Diary - My Ultimate Cube Project

[gregt]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...51#post5423451

[RocketSeason]

tanks are all looking great guys, I will try to post an update of mine soon. So far I added some Xenia and Shrooms. the Xenia didn't make it. (not enough light me thinks.) but the Mushrooms are going very well and I have a bunch of baby shrooms all over the tank.

My main problem is that I have slowly lost most of my coraline algea over the last several months. I think its because of two things: Not enough lighting, and Not enough water changes.

I want that coraline to grow like mad, what do I need to do to get it really going??

[chrishet]

WOW, split because of performance issues, cool! I had no idea this thread would take on a life of its own. I was in the LFS last night and while discussion my tank with one of the stores consultants I mentioned my 30 gal cube thread on Reef Central and guess what, she knew all about it! Small world.

Hope all has been well. Some beautiful tanks out there, my complements to all.

My tank has been on autopilot for some time. I do a bi-weekly water changes and clean the skimmer cup once a week. but that is about it. The zoos are growing quite well, my shrooms just kinda do nothing, and my ric have each split once. All the fish are doing great.

Going to pick up a nice little fav today from the store. I'll post some pics later....

[Sugar Magnolia]

Congrats on the split Chris!

[robster]

I got someone in my neighborhood to build me a custom canopy. I will post a pic of the design I am using. I dropped off the wood to him today. Still have to find the right size hinge. I plan on resting my PFO mini on the top like a friend of mine did. Also see pic in my gallery.

[Sugar Magnolia]

How tall is that canopy Rob? Is the PFO going to be attached to a bar that runs across the top from side to side like mine is? Seems like it would be hanging fairly close to the water, unless I"m not visualizing it right.

[robster]

The canopy is 10" tall and the bottom of the fixture (glass) will sit 9" off the surface of the water. A hole will be cut in the top of the canopy, slightly larger than size of fixture and a metal rim placed inside the hole for the fixture to rest against. Look at the example in my gallery of Typhon's tank. He has two 250W setup like I am doing mine. His holes are much bigger than I am going to make mine though. The key is that the fixture sits on top of the canopy allowing heat to easily radiate out of the top and the fans inside will take care of the heat that radiates off the UV lens. I don't see any pics of your canopy inside your gallery but thought yours was setup with the fixture enclosed inside the canopy.

[chrishet]

My tank has a lot of growing up to do, and I need to order some more acros' (my 3 acros died off while I was on vacation).

I have a new sum polyp and fav but they haven't opened up yet. I'll post picks when they do.

I need to order a few acros to fill my tank, any suggestions on an on-line retailer? I'm fine with frags....time is on my side....Also, any ideas how long a Phoenix 14k bulb should last? I started mine in Jan-05. I was guessing 10-12 months.

[Lunchbucket]

there are about 1 million frag places. some even sell nano packs

www.reefermadness.us
www.reeffarmer.com might be farmers.com
Dr Macs
www.exoticreefs.com

hmm there was a thread a while ago listing about 50+ sites. might try a quick search for SPS sites and see if you can find that thread

Lunchbucket

[chrishet]

Thanks Lunch, there are a ton out there....I've ordered from Liva Aquaria.com before and have limited success with a few smaller operations. Most of the sites I come across have very limited selections. I ordered some frags from Reef Science (I hope they arrive as good as they look on-line). The selection at Atlantis also looks very good.

Robster, can't wait to see the pics.

[Maverick27]

Congrads once again on the split chris, this thread really is huge. I really like the polyps they look good. I was also looking for an online realtor for corals. I know you ordered from Liveaquaria and had an incident with one of the icepacks melting or the bag broke i believe, but let me know how the site you use is because i'm looking for some softies and maybe some acro also. Another question, what kind of camera do you have? I've been looking at digital and am deciding to go with a Digital SLR, i like canon and nikon, but i figured i'd use your judgement being you have astronomal shots and your tank shots are gorgeous as well.

Oh one more weird thing i'd like to ask everyone in here, if you don't mind chris. My refugium was stocked nicely with caleupra and had two shaving brush plants. ( don't know exact name ). I went on vacation for a week and when i came back there almost all gone with no trace. Nothing in the refuge but pods, few tiny hermits and a some snails...Any idea what happened to all of the plants?? Also i had 30g bag of phos-ban in there.

[chrishet]

Hi Mav, This has been one long thread, no thanks to me. I think the reason for its populatiry is all the great advice and projects that folks post here. Pretty cool....

I use a Canon Digital Rebel camera primarily. For lenses I have a 70-200mm f2.8L, a 24-70 f2.8L, a 100mm f2.8 macro, and a kit lens. These are kinda expensive but I can tell you they are worth every penny.

Even though I had a problem with a leak from Live Aquaria they handled the problem very well and I was ultimately happy with the transaction. I buy from Dr Fosters all the time. I recently ordered some corals from Reef Science.com. I'm expecting these today, hopefully all will go well...Here is a collage of the frags I'm expecting....



I'll post some pics once I get them in the tank...

[TigerWoods]

Good to see you again Chris!

Here is a tank update for me!

[TigerWoods]

a better look at the canopy

[chrishet]

Amazing! Well done TW! Those are some beautiful anemones you've raised.

Got my new SPS's today....we'll give it another try. The two large acro's look real nice, I was a bit disappointed with the green slimer frag though, it was only about 1/2 inch long. Oh well, I mounted it and we will see how it takes.

I took a long time to acclimate these, 2.5 hours. I followed the directions on the SPS forum except I used a small dosing container to drip in my water. Might be overkill but seems safe. All my water params are good except my pH was a little low, 7.89. I've been topping off my tank with RO/DI/Kalk twice a day. I've read that pH drops at night so I changed my timer to only topoff at night. Does anyone here use a buffer routinely? All I've been doing is feeding fish and kalk'n.

[chrishet]

Couldn't sleep and wanted to see these baby's close up.

Looks like this blue tip acro couldn't wait to open its poyps. Let's hope they keep coming....



I bought these sun polys last week. These guys haven't opened up much yet. I've been told they like to feed at night, perhaps that will help bring em out.





I'll take more pics tomorrow...

[chrishet]

Just as I was heading off to bed look who finally opened up. I guess feeding them at night is a good thing!

[chrishet]

[robster]

Tiger, where did you get your quad fixture? I was thinking about getting one to retro into my custom canopy that should be ready next weekend.

[TigerWoods]

Chris those corals look sweet. I wish I had some room!Check out this link on sun corals. They should be placed in an area of low light like under a cave or hole.
http://www.flippersandfins.net/CoralOrangeSun.htm

Robster-- I just bought it off ebay, I'd give it to you but I sold it already. =(

[chrishet]

Thanks TW, nice read.

[Lunchbucket]

blue acro looks NICE keep posting pics

Lunchbucket

[chrishet]

Thanks LB, here ya go...all my new corals from the past week

Full tank shot. I've got some mounting to do. Most of the new frags are on the bottom for now but the SPS will move up. Just above the female clown is a green/purple monti cap mounted.





I found this frag in the new shipment, only about 1/4 inch long. I mounted it to a piece of LR and so far it looks good.


The yellow and blue tip acro


My first blaso


One of 2 monti caps. There were 2 frags in my shipment, the other frag is mounted on the left side about half way up.


The blue acro.


A favia I picked up last week


And of course the sun polyps from above....I did move this below a large rock, we will see how it likes it there. I think the key thing with these is feeding them. They don't have zooxanthellae so you have to feed them. I fed it some mysis shrimp last night and it opened up. I'm going to feed it 2-3 times a week and see how that goes.

[chrishet]

I also have a teal arco frag and a green slimer acro frag, I just haven't go a good shot of these yet.

[robster]

I didn't have much luck with my sun coral. It was too high maintenance. I had to hand feed it every other day by putting a large water bottle top (cut off) over the top and turkey baste the food into the water bottle opening to keep the fish, crabs and shrimp from stealing the food right from its polyps. Mine never opened when the lights were on until 5 minutes or so after I fed the fish. Then it opened partially just for 15 minutes or so. It looked its best after the lights went out and it was completely dark or first thing in the morning before sunrise. Everytime it was fully open (early AM) I didn't have time to mess with feeding it.