Simon's 450

[User1]

8 months since moving from 265 to current 450 ..... didn't start with frags certainly .... that would be impressive growth

I wasn't sure but then again you and your tank are pretty impressive - so anything is possible.

 

[ca1ore]

This hobby can get a bit crazy. So here's $700 of crazy .....



Gem, a completely useless scopas, a breeding pair of banggai and a flame that will just not put on weight ..... all in my pest-fest of a frag tank.

 

[User1]

If that is only $700 of crazy that is a great deal. Not that I would buy one around town but the only LFS I saw put a $4,000.00 amount of crazy on one. I've seen them online for half that and I think in one case $1,500.00. Still too much for me sadly I think I would personally stay between $400 - $500 range of crazy That is about what I'm willing to blow on a good bottle of wine. On the occasions where we've splurged it was around $2,600 but that was on a multi bottle evening and special.

Sump or refuge area looks really nice. Any longer video or with how it is connected? I like it.

 

[Ayden Paulo]

This hobby can get a bit crazy. So here's $700 of crazy .....



Gem, a completely useless scopas, a breeding pair of banggai and a flame that will just not put on weight ..... all in my pest-fest of a frag tank.

 

[ca1ore]

I do have a sump room video that I shot but it's long and I think my 'voice-over' is mostly drowned out by room noise. I'll post it here for fun ....

 

[ca1ore]

8 minutes of your life you're not getting back .....

 

[User1]

16 or so for me on the minute part - but who is counting (I watched it twice actually because I wanted to go back a couple times and see what you did). I liked it so thank you for taking the time. It shows you care a lot about your tank and livestock to do things properly. Well, maybe not proper because there are multiple ways to do things but I think you know what I mean. It shows things are not just commodities to you which is cool. So if people are watching or reading threads around here and stumble on the video I think they can get something out of it. Under my tank looks similar to your apex setup with wires and cables everywhere.

Couple of the comments made me laugh - "saving all that money on the sump and bought a Gem tang - but have not had the courage to move him upstairs because I don't want him beaten to death by a 25 dollar yellow tang". Then "full of various colorful algae's none of which are upstairs - the reason for that they tangs upstairs actually eat the algae...whereas those here including the Scopus that has been here for years is completely useless and only eat the food I give it.

Thanks

 

[User1]

I mean to ask a question regarding your QT process. When you bulk ordered your damsels how did you manage that and did they end up all in the same tank? Or did you distribute them around the various tanks?

 

[dragon99]

Always love seeing the behind the curtain. Very cool system.

 

[ca1ore]

I mean to ask a question regarding your QT process. When you bulk ordered your damsels how did you manage that and did they end up all in the same tank? Or did you distribute them around the various tanks?

I bought them in two batches, and qt’d them sequentially in my 20L.

 

[Victoria M]

I absolutely love seeing your frankenstein room. Mad genius I say. And I enjoyed the commentary too. your sense of humor comes thru in your writing too. It cracks me up the utter chaos that is your sump room. The proof is in the pudding, though right? The results speak for themselves. Although I do love a pretty clean sump room designed and made to look neat and tidy, I love your managed chaos too. Fancy sump rooms are kinda their own aspect of this crazy hobby I think. I have really enjoyed working on my sump room these past months, I must say. I think I even said in my thread, in a nice garden it is always digging a $30 hole for a $10 plant. It applies to reefs too.

 

[Viner87]

Just come across your thread and noticed that you have an emperor angel - how long have you had him and does he cause you any trouble with you coral? Cheers Chris

 

[ca1ore]

Emperor has been in there for a couple of months only. No problems so far, but I feed them a lot so he’s not sampled any of the corals yet.

 

[Viner87]

Emperor has been in there for a couple of months only. No problems so far, but I feed them a lot so he’s not sampled any of the corals yet.

Cool - good luck with him, I’d like one too.

 

[ca1ore]

I absolutely love seeing your frankenstein room. Mad genius I say. And I enjoyed the commentary too. your sense of humor comes thru in your writing too. It cracks me up the utter chaos that is your sump room. The proof is in the pudding, though right? The results speak for themselves. Although I do love a pretty clean sump room designed and made to look neat and tidy, I love your managed chaos too. Fancy sump rooms are kinda their own aspect of this crazy hobby I think. I have really enjoyed working on my sump room these past months, I must say. I think I even said in my thread, in a nice garden it is always digging a $30 hole for a $10 plant. It applies to reefs too.

I’d certainly like a less cluttered sump room, but at the end of the day it’s just not a priority for me. It’s about the display as you say.

 

[ca1ore]

My boys and I were doing a fish inventory this evening and realized we've topped the century mark across the three tanks that make up our system. OK, a sizable percentage are damsels ...... but still.

11 tangs - gem, black, purple, yellow, scopas, Sailfin, Naso L, Naso B, chevron, hepatus, zebra.
18 pseudoanthias - Bartlett, Bimaculatus and randalls/resplendent
14 wrasses - dusky, leopards, cleaner, fairy
5 pyramid butterflyfish
5 Angels - emperor, regal, flame, LemonPeel
40 damsels - yellow tail, azure, talbots and Rolland's
6 cardinals - PJ, Banggai, yellow stripe
3 chalk basslets
3 Royal gramma
2 clowns
3 misc. - watchman goby, orchid Dottyback, zebra eel

Then a handful in QT - zoster butterfly, Achilles tang, black leopard, Asfur Angel, Midas Benny and rock beauty. Would still like a trigger, a few tuxedo damsels and one more fairy wrasse. Then I think the pool will be closed to any further swimmers.

 

[ca1ore]

Quick update .....

Tank will be 9 months in a couple of weeks .... and I'm already having to frag some of the colonies that are either shading others or have reached to surface of the water. Have bought a few of those maricultured colonies over the last few months; so far they have all survived. One strawberry shortcake is looking a little poorly, so we shall see. My regal showed up with a wound on it's tail, so hopefully that will heal. Flame had the worst case of popeye I have ever seen; thought for sure he'd lose the eye ..... but not! Going to cross my fingers and add in the Gem this weekend.

 

[User1]

Looks great. I mean really nice job. Your green monti(?) gave me a tip to lower mine. That and a orange one I have. Both are a bit pale (green almost bleached but a tint of green. Orange is lighter now) compared to when I purchased the frags and I thought it may be too much light. I see yours lower so I will move mine in the morning. My lights are DIY multi channel so I really don't know how or what sort of par they have. I just know they are pretty intense even though I'm only running them at 70% power.

The Gem comment had your voice in my head from your video of sump/fish room all over again "but have not had the courage to move him upstairs because I don't want him beaten to death by a 25 dollar yellow tang"

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Excellent!

 

[ca1ore]

The Gem comment had your voice in my head from your video of sump/fish room all over again "but have not had the courage to move him upstairs because I don't want him beaten to death by a 25 dollar yellow tang"

So I am guilty of a little hyperbole .... I think the yellow tang actually cost me $35 LOL. Anyhow, the Gem has been in the social acclimation box for a couple of days now. The 'mob' swims by occasionally, but mostly ignores him - fingers crossed. The Zebra has this weird tendency to just stare at me as I walk by ...... kind'a creepy actually.