SoCal 75g shallow reef build 48x24x15

[herozero]

Clearview lids ordered. Algaebarn ordered. Biota fish order at the start of the new year: ready.

Merry Christmas.

 

[herozero]

The same day I approve the clearviewlid CAD drawing is the same night male clown jumped to try and explore the outside world. Ugh.

 

[herozero]

This sweet sweet pisces exo clearview lid is approved and in production, no more fish shall enter this tank without protection. Hope to get more fish critters before Valentine's Day. Kerri and her team have been great to work with, making sure we have every i dotted and t crossed. I'm looking forward to sharing some pics when this bad-boy arrives.

Have a good hump day, reefers.

cc: @ArtFully Acrylic

 

[herozero]

Clearview lid has shipped what? Biota fish ordered what?

-blue tang
-yellow tang
-Mandarin pair

Updates next weekend 2/11 when everything has arrived and settled.

Happy weekend, reefers.

cc: @Biota_Marine

 

[herozero]

This is Dimple, our new male ocellaris clownfish. Dimple will live in the acclimation box (which has a lid thank goodness) in the dt until Thursday, when the clearview lid arrives. Dimple is a helmet mis-bar captive bred fish from our LFS with a little white dot on his right cheek, like a dimple. Already eaten TDO C1 and tropic marine herbivore flake. (Edit: C2 for size is our new favorite)

Dimple’s soon to be buddy is Nat, short for Natasha Romanov and not pictured, since she’s had two hubbies that have jumped she has a black widow reputation.

Edit: upon another day of inspection Dimple is a helmet misbar (fun band)

 

[herozero]

 

[herozero]

Both tangs are happy to munch on tropic marine herbivore flake, one mandarin is quite happy to eat TDO B2 pellet (mrs. thought the house was on fire when I screamed for joy) but C2 and DKI .8um (sorry not a special keyboard character wizard) were too big, both clowns eat pretty much everything.

No one will eat my easy reef masstick paste. If both/the other mandarins eat frozen baby brine tonight they’ll be released from the box, there are LOADS of pods in the tank.

Edit: baby brine shrimp for the win, two mandarins eating it.

 

[herozero]

Quick props to @ArtFully Acrylic, this clearview pisces exo lid is incredible. This is the email I sent to them tonight:
-------------
I took the lid out of packaging and read the instructions (cute), when I put it into position the only things I had to move were:
-2 pump cables that went to the corner XL cord slots, can hardly call that a "move"
-2 probe sensors NOT in their final homes that simply went in via cut-outs for the light, another "move"
-ever so slightly moved one light clamp, like a small gauge wire width slight

The lid dropped right in and fit like you came over to my house and did a laser scan of the tank. It's incredible. After working all day yesterday and getting all the animals happy and eating in their new home, the sense of relief, and I mean PALPABLE relief, when I was getting ready to hop into bed and knew I would not wake up to any jumping fish on the floor was AMAZING. I had a huge smile on my face. Haven't slept that good in a long time. Woke up in the morning to feed happy new fish.

Thank you for an outstanding custom pisces exo lid.
-------------

 

[907_Reefer]

FTS, FTS!

 

[herozero]

FTS, FTS!

Just as soon as we dig out of our vacation to Big Bear …

 

[herozero]

Hi, friends! Let's get some life, I mean tank updates. It's been CRAZY!

Well for starters, let's talk February San Bernadino snow-pocalypse. Wife and I decided to take a trip to Sugarloaf (just outside Big Bear for you non-SoCal folks) for some winter wonderland fun. Took the two dogs on their first road trip, total success. Well except the snowed in part. This was the first wave of brutal February weather the region received and we were stuck an extra day before taking a chance on a slightly out-of-the-way route back to Orange County (via the Lucerne Valley (the 18?) instead of the normal 330 or other routes. Good thing too because another storm rolled in and THAT was the extra brutal one (maybe you heard about some Irvine school kids trapped at some camp near Lake Arrowhead? THAT brutal storm). Only bit of bad fish news during the time, blue tang caught ick. Filtration had been off for a few days and the extra snowed in day meant more than a day without any food for the tank. I cranked up the skimmer, kept feeding everyone like a champ and did some water changes and low and behold . . . ick disappeared in a few days. One crisis averted! If only I knew what was around the corner the first week of March . . .

 

[herozero]

On March 2nd I was driving back from talk-therapy, after a stop for gelato which always helps the mood post-session, and stopped at a major intersection--four straight lanes, two left turn lanes, two right turn lanes, all in my direction of travel. The weather was absolutely clear and you could see the local mountains pristine with snow covering them from base to summit. Absolutely beautiful. Well, the work/panel/candy van behind me was more interested in running the red light, the problem being he ignored me stopped in front of him. Model 3 was totalled, he hit me from behind at 40+mph, pushed me into the interestion, two lanes over, and spun around 180 degrees. My first accident, I don't need to try that again. Not sure if the guy was admirable or stupid, but he even told the cop he was trying to run the red light. So yeah, thankfully insurance came through pretty easy (thanks for the honesty mystery accident causer) and physical therapy came to the rescue, I definitely had a concussion and some neck bulge issue and my local PT is awesome (not my first rodeo). About 2-3 months of absolutely ROUGH times, but thankfully I'm through it no worse for the wear. Car saved me good, I probably should have been damaged enough to go to the hospital. It was easy to get another Tesla after this experience, but we went with a Performance Y because two dogs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So it wasn't really until July/August that the tank really got things going . . .

 

[Gumbies R Us]

On March 2nd I was driving back from talk-therapy, after a stop for gelato which always helps the mood post-session, and stopped at a major intersection--four straight lanes, two left turn lanes, two right turn lanes, all in my direction of travel. The weather was absolutely clear and you could see the local mountains pristine with snow covering them from base to summit. Absolutely beautiful. Well, the work/panel/candy van behind me was more interested in running the red light, the problem being he ignored me stopped in front of him. Model 3 was totalled, he hit me from behind at 40+mph, pushed me into the interestion, two lanes over, and spun around 180 degrees. My first accident, I don't need to try that again. Not sure if the guy was admirable or stupid, but he even told the cop he was trying to run the red light. So yeah, thankfully insurance came through pretty easy (thanks for the honesty mystery accident causer) and physical therapy came to the rescue, I definitely had a concussion and some neck bulge issue and my local PT is awesome (not my first rodeo). About 2-3 months of absolutely ROUGH times, but thankfully I'm through it no worse for the wear. Car saved me good, I probably should have been damaged enough to go to the hospital. It was easy to get another Tesla after this experience, but we went with a Performance Y because two dogs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So it wasn't really until July/August that the tank really got things going . . .

Sorry about the wreck, but glad you are safe!

 

[herozero]

So I had a nice bit of aquascape, but I had too much rock in the refugium and dead spots were leading to gha in the fuge. I took out all the rock and shoved it in the display. Fuge flow is happy. That rockscape will be reworked. So besides the random boulders, here's the tank, stand, and surrounding environs.

We added a seasons greetings monti, a red cap monti, and a green slimer to start off the tank with some relatively easy SPS. My LFS is nice, too nice. Frags are WAY too big, he just broke some off and there you go. Alk is great and consumption dialed in, now I'm just working on Ca (and dosing the **** out of the tank). Polyps are out and happy. Zoos are getting light blasted, they'll get moved eventually.

I have those XR15 Blue G6 85% at peak, not sure if I'd do the Blues again, but raising the intensity helped a ton visually and PAR is a fine 300 somewhere nearish the top. When things get going, I'd expect those to be replaced with XR30s, Pro or Blue tbd. Better coverage and better light. Running AB+, never tinkered yet, but obviously will give it a proper run out.

 

[herozero]

Under-tank sump glamour video. You can see the start of some cable management that didn't get finished. Now that we have fish and coral, you can bet this will all be tidied up. At the least there are no drip/fire hazards, no power is on the floor. Learned that lesson before . . . poorly, but without damage.

I suspect those 3x 2L dosing containers will quickly be outgrown, I suspect bucks/containers where the ATO is one day in the future, and that stand space repurposed with a Kalk stirrer.

Love that Royal Exclusiv skimmer. It will make you clean it once a quarter but that's fine, the price I pay for not running filter socks.

 

[herozero]

On the other side of the wall lives the controller and electric. And an ATO.

Finished hanging up everything the other day, I have an Apex module mount bracket on the way for the last one, and of course cable management. If you don't see an update on this with a clean wall, you have my permission to beat me with a wet trout.

 

[herozero]

Sorry about the wreck, but glad you are safe!

Many many thanks! I'm just so glad to not have any lasting effects, especially with a neck injury. Been through PT a handful of times before so I know the process (including two orthopedic surgeries), but it's always great to be at the end and it worked!

 

[herozero]

Did I mention the digital tidying required?
Some programing left and time will push out those outlier points on the various graphs (you gotta unplug to wire). Did I mention earlier that I absolutely cannot up my Calcium?

 

[herozero]

That’s respectable enough to be called v1. Looped or bundled with Velcro ties, maybe a hook or two for cable routing in the next few hours. Now, time for the pretty part inside the tank!

 

[herozero]