomon motif. Especially with Unique bringing in so many cool Solomon island pieces.
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Lime in the sky before it got fragged up.
 
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Tank is cleaned, just have to clean the sump a little more and clear out the buildup in the plumbing. I’m really going to try and keep all of the pumps on the back wall this time. I think I’m only going to keep a couple rocks from the original build, both of which are old school Fiji LR. I just have to figure out how to remove the confetti colony?
The McCoskers is still hiding and not coming out, so I’m not sure what’s going on with that little dude? He still looks like he’s eating, but I really don’t see him come out and eat. He just hides under some rock and corals all day.
 
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Yeah i'm gonna try and get back into the hobby one step at a time.
That's good to hear. I love nano tanks, cause you can do a lot with them while not worrying about maintaining a huge tank. I kinda miss the 90's a little, softies with some leathers and maybe maze brain? I'm really digging using TM All for Reef in my nano now, it's doing great with no water changes, plus I'm adding some reef moonshiners elements on top of the AFR. I'm actually dosing AFR on my temp tank now and it's doing pretty good so far, especially with the trauma of moving everything minus the sand bed.
I also find nano tanks to be very therapeutic (as all reef tanks are). Lmk if you ever need anything?
 

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That's good to hear. I love nano tanks, cause you can do a lot with them while not worrying about maintaining a huge tank. I kinda miss the 90's a little, softies with some leathers and maybe maze brain? I'm really digging using TM All for Reef in my nano now, it's doing great with no water changes, plus I'm adding some reef moonshiners elements on top of the AFR. I'm actually dosing AFR on my temp tank now and it's doing pretty good so far, especially with the trauma of moving everything minus the sand bed.

I'm so out of practice I'd need to lookup a few of those acronyms lol.

I also find nano tanks to be very therapeutic (as all reef tanks are). Lmk if you ever need anything?

Sure thing! at the moment i'm alright, just slowly getting things ready for an overhaul / cleaning.

I reached out to Tunze they're replacing the motor blocks, apparently my year of Tunze's specifically are known to be a bad batch.. Was a nice surprise.
 
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I'm so out of practice I'd need to lookup a few of those acronyms lol.



Sure thing! at the moment i'm alright, just slowly getting things ready for an overhaul / cleaning.

I reached out to Tunze they're replacing the motor blocks, apparently my year of Tunze's specifically are known to be a bad batch.. Was a nice surprise.
Roger at Tunze is awesome! I just bought some calcium carbonate media for my CaRx from him. I like reborn, just don’t like the extra PO4 you get from it. The Tunze media is just alk and Ca. Tropic Marin All for Reef (aka AFR) is there complete dosing in a single solution, calcium, alk, mag and trace elements. It’s now in powder form, so you just mix it with RO and you have a complete dosing regime all in one. It’s pretty awesome stuff for smaller systems.
 
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So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thread, mostly too busy with work, but while I make RO, here are a few pics of the DMZ temp tank.
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At this point it’s a science experiment from hell, but most everything is growing and recovering, some better than others. My McCoskers is still hiding and I barely see him and to be honest, I haven’t seen him in over a week, but there are places I can’t see. Most of the fish stay low and don’t come out much unless I’m feeding them. But all look healthy and getting bigger. I had a tragic accident with my striped blenny though, somehow my skimmer intake got him, which is strange, because he seemed a lot bigger than the intake, but nonetheless, it was pretty painful to find him that way. I didn’t even think about covering the intake and I have it in the corner and thought it would be okay. It really sucks, as he was such a cool fish with a great personality. Ugh! My blue maxima is still receded on one end of its mantle (product of being on my yellow tang’s menu) but it’s still hanging on. Hopefully it will love the halides and a nice snug rock when I reset the tank. Bubble algae and aiptasia are kinda going crazy, so I added some female emerald crabs and I’m waiting on a friend to bring me some berghias soon. My confetti, which looked like it was on its way out and just shriveled up, now has color and polyp extension. Although my alk is really low while dosing all for reef, the added trace is doing wonders, plus dosing my dailies keeps everything looking better each day. My latest ICP has me at 92%, with only a handful of corrections to be made. Tin and copper are completely gone and aluminum is slowly coming down. I have a feeling that the clam cradles that I used had some aluminum in them and that’s what caused it to rise. Since I removed them, it seemed to help. I’ll most likely pick up more Solomon island rock though, as I’m not sure what old rocks I’m going to keep for the reset? Well, that’s it for now, gotta finish three episodes of work in less than a week, oh joy! Happy reefing everyone!
 
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Well, the first part of the new canopy came in, still waiting on a few more pieces, but had to put up the main supports to see what it’s going to look like with halides.
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It’s amazing how much two bulbs/pendants cover compared to 9 LEDs. Plus, no filter needed to take a pic.
 
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Not much of an update, but there’s progress, albeit slow. I wanted to give a huge shout out to @neon_reefer for helping design the sleeves for the 8020 main supports on the new canopy. I was in a holding pattern until they were designed/printed, so thanks Tony! Now I just need to get the electrician back here to install another breaker in the closet for the halides and install a vent/light to keep things cool, as I’m going to move more equipment in there, mainly ballasts and power supplies. The 3D printed brackets that I had made for the Kessil bricks melted at some point. Not good.
Meanwhile, the temp tank keeps holding on, but my aiptasia problem is becoming problematic. I bought some berghia from Salty Underground, but I think being overheated during shipping and the low salinity water they were in didn’t help, even with proper acclimation. After releasing them, some immediately laid eggs and then disappeared, not to be seen again. I know they usually take some time to get their numbers up, but I haven’t seen a single one since the first night and there are more aiptasia now than before. Salty Underground never responded to my email about the low salinity and possible overheating, so I guess I’m out $130? Fortunately, there’s a local reefer who’s breeding berghia, but doesn’t have any available yet. So, I wait and watch the aiptasia slowly overtake the tank. And no, I’ve never had luck with peppermints, ever. I bought @Smite old RB halide fixture, but haven’t had time to mount it over the temp tank yet. Hopefully this weekend? But now that the canopy is in and secure, I need to order a few short pieces to tie in the sides and one cross brace for the back, for extra stability.
 
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Just a small update. I was able to get away for a little bit today and drove over to Unique Corals to finally pick up two tropical abalones. These little things are super cool. I also should have the final pieces to the canopy arriving tomorrow, so that will finally be finished and ready for the halides. I will more than likely head back to Unique and pick up a few pieces of Australian live rock. It was looking pretty good and I decided that I’m not going to use any old rock in the reboot, so this will be a fresh/clean install.
 
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Phase one of the canopy is complete. Need to figure out how to mount the xho’s, might have to print some brackets? We’re getting closer to adding some water. Almost there………
 
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