boognish

Yah Ace built it and it looks great and sturdy! Thanks Ace! Pics soon. That could not have worked out better. Thanks for getting in touch with Chris and Thanks to Chris for bringing it up for me.

Talk about perfect timing! Just talked to him and he's right near my sump. He's measuring to se if he has room for it.

If anyone is going to be driving up to Austin from SA this weekend, I'll cover your gas and throw in a frag of anything I have ready if you can bring my new sump with you. I'll make the drive if I need to, and I figure this is a long-shot, but thought I'd put this offer out. Sump measures 4' x 17" x 18" tall. CALL - 512-56(zero)-39(zero)2 if you have room and can help out.

Some gone, but I still have plenty that needs to go. Call and come get it! 512.56(zero).39(zero)2

Bump - Want GSP or Xenia? Any cash offer and most coral trades accepted. - It's coming out this weekend anyway.

TTT - plenty left and PM's replied to.

I have some crazy bright green GSP and pink pulsing xenia that needs some trimming. Open for trades of zoa, sps, lps, or cash. I have plenty, so however much you want of either or both - make me an offer, I'll take it. I'll be working on tanks and other stuff today and tomorrow, so PM is good, but text or call is better: Chris: 512.56(zero).39(zero)2

Good idea! We reef people have each others back! I got the exhaust fan moved to the garage and all hooked up. I tested it and it sure was nice to NOT HEAR A THING when the MHs kicked on. I am going to build a shelf for the fan in the garage and engineer some sort of light flap to prevent cool air from leaking out and warm air from leaking in when the fan is not in operation. I will be adding a stained and trimmed box to cover the end. It will open to the back and hide the duct and pump wires. I have a GREAT WAY to cushion the blow when she sees it this evening... I am heading down South Austin to buy some coral. "Look honey, I spent more $ on coral... Oh by the way, there is a 6.5" hole in the wall and all of our AC is being pushed out there."

My wife is out shooting cats and dogs. She loves her job. She is a photographer and volunteers with Humans Society Of Williamson County. Both our dogs and our cat lived there before we found them Today, she is shooting older dogs and cats with human models and in boxes for a campaign they are doing to help find permanent homes for them. What better time is there than that to cut 6.5" holes in the living room wall??!! I am cooling off after cutting the garage side, so I snapped a couple pics because I didn't want her to miss out on all the "What the !@#$ are you doing?"'s and the "We will never sell this house"'s. More pics once I get the exhaust fan set up in the garage and back onto the Apex control system. Maybe some of her reaction, too.

Thanks, Whiskeypete. The angle on mine is 165. I am not sure that you'll be able to use that exact angle. Your depth might be shorter since the thank is shorter and the bow is not as deep. If it scales exactly it'll work, but I'm not sure. I started by using the template I made of the tank and laying it across and tracing it onto the solid board and just eyeballing it then working out the exact angle from there. After that, I used the angle measurement to make sure the canopy matched. Good luck on your build - it was a fun undertaking for me. Tank Update The green algae on the marco rock is definitely going away. I am even starting to see specs of pink, red, and purple coralline starting in some spots. The back glass has some brown algae on it, but nothing a lawnmower or my Kole Tang can't take care of once he is added to the tank. I just need to catch him... The purple palys with red/orange skirts are going nuts. I started with 4 polyps 3 weeks ago and now there are about 8 -10 with several more about to show up. I moved a few more corals over from the 75 tonight: frogspawn, a rose/pink montipora, a green slimer frag, some more zoas, a tiny purple digi frag, and what used to be a pretty large colony of garf bonzai that never really took in my 75 and has been receding as of late. Hopefully the 400W MHs will make it happy. Tomorrow I'll frag my Purple Haze Monti and find a good spot for it. I am using these as test subjects before moving over all my other corals and my clam. I'll give em a week or two and if they are all as happy as the palys, zoas, and german blue digi that are in there, I'll move everything. If I can find the time, I am going to punch the 6" hole through the wall to vent the MHs to the garage. Right now, I have the 6" duct coming out of the canopy and going down to the fan on the floor in the living room. The wife LOVES it. The fan pulls a lot of warm air and isn't exactly quiet. Not to mention the attractive 7 feet of 6" silver duct hanging there. I had to re-repair the 29g biocube I got for a QT tank and it's workign fine now. I am still looking for any input you may have on which fish to get first. Any of you have the "I shouldn't have put that fish in first" stories? I want to start with the Kole since he is pretty docile and is a good algae grazer. After that, I'd like to add a couple at a time so they can QT together.

I recently picked up a 29g Biocube to use as a QT while stocking my new 175 gallon bowfront. I have a feeling it will eventually be a zoa or softy tank, but for now (and as far as the boss is concerned), it's a QT tank. I got an insane deal on it, so I wasn't surprised to find that the seal along the back wall on the pump side had failed. Water was being pulled in on the side where the seal was failing. This prevented water from flowing correctly from the other side, across media tower, and past the skimmer. Instead it was filling up directly on the pump side and barely flowing in the other side. I picked up some black silicone from RCA and resealed the side and filled it up again. Unfortunately, the seal was not the root cause of the problem. The edge of the back wall that extended to the back of the tank was warped and/or not connected as it should be, so once full, the weight of the water pushed the wall back and just broke the new seal. I needed to somehow prevent the wall from flexing back and warping with the weight of the water. I have some acrylic rods left over from building my rock towers, so I cut one to fit and superguled it in the top corner on the failing side, and redid the seal. The back wall stays put and water flows correctly through the tank, now... Bring on the fish! I was surprised that I didn't find anyone with similar issues because the wall design is pretty flimsy and has to have failed for someone else... I hope this helps anyone that ends up in the same predicament. If you need a piece of acrylic rod to fix yours, I can spare 5 inches.

I have moved a couple small hearty frags (one german blue digi and a few Palys) over from my 75 gallon and they are doing great. I have many more that I want to move, but I have a pretty minimal photoperiod right now to combat the 'new tank' algae. I noticed the usual brown diatom algae appearing on the marco rocks about 3 weeks ago. I was hoping to avoid this by cycling that rock with all of the Fiji live rock as it cycled for a month and half, but no dice... the cleanup crew was happy it arrived and went to town on it immediately. A week later, that algae tuned to (or was replaced by) a bright green short surface algae. It has been there for almost 2 weeks and is still ONLY on the marco rocks, so I am assuming it is surviving on silicates since my PO4 tests nearly 0. This is not a picture from my tank, but exactly what I am seeing: I have the photoperiod reduced, I'm using Rowa-Phos in a phosban reactor, I've added extra snails and hermits, and my skimmer is going nuts with what appears to be algae by the color. I am hooking up my UV filter soon. I have to feed the clowns, so I am doing weekly changes of about 15 gallons. From what I'm reading, this is a normal tank cycle and I just need to be patient. I am pretty confident so far since it is only on the new/dead rock and not on any of the Fiji live rock or the established rock I got from Hydro. It sure stands out though in front of all that nice purple. I want to add some fish that may work on the algae and increase the bioload. I want to catch my Kole Tang and move him from my 75g, but he's pretty elusive and the rockwork and racks make it nearly impossible without tearing it apart. I'm open to recommendations as to which fish to add first. All that is in there right now are 2 juvenile (1.25") Black Ocellaris and a RBTA. They aren't hosting after 3 weeks in there with the anemone, so I am also hoping that adding some other fish will cause them to seek shelter/protection in the anemone. This past weekend, I repaired and set up a 29g BioCube as a QT with 75% water from a water change and 25% new water, so I'm ready to get some fish! If you have experience with which fish to add first, I'm listening! I am shooting for mostly SPS mixed reef, so only useful reef safe fish.

Argh!!!!! Must. Fight. The. Voices.

The cleanup crew arrived last week. As usual, ReefCleaners.org http://www.austinree...-reef-cleaners/ came through with a healthy order of several types of snails and hermits in 100+ heat. There were plenty of empty shells for the larger ones to move into - they did and were fun to watch as they fought over the shiny white shells. Of course some didn't make it (100+ Temp before 11am... ), but I put a lot of them in just to test the tank stability and give the survivors some nourishment. There were no measurable changes in tank parameters, so I think it's ready for a bio-load. I saw one tiny aiptasia appear on the glass the first week after adding all of the fiji live rock, so I bought a filefish from RCA. I haven't seen another aiptasia, but I've seen him investigating all of the rock pretty closely and nipping occasionally. Since the tank managed the dead members of the clean up crew without a hitch, I've been throwing in a little cyclopeze and phyto when I feed my 75. The file fish is like a cat when he sees the smaller hermits scramble for food... I may need to trade him in soon or I'll need a replacement clean-up-crew. I think he is culling the pod population, too. I want a goby or 2, so he will have to go soon. Anyone have an aiptasia problem (or want to prevent one, like I did), and want a filefish? The tunze wavebox 6206 is producing about a 3/4" wave that I'm 'OK' with until a good deal on a full size wavebox comes along. I have a couple Koralia 4s for flow, but it's still probably not enough. I REALLY HATE powerheads in the tank. After spending so much time on a fairly minimal setup and getting the pillars and aquascaping how I like, powerheads just stick out like sore thumbs even when I cram them in a corner. I am not going to fork out the $$ for MP40s because I am not in the mood for a divorce and ugly custody battle. The Apex controller is hooked up, but I'm not done programming it yet. I am starting off minimally with the 3 T5s and variable speed canopy fans on first, then the 3 400W MHs (possibly one at a time over a few hours) + cooling fan. The chiller/heater has an integrated thermostat, so I am only using the apex to cut power to it and send/sound alarms at extreme high or low temps beyond what its thermostat is set to control. I will eventually move moon lights to it, but I don't see a reason to use it for any pumps other than the Reeflo. I think I've been patient enough... time for coral. I'll be moving some of the easy stuff from my 75 over the next couple of weeks and monitoring. I'm starting with the pulsing xenia. It's hearty and only helps clean the water. **note to self: Do NOT let the xenia touch any rock I want to keep.** Here's a few shots with the 3 T5s on. Pay no mind to those powerheads... they are either gone, soon to be gone, or have been moved...

+2... I just mixed approx 200 gallons using Red Sea pro over 2 days.

If anyone is going up to Killeen to pick up any of these goods or wants to organize a pickup, pm me.

Thanks, Jeremy. I am pretty happy with it so far. I'll be here this weekend - just call and swing by. I Just ordered a cleanup crew from reef-cleaners and a new float valve from reefs-2-go for the gravity fed auto-topoff. Today's specials form these two sponsors couldn't have come at a better time! Current params in the tank: ph: 8.0 Alk: 9.5 Calcium: 420 Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 0 Phosphates: 0 I used API tests, so there may be some of those last 4, but I'm not worried since there's nothing but live rock, a few snails, some limpets, and some teeny tiny brittle stars.

I can quit any time. Really. Just one more fix!

Aquascaping Update The 50 lbs of premium Fiji live rock I ordered cycled with the 60 lbs of Marco man-made/dead rock. While that cycled, I filled the tank with approximately 1" of fine aragonite crushed coral as a substrate/sandbed and saltwater, and dropped in 70 lbs of fully cured, purple coralline covered rock. Since the tank had fully cured rock, I didn't see much of a cycle other than Nitrates slightly elevated for a few days during the 2nd week. I left the live and marco rock for about a month until it completed the Nitrogen cycle and I tested no Ammonia, Nitrites, or Nitrates. Once all the rock was cured, I started combining it and building the pillars. To build the support for the pillars, I cut several ~2" square pieces of 1/8" acrylic, stacked 8 of them, covered them in #16 acrylic glue, and clamped them to make a cube... three times. I got a good deal on 1/8" acrylic, so I used it, but if you get thicker acrylic, you can save time. I left them overnight to fully cure. I drilled holes in each block using a 5/8" masonry bit and glued them to the center of a 12" x 12" square of 1/8" acrylic. Once bonded (~10 mins), I glued an 18" tall 5/8" acrylic rod and allowed to bond overnight. I mixed and matched pieces of the marco rock to create the towers. I just eyeballed the shape, drilled holes, stacked, unstacked, added different rocks, etc. until I had shapes and shelves I liked. Any acrylic rod over the top rock was cut off with a Drimmel tool. First pillar In the tank: There are a few live rock pieces in each tower, but the shape and texture of the marco rock stacked much better. I used the reef safe mortar that came with the marco rock to fill in the less natural areas between rocks and to hide any spots where the rod was visible. I mixed small pieces of live rock rubble and aragonite with the mortar to hopefully accelerate coralline growth. I exposed some areas on the bottom, dropped them in, covered the base-plates, then stacked the remaining live rock around them. I was going for as much surface area at all levels as I could without stacking up piles of rock and creating some dead spots. I also plan on having as much exposed sand areas for a zoa garden and my giant clam that is currently outgrowing my 75 gallon. (Fingers crossed it makes it's 2nd move). One of my favorite aquascaping jobs out there is Steve Weast's at OregonReef.com. Particularly the center canyon. I didn't have quite the room as he did, but I tried for a canyon on the left side between the center and right towers. I extended my breaker box as far as I could without running a new line from where it comes into the house to add a socket with a dedicated 20amp fuse. Otherwise, most of the tank would run on the same fuse as EVERYTHING in the garage and both the front and back outside sockets which trip the fuse all the time. This week/weekend I am going to hook up the apex and lights and get this thing lit up! Ordering a cleanup crew this week. I still need a wavebox, calcium reactor, and in-tank pumps for flow... and I'm sure as soon as I get all of that, I'll need something else... I am resolved to the fact that I will never finish this tank.

Chiming in late on this one... Did you find the problem yet? If not, what are your parameters? Specifically alk, calcium, and magnesium. Before using a calcium reactor, I was dosing turbo calcium and buffering my topoff water. I could never get my calc over 300. At one point, the calcium precipitated into the water column making the tank pretty cloudy. Through research, I found this article which details the relationship between alk, calcium, and mg. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php I started dosing magnesium and the water column cleared up and my calcium began to rise to over 400. Added bonus... I used Kent mg and it cleared up some bryopsis I had growing.

Yup... been at it a while. When I got the tank and old water-damaged stand, I didn't plan to rush it, but it has taken a bit longer than I expected. Running a business, an entire family that plays hockey, and life in general kinda slows things down. I have the 75 gallon running so my fix is somewhat satisfied while I get this going. The good thing is... I'm getting close!!

Thanks! Really, that is the only way it's going to get the boss's (wife) approval since I'm drilliing several holes through the wall to the garage and takiing over essentially 1/4 of the living room. That is onlty compounded by the fact that the other living room has been turned into a gameroom with arcade, foosball, airhockey, darts and is temporary storage for my 75 gallon, all its refill equip and bucket, chiller, and calc reactor. Ultimately, I owe quite a bit to her understanding and acceptance of my 'hobbies'.