Murdoch's 160G Tank Build

[Myka]

Glad to hear the tank is on the mend.

[doch]

Well, here's a little bit of interesting info for you. I came hom etoday and did some testing. Good news! kH of 7.06, and I've started dosing again... this time I'll test daily for a while to see what's happenning. Ca is a little bit high at 500, but judging by the discrepancy between the hanna (~50 high) and the Elos (~50 low), I'm sititng at about 450ppm. Not bad, but I turned the dosing down by 5 minutes per day on the Ca... to be monitored. PO4 is sitting at 0.03 on the hanna... higher than it's been in a week. Still not bad though, and that could easily be an operator error in the testing.

Here's the interesting part. I bought a Sea Chem Mg test kit and tried it out today. I got 1200 mg/L. (Is that the same as PPM, or are my units off?) So, I tried the Elos, and got 2200. WOW. Here's the best part. In the Sea Chem kit, there's a bottle of known test fluid... 1250 mg/L Mg. I tested on the Sea chem and got ~1250. I tested on the Elos, and got 2450. WOW! It seems that my Mg has been low this whole time. I wonder if the whole time in my old tank my Mg was REALLY low? I'd test and it would come out at about 1200-1350 depending on the day. That may explain a few things. How critical is that Mg number?

Anyways... I'm in the clear. Zeo is running, hair algae has been removed as much as possible. Where I didn't remove it, it's receding!!! Whoo! All of my test levels are acceptable, but could use a little bit of tweaking. If I can keep the kH at ~7, drop the Ca to ~400, and get the Mg up a bit, I'm laughing! I figure that I should have her dialed in faily soon.

I also got 11 new frags from Snappy... they are all happy and alive, so that's nice compared to the last batch I had bought (not from Snappy) that I struggled to keep any of them alive (for the record, I do not blame the seller or the frags for that... my tank was in rough shape).

Funny story, one of the frags that I got from Snappy fell off of the plug, but I dropped it in the tank anyways... and then lost it. Literally... couldn't find it anywhere. Searched for an hour. Came home from work 2 days later and it was sitting directly in between 2 of the other frags. WTF!? Am I going crazy, or did that actually just happen...? lol. For the record, I know that it did actually happen, although I may still be crazy! hahaha

And BTW, I like this hobby MUCH more this week than I did the last few. Thanks to those of you who offered support, and advice!

[doch]

Almost immediately after buying my T5's I came to the realization that I should have bit the bullet and gone LED. Oh well... thankfully my wife has given me the OK to go ahead and make the switch. On order through my buddy Steve at Red Coral in Edmonton.... 4 AI Sols and an AI controller. I thought about getting the DA RKE ALC, but I've heard that some are having troubles with the integration to the Sols, so why chance it? I also seriously thought about going with 3 instead of the reccomended 4 (since I'll be keeping them 12-15" above the tank), but since I know me, even I ended up perfectly happy with 3, I'd likely end up wanting 4 to see the difference... so 4 it is.

Anyways, I'll be heading to Etown next weekend, so I'll have them set up by the end of that weekend.

PS... as per my post, 1x48" 4 bulb tek light, and 1x48" 6 bulb tek light... For Sale!! 3 month old KZ bulbs. See my post if interested.

[doch]

Well, it's been a while, and as such things have changed. I'm finally getting around to the not so tank portions of the tank... ie the stand and finishing carpentry. I've also had a little bit of a light upgrade Woohoo! Anyways, I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking.




This one just shows how I'm hiding the piping around the foos ball table. As a bonus, it makes for a nice beer shelf!

And last but not least, the 4 AI Sols!


PS as you can see, it's not complete, but it's coming along.

[GracieLou]

I really like the stone!!
What's the plan for the canopy??

[doch]

Thanks! I'm really happy with how it turned out. As for the canopy, I've got a buddy that's a carpenter... When he finds a free day he's going to head over and we'll finish the rest. It will be the same size as what you see, but with properly finished panels and trim. They will all match the piping enclosure and be stained the same color. Hopefully that will all be done in the next week or so... I just had to get a few pics up!

[doch]

Not much of an update, as my carpenter buddy is lazy as eff. Grrrrr. However, I thought that I would mention that on Boxing day I bought a Yassa Hase goby, and a Helfrich's Fire fish. I put them in the tank, and never saw them again. Until today!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!! Both of them are hiding in the same rock, about 3" apart. Unreal. I also recently found my super awesome Black Capped Basslet that I thought had died months ago. I'm pretty sure that the reason for these fishies all hiding is that I have Satan himself living in my aquarium. He may look like a male Lyretail Anthias, but that's just the form that he's chosen for our world. On top of chasing these fish into hiding, I'm pretty sure that he's killed 2 other fire fish, a rainfords goby, and 2 dracula gobies (these make me very angry)... however, given this weeks findings, I wouldn't be all that surprised if they all came out of hiding once Satan has been extradited... to the sewer!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAA!!! (just kidding, he'll be donated to Steve at Red Coral) I've been planning, and my wife's been nagging for the exorcism of this devil, but it just hasn't quite happened yet. Maybe this weekend...?

Also, here is a link to a post that I've made regarding some SPS troubles that I've been having lately:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82087

[RedCoralEdmonton]

thanks for the "donation" lol....

Steve

[doch]

Banana!

Originally Posted by RedCoralEdmonton

thanks for the "donation" lol....

Steve

Hahaha! Anytime Steve! Hey... he's great with fish bigger than him.... just a bully to the little fellas.

[RedCoralEdmonton]

so to the 300 he goes! lol

Steve