Susan's RSM 250

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Susan Edwards

Susan Edwards

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Today is a busy day. Working on the 125g build. Mostly filled with water to just below weirs. Need 1 pc of plumbing added today then can test. All equipment in and being tested except skimmer. So am happy. won't get electrical done this weekend so will have a snarly mess of cords and cables and boxes.

Picking up my dau's RS e170 (45g) tank today. Setting it up for a coral qt. Not starting a coral qt thread <g>. 2 is enough. Can update it here in one of these threads. Will use old tank water and all rock with coral from the display refugium and prob. some sand. Make it look like a regular tank but corals only. Mainly because I have colts and xenia in the refugium and don't want to just toss them. Will have a ton of snails as there are tons of baby trochus in that tank... Rest of sand and rock with macro algae go to the sump of the new build.

Hex 20 gal, fish qt will come down along with the 10 gal that I tried as a coral qt (didn't work well). Extra powerheads will go into the sump along with the lights. I have the hex lights mounted on a pc of egg crate cut to fit the hex. Thinking of using double stick tape or velcro to stick under stand for lighting.

So going to be fun monkeying around with all these tanks.

Tank update as we near month 14. Will have to get some more pics

The 4 new anthias doing well. 1 purple queen still stays in hiding most of the time, coming out to eat, esp. baby brine shrimp. All the fish go nuts.

Not sure how the coco worm is doing. Not coming out much. Moved it again thinking it wasn't enough flow. Need to go do some more research. Everything else is pretty much the same. Lots of new micromussa babies, the large polyps spreading--too much. Hubbies favorite. Not mine.

Will update corals next post
 
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Susan Edwards

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Working on getting the coral qt tank cleaned and operating. Need a replacement seal for the return nozzle assembly. Got the skimmer and pump all cleaned. Glass and back wall need a lot of work and a lot of vinegar... Pic below show my 2 tanks in livingroom. Have to get that room back in order! Will work on it this weekend. We'll hopefully finish the electrical side of the stand (125g) and get the durso stands adjusted.

Eager to take down the display refugium which never got plumbed to the main display (this thread's tank). Have the parts. Guess I'll try to sell them (overflow box etc). The fish in the tank (goby and damsel) will go to the 125 when cycled, rock with colts or xenia into the new coral qt tank and rock with macros into new tank's sump along with the sand. The tank will then become my fish qt tank. will try to remove as many snails as I can in case I have to medicate. There are a ton of baby trocus in there but most should make it out on the rocks. I'll go bare bottom and add decorations for the fish.

Can't believe I started all this just over a year ago and I know have 4 tanks... Five if you count the 10 gal coral qt that didn't work out and now has an anemone that is still hanging in there.
 
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Susan Edwards

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Month 14 updates
Fish
New fish:

dispar anthias doing great
purple queen anthias seem also to be doing okay. 1 still hides a lot but is coming out more and move. They all love the baby brine shrimp i hatch
Coco worm coming out again. It wasn't coming out much or fully extending so I moved it. It hated new spot and didnt come out at all. Moved it back. Now it seems better.

Fish already in
2 chromis. Happy. Love getting fed 4 x's a day due to the anthias. Survived MV
2 darwin clowns. Doing well. Defend their area of tank--from me! Attack and nip at my hands.... Haven't they heard the one about biting the hands that feeds....
1 Bangaii. Seems okay. Will buy 1 or 2 more
1 barber shop goby with pistol shrimp--doing well
Mandarin: hunts all the day long.
Scooter Blenny: MV survivor. totally spoiled. Used to come to the turkey baster to be fed and seemed eager to "interact" with me through glass. Until MV forced me to qt him and then move him into a temp tank. Now he runs but has discovered pods--while tank was fallow, got a good pod population going. He hunts with the mandarin all day
1 peppermint shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp doing well
Fish in display refugium
gold head sleeper goby-sifts sand all day long. It will go to the 125 g in a couple weeks, as soon as cycle is complete
yellow tail damsel--to 125 as well.

Corals
Sun corals: doing great. New heads. Feed 3-4 times a week
White Tipped leather (2): 2 growing together. Should have moved the smaller. Look like they are growing together now. Looks good
Clove-palm-spreading. Nice looking
Reverse sunset (capricornus monti)-Original piece is encrusting nicely. dau gave me a bunch more to trade. they are doing okay. Will put a couple in my coral qt/grow out tank until I add to 125 g
sedosa monti-mandarin orange I think: looking really good. Also have some small pieces of this one to trade. Will keep one for other tank
2 micromussa's. Each has a ton of new babies. One of my favs
favia or favite--finally is growing. Moved it, found a place it likes. Seeing feeding tentacles now and new growth
Big paly's. Growing and spreading. What a mistake where I put them but had no idea. Hubby's favorite. Mine not so. He named them oscar the grouch as they remind him of the puppet who lives in a garbage can.
small paly's: spreading
several zoas all growing and expanding
ricordias-2 growing and doing well
gsp-spreading but contained for now
Duncan-my favorite. Too many heads to count. Started with 7
Acro-large good polyp extension
Acro-tenius? blue. Seems okay but not good extension
birds nest-doing okay but has red stuff on it. Might have something or be receding. I blow off with turkey baster
turbinaria--growing
blue toadstool-awesome. huge
torch--3-4 heads now.
hammerhead--fairly new still. Not as much growth as I'd like
Chalice prob. won't survive
gonestrea prob. won't survive
leptastrea came back from nearly dying. Found it's spot and it is doing super well.
Rhodactus muchrooms-multiplying and spreading
blue mushroom split and doing well
orange mushroom split and doing well.

Whew, need to make this a word file that i can just update and cut and copy!
 
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Susan Edwards

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New tank is cycled. By Sunday i should be able to move the sand sifter and damsel to their new home, remove the rocks and sand to their new homes (sump and coral qt tank) and have the display refugium turned into a fish qt tank. In a week or so will order the first fish for new tank to qt. Prob. 3 lemon chromis and 2 more yellow tail damsels. Will go no sand as I have pods in there and don't want meds to kill them off. Part for the new coral qt tank (rs e170) should be here today so I can get that tank going maybe today or tomorrow. Going to use half old water from both older tanks so it is a bit seasoned. Coral qt will have rock with xenia and kenya trees from the DR so shouldn't need to really cycle. Have some "spare" frags in display for trading in at a lfs to put in there.

also thinking about moving the orange and blue mushrooms to new tank as I want to put something else where those are (front against rocks in little curve). Might try another goni or galexia but might be a bit too shaded.
 
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This poor tank thread is being woefully neglected! It is now 15.5 months old. One rotten thing: 4 of my lights in the hood went out within minutes of each other. Can't be 2 ballasts within minutes, or not likely, so electrical of some sort. Did some thinking. If, worse case, it was 2 ballasts, then I'd need to buy 3 and change them all.

3 ballasts: 400.00--round up with possible shipping and tax-65 ea
6 new bulbs--200.oo with tax and maybe shipping--due to be changed in May
6 more bulbs 8 months later

so that is 800 bucks into my lighting if I stay t5's

So I decided to do the led retrofit from Steve's LED's. 869 with the led upgrade kit. Didn't do the bluetooth. Might be a "fun" toy but if the internet goes down, so does my control. The current lights on my 125 have a plug controller and remote as well. Only the hydra 26's on the coral qt tank (rs max e170) are only controlled by bluetooth. Decided that was 60 bucks I didn't have to spend but the 60 for the violet led upgrades seemed resonable to get the lower blue spectrum . So by next Fri. should have the kit. Also figured if we had to take the hood off, to just do it so we don't have to do this again.

Corals no happy with just 2 light but all at least open.

Lost the 2 purple anthias. Thinking about the next fish. Maybe gobies or blennys. Or another pair of anthias. Even another 1 or 2 dispair. Love the catalina goby. Planning on a couple for the other tank. 1 or 2 in this tank might be nice. Only have one shrimp/goby pair. Could use a sand sifter--maybe a rainsford as they are supposed to be too bad except most of the top sand is pretty chunky. Used the bimini pink and mostly the bigger bits left. Should think about scooping or sucking out areas, at least in the front and replacing. Or just adding a layer on top. My previous sand sifter seemed to manage.

Def. need to get maybe a conch snail to try or a sand sifting star. Will consider what to get but I need something to stir sand but not eat all the pods as I have a mandarin and a scooter.
 
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Susan Edwards

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Here are some updated pics of corals

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well, over a week ago, my lights broke. First 2 bulbs went out, then 2 more, leaving with just 2 bulbs. Figuring it was 1 or 2 ballasts or some other sort of electrical (why would 2 go out at once) I started thinking. Taking into consideration removing hood, taking hood apart, I'd probably be smart to just replace all 3 ballasts or have 3 on hand just in case. After figuring the cost of 3 (200.00), replacing 6 bulbs lights in May (400) and then replacing them again in 8 months (another 400) and the cost and headache of using 4 fans to keep tank cool, that it made sense to convert to LEDs. I opted to buy steve's led retrofit led upgrade. Hubby and I made the switch yesterday. Scary as we couldn't get the new lights working--controller. There was power to the new leds. he didn't want to start cutting wires. I told him to do it. If needed I'd be able to get it working via customer service. There was a wire disconnected so it would prob. have been an easy fix (but why did the wire come off and what a pain if it happened again elsewhere.) So the hood is ready to go back on this morning. Having trouble getting the bluefish controller working so am using a piece of junk led fixture I had on hand. Pretty poor lighting... And if it takes too long, will pull the light from the sump of my other tank to add.

everything did okay with just 2 lights for a week. Leathers not so happy with the longer lights out since removing hood yesterday. Hoping I can get it working today
 
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Good news! Got the controller working. I haz lights! Have them turned down for a few days for adjusting and will slowly ramp them up. Tank is def. more blue/purple than I'm used to at the moment. I have to say--something that surprises me, but my tank did not suffer at all. In fact I think it grew a ton with just a purple light and one other--not sure which one it was.

My blue toadstool looks like it almost doubled in size this last week. It's a monster. The torch is stretching pretty high--maybe have to move the powerhead. The palm cloves are a good inch taller. Mushrooms all doing good. Ricordia is spreading and mutiplying like nuts, giant palys getting huge and the acro didn't seem affected at all. Other leather is also doing good and nothing bothers the duncan it seems. Very pleased with the lights and the control I have. Good experience and can def. recommend Steve's LEDS

pic of the blue toadstool, one from Jan. And current . It is about size of a desert plate. Can't believe the sudden growth. Even the tentacles seem longer although the ends aren't as open.
January 2018
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Today
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Time for another update. All seems well except 1 colony of zoas. Not sure what is attacking them. Good news, the brown acro I've had for just over a year or so is turning green. I'd say it likes the new led lights. All fish doing good. Will have to start adding some more corals to this tank. Have lots of bare spots yet. Next coral order will be online so I can hand pick what I want, not pick at what is available.. Maybe a couple more fish--bicolor blenny for sure. Trying to populate the 125 at the moment. Here's a few pics

Acro turning green
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Something eating zoas or something
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Full tank shot
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QT tank ready for fish for the 125: 2 royal grammas, 3 lyretail anthias. Could always add one royal to the 66 but I like the idea of 3 in the other tank.
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Happy leathers and clove.
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happy paly's--hubby's favorite. Not mine! That rock will hve to ocme out at some point and go either into the coral qt tank or an island in the 125. Happy micros and ricordia and other zoas. Oh and coco worm
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Rhodactis and I think this is a turbinaria? Still not sure. Get different opinions
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