Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I run a 500-550 watt 8-tube t5 hood over my 75 gallon, Jeff.
Granted, it was expensive at the outset, but I've had it for a lot of years now and aside from changing bulbs now and again, it works great.
I did all the homework on LED lighting less than a year ago. I decided against it. It just simply is not ready for marine application yet. You can make it go, but it costs a fortune, is very focused, and looks like sh1t.
In five years, I honestly think it'll be a no-brainer that it's the way to go, but after all the reading and hearing guy's experiences, it's real clear it's left them wanting.

I found one piece of bubble algae in my tank the other day. I dislodged it and lost it. It'll show up later as a big goofy looking thing and I'll pick it out. I have a few aiptasia or mojanos in there, too. I can't seem to zap the little bastids so I turned some rock to make them more accessible. Now a couple things fell and I have to go diving and glue them down. I'll wait a bit cause I want to see what I find Saturday at the frag swap. I'll probably have to do a bunch of remodeling. I need a few more pieces of rock, too.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

You have a plan, Scotty. You can use your friend's water for the temp tank. Just don't use it for the new tank. You can't (or shouldn't) use the cook water in your new tank, either. You're gonna be making a lot of water, for sure. Tons.
Before you leap, consider using all her stuff the way it stands and do water changes and a tang. It'll be a lot cheaper but it'll take longer.
Just cleaning the tank will be a huge step forward, and in a few months the water will be right. You can probably remove another ton of crap by hand, stuff that's not stuck so well.
If you work backwards on this stuff, starving it like Lance said, and using a critter to do the cleanup, it just works better.
Reason being, as the algae breaks down, and the water gets better and better, it'll work twice as hard to scrub the water for food, eventually locking everything up that's available.
Soon you'll have none.
I approach everything in the tank from a biolevel, using what's in there to fix what's wrong. If that doesn't work, I add a critter to fix what's wrong.
If you don't fix the whole cycle, the algae just comes back. I learned that by fighting with brown hair for years. (The answer to that was too much light and I put my lights on timers.)
If you work backwards, once the problem is gone you'll know it's gone for good because of good husbandry. If it comes back, and it probably will if you don't get to the root of the problem, then you haven't really learned anything.
Time and patience in reefkeeping is even tougher than in cigars. Really. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I hear you on the T5 setup. That's what was over my last tank. I still have the IC ballasts and may well ditch the big halide fixture and put T5s over the tank. I have an IC 660 and 430, which may be enough to cover the tank sufficiently.

I have family over last weekend and they were all asking me what the pretty pearlescent green balls were.......I had to tell them that they were not desirable at all.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

We have Family Day here every couple weeks and there are always at least five people firmly set in front of the tank. I give class a few times a year and show everyone how the corals eat and stuff. They love it. :D
Bubble sure is pretty. If you get hardcore about cutting them loose, they'll go to the top, find moving water, and open up into big, goofy looking rubbery taco bowls (in time). It makes them real easy to pick out.

I don't know how many lamps that 660 will drive, but between the two you should have plenty of ass. You gonna build the hood?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

There is a hood on the tank currently, but the previous owner cut out the top for the halide fixture to fit into. The fixture currently has legs that rest on the inner edge of the hood and sticks out the top. If I were to retrofit the T5s then I would probably fill the hole so that the whole deal could hinge open again like it was designed to do. Fans would need to be added to the hood though for proper ventilation.

I think I may have talked myself into keeping the tank. The wife only asked, "how much will it cost me?" I told her, "practically nothing once I sell the halide fixture and ballasts to offset the cost of new T5 bulbs and endcaps." :) It's a free upgrade.....sort of.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I also like the idea of taking her tank to it's new place, leaving everything in there and just filling with perfect water.
The fish will appreciate the water, the algae will slowly disappear, and the SHOCK value will be minimal, getting you
cycled up good in about a week. You should get a brown diatom bloom after 4-8 days, and once that clears, you
should see real die-off on the hair algae. And like scott said, you can pull 80% of it off by hand and then let the
rest just fade away. Once you get it cleaned up the easy way, then you can start thinking about risking life
forms in it. But for a month I'd just let snails and hermits run around in there, and of course, your 3 fish.
The move alone is going to be a jolt, I'd keep it to a minimum or you will be out of business for over a month,
maybe well over a month.

But you might want to install a three phase RO filter under your sink, they are about 120 bucks at Lowe's
and they should keep pumping out relatively pure water for 6 months on a set of filters. Once you start
letting the filters go a year, or just pouring tap water in, you will have just what your friend had, a big mess.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Jeff, I have a computer fan that's about 10" or 12" wide that would likely go right in that hole. You'd have to power it with a low voltage adapter. I have a whole milkcrate of them somewhere.
I think you're going another direction, but thought that might be a way to avoid fans in the ends.
I think you'll be thrilled to get into t5's. I use two different bulbs. I run the actinic blue two hours more each day than the whites. Both are on timers. It's a sweet setup. :)
I look forward to seeing the end result!!! :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

It only takes 4-6 months to wreck $70 worth of filters with the sh1tty water here. I put in all that gear that preceeds this page and that should help a lot. Time will tell.
So far so good, and I have 3 water testers now, so I won't be dumping bad water that I thought was good in my tank anymore. On the upside, it didn't take long for me to figure out my filters went bad. Reefs will tell a guy all kinds of stuff if I just look. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

A computer fan that is 10-12" wide? Is it an array of fans 3-4 lined up, I have seen those around before. I haven't thought out the cooling yet, but I think that fans placed on top of the end caps will be the way I go. The only consideration is whether to exhaust air out the top or blow air in and over the end caps.

I will probably go with a fairly open structure and use some aluminum angle to mount everything up to and attach to the existing hood. Cheap, lightweight, and open top so as not to trap heat, but the whole assembly will still hinge open on the existing top that is there.

I did like the T5 setup I had before. I ran 3 T5 and 2 T12 super actinic staggered like you do with timers. SPS grew very well and had great color. Looks like it is time to go shopping for bulbs. The IC 660 will run 16" of bulbs....that would mean 4x4". The 430 has a lower limit if I recall. I may very well have to pick up a second 660 and keep the 430 for actinic duties.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I have a dual TDS meter on my RO unit. One side reads TDS before the DI and the other side reads TDS after DI. I regularly use RO water to refill 3 liter water bottles to use in baby bottles. I know that water is nice and clean.

Dual TDS meter was a great addition to the RO unit for sure. I might pick up a hand held one of these days just to double check.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

That fan is just one single fan. My computer tower had two in the top. I converted it to use dual psu's, so I had to take the back one out.
My RO unit has a single tds meter that shows tds in and out. It's a nice touch. Being that it's mounted in the basement rafters, the hand meters are much more handy. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Lisa and I went to the Frag Swap yesterday, we did real well. We got an 8" two pound Maxima clam for 80 bucks. I couldn't believe it. I picked about eight big hermits last night while I was diving in the tank, that should help keep her alive.
I got a star for my Harlequin Shrimp. The female attacked it before I could even set it on the bottom. They're nuts. :)
I have to move a lot of rock today and I'd like to buy a little more before I start setting frags. I need to clean out a bunch more xenia and a huge field of polyps. That'll be a pain, but it needs done.
Odd thing happened overnight. My cleaner shrimp and blood shrimp traded homes on opposite ends of the tank. I have no idea why. I moved some stuff, but not enough to disrupt either's home. Apparently I'm wrong about that last part. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Scott...I want to see your clam! Doesen't that sound wrong! I have been slapped for asking people that in the past.
Anyways....let's see some updated pics of these tanks guys.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'll take some pics when I get things put together. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I wouldn't mind having a fish tank, but living on a third story apt. might get dicey with the weight

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

John, they make little biocubes. I know they get down to as low as 12 gallons. There's nothing you can do in a big tank that you can't do in a biocube and they come fully outfitted, ready to go.
They're really very cool and you can find them for a song on Craigslist. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Damn you Scott, there's a 14gal bio cube in my area for a decent price. Unfortunately I travel too much to get into this hobby. Like you, I'm too anal about this type do thing and could no way trust anyone else to watch it while I'm away.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wow, that is a great price for such a good sized Maxima! Did you feel guilty when you left :)

I consider myself lucky for never buying xenia. I saw what it was capable of in a buddy's tank. I do have Anthellia, but it is isolated on its own rock, however I have found a stalk here and there popping up. It's not nearly as aggressive as xenia though. Good luck on thinning it out.

I made the decision to keep the tank going, but now I need to source T5 parts (endcaps and reflectors) on the secondary market. Those things are just too danged expensive to purchase brand new. Bulbs will be purchased new. I made a new 15g batch of saltwater and will do a water change either today or tomorrow. Next will be cleaning up some of the bubble algae, or I might buy an emerald crab to help out.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Jeff, the guy had a whole bin full. Fortunately we got there early and got the pick of the litter. He sources them all from one place and was going on about getting some black Maxima's. I paid 50-75 for the last two I fed to my hermits.
So far I picked 9 big hermits out and gave them the toilet ride. I'll continue picking them out till they're a distant memory.
I don't have any trouble culling back the xenia, it's easy. I'll be tearing up another giant wad today. I let it grow on top under the splash zone of an over-the-back filter and it scrubs the water. It does a nice job of it.
I picked up another species for the other side so I can fire up that over the back again.

Good luck on sourcing the parts. Before you go crazy, take a look at t5 hoods at Foster and Smith. With all you have to do, you may be able to sell all your parts and come out ahead with a brand new hood and bulbs. :tu

If emerald crabs will clean up that bubble, I'd grab one in a hurry. I'd clean, then do the water change, then get an emerald, in that order.

I'm going to start culling corals right now. I'll get a pic before I start. :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Here's a couple pics. I just turned the lights on so stuff is still puckered up. It just had the room light up till a second ago.

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/554c7b0a.jpg

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...a/2dce45e9.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

That is good advice on the cleaning before water change. I will make sure and do that. Need to wash my dirty filter socks also as I have been slacking. I have a fresh one on there now, but it won't take long for it to dirty up.

I have had luck in the past with emerald crabs eradicating bubble algae, but I have also had one that didn't touch it. They are well advertised as eating it, but of course it's not a guarantee. They look cool though and the kids like looking for the crab.

That's a great looking tank! Packed to the gills for sure with coral! Awesome clam too. The wife has been wanting a clam for some time now. Once I get my lighting situation resolved then we will look at picking up a clam or two.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Maybe get a pair of Emeralds, Jeff? They might battle it out. Once they clean house you can always get rid of them, or just keep one. I never see them after they're in the tank.

I try to make my tank look just like a natural coral wall in the ocean so that I can appreciate it. It's like diving every day at my desk. :)

I just picked up some more rock so I can finish up what I want to do with the tank. I'm going to start culling back xenia and polyps right now. It'll keep me busy for a few hours, at least.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Looks awesome Scott!!!

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Yea, I plan to get a pair of emeralds and if they both stick around then that is great. There should be plenty of room for both in there.

We have scaped our rock work to have a more open feel to it with the hopes that one day there will be plenty of SPS filling the space along with swimming space for fish.

I can't dive as much as I would like, so the tank does offer a nice escape. We picked up a 14g biocube over xmas to setup in the kids' room. I found a leak when I set it up initially and still need to correct that. It will be a softy tank with 1 or 2 fish and inverts. As long as they can keep their hands and other objects out of the tank it should all be good.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'd be more afraid of them leaving it standing upright. :)
My kids could screw up an anvil with a rubber mallet.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

What is a good place to check those out? Other than Craigslist. Are there any good Online dealers?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

John, Several online dealers that are well established are MarineDepot and drsfostersmith.

You can search online for pricing to compare, but if you can get into a store to check one out that would be even better just so you can get eyes on it if you are new to biocubes or aquariums in general.

Depending on your location finding a local fish store would be beneficial so that you can discuss with them what you are looking to do. They can give you guidance and if they are good they won't try to sell you everything in the store (I know this that 'good' is hard to judge without having some history).

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Im finally drawing up my new tank. I just started working for a custom acrylic tank manufacturer so the sky is the limit now. Ill hopefully get something drawn up in the next couple weeks. WOO!

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wolfgang,
Good luck with the project! Sounds like a great opportunity to get in on designing and building your own aquarium. Not to mention all the other cool stuff that you can build working in an acrylic shop (frag racks, refugium, sump, etc).

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

On a positive note, I have made the commitment to keep our reef tank and have already procured 8 48" T5 reflectors along with a couple more Icecap 660 ballasts to run the whole get up. Maybe this weekend I can build an aluminum frame assembly to mount all the lights. I still need to buy endcaps and bulbs before I get to wire it all up.

Since my last water change my corals definitely seem like they have a bit more life in them with apparent growth around the rims of the hard plating corals and new branch buds on the branching type corals.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Im actually in the process of drawing up a frag rack to make out of all our scrap acrylic. If you are looking for one let me know ill be looking for testers.

What size would be preferable?

I built a beer mug today.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...04665856_n.jpg

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Sweet project there!

We had 'built' some frag racks out of acrylic at a club meeting a while back. They had cut everything to size and drilled it prior to the members arriving. Once we arrived at the shop we got to bend and then sand and polish the acrylic with a torch. Pretty simple and I still have yet to buy some magnets to use it properly.

Dimensions are roughly 8"x 3.5" and has 15 holes. But I do love a good corner rack that has a recessed place to inset a rubber coated magnet. 6x6 in a triangle shape or something that looks like a baseball home plate would be nice. Plenty of holes spaced evenly and the there would be space for 4 magnets to hold the weight.

I need to suck it up and order some good rubber coated neo magnets so I can finally mount this frag rack.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Ceramic coated magnets work fine as well. Thats what my current fragrack has on it.

Ill draw something up on monday.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I fed my tank last night and turned the pumps off as I always do. I didn't turn them back on and created the perfect storm, even though I had my diatom filter on the tank.
I killed at least one cleaner shrimp and two fish. The blood shrimp, my favorite, is hanging on by a thread. I don't expect him to make it.
I'm sure out yellow tang is dead, he was big, he couldn't have made it.
All the corals are fine. I'll reassess when the lights come on and I start pulling out the dead stuff.
Stupidity definately comes at a cost.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wow Scott that is rough, I am sorry to hear. Sounds like an easy mistake to make... hope your one shrimp left makes it.
Posted via Mobile Device

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I lost a firefish goby and, I'm assuming, both my harlequin shrimp. I only recovered one, haven't found the other yet. I can't get the yellow tang dug out from behind the rock wall, I'll have to wait for him to rise.
What a morning. I don't think I could possibly be more bummed out. It's like my dog got run over by a car, and it's never bothered me when I lose fish.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Wow Scott, sorry to hear about the losses. That is definitely tragic and unfortunate. I have the same fears each time I feed the tank and unplug the main pump. One day I will get a proper controller, but for now I just have to rely upon myself to remember to plug it back in.

There are some inexpensive controllers on the market that would do the basic jobs of main pump, lights and temp control. A controller will probably be my next big purchase....some way down the road.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I actually have all my stuff on timers so everything will come back on. I over-rode that because I'm an idiot. I don't like to use my timer controllers because then I have to remember to reset my wave-maker.
Heck of it is, now that I'm thinking about it, the wavemaker will just default to a different pattern when it comes back on, which doesn't really make a difference.
So I'm actually extra stupid.

To be honest, I haven't gained much faith in my timer controllers because the first two I got were bad. I haven't taken the time to set the new ones up properly because I've been just shutting everything down. I just created a bad habit. It took a big problem to teach me a lesson.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Unfortunately that's they way most of us learn lessons. Sucks that it had to come at the loss of your fish. I recently lost one of my clowns for reasons unknown to me. It was the smaller of the pair. One night I was feeding and all was good and the next I found it on the sand bed as snail food. All other inhabitants are doing great.

Time for you to choose some fish to replace?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Yup, I'm gonna have to go fish shopping.
Fortunately there's nothing left in there that'll cause a problem with adding fish.
All that's left are a pair of clowns, a blue damsel and a pajama cardinal.
I need a bunch of snails anyways, I'll try to find a place that's close to Cleveland so I can overnight.
I'll probably have to go with Foster and Smith to replace my Harlequin shrimp, I'd imagine.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Scott, for snails I would take a look at Reefs2Go. Specifically their sale going on now

They also stock harlequin shrimp. Bundle it with the saltwater algae crew linked above for free shipping on the whole she-bang.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

That's a good deal.
The only problem is that they don't sell their Harlequins in pairs. The whole fun of having them is to watch them pair up, hang out, feed each other, hunt together, that whole thing.
It does look like they're worth looking into, anyways.
Thanks, Jeff!!! :tu

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I went with reefs2go, the free shipping didn't fly. I did get a pretty good break on shipping, though.

I decided to do something a little different. I went with some fish that will develop shoals, just like on the reef. 8 green chromis, 3 bangaii cardinals, and 4 pajama cardinals. I got a pair of harlequin shrimp, a couple peppermint shrimp, a firefish goby, a flame angel, a coral banded shrimp, a tiger conch and a bunch of snails.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. I'd like a bit more color from the fish, but I'm far more interested in watching them school.

reefs2go is on the ball, they're supposed to ship tomorrow. I ordered all this stuff early Monday. I only got part of my order from them, the rest was from Aquatic Connection. I haven't even gotten shipping confirmation from AC yet.
They ganked me for $60 shipping. If they can't get the stuff to me, I'll cancel that order and go with someone who can. I sense they'll pull a "send me 1/2 the stuff" deal like Foster and Smith does. So far I'm not real confident in them, and I paid top buck.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

I'm having some sort of crash. I lost a mounding Porites and a pineapple type hard coral, both very large and old. All the softies are doing fine, if not too well. Fish, mollusks and crusties are ok. Water tests fine. Water change had no effect. Lamps are about 6 mos. old. All the filtration stuff is working. Maybe a disease got them.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

They didn't get too hot, did they? I don't know if you guys are having an unseasonably hot spell like we did, or did recently, but I had to watch my tank and open the lids because it was getting wicked hot in here and the air conditioning wasn't on.
That's just a wild-ass guess, I thought maybe it hadn't crossed your mind.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

We haven't had a hot spell in two and a half years. Tomatoes don't like that very much. Plus, I have a chiller. The salt level was down between changes. Maybe they got damaged unrecoverably.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Bummer to hear about the colonies Axeman. You mentioned that the water tests fine, but did you check ph?

You mentioned that the salt level was down between changes. Do you mean that your salinity was low prior to the water change? How low is low and how much water did you change?

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

Ya know, come to think of it, I didn't check ph. The salinity was low because of my protein skimmer works so well and me adding RO/DI water. I change 20 gals every 4 or 5 mos.

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

My tank is a 90 gallon and I change 20-30 gallons about every 6 weeks. I can draw that much since I added the 25 gallon receiver tank to my RODI. I need to take the sink spout off my RODI and change filters before my next water change, but I just did one after reigning death on my tank. I'll let my new critters settle in before I do another change, it'll be at least a couple weeks.
I don't have a refugium, so I really rely on good water and good salt to keep my nerves from fraying. :)

Re: The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread
 

thought you guys might appreciate this:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1...lo1_r1_500.gif