New Rimless 40B Build

[creefer]

Well....

Since Chort55 busted my chops over the updates, here goes. These pics came from my iPhone, so hopefully they come over ok.

I've had some issues with the tank. I struggled through a few alk swings and suffered the loss of some nice acro colonies. I fragged what I could and have much smaller frags of nice colonies. All LPS are doing well and SPS are on the mend. I have changed the lighting as well. This past weekend, I installed an ATI 36" 6 lamp Sunpower......this thing kicks it. It puts out tons of light and I've had to raise it once already.

More to come.....

 

[chort55]

Definitely sucks about the losses but its looking good and seems to be healing quite nicely atleast. I love the rimless look, real nice and clean goes good with your scape and the hanging fixture for sure! Keep up the good work and keep the updates coming man. Once my sticks start taking off again I'll get ya hooked up

 

[creefer]

Definitely sucks about the losses but its looking good and seems to be healing quite nicely atleast. I love the rimless look, real nice and clean goes good with your scape and the hanging fixture for sure! Keep up the good work and keep the updates coming man. Once my sticks start taking off again I'll get ya hooked up

Thanks. I appreciate the kind words. I'll fill you in on some details later.

 

[creefer]

Water change day! Tank is happy about it, too. While cleaning today, it occurred to me that I need to completely clean my sump. I've got some LR in there, cheato, and sand. I've been slowly removing the sand. My eventual goal is to build a new sump and start running filter socks and go clean with no sand. I'm also going to get a couple of K2 pumps to keep things from settling in the sump in hopes of bettering the overall health of the system.

Also plan to get rid of my spotted hawk in favor of another wrasse. I'd like to get rid of the clowns, too, but I don't think the wife and daughter will allow that. I'm getting rid of a Tunze in favor of another MP10. I'm pretty excited about that, too. I'm also on the hunt for a triple doser so I can automate 2 part but I'm going to hold off on that until I get more sticks in the system. Manual supplements are ok for the short term.

 

[chort55]

LOL, I contemplated getting rid of my clowns as well when I switched tanks, but the wife likes em so they got the nod to stay.... definitely need another wrasse tho, you can never have enough IMO

Which tunze are you running, seems I have been seeing more people switching back to them then away from lately. Might just be because I have been thinking about getting one or the other fairly soon and was leaning towards the mp10 as well..... The modded maxi-jets are finally clickin and having start issues LOL

 

[creefer]

I have a Tunze 6045. I did have some issues with my MP10 but ecotech took care of that. No longer an issue.

 

[Poseidon]

I'm a huge fan of the Eco Tech pumps, I have had smaller nano streams as well, which are also very nice. Either way is a good choice, but if you already have one or the other, I'd stick with it.

 

[creefer]

I did think about sticking with the tunze. It is problematic though. When I shut it down for feeding, etc. it sometimes starts back up in reverse and blows junk all through the tank. I've never had any issues like that with the Eco Tech pumps. The other thing that I really like about the Eco Tech pumps is the in tank profile. In a tank as small as mine, it looks much better than a the tunze and I can keep a much more clean look with no cords coming out of the tank. I'm going to keep the tunze and may even use it in the sump to keep detritus from building up.

 

[creefer]

No real updates in terms of progress here. We have a local swap coming up so I'll update after that. Some LPS I have will be traded and / or sold and I'll be coming home with some sticks.

I've spen the last month just observing the tank and loging consumption and supplementation of the big three. I'm considering getting an SWC or Marine Magic tripple doser soon to automate my replenishment needs. So far though, things have been pretty stable. Alk has been my biggest concern and it's been pretty consistent. CA on the other hand seems to drop real quick after WC, so I've been supplementing with ESV 2 part when needed. I've also seen a bit of mag consumption. While not as highly consumed as the CA, it does get taken up quickly. For the most part, the pH and alk benefit of my kalk reactor has been good.

I did lose some fish. My beloved radiant wrasse and one of my perculas went carpet surfing. Never did find the perc. Checked everywhere in the system and around the system and no sign of him. The radiant I did find......the cat was playing with it and it was crispy. I'm not a cat fan, so I blame the it for the fish loss. I have all the goodies to build a DIY clear mesh cover for the tank, so that will be in an upcoming update to this thread soon.

Other than that, I'm searching for a leopard wrasse pair.....the wait continues.

 

[creefer]

Quick update. Pics to follow later this evening, hopefully.

We had a local swap yesterday and I picked up some really nice frags.

ORA Pearlberry
ORA Redplanet
ORA Miami Orchid
Yellow table
Red table
TBG Solar Flare (this think is pretty sick)
Pink Lemonaide
Cali Tort

They're all sitting on a frag rack at the sand bed acclimating. Some of the frags came form LED tanks and some from T5 tanks, so I'll be slowly bringing them up over the next we or so. They're all very healthy and looked great after the bayer dip yesterday. Tonight is WC night and back to daily testing to determine what the new consumption rate is going to be for the big 3 so I can adjust and schedule manual dosing to keep up with demand. Pretty excited to say the least about these new additions. I was able to do some trading for some no longer desired LPS and sold some equipment as well so the punch to the wallet was not as bad as it could have been.

 

[chort55]

I told you TBG Solar Flare was bad

I need to see that yellow table ASAP tho.... is it actually yellow, or yellowish green, or greenish yellow LOL

 

[creefer]

We need to hook up. They yellow table is more green than yellow however I think it will look more yellow as it grows. I'm sure we can hook something up...maybe the weekend of April 11. Wife is splitting, so I do whatever the heck I want. Granted, there's a caveat......2 kids. In any case, we should hook up.

You were right on about TBG Solar Flare. It is indeed bad. Andy said he kept the frags up high under blue+ T5, so once acclimated, that's where it's going in my system.

I saw some pics of the red table mother colony and it's about 24" across and about 16" wide! It's an interesting coral and I need to determine what species it is. It's white with red polyps.

Pics soon....they're terrible, but I'm posting them anyway.

 

[chort55]

Whenever, just let me know. I've got the kid too so I know how that goes.

Hopefully that table will actually turn out to be more yellow... I like yellow lol

I've got my TBG SF under med-high light under the LED's, didn't even flinch. Looks super happy, excellent PE..... definitely glad I got one!

Thats crazy huge. If you can send me a link to the mother colony, I will see if I can help at all with figuring it out, besides I love seeing monster colonies like that.

I'm still waiting on the pics?!?!?!?!?!

 

[creefer]

Hope to get some pics up tonight. Didn't get to it last night.

Talked to Andy at the swap and he's going to let me know when he gets a pair of leopards in. Pretty excited about that.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[chort55]

Hope to get some pics up tonight. Didn't get to it last night.

Talked to Andy at the swap and he's going to let me know when he gets a pair of leopards in. Pretty excited about that.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

You ask for a certain pair or just any of the leopards in a pair?

 

[creefer]

You ask for a certain pair or just any of the leopards in a pair?

Basically any leopard. I would prefer not to have black ones. I would LOVE to have a Kuteri pair, but would be happy with a meleagris pair. Ornate would be good, too.

 

[creefer]

Ok....so I'm going to preface this post by saying that I suck at taking pictures. Not only do I suck, but my camera sucks equally. So I did my best with the point N shoot that I have to capture some of the new specimens I picked up at the swap.

 

[creefer]

Forgot to mention....don't mind the bit of HA. Had a brief issue that I think is resolved now. HA should be gone in a few days. Running a small bit of GFO to take care of it.

 

[chort55]

Basically any leopard. I would prefer not to have black ones. I would LOVE to have a Kuteri pair, but would be happy with a meleagris pair. Ornate would be good, too.

Yeah I would love a Kuiteri pair, still kicking the idea around in my head, but really not looking forward to that price tag lol. Believe it or not but a Black pair would actually be pretty sweet, especially if you got one to turn male the males are really cool IMO. Also FWIW I had a black and they do stand out a bit more then you would really think. I heard there was a black at the shop holding off on goin up there cuz u know I will pull the trigger if I see it LOL

Pics look good, can't wait to watch them grow out

 

[creefer]

Thanks. I have the same issue with Kuiteri's......price tag is a bit rich.

I guess I never really thought of a black pair. Not a bad idea, really. I know he has one up there, or at least he did when we discussed it at the swap. I'm holding out in any case so I can get a pair, though. Just have to see what he comes up with.

I too can't wait to see these frags grow. In the next week or 2, I hope to be making some changes to the scape to open more of the sand bed up and give me more locations on which to mount corals. This gives me some time for the frags to light acclimate a bit, too.