Weeble's House O' Tanks

You make good reefs, Defective_Weeble!

Excited to see that you've got a new big beautiful glass box to fill with fish and coral!

Saddened by the fact that you've got less fish and coral to grow out in that beautiful glass box . . .

One of the great things about this hobby, I guess - the highs can be stratospheric - - but the lows are abysmal.

~Bruce

P.S. - I rather enjoyed the "rant" a while back, contrasting "old-school" reefing with "Facebook" reefing. I never really did enjoy partaking in the Facebook reef groups, though I'll peek now and again.
 
You make good reefs, Defective_Weeble!

Excited to see that you've got a new big beautiful glass box to fill with fish and coral!

Saddened by the fact that you've got less fish and coral to grow out in that beautiful glass box . . .

One of the great things about this hobby, I guess - the highs can be stratospheric - - but the lows are abysmal.

~Bruce

P.S. - I rather enjoyed the "rant" a while back, contrasting "old-school" reefing with "Facebook" reefing. I never really did enjoy partaking in the Facebook reef groups, though I'll peek now and again.

I totally missed this comment. Thank you so much!
 
Well hi there. I just realized that I've not updated this since we got the 215 up and running. Part of that is because I did a light switch and it took longer than I'd figured to get the new ones in (Gen 2 Pros to Gen 3 Radions). Another part was the healing shoulder, which took WAY longer than I'd have liked. In fact it's still bugging me, but not nearly as bad.

At any rate, here's a BIG update for you. Lots of pictures follow, so you've been forewarned.

This was roughly the point where I started asking myself "what in the world have you gotten into?"
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Starting to dry fit the plumbing. It's actually unnecessary (and potentially a bad idea, because of tight tolerances) to dry fit the Shadow overflow. But I did it anyway. The plumbing is nothing fancy. Just a modified BeanAnimal setup with a high quality gate valve on the primary line.
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A bit of rock work. It turned out completely different than I'd thought, but I really like it. I love having big fish, and I envision this tank with plenty of swimming space as well as towering SPS colonies. I'm channeling my inner @melev and hoping for some huge acros one of these days.

The left side. It's hard to see, but this actually curves quite a bit. I wanted an island, but I wanted it to be a cove of sorts.
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The center. Anemone island. There are 4 on there now, and one stupid Colorado Sunburst on my back glass.
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The right side. This is actually two different CeramEco pieces, but one of them broke. Fortunately the way that it broke looks great how it landed so I just left it. I've moved everything around just slightly since these photos, but the gist is the same.
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FTS? FTS.
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Now how about a video? Sure!

This past week, I changed out my lights to the new ones. I've not yet been able to build the canopy or skin the stand. Hopefully that happens this next week since I have help to wrestle the 4x8 plywood with the table saw. Yes, those are empty flooring boxes holding up my lights. Why do you ask?
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Today I installed a new MRC CR-2 Dual calcium reactor. It replaced an aging, patched and beat-to-heck Aquatic Systems Design one that insisted on leaking into my new floor. This is before I cleaned up the wiring and tubes.
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Then I took a lateral filing cabinet, painted it and filled with test kits, food, filter socks and all the other junk that used to sit on top of a table looking messy.
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OK, that's all for now. But I'll leave you with one more picture. Here's what happens when you ship a coral and your insulation moves around too much. It allows the bag to rest on the heat pack. Oops!
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Today was a pretty good day. I got a replacement for the slightly poached coral, then I finished the construction on the canopy. It's in place right now, just for a test fit, before I trim it and paint it. The shadowing looks terrible in the pictures. I'm never sure why it happens. It definitely doesn't look nearly that bad in person.

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The front panel actuates on a piano hinge, so that the entire front opens to allow access to the tank. It also gave me a good excuse to break out the Kreg jig.

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The lights are mounted on 8020 aluminum. #10-32, 1/2 inch socket cap screws fit directly into the Radions, and into the 8020 slot. The 8020 allows me to slide the lights, and I can flip them either direction because the 8020 sticks aren't attached to one another. The 8020 simply rests on a piece of 2x2 on each end. I'll likely add a "block" to the front and back to make sure that the lights stay in place.

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Wow! It's been a while! So I guess I should update you. First off, have a full tank shot.

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oTswYRu


Lots of changes over the past year. Lots of important lessons learned. I starved the tank out over last summer, killing off a bunch of coral. Then I ran out of pellet food and started feeding LRS frozen. Suddenly everything perked up and started looking great. I added some rock, traded some fish, bought some coral and...well...not a lot else. I haven't really done any functional changes to the tank in over a year. Though that changes this week as I add an auto water change system via a DOS in the garage.

I haven't done a water change on this tank in over a year. I probably should have, but since I perked it back up with frozen food and lots of fish poop, I've not really seen a reason. I did dose aminos and other stuff for a while, and it worked OK. But fish poop and frozen food seems to work better for me. Different strokes, I suppose. However, at this point, I know that nothing bad is going to happen by doing water changes (unless I get the tank too clean, which can happen still). So I figure I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. Worst case circumstance, the tank gets too clean and "oh darn" I have to add more fish.

Anyway, here's some corals.

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Fun little project today. My garage sits about 25 feet (if it's a straight shot) from the tank. I have a mixing station in the garage, and in the rare event that I do a water change I have a pump that can push water to the tank. It's a pretty good setup, but I've been toying with the idea of an auto water change system for a long time. After snagging a DOS, I've sat and looked at it for a few weeks because I dreaded going under the house to run the lines. Welp, today was the day.

I drilled a 3/4 hole, ran a feed and a drain line, then got everything hooked up. No pics just yet as it's a wiring mess, but I'm really happy with being able to do water changes automatically. Especially since I've not done one in oh...about a year.

The only problem: I need to find an EB4 or EB8. Now that I have Aquabus running into the garage, I can do away with the Apex Jr that I've had sitting in there. I have both an 8 and a 4, but neither of them seem to be working. So now I need to find a new one to provide power for the DOS, mixing station, and a small pump that I'll keep in the bottom of the NSW storage container.

Edit: OK fine, one picture for posterity.

 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

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