Rob's Really Rad 180 Reef Rally

[RobB'z Reef]

Just checking in, been kinda quiet lately with the holidays and life in general. Hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and your new year is fun and safe! Pretty much gonna coast the tank into the new year lol.

Been playing with and learning my tank parameters and understanding CO2 and my tank along with alk and Ca. Learning a lot, and am able to steer things accordingly. With a fresh airline to outside and my skimmer I'm able to get my pH above 8.1 which I'm happy about. dKH has been hovering between 8 and 9. I shut my skimmer down until I get my fish back in the tank as I don't want to strip out everything. Nitrates register zero as it is without it.

All my fish survived their copper treatment and have been transferred to an observation tank until I return them to the DT late February. Everyone is looking healthy at this point. Should something have slipped through it'll crop up within that time.

I'll be ordering replacement fish in the beginning of February and by the time they get thru my new TTM protocol the fallow period will be over. Getting a few corals between now and then from Pacific East and TSA to keep things moving along.

I hope all your tanks are doing well and please stop by to say hi and let me know how your all doing!

 

[Reef370]

Dude, glad to hear all is well, I hope your tank blossoms into the tank you’ve always wanted in the new year!

I can’t wait to she the fish in there with all your new corals, should look amazing!!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Dude, glad to hear all is well, I hope your tank blossoms into the tank you’ve always wanted in the new year!

I can’t wait to she the fish in there with all your new corals, should look amazing!!

Thanks buddy, I'm excited to get back on track. Will be starting up some new projects after the new year as well, like a floating hood!

 

[Reef370]

Of the motorized variety??

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Of the motorized variety??

Maybe I could use a small swarm of drones?

 

[Reef370]

Maybe I could use a small swarm of drones?

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Quick few pictures of the rock scape after the rebuild from tear down from catching all the fish lol. I actually like this one better from a future outlook for growing out corals etc...

Last of the 2020 effort!

 

[Reef370]

Dude, those rocks are pink.... did you paint them like that??

I really didn’t see anything wrong with the first aquascape... Hahahah!!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Lol paint psshhh...

As for the scape, I'm not good at puzzles, what can I say?

 

[Reef370]

Lol paint psshhh...

As for the scape, I'm not good at puzzles, what can I say?

Hahah! Add some seahorses and you’ll be doing something!!!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I put this piece in my tank on December 31st.

A local reefer was having a tough time and gave my good friend @jk_s124 and myself a few frags for insurance purposes. Came back from vacation and was pleasantly surprised by the growth.

Today:

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Once again, happy new year all! Now that the holidays are at an end and I'm through my vacation I hope to be back at it on a regular basis. Not that I expected to be missed at all (so many cooler set ups than mine lol) but I've been coasting for a bit due to work and other diversions.

Just got back from a snorkeling trip in the maldives that was out of this world! One thing to note was the real world devastation of our planet's reefs. Between ilnino, global warming etc it was tragic in person. Despite all that it was still a true wonder to witness reef life that was thriving in person.

A quick video that I took using my GoPro on a truly wonderful life changing experience I was blessed to have experienced. Snorkeling in an Atoll (Lhaviyani) in the Maldives with a pod of gigantic eagle manta rays.


Trying to prioritize my next move, some low hanging fruit like under cabinet lighting surfaced. I chose a simple prefab LED solution that was made for under cabinet lighting in kitchen applications. It's waterproof, controllable by remote (supplied in kit) or by an app on your phone. Obviously you can extend control with an apex and a dry contact module which I ultimately plan to do once I skin the stand. I love this solution as I chained two kits together for $40ea and I have a lighting solution that I have infinite control over with regards to spectrum, intensity and 64 modes in addition to music modes etc.

White:

Green:

Seizure inducing:
(Ok editors note... R2R you're so funny, gif search of seizure produces no results, though other standard gif searches produce many... However related searches happily produce the results below... Umm ok let's go with that, thanks for keeping my innocence safe R2R lol)

Anyhoo... Looking forward to integrating this with cabinet doors eventually.

Here's a link to where I found these.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08MZYSJB6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[Reef370]

To tell the truth it looks pretty awesome without the skin! Just a thought. If it’s in an area where you sit a lot I would do it, but if not I would think about it first..

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Going to try and do more periodic updates as they come. Nothing moving fast anymore as I'm at that stage where things don't happen quickly any longer haha. Starting to add corals at a more steady pace as params are stable and the ones I do have are doing well for the most part I think. I'm sure once I get my fish back in the tank other aspects will come in to line as well (NO3/PO4).

Few weeks back I lost a shipment (half anyhow) from Pacific East Aquaculture. Not their fault, UPS scr3w3d the pooch on that one. PEA was very responsive and easy to work with and in fact reached out and let me know that they were seeing the delay via tracking. That alone was impressive and they issued me credit without hesitation. I'll be going back to them for sure. Lost some chalices but somehow a zoa frag managed to survive the shipment. They still credited me the entire thing.

Tried out Top Shelf Aquatics for the first time. No issues there, well packaged, but with cold Wisconsin weather things always arrive a bit cold even when on time. Everything survived and I was happy with what I received. A blue tip torch, rainbow Acan and a Starefire Clove frag.

Ordered my last two Kessil A360X's and mounts along with some other needed supplies. I went to Amazon for the Klinks (they wanted $25???? and they were 10ft long who spaces their lights that far apart??). They're just a simple USB-C cord smh... $7 ea.

I'll follow up a little later today with a short video once the lights are ramped up to full.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Just using my phone here so forgive the quality. I'm pretty excited as now that I look back I only put rock in the tank on Sept. 30th. Even with my ich/velvet setback, I'm really happy with it's progression! Perhaps I could be pushing things faster, but I got lessons learned on what that gets me with the fish haha.

 

[JoshH]

Ordered my last two Kessil A360X's and mounts along with some other needed supplies. I went to Amazon for the Klinks (they wanted $25???? and they were 10ft long who spaces their lights that far apart??). They're just a simple USB-C cord smh... $7 ea.

Try living in Canada where there $42 each, it's INSANE! I ordered mine from Amazon, they were $12 at 3ft, MUCH better!

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Try living in Canada where there $42 each, it's INSANE! I ordered mine from Amazon, they were $12 at 3ft, MUCH better!

Tell me the tale brotha! Why are OEM's like that? They produce a solid core product, but then absolutely fall on their faces supporting it with the ancillary things needed to round it out to a complete solution. I just don't get it. I see a market here... AquariumCablesRUs.doulbleUTF

 

[JoshH]

Tell me the tale brotha! Why are OEM's like that? They produce a solid core product, but then absolutely fall on their faces supporting it with the ancillary things needed to round it out to a complete solution. I just don't get it. I see a market here... AquariumCablesRUs.doulbleUTF

I can't tell you why lol I wish though, and I agree 100% who needs a 10ft cord????? I mean, I can see it running from the spectra controller to the first light. But after that, even a 2ft cord is enough.

I would spend top dollar if I knew the cables were manufactured in North America, which I don't believe they are. And they weren't twice the length of my tank ;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I can't tell you why lol I wish though, and I agree 100% who needs a 10ft cord????? I mean, I can see it running from the spectra controller to the first light. But after that, even a 2ft cord is enough.

I would spend top dollar if I knew the cables were manufactured in North America, which I don't believe they are. And they weren't twice the length of my tank ;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

As if we didn't all have have enough miles of stranded copper running around. Either it's absurdly too much or absurdly too little. I think most would spend a bit more to have the options that accommodate their setups. Either way, interesting problem to solve. They could at least be proactive and transparent and say hey, we don't wanna mess around with this, but here's the standard.

 

[JoshH]

As if we didn't all have have enough miles of stranded copper running around. Either it's absurdly too much or absurdly too little. I think most would spend a bit more to have the options that accommodate their setups. Either way, interesting problem to solve. They could at least be proactive and transparent and say hey, we don't wanna mess around with this, but here's the standard.

I agree whole-heartedly and really I think this could extend to all other manufacturers. I would gladly pay more for an option for say, a shorter power cord. Power cords are another bone of contention for me. Most of our equipment is within 4ft of there power source, however we are given 8-15 ft of power cords to work with and bundle up, It's insane!

BTW, I agree with leaving the sump open, it's too pretty to hide!