ksfulk's Red Sea Reefer 525xL

Battlecorals

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Ugh crap lol. I think I owe you a spainbow. not sure how I blew that one but I don't remember bagging one for you yesterday, Doh! next time I promise no charger either
 
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ksfulk

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Ugh crap lol. I think I owe you a spainbow. not sure how I blew that one but I don't remember bagging one for you yesterday, Doh! next time I promise no charger either

I'll accept that you are human this time ;) No worries - there are far worse things than that. Im going to pick up them in an hour or so from FedEx, so there's even more mystery to see what fun things are in the truly mystery BattleBox :D
 

Battlecorals

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I'll accept that you are human this time ;) No worries - there are far worse things than that. Im going to pick up them in an hour or so from FedEx, so there's even more mystery to see what fun things are in the truly mystery BattleBox :D

LOl well not to spoil any surprises, there's one that is really close the Spain in fact its like the "cool" spainbow. hopefully that'll tide you over till next time:)
 
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ksfulk

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Had some cool things come in the mail today, as my BattleBox showed up. While what I was hoping for didn't show up, I was pleasantly surprised by 1.) the number of pieces I did recieve, 2.) the size of some of the frags, 3.) the packaging of the entire order and 4.) the quality of the pieces that I did receive. I did get one piece that I already have - but such is the way of the world sometimes :) Here's the pieces that I received:

ORA Frogskin
Tubbs Stellata
Tubbs Pink Jade
Greg Carroll's Efflo
BC Secale
Dale's Purple Unknown
Nilbog Resident

The corals were really well packed and several were still polyped out in the bag. Adam must used some kind of mega-superglue, as I had a hard time getting the frags off the plugs during acclimation and dipping, so I had to cut two of them off the plugs - no big deal, but I'm used to others that are mounted so firmly. Anyhow, after being dipped and acclimated, all seven frags went onto the frag rack, while I did a WC and cleaned the glass. Some minor maintenance (substrate vacuuming, pump scrubbing, etc)

I think that the ich treatment did not work, as the tangs are flashing a bit, though I don't see evidence of it yet. I'll have to keep an eye on it, and if they get worse... I'll have to pull everyone once more and go through another treatment - might have to do copper this time as TTM didn't seem to work last time and I don't have large enough containers to house 20+ fish at a time. :( I'm going to do some more vacuuming this weekend, as there's some diatoms in the back of the tank and some detritus on the sand bed, as well as in the sump. Need to vacuum that stuff up!

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ksfulk

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Time for another update!

Ive been struggling with keeping the sand bed clean, as there always seems to be a large amount of detritus sitting in the back of the tank, and Im getting a bit of diatoms on the sand in those places. I'll prempt the replies by stating that there is a lot of low pushing through the tank - its not necessarily a matter of flow in this case, as Im getting the same grey debris in the sump as well - I pull filter socks every two-three days and vacuum the sandbed and the sump once a week. I still, for the life of me could not pin down where this garbage is coming from.

Until this weekend, when it finally dawned on me. The Zeovit system requires you to pump the reactor one-two times a day to release the mulm on the Zeolites. Well, guess what -thats the crap that Im seeing all over the sump and in the tank. Im not sure if thats normal or not. But just to test, I vacuumed the sump on Friday, and then refrained from pumping the reactor for Friday and Saturday. And guess what... very little detritus in the sump. I have a feeler thread out on the ZeoForums, and I'll likely post up a similar one here to see if anyone else has this kind of issue. Not entirely sure if there's much that I can do about it, but Im sure someone's had a similar experience before.

On Thursday of last week, I sent @Bulk Reef Supply an email asking for an update on the FMM module that I ordered back in February would be in. I got an email back almost immediately from Jason apologizing for the delay in my order and they overnighted the module to me. Mind you, I wasnt demanding answers or irate about it - I was just asking so I had an idea as to when they would be in. Fantastic customer service yet again from a go-to vendor. I cannot express how awed I was with the reaction. I greatly appreciate it.

Over the weekend, I was able to get the module in and update ALL of the firmware for my Apex. (Ugh) I had a few issues with the Apex not recognizing the module (labelled as Unknown_7 for most of Saturday, so it wouldnt update the firmware, since it couldnt recognize the module) but some YouTube videos and a few educated guesses later, and the thing works great. I was impressed that I am only down as much flow as whats registered on the meter - Im running an Vectra M1 wide open with 4- 90s and 2 -45s, plus a ball valve and a flow meter and see a flow rate of ~1500 gph. On something thats thats rated for 2000 gph, I expected to see much much less flow (like in the 800-900s). Pretty cool little gadget - what Id like to do is get a second one for my emergency drain line and set an alarm if its triggered for flow of more than 100 gph (as some water is likely to trickle down there from time to time when the pumps crank up) to warn me if there is a clog in the main line. Still, the inherent danger in this is putting something that can potentially clog on a drain line - this keeps me from doing so.

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randyBRS

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On Thursday of last week, I sent @Bulk Reef Supply an email asking for an update on the FMM module that I ordered back in February would be in. I got an email back almost immediately from Jason apologizing for the delay in my order and they overnighted the module to me. Mind you, I wasnt demanding answers or irate about it - I was just asking so I had an idea as to when they would be in. Fantastic customer service yet again from a go-to vendor. I cannot express how awed I was with the reaction. I greatly appreciate it.

Thank you so much for the shout out! ;) I'm so glad Jason was able to get you taken care of.

Absolutely great build going on here! I can't wait to see all of those sticks fully grown! :cool:

-Randy
 
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ksfulk

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Broke out the DSLR - but I dont know that my focus is that great... I should probably turn off the flow when shooting these as well, but some turned out ok.

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revhtree

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Looking good!
 
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ksfulk

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Battlebox in and it's just gorgeous. Adams selections are on point as always. Everything looks spectacular and are exactly what I was hoping for. Enough chatter - picture time!

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ksfulk

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What the heck is he? I wonder if his ego is slightly hurt at being only a rental instead of having a forever home :eek: just kidding...

Thats a Sea Hare. The reason I say he was rented is once they chow down on all of the hair algae, they can easily starve in the aquarium. The intention is the use him to eat all of the algae, and then rehome him to someone else that needed him. Unfortunately one of my anemones was eating him when I returned home one day... so it wasnt really a rental - more of a Weekend at Bernie's type of situation. :)
 

Giraffe0621

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Well, I guess he found a way to stay with your tank permanently then ;Wacky

Silly question -- do you just use a sharpie to write the corals' names on your frag plugs, or something more sophisticated? No issues with it submerged in water over time?
 
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ksfulk

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Silly question -- do you just use a sharpie to write the corals' names on your frag plugs, or something more sophisticated? No issues with it submerged in water over time?

Just a black sharpie :)

For this tank, when I was in the "cycling" phase, I started a list of all of the named corals that I wanted to have. The list is a little over a page long, and some of them I figured were rare or expensive enough that Id likely never see them. Still, they were corals I wanted. As time has gone on, I've kept the list and when I buy frags, I slowly check them off the list. In an effort to remember what they are once they are on the frag plugs, I label them. When I get new frags, regardless of the vendor or person I get the corals from, I always dip them and remount them on new frag plugs - which gives me the opportunity to write the names on the new plugs prior to mounting.

The sharpie usually lasts 4-6 weeks before coralline or the coral grows over the sides of the plug making it illegible, or I mount them permanently and the plug comes out of the tank. The sharpie wont work if the marker tip gets wet, so you have to write it on before you get the plug wet. Ive ruined a couple sharpies using wet hands on frag plugs :(
 

Caring for your picky eaters: What do you feed your finicky fish?

  • Live foods

    Votes: 22 31.4%
  • Frozen meaty foods

    Votes: 56 80.0%
  • Soft pellets

    Votes: 11 15.7%
  • Masstick (or comparable)

    Votes: 7 10.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 4 5.7%
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