That’s a beautiful setup!Got some progress on the display done today. Built most of the shelves on the sides. Still need a few trim pieces and to make a door, and of course paint.
Most importantly I'm glad the pipes are finally protected, but it's nice to actually see its "built in" look. Will finish the wood work this week/weekend, aside from trim I'll also be covering the gap on either side of the tank to block the light from coming around and to give a more finished look.
Thanks! And it is, it started as a piece of juniper drift wood, I lacquered it, and added the lamp kit. It's super interesting in person, lots of depth and detail to it. I'll take some pics of it when I get home and show you closer
@crusso1993 here's the sweet lamp!
And since were posting pictures here's a couple of the display
Looking down the side of the tank is one of my favorite views
this all will also give the refugium a night time period for the inhabitants I plan to put in here in future.
Today I upgraded the display refugium lighting. I used the two retrofit kits i didnt use on display and made a 4 bulb t5ho fuge light!
I'm really a fan of these retrofit kits, for the money they certainly aren't bad and allows for custom configurations. I Ordered 2 6500 daylight bulbs and 2 red spectrum grow bulbs.
It is a complete night and day difference over the small lights I had on here before. I figured with 90 gallons I needed an awesome light to go with it..this fits the bill. I will run this light 12 hours from midnight to noon, opposite of display lighting. I hope to keep the ph up this way as I have been with other setup, and also help keep the temp a bit more stable.. It's only fluctuating 1-1.5 degrees through day which is fine, but if I can reduce that some then that's even better
I will be on algae barn this weekend maybe finding some cool macro algaes to put in here. It has a pretty cool scape so I'm sure I could have fun with it.
Lastly I took the led panel I had hanging above this and shoved it in between the 90s to offer just a bit of light 24hrs.. guess the tank will just always have a full. "Blood moon" lol
I moved my purple tang in here so I can stock the frag system a lot easier..hes VIOLENT.
Got a bunch of odds and ends done today. First thing I did was add a second pump to the fresh water container.. I was finding that while I could switch which vat I wanted to pull water from, the amount of salt water left in pipe when transferring to fresh ended up making my fresh water bucket like 1.003.. having this prevents that as this line only has fresh water. I still now have fresh and salt on demand with only a flip of a switch instead of turning valves
Another thing I did was build a rack to hold 4 4inch filter socks. I was having a few issues with micro bubbles, and I really like the ability to use socks and remove some of the solid stuff that is floating in water. It may not be the prettiest holder, but it works
I already have 60 or so socks and I'll prob buy 50-60 more. This will also mean I need to buy a cheap used washer to wash them in once a month or two.. I'll just hook it up to the hose and drain it out the driveway.
I went to the lfs lastnight and picked up some fish for the frag tank and some random other little things.. while I was there I was offered a peacock mantis shrimp for free...so I took it! I've always wanted one of these weird things and so I set up a little tank for him out of a cube I had laying around. The tank is fed off of the manifold.
I will be sure to stock up on snails and various things he can go on murderous rampages with.
I also spent some time getting the frag tank a bit more together. instead of just one flat rack I put a few various sized ones. Looks better and more functional I feel. I can add more racks as I go when I start filling this thing up.
While I was at it I decided to redo the grow out tank and get that looking better too. Before,I had one flat rack and it was hard to clean glass and couldn't see corals.. also since it is a grow out I wanted a longer term way to mount corals..i didnt want colonies growing onto racks so I achieved this by making a PVC "colony rack". This one holds 30 colonies..
My theory is that since tiles will mount onto top of pipes, they will be limited from horizontal growth which would force frags to grow off which I can then easily trim. Also the colonies are held in place a lot firmer than wobbling on a rack which I feel also really makes a big difference in growth. Now this tank is actually enjoyable to look at too
When doing all this I also cleaned entire bottom and did a 50g water change in process cleaning this up, i also added a gyre to the bottom blowing 100% across bottom to keep everything suspended and not collect detritus like before
I got plenty more room for more growouts and in next few weeks I'm gunna be getting quite a load of new corals to add to the collection. Over next few months I plan to grow these out so I can start ramping up frags come end of summer or so.
Aside from this I just wanna say everything is running really great. System is extremely stable and I'm noticing growth daily. I did end up turning my lights down about a week and a half ago and I already notice a giant difference. I used to run them at 100% blue and 50% white But with so many fixtures I was getting insane par numbers.. most areas were in the 400-550 range.. i lowered them down to 75% blue 25% white. I'm now in the 250-350 par range for most of tank with some select areas at 4. I feel this is where I'll leave the lights at if things continue to look this well. I leave with some pictures of the display
Thanks! Hes pretty cool. I've already watched...and heard him eat a snail. It was quite interesting to say the least.
Dude... everything is coming together so well and really looking great! I love the "thumbsplitter" and it's very cool they gave it to you for free.
I do have to admit, though, every time I look at your DT and various other set ups, I hate you a little bit more!
Today I had to empty the skimmer cup for the first time.
Skimmer maintenance once every 2 months..bummer
Also my algaebarn order came in.
I got sea lettuce, red ogo, and mocha ogo. There's a few others I want but they weren't in stock.
Here's the display fuge after planting new stuff
I gotta say for ordering the smallest "golfball"
Sizes for each algae..they really give you a ton! It was a 3 inch tall Mason jar stuffed.. I had enough to put each kind all over tank... pretty cool.
Here's the sea lettuce
Red Ogo
Mocha Ogo
I'm sure my tangs are gunna love some treats off of these as well
It's pretty cool having a planted style tank.. its offering a totally new side of the hobby to have fun with. I look forward to finding some cool creatures to put in here and see what it does.
