Tim's 54 Gallon Corner -> Going Reef

[TLTGF]

Thanks Carey. To be honest, I'm excited that my coral is alive, and I may end up with some good stuff, but if I had to do it again, I would put the money into some much nicer frags like from vividaquariums or somewhere where there isn't a question of quality.

The way I look at it now is that, IF I was just starting out and I didn't have much money and wanted to get into SPS, AND didn't mind waiting for the corals go grow out for 6 months to a year... Then yes I would do the same thing.

However, I've never been one for frags. My only previous frags was my first coral, a three-headed hammer, and a few ricordias. Everything else has been a medium to large size coral.

For me, I was able to work the budget, so that I could within 6-8 months, put together a full-on reef system without the wait, and I'm quite happy with that.

I think for me the fun part is is trying my had a a frag tank, and see if I can be successful at keeping them alive.

 

[Ibrahim]

Well that's great! One way you can tell if something has been given time to heal is if there is algae on the frag plug and or if the coral has grown over the super glue used to attach it to the plug

 

[TLTGF]

A couple plugs had algae and you're right. That's how I looked too. It appears that some were pretty fresh, but others were starting to encrust.

 

[rob_mango]

They all look pretty nice good choices.... But yeah the one that looks like a straw idk what that is

 

[TLTGF]

Here is another pic of the oddball coral - its got tentacle-like protrusions coming out... Needless to say this was one of their "free items"

 

[rob_mango]

Now it almost looks like a galaxia coral

 

[rob_mango]

How r they all responding r you getting good polyp extinction

 

[TLTGF]

Before I left for work, all corals had polyps out - mostly looked good. One tiny one, was not out yet, but I only had them in the tank for an hour before I came into work.

 

[rob_mango]

Well I guess that's a good thing looking forward to more pics later

 

[TLTGF]

I think you're right about the galaxia. There is one picture on google that has some dead polyps and the tolps look the same. I've just never seen a SINGLE polyp galaxia! Nor on the end of a tube-like structure! LOL

 

[Sniperhank]

Man I'm pretty excited about following this. Most of my stuff is frags. I look at it as that I'm several steps behind you and like reading your threads and seeing what my next step is or that I am already looking on. Having a mirror has helped. Some of those are pretty nice looking.

 

[Saltwaterfishgirl]

More pics!!!

 

[TLTGF]

Here ya go. Here's a few pics of the frags, though the phone only takes em with just the white light on, and even then, not well. Also an FTS of the 54.

Update:

The skimmer is continuing to treat me well and pulling out lots of crap. My only issue with it is that once in a while for seemingly no apparent reason it will just start going crazy and overflow. I usually have to shut it off for 15-30 minutes and then it'll start back up like normal.

MP10's and Radion - Awesome - enough said.

JBJ ATO with aqualifter pump - works well, though I had my inlet tube come loose some how and flooded the bottom of the stand while I was at work. The water rotted and warped the wood in a few hours and now the door for the stand is rubbing along the bottom... Possibly some bracing is in order there. Other than that- works great.

Mag-rock jr. - living up to my expectations, both good and bad. The pectina cup has found a permanent residence there I believe, however I woke up to find it laying on the sand bed... Appears a snail pushed the rock and it turned on the pivot magnet and dropped the coral. I epoxied it in today. I think it's a cool addition the the tank though, and am happy with the purchase.

Frags from MrCoral - after 24 hours, corals still look okay. All have at least some polyp extension, while the milliaporas are all out looking fuzzy. Also the cigarette looking corals now appear to be baby torch corals possibly. Take a look, but remember I have 750 gph in this tank, so the tentacles are blowing back.

Here are some pics:

 

[Sniperhank]

Looking really great! Do you have some pics of your ato? I'm thinking about setting one up for my 55. Do you run straight distilled in it like you would like a normal top off? Is there any reason for an aqualifter with the ato? After reading about the JBJ one, it seems almost impossible for it to fail...

 

[TLTGF]

Here's the lowdown on the ATO: basically the JBJ ATO is a fancy relay used in conjunction with an external pump that you purchase separately. I chose the aqualifter as it is 110v and is plug and play. The tunze pump I have for the DIY ATO was 12v. Anyway, basically you plug the sensor into the ATO and plug the pump into the ATO. You then run hoses from the pump to the source RO/DI water and another to the sump. When the sensor in the sump goes on, the ATO turns power on to the pump which brings the RO water to the sump until the sensor turns back off. Very simple.

My RO water comes from regular gallon jugs that I fill myself. I just cut a small hole in one of the lids, and run the hose through it. I change out a jug about once per day. I use about 3.5 quarts of water per day. It doesn't really cut down on how much water I have to lug, but it keeps my salinity more stable.

Here is the pics:

 

[Sniperhank]

Hm, that is really neat. I def like it that the aqualifter can be used like that. Does the jbj make an annoying alarm when it is topping off like some do? I like the gallon jug idea. It was either do something similar or use this cheap plastic keggerator I have.

 

[TLTGF]

ALERT!!!

Please read and learn from my mistake. The other day while purchasing eggcrate at HD I found a small under cabinet puck light. It was $9 so I bought it to use under the stand.

Once I got it home I realized that it wasn't LED, but instead a xenon bulb. I attached a piece of Velcro I had laying around and basically stuck it to the inside of my stand. I would typically just plug it in when needed, unplug when done.

Here is what just happened. About twenty minutes ago I was taking the above pics of the ATO. I turned my light on because my skimmer was again overflowing and so I removed the cup, etc.

After replacing the cup on skimmer I went back to post thread and read some more threads. I heard a weird noise come from the stand and though that the cat had gotten behind it. When I looked over I could see light through the cracks. When I checked, I found that the light had gotten so hot it actually melted the Velcro and had fallen off the wall of the stand into the cardboard box of wires I have in there. I grabbed it, yup bad idea, burnt my hand something fierce, and unplugged it and quickly threw it in my kitchen sink.

Moral of the story is do not buy a cheap light that will burn your house down. I'm literally leaving for work as we speak and can't imagine what would've happened had it not fallen before I left.

Please make sure to use an LED puck light if you use one.

Hope this helps others from making the same mistake.

 

[Sniperhank]

Glad you caught it.

 

[rob_mango]

ALERT!!!

Please read and learn from my mistake. The other day while purchasing eggcrate at HD I found a small under cabinet puck light. It was $9 so I bought it to use under the stand.

Once I got it home I realized that it wasn't LED, but instead a xenon bulb. I attached a piece of Velcro I had laying around and basically stuck it to the inside of my stand. I would typically just plug it in when needed, unplug when done.

Here is what just happened. About twenty minutes ago I was taking the above pics of the ATO. I turned my light on because my skimmer was again overflowing and so I removed the cup, etc.

After replacing the cup on skimmer I went back to post thread and read some more threads. I heard a weird noise come from the stand and though that the cat had gotten behind it. When I looked over I could see light through the cracks. When I checked, I found that the light had gotten so hot it actually melted the Velcro and had fallen off the wall of the stand into the cardboard box of wires I have in there. I grabbed it, yup bad idea, burnt my hand something fierce, and unplugged it and quickly threw it in my kitchen sink.

Moral of the story is do not buy a cheap light that will burn your house down. I'm literally leaving for work as we speak and can't imagine what would've happened had it not fallen before I left.

Please make sure to use an LED puck light if you use one.

Hope this helps others from making the same mistake.

Wow that was a close call glad there was no damage.... I hope your hand is ok

 

[TLTGF]

Closer than I like! My hand is fine now. It was a bit seared and I lost a little skin on one finger tip, but no biggie now.

I was lucky for sure. Now I've got to figure out why my stand door is becoming hard to open and rubbing on bottom of stand.

My concern is that the floor of the stand was wet, and now it's starting to get out of shape. I'm hoping that the floor wasn't structural and now my tank is going to come craving down. I need to figure out a way to add extra bracing IMO.