Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning - Page 10

blacknife · #91 04-25-2012, 08:40 AM

I have been trying to be productive while on this vacation.. er week of unemployment some projects that have been on hold for months are getting done. hah got this sump/tank from Kal at the fragfest without knowing it was him. did the baffles and resealed it 2 or 3 times before i got it right < i think that was around christmas> I started isolating the mandarin/frag tank sometime this afternoon. an hour or so ago things got back to full running everything back in place.

I used to have my rock in the first chamber, but I could not get in and clean it. There was lots of nasty goo in there. This go round the rock is on a pvc/eggcrate cage so if i ever need to clean out detritus I can just lift the rock out quick and suck away. there is also a new mj1200 in there to keep things stirred up, though that might get downsized when i tie the 40 in.

The last sump also had a baffle fail and eventually i just removed it, with no valve between the pump and the sump, it meant draining all the water out to do maintenance, that issue is resolved.

Here is my old sump just for nastiness sake:

It was too high, I could barely get anything in under the stand let alone clean much in there. I forget what i had the hole in there for, I think it was when i had it as a live rock refugeium before its sump life but when I started running zeo i had to bust a piece out to get the reactor in. my arms were regularly getting scraped on the rough edges. it might get rebuilt into something else for frankentank or perhaps just cut up for glass.

Just need a few more plumbing pieces for the 40 and another batch or 2 of water and the 40 will sit where the 20 now is. I think it will be bare bottom fragugieum, the 20 will be moved below the 40 and be turned into FOWLR Mandarin paradise, or let him go to a new home and just remove the 20. He/she is pretty skinny right now, the wrasse outcompetes for food and i have not been feeding the LPS much in attempt to get the SPS to grow.

All In all I wish I could take all these tanks and magically turn them into one but thats not happening for a while.

I just remembered one of the reasons I decided I had to get on this sump move is as I was trying to clean the barely working skimmer one more time over the weekend I lost one of the rubber bearings/bushings under the sump. I just now remembered seeing it as I was cleaning up under the sump and totally forgetting about it.. I wonder where it went. Oh well new skimmer as soon as I am working again anyway.

Ohh one more thing.. my white worms are now white worms amidst thousands of little bugs.. ugh.. dammed unsterile basement. I will try to start a couple new cultures out of the one culture i have and pull individual worms out and hope the bugs don't spread.

blacknife · #92 04-28-2012, 12:59 AM

busy today too. I cobbled everything together almost the way I want it. I will have to redo the bulkheads when i get some new ones.

need to decide if the 40 will be frag tank or just put most of the sps and the mp10's into it and leave the fish and lps in the other. manderin tank looks good there as long as the kids leave it alone. might need to skirt things in to make it all kidproof.

blacknife · #93 04-28-2012, 04:15 AM

Just fired up the radium above the 40... daymmmm that xm20k is gone for good heh.. i think it will be radium till the led-s show up.. i think ill be throwing the sps in there for sure..

blacknife · #94 04-28-2012, 06:52 AM

I took a bunch of shots with the slr but now Iphoto is acting up and so is everything else that will handle NEF. grrr

the 40 is looking awesome, mostly sps, both mp-10s 250wHQI radium, If the colours even of the frags that were totally browned out under 4-5 month old xm bulb all ready show colour everything else should colour up pretty quick.

only took this one with the phone before i pulled out the d200.

<.... .... ... ok an hour later ill try this again.... ... ... >
Unedited jpegs as nothing is co-operating today. This was a quick photoshoot before lights out rushing through everything I will try harder next time when everything looks better.

FTS

This rainbow has some hydroids or something in it its spreading pretty good not sure to pluck the hydroids out or just nuke that section of it.

bah I am to tired if your really interested here is the album

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v228/nakedboy/fts/

blacknife · #95 05-23-2012, 11:57 PM

Skimmer finally crapped out. the shaft for the impeller cracked just above the magnet. skimmer replacement is still waiting on me finding a half decent job.

oh well I all ready pulled out the hob remora pro out, weak tea is better than no tea.

On the other hand if anyone has a skimmer for loan or cheap It would probably make my sps happy.

fishytime · #96 05-24-2012, 04:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacknife

Skimmer finally crapped out. the shaft for the impeller cracked just above the magnet. skimmer replacement is still waiting on me finding a half decent job.

oh well I all ready pulled out the hob remora pro out, weak tea is better than no tea.

On the other hand if anyone has a skimmer for loan or cheap It would probably make my sps happy.

I have a Bubble King SM 300 not being used ATM, but I doubt it would fit in your sump.......or your display for that matter

blacknife · #97 05-24-2012, 05:59 PM

I do have lots of glass sitting here, i will just make a new sump... or not lol thanks for the offer

blacknife · #98 06-06-2012, 04:26 AM

so i pulled the old workhorse 7 out of the fixture i put the radium in and the 2 pc bulbs were just sitting there doing nothing.. they are a 454 and a 50/50,uvl with internal reflectors.. I just draped them over the glass to see how i like them with the radium and i think they might stay.

that is until i get some end caps and new t5 bulbs to put in instead.

I need to clean up the old pc reflectors and re bend them a bit for t-5s as well.

my only wonder... with these 1-1.5 year old bulbs will my sps color up more or brown out more? I guess just try it for a few weeks and see eh?

sure whats another 192W of electricity/light seeping into my tank going to do... heh break the wallet?

blacknife · #99 06-06-2012, 11:27 PM

I went away for 2 days over the weekend and came home to most of my chalice fraglets dead or having unexplainable damage.

Today I was bagging up some frags to help pay for a skimmer and I see my buddy, the GF's must have orange coloured Protoreaster nodosus right on top of the one untouched frag,.. green eye green rim that was growing slow and steady since i got it at fragfest.

guess what is now half eaten?

can we all guess who is now a resident of the reffugieum/sump area.

The gf's response? "Can I just start a tank to put him and a few seahorses in then?".

she then points at a 14 gallon cube that had some freshwater fish in it till a few days ago. "that would be big enough wouldn't it?"

I just need to remember not to let her talk me into putting things in my tank.

on a side note, new to me skimz sm161 is bubbling away.. I do not have it quite dialled in yet but im sure thats a few week long constant tweaking event.

I only fully lost one challice. is 95 percent gonner, and the other 3 should recover with big dead spots.

the insanity never ends

blacknife · #**100** 06-15-2012, 05:04 PM

Silly starfish is at it again.. this time I don't mind.

I cut all my GSP off the glass a few weeks ago in hopes of selling the large chunks for cheap. they ended up in the.. anything I don't want in the DT tank also known as a refugeium.

Seems my starfish loves GSP may have been munching it for quite some time in the other tank but I never noticed. Unfortunately it appears It only eats the polyps and leaves the purple base intact, Perhaps one would have a taste for these clove polyps everyone is complaining about.