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FarmerTy's 215 gallon - No Water Changes SPS Tank


FarmerTy

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Ty: I got a new house!!!
ARC: when are we putting a hole in the wall?
Ty's wife: NO!
Ty: (guessing with best probability here) *beg* ill do the dished and laundry * beg*
Ty's wife: no
Ty: *beg* extra diaper duties *beg*
Ty's wife: put it right here, and i want a bar and cabinets.
Ty: ok, but im telling everyone i wore you down and the bar was my idea
Ty's wife: *eyeroll*
 
The move was good ty, great plan.  wish that back room was larger for more support tanks and systems.  you know how you secretly love redundancy.  Plus, now you have room for WATER CHANGING SYSTEM.... no but seriously.. at least clean the sump like yearly? *lol*
that large "upper wall?"  jb-bc4d.jpg
just some crazy ideas for ya [emoji4]
 

Truth is I reached out to some members of 4chan and they bombarded her with requests for an in-wall tank. Worked like a charm. [emoji23]

Keep those ideas coming for that weird accent wall in the house.
It's looking great Ty! That tank is going to look gorgeous in the wall. Looking forward to seeing that baby in person!

Me too! Can't wait for it to look like a real tank again.
For reals...that sump had a serious case of the nasty!

I wanted to keep my nasty but I came back to a shiny new sump. I've been brooding FarmerTy's miracle mud for the last 4 years! [emoji6]
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Not even a day in and this thread is already 2 pages long! I guess I better share the photos I have of this build before it's too far in...
 
Measuring for the future opening
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First hole made!
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Wall before improvements
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The 1st and 3rd pictures sum it up perfectly. Me standing there clueless as Chris did all the work. [emoji41]
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Here are pics yesterday after the water cleared up a bit and I fashioned a make-shift setup for the lights. Didn't get to do much else other than test the water yesterday as the Easter holiday and the baby kept me busy.

 

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Thankfully, alk only dropped 1 dKh before I got the CaRX back online 8 hrs later. Nutrient levels spiked a little bit but that's expected with the move.

 

Alk - 8.6 dKh

NO3 - 35 ppm

PO4 - 0.14 ppm

 

The phosphate level was my biggest concern and probably why some of my SPS were STN'ing even before the move. I hadn't changed my media for 2 months at that point with everything going on.

 

I hooked up my GFO reactor and hopefully that phosphate level will drop back down to the 0.03 ppm I usually keep it at.

 

I'll also add more biopellets as I like to keep my nitrates at 5-8 ppm. 35 ppm won't harm anything but I prefer the coloration at the lower level.

 

Casualties so far:

 

-lost a small green lokani colony... It fell deep into the sump and I didn't notice it.

-one purple anthia doesn't look good and the other looks terrible

-my ORA Hawkins colony really didn't appreciate not being transported without water. I think it might be a goner

 

The rest of the corals and fish look great! I'm let halt with the move if those are the only issues so far.

 

 

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I'm honestly surprised your alk dropped by that much, I was expecting little to not alk uptake considering they were all out of water for so long and royally PO'd from the move. I don't imagine there was a lot of growing happening with the move and no lights on the tank, but I guess they still uptake some to remain alive.

 

I am, however, not super surprised by the echinata. You don't tend to see echinata type corals near the reef crest or lagoons where they will experience low tide conditions and exposure to air. My guess is most echinatas evolved to grow at lower depths and more sheltered parts of the reef where exposure to air did not occur. Therefore they are less resilient when it comes to air exposure and drastic changes. Just a theory based on my diving experience and observations of coral distribution. It's a good thing you distributed so many frags of your Hawkins, it won't be difficult to restart your colony from friends.

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I'm honestly surprised your alk dropped by that much, I was expecting little to not alk uptake considering they were all out of water for so long and royally PO'd from the move. I don't imagine there was a lot of growing happening with the move and no lights on the tank, but I guess they still uptake some to remain alive.
 
I am, however, not super surprised by the echinata. You don't tend to see echinata type corals near the reef crest or lagoons where they will experience low tide conditions and exposure to air. My guess is most echinatas evolved to grow at lower depths and more sheltered parts of the reef where exposure to air did not occur. Therefore they are less resilient when it comes to air exposure and drastic changes. Just a theory based on my diving experience and observations of coral distribution. It's a good thing you distributed so many frags of your Hawkins, it won't be difficult to restart your colony from friends.

Yeah, the drop surprised me too but that alk reading was way later that night so they had a little time in the water.

Interestingly, all my other Echinatas made it out fine. I had 3 ice fires transported dry and they are perfect. My Mr. Pacman acro which is a deepwater type acro also made it out fine... But I will say that the Hawkins easily dries out comparatively to any other acro I have.
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On 4/16/2017 at 7:59 AM, FarmerTy said:

What next? How about we punch that hole in the wall? Knowing nothing of framing, I reached out to a good reef buddy who used to build houses when he was younger with the family. @schrisev volunteered a Saturday morning, a week before his own move, to help a totally clueless and sleep-deprived guy out. @gigem also came over to assist and we sent the wife upstairs and started cutting up my beautiful new house.

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Viola... In-wall tank. @schrisev basically did everything while gig'em and I watched. I may have taken a nap or two. emoji42.png

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The goal was to have a setup similar to this:

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Fun start to the project, always better to put a hole in someone else's walls! :)  Let me know when you are ready to make it look pretty!  

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I'd be careful not adding enough bio pellets. You had a strong uptake source in your old sand and sump sand I'm sure, so watch it and see where it lands, might take a while to equal out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I'd be careful not adding enough bio pellets. You had a strong uptake source in your old sand and sump sand I'm sure, so watch it and see where it lands, might take a while to equal out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good point, forgot about my sand being such a large source of denitrification! I'll step it up stat!
Fun start to the project, always better to put a hole in someone else's walls! [emoji4]  Let me know when you are ready to make it look pretty!  

Thanks Chris! I'm sure with your skills it'll look amazing! I'll bug you for advice for sure, don't want to overstep my favors with you. [emoji1]
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5 hours ago, Wade said:

What is this fish?

 

he hates bags, HATES them.  will chew hole after hole after hole.. and whenever he doesnt chew, he stabs w/ his fin.  we gave up at 5 layers and started the cooler-transport-tank because of him..... thats what the fish is.. a menace!

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he hates bags, HATES them.  will chew hole after hole after hole.. and whenever he doesnt chew, he stabs w/ his fin.  we gave up at 5 layers and started the cooler-transport-tank because of him..... thats what the fish is.. a menace!

That menace is a pyramid butterflyfish. Jessica apparently got stung through the bag by him and said her finger was pulsing later that day.

I see why the powder blue tang doesn't mess with him anymore.
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1 minute ago, FarmerTy said:


That menace is a pyramid butterflyfish. Jessica apparently got stung through the bag by him and said her finger was pulsing later that day.

I see why the powder blue tang doesn't mess with him anymore.

this is the first the union has heard of this... we'll be contacting our people!

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7 hours ago, FarmerTy said:


That menace is a pyramid butterflyfish. Jessica apparently got stung through the bag by him and said her finger was pulsing later that day.

I see why the powder blue tang doesn't mess with him anymore.

That butterfly was giving Isaac a twitch! The stars had to have aligned just right for him to get through all of those bags. It's a good thing the Emperor Angel had to go into the cooler anyway. Speaking of fish, how did they make the transition?

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this is the first the union has heard of this... we'll be contacting our people!

Oh no, the union! You guys told me to add more unions but they sound like a pain in the butt.

 

That butterfly was giving Isaac a twitch! The stars had to have aligned just right for him to get through all of those bags. It's a good thing the Emperor Angel had to go into the cooler anyway. Speaking of fish, how did they make the transition?

They all made it out swimmingly except for two purple anthias. One died probably of starvation when I had the tank at the old house still and could only go feed every other day and another died with what looks like a bacterial infection during transit, so that leaves me with just one. All other fish are happy and healthy and I used the opportunity to introduce my baby yellow belly regal angel to the group and he's been welcomed with very little resistance. [emoji3]

 

 

 

 

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Oh, update on parameters.

Alk - 8.6 dKh, 10 dKh (got a bit crazy tuning the CaRX), 9.5 dKh
Nitrates - 35 ppm, 35 ppm
PO4 - 0.14 ppm, 0.9 ppm, 0.0 ppm
Salinity - 1.024

I didn't bother with Mg or Ca yet as they are usually in line when alk is.

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3 minutes ago, FarmerTy said:


Oh no, the union! emoji33.png

They all made it out swimmingly except for two purple anthias. One died probably of starvation when I had the tank at the old house still and could only go feed every other day and another died with what looks like a bacterial infection during transit, so that leaves me with just one. All other fish are happy and healthy and I used the opportunity to introduce my baby yellow belly regal angel to the group and he's been welcomed with very little resistance. emoji3.png

I'm glad to hear it. I had to perform life saving techniques on the Regal Angel, who got his cheek spines caught in the net. There was also an emergency surgery on the Flame Wrasse when he got his upper teeth caught in the net. If only SOMEONE had cleaned out their bagging container! There was God-knows-what stuck to the bottom that that thing and I wasn't about to poison them. :lol:

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I'm glad to hear it. I had to perform life saving techniques on the Regal Angel, who got his cheek spines caught in the net. There was also an emergency surgery on the Flame Wrasse when he got his upper teeth caught in the net. If only SOMEONE had cleaned out their bagging container! There was God-knows-what stuck to the bottom that that thing and I wasn't about to poison them. [emoji38]

Who? What? What's a bagging container? [emoji12]

I actually have plastic colanders just for catching the angels but I misplaced them in the move so just ran with the nets. Those gill spines are the devil! [emoji49]
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Bring that purple Anthias on over to my place! Where they won't be cruelly starved to death with his old friends

Oh yeah, leave it with the guy who leaves for weeks at a time. [emoji41]

It was only a temporary 2 weeks of reduced feedings. Everyone knows I feed the heck out of my tank.
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