Heidi's 150g cube

[Heidi]

FTS: May 1, 2011

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2094.jpg


So here we go again people! It's been just about 5 months and I just gotta upgrade. There's no more room for more SPS in the hex. There is not more room for fish. I want more sps, and more fish . . . so upgrade it's time! I got a great deal on a used MareineLand cube, 36x36x27, custom built oak stand, all the plumbing for the overflow and return, sump, return pump,and 10 t5 lighting set up that I will need to keep reading about to figure out. What else I have bought: Med/Lg grain mix of sand and crushed coral dry. (don't worry its not those big chunks that are bad) Salt, 2 300w heaters, 40 more pounds of live rock (will keep and add 18 pounds from my hex) Super Reef Octopus 3000. Some pictures from today:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1724.jpg

vinegar cleaned pipes and sump
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1725.jpg
Filled sump
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1239.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1238.jpg
and half full!
More to come thanks for looking!
Heidi

[HappyCoral]

Did you make sure you did the math on it correct this time? Hate for you to have to change the title half way through the thread, lol. Should be a great tank, and I am sure it will be greatly documented.

[scubamomma]

very nice! is that on a floor above a basement? im such a worry wart about my tank weight

[Heidi]

very nice! is that on a floor above a basement? im such a worry wart about my tank weight
It is over the crawl space on the main level. We did the math and we have an older house so it is very well build. We had to shim it cause w/o any water it was a bit unleveled. Im not a worrier that's the husbands job lol so he did the math to make sure it would be safe.

[scubamomma]

have him do the math for mine! lol

[nate_newton]

Looking great, I remember seeing that for sale. Looking forward to the updates

[MizTanks]

Yahooo Heidi! You go girl-this is gonna be fun!

[Sir Patrick]

This tank is going to be SWEET!!!

[creefer]

nice grab on the cube, heidi. If it were for sale in October, I would have it in my living room.

Looking forward to what you do with it.

[HappyCoral]

need a update

[Heidi]

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1240-1.jpg
Full. The water clearing up now after I messed w/ the rock more. It'll get fogged up again cause I am not done w/ rock work. Just thought I better snap a picture this morning before I messed w/ it. :)
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1243-1.jpg
I am running a filter sock I put a bag of carbon in there last night. There's some cheato in there from the hex and a couple handfuls of sand from .
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1244-1.jpg
There is egg-crate under all the rocks in the main tower this time to keep jolly from sinking it. I left a few rocks around that are just on the sand for him. More to come once I get my rocks all how I want them.
Heidi

[Heidi]

Scape is stable now no more avalanches!
These pictures are w/ half the lights working, on the old ballasts, new Ice caps are on the way to "brighten" and "whiten" it up. I had to tweak the color temperature a ton so the pictures didn't look bright blue! T5s are gonna take a ton of getting used too.http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1740.jpg
front
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1738.jpg
left
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1739.jpg
right
:roll:

[Sir Patrick]

Very nice minimalistic look!

[MizTanks]

What kind of substrate is that? Are you going to add more rock? Just thinking about all your corals an where yer gonna put em :)

[Heidi]

What kind of substrate is that? Are you going to add more rock? Just thinking about all your corals an where yer gonna put em :)

Thats 1/2 dry "reef sand" med grade and 1/2 "fine crushed coral" I got all the sand @Pet Supplies Plus. I will be adding all my rock from the hex but thats it. That tower is 19 inches tall remember, and there are 3 huge plates on top for a garden of sps. My style has always been "less is more". the back left side will be the home of most of my hex live rock. Don't worry I have drawn this out its gonna be SWEET! :big_grin:

[MizTanks]

Sweet! I keep forgetting, that's a 150!!!'lol

[Heidi]

MY FIRST REAL SKIMMER!! I think I'm in LOVE . . :love3:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1788.jpg

but the still shot doesn't do it for me either. . . so here you go:
DSCF1789.mp4 video by heidiiliff - Photobucket (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/?action=view&current=DSCF1789.mp4)

[nate_newton]

I miss having one. One more step closer to adding livestock.

[whitetiger61]

very nice Heidi..your gonna have fun with this one..lol

Rick

[Sir Patrick]

Which skimmer is that? Looks like its running great!

[Heidi]

Which skimmer is that? Looks like its running great!

Super Reef Octopus 3000 (w/ new bubble blaster pump) I had to add some salt today and it screwed up the skimmer a bit. Like it made that "spot" that is perfect skimming kinda go way down. So I had to mess with it a whole bunch today to get it back just right. Think its doing what it's suppose to be doing now again :) I am thinking this skimmer rocks because I hear about skimmers needing to be broken in. . . yeah not this one I guess.

[Heidi]

So here is a small update:
Levels:
Ammonia: 0ppm
PH: 7.9
KH: 125.3
PO3: >.25
calcium: 460
NO3: 0ppm
s. gravity: 1.024 Temp: 79ish

Pictures . . . later :shifty:
Heidi

[Heidi]

Diatoms on sand, green on glass but heres a couple pictures anyhow:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1815.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1808.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1807.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1801.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1817.jpg
More once the "new tank ugly" goes away. . .
Heidi

[MizTanks]

WOW Heidi!!! Awesome freaking tank :stars: Is that an Elegant coral I see? It's beautiful!

[EMUreef]

nice elegance... you already have a star in there? i've always thought that tanks need to be established so it has food to eat, but i've been wrong before.

[nate_newton]

Looking good. That was a quick cycle.

[nate_newton]

Have you tested Nitrite's?

[Heidi]

Of course :) I never had a spike, ammonia nitrates or nitrites. . . . its the awesomely cured live rock I think. You will have to come see it, my photographing lack of skills doesn't do it justice.

[nate_newton]

Great, I didn't see it in the test data so I thought I'd ask. I'll take you up on that offer sometime.

[marc49127]

The tank is looking good hiedi!

[jolson10450]

nice!!!

[Heidi]

No diatoms now, algae blooms is gone, all levels perfect. Here are some pictures I took now that I got my icecaps hooked up and my lights on a dawn to dusk kinda cycle. (i just use a couple of timers since I am not using any kind of controller. Enjoy!
Freaky "blue" shots:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1853.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1840.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1839.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1837.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1862.jpg
some normal lights shots:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1897.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1870.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1869.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1859-1.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1868.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1867.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1866.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1856.jpg

That Purple sea fan up there is one of my newest pickups! :love3: Got it from steveperry98 at the GRAMS swap last weekend, also got a really cool ricordia from them but for some reason I have a hard time getting pictures of my rics and yumas, gotta work on that.
-Heidi

[Heidi]

Thanks Marc and Jolson for your kind words!!

[Sir Patrick]

Tank is lookin sweet!!! Nice rock work!

[bigbill]

looking great keep it up

[HappyCoral]

In all honesty from the first round of pics I thought you might of needed more LR, but you sure did pull it off. Tank looks excellent!

[Heidi]

Thanks for the kind words guys! Still wishing I had a better camera, but for now these will have to do. Yeah I needed more rock w/o the hex rock but I am set w/ what I have now. I have a ton of blank spots for coral.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums (http://developer.palm.com/appredirect/?packageid=com.newnessdevelopments.forums)

[nate_newton]

Looking good with the added rock. A ton of blank spots are good. It means you have a lot of time to see things you like. It's better than trying to figure out how you're going to fit your next piece of coral in.

[Badfish]

Wow, this is a cool tank. Love the aquascape, your tank makes me want to get my 45 cube running

[AJ :)]

Wow! That was fast!

Looks great! Hard to judge the size by the pics though.

Nice corals too!

[jolson10450]

what is that purple gorgonian called in post #32 9th picture down? is that a purple sea plume?? ive wanted one of those!

[Heidi]

what is that purple gorgonian called in post #32 9th picture down? is that a purple sea plume?? ive wanted one of those!
I got that from steveperry98 at the grandrapids swap. He had a lot of frags he was selling. I think they were like 10$ for a pretty decent sized piece. I am not sure what the fancy name is for it but he just called it a sea fan and I know it comes from Florida.
Hope that helps!

Nate, Badfish, AJ & everybody else: Thanks for all the kind words!!

Heidi

[MizTanks]

Awesome job Heidi! Loving the fan :)

[Heidi]

Decided to post an update. This will be a picture-less week for my impatience has caught up w/ me. So let this be on the record. I am willing to admit when I mess up and folks, I think that is what happened. I set up this tank with every intention of waiting for 6 weeks to "cycle" which is what you are suppose to do. But as you all know I succumbed to the impatience bug and a put in my coral about 10 days later and fish 2 weeks later.
"So Heidi, hows that working out for ya?"
Not so good, nothing is dead yet all livestock is doing pretty well. But, and this is a theory really, because I didn't wait for my good bacteria to build up before adding stuff I now have Dinos. That's right its not cyano it is for sure dinoflagellates. If I can get a decent picture I will show you all.
They started coming in the form of kinda a reddish dusting on the sand and rocks last Sunday. I was headed out of town for the week so I left the tank w/ normal feeding and lighting instructions. When I got back last night this film had turned into stringy stands of bubbled brownish red snot. NASTY. I called some people and hopped on the web to read as much as I could about this crap so I could eradicate it. So here is what I am doing to get rid of the dinos based on a bunch of reading from here and other forums. I figure with this combo and a ton of manual removal I can at least get it under control eventually.
So I messed up, but I am not a quitter and I love my tank and will do everything to make it all beautiful again. If you think of something I am not trying feel free to post it up in here. This is for learning that I am shareing this with you, please keep your nasty comments to your self and TRUST me know you all "told me so" :big_grin: Just hoping something I do now will help my tank:
1. I put blankets over the tank and turned off the lights, I will uncover it for a few hours a day and turn on just my blue lights to do a fish only feeding once a day. I am thinking I will do this for 3 days.
2. I might go all lights out but not yet for I need to do a lot of mechanical filtration and removal first.
3. I bought a "gravel vacuum" I am using this and a turkey baster to blow off and suck up the crap on the sand and rocks. I am also blowing off all my coral about every couple hours and will keep that up during the day as long as I need to.
4. Even thought I jut hooked up a brand new RODI I will not be doing a water change yet.
5. I am going to dose MB7 and a carbon source (not sure what yet)
6. I am raising the PH and KH with kalk "drip top off" both were pretty low, and I hear a PH of 8.6 will sometimes kill this stuff.
7. Filter socks and carbon in the socks (I have been changing the socks every couple hours today and will change the carbon tomorrow and once a day for a while.
8. Bought some of this "bio-magnet" clarifier stuff from CaribSea, I am not sure how it works but I pretty much read every bottle in the pet store last night and this stuff sounds like it might kinda clump the crap I blow into the water column and make it easier to filter out or suck out w/ my handy vacuum. Here is a link to that stuff, wondering if anyone has tried it: Bio-Magnet Clarifier 8 OZ. | Aquarium Supplies | PetSolutions (http://www.petsolutions.com/storefront/fish/aquarium-supplies/bio-magnet-clarifier-8-oz-/prodBioMagnetClarifier.html)

So I will update you guys with anything new in a few days for now all I have to say is. .. . DINOOOOOSSS!!! :confused:
Heidi

[marc49127]

Sorry to hear about the dino'l heidi! I hope it is a short battle!

[2pairs]

That is a shame, hang in their you have the makings of a beautiful tank.

[nate_newton]

I have a BRS Dual Reactor (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/carbon-and-gfo/media-reactors-filter-bags/dual-brs-gfo-and-carbon-reactor.html) you can borrow if you'd like. I don't use it now but keep it because I know I will need it someday.

[Sir Patrick]

I would go ahead and dose the MB7, but dont dose the carbon source yet. It can fuel your problem, or possibly prolong it.

I wouldnt dose the bio magnet till you find out exactly what it is.....it may be just another bacteria additive, similar to the MB7. Might not want to mix these two.....not certain, but better safe than sorry.

Hows your PH level? Keep it on the high side while fighting this stuff. Run some GFO. Lights out, completely, for 3 days has helped alot for me in the past. Dont change any water.

Sounds like you are off to a good start already. I am confidant you will pull through this one.

[Heidi]

So I did a ton of the above stuff cause I hated to go for 3 whole days with no light. I have been dosing MB7, no carbon source yet. So less light doesn't cut it people. I tried lights out for a day and half light for a few days. It greatly reduced the amount and growth but as soon as I turned on the lights an a few hour in i would start seeing "redish brown" sneaking in on the gravel. So on Wednesday my thought was if I don't get rid of this stuff it is going to suffocate all my coral. I had wanted to hold off on the lights because I have such great color etc. Plus not feeding the fish for 3 days seemed harsh too. So Wednesday at 4:00pm I took the plunge. I turned off the lights and covered all 3 sides with blankets to completely black out the tank. I worried a few times and peeked in with a tiny one led flashlight to make sure I didn't see dead fish or rapid white coral. other then that I only messed w/ my tank to add my MB7 and empty my skimmer for 72 hours. When I uncovered it today I have no losses except a little frag of sps I had gotten 2 days before I did the lights out. It turned all white, I forget what its called rtd maybe?? Its all good though cause that was a freebee browning I was trying to bring back to "life" any way.

Happy to report I don't see any trace of dinos, anywhere. I am going to slowly re-light my tank as not to bring them back and shock anything. I will continue to dose MB7, hold off on a water change, and dose to keep my PH up.

Did I beat the dinos??
Only time will tell.
:shrug:
Heidi

[AJ :)]

Good to hear! Hope you got it fixed.

[Sir Patrick]

Hope its gone! I have had good luck with the 3 days black out.

[Heidi]

Pictures from today, water is a little buggered up from my first water change. Most of these were taken with my point and shoot fujiflim water proof camera.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2015.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2010.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2001.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1997.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1994.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1993.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1990.jpg
Oh yeah, you want a full tank shot??
Here's a video :) enjoy (and not it is not HD I made it with my point and shoot camera)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1zOuaRPPs

[Mouthstofeed]

awsome pics heidi.. That camera works nice

[MizTanks]

The video says it's private :( Nice pictures though~healthy looking corals!

[zenpytho]

Pictures from today, water is a little buggered up from my first water change. Most of these were taken with my point and shoot fujiflim water proof camera.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2015.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2010.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2001.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1997.jpg http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1994.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1993.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF1990.jpg
Oh yeah, you want a full tank shot??
Here's a video :) enjoy (and not it is not HD I made it with my point and shoot camera)
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1zOuaRPPs)
gorgeous tank heidi ur thread helped fuel my new found cube love lol

[Heidi]

gorgeous tank heidi ur thread helped fuel my new found cube love lol


The video says it's private :( Nice pictures though~healthy looking corals!


awsome pics heidi.. That camera works nice

Thanks so much guys! I love my little camera. Miz I fixed it now you should be able to see it.

[Corvette Reefer]

nice tank i love that one greeen giant mushroom or what ever it looks sweeetttt!!!

[PPi]

Kudos on the start of a nice piece of the reef. I have this tank and love that 3 ft depth. Every side of the tank looks like you have 3 different scapes. I find myself spending 10-15 min on each pane every night. Lol. Happy reefing!

[Sir Patrick]

Nice wrasse!!!!!

The Elegance is also a favorite!!!

Did I mention- all the corals look "Happy"???

[MizTanks]

Wonderful video camera action~loved how you set it up~music and all! Tank looks awesome Heidi. You go girl!!!

[Heidi]

Wonderful video camera action~loved how you set it up~music and all! Tank looks awesome Heidi. You go girl!!!

Thanks Miz!! Wasn't too hard I have a Mac so just drug and dropped clips into iMovie.


Nice wrasse!!!!!

The Elegance is also a favorite!!!

Did I mention- all the corals look "Happy"???

Thanks Sir! Yes 99% of them are "Happy" ;)


Kudos on the start of a nice piece of the reef. I have this tank and love that 3 ft depth. Every side of the tank looks like you have 3 different scapes. I find myself spending 10-15 min on each pane every night. Lol. Happy reefing!

Thanks, PPi The cube is the best tank ever. I don't need to watch much tv, as there is always something in there to entertain me :)


nice tank i love that one greeen giant mushroom or what ever it looks sweeetttt!!!

Thanks corvette! I think you are talking about my yellow and blue yuma? It is one of my favorites too, they are very hard to come by I got very lucky when I picked that up!

Tank is doing great dinos are still at large :) I have been picking up non-sps lately just cause of my funky parameters I want to keep everything happy in there so here are a couple of new things. It is hit or miss with this camera I take like 20 pictures and only put up the best ones. Here are some picture updates:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2082.jpg
No this is NOT photoshopped . . . this is really a minty bright green favia maybe my new favorite thing right now ;)
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2090.jpg
Do you recognize these zoas EMU?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2093.jpg
Jolly!! This like the rest of these pictures was an underwater shot so I was able to get about 6 inches away from his hole but this is all the further he'd come out for the big green camera!
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2098.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2094.jpg
I need to borrow an SLR one of these days too get a good FTS this is the best I can do with a p&s

Thanks for following!
Heidi

[capbbw]

Thanks! Looks awesome

[MizTanks]

I really like your rock work Heidi :) and how your placing your corals.

[Heidi]

Thanks Miz & cabbbw for the kind words :)

[Sir Patrick]

I think I like the aquascaping best.....looking forward to more corals!

[Heidi]

Ordered A.I. LEDs Super Blue. GOt them and love them
Made a screen out of the mesh for the top cause now its open
Everything doing good can't wait to get some growth with my new lights
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2191.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2190.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2189.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2194.jpg
My favorite Yuma, it's about 5.5 inches across
:) thanks for looking!
Heidi

[Captain]

Looking good! Love the yuma!

[MizTanks]

WOW! What more can I say :)

[Mike]

Very nice Heidi. Can you shoot a close up of how you have the lights hung and the mounting on the sides of your rack.

[CableGuy]

Heidi...

Where did you get the water from?

I've read, to avoid what happened to you, to add a couple cups of the LS from your established tank and then take 1/2 the water from the same tank and add it to the new tank. Do this a couple of times(just the water) with a day separating the water adds. Tactically, you are doing 50% water changes on you main tank. With all of the life and biodiversity in the current sand bed, rock system and sump / filter the water is quickly regenerated back to a high quality of saltwater with all the needed bacteria.


Im curious on how you did this, if at all as I will be switching to a bigger tank soon.

[Heidi]

Heidi...

Where did you get the water from?

I've read, to avoid what happened to you, to add a couple cups of the LS from your established tank and then take 1/2 the water from the same tank and add it to the new tank. Do this a couple of times(just the water) with a day separating the water adds. Tactically, you are doing 50% water changes on you main tank. With all of the life and biodiversity in the current sand bed, rock system and sump / filter the water is quickly regenerated back to a high quality of saltwater with all the needed bacteria.


Im curious on how you did this, if at all as I will be switching to a bigger tank soon.

Yes how you described it above is how you are supposed to do it. I am a bit of a blond :big_grin: and so I just made fresh salt water hulled from my friends RODI and mixed it up in the tank as I was setting it up. Then I later added my fish and coral but the bacteria was not quite well established in the new tank. That is why I think I had the dinos. I was vodka dosing a bit to bring down my phosphates, and there wasn't enough good bacteria to feed.
I started adding MB7 to the mix and haven't had problems. So I am no expert by any means, this is only my second reef tank, but I was told by quite a few guys who are that the adding of all old tanks water is a great way to upgrade w/o a huge cycle (sometimes no cycle at all) I am just lucky I didn't lose any fish or coral in the change over. Hope this helps you know "what not to do" :)
Heidi

[nate_newton]

Looking great with the leds

[Heidi]

Very nice Heidi. Can you shoot a close up of how you have the lights hung and the mounting on the sides of your rack.

This is the A.I. hanging kit that came with the lights, I will try and get some pictures of it and how it goes together tomorrow as I want to move it a bit (didn't get it quite in the middle where I wanted it) Then I will post up a quick how to thread because I had to figure it out on my own. There were no instructions included.


Looking great with the leds

Thanks Nate! You gotta see it in person :)

[Sir Patrick]

Lookin good heidi!!

[EMUreef]

im really impressed with this cube, can't wait to see what its like in a couple years with all the sps grown out.

[Heidi]

Lookin good heidi!!

Thank you Chris! Stay tuned, I had Christian take some better pictures last night. I have some decent ones of the fish even :)


im really impressed with this cube, can't wait to see what its like in a couple years with all the sps grown out.

Aww, thanks Russ! And you will see it in a couple years cause I'm in this for the long hull!

[HappyCoral]

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/zoas-2.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/shrimppartduex.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/tangs.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/wrasse.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/tang.jpg

[HappyCoral]

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/wrasse1.jpg

[EMUreef]

sweet bristle tooth pick up heidi i like that way better than the kole tang.

[HappyCoral]

Not a Bristle tooth it is a Acanthurus Maculiceps or White Freckled Tang.

[HappyCoral]

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/blueacro-2.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/acanmax.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/card.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/ele.jpg
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l62/1fish_2006/min.jpg

[marc49127]

Wow those pictures turned out good! He sure did get them up for you fast!

[CableGuy]

Can you get some full tank shots?

[HappyCoral]

I know it sounds stupid, but I guess i got caught up in taking pics of the corals and fish, I simply forgot. Next time I am invited to visit Heidis tank i will. Especially if she makes some more Tacos.

Thanks for the Tacos Heidi:)

[Captain]

That tang looks awesome and I love the fat wrasse.

Great pics happy!

[Heidi]

Wow those pictures turned out good! He sure did get them up for you fast!

I know right! He does things fast for me, what can I say? I'm the best customer ever. :)


I know it sounds stupid, but I guess i got caught up in taking pics of the corals and fish, I simply forgot. Next time I am invited to visit Heidis tank i will. Especially if she makes some more Tacos.
Thanks for the Tacos Heidi:)

Anytime dude! Thanks so much for doing this for me. FTS you can get the next time you come over. Ya'll will have to come swimming one of these days.


That tang looks awesome and I love the fat wrasse.
Great pics happy!

That wrasse is very well fed I guess. I didn't know he had grown so much since I got him. I think he thinks he is a tang, he hangs with the tangs!

[jimsflies]

Looking good...you've come a long way from this (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/98249-post9.html)!

[Heidi]

Looking good...you've come a long way from this (http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/98249-post9.html)!

lol Thanks Jim :) I will take that as a compliment!!

[Heidi]

Photo update June 10 2011
Battling Dinos again... otherwise I lost some color on sps due to phosphates but I have been getting the phosphates back down so things are starting to look better. Otherwise got some new zoas, fungia, sps and a new gonipora (sp.?)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2376.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2367.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2366.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2363.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2361.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2359-1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2348.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2347.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2343.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2338.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2329.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2326.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2324.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2323.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2322.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2320.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2318.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2317.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2316.jpg

Thanks for looking!
Heidi

[Captain]

Coral potpourri! I like the flower pot.
You got 180 gallons of cool in a 150 gallon cube.:thumbsup:

[CableGuy]

Looking great Heidi!

[Heidi]

Thanks Sam, Adam and AJ for the encouragement.

So here is my "tank update" for the week. I have cyano. I thought at first it was dinos again coming back to haunt me but it is purple and more of a mat on the sand that only really covers sand and rocks. So I have been literally vacuuming everyday the sand to remove what I can but soon as the lights ramp up its back full force. Cyano doesn't grow on my corals so all of them are very happy and it is sucking all the phosphates up so colors are great everything is great...just sick of the nasty slimy crap I have to suck up every day from the sand bed. This is the plan of attack, it is modified a bit from when I got rid of my dinos cause cyano is a bit different: (and I am pretty sure I got rid of the dinos completely cause they have not returned even a little, what I thought was dinos has been the purple cyano).

1.@ 11:30am today I vacuumed my sand and even blew off all my rock work where the cyano was collecting.

2. I dosed my MB7 (which I will keep dosing this whole time no matter what. (I haven't been dosing a carbon source for a while trying to get rid of the cyano.)

3. I turned off my beautiful lights and covered my tank with a big down blanket. Sump light is off too and I am going to starve my tank and let no light in for 3 days. EEK! I hate doing this cause my poor fish! But they are all fat and happy enough that I am sure they will be fine.

4. I have refined my light cycle for when it comes back on it will be only at 100% power for 5 hours of the day instead of 8.

5. I will be feeding only 2 times a day and they will be "smaller" meals only doing my coral frenzy/ reef chili 2 times a week instead of every other day. I will only be giving frozen food and nori 2 times a week too instead of like when ever I feel like it, I think this is leaving my phosphates up (keeping me wanting to dose which isn't helping the negative bacteria growth).

6. I am going to add a five gallon bucket of "rock rubble" to my refugium to make more places for the good bacteria to hang out. I love my minimal rock work and don't want to change that but I only have around 60 pounds of live rock in my system so this might be contributing to my problem.

7. When I turn the lights on on Wednesday I will be doing a 25% water change and we will go from there.

Wish me luck people :) My tank is beautiful and brings me so much joy, there is no reason why I should look at nasty slim clovered sand ANYMORE! :shake-head: I am taking back my white sand bed :roll_eyes:

Heidi

[Heidi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWHwx9ocAAA

[MizTanks]

Sweet video Heidi :)

[Sir Patrick]

Looks like he survived the initiation process. Looks like it was a bit rougher before the video? Hope he becomes a great addition to your tank.

[Heidi]

Looks like he survived the initiation process. Looks like it was a bit rougher before the video? Hope he becomes a great addition to your tank.

You know they really didn't chance him more then they were in the video. He found a couple different places to hide in the rocks where they (being too big) couldn't get to. I put him in when it was dark and really my freckle is the only one who has even really paying attention to him. I think the back of his fin got kinda messed up on my rock work where he was hiding cause their really has been no violence to him.

Thanks Miz, sorry it is so blue, I don't know how to adjust the blue out like I can in a picture, and I took it under all actinic lighting.

[fidelcamilo]

thats very nice

[Heidi]

thats very nice

Thank you :) I try

Heidi

[Heidi]

video update :) (playing with my new iPhone video camera)

YouTube - ‪Tank July 2 2011‬‏

[MizTanks]

Awesome!!! Hope you had an umbrella wit ya :) tank looks wonderful Heidi ((hugs))

[Sir Patrick]

This tank has TOTM- in the making, writen all over it! Very nice job so far heidi!

[Heidi]

After browning everything out about a month ago with my lights out I am finally getting some of my colors back. Enjoy :)


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2569.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2568.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2565.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2564.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2563.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2561.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2555.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2550.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2548.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2547.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2553.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2544.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2541.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2539.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2538.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2537.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2535.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2533.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2532.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2527.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2526.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/DSCF2525.jpg

[Sir Patrick]

Great shots!!!

[Heidi]

Great shots!!!

Thanks Chris! Everything was looking all "polypy" tonight i just couldn't resist! :) Gotta love the underwater camera!:love3:

[MizTanks]

WOW Heidi!! Your sticks are sticking out all over the place :) talk about some happy healthy looking corals. Congrats on a job well done!

[Heidi]

Thanks Jamie! And everyone else

[MizTanks]

Heidi~the 12th picture which show's a *Green Implosion Paly* next to an sps right? Just some FYI~those green implosions are very aggressive and pack a little sting to them so you may wanna move any corals that are coming into contact with them. I kept them for over a year and had a heck of a time getting rid of them. 1 of the toughest, most aggressive palys I've come across.

[larryandlaura]

Any updates Heidi?

[Heidi]

Wow thanks for asking Larry :)

Well not really anything new. I haven't taken any pictures as of lately or gotten any new coral. I was gone for a 3 weeks and lost a couple little frags due to them falling under the rock and Me not being there to retrieve them :(
I lost a fish My original Nemo jumped out through the gap between my screen and edge of the back. My cyano has gotten better but still isn't gone. I never dosed any meds to get rid of it. I think the MB7 is finally kicking butt. I have added some more live rock into the refugium and had moved the cheato into its own section in the return part. I built a little "box" out of egg crate to keep it from going into the return pump or where ever. I had to redo the plumbing for the return line because it was leaking from somewhere. I used 1 inch spa flex PVC to replace the whole thing past the valves (left them they were fine). I have a couple of pictures I could post :) Nothing too fantastic or new.

Again thanks for asking I guess I have had a pretty blazay kinda month with the tank.

Heidi

PS Hey Jamie, thanks for the heads up on the palys I didn't know that about them. I will move them the best I can away from my SPS :)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0739.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0743.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0744.jpg
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http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0788.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0791.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0793.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0794.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0796.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0827.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0832.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0829.jpg

[MizTanks]

Heidi~your tank looks wonderful! For whatever reason I can't help but think how beautiful my Purple Gorgonian would look in your tank. I really love this coral but it just doesn't look right in mine. Now my wheels are turning hmmm....

[Badfish]

This tank is awesome! I really like the pink and green polyps in the 9th pic, and is that a maxi in the pic under that?

[Heidi]

This tank is awesome! I really like the pink and green polyps in the 9th pic, and is that a maxi in the pic under that?

Aww thanks Badfish! The ninth down is actually Goniopora djboutiensis aka Flower Pot Coral. It is one of my favorite corals as well, hehe I say that about everything I have ;) The picture under that is a tonga mushroom. He had gotten knocked off where I had em while I was on vacation and now is there and doing really well so why move him :) thanks for looking!

Heidi

[Heidi]

Heidi~your tank looks wonderful! For whatever reason I can't help but think how beautiful my Purple Gorgonian would look in your tank. I really love this coral but it just doesn't look right in mine. Now my wheels are turning hmmm....

Thanks Miz! You know I am all about the little gifts that arrive in the mail ;) . I may have some trade-able stuff too :) !

Heidi

[Heidi]

Update video :)

Oct12011 - YouTube

Enjoy!

[larryandlaura]

Dang the tank is looking amazing!

[Heidi]

Dang the tank is looking amazing!

Thanks Larry, its a work :)

[rcombs]

so much more option with the aquascape in a big cube. thats a nice tank for sure

[bluwc]

Very nice Heidi!

[Sir Patrick]

I never get tired of seeing this tank!!

[Jamesr]

Love the tank. Just keeps getting better.

[Heidi]

Time for an update :) Here are some all actinic shots I got with my iPhone. Not a lot has changed but I still like to keep my thread up to date, Enjoy!

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0333.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0336.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0337.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0338.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0341.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0343.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0345.jpg
Can you see him?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0346.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0347.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0348.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0352.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0357.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0359.jpg

As far as any other news goes: The tank is doing great, I have been able to beat my cyano. My nutrients have stayed very low, due to dosing of MB7 and skimming like crazy. I have also been feeding coral frenzy every day but only about half of what my tank calls for. thanks for looking. I have a friend that is making me a fun sounding toy which will be used to "electrocute" some nuance mushrooms and apstasia :) Sounds like fun I know!
Heidi

[rcombs]

like how you have your Z's growing in next to one another. great contrast with the colors

[Heidi]

like how you have your Z's growing in next to one another. great contrast with the colors
Thanks Rickie!

[larryandlaura]

Looking very good! It seems to be filing in nicely.

[2pairs]

I still think a 150 cube is a hard tank to beat, BUT YOURS IS SWEET!

[Heidi]

Looking very good! It seems to be filing in nicely.

Thanks Larry its a work :)


I still think a 150 cube is a hard tank to beat, BUT YOURS IS SWEET!

Thanks 2pairs, super nice of you to say :) 150cubes can't be beat:big_grin:

Heidi

[MizTanks]

:wave::love::love:

[Badfish]

http://media10.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20111115/105400.jpg

[Heidi]

:wave::love::love:

gee Thanks :) :embarrassed: :thumbsup:

---------- Post added at 08:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:14 PM ----------


http://media10.dropshots.com/photos/881776/20111115/105400.jpg

Winner. Badfish!

Best tank compliment ever LOL (really did too :embarrassed:)

[TheLittleMermaid]

Heidi, I just admire your tank. It looks great. I was looking through your thread yesterday of all the amazing corals you have. I am a huge fan of mushrooms, especially yumas! They are awesome. Great job and awesome job picking out such great looking pieces! :thumbsup:

[Heidi]

Heidi, I just admire your tank. It looks great. I was looking through your thread yesterday of all the amazing corals you have. I am a huge fan of mushrooms, especially yumas! They are awesome. Great job and awesome job picking out such great looking pieces! :thumbsup:

Awe thanks Arial!! Mind if I call you that teehee :) always my favorite of the Disney princesses!!
Heidi

[whitetiger61]

looking really good Heidi..looks like u have everything under control..showing patience..im enjoying this tank

Rick

[Heidi]

looking really good Heidi..looks like u have everything under control..showing patience..im enjoying this tank

Rick

Thanks Rick! :)

[Heidi]

Tank Update :) (I know its been a while but really it has been uneventful this last month up till the last week or so)

I keep having problems with my calcium being all high in relation to my alkalinity. Another problem I seemed to be having was some kind of diatom bloom all of a sudden. Lastly my purple monopora Digi has almost completely bleached and since it is spread and covering one of the ends of an attached rock on the top of the tank, there is no way to really move it anywhere if it is bleaching because of the lights. It might be getting mad at my alk swings I can't seem to control lately. ??? Not 100% sure... Oh my husband came home it "a surprise" It is another fish, like we need it.... Exquisite fairy wrasse. I'm not real happy about it. I have been feeding a ton, dosing MB7 and keeping my n and p pretty low/zero I am sick of my sand, every time a fish or something stirs it up I get a diatom bloom, its ugly and dingy so I started removing it last water change. I plan to suck out the rest at the next 2 water changes as to not off set the bacteria balance in the tank. Meanwhile, I am starting bio pellets. So thats whats up with the tank. Here are some pictures. I got a new camera (last week) so they are not the best but I am amazed at how clear my fish pictures are. It's a Canon T2i rebel and so far I LOVE it. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0159.jpg
full tank from front Dec.10 2011
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0459.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0458.jpg
(those of the sump I took with my iPhone)
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0108.jpg
what my skimmer did for almost 3 days after I removed about half of the sand from the DT, I ran carbon and the skimmer really didn't get back to normal until I hooked up the bio-pellets last night
.http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0006.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0037.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0007.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0040.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0113.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0060.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0131-1.jpg
New anemone I got last month
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0401.jpg
stuff that blows into the corner
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0129-1.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0127.jpg
Excuse the mess, I had to take everything that was on the sand and put it up while I vacuumed the sand out. I will take another picture of the tank full on once the sand is all gone and I rearrange the "ground coral"

Enjoy!
Heidi

[Captain]

Tank looks top notch!
Glad to see all your fish are doing as good as ever.
You need more rock. Less talk, more rock!

[MizTanks]

Tank looks top notch!
Glad to see all your fish are doing as good as ever.
You need more rock. Less talk, more rock!

Totally agree on more rock ;) more places for that beneficial bacteria to live the merrier!!

[binford4000]

Tank looks FANTASTIC,luv them AI's. If you want more rock LMK,got about 100 # laying around.You and your husband can come and get it-- it's free Just laying around takeing up space anyway and since Mrs Binford has banned me from doing anymore tank builds we'll never use it LOL :snorkel:

[Heidi]

Thanks guys!! Nope no more rock unless it fits directly in with the design. I have happily formed a very minimalist scape here that I don't plan on changing much. There is one space on the left side that I plan on building another tower and tunnel when I see the right pieces of rock. The bio pellets will provide plenty of "places" for the bacteria to make happiness. :) I view my rock as a "cool play ground for my fish" and also a beautiful shape to look at. The Heidi reef will never be a wall o rock kinda place.
Heidi

[Sir Patrick]

Tank is lookin awsome heidi!

[Heidi]

Thanks Chris!

[Heidi]

So the crushed coral just had to go. It looked so dirty, it was holding phosphates and nitrates and leaching out calcium...(can't prove that but my calcium was never under 500 and my alk was never high enough to make that ok) It was just crap, I should have been patient and bought good sand first thing...but alas.. so here is this part of the month in pictures...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0224-1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0227.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0461.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0460.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0228.jpg
Yup you read that right. I'm still not sure how since I did take out the sand over the course of 2 weeks. But during the last "sucking out" of the sand bed both of these tangs were super stressed and when the "sand cleared" the next day I found them both dead. All the other fish and coral were fine. A couple days later I noticed a Pocillopora starting to loose flesh, it stopped after a couple of days and is now just one little "bump" on the whole piece. everything else has been fine.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0462.jpg
I replaced the crap with "sugar sized" Caribsea sand. I used only 2 30 pound bags and haven't decided if I want more or not yet. It is very white and looks GREAT imo but it does like to shift around because I have a lot of flow.

So I was thinking I would get a little diatom bloom..hehe YEAH I think I kicked my tank into a full out cycle. My Nitrates spiked to 40ppm, I had some MAD corals and phosphates were really high too. Most of my coral got pretty browned out so in the following pictures its still coming back. My phosphates are back down at zero and my Nitrates are on there way down as well. (20 to 30 yesterday) I am slowly getting color back and tomorrow when I do a water change I am thinking that will help even more with the nitrates. So here are the photos I took today. Enjoy!
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0544.jpg
Left side
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0542.jpg
right side
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0537.jpg
front
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0546.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0548.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0559.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0562.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0567.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0569.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0576.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0583.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0584.jpghttp://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0587.jpg
Thanks as always for looking and following along in my journey. What a ride.
Heidi

[Sir Patrick]

Sorry to hear about the 2 tangs, but looks like ya had a good bounce back!

[AJ :)]

The end result looks better :)

Bummer it was a rough trip though.

[bluwc]

Tank is looking awesome though, especially the rock work

[larryandlaura]

Sorry for the loss. But the tank is looking great and everything will be happier.

[jolson10450]

the sand looks so much better! excellent choice!

[CalmSeasQuest]

Very sorry to hear about your loss Heidi. Crushed coral is evil. Your tank and new substrate look great!

[Heidi]

Thanks guys I am SOO happy I did this despite the bad stuff. The sand is sooo white and clean looking I love it!

Heidi

[rosebud161616]

I haven't looked at your thread since way back at the beginning and I'm really impressed! The tank looks great! And yay for no more crushed coral! :jester:

[Heidi]

I haven't looked at your thread since way back at the beginning and I'm really impressed! The tank looks great! And yay for no more crushed coral! :jester:

Thanks so much rosebud! That means so much coming from a fellow lady reefer :) girl power hehehe

[MizTanks]

Here's some more praise from a reefette! Heidi your tank rocks! Love the clean look of the sand!

[Heidi]

Here's some more praise from a reefette! Heidi your tank rocks! Love the clean look of the sand!

Thanks Miz! So do I, I love it more EVERYday... my Nitrates are coming down after my water change and stuff is really starting to color back up. I just need some growth hehe

Heidi

[greg97527]

Nice cube. Mine will be there soon if I can get the micro bubble problem solved. Looks great though.

Sent from my HTC Thunderbolt using Tapatalk.

[Heidi]

Thanks Greg!
:big_grin:

[Badfish]

Sorry to hear about your losses Heidi. I feel your pain, the holidays were a little rough on our tank as well; we lost our clam, some zoas were damaged and I had to remove a chromis to give the tang more room. Glad to see you bounced back so well!

[ernisse]

Heidi,

First of all nice tank, it has great appeal. I am getting back into this hobby after a 6 year break and have the same size tank as you (36x36). I have decided to ditch my MH setup on this go around and go with AI units. I noticed you went with two units, but 3 is recommended on the AI page. I have been doing a ton of reading on these light and have noticed most people have put too many units in and need to run these at very low settings to get the appropriate PAR values. Do you feel that 2 units is sufficient coverage for you? Are you still happy with the decision to use the super blue units? I like a 14k-16k look. 20k seems to blue to me so I plan to run the super blues with the blue lights turned down a bit. My lights will sit about 12" AWL, I think yours are higher than that. Thanks for any comments.

[Heidi]

Hi and thanks for the complements! I love my tank and one of the main reasons I love it is the AIs. I have only 2 Units and I was afraid of the "too blue" units but I am do glad I went with them. The royal blue is kinda purple so it adds some red into the mix making all of your colors pop nicely not overly blue. Mine are mounted 18" from the waters surface, 8 inches of space between the units. Mine spill a bit of light over the edges of the tank so I could lower them quite a bit. I had them at a foot over the water and was having a little shading on the left and right side tops where I had a frag rock. I run my lights at 100% now for 7 hours a day and have them between 60% and 1% as they go through their day and night cycle. If I were to have more units I would buy 2 more and set them all square, I am not sure why they recommended 3 units for our cube, seems like it would look funky ??? Anyway hope that helps some!
Heidi

[rosebud161616]

I think they just have a chart that goes by length x width and the recommend so many lights based on the size and not taking shape into account. On our 100 cube (30"x30") we also have 2 fixtures. I think 3 could work out nicely on a cube if you made them in a diamond shape without the back light if you had a middle overflow back there (like yours.) I hope that makes sense! :)

4 could be cool too, but holy moly that's a lot of light!

[ernisse]

I think they just have a chart that goes by length x width and the recommend so many lights based on the size and not taking shape into account. On our 100 cube (30"x30") we also have 2 fixtures. I think 3 could work out nicely on a cube if you made them in a diamond shape without the back light if you had a middle overflow back there (like yours.) I hope that makes sense! :)

4 could be cool too, but holy moly that's a lot of light!
Yes, that is what I was planning if I went with three. My issue is I had this custom built and the overflow is directly in the middle and the rock work surrounds the overflow so I need to illuminate the entire perimeter. Four seems like a tremendous amount of light and probably would have most of the units dialed way back.

[Heidi]

Yes, that is what I was planning if I went with three. My issue is I had this custom built and the overflow is directly in the middle and the rock work surrounds the overflow so I need to illuminate the entire perimeter. Four seems like a tremendous amount of light and probably would have most of the units dialed way back.

This is exactly how my overflow and rock work are. If I did the diamond I would have a ton of overlap in the middle and my perimeter wouldn't be lit how I like. That is why it was either 2 and risk not enough or 4 an risk too much. I can assure you you will have plenty of light with only two units.
Heidi

[Heidi]

Yes, that is what I was planning if I went with three. My issue is I had this custom built and the overflow is directly in the middle and the rock work surrounds the overflow so I need to illuminate the entire perimeter. Four seems like a tremendous amount of light and probably would have most of the units dialed way back.

This is exactly how my overflow and rock work are. If I did the diamond I would have a ton of overlap in the middle and my perimeter wouldn't be lit how I like. That is why it was either 2 and risk not enough or 4 an risk too much. I can assure you you will have plenty of light with only two units.
Heidi

[Badfish]

+1 for A.I. Sol

Heidi is right, I have one unit over my 24"x24"x18" cube and it keeps all my corals happy. I could probably use one more but what's nice about having less lighting is the spotlight effect lets me keep a more varied light level of corals. Acro/Sps up top right under the Sol all the way down to mushrooms on the outer rims.

[ernisse]

This is exactly how my overflow and rock work are. If I did the diamond I would have a ton of overlap in the middle and my perimeter wouldn't be lit how I like. That is why it was either 2 and risk not enough or 4 an risk too much. I can assure you you will have plenty of light with only two units.
Heidi
Thanks for the info. I'll quit hijacking your nice thread now.

[Heidi]

Thanks for the info. I'll quit hijacking your nice thread now.

haha its all good :) glad to be of help!

Heidi

[Heidi]

Just when you think man those acros are coloring up nicely.. or stuff is really starting to grow... then BAM.. you have one of those "my damn fishtank" moments. You all know the ones. Nitrate spikes, heaters stick on, pipes leak,a fish jumps or such is the case with me Your tank starts to fail in a major way. So to help you all understand the urgency of the last 3 days I have been shooting some quick pictures. ... after all this there is a slightly happy ending so with out further ado...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0934.jpg
yup thats more then an 1/8 inch out right there and remember this is a MarineLand tank here people not my own DIY job so you can only imagine how ****ed I was when I noticed this on Sunday. (It was only about a 1/16 out then but on its way to the that above taken this yesterday morning.)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0936.jpg
middle yesterday morning, out 1/16"

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0939-1.jpg
A picture I sent to ML to show that the stand was level. (decided to contact them because even though this tank was used when I bought it, it was made in 2008 so that is just NOT ok that the seals or maybe the top brace are failing.)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0955-1.jpg
Yup.. I did that last night so I could sleep.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0963.jpg
And so we drain. (100 gallon "feeding troth" bought at Farm and Home $65)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0966.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0964.jpg

IMG_0642.mp4 video by heidiiliff - Photobucket@@AMEPARAM@@http://vid8.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0642.mp4@@AMEPARAM@@vid8@@AMEPARAM@@8@@AMEPARA M@@a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0642@@AMEPARAM@@mp4 (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/?action=view&current=IMG_0642.mp4)
A video for the reading impaired.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_0972.jpg
So where is the 150 now you may ask? Well it is in the back of the van that I will leave in tomorrow morning and head on a short road trip to Noblesville In. to the MarineLand factory. There I will be meeting with an engineer and getting my broken tank swapped out for a BRAND NEW TANK! (told you there was a happy ending :big_grin: ) So there is some small print in all of this. They are not going to give me the "new sold warrantee" on this new tank.. which is fine.. I am sure that if anything happens with it they will make it right again. Basically I called them and confronted the situation with complete honesty. I told them it was a used tank, not on one of their stands, and that I didn't expect a new tank or a refund ... money or anything. I just wanted to buy new braces so I could redo the tank, or take it there so that they could redo it.. which ever they preferred.. I had to send them a ton of pictures, of my whole set up, stand... floor.. first born,.. just kidding. Plus I have to drive there (its pretty close to Indianapolis so it will make a nice little road trip for me :)

but anyhow this is way to long a post ....sorry :roll_eyes:
but here are a couple random shout out thank you(s).... Thanks to Christian from Happy Coral, as he has let me borrow a TON of stuff to be able to house my livestock in between times, he also helped my husband load the tank into the car.. and will most likely help unload it tomorrow. Also a huge thanks to Kim, at United Pet Group (makers of Marineland) for all her help and the awesome deal her and the engineer there have pulled for me! (they have made me a marineland tank buyer for life! :love3: :love3:

Heidi

[Sir Patrick]

That is awsome new heidi!!!

[creefer]

Great news. I have always admired this tank. I'm happy to hear things worked out for the better.

[nate_newton]

Glad to hear they'll be giving you a new one, and that it's all working out. If you need any help just let me know since we only live 5 miles apart.
Ant to you last comment; I plan on my next tank being a Marineland.

[Heidi]

Thanks guys, yeah who says bad days can't have happy endings.

[MizTanks]

Definitely a cloud with a silver lining :) I'm sooo happy for you Heidi-terrible though what you've had to go through-I admire your positive attitude :)

[Paulo]

Glad the duct tape got you thru the night. We were worried. Glad you took the pics with the tape. Have a fun trip,
Paulo

[Heidi]

So normally you share your bragging pictures of beautiful acros, and sexy healthy coral. This is reality people, sad but what is really going on with my reef right now. I'm not gonna lie... it sucks! My reef tank will be one year old in a week and a half... but now I am truly starting at square one. I am nursing coral back to health... before I can even think about growing and coloring stuff up. I still have not put sand back in here, I need the flow to be pretty intense. everything except a couple questionable pieces is now stable, minus the acro I lost one of the first days back in the 150, after the tub swap. So I warn you, what you are about to see is a sad sad sight LOTS of brown coral... but it will give you an idea of what I am dealing with. :shake-head:

Heidi

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1113.jpg
Front (still haven't painted the back black so ignore the cords)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1116.jpg
Right

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1114.jpg
Left (side overflow as you can see)
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1108.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1105.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1103.jpg
My smurfy blue... yup I cry every time I see it. :tear:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1101.jpg
My red milli

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1098.jpg
All the ugly zoas look great still (this thing hasn't fazed any of the soft stuff really)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1097.jpg
zoas look fine

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1096.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1095.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1090.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1091.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1078-1.jpg
Hasn't phased this guy...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1072-1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1071-1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1074.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1079-1.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1075-1.jpg
All thats left of a whole rock :(
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1076-1.jpg
This thing looks better.... :shrug:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1080.jpg
these guys too seem to be better off..
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1070-1.jpg
Here's the sump, had to switch it around... and I am not using the snapper but instead rocking the "quiet one" in sump style, which is working great, and a lot more quiet. :roll:

two of the worst off... the bottom hasn't had it's polyps out since I took it out of the leaking tank...
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1092.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_1086-1.jpg

thanks for looking... and again I hope none of you people have this kinda crap ever... never ever... EVER happen to you.

[Paulo]

Looks good. Glad you swapped out without losing everything.

[Sir Patrick]

Those acros look like they should bounce back well, with a little time. I have had them come back from much, much worse.

Hang in there heidi.

[rosebud161616]

I agree! Things don't look too bad. I know it sucks to know where these came from, but I expected a lot worse before seeing the pics! Things look healthy! Maybe a little brown, but otherwise healthy. When things are colored up again, now you'll have before and after pictures to be so proud of!

[MyNemesis]

I think you should give yourself and all those who helped you a hearty pat on the back! You pulled the whole thing off very nicely and as well as can be expected given your circumstances. It's normal to expect a few losses after a teardown/rebuild. AND ITS A LOT OF WORK. Having torn down the majority of my reef on Sunday to catch my nightmare PBT, I appreciate all your effort. Then you put it all back together and hope for the best. Only good thing about tearing things down is all the stuff you find. I found a razor blade I lost a month and a half ago. Found two corals I forgot about under the rocks, still kicking! In reefing sometimes bad things happen despite your best intentions and efforts. After I caught the Tang, I put him in a 100 litre rubbermaid tub with 30 gallons of tank water, heater, bubbler, powerhead. Tanglovers was going to put him in a 520 gallon tank, which I was thrilled about. Woke up to a dead Tang. I don't think I will ever give up on the hobby, but it seems to present a never ending thrill ride of challenges, for sure. Great job on everything, Heidi! Looking forward to watching your progress with the new tank. Thanks for all the pics, makes for a fun read!

[2pairs]

All and all considering what happened, I think you have done great saving as much as you have.
Looking forward to seeing it back ware it was.

[Heidi]

Thanks guys for all the encouragement! I am pretty happy to have the nano right now to put stuff in to "nurse". I am loving the lack of sand and have a few ideas I might use on the bb. Gotta love how much flow you can crank up with no sand :)
Heidi

[Heidi]

And getting all technical :) Since I started using better salt mix I have gotten on a stability kick as of late. I know, I know "what you're just now trying to keep things level?" Listen remember this is a learn as you go kinda hobby. I have been at it only a year and a half (with a wet tank that...before that I read a bunch) But some of this stuff is really trial and error. So in the mail today I got my BRS 2 part dosing system with the magnesium salts as well. I mixed up all my stuff and have been testing my tank weekly before and after my water change to see where my levels go. My calcium really doesn't move much (wont need to dose that for a bit). My Mag. goes down from 1400 (fresh mix) to 1380 which to me is good enough for now. ( I plan on raising it up to the 1400 and trying to keep it there as that is where my salt mix sets it) My Alkalinity now thats where my issues lie. My fresh mix salt mixes to 12.2 (I think thats a little high right now and don't want to fry stuff) After a week my tank drops to like 8 or 7 dkh... thats crazy inconsistency. When I water change right after it is about 10 dkh so I am going to try and keep it there at 10 dkh. So today after I mixed up my stuff I dosed enough of the alk part to raise it .5dkh. I will do that for 6 days (was at 7dkh today) to get it to to the 10 dkh... I hope, I am going check every day for the next week to see what happens. I have a reef tank, over the year I have kept coral alive.. decently colorful, but now I wanna grow them. Consistency is KEY, so over the next year I will be taking my tank to a whole new level! :big_grin:

Goals for the next year:
*2 part and Mag dose keep levels constant
*buy dosing pumps for Alk, Cal, Mag, MB7
*keep on keeping on with the bio-pellets
*get an auto top off hooked up. (fresh water 10 gallons in basement, to be pumped upstairs via the ato) . . . yup I still dump in about 2 gallons a day... manually :embarrassed:
*figure out flow.. vortechs?
*figure out substrate (keep it bare bottom?? or something new?)
*paint the back on the new tank black... that is driving me crazy (prolly this weekend)
*grow colorful corals!

Wish me luck!
:birthday_cake_jump:
Happy Birthday to my reef!

Heidi

[thepanfish]

Go Starboard Heidi!

[Badfish]

Happy Birthday Heidi's tank! :thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about all the troubles, I know the tank will bounce back better that before.

I had the same problems with my dKh dropping between 11-8. I've gotten it some what under control by running my ATO through a kalk stirrer, it took some time getting everything dialed in and I'm still tweaking it a little but I'm happy with the results; my dKH stays around 10.5-10.2, Ca 440, Ph 8.1-8.3 and all my corals seem to love it.

I can't believe you don't have an ATO! 2 gallon manual top offs daily? Ay ay ay.

[Heidi]

Wow, that was super depressing. I just looked back at all my tank pictures of alive coral that was colorful... So it's been forever. Hi everyone, I miss you all, wondered if I just popped back in if people would remember me and whatnot ;). For starters I still have my tank. It is very ugly lately. I killed all of my sps except one, and it is brown. My tank is very neglected, except for my fish who I feed often and are all very healthy and fat. I am now vowing to come up with a plan of action to get my tank back on track so that I can share it with y'all again. I will post again tomorrow and include some pictures and some details of what has happened to the cube over the last 6 months. I am in the market for some super awesome T5 lights, I am done running LEDs (plan to keep one unit for shimmer) since I wouldn't feel right about selling them to "grow coral". Any leads on lights for sale or brand suggestions etc are welcomed. Also for all you people out there who are wondering if bio pellets are any good... My opinion is they suck. (More explanations to come tomorrow) again missing you all and hoping to see you at some swaps this winter :)
Heidi

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 PM ----------

I miss people, but my tank sucks. I just wrote a long blurb about it but for some reason TapaTalk didn't save it or something :(. Anyhew the jest of it was pictures and explanations to come tomorrow. And how much I have missed you all.
Heidi

---------- Post added at 10:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:36 PM ----------

Oh... Now I see it worked, gotta love technology!

[CableGuy]

I was just thinking about you yesterday....

It would be awesome to have you around again! I know you can get your tank back in action in no time!

[binford4000]

Good to see ya back ! Looking forward to reading what happened !

[jimsflies]

Great to hear from you! Sorry to hear about your tank though.

[MizTanks]

Welcome home Heidi :)

[Heidi]

Haha Yup I live :embarrassed: So lets see if I remember how to post pictures and stuff. First off I killed all my acros that were happy and healthy back in May I think, or I had a big alk swing and everything bleached and slowly died over the course of the summer. I am not 100% sure what killed everything, but there were 3 survivors. I can't grow acros and I am thinking it has to do with a huge variety of things one being I just didn't have time for my tank this summer and fall. I ordered a dosing pump and I am going to start dosing vodka/glucose/vinegar and also MB7 (I gave the bio pellets a go and they just aren't right. They wear down really fast if they tumble too fast, and they get clumpy and make your nitrates spike if you tumble them too slow. (Those two things also happened this summer, again with the death of so much its hard to blame just one thing, there was one point when my nitrates were at zero... my water was super clear and stuff started bleaching... lights again maybe to blame for that...) :tear: I haven't had time to test and think and read and ask and make my tank better. As most of you know I have 4 kids. Well this fall the three girls decided to do soccer. , and my son decided to do rocket football which my husband coached, so we spent very little time at night over the course of August September and October at home.. . I know excuses, excuses :stupidme: oh well take them of leave them thats what my fall looked like. SO without further adue here is the tank, it has turned into a fish with live rock and favia/ other simple lps tank. My fish are happy healthy and fat, (again the uglier the tank got the less I cared about nutrients and the more I feed my fish because they still bring me joy) I took these pictures quickly tonight w/o a tripod on the auto all setting so they aren't very good but the tank pretty much looks like crap so fancy good pictures won't help that just wanted you all to see what I am dealing with here.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_2646.jpg
front
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_2650.jpg
right side
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/heidiiliff/IMG_2651.jpg
left side
thats good for now photo bucket is having issues

[demonclownfish]

Your "Ugly" looks alot prettier than mine haha. just gotta fill her back up with coral

[MizTanks]

It really don't look bad at all. From the way you were talking I was expecting it to look like a city dump.
Why you wanna go and start dosing stuff again? Ever hear of KISS? If not it means Keep It Simple Stupid!!! Sometimes less is more ;)
Glad to have you here Heidi :)

[binford4000]

WOW! Ya must be frustrated ! I agree with the bio pellet comments. We lost allot of mature corals when we gave em a try as well as other reefers we knowIt would be easy to say it was something else but both mine and the wife's tank fell victim to the stripping effect of them.I even bought what is probably the most expensive reactors on the market. They now are just expensive carbon reactors. One nice thing about a crash you get to do the things that you wanted too ! I am sure your tank will be beautiful again in no time. Will be following along for sure. :oldman:

[bigbill]

gl luck with the restock your ever my way i can frag u some stuff to get u going

[Sir Patrick]

Glad to see ya around again!

Also glad to not see your tank full of algea....as your description had me picturing!

[Heidi]

It really don't look bad at all. From the way you were talking I was expecting it to look like a city dump. Why you wanna go and start dosing stuff again? Ever hear of KISS? If not it means Keep It Simple Stupid!!! Sometimes less is more ;) Glad to have you here Heidi :) Aww shucks Miz,, but you know it could be looking way, way better :) I am really going back to the simple method of carbon dosing and MB7 which is what I did in the little Hex and in this tank before the original one broke and I had to replace it. I had colorful acros... that is all I desire :love3:
WOW! Ya must be frustrated ! I agree with the bio pellet comments. We lost allot of mature corals when we gave em a try as well as other reefers we knowIt would be easy to say it was something else but both mine and the wife's tank fell victim to the stripping effect of them.I even bought what is probably the most expensive reactors on the market. They now are just expensive carbon reactors. One nice thing about a crash you get to do the things that you wanted too ! I am sure your tank will be beautiful again in no time. Will be following along for sure. :oldman: That "Stripping" describes it perfectly. It was like slow RTN and so slow you thought stuff might come back but slowly they all just completely died. Sad cause it was the corals I had grown from little frags that seemed so healthy and sturdy, I had the reef octopus bio-pellet reactor and I tried a few different kinds of pumps and a few different kinds of bio-pellet media, and stuff looked alright for maybe 4 months then bad things started to happen.
gl luck with the restock your ever my way i can frag u some stuff to get u going Thanks for your kindness Bill I may take you up on that, I will be coming to the Lansing Swap :) :)
Yeah biopellets if done to quick or overdone can be devastating from what I have read on them. You have to feed alot or you will completely strip the tank and that sounds like what happened unfortunately :( Keep in mind tho, with vodka etc. dosing you can do the same thing if not done properly. Either way you have a fresh canvas now paint a pretty picture :) I had started the "VGV" carbon dosing method (from Coral Magazine) it's a mix of 80 proof, vinegar, and glucose. I like the "old school" dosing methods because you can back way off if you notice problems or ramp it up so it is very personalized to your system and how you feed etc. I thought about automating the VGV but I want to get it really perfect and for that to happen I have to start really slowly :oldman: stinks cause I wish I could just plop what I was dosing in there (from my measurements before) but my system is fluid... teeheehee that is to say it has changed and I need to personalize my dosing again. I think I may automate my MB7 dose because it is the same no matter what for an "upkeep" amount. I like to feed my tank a lot so really the only way I would ever be able to have pretty coralz and fat fish is with a carbon program. (I am only a week into the carbon dosing so I will keep yall updated on how that goes. Thanks for the encouragement Chris it's great to be back!
Glad to see ya around again! Also glad to not see your tank full of algea....as your description had me picturing! It feels right to be back plugged in, man is there so much stuff to read on here :big_grin: I feel so out of the loop!! it isn't full of green stuff with my little tang gang they keep all that mowed down. Its more of a huge Nitrate issue so the cyano is really really bad, I vacuumed it right before the picture :secret2: BUT I'm taking desperate measures.. BECAUSE DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MESSURES :shifty: SO 3 days ago I tested my nitrates, lets just say I knew they were high. (They were between 60 and 80 PPM) See back when everything died this summer around Julyish, I really stopped caring about my tank. My mother at one point even said "Man Heidi, whats up with that tank, it looks pretty ****ty..." This is a woman who has named my fish by their respective "Finding Nemo" names :stupidme: you know its bad when one of those type rags on it. SO from August on I bought no new coral, didn't test my water, didn't do water changes, just fed my fish and that was about it. A few weeks ago (after the comment from my mother) I bought more live rock and added sand, rescaping a bit and trying to make the ugliness look better. I noticed the cyano was pretty bad but I still didn't have time to fix it and mess around with the tank (when it gets this bad it just kinda is... its pretty hard to even look at it I was just feeding my fish to keep them alive wondering if I just wanted to take the tank down and call it quits for now) BUT I love my tank, and I know it can be good again. I have resources to help me and I can make it better then ever, I am sure of that. So I went to the store today and bought some Amquel, dosed 300 ML and checked my water again tonight and the nitrates are way down! (about 30ppm) A couple corals look stressed but they were stressed before, and my fish I swear are happier! The skimmer has been crazy today I have had to empty it once today already. So we will see, I have 50 gallons of mixed and ready to go in for a water change if it was needed today, but I think everything will be fine. I am going to do a 30 gallon WC in the morning regardless, it will be the first since the middle of June. :duh: Well thats all for now, that was a lot, but it has been a while. I'll update in a few days to keep you all in the loop. Cheers! Heidi

[marc49127]

How is the tank doing?

[Riblet]

Any updates? I'm just starting my 36" cube.

[binford4000]

Any updates? I'm just starting my 36" cube.

My thoughts exactly ! Lets see some growth shots ! :oldman: