Novahobbies official 110g rebuild thread

novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Yeah, we had a poisoning incident and came very close to having a dead puppy. :( Thankfully we were able to keep her conscious at the emergency clinic ('tards didn't really do anything; they wanted $1300 just to watch her for 4 hours and START bloodwork) and our regular vet kept her for a couple days, do IV fluids with B complex pushes, full blood work, etc. Her liver enzymes were thru the roof, so she definitely "got into" something. Short story long, however.......she hung on and is still here to terrorize the cats and the older dog.

I picked up a new coral last week at one of the local frag swaps. Blue/Purple Stylophora, something I've had my eye on for quite some time!

 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
LOL...I love the way you word things, there is always so much joy, even when things are not going so great. Love the coral, I know the picture doesn't do it justice. LOL...I just noticed what you wrote where a quote of the day should be (don't know what else to call it)...I am so opinionated, I hate it but I can't help myself...OMG am I that bad!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
flower said:
LOL...I love the way you word things, there is always so much joy, even when things are not going so great. Love the coral, I know the picture doesn't do it justice. LOL...I just noticed what you wrote where a quote of the day should be (don't know what else to call it)...I am so opinionated, I hate it but I can't help myself...OMG am I that bad!
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To be honest Flower, I have a mild issue with depression (very mild I promise) that I combat by trying to be as positive....or as positively cynical....as I can. I don't go overboard to the Pollyanna stage, but I really do work hard to keep my negativity in check. To quote Malcolm Reynolds....."Mood swings....of a sort."
As for my signature line, I think that was just me bein' silly. Of course you're not THAT opinionated. Heheheheh.....
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
You know, last year I popped online here to mention that I had updated my lighting. But I never took any pictures of the new setup. In fact, I don't even think I took pictures of the new canopy from earlier in 2014!

So....yeah. I updated the canopy back when I was still using the chinese boxes. I needed some extra height, so out to the shop (i.e., my back porch) I went. I didn't change anything from the design of the first canopy....it looks exactly the same, just taller. When the chinese boxes started to go, I ordered a pair of RapidLED Onyx fixtures, and requested 60 degree lenses since my tank was so deep.


Mounting was really easy. A couple pieces of 3/4 inch PVC with caps, painted black, and a pair each of conduit mounting brackets make up the super high-tech mounting system. The LEDs are then mounted using the hardware they come with, looped over the PVC. Easy-peasy.


I recently splurged just a little bit and got the Bluefish lighting controller to put these lights on a proper timer. I love this controller....it allows me to ramp up each channel from 5% to 100% over a set period of time, so I have a true "sunrise" and "sunset" in the morning and evening. You can also set manual modes if you need to, or pre-program a photography mode so you can change the color spectrum to best fit your camera, and (it's a gimmick but I love it) you can enable a thunderstorm mode, complete with storm sounds. All of these things are controlled from my phone. And the best part is, the controller is no bigger than the analog device that comes with the lights. Here it is mounted to the side of the canopy:
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Since I know there are some construction-oriented people online, here are a few pictures of my fall project last year. It all started because my HOA was doing some "cement patching" (more like remediation) on my porch. I took the opportunity to remove the old dingy white builder tile and replace it with something nicer....like so....


Demolition is therapeutic. Cleaning the demo trash is NOT.



The association took their sweet time repairing the cement and getting the screens up. I had to wait for this before I could tile.


I chose a stone pattern that has a lot of tans and brownish-pinks in it




And done. Got this finished just in time for the holidays.
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
novahobbies said:
New frags being dipped! Orange setosa, Red Planet, Strawberry Shortcake, rainbow poci, and a couple frags of neon clove polyps. Now....Gotta find room!
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I was looking over your pics when I got to the post/pic of the new frags. The first thing I thought of is "Where in the heck is he going to put those?" LOL!!!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
pegasus said:
I was looking over your pics when I got to the post/pic of the new frags. The first thing I thought of is "Where in the heck is he going to put those?" LOL!!!
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That was actually my thought as well! :D One of those clove frags is destined for the bedroom tank. As for the rest.....there's always room if you try! Heh. I've been wanting a nice SSC for a while, though, and the orange setosa is here to replace the little ORA nubbin I had that fell into a war coral and got eaten.

Right now, my Zoa "boulder" is undergoing a time out in a 10g tank. This thing has become overgrown with Aptasias, and nothing I do has been able to solve it. THey're killing all my nice zoa colonies, though, so drastic measures were called for. I QT'd the rock, added 4 peppermint shrimp, and those effers are going to learn to LOVE aptasia snacks....because I'm not feeding them anything else.
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
novahobbies said:
That was actually my thought as well! :D One of those clove frags is destined for the bedroom tank. As for the rest.....there's always room if you try! Heh. I've been wanting a nice SSC for a while, though, and the orange setosa is here to replace the little ORA nubbin I had that fell into a war coral and got eaten.

Right now, my Zoa "boulder" is undergoing a time out in a 10g tank. This thing has become overgrown with Aptasias, and nothing I do has been able to solve it. THey're killing all my nice zoa colonies, though, so drastic measures were called for. I QT'd the rock, added 4 peppermint shrimp, and those effers are going to learn to LOVE aptasia snacks....because I'm not feeding them anything else.
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Yeah, I suppose a fully stocked reef tank is a good example of "space management"... lol! I'm still waiting for my SSC to color back up. It's not as brown as it was when it arrived, and it's only been a couple of weeks. It may take another week or so before I start seeing more green on it. From all I've heard, it takes a good month for acros to acclimate to their new environment, and hopefully I'll start seeing some new growth at that time. Fingers crossed...

I've almost gone through a small bottle of Aiptasia X, and they still keep popping up. I'd love to add some peppermint shrimp to my bigger tank, but my neon dottyback attacks them like crazy. I had a pair in my refugium, and they decimated the aiptasia there, but when I tried to relocate them in the main DT, I ran into the aforementioned problem. If you don't feed them, they will eventually eat the aiptasia. One way to speed up the process is to actually feed the aiptasia. Once the peps get a whiff of food in the critters, they'll rip them to shreds! ;)
 
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novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
You know, I'll give that a shot. I'll just add a pellet or two to some of the bigger aptasias and see what happens. Thanks!
 
pegasus

pegasus

Well-Known Member
novahobbies said:
You know, I'll give that a shot. I'll just add a pellet or two to some of the bigger aptasias and see what happens. Thanks!
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No need to thank me. I watched a video a couple of years ago where a guy was training a bunch of peps to eat aiptasia. It was pretty cool watching the peps shred the aiptasia. Once they get a taste of it, they tend to make aiptasia a part of their diet. Kind of like humans and calamari... lol!
 
1guydude

1guydude

Well-Known Member
looking great novahobby.
Luv the tile on the outside patio and the white paint on the inside of the canopy. One of my hoods has the white marine paint or killz for the floor. IDK wat it is really lol but its nice. Keep at it!
-d
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Thanks! Not much has been going on in this tank. I've been slowly raising my dKh to somewhere closer to 9, since my SPS weren't growing much. The increased alk is already affecting the growth. I still need to place those frags I got a few weeks ago.
 
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