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  1. #21
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MizTanks View Post
    Wonderful news! I'm loving mine for sure Water level hasn't changed a bit since I started running it. Has helped in parameter stability big time!
    Enjoy your new found freedom!!
    Yes, it is definitely nice not to have to manually top off the tank morning and night. With my MH light, open top and fan, the 29gallon tank loses about 5gallons in water a week. Now I can go out of town for the weekend and not have to worry about my water level dropping an inch. Thanks again for the pics you provided of your JBJ set up!

  2. #22
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default a few new pictures

    It has been a while since I have posted. There's not been any major changes in the tank. I have added a few small coral frags: an ultra orange mushroom (Actinodiscus) and some Blastomussa merleti. The blue anthelia is spreading quickly and I will need to find a way to contain before it takes over the tank. I will be removing a few corals this weekend likely in order to make room for some others to grow out.
    Here is a FTS for today:
    picturephp?albumid353&amppictureid3034 - Window Food
    A picture of teal and green Caulastrea (perhaps my favorite corals in the tank):
    picturephp?albumid353&amppictureid3032 - Window Food
    And another shot showing a few other corals:
    picturephp?albumid353&amppictureid3033 - Window Food
    Tank temps have stayed steady at 80F even with the current heat wave...glad the MH light is not giving me any problems. I was out of town for 5days and when I got back I was glad to see that the tank water level was right where it should be thanks to the new JBJ ATO.
    This tank will be moved to MN in about 7 weeks. That's a 12h drive. Wish me luck. I was originally planning to remove the substrate and replace it with something finer when I take the tank down for the move. Now I am considering keeping the substrate to maintain as much beneficial bacteria as possible. This will require cleaning the substrate very, very thoroughly using copious amounts of saltwater. I want to be sure all the fine particulate, dentritus and other possible nasty stuff is removed from the substrate. I usually do not disturb the substrate in the tank. I will vacuum clean the surface lightly but that is it. A year ago I lost some corals after I stirred up the substrate too much with a vacuum hose in an effort to clean it.
    Last edited by BC United; 07-09-2012 at 07:59 PM.

  3. #23
    Mr. Microscope - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Evanson, IL
    Posts
    256
    Awards Tank of the Month - August 2012 Tank of the Month

    Default

    Nice tank! I think that first Yuma is actually a St. Tomas mushroom. Very nice.

    That slipper corals is really cool! Is it like a long fungia or something?

    Keep an eye on that wrasse. Mine was a nasty SOB!

  4. #24
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Microscope View Post
    Nice tank! I think that first Yuma is actually a St. Tomas mushroom. Very nice.

    That slipper corals is really cool! Is it like a long fungia or something?

    Keep an eye on that wrasse. Mine was a nasty SOB!
    Thanks Mr. Microscope. It could be that the first Yuma (orange guy) was actually a St. Thomas. Believe it or not that Yuma/St. Thomas was given to me free by my LFS. Unfortunately I do not have him anymore. He perished when I tried to glue down the live rock rubble he was attached to.

    The slipper coral is in the same family as fungia. One of the neat things about them, and maybe this is the same for fungia, but the slipper coral can actually inflate and move itself around. Mine never moved much; certainly not so much as to cause a problem. However, I need to update my FTS because as of about a week ago I no longer have the slipper coral. I have been downsizing my livestock in prep to move this tank to MN. Like the slipper coral, soon the frogspawn and one of the duncans will be taken to the LFS. I feel somewhat bad about taking the frogspawn out of the tank as the clowns call him home. However, the frogspawn stings the crap out of the clowns, so removing the frogspawn is probably in clowns best interest. I have baby a BTA, about the size of a nickel, that I hope one day will be large enough to replace the frogspawn as a host for the clowns. The BTA is a bit of an experiment in this tank; I am feeding it lots of mysis in hopes to accelerate its growth.

    I love the six-line wrasse. Maybe mine will develop a nasty personality as it gets older, but right now he doesn't seem to have a mean personality. The wrasse certainly doesn't attack my hand like the clowns do.
    Last edited by BC United; 07-09-2012 at 11:36 PM.

  5. #25
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default Minnesota

    I moved my aquarium from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis, MN, two weeks ago. It was a bit of an adventure, with a few complications, but all the fish and all the corals made the 700 mile trip, which included a night stay at a hotel in Madison, WI. I will detail the trip later.
    Here is a photo of the aquarium set up at the new apartment:
    picturephp?albumid360&amppictureid3119 - Window Food
    Excuse the kitchen table; I did not take the pic.

  6. #26
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    U.P. of Michigan.
    Posts
    8,444
    First Name
    Jamie
    Awards Photo of the Month - October 2012 Photo of the Month Post and Reply Award - Winner of the first PAR Contest. Monthly Giveaway Winner

    Default

    Wonderful to hear/see everyone made the trip safe and sound
    There's nothing like being a Reefer! www.upmmas.com

  7. #27
    dputt88 - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Romeo MI
    Posts
    873
    First Name
    Doug
    Awards Tank of the Month - January 2013 Tank of the Month Post and Reply Award - Finding Nemo PAR contest Fishbowl Drawing Winner - Summer Swap Fishbowl Winner (Red Dragon)

    Default

    wow, thats an accomplishment, congrats on the safe move.

  8. #28
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default the move

    As stated in an above post, I moved my 29 gallon from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis. Here is a little bit more about the move.
    First off, this trip by car is between 650-700miles. I have driven this several times in the past 6 months and frequently drive the whole way in one day, which takes about 12h. Completing the trip in one day was the plan as I was concerned about keeping everything alive. However, with a 26ft moving truck and a 3 vehicle caravan, the one day trip turned into two days, with an overnight stop in Madison.
    picturephp?albumid360&amppictureid3123 - Window Food
    The worst part of the trip is always Illinois, especially aroiund Chicago with the heavy traffick and construction, but also because of all the darn tolls. In total the whole trip took almost exactly 24h.

    This is a list of a few things I did before the move:
    1. Decrease bioload. I sold a number of corals to the LFS.
    2. Purchase various consumables such as salt, chemipure elite, fish food to have on hand in MN so no rush to find new LFS was required.
    3. Purchase used 10gallon tank for temporary set-up at new apt. I had wanted a 15gallon, but LFS only had a bunch of used 10gallons, and it worked out fine.
    4. Purchase new 29gallon Perfecto tank with black silicone. I wanted to replace the old 29g tank which was purchased from Salvation Army and was fairly beat up. In particular I was concerned about some bowing in the tank.
    5. Purchase 20lb of new Caribsea Arag-Alive substrate (Bimini Pink)
    6. Make up ~15gallons of freah saltwater to have on-hand at new apt.

    General strategy: Transfer ~50% of old tank water for new set-up. Transfer all livestock including 4 fish, various corals, and live rock. The live stock would be transferred in home depot buckets with lids. Each bucket with live stock would be aerate with battery operated Azoo pump. The old substrate would be thrown out. I chose to throw out the old substrate because I was concerned about dentritus or toxic junk that might spark a crash or large cycle. Also I wanted to switch to a finer grade substrate.

    The plan for night before moving day:
    1. After lights out, take down and pack MH pendant.
    2. Take down, rinse out and pack HOB aquaclear filter.
    3. Prepare 15 gallons fresh salt water.

    The plan for moving day:
    1. Early in the morning, drain about 50% water into home depot buckets and in these buckets also place live rock, corals and fish. I had the not so bright idea of using a large styrofoam box to transport fish and corals in while I was taking down the tank. I thought the styrofoam box would be useful because it would provide better thermal insulation than the buckets, and because it was white, would better resist heating by sunlight while in the back of my car. After adding water and livestock to the styrofoam box (given to me for trip by LFS), I had a problem on my hands. Water was leaking out of the box. I figured there must be a hole or something. I happend to have another larger, more heavy-duty styrofoam box, and transferred everything to that...no apparent leaks
    2. Discard all remaining water, substrate and tank.
    3. Drive to MN in one day. Well, driving a 26ft truck and needing to follow lower speed limits, meant the trip took longer than planned. We would up stopping at a hotel in Madison. The fish, coral and live rock were taken into the hotel room for the night (luggage carts were very useful for this). For overnight, in addition to the air pumps, I controlled temp using plug in heaters. In the morning, I noticed the table the stryofoam box was sitting on was quite wet, which could have only meant that this styrofoam box was leaking too! So lesson learned, stryofoam boxes (at least the two I used) are like dense sponges and allow water to slowly leak out. All live stock was transferred to home depot bucket, the original plan
    4. When arrive at new apt (now the next day), set-up temporary 10g tank with all livestock, heater, water pump and AC50 running new chemipure elite. This temporary set up would provide me time to figure out where best to set-up the 29gallon tank. This was a very useful thing to do as it took some time to figure out where best to put the furniture and the tank, and when I did get to setting up the 29gallon, it took quite a bit of focus, which would have been hard to muster immediately after the long trip, especially when so much other work needed to be done.
    5. Set-up 29 gallon tank the next day. After adding substrate, mix all old water with 50% new salt water. Then gradually transfer livestock. As a child proofing step I used nylon strapping attached to heavy duty eye screws that were achored into a wood board that was attached to wall studs behind the aquarium. This was to prevent the stand from possibly tipping forward.

    That is about it. All live stock made it, but some of the stony corals were damaged/fragmented due to bouncing about over the course of the trip. The tank has been set up for 2.5 weeks now and still everything looks great.
    Likes AJ :) liked this post

  9. #29
    Mr. Microscope - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Evanson, IL
    Posts
    256
    Awards Tank of the Month - August 2012 Tank of the Month

    Default

    Yikes! I hope everything works out for you.

  10. #30
    CR Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Minneapolis
    Posts
    92
    First Name
    Adam

    Default About time for an update!

    It's been a long time since I last posted anything. As mentioned before I moved my tank from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis back in August 2012. Other than a recent cyano outbreak that I think (and hope) I finally licked, the tank is doing great. Here is a picture showing some of my favorite corals.
    picturephp?albumid388&amppictureid3446 - Window Food
    Still love the Caulastrea, but hard to name a favorite coral in the tank. The orange digi is a little brown after 3 days lights out in my war against cyano.

    Recently I my clowns have started to lay eggs inside a live rock cave. This was very exciting at first and it was fun researching and buying materials and live foods to try to raise the larvae. Unfortunately, I have not successfully raised any of the larvae past meta with the first three clutches of eggs. My rotifer culture is still going, so I will probably keep trying.

    picturephp?albumid388&amppictureid3447 - Window Food

    I have picked up a few new corals and gotten rid of a few others. I will update later on one of my favorite new pieces once it fully recovers from the light out period.

    I miss my LFS back in AA. Fish Doctors was awesome! Have not found a comparable LFS here in Minneapolis yet.

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