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The Tide Pool Project!


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  1. #1

    Talking The Tide Pool Project!

    thought I'd move my hijacked thread over here.. more appropriate spot don't ya think??
    Anyway..

    IT"S A TIDE POOL!!!!!!! :YEAH: :YEAH:

    Tonight was the night! We decided that we would make it saltwater at last!!
    We wanted it to have time to mix and settle out so we put enough Tropic Marin salt (the best salt mix out there in our opinion) to make about 100g and will give it time to mix, take a reading and add more. This weekend we want to start adding rock etc and if all goes well maybe some of the fish. All depends on weather (rain in the forecast)But we still plan to put up the shade canopy but with the cloudy weather we have had the water temps been 78 in the afternoon. Not gonna take the chance for overheating the pond! Heaters (2 400watt) are on the way should be here Friday so night temps are no longer an issue. The Filter is darn near done, all it needs is the media.. also due Friday!!Couple of holes and some PVC and the filter is done. The big job will be the official move! Last time we moved a tank it took 8 hours but that included a 12 mile road trip! lol
    WHOO HOO
    :woohoobig:we're almost there!!!!!!!
    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

  2. #2

    Exclamation WE HAVE A REEF!!!!!

    IT'S A REEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :newole:

    We put everything from the 125 in the pond and it's looking good!!!! All but 2 fish and all the rock now live in the backyard! The fish look fantastic their colors just exploded! Still needs more tweeks but I have a TIDEPOOL!!
    pics!!!!!! here's a link to the to the vids I took and the whole pond pics/vids website!
    http://pets.webshots.com/album/57371...tkY?vhost=pets



    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

  3. #3
    graphixx - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Idaho
    Posts
    2,785
    First Name
    Greg

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    now how are you going to deal with the evaporation and if you get rain wont it dillute??? I have messed with the idea as well..... I actually did some shrooms in a make shift "table top" pool outside a few years back... the evap and the temp swings was the buggar but the shrooms DID GREAT!!!

    Please Please Please keep us posted..... Love what your doing and its nice seeing some life on this forum!!!
    fulltankshot 1 - The Tide Pool Project!

  4. #4

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    Well so far the rain hasn't been a problem. Actually if you think about it if it rains it will add water. Since salinity goes up with evaporation a little rain won't hurt. But we haven't had a big rain, everywhere around us has though! So far we have been adding fresh water (RO/DI) to bring the water level and the salinity in line. At night we cover it to keep the temp from dropping to much. (plus the heaters).

    Right now we really need to get a shade cover up to block the afternoon sun. It's been pretty warm and it seems to be hanging right about the same as the air temp Tonight it was 83 which the fish don't mind but the coral wasn't to happy. Not nearly as open as yesterday. But they are open! The big leather looks like crap but it's so big and heavy it's fraging itself! Really pretty ugly but it always was! lol The smaller leathers are open and the buttons are loving it open nice and big. The shrooms could benifit from a little more shade but they are open. Ron wants to get a UV shade tarp like they use in green houses (he is thinking of building one of those too can you say UPGRADE?!) . That is the next thing we must do.

    Right now we have the BDS skimmer running pulling right out of the pond and it's foaming away, 2 Koralia power heads one at either end moving water around and 1 heater in the pond and one in the sump/waterfall. There is a pond pre-filter in the middle The bucket filter has 3 chambers with ceramic biomedia, carbon, and the blue filter pad stuff We are using the Quiteone 1000 running the prefilter and the bucket filter, The skimmer is on a magdrive 1200. Pretty much all the pumps etc from the 125 are now working in the pond.

    So that's what's going on right now. All the fish are happy and swimming about, Mr Betta even poked his head out and had a look around! The Tang is loving the current swimming back and forth. And Odot the attack fish (clown)is back to his old ways and took a chunk out of Ron's hand, so he's happy! The colors on the fish are amazing! The Yellow Tail looks deep purply blue and the blue on the Singapore's fins practicaly flouresese. The Coral Beauty is a fantastic magenta with orange and yellow in his stripes with bule highlights. and the Tang is the brightest yellow with his fins going to almost orange! Even Odot's orange is oranger! lol I'm really glad we are making this atempt! I'ts quite the project but worth it!
    Did you check out the pic and vids?
    Will keep you updated!
    s


    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

  5. #5
    graphixx - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Idaho
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    Greg

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    yeah, I checked the link.....FANTASTIC!!! Man this project of your has really got my gears turning!!! I would love to do something like this in my back yard but would like it to be a more year round thing.

    I was thinking of turning a corner of my garage into the "equipment" room with a BIG sump also with a chiller and heater and then drill through the wall and plumb underground to a "tide pool" the place I am thinking would be between 2 trees so would be fairly shaded in the hottest part of the day. winter would be the kicker... it get DAAAMMM cold here in the winter would have to find a way to have a structure over the pool in the winter, but still get sunlight almost like a green house type of enclosure.
    HHMMMMMM PLEASE KEEP US POSTED!!! This is fantastic!!!!!
    fulltankshot 1 - The Tide Pool Project!

  6. #6
    graphixx - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    Idaho
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    Greg

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    I dont know if you have any sps in there but i am sure they would LOVE the abundant sunshine!!!
    fulltankshot 1 - The Tide Pool Project!

  7. #7

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    Well after a day of sun the algae started to grow! But the not the nasty stringy green stuff we did have! We did rig a sun shade Monday night but Tuesday when we got home it had fallen partially into the pond. It wasn't supported real well and the birds were using it for perching. It was really ghetto rigged and well, can you say I told him so! lol! So last night we're out there at 10pm setting up a much sturdier canopy. Girl Scout lessons on setting up a dining fly and years of experience in working with what you have come in handy now and again! We attached one end directly to the house and the other we scavenged some tent stakes and heavy string and staked the other end. It covers about 90% of the pond, now it still gets some sun just not that glaring noon time on sun. AND today it rained .. a lot! as anticipated we don't have to worry about evaporation in fact I spent most of today hoping I wouldn't find my tang swimming in the yard because it over flowed! The canopy kept most of the rain out, though it did drip off the end. The tang was swimming in and out of the rain drops. I was LMAO watching him shoot in between the bigger run off drips. And the pond is now way full! all the way up to the rocks! The salinity is about 1.020 a little light but we are going to do a water change prolly in the next day or so. That should be fun!

    The heaters seem to have finally caught up with the night temps, Last night because we used the cover for the canopy, and because the water was still pretty warm, we left it uncovered. This am the air temp was about 64 and the pond was about 76. (right now 11:15pm, air 64 pond 77) All the levels are darn near perfect too!
    nitrate, nitrite = 0, calcium tested, with really old test kit, about 400 low but not unacceptible concidering we don't have any SPS (right now any way! ),
    PH =8.4, Alk= 300ppm. So other than the brown algae, prolly due to combo of sun and a touch of new tank syndrome, which the snails and fish are eating things are looking good. :D

    Getting back to the SPS we do have 2 small frags of our torch and frogspawn that survived the crash but we haven't gotten brave enough to put them out there yet. But were still thinking on it! Ron says the $10 sps frags at Salty Critter are looking more and more appealing! I'll let you know! lol

    We also have been thinkin on the green house idea!! Unfortunately we don't have the $$ who does? need a rich uncle with grant$$! I found some plans for DIY ones using PVC but they would never stand up to snow. Living in the "snow belt" we get the wet heavy stuff in mass quantities! Not your Idaho powder ski stuff! and can get pretty cold here too! Few years back we had 32 below at night Broke all kinds of records! "Blame Canada, Blame Canada!" (I blame them for all our crappy weather! lol) 4 season sun room came to mind too! But since we started this we have been planning next year and the location is top on the list! Starting sooner, building better, deeper and new location all are going to be planned a lot more carefully The location now was so we could keep an eye on it even from inside. I think it would be way cool to get a web cam on it so we could watch it ALL the time!!

    Well thats it for now! I'll get more pics and post this weekend, keep that link cuz I'm prolly going to post more there too! lol BTW if you click on the red word "albums" next to my name above the pictures you can see all the pictures I have posted at Web Shots! lol I think I have something like 46 different albums of all kinds of pictures!! from fish and flowers to fast cars and fireworks! lol If you check any out let me know what you think.. IMHO I got lucky on a few and they're darn good! lol
    Till next time!
    sarah
    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

  8. #8
    graphixx - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Idaho
    Posts
    2,785
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    Greg

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    I LOVE IT!!! good to hear that everything remains stable and running smooth. keep us posted I think something like this might be my summer project next year..... the wife really really wants a water feature in the back yard and I cannot think of a better way than a tide pool.
    fulltankshot 1 - The Tide Pool Project!

  9. #9

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    Well we are still battling the temp issues even with the tarp and heaters. But everything is still running and the fish are loving the room. We put one of the 4 yellow watchman gobies, who, when he was in the 30 he changed from bright yellow to a bland gray, is turning yellow again! :DI read that under different lighting they (and other fish) change colors seems the gobies are bright yellow only under reef lighting and and under less they lose color. Guess sun light counts even if it's filtered some!
    We did a water change and it seemed to perk everyone up a little.. Gotta love this .. we just took the hose pumping to the sump and let it pump the water on to the ground! no mess no fuss! lol Yea I know we prolly killed the grass right there but it'll grow back! Besides why schelp a bucket if you don't have too! I have some pictures I'll post as soon as I get them off the camera. Oh and the aglae hasn't gotten any worse and the levels are all stable not even a spike!
    ttfn!
    s
    BTW I wanted a water feature too been bugging for years! this was they ONLY way he would dig me a pond.. Ron's thing was if he was gonna dig it was gonna be a tide pool! lol
    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

  10. #10

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    NEW PICS!! just a couple of shots from this weekend Avery loves checking out the pond! Ron even let him touch some coral Now I just have to keep him from throwing things in like little boys love to do! That and stealing the rocks for "gas" in his car! lol
    Hi my name is sarah, and I've got the Upgrade Bug!
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!!!!

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