Cliff's In Wall Reef

[Cliff]

So brand new tank arrived. I m so stoked
http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/C772834B-E6EF-410E-B29E-DBBB06476EA8.jpg.html] [/URL]

http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/75E05C5C-DACC-4B0F-B84A-D96A32FE2900.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[TORX]

Now that is a way to ring in the new year!!!

 

[unibob]

OK so I finally have my levels under control. I was struggling with some inconsistencies on my alk calc and magnesium. So the tank is doing much better now.
Now for some questions about my next build. There has been a slight delay in setting up the 220 but it has given me more time to plan. Currently on the 135 I am running four first GEN AI hydras. My original plan was to reuse these for lights on the 220. Though I have always wanted to run some supplemental T5 on the tank. That being said I have come into possession of a beautiful T5 fixture. It is a 60 inch long eight bulb ATI power module. Would it be too much to run that ati and my AI hydras?? Maybe I could raise the T5 up off the surface a bit and possibly have my hydras line along the front of the light?

You should be perfectly fine with just the 8 bulb ATI. If anything I would add a reefbrite strip on front and back of fixture. Running hydras as well you will be cooking things (in a bad way)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cliff]

Finally getting everything changed over I have a 90 gallon holding tank to hold all my softies and zoas and my 40 gallon frag tank to hold my more delicate pieces
Now I just have to figure out how to get my cap Out in one piece?

 

[nevek67]

Dude, I'm having the same stresses right now. and I'm still a month away from the move.

You are using all the same rock and substrate from the current set up?

 

[Cliff]

I m using half brand new and half pre washed used I had from a previous tank

 

[Cliff]

Tank is up and running.
Huge day today!!
Finally got my pair of lightning clowns!
They r tiny so hopefully they make it

 

[Cliff]

All right so the 220 is in and has been running for about a month now. As I expected I am currently experiencing a major phosphate Spike. Compounding this is the fact that the maxi jet running my lanthanum chloride system has decided to stop working intermittently. So I have thrown some GFO on the system and have fixed my lanthanum dosing system so now I just have to slowly bring the phosphate levels down again. The corals transferred fairly well. No major losses. I did have some pale out on me but there Colour is slowly coming back now. My pocillapora colony is not doing so well. It is receding from the base. I am thinking too low of light? Or the phosphates .18
Other than that everything is doing well I purchased 24 peppermint shrimp to rid me of my aptasia and they are slowly working on it but there is a lot left to be eaten LOL
My next thing I have to do is get T5 supplement lighting going on the tank I think. There are dark spots in the tank and I think I am possibly not getting enough light %5BURL=http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/814E4D3E-52B1-43E1-9668-ADEB40A9A347.jpg.html] [/URL]

http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/92DA7A84-AB15-4029-B827-BC7C094919D3.jpg.html] [/URL]

http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/3B3BEEC8-43FA-487C-9438-8A9AD3822D46.jpg.html] [/URL]

http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/5DFC2A8C-D1AF-4B31-BF35-CC7DA043A7C7.jpg.html] [/URL]
http://s946.photobucket.com/user/cliff717/media/fish tank/17AE839E-3A78-45AE-A799-EAD00D460EE8.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[Cliff]

Ok so I wanted to add some t5 lights to the tank yet I did not want the scattered wires that you get from a add on retrofit kit; also I wanted to do it on a budget! It hit me that I had a nice 6 bulb 36" tec light out in the back shop and I got the idea of possibly cutting it in half and making one 6' 2 bulb light out of it. Since the tec light is almost worth nothing now a days and the retrofit kit was like $200 I figured I have nothing to loose so I started to rip the tec light apart

 

[Cliff]

Here is the light b4 dissection

 

[Cliff]

I cut the light in half. Bent up some aluminum 6' long and assembled it

 

[Cliff]

Painted it some crap color that I had lying arround. I put two fans on the light while I was at it. And today I finished assembling it. I just have to rip up some acrylic to slide in as a splash guard and I m all done. Next to mount it to my light rack.
Beside the light I already had this cost me $15 for the fans.

 

[EricTMah]

Those t5's should help with any shading you may have in your tank.

Great job on the light

Sony Xperia Z3

 

[Cliff]

Man it seems like one thing after another in this tank .
I am ready to give up.
So I have been very busy at work ( as is every spring) and I have noticed my pe was getting low. But even more concerning is that my prized monticap has been rapidly fading; at first I blamed it on the lights so I raised the t5's Did not help; then I started testing. Salinity was a bit low .023 but not awefull; so I decided to take a monti frag out of the tank and dip it with bayer; and I found out my old arch nemesis is back dang monti eating nudis
I lost the battle to them years ago; this is so making me mad

 

[Dima]

ha-ha I thought my project with basement is big. Really great job!

 

[Cliff]

Ok so I guess I should update my thread. This is not a good update. My tank has been sitting For the last two months after a total crash. I will share my experience so that others can learn from it. My problem began when I got monti eating nudi's from a frag. Now if you remember I LOVED MONTI's. I had two huge huge colony's in my tank so getting these pests was Devastating to me . I did my research and I read time and again of guys who fought and lost the war to these little buggers. I read advice that I should toss both colony's in the garbage and go monti fallow for a couple months and start again after the nudi's died off from starvation. Here is where I went wrong...... I could not trash my huge colony's......... so I started a regiment of dipping in bayer. This was the start of my problems I mixed up 40 gallons of water every time to do a water change to my tank and I saved the old water. I used the old water to dip the caps and two more totes to rinse the bayer off the caps b4 I put them back in the tank....

but I think even with this much water I did not get the caps rinsed properly. As many of u know monti caps of this size have tones of holes and I think every time I filed the cap I did not get all the bayer off the coral and some was introduced every week. Even with this regimented dipping I still could not beat these nudi's and the corals eventually faded away..... again I should have tossed them at this point but I still held out hope of saving them. But as the huge corals died they started to turn my water quality. My nitrate went up I lost a couple small fish (I think to the small traces of bayer?) then nitrate went up some more. Then more corals died starting with my sps then lps and my two rbta started to wither and die. Thankfully Softies all stayed alive. All the while I was doing water changes but to no avail. So after everything stoped dying and I threw out a garbage pail of my prized coral skeletons I took a bit of a breat and just let the tank and fish and softies sit for a couple months. Now I have to get to work and start to clean up the tank again; or throw in the towel and go back to fresh?

 

[Cliff]

From this

 

[Cliff]

To this

 

[Shooter000]

Oh cliff I'm so sorry dude, I'm sitting here reading this and my heart just sank, plz don't throw in the towel man, couple deep breathes, chin up and keep carrying on fellow fish head, hell if you can make it down here I'd be more than happy to help start out a collection again for you, would only be frags but it's a fresh start, keep truck'n down the salty road buddy, we're here for you

 

[Salty Cracker]

I have to agree, almost all of us have had catastrophic tank failure at some point, in my opinion you cannot become a premiere reefer without going through some hardships. In fact, without them, if the hobby was "easy", everyone would have a reef tank in their house. So learn from the mistakes and try again. sometimes the fresh start feels really good, let me tell you.