Merediths 75g upgrade

cameronh · Sep 4, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Did a water change today on both tanks. I even plugged in my ph probe and tried calibrating it. I checked it against a ph test kit. The apex reads 7.12 and my test kit says 8.2 as usual. I guess I need to break down and buy a new one.

Oh and the hammer coral survived and is doing well. It's a little retracted in the picture because I was messing with it some to get it secure in the rock, but it suffered no lasting damage from my accident last week.

Your 75 is filling in quite nicely!

justingraham · Sep 4, 2016

Ok thank u.
And I understand why u do this but do u find it being harder to maintain? Do u have a skimmer or anything on this setup besides the lights? Also are they the same lights that are over ur main tank? Do u run the tank at the same parameters as ur DT? Sorry a lot of questions I am just interested in this idea

melypr1985 · Sep 4, 2016

cameronh said:
Your 75 is filling in quite nicely!

Thanks!

melypr1985 · Sep 4, 2016

justingraham said:
Ok thank u.
And I understand why u do this but do u find it being harder to maintain? Do u have a skimmer or anything on this setup besides the lights? Also are they the same lights that are over ur main tank? Do u run the tank at the same parameters as ur DT? Sorry a lot of questions I am just interested in this idea

No the light over the frag tank is an AI Prime and my display has Rapid LED Onyx fixtures. They are similar enough and I adjust them so that they are about even (ish). There is no skimmer on the frag tank. I simply do water changes every week of about 4 gallons or so. There is a large sponge block and some carbon in the filter area along with the heater and that's it. Simple and easy. Maintenance is nothing really besides feeding the inverts and corals and water changes. I just do a water change at the same time as the display. I'm not sure about the parameters, but I use the same salt and keep them at the same salinity for each. I'm sure if I tested them both right now they would come out to about the same. There will be some differences because of the amount of corals in the display vs the frag tank.

justingraham · Sep 4, 2016

What salt do u currently use?
Also both tanks are looking great good luck on the acrylic tank hope it works out for u and thank you for the info

melypr1985 · Sep 4, 2016

justingraham said:
What salt do u currently use?
Also both tanks are looking great good luck on the acrylic tank hope it works out for u and thank you for the info

Thanks! I currently use Salinity by Aquavitro. I like it quite a bit. I decided not to go with the acrylic tank. I'm not willing to spend the days and energy needed to clean it up and remove the scratches just to scratch it again the first week it's set up. I know i would too! I'm going to get a brand new glass tank for the 180. I already have that locked in along with the support stand, so I dont have to stress over it.

justingraham · Sep 4, 2016

Well it's always good to have a plan I'm waiting on the new house to set up my 180 just waiting on the CO so like a month away from a six footer in my kitchen. Going with the triton method as well and just picked up a new classic apex today to get that started and I'm extremely excited as I'm sure u are as well for ur new tank keep up the great work and I'm stealing ur frag idea sorry what's ur 180s dimensions? Mines tall and I'm dreading that but it's a tank that I already own so I'll survive for now unless I can talk the wife into a 225 but that's not going to happen even tho at the lfs yesterday she loved the ten footer they had now I'm just rambling thanks again for the idea
Justin

melypr1985 · Sep 4, 2016

justingraham said:
I'm stealing ur frag idea

That's perfectly fine! I encourage everyone to start a coral QT and I love my JBJ frag tank.

justingraham said:
what's ur 180s dimensions?

Mine will be 6ft X 2ft X 2ft. I went with these dimensions because I'm pretty short and I want to be able to reach the bottom of the tank without putting on a snorkel. Plus I needed at a minimum 6 feet of length for the tangs I already have the ones I want to keep. Even then it might be a little short for them, but I'm going to try it out. I have to actually keep this 180 for a very long time or else my husband will have a coronary. lol

justingraham · Sep 4, 2016

Yea I wish mine wasn't deep and had ur dimensions but it is what it is

justingraham · Sep 5, 2016

Hey so with ur qt frag tank how does that work putting in new frags? Like is it 76 days from the last piece u put in or do u just do 76 days from the day u put it in? Like let's say u put a frag in then 56 days later u put in another does the clock start over at day one again and u have to wait 76 more days? Cause if that's the case ur better loading up the tank then waiting the 76 days to load up again.
Thanks again for ur help

Paul B · Sep 5, 2016

That is a perfect size tank. My tank is 6' long but only about 14" deep which is way to shallow and my gorgonians are all sticking out of the water. At the time I bought it it was considered huge, but now I wish it was the dimensions of yours. I will not be upgrading as this is my last tank. Good luck with it I am sure it will be fantastic.

nanomania · Sep 5, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Did a water change today on both tanks. I even plugged in my ph probe and tried calibrating it. I checked it against a ph test kit. The apex reads 7.12 and my test kit says 8.2 as usual. I guess I need to break down and buy a new one.

Oh and the hammer coral survived and is doing well. It's a little retracted in the picture because I was messing with it some to get it secure in the rock, but it suffered no lasting damage from my accident last week.

Beautiful..[emoji106] [emoji108]

melypr1985 · Sep 5, 2016

justingraham said:
Hey so with ur qt frag tank how does that work putting in new frags? Like is it 76 days from the last piece u put in or do u just do 76 days from the day u put it in? Like let's say u put a frag in then 56 days later u put in another does the clock start over at day one again and u have to wait 76 more days? Cause if that's the case ur better loading up the tank then waiting the 76 days to load up again.
Thanks again for ur help

Yes, if I add a coral or invert before the 76 days is up, then I have to restart the clock. Needless to say, I try real hard not to do this. Your very right though, I prefer to load up the corals over the course of a week or two then start the clock. I usually can't buy a bunch of corals all at once. The best part of this is that the QT tends to look great for 76 days, then it's empty for a bit, but then I can change it all up again with different corals. It's always changing.

melypr1985 · Sep 5, 2016

Paul B said:
That is a perfect size tank. My tank is 6' long but only about 14" deep which is way to shallow and my gorgonians are all sticking out of the water. At the time I bought it it was considered huge, but now I wish it was the dimensions of yours. I will not be upgrading as this is my last tank. Good luck with it I am sure it will be fantastic.

Thanks Paul! Yeah, I've thought of that too, which is why I went this direction. I've taken care of narrow tanks, shallow tanks and super deep tanks. Luckily I'm in a place where I can upgrade and actually choose exactly what I want this time around.

melypr1985 · Sep 5, 2016

nanomania said:
Beautiful..[emoji106] [emoji108]

Thank you for the kind words!

melypr1985 · Sep 6, 2016

Things are coming back to life in my tank. Most notably, the montis that all died. And I mean DEAD. There was no floressing, no polyps, nothing. Now check this out...
Red Monti Cap