So what have you done to YOUR tank lately?

Mandrew · Dec 14, 2015

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1450116195.963618.jpg

Just set it up! Put the live sand and rock in last night!

Paul B · Dec 14, 2015

I just installed my water cooled LED fixture. Here is the radiator.

fishdoc11 · Dec 16, 2015

10 gal h2o change as well as carbon and gfo Put a frag rack up to start making frags of my overgrown nuclear green candy cane and several nice encrusting months as well as a couple of nice chalices that need to be fragged.

bknapp · Dec 20, 2015

Plumbed in a manifold to run my pellet reactor and calcium reactor last night. Hoping, to get a water change done today and mount up some corals finally.

Paul B · Dec 20, 2015

I finally found a use for the waste water from RO/DI. It was looking me in the face for years and all of a sudden as I was looking at my worm tank I said. "Like Duh". I am wasting all this water and my blackworm tank is right under my RO unit. So now the waste water goes into the worm keeper, then to a drain. My tank evaporates about a gallon a day so that makes about 4 gallons of waste water. My worm tank only holds about 2 gallons so it is a win win situation.

Defective_Weeble · Dec 22, 2015

Tore that mother down.

Then put another one in its place.

MUCH happier with a 120 than the shallow reef. Next up is climbing my butt up a ladder to hang the lights from the ceiling. The Kessil mounts won't work because they need to sit where the Synergy overflow is.

Rob.D · Dec 22, 2015

Defective_Weeble said:
Tore that mother down.

Then put another one in its place.

MUCH happier with a 120 than the shallow reef. Next up is climbing my butt up a ladder to hang the lights from the ceiling. The Kessil mounts won't work because they need to sit where the Synergy overflow is.

Nice dude!

bknapp · Dec 22, 2015

Looks good @Defective_Weeble

novajohn01 · Dec 22, 2015

Looking good,hope to see ya at next months meeting

Flatlandsrefeer · Dec 22, 2015

Dowtish said:
SO let's hear it all MTRC members! I want to know whats been going on with your tanks lately. It doesnt have to be epic changes or livestock additions. Even if you are just testing your tank with a new test kit, or changed your routine maintenance that makes things easier, whatever, let's hear it!:ear:

Pics are always appreciated!

I will start. On my new plumbing for the 120, I went ahead and spent the extra cash for these cepex ball valves from BRS, and I am so glad I did. These things turn with ease, and being that I added a manifold along with my 6 stage controllable DC pump these are fantastic for those tiny tweaks to everything dialed in just right.

Well, lots in the past 3-4 months. We redid our aquascaping! It was time! I've always wanted an arch and I didn't feel like there was enough stair stepping to get light to all my coral. We had a pretty major fish issue not long back, everything we added died, discovered it was simply bacteria and lost 5 fish (new fish) however other than my clown Thompson, all existing fish survived. All we ended up doing was treating the existing fish with paraguard and adding stress guard to the tank daily. We have since added (probably more than we should) 3 green chromis a cleaner wrasse and 2 new fire fish to keep our lonely firefighters company. All are doing AMAZING and getting along like a charm.
In addition to our fish (that I've managed not to kill) we added some coral. We found a tube anemone! It's pink with a green mouth, beautiful!!!! We found two new Acans which I am in love with and an absolutely rock star hairy mushroom. Lastly we found a colony of Zoas with like 7 different types coving a rock. Also, I tried my hand at fragging. Fragged my first candy cane and 6 heads on a Duncan.

The last picture is the old aquascaping.

Other than that, we continue with our weekly water changes and feeding schedules and love watching our tank.

Brandon Donaldson · Dec 23, 2015

Just got a ai prime for my 29 gallon biocube and built a 10 gallon sump and added a black ic err clown

Paul B · Dec 24, 2015

So today I am making stuffed Calamari with linguini for one of the seafood dishes we will have tonight for Christmas Eve dinner. We are Italian so we have to have at least 7 types of seafood today. Last year we had 21 because we all bring something.
Anyway I am stuffing the squid and I had to go downstairs for more olive oil. I immediately sense something is wrong. I look at my tank and it is totally dark. Oh No. These things only happen on Easter, Mother's Day or Christmas Eve. I put down the oil and go in the back of the tank. Now I have this new water cooled LED fixture that I built a week ago and it has been running great with no problems. I see water on the floor and the sight glass on my fixture is empty. Oh No. The first thing I do is look at the corals with a flashlight because this fixture is made of copper pipe and if the water from the fixture went in the tank, the corals would be looking like snot from the copper. The corals look good and I can't see anything leaking. So I slowly add water to the system and OH NO. Water is shooting out from a union. I tighten the union and add more water. OH NO, it shoots right out. So I remove the union and remember I have a bunch of calamari in the middle of being stuffed. The Calamari will have to wait. It's dead anyway so it won't notice.
I put the union on my workbench and check it out but it looks fine. I screw it back on to the fitting using new Teflon tape, fill it with water, turn on the system and ......Oh No. Water is spitting all over the place. AAAAHHHHHH.
I really need to get these calamari finished. I remove the union again and take it to my workbench. This is not easy because I am covered in Olive oil and garlic. This time I look closer and the thing has a big crack in it. The crack only shows up when it is screwed to a pipe. I have a spare union and I install it and slowly fill the system with water. The light goes on, then it goes off, it goes on, then off. It takes about an hour to get all the air out of the system for it to stay running. After all the air is out, there is no more maintenance or adding water because it is a closed system like a car radiator. Luckily I built this thing with a fail safe built in. It worked as it was designed, if it runs out of water or the pump stops, the LEDs turn off so they don't burn out. The fail safe is how we design things on a construction job and it means if the thing dies, or leaks, it will leak outside the tank and the LEDs will turn off. All the plastic parts are outside the tank and I know my soldered pipe joints won't leak as I pressure tested them and now the system has no pressure in it. So now all is well. The fish and corals are happy, I even gave them some squid which they don't like nearly as much as clams because it is much more chewy.
Merry Christmas Everyone.

iiluisii · Dec 24, 2015

Same to you Paul

Flatlandsrefeer · Dec 24, 2015

Paul B said:
So today I am making stuffed Calamari with linguini for one of the seafood dishes we will have tonight for Christmas Eve dinner. We are Italian so we have to have at least 7 types of seafood today. Last year we had 21 because we all bring something.
Anyway I am stuffing the squid and I had to go downstairs for more olive oil. I immediately sense something is wrong. I look at my tank and it is totally dark. Oh No. These things only happen on Easter, Mother's Day or Christmas Eve. I put down the oil and go in the back of the tank. Now I have this new water cooled LED fixture that I built a week ago and it has been running great with no problems. I see water on the floor and the sight glass on my fixture is empty. Oh No. The first thing I do is look at the corals with a flashlight because this fixture is made of copper pipe and if the water from the fixture went in the tank, the corals would be looking like snot from the copper. The corals look good and I can't see anything leaking. So I slowly add water to the system and OH NO. Water is shooting out from a union. I tighten the union and add more water. OH NO, it shoots right out. So I remove the union and remember I have a bunch of calamari in the middle of being stuffed. The Calamari will have to wait. It's dead anyway so it won't notice.
I put the union on my workbench and check it out but it looks fine. I screw it back on to the fitting using new Teflon tape, fill it with water, turn on the system and ......Oh No. Water is spitting all over the place. AAAAHHHHHH.
I really need to get these calamari finished. I remove the union again and take it to my workbench. This is not easy because I am covered in Olive oil and garlic. This time I look closer and the thing has a big crack in it. The crack only shows up when it is screwed to a pipe. I have a spare union and I install it and slowly fill the system with water. The light goes on, then it goes off, it goes on, then off. It takes about an hour to get all the air out of the system for it to stay running. After all the air is out, there is no more maintenance or adding water because it is a closed system like a car radiator. Luckily I built this thing with a fail safe built in. It worked as it was designed, if it runs out of water or the pump stops, the LEDs turn off so they don't burn out. The fail safe is how we design things on a construction job and it means if the thing dies, or leaks, it will leak outside the tank and the LEDs will turn off. All the plastic parts are outside the tank and I know my soldered pipe joints won't leak as I pressure tested them and now the system has no pressure in it. So now all is well. The fish and corals are happy, I even gave them some squid which they don't like nearly as much as clams because it is much more chewy.
Merry Christmas Everyone.

Love it Paul! Merry Christmas.

Defective_Weeble · Dec 24, 2015

Hung some lights. Had planned to use the new Kessil arms as I don't like hung lights, but the Synergy overflow sits right where they need to be, so hanging was the only viable choice I had left. Kessil does make an extension rod, but I'd have to mount it to the back of the stand and I wasn't about to drain this thing to accomodate for that.

Still need more rock.

iiluisii · Dec 24, 2015

Defective_Weeble said:
Hung some lights. Had planned to use the new Kessil arms as I don't like hung lights, but the Synergy overflow sits right where they need to be, so hanging was the only viable choice I had left. Kessil does make an extension rod, but I'd have to mount it to the back of the stand and I wasn't about to drain this thing to accomodate for that.

Still need more rock.

Hey brad you might want to check the way you have your wavebox installed. It should be at the top of the waterline and I believe is up side down.

Defective_Weeble · Dec 24, 2015

iiluisii said:
Hey brad you might want to check the way you have your wavebox installed. It should be at the top of the waterline and I believe is up side down.

Interesting about upside down. I can give it a shot and see if it makes any difference.

I'm purposely running it low in the tank though. Avoiding big ripples in the surface because of the Kessil.

At any rate, it's not staying in the tank. It was on loan to see if I liked it but I'm not really a fan.

iiluisii · Dec 24, 2015

Defective_Weeble said:
Interesting about upside down. I can give it a shot and see if it makes any difference.

I'm purposely running it low in the tank though. Avoiding big ripples in the surface because of the Kessil.

At any rate, it's not staying in the tank. It was on loan to see if I liked it but I'm not really a fan.

If you look at the box it should have a min water lever line. Turn it up and raise the box up until the water is at the water line mark. It makes a big difference.

iiluisii · Dec 24, 2015

Defective_Weeble said:
Interesting about upside down. I can give it a shot and see if it makes any difference.

I'm purposely running it low in the tank though. Avoiding big ripples in the surface because of the Kessil.

At any rate, it's not staying in the tank. It was on loan to see if I liked it but I'm not really a fan.

If you look at the box it should have a min water lever line. Turn it up and raise the box up until the water is at the water line mark. It makes a big difference.