Smiddy's Reef 360 Peninsula
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izzyishh
Well-Known Member
Me again LOVE the build mainly because of the skunk fish haha. So I am getting a quote from CDA. Did you run in to any issue with the quality of the tank at all? Just getting opinions from people who have used them to make up my mind TYI
SPR1968
No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
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That’s a very unusual aquascape design, but looks absolutely beautiful!FTS Shots from yesterday:
Great pictures as well
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rds85
Well-Known Member
I like my Skunks as well! dang things do splash a ton of water.
I did not run into any quality issues with the tank. This is actually my second CDA tank because I liked the first one so much. I think you will find "issues" or things to nit pick on, no matter who makes the tank. Unfortunately cost and quality is directly related when it comes to custom tanks, so have a reasonable expectation based on what you are paying.
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rds85
Well-Known Member
Thank you! The purpose of the aquascape is to maximize swimming room for tangs and moorish idol as well as a ton of room "up" for the sticks to grow. Really want the Staghorns to take off and create a mid to top layer aquascape. I made it this way for what it will look like in another year or two with corals grown in.
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rds85
Well-Known Member
Update:
I received another orphex led bar as a gift. now with that added in, I do not have any more room for additional lighting. There seems to be no real shadowing anymore, which is great!
Everything seems to be alive a doing well.
Biggest improvement I have seen on livestock when it comes to fish is feeding fresh/frozen once clams from the market. I truly believe the fresh clams has what made my moorish idol ( had for two months now and forgot to mention him in the thread) turn into a fat happy energetic fish. The fresh clams have also seemed to enhance the coloration of my regal angel, randals and Bimac anthias.
I have added a small Powder Blue Tang, pearly head jawfish (@Wen i got this because of your five, awesome fish), flame hawkfish, sunburst anthia, cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, and some captive bred urchins.
All SPS are going excellent and cannot complain about growth at all.
My main issue this year and currently working on is an ulva outbreak in my DT. Best photo captured when lights are off :
Did it get out of control: yes
Did it hurt any livestock: No
Do the tangs and urchins eat it?: Yes but there is to much for them to handle
Do I mainly remove it every two days?: Yes and it does not grow back where it has been removed from the rock
Did it affect the water chemistry?: Yes it dropped my nutrients really low and my walt disney and two other frags are pale because I lengthens my fuge photo period to help prevent DT growth.
Have I debated H202?: Yes a lot. with the sps doing so well, even had a few triple in size i did not want to take the risk and would rather manual remove versus spot treat areas as it doesn’t grow back and I would be right there to manually remove it. Yes it will take longer to do so, but the urchins and tangs will be able to take control with help of me.
With Covid still around, no rush to have it eradicated fast as no one comes to see it
I received another orphex led bar as a gift. now with that added in, I do not have any more room for additional lighting. There seems to be no real shadowing anymore, which is great!
Everything seems to be alive a doing well.
Biggest improvement I have seen on livestock when it comes to fish is feeding fresh/frozen once clams from the market. I truly believe the fresh clams has what made my moorish idol ( had for two months now and forgot to mention him in the thread) turn into a fat happy energetic fish. The fresh clams have also seemed to enhance the coloration of my regal angel, randals and Bimac anthias.
I have added a small Powder Blue Tang, pearly head jawfish (@Wen i got this because of your five, awesome fish), flame hawkfish, sunburst anthia, cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, and some captive bred urchins.
All SPS are going excellent and cannot complain about growth at all.
My main issue this year and currently working on is an ulva outbreak in my DT. Best photo captured when lights are off :
Did it get out of control: yes
Did it hurt any livestock: No
Do the tangs and urchins eat it?: Yes but there is to much for them to handle
Do I mainly remove it every two days?: Yes and it does not grow back where it has been removed from the rock
Did it affect the water chemistry?: Yes it dropped my nutrients really low and my walt disney and two other frags are pale because I lengthens my fuge photo period to help prevent DT growth.
Have I debated H202?: Yes a lot. with the sps doing so well, even had a few triple in size i did not want to take the risk and would rather manual remove versus spot treat areas as it doesn’t grow back and I would be right there to manually remove it. Yes it will take longer to do so, but the urchins and tangs will be able to take control with help of me.
With Covid still around, no rush to have it eradicated fast as no one comes to see it
Awww, so glad you added a pearly jaw. Has it built a burrow yet?Update:
I received another orphex led bar as a gift. now with that added in, I do not have any more room for additional lighting. There seems to be no real shadowing anymore, which is great!
Everything seems to be alive a doing well.
Biggest improvement I have seen on livestock when it comes to fish is feeding fresh/frozen once clams from the market. I truly believe the fresh clams has what made my moorish idol ( had for two months now and forgot to mention him in the thread) turn into a fat happy energetic fish. The fresh clams have also seemed to enhance the coloration of my regal angel, randals and Bimac anthias.
I have added a small Powder Blue Tang, pearly head jawfish (@Wen i got this because of your five, awesome fish), flame hawkfish, sunburst anthia, cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, and some captive bred urchins.
All SPS are going excellent and cannot complain about growth at all.
My main issue this year and currently working on is an ulva outbreak in my DT. Best photo captured when lights are off :
Did it get out of control: yes
Did it hurt any livestock: No
Do the tangs and urchins eat it?: Yes but there is to much for them to handle
Do I mainly remove it every two days?: Yes and it does not grow back where it has been removed from the rock
Did it affect the water chemistry?: Yes it dropped my nutrients really low and my walt disney and two other frags are pale because I lengthens my fuge photo period to help prevent DT growth.
Have I debated H202?: Yes a lot. with the sps doing so well, even had a few triple in size i did not want to take the risk and would rather manual remove versus spot treat areas as it doesn’t grow back and I would be right there to manually remove it. Yes it will take longer to do so, but the urchins and tangs will be able to take control with help of me.
With Covid still around, no rush to have it eradicated fast as no one comes to see it
I think your on the right track fighting back the rouge ulva outbreak without chemicals or peroxide. I was so tempted to try peroxide for the terrible gha I had, very happy now that I did not, and let the tank work through it.
Moorish Idol!!! Very cool and congrats!
I’m feeding a fresh frozen clam daily to keep General Tso and my CBB happy, Paul B had it right about feeding clams!
SteveG_inDC
Active Member
Amazing build thread. I've been watching the progress with great interest as I'm in my second month of a 240g build. Appreciate your posting this photo. It's like when a supermodel shares pics with no makeup. I like your chill approach to the ulva outbreak and hope it's successful.Update:
I received another orphex led bar as a gift. now with that added in, I do not have any more room for additional lighting. There seems to be no real shadowing anymore, which is great!
Everything seems to be alive a doing well.
Biggest improvement I have seen on livestock when it comes to fish is feeding fresh/frozen once clams from the market. I truly believe the fresh clams has what made my moorish idol ( had for two months now and forgot to mention him in the thread) turn into a fat happy energetic fish. The fresh clams have also seemed to enhance the coloration of my regal angel, randals and Bimac anthias.
I have added a small Powder Blue Tang, pearly head jawfish (@Wen i got this because of your five, awesome fish), flame hawkfish, sunburst anthia, cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, and some captive bred urchins.
All SPS are going excellent and cannot complain about growth at all.
My main issue this year and currently working on is an ulva outbreak in my DT. Best photo captured when lights are off :
Did it get out of control: yes
Did it hurt any livestock: No
Do the tangs and urchins eat it?: Yes but there is to much for them to handle
Do I mainly remove it every two days?: Yes and it does not grow back where it has been removed from the rock
Did it affect the water chemistry?: Yes it dropped my nutrients really low and my walt disney and two other frags are pale because I lengthens my fuge photo period to help prevent DT growth.
Have I debated H202?: Yes a lot. with the sps doing so well, even had a few triple in size i did not want to take the risk and would rather manual remove versus spot treat areas as it doesn’t grow back and I would be right there to manually remove it. Yes it will take longer to do so, but the urchins and tangs will be able to take control with help of me.
With Covid still around, no rush to have it eradicated fast as no one comes to see it
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rds85
Well-Known Member
Yes he has! Right in the corner of the tank of all places.
I agree and Ulva is one of the best to have as bad algae goes. My tangs are overweight now, you can see it in their faces and look way to round HA.
That he did, something about those clams...
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rds85
Well-Known Member
Thank you! Congrats on the 240. I will have to read through your build thread.
It happens to everyone or at least something does... don't want to get bored because it is to easy HA.
With the tank still under a year old, not worth going to extremes and getting rid of the ulva fast so that there is opportunity for another thing to take hold. If a few months pass and it is still an issue, more drastic measures can be taken. On the funny side. Urchins make a cool trail in the Ulva patches.
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rds85
Well-Known Member
I use both! Well I also use red ogo and some other red macro. Ulva was to feed the tangs, same with the ogo. I mean at this point the ulva already is there and I think it works way better at removing nutrients than cheato. I could slowly start removing it from the system, but it would take some serious time to remove it all.
Most likely in the future I would recommend against it as it is hard to contain in that sense, but I want to give it a full 2 years of use to say that with certainty. I am super curious if I had a UV in place if it would have prevented this from entering my DT.
Ah, I didn’t know that it was much more effective at taking up nutrients than chaeto. I don’t really know what going sexual means for ulva. Is it just single celled sperm and eggs -like thing going through UV? Maybe a strong one would have stopped it? If it forms a plant like thing, then probably not..clearly I don’t know much about ulva sexual reproduction.
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rds85
Well-Known Member
I did do a cool little "experiment" before the Ulva went crazy. With the tools we have available, I was able to correlate refugium light hours to my tanks nitrate level. I could NOT do this with phosphate though. 16-20 hours of light produced 0 nitrate on the hobby test kits consistently. Turned fuge off for four days and nitrates would rise to 5ppm. Turn on the fuge light for 8-10 hours and my nitrate would test 1-2ppm consistently. Granted this is very tank specific and did not account changes in livestock/bioload, but it was kind of cool to "tune" in nitrate to the tank, which I plan to do later when I have Ulva back under my control.
To be fair, I do not really know enough about Ulva sexual reproduction either.
iReefer12
Well-Known Member
I think we have finished all the aquascape we can do outside the tank. Obviously it is subject to change once it is actually inside the tank. I need to install the lights before placing the rocks in the tank and approving the structures. Lights should be going in tonight and aquascape tomorrow. It is hard to visualize what it will look like inside the tank for heights as well as how it will look with SPS mounted everywhere, so bare with me.
Just going through your build, and have to say, amazing job, it’s looking very well planned and put together.
Also, great to see another Colorado Reefer, where abouts are you located?
2 questions. What type of rock did you use? And what is the material used on the bar? I am planning something myself and wanted a bar ledge, I thought the only option would be to buy a piece of granite or something which I was dreading.
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rds85
Well-Known Member
Thank you!
I am located in thornton. Where are you located? you apart MASC?
I used the dry marco rock. The bar is technically wood and painted then coated. I wish i went with the granite and might do so here in the future. Just because I think it looks cleaner with granite. The current bar will works great just after seeing a locals tank with granite i changed my mind.
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