Red_Beard's 75 Tank Build

[Jasonak]

Thank you kindly :) Looking at your tank though makes me want one at least 3x bigger, so much more space for activities! That thing is PACKED with sticks!

I wish I could find the old pick when I first set it up. Its so full now and was so empty back then, honestly theres days when I miss the big open tank... but I love my sticks lol

 

[Red_Beard]

I wish I could find the old pick when I first set it up. Its so full now and was so empty back then, honestly theres days when I miss the big open tank... but I love my sticks lol

Its like looking at photos of an awesome trip, Half of the fun is filling up all that space!

 

[Red_Beard]

 

[Red_Beard]

Seriously had my doubts about copps cali cali, but the turquoise base with purple tips is just ridiculous. It is one that gets super vivid under whites too. Just wow. (It is right above strawberry fields and the urchin) i need some better daytime pics.

 

[Red_Beard]

Saturday morning blues topdown (no lens filter or anything) and one from the other day with the filter. That helltroll is starting to pull out some yellow tips and is looking good!

 

[Red_Beard]

Lazy sunday FTS.

Shot using the zoom from the couch across the room.

 

[Red_Beard]

Fish shot

 

[Red_Beard]

Alright, time for a real update. I got lucky and got a really decent gift card from @Reef Breeders (thank you guys!) and their Meridian givaway. I ordered a Meridian 11 which arived last week right before we went out of town for mothers day. I got it installed and threw a basic schedule in it before we took off, so it has been up and running now almost a week. So far it has been awesome, packs a really good punch and the spectrum is awesome, my sps are looking fantastic under it! I do wish it had a touch more white though, but that is only if i am being nit-picky.
I used some stainless doublenuts and screwed it right in to my existing fixture. The modularity of their mounting options made it pretty easy. I did raise the fixture up another 2ish inches too to take better advantage of spread this beast lays down. The whole fixure is hung with jack chain, so i just pulled had to move it up 2 links

Franken-fixture... lol
I am planning to pick up another meridian 11 later this fall to replace that last xr15, but look how much more disbursed the light is compared to the radion. The Meridian also reaches clear over to the lobo on the sandbed in the pic below, and would go a little further if it wasnt blocked by my center brace. The spred and coverage on it is really fantastic. Color blending is wonderful too, color me impressed!

Full frontal, no edit, no filter. Meridian is at 60% except the white channel, it is at 80%.

 

[Red_Beard]

:crying-face: too much 'help' with my water change.

Question for all the sticko's, mount it as it lies? Or vertical normal. If it was yours, how would you mount it? This one is likely bound for the not so 'L' fs.

 

[Red_Beard]

Coupla Fraglettes. Decided to mount my accidental HT frag vertical and then it looked lonely on the rack by itself.

 

[Red_Beard]

Time for a cleanup crew top off. I may have gone a touch overboard...

70 dwarf cerith
30 zigzag periwinkles
4 large limpets
4 nassarius vibex
4 bumblebee
6 trochus
4 cortez ceriths
4 florida ceriths
2 fuzzy chitons
and a juvenile pincushion

I love those little dwarf ceriths though, they do a great job getting into all the nooks and crannies, but are so small you need them at like 1 per gallon lol.

 

[Red_Beard]

Dont know what ups's deal is out here but their normal delivery time is 5pm-8pm at my house, makes for a long wait! Showed up at 730. But, at long last, the new crew is settling in and getting to work! Doesnt look like any fatalities this go round either.

Just in time too, that stubborn thick almost bryopsis algae is starting to come back and give me heartburn.

Game on algae!

 

[jwestwood]

Any leaking yet? Looks good.

 

[Red_Beard]

Any leaking yet? Looks good.

Thank you, no, no leaks. Tight as a drum still.

 

[Featherweight]

Rad tank

 

[Red_Beard]

Game time!
Started dosing something special after the big brown truck paid us a visit. Time will tell how special it actually is though.

5ml of 'FishWiz' (tm) when in while the lights were still on.

 

[Red_Beard]

After a week of fish wiz, same volume i was previously dosing of ammonium bicarbonate, my nitrates have gone from 2ppm to 5ppm, no other changes as of yet...
Except for this!

Hair algae (and some bryopsis) is coming back after having killed it all off with fluconizole. Not at all related to the urea/fish wiz dosing, it hasnt gotten any worse since dosing.
I am going to take my own advice this round. Manual removal and herbivores. I ordered a set of precision tong tweezers to make this process a little easier. Updates to follow.

 

[Red_Beard]

Sunday update: its still kinda ugly... lol. A little less so. Everywhere i have manually pulled the gha, snails have come behind me to clean up, and it has so far stayed clean. I have been (not so) systematically pulling it when i get a minute with some 12 inch duck billed kitchen tweezers. It is marginally better than using my fingers. Might need some more powerheads too, starting to get cyano in some spots. :/ like starting the uglies all over again.

 

[DarthRaiderBob]

Tank looks very nice.

 

[Red_Beard]

Rad tank

Tank looks very nice.

Thank you!