John's SPS Shallow 90g Peninsula-Lagoon build

[drawman]

Oh my gosh, I thought Eric only now does business to retailers and not individual hobbyist anymore.
He got some primo corals on his facebook page.
I remember buying directly from him about 20 years ago...

Same FragFarmer was a great site and Eric was a great guy to buy coral from! I hope some of his corals are still around in the hobby somewhere...

 

[reefluvrr]

Same FragFarmer was a great site

Thanks! I couldn't remember what he used to be called back then .

 

[minus9]

Leak testing and double checking that all the plumbing works. I couldn’t get the little nozzle on the InOut return, even after soaking it in hot water and using a heat gun, it just didn’t expand over the return. Sent them an email, so we’ll see? Hopefully I can pick up some wood tomorrow to wrap it? I’m going to fill and drain with tap water a couple times to get rid of all the tin that comes with new tanks and PVC. Then I’ll fill it up and get it going. This tank will be Kessil powered. I’ll start with one 360x over the 25g (I’ll most likely move two of my Orphek bars over as well) and one 360x with 35 degree lens mounted high over the 10g, which will have a mangrove or two along with crocea and maxima clams. They’ll be a nice deep sand bed in the 10g, which will provide a good substrate for the mangroves and “lift” the clams up. The plan is to use Tropic Marin AFR for now, along with reef moonshiners.
I’ll move all of my euphyllias from my 90g over, plus the leng sy cap. I also have the micromussa/blasto rock that I’ll move too. I’ll keep the A. florida and green stag in the 90g and give them a better spot. Hopefully I can keep from spreading the aiptasia over?

 

[reefluvrr]

The plan is to use Tropic Marin AFR for now, along with reef moonshiners.

I have been doing this technique for about 1 year now.
Will you do the Tropic Marin AFR in liquid form or the Powder form which you will have to mix with water?

I used the old Bulk Reef Supply Tropic Marin AFR combo form....I found it hard to mix it properly, I had certain minerals precipitate out to the bottom which caused my dosing tubes to draw more of it up to my tank. Needless to say from ATI ICP test, I ended up with certain trace elements being too high.

Now I am using the new AFR powder form, it does seem to mix much better and so far I have found no precipitates yet.
Granted, I am only using the new powder form since about one month now.
Keep a close eye on precipitates if you are going to try the powder form....

 

[minus9]

I have been doing this technique for about 1 year now.
Will you do the Tropic Marin AFR in liquid form or the Powder form which you will have to mix with water?

I used the old Bulk Reef Supply Tropic Marin AFR combo form....I found it hard to mix it properly, I had certain minerals precipitate out to the bottom which caused my dosing tubes to draw more of it up to my tank. Needless to say from ATI ICP test, I ended up with certain trace elements being too high.

Now I am using the new AFR powder form, it does seem to mix much better and so far I have found no precipitates yet.
Granted, I am only using the new powder form since about one month now.
Keep a close eye on precipitates if you are going to try the powder form....

I’ve been mixing together the DIY version for a while without issue, but just bought the powder this past week. I’ll keep an eye out for any precipitate. ICP results have been pretty good with the nano, but I need to send one off soon, but I’ll probably wait until I make the switch to the new nano? I need to buy some sand and I’ll have everything I need, for now. I might start the nano off with some PNS substrate sauce to help ease the transfer. It will be tricky though, as the temp nano is in the spot where I’m going to set up the new system. So I might have to move the old tank out so I can prep the area and clean it up a bit before I make the move.
I forgot to mention that I have a cheap magnetic stirrer for mixing, so that really helps mixing the AFR and the carbo calcium that I’m using for the 90g.

 

[minus9]

Still super busy with work, but I’m slowly getting things together for the nano build. Picked up some sand last week and I finally had time to pick up a couple sheets of walnut for both stands. Here’s a quick pic of the dull side. Now I have to pick out a nice stain and get the pieces cut.

For the 90g stand, it’ll be straight forward, as I’ll countersink the magnets and seal them in. I’m not sure if I’ll add a handle or route out a hole to be able to easily grab/remove the panels from the stand? Hopefully if I lay out the cuts correctly, I’ll have enough left over to make a façade for the canopy?
In non-reef related news, I bought some blue diamond neocaridina shrimp for the planted bowl in my son’s room. He’s been wanting some shrimp for a while and luck has it, there’s a guy in my neighborhood who breeds neon yellows and blue diamonds.

We also had an amazing sunset here tonight.

 

[Smite]

The grain on the walnut is amazing looking. Can't wait to see it stained!

 

[minus9]

The grain on the walnut is amazing looking. Can't wait to see it stained!

Thanks! The other side is even better. Walnut is one of my favorite woods, but thought about a maple/walnut panel combo, but my woodworking skills don’t go that far. I love mid century furniture, especially when they combine both woods, it just makes for a beautiful piece of furniture no matter what. Once I get all the pieces cut, I’ll try out a few stains on the scrap. I don’t want to go too dark, especially with the dark floors we have and the black frame of the stand.

 

[minus9]

These will be the panels to the 90g, bottom piece will be the front. Getting closer.

 

[minus9]

Here’s the piece for the nano. I really like the grain pattern for the front and right side. In person it looks like a bird facing you. Not quite like the African shoebill, but close enough.

 

[minus9]

Oh the sweet smell of ocean live rock! 11lbs of pure Solomon Islands rock, the benefits of having @uniquecorals as one of my LFS.

 

[drawman]

Oh the sweet smell of ocean live rock! 11lbs of pure Solomon Islands rock, the benefits of having @uniquecorals as one of my LFS.

Dang nice pickup!

 

[Smite]

Oh man! Nice looking rock too

 

[minus9]

Dang nice pickup!

Thanks! There’s absolutely no substitute.

Oh man! Nice looking rock too

Yeah, most of it looked really nice, but I cherry picked these pieces. Lightweight with a lot holes, etc. I’m just glad I was able to trade a bunch of colonies for credit, comes in handy when you really need it. Plus, those Solomon Islands acros look super nice! I need to get my tank reset in order, those millies are super sweet!

 

[minus9]

Well, the TN keeps taking out more corals and it’s mostly corals that are close to each other or actually touching. It’s a combo of poor health and having to fight off neighbors, at least that’s my theory. I’m trying to get the temp tank going as fast as I can so I can move everything out before it all goes to ____! I might use more of my credit to pick up more Solomon Island rock? I know it will be worth it in the end, I just have to decide if I’m going to scrap any of my old rock? I should take pics of the devastation, but it’s kind of painful to do now. Especially since one of my favorite pieces is a victim. Ugh! I guess you haven’t reefed unless you had a crash? Nearly 40 years is a pretty good run without a crash. It’s not a full on crash, but it’s headed there.

 

[drawman]

Well, the TN keeps taking out more corals and it’s mostly corals that are close to each other or actually touching. It’s a combo of poor health and having to fight off neighbors, at least that’s my theory. I’m trying to get the temp tank going as fast as I can so I can move everything out before it all goes to ____! I might use more of my credit to pick up more Solomon Island rock? I know it will be worth it in the end, I just have to decide if I’m going to scrap any of my old rock? I should take pics of the devastation, but it’s kind of painful to do now. Especially since one of my favorite pieces is a victim. Ugh! I guess you haven’t reefed unless you had a crash? Nearly 40 years is a pretty good run without a crash. It’s not a full on crash, but it’s headed there.

Really sorry to hear it and good luck!

 

[minus9]

Really sorry to hear it and good luck!

Thanks! Yeah it's a little disheartening, but ultimately, this tank turned into something other than what I had envisioned and this is the result of trying/experimenting with something new (Triton). It never really took off, nor did it really recover long term. Even with going back to old school methods. I think it's missing a few things (biology-wise), so I'm going to correct those and start with some nice ocean rock and really take my time. The plan is to have one or two corals/colonies per rock and also have one clam per rock (for the larger pieces). I really wanted to capture that shallow reef that I saw in Tahiti, so that's the plan and I'm going to stick with it and take my time. The center piece will be an old school purple monster, with some millies, smoothies and hopefully a humilis and maybe a gemmifera? I'll have a stag or two that will grow from tiles in the substrate/sand, so they'll give a little depth. The metal halides will give me everything that I was missing before, so I'm excited and look forward to the journey. Patience and a few IPA's or margaritas will do the trick.

 

[Smite]

millies, purple monster, clams and MH? I’m excited, looking forward to see it come to life!

 

[minus9]

millies, purple monster, clams and MH? I’m excited, looking forward to see it come to life!

I’m going to do my best to keep it simple. Were you able to sell some of those awesome colonies? I hope my doomsday pulls through? It’s a very cool piece. That Indonesian piece is still going, so I’m hopeful it will make it. The RP UV is hanging in there too.
Here’s the temp tank with a single T5. I’m going to add about 4 more inches of water and hopefully get everything moved over this weekend. I’m slowly pulling sand from my tank to get a small layer of substrate in there. I’ve dosed a little NO3 & PO4, so it will be ready to take everything at once. Now that I have extra power in the garage I’ll be able to take a stripped down apex setup to monitor everything. I just need to get a gravity fed ATO set up. I’m going to use 4 Kessil’s and probably one Orphek (plus the T5) so I should have enough light to cover everything for the time being. Hopefully I can get two more anthias by the time the 90 is ready? I’ll move the mandarin and the yellow banded possum wrasse over to the nano, as there are a ton of pods in there. The clowns in that tank only venture to a hammer frag from their BTA, so the pods have free run to grow, plus I have some planaria in there, so the mandarin will take them out in no time just like she has in the 90.

My DIY PVC light rack is ready to go. Plus I picked up a hanging bucket for my chaeto to grow in. Good thing we have horses or I wouldn’t have had the idea of using a feed bucket as a DIY hanging fuge.
I’m going to use AFR to dose anything and wait until the 90 is back up to get the CaRx going. I picked up a box of calcium media directly from Tunze, so I’m going to give that a shot in order to keep my PO4 lower in the new setup. Plus, the way I feed fish, there will be plenty of N/P to go around.

 

[Smite]

Very nice! Yeah just about all are pending pickup now. Glad you still got some pieces, I've got small frags of both of them that popped off while busting them up and will let them grow out again I had to get out my 12v oscillating saw to get threw them. Man those bases were thick! I think the other piece you got from me was maybe that multi color polyp from Malaysia? Hope so, that one was looking real promising but locked up and went dormant on me. No polyps extension and just a funky pinkish flesh color overall now.

Looks like a good temp setup. Hope you have a smooth transfer and reconfiguration of the new layout! Gonna be killer when it's done