Haha Ryan and Mike. They'll really Drain your wallets dry, but no one can resist :mrgreen: the eye candy is too strong!

Looking good. Glad that you drop by.

Thanks for having me over Peter! Frags are doing well so far!

spent the last hour going through all 33 pages. simply amazing build

Thanks, it's been a wild ride... With plenty of regrets lol.

So the tanks been running about 2 months now and everything looks fine. Got my daily and weekly maintenance routines down. They are not as bad as I was expecting (testing et all).
Just waiting on a BRS bulk order before I get started with dosing (should be around Tuesday). Diatoms continue to recede and the corals appear to be happy campers. No sign of nuisance algae (knock on wood).

My first water change proved to be a bit of a nightmare, and took far too long to mix and heat the new SW.

So I've tried to simplify and speed it up a little with a Friday night project.

Step 1 : Gather necessary items to construct a portable mixing station.

It's a 32 gal Brute with a Speedwave 790, air pump and Jager 300W heater.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7603/...0fa2ca5c_b.jpg

Step 2 : Put it all together while trying to watch 'Girls' on the PVR with the wife. Damn... that show is funny!

Here is the mixing side assembled (with a little bit of influence from daplatapus)...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7633/...5c22aeed_b.jpg

...and the filling side, with the piece that goes into the tank missing.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7592/...3da9e718_b.jpg

Step 3 : Try to justify the cost to the wife. :rolleyes:

I think I will have an acrylic top fabbed up in the future to mount a ro/di float valve, the air pump, a heater bracket and electrical plugs. For now I will probably just notch out the lid.

Thanks for looking.

That looks cool. You'll have to let me know how that re-circ line works. I have a feeling yours will be running far before mine, lol
After a bit to talking with a couple guys on RC, I've decided to hook up my RO/DI to my Apex so I'm waiting on a couple float valves and solenoid before I can make any water.

FYI, I'm pretty sure I saw at Home Depot a roller cart for those 32 gal Brute's. It looked exactly like one of the flower pot rollers with 4 wheels. Not sure if it'll hold 300 lbs of water, but worth looking into if you don't have a method of moving that can around.

Thanks for the inspiration Dom!

My new mixing/water change system seems to work good. I am starting to find that there is always room for improvement in this hobby.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7612/...b49a770e_o.jpg https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8679/...dd77d24c_o.jpg

Bblinks picked me up an Appleberry Monti (on the right) from Tim T. Went to Rich's place tonight and I am completely blown away with how much he has added to his tank in a few months!
It's incredible, and going to look amazing once it grows in. This guy is a master! Thanks again Rich for all your help and advice!

Encrusting Monti's have really peaked my interest, and I'm thinking I may go with them, rather than Chalices. We'll see how this first one does though.
Need to start adding corals with colours other than green, lol. Still haven't added any new fish, that will be next.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8628/...50a09ee6_o.jpg

Sweeeeeeet! Looking good man. I gotta get over and Rich's set up one of these days...

You better! lol



Any updates?

Don't leave us hanging! ;)

No updates. I'm in the dog house for spending too much money this month, lol!

Picked up some bulk with Rich (thanks again buddy), so I'll post once I figure out my dosage and using the Libra.

Ok, NOW you're officially in the club :D

He is a friend of ours now and not just a friend of mine...Johnny Brasco quote...:mrgreen:

Lol I droped by Riches house after work about a year and a half ago to pick up some frags . I told my My wife the traffic was really bad on hwy 1. I forgot that my wife had me set up for find my iPhone . I was doing a lot of long distance bike rides back than I was training for the RTCC and we thought it would be a good idea if she could track me on my rides . I guess she could hear in my voice that I wasn't being truthful about my travels so she GPS me lol . In here mind I was cheating on her but lol I was just hanging with Rich looking at his frag tank.
Man was she ****ed but the pink lemonaid and pink stylo was worth it :mrgreen:

OMG, my wife asked if I was cheating on her too!

Reminds me of the 'Jake from State Farm' commercial, lol.

Me to Rich on the phone: "Wow... you can frag that for me?"
My wife: "Who is that?"
Me: "It's Rich, from Canreef."
Wife grabs phone: "What are you wearing, Rich from Canreef?"
Rich: "Ummm... khakis."
Wife to me: "She sounds hideous!"
Me : "Well that's because she's a guy... so."

"Jake from State Farm", best commercial ever lol

'Nuff said. And that Wheelman76 guy is right up there too. Bad influences. My kids are eating Cheetos for the rest of the month because of them:lol:

Lmao! I don't think I sound hideous...:lol:

Btw, jl has flame wrasses that you been looking for...I put a pair on hold for you today...just saying:wink:

Nice guy Rich. I told him about the flames too, and showed him Naoko's, 'cuz this guy wants some fancy looking wrasses. :wink:

That Naoko looks awesome!

Rich, who did you put the wrasses on hold for, me or hunggi lol?

One each and I have the Naoko and its pretty awesome!

10 weeks in, and tank continues to do well. Diatoms disappear, then reappear. All parameters continue to be fine.

Temp : 78
Salinity : 1.025
pH : 8.13 - 8.22
dkH : 7.0
Ca : 415
Mg : 1335
NH4 : 0
NO2 : 0
NO3 : 0
PO4 : 0

Been checking dkH, Ca and Mg every 2 days to try to figure out how much I need to dose with the Libra. Since I don't have many corals yet they seem to not be consuming it as much as I thought.
May just continue dosing manually until I add more frags... which I am hoping will be soon!

Split a BRS bulk order with Rich and I'm pretty impressed with how clean their additives mix up. Here's a shot with the newly mixed chems in the Vertex 1.5L dosing vessels courtesy of tang daddy.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8755/...2dcbefd8_b.jpg

Haven't hidden the UV's wires yet because I'm not sure if I'm going to continue to use it. Some of you may call this setup clean, but I consider it a total mess, lol! That's OCD for you!
Skimmer is working good, and I am also running filter floss in the sump for larger particulates.
Still need to add a countertop on the stand. Somehow this got pushed back after I started adding livestock.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8705/...f2167c0a_b.jpg

Made the trip out to Oceanic today and picked up a few goodies. A Strawberry Top and 6 Trochus snails, making a b-line for the algae. The tank looks better already!
Strawberry snail has lots of coralline on its shell, hoping this adds some colour to the rocks soon! Once it does I'll add an Urchin.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8720/...1186cc51_o.jpg

Also 2 Serpent stars, and a bonded pair of Orange Spot Gobies, one of which can be seen here.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8753/...abf8c807_o.jpg

Frogspawn is doing well and the Hammer is sprouting 2 new heads.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8706/...e760d01d_o.jpg

The second Goby wasted no time in making a burrow under the rockwork. Took him about 5 mins! That's his head sticking out on the right.
Haven't named them yet, that's the Wife's job.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7593/...a619543d_o.jpg

Looking for some juvenile designer clowns, locally for now. Kraken has some nice and affordable ones, but I'm not too keen on shipping yet.

Thanks for looking.

Looking great Warren , and the sump area is awesome!!! Great job.

Tank is looking good. lol and the sump area looks very well organized. Amazing how much stuff a person can fit into such a small space lol

Thanks Jesse! Rich keeps telling me I need to visit your place and check out your frag tank... but I'm scared to think how much I will spend, lol!

Thanks man... It's been a challenge!

Your sump is a mess! :twised:

LOL jk, probably the neatest looking sump I've seen on the forums yet.

I'd think twice about getting an urchin; useful as they are at chomping down algae, I've had one that rolled/knocked my frags all over the place, and I have seen others that had the same experience. Buyer beware. :wink:

Come on by for a visit anytime Warren , no need to buy anything. Or maybe you can come over sometime with Rich , however he's probably getting tired of coming over here lol

Awesome additions Warren :wink:
Keep your feedings up as the new additions will need more than just sand scraps/leftovers

It is with a sad heart that I must report my first saltwater livestock loss. Found one of the Orange Spot Gobies belly up after work today. Poor bugger has crossed the rainbow bridge and now resides in the big tank in the sky. Going to check all parameters this evening. Sigh.

:(
RIP

:sad:

Those guys are notorious for hard to keep. Sorry to hear about your losses buddy.

Thanks guys... the first loss is always the hardest!

Brought home a couple of Clowns today, and the wife really seems to be warming up to the idea of this expensive salt water box in the middle of her living room!!! YAHOO!

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7724/...cd7a07a7_o.jpg

...and how can you have a pair of Clowns without a RBTA, courtesy of Peter.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7696/...51bddaff_o.jpg

Sorry for your loss Warren , My first one was a Mandarian goby it sucks. :sad:

RIP Orange spot goby :( I had one jump on me a few months ago and I didn't even know until I was vacuuming one day (it usually just kept itself near rockwork).

Nice RBTA, has it hosted the clowns yet?

Hoping to acquire one of those in the future, just need to start a population of pods first.

Planning a screen top build this weekend. Clowns took 4 days to find the RBTA, but now they are hosting it like crazy!

Picked up some much wanted Rastas from Derek (who has an amazing tank btw!).

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8809/...20b58d29_b.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7586/...fcfdbd10_b.jpg

Damn just spent 2 hours or so reading this. Awesome job on the sump. Everything is looking real nice but you need more frags. Far too much open rock in there. :twised: