A New Beginning...
 

The last couple months have not been the best... Had a phosphate issue at first and then the worst thing that can happen... AEFW.

A pricy lesson learned... Dipping does not guarantee one that the coral will be pest free and never trust that plug or rock attached to the coral as eggs can sometimes be hidden along the base and even on the plug or rock, especially ones from LFS. When buying frags/colonies cutting the coral off the plug or rock will minimize the chance of eggs, as you will be able to inspect the coral base better.

After discovering that I have SPS herpes I had thought of folding it all in. But having received encouragement from others I will give it another run at it.

1) the main display tank will be going thru a significant change... I plan to reduce a significant amount of live rock in DT and will be 98% sps. With much less rocks the tank experience a very positive increase in flow for the corals. The selection of fish will be two or three tangs, a rabbit fish, couple of clowns and a couple of wrasses that will keep the tank pest free. For corals, I plan to have about 45 ( well, may be 60 if there is room) selective sps corals and what I can't save from the old DT I will be hunting down for new signature pieces. The DT will be bare bottom and thinking of having a variety of montipora plates etc...to cover the bottom ( may have the odd zoa or two). Lighting: two GHL Mitras. For flow, planning on two tunzes or keeping what I am using... Mp60 and a mp40.

2) the new tank in the garage will primarily be my insurance tank ( isn't it ironic?). I had planned to do one last year and never did get around to put it together... If this tank was already in place I would have been able to save many of the nicer sps pieces.

With help from Jon(reeferfulton), we have a bare bone stand and check out the awesome light stand Jon built... Here are some pics...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps89b57902.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psff5e5495.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psc571d884.jpghttp://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse9c216d6.jpg
The light stand can swivel to allow me clearance to work in the tank and for top down pics... I will also be able to adjust the height of the lights independently.
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps56b63014.jpg
I can even swivel the lights itself
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psd8b07269.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps62170a03.jpg
A huge thanks!
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps57efe8aa.jpg
Pics of the tanks filled with water for leak test...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psf8d98765.jpg
Leak test on a simple sump design
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps3456b0db.jpg
Skimmer in sump
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps947ace2c.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps6abd486c.jpg

Looks good Wayne! I need a light bracket like that!

:pop2:

Go garage tanks!

Very nice Wayne. Look forward to seeing it up and running.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

Wayne your so Dramatic!:lol:

kidding

Looking good though. Not sure how i feel about being replaced by that other Jon guy though. His wood work is a lot better than mine so i guess i'll let it slide this time.

Looking forward to the revamp.

Hey Wayne, its a good thing you spoiled me not so long ago with all those frags. Now i can pay it forward and hook you up when ur ready, and some will be your old SPS and some mine and my new ones. Frag friends are the best!!!
And Jon, bravo on the crafty wood and metal skills!

This might be a stupid question, but did u do with all ur georgeous SPS?
Since the tank is empty I assume u got rid of it......:cry:
I hope u made lots of frags?

This will be his frag tank.. He still has his beatiful main tank full of SPS .. of which I am very jealous .......

thanks for the compliments .

See Jon, he did an awesome job on the lights! Can't wait for the light stand for the MDT!
You never share any of your popcorn... :sad:

I only have one... Yours are impressive and alive! :biggrin:

Jon, thanks. Still a lot of work ahead...

It does pay to be nice and share with others. :biggrin:

A few did not make it and more don't look too hot anymore. :sad: I'll try to save as many as I can... If not, I'm gonna start over again. :neutral:

The MDT is still full but it's not a pretty sight right now...

Jason, some of yours do not look too hot right now... Once the new frag tank is ready your frags will be in there.

Jon, thanks! Could not have done this without your help! :biggrin:

More update...

Finished the plumbing today...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psc2bd1d44.jpg

Leak test...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps30c2046f.jpg

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps112b4b9a.jpg

Looking good is far...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse181a52d.jpg

Leak test was a success! Turned off the return pump to simulate a power failure. Whew, just enough room...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psc44755bb.jpg

Jon was over to help me move the tank in place and we drained the water and added RO water and salt...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps8c3e946c.jpg
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...psf2fedc40.jpg

We also tried the lights over the tank...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps46531c6f.jpg
Able to swivel the lights out of the way to add the new RO water into the tank...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps5141dcfd.jpg
Could not decide in whether to have the lights positioned horizontally or perpendicular to the tank...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps1bac41da.jpg
Another pic of the sump...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse9bee521.jpg

Frag racks in the tank. Temp is almost there ( currently 74 degrees) and will be doing some serious fragging and dipping soon.

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps3a3cd86d.jpg

Removed the corals out of the DT in preparation for the big change... Had to throw many corals out as I just couldn't take the chances of another AEFW infestation. Here is a bucket filled with questionable coral pieces... Must have weighed 10 pnds...
http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps998efd90.jpg

What can be saved is now in the frag tank.

Wow, that's one sad pic :sad:

Kool job on the frag racks

Oh well... Good reason to spend more money and re do the tank... Wil be slower this time around.. Will upload of the frag tank and all the pieces tht I can save soon.

Hi Wayne.....let me know if you need any help from me or any corls from my tank to replace any of the ones you need. So sad to see that 10lb bucket of corals......yikes!!!
That new tank looks very sweet though!!! With the way you grow sps it will be full in no time.....
Cheers
Claudio

I have filled buckets with corals too.. I feel your pain :-(

That frag tank is going to be quite the grow op!!

Claudio, thank you for your support. I was able to save most by fragging what I can however these FW knows their money pieces well. They attacked the most expensive ones first.

No worries, I am now hunting for specific corals but won't be addingvany for at least another two months or so...

Kien, thank you for your support too. This is where I am at currently with the frag tank. After hrs of cutting and dipping and going thru many towels to soak up the salty arms... The frag tank is full... Hope they are able to survive thrun the stress now...

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps7586de90.jpg

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps21b9ae43.jpg

This looks like a ton of work. Hope it works out for you. I'm starting to think my non qt habits are going to have to change.

I had a rurally talked about getting a frag tank for some time... the cost to replace all the corals ( from what i paid when i bought them as frags or mini colonies) compared to the cost of a new barebones set up ( less the lights) was cheaper than having to re buy everything. Therefore, the frag tank was going to be my insurance policy... Price of procrastination... Should have listened to my instincts then.

How'd the fish do on the ride home Sunday ?

You are, of course, welcome to anything in my tank. We'll get you filled back up in no time!

Funny you asked... Just had my first casualty... The six line had decided to venture his way down to the sump and got to know the vertex omega skimmer... The skimmer was making all kinds of weird sounds and was not skimming properly... I took the omega out and cleaned her all up incl the pump and found the six line wedged in the intake nozzle. Guess he Got to know the skimmer too well. Dumb fish! However, the other three wrasses are doing great! The yellow coris, labouti, and melanerus are swimming, and have no problems eating pellets. Rich, thanks for taking good care of them for me! Now thinking of going with just wrasses in the tank. Hmmmm may change my name to wrasse reef lol. Greg, and a big thanks for baggin the fish up for me over at Rich's! You've earned your keep of that gorgeous gorg!
Brad, thank you! You da best! When the main DT is ready I'll be over with my clippers!:biggrin: