My 180g, 4 sided viewable project thread

[Rybren]

I know that I've already commented on that other site, but to complete my stalking....

Great tank.

I second AZ...  I sense a TOTM in your future.

[delslo]

The tank has my vote for TOTY, and I second AZ, I like the dining room side better. Makes for a much quieter dinner, wish i thought of that. lol

[Hookup]

Thanks for the kind words.  The tank as so far to go yet.  12 months or so and it should be rocking a bit more...

[Dakotamay]

Wow what a gorgeous tank!   You certainly have a talent and eye for design. I vote TOTY too. Our 180g will never look this good.

[Hookup]

Very kind words and I do apericiate them all...  Honestly.

But when I look at the tank, most of what I see is the problems, issues and distance to go yet... 

I had to frag up a coral tonight that was stn'ing on me... Not sure why, but it's another example of where I'm still having issues.

[delslo]

Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and peer over the pictures of where it was and contrast these to where it is now; then you may come to truly appreciate what you have managed to accomplish, create a beautiful tank.
                                     

[kole18]

Hookup what's your secret about your tank it's so amazing really admire. Man this tank should be in RC reef tank of the month very beautiful

[veron]

Looking good. How do you find the surface skimming with those drain setups?
are you still happy with T5 lighting?

[Hookup]

Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and peer over the pictures of where it was and contrast these to where it is now; then you may come to truly appreciate what you have managed to accomplish, create a beautiful tank.
                                     

Build threads are my favorite of all time.  I look at so many threads each week from various sites.  They give me so many ideas of what to do, or insight into other ways to make a successful tank.  They are such a great resource of information, and heck, it's always neat to see 10 frags stuck to a pile of rock progress to full-blown coral colonies over a few years... just awesome.

Hookup what's your secret about your tank it's so amazing really admire. Man this tank should be in RC reef tank of the month very beautiful

Thanks Kole18.  The secret is being lucky.  I am just lucky so far.    I do my weekly water changes of 50gal now like clockwork.  Run the baling method using FM salts, and use Royal Nature salt (premium salt).... I also say that filter socks are a big part of the success.  They do need to be changed every 2-3 days, but they trap out so much before it can turn into phosphate/nitrate.

But not everything is perfect... far from.  I had to frag up a green cap last night (photoed on previous page) as it started to RTN on me over 2 days... no idea why... possibly some salt-creep that does occasionally build up on my display dropped onto him, or the flux in salinity (was at 1.027 and droped to 1.024 in 30min) effected him the most?  not sure...  My Milipora are still poo-brown...  and my dino egg/fire engine red monti is faded out as well...  i also have an infestation of slime-producing worms on my rock work that i've been killing off... and i do have a very minor, but slowly getting worse, bubble algae issue i'm working on...   ALso, the second Reeflow pump is about to break and has to be replaced at cost because no more warranty is left... and my sump needs a rebuild cause the flow is not correct (dangerous in a power-outtage)...


But that's what is so great, there is always something to do... keeps you busy...

Looking good. How do you find the surface skimming with those drain setups?
are you still happy with T5 lighting?

The surface skimming seems to be ok.  Great maybe even.  I do not get any surface "skum" built up at all and both skimming represent about 28" of skimming area (4.5" * PI) each = 14+ inches each.  food and what not that doesnt sink is quickly pulled over and caught in filter socks.  The noise on them... bwahaha... dead silent.... i mean dead silent like sitting with a book at 2am you hear the lights hum, not the drains...    also the depth of water they are skimming is about 1/8th of an inch... so it's really surface stuff only...

The T5 lighting is awesome.  Love it.  It looks clean and cool.  I don't like the 800watts, but going to an all LED solution is not possible at this time, (a) money and (b) not sure LED's will grow my corals.

I will be adding reefbrites to my system.  soon.  I had a test strip up and it looked like someone photoshoped my tank... but they are expensive at 60" lengths x2 and it's just for colored effects so i'm not ready to throw down that cash...



and my osmoslator broke... and is out of warranty... and i tried to fixed it... and it's fixed for ever... HRMMMM  now i will have to go buy a new good one that works...  

[kole18]

Yup corals don't like low salinity although it should be ok around 1.023 or 0.24 , but it prepares higher than normaly supposed to be. So I kept my salinity 1.025 - 1.026 seems all sps like higher salinity, yup can't be perfect always something to work on your tank specially that size lots of work to mentain your system but all in all your tank is so amazing keep up the good work hopefully to see your tank at RC' tank of month:)

[bettabreeder]

Honestly... WOW. my jaw dropped looking at the final photos. reading from start to finish was waaaaaaaaaay better then paying attention to GEOG yesterday and today  amazing job!

[xenon]

Sick tank for sure. The attention to detail is what impressed me the most.

I am curious about the RTN.

What brand test kits do you use?

Are you dosing anything that you are not able to test for?

[Hookup]

Honestly... WOW. my jaw dropped looking at the final photos. reading from start to finish was waaaaaaaaaay better then paying attention to GEOG yesterday and today   amazing job!

Thanks for the compliments very much!  GEOG being Geography, i can concur... LOL.. i'd rather surf the web then look at rocks too... haha.

Sick tank for sure. The attention to detail is what impressed me the most.

I am curious about the RTN.

What brand test kits do you use?

Are you dosing anything that you are not able to test for?

RTN - you and me both.  The one spot where the RTN was that I didn't quite get fragged out has RTN'd some more!!!  for crying out loud.  But all the "hacks" where I broke the coral are doing fine... SPS are an enigma at times i guess...

I use a few different ones... Salfiert for Alk, Mg, Ca, Nitrate.   Hanna for Alk, Phosphate, Ca, Salinity

Daily (or every few days) I use Hanna for Alk and Salinity and Salifert for Ca.  But the Ca for Hanna is more accurate on the Hanna, just harder to use.

I do dose trace elements which I do not test for.  The baling system from FM.

[kole18]

That suck once the sps start to bleached the entire colony started to wiped out. My pink millie a month ago I've lost the entire colony maybe because of the bio-pellets I hated it now back normal seems everything a bit growing colors starting to show goodluck hookup hope everything will be ok.

[Hookup]

We'll see if I can keep up with this.  The idea is to make this thread my log-book for my testing and tank maintenance.  I was trying to remember things, cause I do not write anything down, and it's biting me in the butt right now.

There won't be any consistent format, just jotted notes.

Testing
  Salinity - 1.025 (Hanna Digital Checker)
  pH - 8.314 (ghl pH probe - last calibration 3 months -its due)
  ORP - didn't check
  Temp - seemed normal (hand in tank method)
  Ca - 459ppm (Hanna Digital Checker)
  Alk - 132ppm (perfect)
  Mg - 1280ppm (Salifert)

Observations:
  Overall color continues to improve.  Growth seems stable.
  Several of the milipora continue to color up SLOWLY.  The pink mili has nice baby-blue PE with one or two tips finally having the "show color" florescent reds...
  The LPS appear to be fading.  This has been on-going trend for a few weeks.  Suspect nutrient levels, or chemical imbalance.
  The highlighter yellow monticap does not appear to be any worse.  Suspect that the areas of tissue loss are from the changes in flow.
  The FireEngineRed Monti is coloring back up... still no idea what has him pissed off... seems to be over it though.  LIkely high Ca.
  One of the Anthais, suspect the one that had pop-eye, is being reclusive again.
  PBT has one spot of ICK on his left pectoral fin (btw, pretty common to come and go over the weeks)
  TwoSpot Gobie stomach still looks descended, need to find better ways to feed him.

[kole18]

I've got rtn when installed my bio-pellets just tottally heat most of my sps colony, I took it off ASAP saw my corals are dying 3 months ago. I dose coral-vite essential elements, cal, alk &  salinity those 2 are my main goal to keep it in stable my parameteres . other than anything not really doing any test for mag, nitrates & pho . all I know corals are comming back the colors & starting to show a sign of life again in my tank. Last night I'd just installed my phos-reactor & now heading to mscape to buy some hermits as well snail to get rid off all my hair algeas my tangs are so lazy bum not eating all my algeas it prepares home made food bugger!

[Hookup]

Testing
  Salinity - 1.024 (Hanna digital checker)
  PH -8.37 (ghl probe - I believe this was what it actually was last test.. I typoed)
  Temp - feels about right
  ORP - 232 ghl needs calibration IMO
  Ca - 433ppm (Hanna digital checker)
  ALK - 136ppm (Hanna digital checker)
 
Observations
  The RTN is not happening.  Seems fragging did the trick
  PBT shows no sign of ICK
  Gobies look better, been feeding Cyclopees frozen en-masse
  Color continues about the same. 
  LPS are stable, but not improving.

[Hookup]

Testing
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 25
pH - 8.32
Ca- 400ppm
ALK - 9.8
Mg - 1470ppm

Observations
Meh...  Some corals have been struggling. Others coloring.  Not sure wtf.
Yellow tailed tamarin - lost
Yasha Haze - lost
Everything else good

[Hookup]

Back from Toronto.  Did the tour for the first time. 

Reef raft - outstanding corals.  Sps were meh that day, LPS were best I've ever seen! Bring $$$$
Aquatic Kingdom - kinda dirty when I went.  Meh corals, but cheap.
North America Fisg Breeders - nice fish.  Healthy, clean... But kinda cramped over all and a bit crowded for space.  Nice ppl.
Oakville Reef Gallery - pretty knowledgeable, smaller place and some great high-end dry goods. 
Big Al's Oakville - wow.  Very clean!  Very healthy!  Still a big Al's, but wow!  I was mega impressed.
Forty Fathoms - WOW. Mega clean, super nice guy, no smelly fish place...  Haha.  Not a tone of ultra-rare pieces like Reef Raft, but one of the cleanest, healthiest places I've ever been in.  Nice!


I did pickup a piece at Reef Raft and a test kit from ORG.  Anything that I wanted was crazy $$$ at reef raft.  Like $600 for a 3" echno...  Ummmm.

[Dakotamay]

Forty Fathoms in Gananoque?  Or is there one in Toronto as well?