Birddogs 65g Rimless

Birddog · Oct 21, 2014

Starting to have a little fun with my new build! Got things wet two weeks ago today and having fun watching / testing through the cycle. Thought I'd give Dr. Tim's One and Only a try and have dosed with Ammonium Chloride. Ammonia jacked initially to 2 ppm, watched it fall to .75 ppm. Jacked ammonia again to 3 ppm and watched fall to 0 ppm. Nitrites peaked at 5 ppm and have watched them fall to approximately 1 ppm as of today. Did a 20% WC with nitrates at approximately 5 ppm and now nitrates at approximately 4 ppm with a constant increase coming from the nitrite. Pretty happy thus far! A few specifics;

DSA 65g Rimless
Trigger Systems Emerald Sump
Reef Octopus 160 int
Sicce 4.0 return
Apex with WXM
Radion G3 Pro
(2) MP 10's

fishroomlady · Oct 21, 2014

awesome looking setup! congrats on the smooth moving cycle

SeahorseKeeper · Oct 21, 2014

Looks great! I love rimless tanks!

kingator · Oct 21, 2014

love it man looking forward to seeing how u stock this glw it

jason g · Oct 22, 2014

Great setup. That's one organized looking sump. Tank looks awesome.

MCDM · Dec 4, 2014

Did you design the plumbing in the sump? Looks phenomenal. Very clean lines.

Birddog · Dec 5, 2014

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, I'll have to post a few new photos! Have started to stock with a couple of fish, zoas, chalice, scolymias, favia, CUC and a few frags of SPS from my last tank that is now disassembled.

MCDM, yes I did the plumbing in the sump and I found it pretty easy since in real life I'm a Golf Course Superintendent. I really wanted the "in cabinet" stuff to be efficient, well organized and clean... not a birds nest of wire and plumbing.

Joker79 · Dec 5, 2014

Lookin GREAT!!! Whats the dimensions of the tank?

Birddog · Dec 5, 2014

Joker79 said:
Lookin GREAT!!! Whats the dimensions of the tank?

Thanks! Dimensions are 36x21x21... what part of Kansas Joker? I used to live in Tulsa and always enjoyed spending time in the great outdoors in the fall in the south central and western part of the state!!

fishroomlady · Dec 5, 2014

we need pics!

Birddog · Dec 5, 2014

fishroomlady said:
we need pics!

I'm close... but not quite ready to share just yet. Just a bunch of small stuff that I fragged off the colonies I had in my nano. Sold nearly every colony I had, but fragged and saved the stuff I really loved!

fishroomlady · Dec 5, 2014

well, ok .....I guess - j/k - don't think that your tank needs to be stupendous to post pics - we all like to see pics of real tanks in all kinds of stages - I'm always interested in aquascapes to be honest

Joker79 · Dec 5, 2014

Birddog said:
Thanks! Dimensions are 36x21x21... what part of Kansas Joker? I used to live in Tulsa and always enjoyed spending time in the great outdoors in the fall in the south central and western part of the state!!

I'm in Wichita man! Fall in Kansas is nice but fall in Kentucky is amazing! I'm trying to talk my wife into another tank. Hee hee.

Birddog · Dec 6, 2014

Joker79 said:
I'm in Wichita man! Fall in Kansas is nice but fall in Kentucky is amazing! I'm trying to talk my wife into another tank. Hee hee.

It was all I could do to get my wife to approve this new build... she'd kill me if she knew what I spent!

fishroomlady said:
well, ok .....I guess - j/k - don't think that your tank needs to be stupendous to post pics - we all like to see pics of real tanks in all kinds of stages - I'm always interested in aquascapes to be honest

Ok ok, if I get a spare moment this weekend I may snap a photo or two...:squigglemouth:

Birddog · Dec 14, 2014

Thought I'd post a few photos of the frags in the new build... I'm just about 10 weeks since I got the system wet. Truthfully it's been a learning process with my Radion G3 Pro... started at 30% maximum intensity as nearly all of the coral was / is a frag from my compact florescent nano. Was primarily at 12k and raised overall intensity to 40% started to see some bleaching, then fell back to 32% maximum intensity. Changed to somewhat of a modified 18k and now I'm back up to 40% intensity with a 1% increase every 2 to 3 days. My SPS is rather brown and I'm thinking I just do not have enough light intensity yet to get them to color up. Sorry about the photos... a little blurry (need a better tripod) and I need a macro lens:squigglemouth:.

BayouCityReefer · Mar 4, 2015

So how's that Trigger Emerald working out for you so far? Is that the 26 or the 34?
I have the same exact DSA 65 Rimless and looking for a sump w/fuge.

Birddog · Mar 5, 2015

BayouCityReefer said:
So how's that Trigger Emerald working out for you so far? Is that the 26 or the 34?
I have the same exact DSA 65 Rimless and looking for a sump w/fuge.

You may have seen my post yesterday in a different thread, but I am very pleased with the Trigger Systems Emerald ... it's a 26. I feed my corals quite a bit and the sump with the filter sock, skimmer, chaeto and matrix really seem to soak up the resulting nutrients. It's well built, and probably a little expensive, but what's not expensive.

I really need to post a few new photos as nearly everything has colored up well and is growing... and the rock is no longer dead, it's aliiiiive!

BayouCityReefer · Mar 6, 2015

Yes,pls share some more pics

also Which brand of salt are you using?

Birddog · Mar 7, 2015

BayouCityReefer said:
Yes,pls share some more pics also Which brand of salt are you using?

I hope to have the opportunity to take a few photos this weekend... actually looking forward to it if I can get the chance. I've tried both Red Sea products and have found at least at this time my parameters are fairly easy to maintain with Red Sea Pro.