HappyHourHero's 56 Gal

happyhourhero · Dec 27, 2015

FishRForMe · Dec 28, 2015

happyhourhero said:
Mrs. Wages Pickling lime from Wal Mart

First off, obviously not a newbie... beautiful reconstruction! Questions: What is the pickling lime for? And, what is the tall pink coral on the last photo? Lighting and parameters? Thanks for your help...

happyhourhero · Dec 28, 2015

FishRForMe said:
First off, obviously not a newbie... beautiful reconstruction! Questions: What is the pickling lime for? And, what is the tall pink coral on the last photo? Lighting and parameters? Thanks for your help...

Pickling lime= Limewater= Kalk. It supplements ALK and CAL and keeps PH up. The tall pink coral is a kenya tree that would not be in there if not for my wife loving it. It drops branches all the time and is a nuisance.

FishRForMe · Dec 28, 2015

Well, your wife has good taste... it's beautiful! How often and how much picking lime do you dose? Still interested to know what kind of lighting you use. Your coral is responding very well.. Great job!

happyhourhero · Dec 28, 2015

To keep up with my demand now, I use 1.5 teaspoons per 1 gal of RO water for top off. I drip over the course of a day. Pretty much have to do this constantly, sometimes I can skip a day and just top off with regular RO water. I use blackbox led. I have a new board from SB reeflights on the way that I am really excited about. The guy dialed in the spectrum and supposedly get even better results.

FishRForMe · Dec 28, 2015

Thanks for the reply!

happyhourhero · Jan 3, 2016

So my NYE started out quite poorly. Went to look at reef in the evening and there was water pooled around it and it was still coming. I shut everything off and found the seal in the bottom of my sump had failed and caused the leak. This tank was my re-entry to the hobby after a 5 year break and was purchased off someone getting out of the hobby last July (Black tank pictured from when I set it up in July). It was a 56 gallon and the stand was made of particle board and it had become saturated. I realized I had to break down the whole system or risk collapse and total loss.

I got tubs out of the garage and an empty 20 gallon and moved the fish and SPS and anemone over to the 20 and put most of my rock and low light corals in the tubs. On New years day we went and purchased a new tank (65 Gallon) with an iron stand. The new setup was pretty unsightly so my wife and my mother and I put our heads together and trudged through lots of frustration and emotion but ended up with something that I think is MUCH better. I actually have an organized and accessible sump and have room! Ended up getting everything moved into it last night and did not incur one loss of livestock.

I ordered another light from SB Reef Lights so the unlit side of the tank will soon be fixed up and my wife wanted to be sure everyone knew she still has some finishing touches to the outside.

Happy New Year.

Edit: As an awesome bonus, my clowns found the bta while they were cooped up in the 20 and they stayed with it in the new tank. First time i have had an anemone host clowns.