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My Modern Ocean


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I've been calling this system my modern ocean because I'm slowly replicating ocean zones. From the large whales to the dwarf seahorses, everything in the ocean has a home. I found a good deal on a DSA neo-nano and decided it would be my perfect Tide pool.

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With all the tanks sharing a common sump, I gain stability with water volume. The neo-nano will hold seahorses and clams since it has a beautiful top down view, just like the tidal pools I watched in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. I love the water fall design and rimless look that blends well with the other system.

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I still need to bring the biocube into the system to fill in the other side gap, but with it currently running and school I've slowed down a bit to focus on class.

What part of Puero Rico did you go to? Must have been a part I wasn't at. Beaches were horrible where I was.
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I was there on work, but had locals line my sites up ahead of time so I made sure it was a great trip.

One very nice beach required a ferry ride to and from the beach. Another was in a place called Fayhardo(sp?) bay, which is where we also played with bio-luminescent algae and did a kayak tour through the mangrove channels to see algae and other critters.

I stayed in a private condo near Old San Juan in an area called Ocean Park. The owner of the company I flew in for owned the condo building and allowed me to stay in one of the vacant furnished condos. Directly outside our window was the beach, at night we could walk down and check the tide pools. I found tons of pincushion urchins, ultra colors rock nems, sea cukes, shrimp, crabs, feather dusters, all sorts of little critters. I spent hours just walking at night crouching down to look at the critters. People probably though I was crazy for picking up urchins that got washed beyond their pool and were stuck in rock pits.

A few that had all their spines down and appeared dead were back puffy by the time I walked back by.

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I don't know why I just found your thread Chris, I have been waiting to see what the stand looked like painted and tanks installed...Im realy happy that all the measurements worked out. Really glad the skimmer cup clears the stand, I didn't think to ask about that dimension. It is gonna be one nice set-up.

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I don't know why I just found your thread Chris, I have been waiting to see what the stand looked like painted and tanks installed...Im realy happy that all the measurements worked out. Really glad the skimmer cup clears the stand, I didn't think to ask about that dimension. It is gonna be one nice set-up.

Thanks man :) The stand couldnt have worked out better. I hadn't had the skimmer until after the stand was built, so there was no way to even prepare for it. I just got really lucky that it barely clears!

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  • 3 weeks later...

With help from oozarka I was able to get the biocube moved over and plumbed into the system so I can have my anemone safe zone. Might throw the WW clowns in to let them love the nems if they will.

But this morning after I was woken up once by hail, I went back to bed only to be awoken at 6:15am by my girlfriend who was getting ready for work. All I recall is her running to the bedroom shouting your tank! "It's over flowing!"

I quickly leapt out of bed grabbing my glasses as I went and promptly split my knee open on the edge of the platform bed, this wasnt going to stop me getting to my tank though. I ran in and shut the one valve that stops all water and made the potential 25 gallon flood only be about ~3 gallons. While sitting on the floor staring through blurry eyes at my system I couldn't figure out why this one DT was flooding. I turned off the pumps since they were dead heading into a closed valve and thought for a minute, I didnt realize by this time I had blood down to my ankle and my girlfriend was worried.

After starting the pump back up to observe the system and figure out what happened, my large serpent star pops out of the drain as well as one of the mollies. At this time I realize my egg crate guard had slipped and allowed them to go over the top of the overflow and into the plumbing, reason found. 30 minutes later the guard is replaced temporarily until I devise a better solution. Once the tank was taken care of and I knew noting bad was going to happen again I stumbled to the bathroom to clean my leg, got back in bed to take another small nap before the day kicked off.

Now I'm hobbling around with a sore knee but that doesn't matter, the tank is safe and all the fish are alive after all that's what matters most.

Awoken twice in the early hours, first by hail then by the sound of water is not how I like t start my days.

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Close call!! Good thing the flooding didn't get out of control. Sounds like you prevented a disaster... literally. A few weeks ago I had 3 new chromis venture into my overflow box and they all gut stuck against the egg crate on the intake and died while I was at work, but luckily my emergency drain saved the day. Have you thought about installing one?

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Close call!! Good thing the flooding didn't get out of control. Sounds like you prevented a disaster... literally. A few weeks ago I had 3 new chromis venture into my overflow box and they all gut stuck against the egg crate on the intake and died while I was at work, but luckily my emergency drain saved the day. Have you thought about installing one?

there is an emergency drain installed, I had it plugged because it was giving a loud gurgle and I didnt have time to correct the issue. The system will be taken down when I move and at that point I'll replumb that section to fix the issue. For now I ripped the serpent star out of the tank and into another section so I no longer have any critters able to remove my egg crate guard.

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Close call!! Good thing the flooding didn't get out of control. Sounds like you prevented a disaster... literally. A few weeks ago I had 3 new chromis venture into my overflow box and they all gut stuck against the egg crate on the intake and died while I was at work, but luckily my emergency drain saved the day. Have you thought about installing one?

there is an emergency drain installed, I had it plugged because it was giving a loud gurgle and I didnt have time to correct the issue. The system will be taken down when I move and at that point I'll replumb that section to fix the issue. For now I ripped the serpent star out of the tank and into another section so I no longer have any critters able to remove my egg crate guard.

Bummer. Figures though. " I'll just shut this emergency measure off for now, I dont expect anything bad... " And like magic, exactly what you didn't think would happen, happens...

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  • 1 month later...

So now that the plumbing has had time to slime up I have opened the emergency drain and its no longer giving the loudd sound the GF was complaining about so I shouldn't have that issue again.

I have gotten all tanks tied in, APEX setup to run ATO and lighting/pumps. And today I just hooked up the Calcium reactor that has been sitting hooked into the system for a month (finally got around to swaping ph probes and calibrating)

I've also built my rock structure and allowed it to cycle. Now with 1.5 months until I move to Alabama I will have to force myself to stop on this build and allow it to coast until the move. Once I get it over to the new location I will setup at least part of the system just to hold my frags until my store front is fully open :) It's going to be a rough ride but I think this will be a fun adventure.

Lucky for me I have a room set aside at the new location for me to trash with tanks and aquarium gear YAY!

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I didn't know you were opening a store. I'm a little surprised, cause we go back such a long way smile.png. Seriously, Congratulations and good luck.

hehe thanks! I am planning to open a shop that will give people access to hydroponics, aquaponics, and of course salt water goodies ;) I hope it works well, I already have the store front and just need to get over there to start the remodel.

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I didn't know you were opening a store. I'm a little surprised, cause we go back such a long way smile.png. Seriously, Congratulations and good luck.

hehe thanks! I am planning to open a shop that will give people access to hydroponics, aquaponics, and of course salt water goodies wink.png I hope it works well, I already have the store front and just need to get over there to start the remodel.

Count me in for monthly visits! WHOOP!!

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After getting my Calcium reactor online I tested my water for Calcium and Alk.

The Calcium is at 560 and the alk is at 9.072 dKH

Should I be adjusting either of these? I thought the calcium was high so I ran 3 tests and they were 560 559 and 563 I used hanna checkers for the tests.

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I would lower the calcium gradually to 400-450... I think you're at a safe level now, too. But optimally I keep mine in the mid 400's. I also keep my alk higher, but that's because it leaves more room for a swing. I have always kept mine around 9 dKH.

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I looked up the klondike version and did it three times.

The numbers from that are 540 568 and 528

Way far apart and each test was done exactly the same, made sure of no bubbles did exact measurements.

So now which do I believe the original instructions and those numbers or klondike version and the numbers who are more scattered.

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