homer1475's 80 gallon build

[soulpatch]

The micro stuff comes as you buy frags, macro algae, and such.

As for the pods I am in the same boat. I dumped a ton in yet see none anywhere. I will continue to let the tank mature and then readd more later this summer./

As for sand bed I grabbed a cucumber and a fighting conch as well as my nassarius snails. THey all churn the sandbed for me but I do have some dead spots I need to hit when doing a water change

[ReefWreak]

I got pods from chaeto in the back, frags, and when I started the tank, I seeded my (mostly) dry rock with a small 1x4" cylinder liverock from the invert tank at the LFS. Roll of the die, but it worked out. I have fun little brittle stars that live in crevices and stick their arms out all day. Started as one that came in on a frag, and now there are a few in different places. It all comes with time.

[Devaji108]

Hey Homer,
I have the same looking HA some cnyno and I started (as you know ) with TBS LR my tank is around a month old so I chalk it up to new tank syndrome.

let us know if the tech M works or if you go the peroxide way.

[homer1475]

Right now I'm going to let it ride. Just running some GFO seems to be keeping it at bay( it doesn't seem to be getting any worse). I actually think it might be my rocks leaching phosphates as I have virtually no algae on the glass.

If it starts to get worse, then I'll pursue other avenues.

[Devaji108]

sounds like a plan!

[homer1475]

Got Spectrapures Phosphate removal media(It's certainly not GFO!), odd thing is its tiny little beads. Very similar to seachems purigen with the exception that its brown.

Filled up the reactor chamber, and low and behold, it works perfectly! I can see now why they said BRS's bulk GFO could have plugged up the reactor. Snapped a couple pics if anyone is interested.

The bag it comes in. Its quite a bit more $$(40$ for 500ml, or 25$ for a half a pound from BRS), but I'll reserve my comments on how well it works for a couple weeks while I use it. I will say you use quite a bit less then the BRS stuff. I needed 2oz for my tank size compared to a 1/2C of GFO.


The little beads.


And in the reactor. Not the best pic, but at least its working.

[ReefWreak]

Looking forward to seeing how well it works for you. Also just saw your nano forum post and the sig that it is posted with your BB Priv. I saw them go on clearance sale a few weeks ago, wondering about picking one up for my next phone since the price and features are right, and I really really miss physical keyboards on phones (you kids these days can keep your digital gif keyboards, I miss my Palm Pre!)

[homer1475]

Totally love the PRIV. I'm a long time BB user so I had to have a physical keyboard, but BB is a dying company and can no longer make handsets and run their own OS. So they moved to full on android, but with a physical keyboard. Only thing I'll say, make sure you try it out. The keyboard is a little small, and I could see it being an issue if you have large hands.

[\Clownfish/]

My Eyes!!!

It's so beautiful! I love that aquascape and glad everything is going smoothly for ya homer. How much was your tank?

[homer1475]

Thanks \clownfish/!

Tank itself is an SCA 80g PNP systems. Tank itself was 1k, I have close to 5k into it so far not including livestock.

Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV

[homer1475]

Today is WC day!

Did my normal WC, and while my sump was mostly empty, on top of the marine pure plates, I have thousands of pods! And I literally mean thousands. So much so they were crawling on top of each other. Look to be all one kind though, so I think I'll be buying some other kinds to have some diversity. I'm contributing the pod explosion on me feeding phytoplankton for the newly acquired clam.

On the algae front, now that it's all nice and green, its definitely GHA and not bryopsis. Thank god! It's not getting worse, and some of it is actually starting to turn whiteish, so I think I'm starting to win the battle. The Spectrapure reator and their media work well. With regular GFO I was changing it nearly every week(reactor effluent was reading .15), with Spectrapures media, a week and a half later, my effluent is still 0.

I actually sat down and figured it out price wise, and low and behold for my usage spectrapures phosphate removal media is actually quite a bit cheaper. The initial cost is more(1G is 180$ from SP, and 62 from BRS), but you use way less then half of the SP media. For my use its 1C BRS GFO Vs. just a tad under a half a cup of the SP media.

[soulpatch]

I have to do a WC myself. I might save it for this weekend though and see if I can get the sump swapped out at the same time. Doubt the wife lets me out of the kitchen long enough for that though...

[ReefWreak]

I'm glad that the GHA is confirmed and going away. That's interesting about their phosphate media as well. I'm glad it's working out.

Also really cool about the pods. I've thought about dosing phyto, but meh, just extra nutrients. If I need to feed phyto, I'll clean my glass :P

Soul, just tell her that propping up the tank to swap out sumps is part of the general kitchen stability contractor process... or something...

[homer1475]

I'm with reef, tell her its part of the general contracting process.

[soulpatch]

If you can convince her of that I will get you something at reefapalooza. You still coming BTW?

[homer1475]

No unfortunately I can't. We are catering a wedding that weekend and I can't get the time off.

[soulpatch]

bah tell those people to go to the judge to get hitched and if they want to know what it is like to be married they should still pay you as if you did the work...

[roosterchef]

Homer, you in the food biz?


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[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by roosterchef

Homer, you in the food biz?


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ever see the movie Waiting? He is the the guy Dane Cook's character is based off of.

[roosterchef]

He invent that game? 😉

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[homer1475]

Yes I'm in the food biz. lol

Head chef/general manager/bottle washer/ you name it I do it, for a little diner.

[roosterchef]

I own a small independent (140 seats) in CA. I always feel for a fellow kitchen slave. Good luck with the wedding gig.

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[homer1475]

Your only a slave if you don't enjoy it. I've done everything from fine dining in a brigade kitchen, to turn and burn short order cooking. Love the fast paced, high stress, environment of short order cooking. Of course the fame and glory isn't in short order, but I enjoy it and don't view it as work.

[homer1475]

Decided to go for a ride yesterday after work since it was a beautiful day. Went to Destiny USA out in Syracuse, had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory(highly recommend if your ever near one! This coming from a chef who critiques every meal lol), did some general shopping, and while I was in the 'Cuse, decided to stop by the LFS on the way home.

They didn't have much being a Monday, but they did have some gorgeous fish. I so want a matted file fish(I just think their super cool looking), but I have no aiptasia, and I like my LPS to much to have them eaten for lunch. They did had a bunch of wrasses, from a potters, to six line, to a hoevens(nearly got this guy as his name is very close to my last name, Hoen), to cleaners, and a harlequin tusk(did not know this guy was considered a wrasse) just about any wrasses you could want, which for me was great as I've been wanting a wrasse but we could not decide on one we both liked. My wife of course saw one she really liked and one I hadn't even considered before, or saw in their tanks.

So as I sit here writing this I have a leopard wrasse going through TTM, and a couple rounds of prazipro. I took a couple pics while he was in the LFS bag.




On tank notes, I still have a ton of GHA, but it is turning white and dying slowly. I took an old external pump I had and started picking it out and sucking it up. I went at it for about 4 hours the other day! Got 90% of what I could pull, the rest just needs to die out so I can pull it out. It's not a huge concern as I think its just from the rocks leeching phosphates(I have no algae anywhere else except on the rock surface), its just super unsightly.

[homer1475]

OOh forgot to mention.....

I'm pretty sure the algae strangled out my black sun.

It has never looked super healthy, but recently it has taken a super down turn and its completely covered in GHA. When I feed the tank I might see one or 2 heads out stretching for food, but thats it. My yellow sun on the other hand has grown several new heads and is thriving. So other then algae strangling it out, no idea why its dying, but I think I'll stay away from NPS corals for a while.

I did pick up some oyster feast last night at the LFS. Man you want to talk about a feeding response from EVERYTHING in the tank! I've never seen my acans respond like they did, polyps fully puffed up and every head had their feeders out! Every coral had their feeders out, something I've never seen! I've seen feeders out on every coral, but certainly not every coral at the same time. Even my new clam was sucking it in even more then when I target feed it phyto. I would highly recommend this product to anyone that has a bunch of filter feeders, or just as a coral food period.