The_Skrimp
Well-Known Member
Hey folks. My name is José and I currently live in Augusta Georgia with my wife Erika who contributes a great deal to this tank as well. I'd love to introduce you guys to our new Nyos Opus G2 69 gallon tank!
Unfortunately, our previous 50 Gallon SCA cube tank crashed back in September after hurricane Helene absolutely thrashed our town and destroyed our old apartment. The roof came off in the middle of the night and it started pouring rain water directly into our living room including right into our old tank). The flooding left the tank stand sitting in standing water for several days and the aftermath of the hurricane left the rest of the tank without power for weeks. We had several battery packs that we carted back and fourth between the old apartment and the hotel we were holding up in to recharge and swap out which helped keep some pumps going but in the end, it just was not enough for the bulk of the livestock. We lost quite a bit. After 4 years of steadily growing that reef, loosing it was an absolute gut punch.
That being said, we do have some survivors. My current livestock now includes:
My old pistol shrimp, Hellboy, and his watchman goby, Alan Moore. My old small male clownfish Bill also survived formerly of Bill and Ted (RIP Ted). With the exception of a few larger critters, most of the clean up crew made it through okay. I have two urchins, one tuxedo urchin from before and a new pincushion urchin along with a handful of hermits and snails that made it. At the end of it all though, my biggest surprise is that my maxima clam not only made it okay but seemed to have a great time with it all. I wonder if it was the extra waste in the water from all the dead and dying coral and inverts that helped feed it and keep him happy, but this guy just really did not skip a beet.
Otherwise, the coral that did survive were my softies mostly made up of zoas and mushrooms along with most of my easier to keep LPS. my hammer colonies had a few branches left over to start over from and all of my micromussa made it out okay although some of them are still looking pretty rough. My favia type corals and chalice corals are mostly skeleton but there's enough flesh left there for me to keep the faith. I'm hopeful that most of them can bounce back with enough time and TLC. I am however heartbroken about my SPS. Only one Turbinaria colony made it out alive.
On the upside, while I'm not 100% starting over, I am starting again in an all new tank with a little bit more knowledge and experience behind me than before and I am very much loving the experience of setting up a tank that actually kind of looks like I know what I am doing. A couple of years ago I got into binging countless hours of youtube videos showing people building their own aquascapes and ever since then, I've wanted to try my hand at building my own negative space aquascape. Something dynamic with caves, cut throughs, and arches. So I took a hammer and chisel to a new box of dry rock and stocked up on lots and lots of superglue. (emphasis on the LOTS of superglue)
I did not use any mortar or epoxy at all for this scape. Instead I kept it old school and used a combo of thin liquid superglue and gel superglue all the while sprinkling the rock dust I had left over from smashing the rocks up in between layers of glue. That combination drys almost like a strong cement. It actually gets really hot and even smokes when the glue interacts with the aragonite dust of the dry rock.
This new tank has now been running since mid October. Aside from adding extra bacteria via Turbostart, I transfered enough live rock and coral from the old tank to hopefully keep up with my diminished level of livestock and avoid a full new cycle. I took every smaller bit of live rock that I had left over and stuffed them in between baffles in the sump.
Here I am, a couple of weeks later and I'm already into an ugly phase but instead of sweating It, I'm totally excited about the new ecosystem I'll get to manage from here on out.
The Aquarium
Aquarium dimensions: 35.4"L x 21.7"W x 20.9"H
Display Tank Volume: 69 Gallons
Glass Thickness: 10 mm (0.4")
The Cabinet
Cabinet Dimensions: 38.8"L x 25.8"W x 35.4"H
Total height w/ Aquarium: 4' 7"
The Sump
Sump Dimensions: 20"L x 20"W x 13.8"H
Sump Water Volume: 14 Gallons (at 8" water depth)
ATO Reservoir Dimensions: 4.7"L x 16.5"W x 20"H
ATO Water Volume: 6 Gallons
Equipment:
Lighting: Gen 5, XR15 Pro, and Gen 6 XR15 Blue
Flow: MP10, and Nero 3
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite
Heater: 200W BRS Titanium Heater with Helio controller
Return pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 3.5 pump
Top Off: XP Aqua Duetto 2
Doser: Kamoer X1 Bluetooth
Reactor: BRS dual reactor
Dosing:
All For Reef
Unfortunately, our previous 50 Gallon SCA cube tank crashed back in September after hurricane Helene absolutely thrashed our town and destroyed our old apartment. The roof came off in the middle of the night and it started pouring rain water directly into our living room including right into our old tank). The flooding left the tank stand sitting in standing water for several days and the aftermath of the hurricane left the rest of the tank without power for weeks. We had several battery packs that we carted back and fourth between the old apartment and the hotel we were holding up in to recharge and swap out which helped keep some pumps going but in the end, it just was not enough for the bulk of the livestock. We lost quite a bit. After 4 years of steadily growing that reef, loosing it was an absolute gut punch.
That being said, we do have some survivors. My current livestock now includes:
My old pistol shrimp, Hellboy, and his watchman goby, Alan Moore. My old small male clownfish Bill also survived formerly of Bill and Ted (RIP Ted). With the exception of a few larger critters, most of the clean up crew made it through okay. I have two urchins, one tuxedo urchin from before and a new pincushion urchin along with a handful of hermits and snails that made it. At the end of it all though, my biggest surprise is that my maxima clam not only made it okay but seemed to have a great time with it all. I wonder if it was the extra waste in the water from all the dead and dying coral and inverts that helped feed it and keep him happy, but this guy just really did not skip a beet.
On the upside, while I'm not 100% starting over, I am starting again in an all new tank with a little bit more knowledge and experience behind me than before and I am very much loving the experience of setting up a tank that actually kind of looks like I know what I am doing. A couple of years ago I got into binging countless hours of youtube videos showing people building their own aquascapes and ever since then, I've wanted to try my hand at building my own negative space aquascape. Something dynamic with caves, cut throughs, and arches. So I took a hammer and chisel to a new box of dry rock and stocked up on lots and lots of superglue. (emphasis on the LOTS of superglue)
I did not use any mortar or epoxy at all for this scape. Instead I kept it old school and used a combo of thin liquid superglue and gel superglue all the while sprinkling the rock dust I had left over from smashing the rocks up in between layers of glue. That combination drys almost like a strong cement. It actually gets really hot and even smokes when the glue interacts with the aragonite dust of the dry rock.
This new tank has now been running since mid October. Aside from adding extra bacteria via Turbostart, I transfered enough live rock and coral from the old tank to hopefully keep up with my diminished level of livestock and avoid a full new cycle. I took every smaller bit of live rock that I had left over and stuffed them in between baffles in the sump.
Here I am, a couple of weeks later and I'm already into an ugly phase but instead of sweating It, I'm totally excited about the new ecosystem I'll get to manage from here on out.
The Aquarium
Aquarium dimensions: 35.4"L x 21.7"W x 20.9"H
Display Tank Volume: 69 Gallons
Glass Thickness: 10 mm (0.4")
The Cabinet
Cabinet Dimensions: 38.8"L x 25.8"W x 35.4"H
Total height w/ Aquarium: 4' 7"
The Sump
Sump Dimensions: 20"L x 20"W x 13.8"H
Sump Water Volume: 14 Gallons (at 8" water depth)
ATO Reservoir Dimensions: 4.7"L x 16.5"W x 20"H
ATO Water Volume: 6 Gallons
Equipment:
Lighting: Gen 5, XR15 Pro, and Gen 6 XR15 Blue
Flow: MP10, and Nero 3
Skimmer: Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite
Heater: 200W BRS Titanium Heater with Helio controller
Return pump: Sicce Syncra Silent 3.5 pump
Top Off: XP Aqua Duetto 2
Doser: Kamoer X1 Bluetooth
Reactor: BRS dual reactor
Dosing:
All For Reef
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