Long time lurker, first time poster (Pics and Live Stream for the community's relaxing pleasure)

[BeejReef]

Gteat comeback!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks all, much appreciated. Yes, well, recovering really only applies to the BTA and the flame angel sadly. Most of what's in there is from the generosity of fellow reefers, and then trades, plus a few select purchases. Forgot to mention, I'm in Connecticut, land of the legendary Frag Farmers Market
Here's a few older pics of tank (about 2 years ago and with VERY weak true lumen pro LEDs), as well as the blown out panel on the 90 wave. Fortunately was able to save everything by quickly relocating to sump. What a day that was, cleaning sand off the ceiling.

I used to sell these 95g oceanic wave tanks and actually owned one

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[TheRedBeardedReefer]

I used to sell these 95g oceanic wave tanks and actually owned one

I noticed that owned was in the past tense there. Did you upgrade out of choice or a burst front panel too?
They're stunning designs and it's cool to have the increased depth for rock work (I LOVE creative rock work), but I just can't trust curved, non-circular glass at this point.
To be totally fair, the tank had been dry for 3 years in a outdoor shed in Connecticut while I was living on the west coast, so it's likely that the temperature changes weakened the silicon, which could have led to the failure.
None of that occurred to me at the time, unfortunately.
I will say I learned a LOT from owning this tank. Maybe more about what not to do than what to do.

Here's some shots from before I broke it down to move. You can see ALL sorts of bad ideas....
1) tank is in front of two windows
2) I really liked kenya trees apparently and distinctly remember wondering no one would trade for them or my 15 pounds of Xenia. I think the most advanced coral this tank ever saw was a zoa colony.
3) you can't see it, but the stand is garbage. The center vertical bar was compressed cardboard. With the amount of water I spilled, it's remarkable it didn't just collapse.
4) That's a giant purple tip atlantic long tentacle anemone, there are much better choices for clowns, but nothing cheaper at PETCO
5) My rockwork leaves a lot to be desired. I built it to keep fish visible with as few nooks, crannies and caves as possible. This of course leads to them hiding all the more frequently. Another lesson learned.

I still think my two tone black and white sand was pretty cool though

 

[fishface NJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!!

 

[Ruben's Reef]

!!! Welcome to R2R !!!

 

[Phycodurus]

welcome, welcome, welcome!!

we give special “attention” to long-time lurkers!!

—prepare the sacrifi—i mean—i mean—prepare the super secret R2R initiation!!

 

[rodney]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[fuelman]

Now that's a introduction!!! Welcome to R2R beautiful set up!!!

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Reefnman2]

Nice set up, welcome to R2R!

 

[motortrendz]

Who reports Iron levels and doesn't mention nitrate and phosphate?
I keep em both as close to undetectable as possible. Nitrate never peaks above .25ppm (and usually flat zero) and I change out HC GFO once I see anything above zero on the hanna checker.
I also feed pretty heavy. 2 cubes of mysis per day, at least one cube of frozen fish eggs every other day, 1 krill every other day to my nem, and I broadcast feed a reef chili and paracoccous powder mix at least every other day, but frequently daily. I used to target feed with TLF Julian's Thing, but had a REALLY bad experience with it. I think it got a little clogged and the increased velocity stripped flesh off of a few montis and a chalice. My season's greetings is just about fully recovered finally.
I did go back to running filter socks recently, I change every 2-3 days when I clean my skimmer. I like the "idea" of no filter socks, but with about 2800 lph through the sump and the AquaC skimmer, the microbubbles were just too tough to deal with after the upgrade from a Mag 18. And that's with 3 baffles in the sump!

My philosophy is pretty simple: stability above all else, and it's easier to strip out EVERYTHING and add what you want, than it is to balance on the knife's edge of water changes.
I also run ROX .8 activated carbon in a fine mesh bag, forgot about that.

I had a similar issue with my Julian's thing. What I did was cut the tip off the syringe end to make it larger so it wont clog and its easier to target feed using a defrosted frozen mix. Never had that problem again.

Btw how did your wave tanks front panel blow out? Was it full at the time?

Btw welcome from a fellow (non-ginger) bearded guy. Lol.

 

[TheRedBeardedReefer]

I had a similar issue with my Julian's thing. What I did was cut the tip off the syringe end to make it larger so it wont clog and its easier to target feed using a defrosted frozen mix. Never had that problem again.

Btw how did your wave tanks front panel blow out? Was it full at the time?

Btw welcome from a fellow (non-ginger) bearded guy. Lol.

It was full, fortunately not a ton of life in there yet. I had just moved back from California, and the tank was sitting dry in a shed, so lots of extreme temperature swings here in CT over the year. I rebuilt the stand, filled the tank up with cycled rock and sand. About a week later, after ammonia and nitrite zeroed out I added two clowns and a couple small monti frags. Literally 20 minutes after adding them, I sat down to do some grading about 15 feet away and the panel just went all at once. It was like a bomb going off, 95 gallons of water, sand and rock EVERYWHERE. Saved the clowns and frags by placing in sump. One clown I found still in the tank, the other was 20 feet across the room!

Good tip on the syringe, definitely going to try that out!

 

[motortrendz]

It was full, fortunately not a ton of life in there yet. I had just moved back from California, and the tank was sitting dry in a shed, so lots of extreme temperature swings here in CT over the year. I rebuilt the stand, filled the tank up with cycled rock and sand. About a week later, after ammonia and nitrite zeroed out I added two clowns and a couple small monti frags. Literally 20 minutes after adding them, I sat down to do some grading about 15 feet away and the panel just went all at once. It was like a bomb going off, 95 gallons of water, sand and rock EVERYWHERE. Saved the clowns and frags by placing in sump. One clown I found still in the tank, the other was 20 feet across the room!

Good tip on the syringe, definitely going to try that out!

Wow insane. That's my biggest fear.

 

[Blutspitze]

Welcome to the forums! Loving the setup and tank as a whole! The stream is amazing to see, as well, very fun to have and kinda jealous of you there.

 

[TheRedBeardedReefer]

Wow insane. That's my biggest fear.

Yeah, I guess I'm glad I was there for it and that it happened before the system had a significant bioload. I got super lucky after that, a friend of a friend heard me tell the story at a wedding and offered to sell me his unused custom 120 with stand, hood, sump, lights, whole shebang for pennies on the dollar. Good things happen to those who save clownfish

 

[TheRedBeardedReefer]

Welcome to the forums! Loving the setup and tank as a whole! The stream is amazing to see, as well, very fun to have and kinda jealous of you there.

Thanks so much! Took a while to figure the livestream out. Even with the right camera it looked like garbage (washed out blue) until I taped a UV filter (CHEAP sunglass lens) over the sensor.

 

[krbshappy71]

Still reading through this thread, WOW to the blow out! Also super impressed on your sunglasses-trick, that cracks me up, wouldn't ever have thought to do that. Welcome to the forum! Gonna go find your livestream thingy.

 

[bearsfish]