ok time to redo the 24

[fish.freak]

lol

[redwinger]

People laugh at it all the time but it works for me. I have been doing it this way for years.


Allright on to the transfer. I was originally going to wait a couple of days to do this but a couple pieces had me a wee bit worried. Salinity and temp were pretty close so I decided to just do it. All corals have been transferred, all fish, all shrimp and just about every snail and crab. All the Sps slimed up really hard as was expected and the LPS and zoas are starting to open allready. The real test will be in the next couple of days to see how the stressed out SPS handle everything. Skimmer is starting to get broke in and is allmost pulling some gunk. Now that there is a bio-load I should start seeing some results. Here are the couple sps that are in bad shape. (sorry horrible pictures just some quick shots)





And the new tank. I will get better pics as the weeks go by.


Skimmer starting to work

[redwinger]

Well everything seemed to make it through the night after the transfer. We shall see what transpires over the next couple of days.

[redwinger]

Well it is finally breaking in and producing some skim mate. Not as much as I want to see right now but a lot of it is that the feed pump is to big I believe and I haven't fed the tank so there is very little to take out. I am hoping to still keep the feeding at a good one time a week to allow the algae to come under control from everything being in the phosphate farm for too long. Also bought a aqua controller junior for it to monitor the ph and also control the lighting and the temperature. I also need to modify the overflow a little as the clowns just love surfing over the edge. So I plan on either taking the old one out and making a new one or just using some gutter guard on the inside.

Also all the corals are adapting extremelly well to their new enviornment. The sps in question have stopped the recession for now and seem to be coloring up just a tad.

[redwinger]

I also have a good size piece of 5" Tube left and am wondering what to use it for. Maybe after I get some more SPS in there in the coming weeks it might be time for a Ca reactor? However I think the kalk topoff will be sufficient for now but stay tuned.

[redwinger]

I got the fish in the overflow problem taken care of. The teeth were way to big and to far apart. So I made a screen out of acrylic with thinner/closer together teeth that they won't fit through. It just sits on top of the current overflow and works perfectly. I will post pictures of it as soon as I can.

[redwinger]

Ok here is the picture of the overflow cover I made to keep the fish from taking the "falls". Works well and no more clowns in the over flow.


Also added a Aquacontroller jr. to help stabilize the temp and also to help make me feel better about the tank when I am gone.



Some Zoas

A blasto


Green Echino


Frogspawn.


Acan?

Top down left side



Tank shot



Still am needing to get a couple things. Some of my favorite SPS that I had in the 120 and a Nano stream to help bost the flow.

As far as the ole hospital tank thingy and not to use one for a tank. I would have to say so far "myth busted" The SPS are coming around from the transfer and are showing great polyp extension. Keep in mind this 20 used to be my hospital/QT tank and has just about every med in it known to aquarists.

[REEFSTOCK]

Slick!


Clean and simple

[fish.freak]

looking good!!!

[redwinger]

Added a few more things today. A canary Blenny and two Nano stream 6025's. The flow is now a little more to what I am used to.

The auto topoff is working great so far and the addition of kalk to the makeup water has helped keep the ca up and the ph up. The skimmer is pulling a good cup every couple of days running it relatively wet. I think I am going to add a UV in the next week or so but haven't decided on that yet. Over all things are going relativelly well on such a small tank.

[redwinger]

Well I decided the 150w is just not bright enough. So I ordered up a icecap ballast and a 20k 250w bulb. I will be building a canopy over the next week to enclose it and will be adding a few fans to help with added heat. I really liked the 20k xm bulb when I ran it on my old 75 and it really made the corals pop. So I am hopeing the added par will make them grow a little quicker while also giveing me the flourensce I liked in the past.

[redwinger]

Well I got the new canopy up and the new light installed. 250w ice cap ballast with a xm 20k bulb. Heat has not been a issue with the added 100 watts and the 4" fan from rat shack that I installed seems to help with the heat build up. Here are a couple of shots of the canopy and the tank. The canopy has the front cover off in one of the shots. The nano streams have really helped the tank and corals are responding well to the added flow and the skimmer production has increased dramatically due to the crap being suspended more in the water column. Colors are starting to improve at a good pace and growth has been getting better by the week. I will be adding some more clean up critters to help clear out the bryopsis that is left over from the aquapod.

[reefermike1]

wow thats gotta be the nicest diy skimmer ive seen, good job!! if u dont mind, what did it cost to build?

[redwinger]

Thanks!

Plumbing $78
Pump $79
Acrylic tube $55
Misc items about $25

So around $230 is all

[redwinger]

Added some more SPS tonight.

Scripps mille
Red cap
Miami Orchid
Yellow Mille

6 months from now this thing will be packed