30 Breeder Reef build

gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric B 125 http:///t/390687/30-breeder-reef-build#post_3461791
Ammonia, ammonia, where for art thou ammonia?
Ammonia: 0
Trite: 0
Trate: 0
Also still can't post pictures

I'm excited to share my fiance's first aquascape with everyone. With a few suggestions from me, she was able to throw a pretty nice little scape together.
Not sure about the pics, but what did you use to kick start the cycle? I cycled my 55 in like 4 days.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
All the rock in the tank came from my 125, however it's been cooking for a few months. Nevertheless, it is LR. The sand is expired live sand, so I should see an ammonia spike in the next few days.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
I was just given a bright green sinularia, a light green sinularia, a small finger leather, some xenia, and a small brown colt. I've tested the water and the main three are all undetectable. I did, however, forget one major thing... a heater. I was going to just toss the new corals in but after seeing that the temp was 68 F, I had to put the corals in the main tank. Here I am in the process of trying to get all the softies out of the main reef and I had to put more of them in
. I have them in tupperware on the sandbed, with some rubble to keep the containers from taking off. Tomorrow I'll run out and buy a heater.
Still can't post new pics on this thread. Will try to start a new thread just to post some pics.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Nope. It won't work in another thread either. That's effing lame.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Once the MH turn on in my main tank, I'm going to pull a heater from it to help heat the water in this tank a bit faster. I also will turn the MH on over the breeder to expedite heating since heaters aren't really made to heat water up. If later today I am still getting no detectable ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate then I will move everything over and start placing some frags I have waiting on a frag rack in my stony reef. Until then, I will take some more pics and Gemmy was kind enough to offer to post them for me. Hopefully I can figure out the reason for my inability to post pics because I like to think I'm a pic-heavy poster...
 
sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
That is weird. I wonder why it won't let you post pics. That is funny about forgetting about the heater. That is totally something I would do.
A bit late to the fish suggestions party. But, I like the idea of a dwarf Angel, or a cool pair of clowns (black Ice or Snowflake).
I think that is awesome that your fiance is helping out with this tank. I am always trying to get my wife more involved. She is coming around slowly, she gets more involved when I ask her opinion on what the next addition should be (coral, fish, or invert).
Looking forward to seeing the pics!!
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Well, I am happy to say that I have re-gained the ability to post pictures! I'm not sure what was going on but if it was something that the moderators or SWF.com had to fix, I greatly appreciate the help. I am also grateful for Krista and her offer to post pics for me until the problem was solved.
Top-down aquascape before water FTS: If the actinic in the rear is turned on then the picture has too much glare from the rocks and doesn't look good

I'm pleased with how the tank fits into the room. It doesn't take over the space and adds a nice feel to the area. I had to move some speakers and still have to run wires to them in their new location. I will do that today and hopefully move all the corals tonight.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Here are the corals that will be moved from my main tank to this one. The pictures aren't great and some of the corals are still in tupperware containers to keep them from becoming an unwanted part of the main tank. The first row of pics is all new corals that were given to me by a friend who wants to take down his softy tank to turn it into a frag tank.
First two pics is a green sinularia and a finger leather. Also I think there is a small frag of xenia in there. Light green (not bleached) sinularia and brown sinularia

GSP Green favia, Green zoas, and purple/orange ricordia Upside-down colony of orange/green/yellow zoas

Devils hand on the recovery side of shedding Light green/ tan sinularia (behind plastic container).

Recently fragged-out brown sinularia. The colony was too big so I gave 75% away and this is what remains.

Some of these guys are on rocks that are big enough to warrant having to take out rocks that are already in the tank to make room, but I have a plan in mind to be able to do this without loosing the aquascape I already have. Not pictured is red mushroom polyps, purple mushroom polyps, and green striped mushroom polyps. Despite my best efforts I was not able to remove all the mushrooms from the rocks in my main tank so as they pop up I will just toss them in the softy tank.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Tested the water just a moment ago and ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all undetectable. I don't like to say that any of these, especially trates, are at 0. I think "undetectable" is a more accurate word. So the tank is ready for corals as soon as I can get the temp up.
I just talked to a friend of mine and I'm going to trade him a piece of LR (~ 30lbs) for a new 100 watt heater and a BRIGHT pink kenya tree. The coral was most likely dyed, but it looks good for now. This works out perfectly b/c that LR was the only reason I still had a 33 gallon trash can in the room cooking the rock. I have two other pieces of totonga rock that I'm going to smash up and turn into rubble. The rock is a big boulder with no personality so I'm happy to be getting rid of it. I could easily just go buy a heater, but part of the fun of this build has been doing it so cheaply. I am still under the $40 mark and have a full (although fishless) reef.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
I just turned the lights on in the tank to check it out and remarkably there are purple mushroom polyps on a few of the rocks. Given, they are pretty pale and translucent, but they still have color to them. This rock sat in an unheated trash can with only a K4 for circulation and the lid on for a few months. I would expect aiptasia to survive this without any problems but I'm surprised that mushroom polyps even stayed attached to the rocks. Just goes to show how resilient these things are!
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
That tank is going to look great. I'm interested in seeing what the pink Kenya tree looks like.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
I tossed a 100w heater in there and also picked up a 6 strip outlet. The temp isn't up high enough for me to feel comfortable moving stuff over tonight. I did throw the pink kenya tree in there because by the time I got it home it was in cool water and figured it wouldn't hurt much. I quickly tried getting an image of it, but the lights aren't very photo friendly. I will have to play around with the lights and find out the best way to capture good pics that are true to the real life colors.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Wow, nearly 5 days and no replies eh? That's the one thing that gets me about this site- SO SLOW!!! Now that the weather is going to improve I expect that the traffic here will decrease even more....
Either way, I've been busy studying for my boards so I haven't done much. I snapped a few real quick photos to share. These lights make it very difficult to get good pictures. For some reason when all the lights are on the pictures glow and you can't see what's going on in the tank. So far I have only been snapping images with the moon lights on. It's a good looking tank for what it is (a tank filled with all my garbage corals :) ) but the pictures don't really show the tank well.
FTS with one actinic on FTS with moon lights. I should have turned the room lights off to get more light from the tank

Here's that pink sinularia. I'm sure it was dyed but it sure is pretty. This thing glows. Again, just the moon lights on and too much ambient light from the room.

I've been struggling with getting the skimmer to stay at a constant level. Part of the problem could be that there's nothing to really skim out of the water since there is no fish yet; only a snail and a few asternia stars. Another problem could be the fluctuating water level. I forgot how much I hated having to top off every day. I may get another osmolator ATO even though I'm not sure I'm going to hang on to this tank.
I also smashed up some totonga rock that I had cooking for a while. I'm not a fan of this style of rock and I personally don't like the way it looks when there is fiji rock mixed with totonga or tonga branch rock.
Before After

I tossed the rubble into the fuge on my main system but I may end up using it in this tank because the flow from the K4 leaves bare spots on my sand bed.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
What, do you need our approval?

LOL, Just kidding. I know how you feel -- sometimes you post something and you feel like you just shouted it into a black abyss. I think you hit the reason on the head, tho....everyone is out finally enjoying some decent weather and getting projects of their own done. Makes it hard to be in here a lot.
I really like how you've got the rock arranged. Honestly, not a fan of that pink Sinularia.....I don't like fake dyed corals, but that's just me. I agree with you about the rock variety...you've got a theme going with the smoothed-out live rock (is that Fiji?) and that piece of spiky Tonga would have just looked weird.
My LFS has been getting in a lot of really nice aquacultured Caribbean rock lately. I know Caribbean rock has a bad habit of showing up with a lot of pests, but the coral growth on some of these pieces is fantastic. I hope to snag a piece or two if it's still available when I get my 110 back up.
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
I like the pink sinularia. I know exactly what you mean about the forum being slow. I also know I won't be posting too much for awhile. I'm back in college. My terms are only 8 weeks long so the classes are really crammed in. I won't have too much free time.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///t/390687/30-breeder-reef-build/20#post_3463932
Honestly, not a fan of that pink Sinularia.....I don't like fake dyed corals, but that's just me. I agree with you about the rock variety...you've got a theme going with the smoothed-out live rock (is that Fiji?) and that piece of spiky Tonga would have just looked weird.
I can't be sure that it is dyed. I'm assuming it is, but there's an aquaculture guy (see my 125 thread) that has beautifully colored sinularia that are legit. This one is a bit too bright for me to feel that it wasn't dyed but this was fragged from its mother colony (which I have seen) a few months ago and I thought that if you frag a dyed coral the frag wouldn't keep the color
I guess only time will tell because if it is dyed (most likely) it will start to fade in a few months.
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemmy http:///t/390687/30-breeder-reef-build/20#post_3463936
I like the pink sinularia. I know exactly what you mean about the forum being slow. I also know I won't be posting too much for awhile. I'm back in college. My terms are only 8 weeks long so the classes are really crammed in. I won't have too much free time.
What are you studying?
 
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eric b 125

Guest
Business administration was my first career choice. As soon as they handed me my diploma from Pitt it occurred to me that I can't stand business and I never did anything with it. Talk about a waste of $60,000
The public school teachers around here have tremendous earning potential once they put their time in. There are teachers in Pittsburgh's public school system making over 6 figures a year. The other thing about that is the summers off, which is awesome. My sister teaches here in Pgh. She teaches at the environmental charter school, though, because she doesn't agree with the public schools expectations of their students and because they are part of stupid No Child Left Behind b.s.
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric B 125 http:///t/390687/30-breeder-reef-build/20#post_3464448
Business administration was my first career choice. As soon as they handed me my diploma from Pitt it occurred to me that I can't stand business and I never did anything with it. Talk about a waste of $60,000
The public school teachers around here have tremendous earning potential once they put their time in. There are teachers in Pittsburgh's public school system making over 6 figures a year. The other thing about that is the summers off, which is awesome. My sister teaches here in Pgh. She teaches at the environmental charter school, though, because she doesn't agree with the public schools expectations of their students and because they are part of stupid No Child Left Behind b.s.
I already have a good job as an Operations Manager for a great company. I'm working on my degree for job stability and to give me an edge over the competition. I keep toying with the idea of teaching, but I don't think I could actually cut it as a teacher.
 
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