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Fritz's Home Display - Tank Build (1 Viewer)

hmm a month behind in updates.
GFO knocked out all the hair algae in short order. Getting Mag up to high levels did nothing for the bryopsis, however. I did a couple of water changes, added 100 hermits and a dozzen emeralds, brought over the rabbit fish from the store display. and added 4 bottles of kent Mag over 5 days. A few days after that the bryopsis started to disappear.
The tank looks healthy as can be. Many of the corals... other than my ever-stupid millis (for some reason I haven't had luck with millies for a while now)... everything else looks great.
Much color has come back in every coral including the finicky Red Planet.

I should be super happy.

Unfortunately, I have been to James', and Jonty's, and Freshfish'es and more recently and each tank kicks butt over my own! Though I am happy to see Mr. Lee is knocked back a bit with the move! :) Gives me a fighting chance, hehe.

I keep thinking the corals I have suck, but when I come home and see them, there is nothing wrong with what I have. They are a bit disheveled from the cleanings this winter... but decent pieces.

I know most folks arn't into the fish I have... but thats not the real issue either.

All T-5 Lighting would look nicer than the MH for color of coral... but thats not the real problem.

It is the rockwork. The rock work looks AWESOME. But it doesn't fit a coral tank. In LowersMYBP, Jonty and Chads tank you can see all the corals at once, then walk up and inspect each coral. In my tank you have to walk around to find a view for each coral. There is no good way to break up the colors since they are all on one plane. Of course, Li warned me of this from the get go... but you know I had to do it any how.

So the tank is super healthy. But to make it spectacular I am going to have to at least change the rockwork. Also, even if I switch to T-5 lighting I am likely going to have to upgrade the cooling.

:biggthumpup:
 
Oh ya, last packet of Phosphate (we sell the higher rez (low range) at work) read .03 PPM. Which is just about target :cool:
 
LowersMyBP said:
Being too hard on yourself? I like your tank, Fritz! :biggthumpup:
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more!

Fritz, I have a suspicion that the angels find millies irresistible. Even well behaved flames may nip. All it takes is a couple small nips and the polyps retract! My flames are well behaved but every now and again they will pick...

I think your tank looks awesome the way it is! Once you have colonies you will get some layering -color and texture....
 
If your not 100% happy with your tank, than change it. For me doing the rock work took so long, but if I didn't feel like it was perfect it would bug me. Good luck!!
 
The tank does look great, and I am happy with it in that way. But, one of the goals (and this is conflicting with the don't change anything goal). Is to make it worthy of a TOTM on a Reefcentral or such site. I don't necessarily need to actually win a TOTM, but I want to feel like I could. :)
 
No matter how hard you rack your brain to make it "perfect" you will always be your own worst critic - Im going thru that know on my build and every previous build for the last 20 yrs. I cant think of one tank (out of 100's) where i stood back and couldnt find at least one thing i would have changed in hindsight. Short version is ENJOY it for now - make changes as you go consider leaving some of it alone :beerchug: iow only fix the things that WILL drive you nuts if you dont
 
So everything came around after the big clean up. But then it crashed.
This is got to be the biggest crash I have had in as long as I can remember. The tank itself looks ok. but I got RTN like nuts and Lost half the corals. Another few look bad and some look better than ever.
The tank got very cloudy. All the peramerters were inline, though alk was 9 which I hear is high for a pellet system.

Best guesses for crash:
too many changes
over cleaned under fed
alk too high
too many pellets.
combination of all that.

It took me a few days talking with my friends about what to do to make a decision. Unfortunately, I didn't learn much about the bio-pellet system other than I need to learn more. Its summer and Mikaela and Scott take my hours. I am off fishing, biking and other projects. I am going to chalk up one defeat and let the tank go on auto pilot for the summer. When we ramp up in the spring I may add more corals. One of my buddies has a big colony and I am contemplating taking it into the display :cool:
I am happy to see my branching cyphastrea, setosa, pink lemonade, my personal heirloom acro are all holding on or even doing great. All the LPS and Fish look fine as well.

I'm getting called to dinner. here are a few shots to cry over.

The big gets loss was all 3 of my Hawkins colonies. waaaaa
 
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Sorry for your loss, dude. I feel your pain, just trying to recover from my tank overheating while I was out of town last week. Your setup still looks hundereds of times better then mine ever did, if that makes you feel any better.
 
Fritz,

Sorry you are having issues. I too like the look of your tank. You will get it dialed in!
 
Long over due update. The crash came and went. Some of my better pieces found homes. I am sad to report my first acro finally went to rest. Oddly my more expensive pieces pulled through.
I gave up on the sps only dream in this set up. after 3 stable months I have started restocking. Its a mixed reef now and I am enjoying the heck out of it. My Setosa still looks fine and is starting to grow again. The Pink Lemonade and Cali tort are holding with great polyp extension. No sign of growth however.

The branching duncans are the bomb... but who would have bet otherwise ;)
Blastos never showed sign of stress and are doing well in medium light. The golden torch really looked like junk. Li advised me to give it more light. Moving it up has indeed started a return of the golden color (had turned brown and shrunk to almost nothing). My meteor shower has never really recovered. It looks great in moonlight, but during the day you can see its not nearly as healthy as the ones at the store were. That thing from Stucky (some weird massive style bright green LPS) looks great, but I don't think it is growing, certainly not encrusting. My branching cyphastrea... oh so proud of her. I believe it is on the cusp of really taking off. The red planet is low in the tank and has remained predictably unpredictable. Some how at piece of pavona snuck its way in and though its not a WOW coral, I can't get rid of it because of its unique growth pattern. The cloves are spreading. Origionally I had planned on moving them out as frags, but now I am just going to let things go natural in the tank. I have added Bam Bam, AOG and whatever those blue zoas are from Li. I also have a few chalaces that Scott and I were coveting. I have always said a nem is only good in a nem tank, but after watching the mini carpets at the store, I am confident they wont find their way into my pumps. So I took the leftovers from our last big shipment.
I can't wait for my LA shopping trip next month :cool:

The bryopsis is cropping back up, but I am going to use my fingers to manage it.

One thing That has been a big PITA is the connection to my apex. I have been using a cruddy gaming bridge to get to the network. This has been making me lazy to fix the 2-part dosing regime. One of my customers suggested going straight from my laptop to an extra router to the Apex. Woo so simple. I've geeked out on the vortex. I run them much quieter at night and pretty low during the day too. But then I have two periods of 80% pulse followed by 80% On. Man that makes the corals dance.

Now that everything is stable I plan to mess it all up with a switch to LED in the spring. The Summer heat was just too much for the tank in this room of the house. I really love my MH and I am not too happy to let it go. If the tank was in the basement I wouldn't change a thing. I am planning on 2 AI units with 2 to 4 T-5 bulbs (I'm still not convinced of the quality of light coming out of LED).

Auto food dispensers. I am so sold! I still feed frozen most days. But having a small metered amount of food has really colored up the fish. I have a few units, but I am happy with the ease of use on the hydor.

I think I am down to two from 5 on the yellow assesors. Though I never saw any terrible aggression. So, Im not sure if they went to the sump or what. The blue assesor has grown to be a beautiful velvety stealther. Its much bigger than the yellow. All the bar gobies jumped to their doom over time. There may be some living in the sump and overflow, but I gave up worrying about them. The mystery wrasse gets more and more beautiful over time. The larger of the two flame angels is dominant over the wrasse... but barley and the power has gone back and fourth. The rabbit has grown, and we are worried he is getting too big, but I am afraid if he leaves a dominance war will take out the others. Oh, and my red headed goby is too fat to get off the bottom of the tank :gay1: porciline crabs are a big hit over here. My basket star hasn't changed for years. And I got lucky and the new serpent star (well its been at work for years) decided to make its home right out front.

All in all I am happy with my fish and don't have any plans to change.

:beerchug:
 
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