Long slow 24x24x18 irregular haxahedron (for you cube snobs) build

[moondoggy4]

Nice find, I like buying my fish from others who are looking for a change, I am weaning myself from LFS unless the fish has been there for at least a month, got lucky with a purple tang.

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

Nice find, I like buying my fish from others who are looking for a change, I am weaning myself from LFS unless the fish has been there for at least a month, got lucky with a purple tang.

That's funny - maybe once a year or so when I'm looking to add fish to my tank, I put up a thread in the local forums with "WTB: used fish..." in the title. I usually find something I'm interested in, and the benefits far outweigh the prospect of having to drive a bit to pick the fish up. I'm in Riverside and I found the current flame angel down in the long beach area. But - I got it for less than retail, it had been in a captive environment successfully for over a year, eats like a pig, and the original owner told me that it had never touched an LPS or SPS - a fact that has been verified in my system. I really hate to support reef life kidnapping, as much of the fish that are collected are caught using terrible practices like cyanide. You can't bypass wild caught entirely, especially with inverts/CUC/tube worms, but for fish, you can do a pretty good job if you look hard enough for people getting rid of stuff.

[flakey]

Can i ask how you feed the candy cane coral (i think thats what they're called), the green one just to the bottom left of the sailfin.

I have one and feed it mysis in a sectioned off area as when i feed it either during the day or night, the fish and shrimps steal all the food.

what and when do you feed yours, especially the ones on the underside ?

[bob1435]

Sweet

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by flakey

Can i ask how you feed the candy cane coral (i think thats what they're called), the green one just to the bottom left of the sailfin.

I have one and feed it mysis in a sectioned off area as when i feed it either during the day or night, the fish and shrimps steal all the food.

what and when do you feed yours, especially the ones on the underside ?

Flakey - I don't. Ever. And they grow like a weed. I used to feed them whatever I was feeding my acans - which I also don't feed anymore. But they were just growing too fast, so I stopped. They still grow like a weed. I feed the SPS coral food 2 or 3 times a week at night after the lights are out. The caulastrea (candycane) extend their feeding tentacles whenever its dark, so I assume they get what they need from that.

[Charley Diesing]

I absolutely loves this tank! I've tried to mimic your aquascape twice early on in my old 40 breeder...

Never ended up nearly as well as yours!

A true inspiration!

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by Charley Diesing

I absolutely loves this tank! I've tried to mimic your aquascape twice early on in my old 40 breeder...

Never ended up nearly as well as yours!

A true inspiration!

Thanks! I like the look... but I need to get rid of the corals on my sandbed - I feel like they're distracting to the eye. When I look at the tank, my eye goes to the main body of the rock, then it kind of drifts down to the sandbed, and then back up. It has been surprisingly difficult to get rid of a saucer-sized pink-green-and-blue mycedium (easily 7" across now), and a fist-sized meteor shower colony. Anyone in SoCal want to trade a dark blue, violet, or yellow acro colony for either of these???

I'm also thinking I may do something like this tank...

...where I cut the island rock on the left side (but have a similar triangular configuration that 'tapers' forward) on both the bottom and side, so it fits exactly into the corner, but go with the bottom half of my current rockwork for the right center, but with a more open shelf-rock upper 'storey'. I may order a couple of pieces of shelf rock from BRS if I can't find any locally - which, so far, I have been unable to do.

Has anyone out there used BRS's shelf rock? Does it look as good as the pictures on their website? Have any pictures of what it looks like in your tank?

[reret10]

Thanks for the frags Joe. I really apreciate that. I will frag my blastos as soon as they get a bit bigger.

[sahin]

Wow, such a beautiful tank! Loved reading this thread. Can you please post some top down shots of the sps please? Thanks.

[Bolo Tran]

Awesome build. How are you liking the switch to t5? Do you miss the shimmer? Have you thought about adding reef stunner strips for moonlight?

[jcolletteiii]

You're welcome Ian - hope they do well for you.

Originally Posted by sahin

Wow, such a beautiful tank! Loved reading this thread. Can you please post some top down shots of the sps please? Thanks.

Thanks! Will try and get some top down this weekend. May borrow the labs' macro lens as well for some close-ups.

Originally Posted by Bolo Tran

Awesome build. How are you liking the switch to t5? Do you miss the shimmer? Have you thought about adding reef stunner strips for moonlight?

Thanks! The color has seen a drastic improvement since the switch. Still getting the bulb combo dialed in for the look I like - I think I need to pick up one of those GE 6500k bulbs many people rave about and see what that does - the tank is still a bit on the blue side for me, but I don't want to go with less than three blue+ bulbs for PAR. With the increase in growth rate of everything in the tank and improvement in color it's hard to find anything to complain about, but I do miss the shimmer a bit. I also miss having a moonlight, but I have not found a way of mounting one or more to this fixture without ruining the cool, industrial look of it. I am contemplating replacing two of the bulbs with stunner strips to get the best of both worlds, but also interested to see what Orpheks' T5 LED tubes are going to be like.

[Mike de Leon]

subscribed!

[Bolo Tran]

T5 led tubes??? Now that's innovative! So just pop out one t5 bulb and pop in the led tube? Wow. This might just make me switch to t5's!

[Bolo Tran]

But how come I can't find anything on them on the boards? Is no one using it?

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by Bolo Tran

T5 led tubes??? Now that's innovative! So just pop out one t5 bulb and pop in the led tube? Wow. This might just make me switch to t5's!

There are a lot of older photos floating around the web (dated 2011) for these, so maybe they ran into a snag in development, so I don't think they're going to be ready for awhile yet. Orphek has a page devoted to these on their website, but I don't actually know when they'll be available. I don't think the fixture would have to be too highly modified, and I'd put them in the spaces controlled by the 2-bulb ballast. They'd have to fit under the splashguard though, and they look a bit tall for that...

[jcolletteiii]

Will try to get some top downs today after the lights come on, but it's tough because my lights cover most of the top ans they're pretty close to the water. Here are a couple of pics I snapped yesterday.


The rather shy purple-legged coral banded shrimp that calls my tank home.


Macro shot of an AOG polyp.

[d2mini]

FTS looks awesome!

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by d2mini

FTS looks awesome!

Thanks!

May have just found some great very flat shelf rock, so the redo of the top part may be close at hand!

[sahin]

How about an FTS please?

[jcolletteiii]

Will get an updated FTS this weekend as well as a system update. Have been a few changes. and growth has ENORMOUSLY improved since ditching LED.

[biecacka]

Originally Posted by jcolletteiii

Thanks! I like the look... but I need to get rid of the corals on my sandbed - I feel like they're distracting to the eye. When I look at the tank, my eye goes to the main body of the rock, then it kind of drifts down to the sandbed, and then back up. It has been surprisingly difficult to get rid of a saucer-sized pink-green-and-blue mycedium (easily 7" across now), and a fist-sized meteor shower colony. Anyone in SoCal want to trade a dark blue, violet, or yellow acro colony for either of these???

I'm also thinking I may do something like this tank...

...where I cut the island rock on the left side (but have a similar triangular configuration that 'tapers' forward) on both the bottom and side, so it fits exactly into the corner, but go with the bottom half of my current rockwork for the right center, but with a more open shelf-rock upper 'storey'. I may order a couple of pieces of shelf rock from BRS if I can't find any locally - which, so far, I have been unable to do.

Has anyone out there used BRS's shelf rock? Does it look as good as the pictures on their website? Have any pictures of what it looks like in your tank?

My favorite rock scape I think of all time

Corey

[kevantheman35]

Hey beautiful tank! Wondering if you can tell me what model sump that is? Also what skimmer and if you like it? I am in the planning stages of my 50g cube and any help would be great! I'm going to try using that rendering program it looks awesome

[Charley Diesing]

Update?

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by kevantheman35

Hey beautiful tank! Wondering if you can tell me what model sump that is? Also what skimmer and if you like it? I am in the planning stages of my 50g cube and any help would be great! I'm going to try using that rendering program it looks awesome

Kevin - sorry for the long delay in answering. I taught a university course over the Summer and then I was in China for a month on a research trip. My GF took care of my tank while I was gone and I am happy to report that she did a bang up job!

Okay - the sump is the standard sump that comes with the 50 gal Cadlights kit. I found a guy locally that must have bought a half container load from the Chinese manufacturer of Cadlights, and so I only bought the tank, sump, and a plumbing stuff from him. So the sump is Cadlights.

I do like the skimmer - the model is a few pages back - maybe on page 2 or 3 - it's and SWC, but I cant recall the model. In the entire time I have had this tank set up (over 2 years now), it has been adjusted maybe 5 times and has overflowed maybe twice. I still don't know why it overflowed - the air duct may have become partly clogged with salt or something.

Google sketchup takes a bit of getting used to, but it really is a helpful planning tool. I try and stay away all other google products though - they know more about you than your parents/spouse/GF/BF does - *very* scary IMO.

[jcolletteiii]

Originally Posted by Charley Diesing

Update?

Okay, so a bit of an update. I have been having a bit of trouble since replacing my lamps (1 at a time over a 4 week period). Some things have been definitely fading, while others changed colors a bit - things definitely got noticeably paler as well - tho not by too much. The main troubling coral is my large rainbow Acropora prostrata. It has definitely paled substantially, but only on branches that are directly parallel to the lamps - so light is my main suspect at the moment. Everything else (well, the Acro prostrata as well) is growing like a weed - well, a couple of corals continue to grow slowly, but that's what they do.


FTS - 10/1/13.

I am glad that I didn't redo the rockwork like I had planned on doing. It is starting to take on the look that I was going after - especially with the A. prostrata taking on a bonsai-like appearance up top right. I still have a lot of corals I want to get rid of to clean the overall look up some - the big chalice on the sandbed on the left needs to go, and I have several small prostrata colonies that I need to find new homes for. I still want to add another MP-10 to the right side - perhaps I will look for someone local to trade some corals for.


View from the right side.


One of my favorite inhabitants.