jsker
Reefing is all about the adventure
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My Tank Thread
A little history: I have had a few fresh water tanks and have had 3 salt water setups to date. Is a move tank, considering a setup? The tanks were in different cities 35 gal and a 150 in St. Louis. I had my moving tank, a 75 oceanic. That tank was in Chicago, New York, Boston, Florida. I would get transferred and depending on the situation of finding housing and move time, (load and unload) I would pack my live rock and the hearty live stock(fish) in a cooler and move. It got to the point that I would have the rock and fish in a cooler for a month at a time in a hotel room with a power head and everything survived, even with my cat Samantha in the room
Well I sold the 75 mover about 13 years ago because I had a few things going on and lost interest. Last year in 2014 the bug bit again, but I was going to do this one right. With all the new technology and blogs, it is so much simpler then the stone age of running down to the LFS and asking or heading to library. Yes, this time around is still a discovery process with buying things on the cheap when I should have paid more and got what I wanted and not what I needed. Notice the want and need thing, I am trying to control the want issue.
I started to build my tank stand during Christmas and new years of 2014. The stand, drawers are out of solid Honduran mahogany, fiddle back maple as well as the sides and face work. The case work is Burch ply. I used 7 nails in the hole project very little glue and a lot of screws. The drawers are dovetailed and drawer fronts are mortice & tendon to match my desk in my home office (my me room) the finish is a FDA approved oil varnish. All door and drawers have Blum soft close. All the drawers are functioning file drawers and drawer. The center of the cabinet meant for storage and now electronics, I did not know I could get all of these neat new toys that I can pull up on my network when I built the cabinet. Here is the pictures of the build and design
Charlie is checking out the cabinet
Called a guy I did a job for and asked if they could make an Absolute black (I wanted black galaxy but you take what you can get when a deal is involved) I catered his wedding and I will leave it at that.) granite top made to match the bowl front of the new 72 tank.
Charlie really like the cabinet The Other Cat just likes to relax and watch
2/2/15 above the tank has water in it, and the next picture is 2/22/15 scaped also added Lucy and Ricky.
March I added Yellow Polyps and the Shrooms
The Polyps did not last but thanks to the guys I bought the Polyps from I now have aiptasia
March 2015 added Tyrone (Kole tang and Ethel hippo tang) to the tank, I bought the fish from the same guy I bought the polyps and shrooms from and could not be happier with the quality of fish.
Not much going on in April except for the really cool thig above the mushrooms (oh yeah that is the aiptasia) but is was cool when I did not know what it was.
April 2015
Went to Reef a Plooza Orlando, had a great time. Met some really nice venders, it was like they want me to buy more stuff. I did buy a couple of corals and placed them in the tank. Then I discovered the online auction of corals (I am hooked)
May 2015
June 2015 is a blank but this was a really good baked pasta we had for dinner. Italian sausage, Meatball, Ghoncci, and cavitalli with a red sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. Added peppermint shrimp to try to kill the aiptasia, but that did not work. Used Aiptasia X and that only made grown more.
July 2015 not much progress but things are growing. Brought in the enforcer to kill off the aiptasia. Matt (aka matted file fish aka aiptasia killer) Matt is a machine. Within three weeks no noticeable aiptasia and you almost hope they grown so that Matt has something to eat besides Mysis and the homemade food. Matt is a cool fish.
August 2015
Did I say Coral Auction? It is a really sick thing that happens to a hobbyist, I think it is time to create Coral spending support group were we can get together (oh that is this blog)
Photo shop of placement
8/19/15 dropped 3.5 lbs of dry reef rock in upfront to keep things for shifting around with the new
Mp40.
Under the hood 8/21/15 notice the Reef 2 Reef towel.
My setup
-72 bowl front marine land tank
-CPR Bio pak 2 (I like hang on the backs built my first one and had great success with it, and I have found after time all I need is a protein skimmer and water movement
-Current Orbit Marine LEDs very happy and no heat and no huge canopy with fans on all of the time, but I am think of upgrading to the Pro for the broader spectrum. I do not know yet for the reason I have not found any reviews on them yet.
2 Gyre 130’s. I really like these pumps aka power heads. Looking at getting the new ice cap controls
1 echo tech mp140 for movement in the center of the tank. I also really like this pump/power head
Reeflink control for the Echo Tech mp40 works well, read the reviews and most paned it but if you take your time and follow the instructions no issue.
90 lbs of live reef rock most real reef rock and some real stuff. Back in the day you could get some tanga rock and that would spark up you corline in a month but a group out there messed that up.
2 bags live Hawaiian sand
Make my own food and buy Mysis shrimp from the great white north for feeding
Future:
Apex system for monitoring my system from a far.
Red type corals (at another coral auction) maybe red fan coral.
Well I sold the 75 mover about 13 years ago because I had a few things going on and lost interest. Last year in 2014 the bug bit again, but I was going to do this one right. With all the new technology and blogs, it is so much simpler then the stone age of running down to the LFS and asking or heading to library. Yes, this time around is still a discovery process with buying things on the cheap when I should have paid more and got what I wanted and not what I needed. Notice the want and need thing, I am trying to control the want issue.
I started to build my tank stand during Christmas and new years of 2014. The stand, drawers are out of solid Honduran mahogany, fiddle back maple as well as the sides and face work. The case work is Burch ply. I used 7 nails in the hole project very little glue and a lot of screws. The drawers are dovetailed and drawer fronts are mortice & tendon to match my desk in my home office (my me room) the finish is a FDA approved oil varnish. All door and drawers have Blum soft close. All the drawers are functioning file drawers and drawer. The center of the cabinet meant for storage and now electronics, I did not know I could get all of these neat new toys that I can pull up on my network when I built the cabinet. Here is the pictures of the build and design
Charlie is checking out the cabinet
Called a guy I did a job for and asked if they could make an Absolute black (I wanted black galaxy but you take what you can get when a deal is involved) I catered his wedding and I will leave it at that.) granite top made to match the bowl front of the new 72 tank.
Charlie really like the cabinet The Other Cat just likes to relax and watch
2/2/15 above the tank has water in it, and the next picture is 2/22/15 scaped also added Lucy and Ricky.
March I added Yellow Polyps and the Shrooms
The Polyps did not last but thanks to the guys I bought the Polyps from I now have aiptasia
March 2015 added Tyrone (Kole tang and Ethel hippo tang) to the tank, I bought the fish from the same guy I bought the polyps and shrooms from and could not be happier with the quality of fish.
Not much going on in April except for the really cool thig above the mushrooms (oh yeah that is the aiptasia) but is was cool when I did not know what it was.
April 2015
Went to Reef a Plooza Orlando, had a great time. Met some really nice venders, it was like they want me to buy more stuff. I did buy a couple of corals and placed them in the tank. Then I discovered the online auction of corals (I am hooked)
May 2015
June 2015 is a blank but this was a really good baked pasta we had for dinner. Italian sausage, Meatball, Ghoncci, and cavitalli with a red sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. Added peppermint shrimp to try to kill the aiptasia, but that did not work. Used Aiptasia X and that only made grown more.
July 2015 not much progress but things are growing. Brought in the enforcer to kill off the aiptasia. Matt (aka matted file fish aka aiptasia killer) Matt is a machine. Within three weeks no noticeable aiptasia and you almost hope they grown so that Matt has something to eat besides Mysis and the homemade food. Matt is a cool fish.
August 2015
Did I say Coral Auction? It is a really sick thing that happens to a hobbyist, I think it is time to create Coral spending support group were we can get together (oh that is this blog)
Photo shop of placement
8/19/15 dropped 3.5 lbs of dry reef rock in upfront to keep things for shifting around with the new
Mp40.
Under the hood 8/21/15 notice the Reef 2 Reef towel.
My setup
-72 bowl front marine land tank
-CPR Bio pak 2 (I like hang on the backs built my first one and had great success with it, and I have found after time all I need is a protein skimmer and water movement
-Current Orbit Marine LEDs very happy and no heat and no huge canopy with fans on all of the time, but I am think of upgrading to the Pro for the broader spectrum. I do not know yet for the reason I have not found any reviews on them yet.
2 Gyre 130’s. I really like these pumps aka power heads. Looking at getting the new ice cap controls
1 echo tech mp140 for movement in the center of the tank. I also really like this pump/power head
Reeflink control for the Echo Tech mp40 works well, read the reviews and most paned it but if you take your time and follow the instructions no issue.
90 lbs of live reef rock most real reef rock and some real stuff. Back in the day you could get some tanga rock and that would spark up you corline in a month but a group out there messed that up.
2 bags live Hawaiian sand
Make my own food and buy Mysis shrimp from the great white north for feeding
Future:
Apex system for monitoring my system from a far.
Red type corals (at another coral auction) maybe red fan coral.
