Thanks Q
Jackson's Custom 115G Cube Build
- Thread starter jackson6745
- Start date
Thanks Q
- Location
- Garden city
Hi Jackson congrats on the baby I know that feeling all to well!!
just no time for the tank after kids but. I've found I don't let the setbacks bother me as much and roll with the punches weekly wc are out lol
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just no time for the tank after kids but. I've found I don't let the setbacks bother me as much and roll with the punches weekly wc are out lol
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- Location
- Wallingford, CT
:shocked1::shocked1::Yikes:
- Location
- Amityville, NY
No one can argue that you've not reduced your bioload to the minimum possible and have opened up your aquascape to the maximum possible.
Good luck!
Sent from my SM-NCC-1701C using Tapatalk
Good luck!
Sent from my SM-NCC-1701C using Tapatalk
- Location
- North Shore Long lsand, NY
Honestly I think it looks better than ever...Keep up the good work boo!
- Location
- New Jersey
Rich, what is going on there?
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
Don't tell me you abandoned ship..smh
I'm still in the hobby, just rebooting the system after 3 years. This tank suffered serious neglect and it's just not the same. No amont of water changes, gfo, carbon dosing, mystery oils etc... is helping. I setup temporary holding tanks for my remaing corals and fish. Replacing sand bed and ordered 50lbs of monando rock. Starting over. I want this tank to grow sps like it did before. I'll post some progress pics in coming days. I honestly think the problem was the sandbed. It was filthy!!!
I've always heard that a baby and a business can hurt a reef tank... guess its true :/
I've always heard that a baby and a business can hurt a reef tank... guess its true :/
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- Location
- Marine Park
It sure is true. Congrats on fatherhood. At some point it comes around. I'm redoing my tank now because my son, the reason I left the hobby nine years ago, really wanted us to have a sump, some reactors and get all high tech. He's been checking the skimmer every half hour to see how far along we are in the break in period.
- Location
- Queens/Flushing/Whitestone/NYC
Hang tight, I know your tank will bounce back in no time. Infant, business and reef aren't compatible. One of the reason I like soft & LPS tank.
- Location
- Wading River, NY
"Minimalistic"
So, the tank just wan't doing extremely well like it was during the first 2 years. For a while it was like this tank was on steroids. Frags grew to colonies before my eyes. Here's a pic when the tank was just a little over a year old (all grown from frags).
jan 23 2015 by rich colombo, on Flickr
Anything that I threw in here did well and colored up, even badly damaged wild corals or rtn corals from other systems. It was an amazing thing. At some point I began getting to busy with work to stay on top of things. I lost a coral here and there, missed water changes etc. Months of this took it's toll. I got things back on track but it was never the same, however, still grown in with lots of nice colonies.
Then the birth of my son along with the busiest part of my work season happened. I was literally running on fumes with very little sleep. I woke up to white colonies (RTN) and didn't even have time to remove them let alone troubleshoot. Losing a 10" pearlberry colony grown from a 1/2" frag hurt
. That was like 2 1/2 years of growth.
Anyway, no matter how many water changes, chemical media, carbon dosing, stability etc that I did to the tank, it wasn't right. SPS growth and color was just no longer there. The one exception would be my cali tort colony which grew 15" + through the whole mess. It looked out of place so I decided to get rid of it and start all over.
New sand, new Rock (monado) with some of the old branch, and a completely cleaned out sump. I did keep the 30lbs of rock rubble in my sump for biological filtration to avoid a cycle though this move. The monad rock came in very clean and I used some old rock as well. There was no die-off or cycle. Everything responded positively right away.
Here's where I'm at now. Mostly frags again, the tank has been running for a week now. Everything responding better than before. I'm seeing PE on SPS that have shown no polyps in months. Hopefully things continue as is. The pics show the temp coral holding tank, new sand bed, and current tank shots. Lighting is still a 400w halide with 4x t5 and 2 reefbrites. I toyed with he idea of going LED with Radions but from my research I did not believe 2 fixtures would cover my dimensions 32"x32" to my liking, and I'm not rich to buy more of them. I do arguably have the best reef lighting know to the hobby anyway soon....
Before I decided to take it down.
IMG_0585 by rich colombo, on Flickr
Holding tank (fish were in a garbage can)
IMG_0267 by rich colombo, on Flickr
50lbs of monando rock arrived from Premium Aquatics. I was not very happy at all with the shape or density of this rock for $8 per lb, especially since I've seen other member get 25lbs with this volume. PA did offer a small credit but not enough to make it right. I will not be ordering from them again after 12 years of business. With the use of my old tonga branch I made the nest of it
IMG_0275 by rich colombo, on Flickr
Initial scape
IMG_0276 by rich colombo, on Flickr
jan 23 2015 by rich colombo, on FlickrAnything that I threw in here did well and colored up, even badly damaged wild corals or rtn corals from other systems. It was an amazing thing. At some point I began getting to busy with work to stay on top of things. I lost a coral here and there, missed water changes etc. Months of this took it's toll. I got things back on track but it was never the same, however, still grown in with lots of nice colonies.
Then the birth of my son along with the busiest part of my work season happened. I was literally running on fumes with very little sleep. I woke up to white colonies (RTN) and didn't even have time to remove them let alone troubleshoot. Losing a 10" pearlberry colony grown from a 1/2" frag hurt
. That was like 2 1/2 years of growth. Anyway, no matter how many water changes, chemical media, carbon dosing, stability etc that I did to the tank, it wasn't right. SPS growth and color was just no longer there. The one exception would be my cali tort colony which grew 15" + through the whole mess. It looked out of place so I decided to get rid of it and start all over.
New sand, new Rock (monado) with some of the old branch, and a completely cleaned out sump. I did keep the 30lbs of rock rubble in my sump for biological filtration to avoid a cycle though this move. The monad rock came in very clean and I used some old rock as well. There was no die-off or cycle. Everything responded positively right away.
Here's where I'm at now. Mostly frags again, the tank has been running for a week now. Everything responding better than before. I'm seeing PE on SPS that have shown no polyps in months. Hopefully things continue as is. The pics show the temp coral holding tank, new sand bed, and current tank shots. Lighting is still a 400w halide with 4x t5 and 2 reefbrites. I toyed with he idea of going LED with Radions but from my research I did not believe 2 fixtures would cover my dimensions 32"x32" to my liking, and I'm not rich to buy more of them. I do arguably have the best reef lighting know to the hobby anyway soon....
Before I decided to take it down.
IMG_0585 by rich colombo, on FlickrHolding tank (fish were in a garbage can)
IMG_0267 by rich colombo, on Flickr50lbs of monando rock arrived from Premium Aquatics. I was not very happy at all with the shape or density of this rock for $8 per lb, especially since I've seen other member get 25lbs with this volume. PA did offer a small credit but not enough to make it right. I will not be ordering from them again after 12 years of business. With the use of my old tonga branch I made the nest of it
IMG_0275 by rich colombo, on FlickrInitial scape
IMG_0276 by rich colombo, on FlickrSome pics a week later
IMG_0409 by rich colombo, on Flickr
IMG_0371 by rich colombo, on Flickr
IMG_0370 by rich colombo, on Flickr
IMG_0410 by rich colombo, on Flickr
IMG_0367 by rich colombo, on Flickr
IMG_0411 by
Long way to go but It's on the right path. I'll post back in a month or so. I'm expecting some diatom and cyano over next few weeks
IMG_0409 by rich colombo, on FlickrIMG_0371 by rich colombo, on FlickrIMG_0370 by rich colombo, on FlickrIMG_0410 by rich colombo, on FlickrIMG_0367 by rich colombo, on FlickrIMG_0411 byLong way to go but It's on the right path. I'll post back in a month or so. I'm expecting some diatom and cyano over next few weeks
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Yea clam is fine. I lost 2 small fish in the move that I didn't realize were hiding in rock. All other coral was find but I did get a few of some of the larger more common pieces that take up top much space as they grow.
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Rich I think you need to go see an optometrist! Maybe with your old age the eyes are going? The tear down tank looks awesome and so does the new work in progress! Come see my POS after very good husbandry and throwing cash at it almost on the daily. Just when everything was going perfect my doser malfunctioned and dumped like 300ML of Vodka in the tank 4 hours before I had to leave with the kids on vacation. That's how this hobby goes. anyone in it for a while knows that. Beautiful tank bro.
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