Stephen Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 Soo after much fustration I have decided to abandon the two tank system and run with just the bottom tank. Here's a list of corals that I have added. Most are small broken pieces from my main tank and some I have bought. In the sump I'm running a large bag of carbon, chaeto and LR Rubble. Corals: GSP Purple Digi ORA tri color birdnest Neon Green Acan $10 Neon Mushroom Blue/green Mushroom Frogspawn Gorgonian Galaxia Watermelon Zoa Radioactive Zoa Future plans include 3 Sexy Shrimp, red monti cap and some more corals. I'd like to get some hairy spotted mushrooms, some other bright montis, mini maxima and maybe a nem too. If I can get around to it I'd like to rebuild the light fixture and build it for a single tank system. Also, a diy ATO and MAME style skimmer are in the mix! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 That looks so good! I'm glad to see an update on your tank. Sorry the top part didn't work out, the idea was cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 5, 2013 Author Share Posted May 5, 2013 That looks so good! I'm glad to see an update on your tank. Sorry the top part didn't work out, the idea was cool! Thanks Kim. You have some really nice frags in your tank! Definitely jealous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 New additions Red Planet Millepora $10 Green Pavona $5 German blue Digi $5 Neon Orange Mushroom $8 Neon Green Mushroom $5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 Fts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 I like it. Looks very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Nice additions! That orange mushroom is amazing! That and the green acans sure pop out in the pictures, wow. I'm interested to see how the sps do in there. What are you using for flow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 9, 2013 Author Share Posted May 9, 2013 Thanks. Having the sps in there does give me anxiety! The few sps I first put in are doing fine and the others are coming around. The pics don't show polyp extension to well, because I had just moved the corals. Most of them are either laying on top of the rock or wedged into a crack/hole. Once I finish moving later this month I plan to glue all the frags down in certain spots so that they don't keep getting knocked over. I'm also hoping the parts come in for my diy skimmer and ATO come in this week.. Once I have the ATO setup I will start dosing 2 part. I think with steady parameters and weekly water changes I should be able to keep anything I want. I'm currently doing 100% water changes every week, but I'm starting to think it is unnecessary. Might try 50% this week and see what my parameters look like. As far as flow I am currently using a wide open mj606, but I'd like to get one of these "y" fitting like in the picture below.. Then drill a 2nd return and throw in a larger pump! More flow! Current turnover rate is around 68x, I'd like to have it over 100x and be able to tone is down if needed. It would be really neat if I could be able to adjust each return independently. I'll have to look into that. If anyone knows where I can find a "Y" fitting like in this photo let me know!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 Here's my upgraded plumbing system. Im Adding 100gph with the rio800 and a 2nd return. Still need to drill the 2nd return hole. Here's a shot of my ATO. Float valve is installed inside old pill jar and attached to sump with magnets. Pretty simple setup uses float valve, relay and aqua lifter. Here's the base of my diy skimmer. Still have lots of work to do on this guy. I'll explain more of how it works later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason & Amber Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 I know you can get one of those "Y" fittings off a Innovative Marine Nuvo 16 pump . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 Thanks. I found one today at Bright Ideas Aquaponics earlier today for $2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Thanks. I found one today at Bright Ideas Aquaponics earlier today for $2. John and Troy down at Brite Ideas Hydroponics are some great guys! Such a fun place to look around, you can always find some great goodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Picked up some new frags over the weekend. Tank is really starting to look sweet and I'm ashamed to admit that my corals are doing better in my pico than in my regular tank. Lol Purple encrusted meridian $10 Warp speed montipora $10 I think the encrusted meridian is some type of acro, but I'm not sure. I am loving the colors though. New favorite for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Tank is really starting to look sweet and I'm ashamed to admit that my corals are doing better in my pico than in my regular tank. Lol. Same here! The new additions look awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Neat. I Like the warp speed monti. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
innate1 Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Are you going to try the waterfall later or just scrap the idea? I thought it looked cool and really creative.The tank looks good I just thought the two would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Neat. I Like the warp speed monti. Thanks! It seems to be doing really well. I picked it up from Ty last weekend. The polyp extension on this guy is crazy good. Are you going to try the waterfall later or just scrap the idea? I thought it looked cool and really creative.The tank looks good I just thought the two would be awesome. If I can come up with a new idea that works then I will try it again, but lately nothing has worked. It is disappointing, but overall I'm pretty happy with what I have set up now. It's doing better than I had anticipated. All of the corals seem to be doing exceptionally well. I've started doing Ca, Alk and reef plus with some liquid droppers. They're pretty neat. If you or anyone has an idea to make the waterfall work let me know! I still have that other little tank sitting around collecting dust. I'm thinking about starting a FW planted pico with baby shrimp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Do you mean the water hitting the bottom bounces up over the sides or he water runs off the sides of the waterfall. If it is bouncing off the water you could maybe sculpt some rock work on he sides of the lower tank up above the waterline, like gussets to the upper tank walls? I'm not sure how to describe it well. If it is flowing off the sides, I don't know what you tried, and it's hard to see exactly from the pictures, but a couple of ideas come to mind. 1. Perhaps adding a lip in top of the rock that will deflect most of the water down with just some of it trickling down the rock for effect? 2. It looks like the rock wall is fat tests at the bottom center of the wall. Seems that this would deflect the flow away fom the middle towards the edges. Seems like you'd want it narrowest in the middle. 3. Maybe small channels in the rock wall 1" or so from the edge would act like a fire break of sorts. I'm not sure if these could be small enough to be unnoticeable, though. 4. Narrow the overflow so that as the water speads down he rock it has to go farther before spilling. 5. Can't get my head around this one yet, but something opposite of 1. Have a gap behind the rock with most of the water traveling here. Then have a smaller amount of flow over the rock and down the wall. This may also work with splashing as the contact zone would be somewhat contained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 24, 2013 Author Share Posted May 24, 2013 Do you mean the water hitting the bottom bounces up over the sides or he water runs off the sides of the waterfall. If it is bouncing off the water you could maybe sculpt some rock work on he sides of the lower tank up above the waterline, like gussets to the upper tank walls? I'm not sure how to describe it well. If it is flowing off the sides, I don't know what you tried, and it's hard to see exactly from the pictures, but a couple of ideas come to mind. 1. Perhaps adding a lip in top of the rock that will deflect most of the water down with just some of it trickling down the rock for effect? 2. It looks like the rock wall is fat tests at the bottom center of the wall. Seems that this would deflect the flow away fom the middle towards the edges. Seems like you'd want it narrowest in the middle. 3. Maybe small channels in the rock wall 1" or so from the edge would act like a fire break of sorts. I'm not sure if these could be small enough to be unnoticeable, though. 4. Narrow the overflow so that as the water speads down he rock it has to go farther before spilling. 5. Can't get my head around this one yet, but something opposite of 1. Have a gap behind the rock with most of the water traveling here. Then have a smaller amount of flow over the rock and down the wall. This may also work with splashing as the contact zone would be somewhat contained. Water does spill off the sides when falling, but only before it gets to the bottom. I see your point with #2, but I made the bottom thicker so it would create a more diagonal fall rather than vertical.. This way it would create a trickling effect.. Also, I had hoped that the thicker rocks on the bottom would be low enough to be touching the water of the 2nd tank. #3 and #4 are great ideas I'm going to see if I cant' play around with some rock and create something different. I picked up some hydraulic cement last night at Home Depot so I could possibly build a waterfall out of that and disguise it with some LR rubble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 I think you can still have it a little thicker at the bottom for your diagonal flow, but make the sides thicker than the middle ask the way down. Like a chute. Then you can increase our reduce flow to get it as close to the sides as you want without going over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 I think you can still have it a little thicker at the bottom for your diagonal flow, but make the sides thicker than the middle ask the way down. Like a chute. Then you can increase our reduce flow to get it as close to the sides as you want without going over. Will do! Thanks for your input. Update: I moved into my new place last week and unfortunately my pico tank suffered quite a bit. I ended up taking a gamble moving my corals over Memorial Day weekend.. Big mistake, I ended up moving my tank and left everything in plastic bags all weekend while I went to the lake.. Needless to say, most of my corals died(more in my DT than pico). I'll post some pics later of what's left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planeden Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Dang. Too bad. Stupid picky corals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Oh no! That sucks. I hope you get it running again with what's left, it's such a neat tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted November 14, 2013 Author Share Posted November 14, 2013 Haven't updated in a while, been super busy with life. Lol.. Tank is doing real well. Still running strong. Here are a few updated pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted November 14, 2013 Share Posted November 14, 2013 That's looking great! What all do you have in there? I'm also interested in what you're doing in the back chamber? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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