Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

[BlueAbyss]

Sorry to hear of your loss... you're stronger than I am

And you're very much on your way with all that nice equipment Can't wait to see how things turn out... where are you getting your rock from? J&L? And what kind of rock?

I've been wanting to see some real world pics of the Irian Jaya rock that they have on their website.

[whatcaneyedo]

Happy anniversary! It says the first post in this thread was July 23, 2008!

[skabooya]

Blue Abyss: thats what everyone is saying about me. That im so strong. It doesnt feel like it. I loose it when im at my own place. But life must go on, as hard as it is.
And yes, some not so bad stuff i recieved. Im hoping my tank turns out to look almost as good as many others on this forum.

whatcaneyedo: YAY 1 year... although it feels longer than that lol.

[skabooya]

Hey all. Well the rollercoaster of emotions has not stopped yet. As you know my dad recently passed and I just found out that I was pregnant last month. I am now 9 weeks and 6 days. It will be our first child and the first baby in the whole family (grandchild, neice/nephew, cousin, etc) It is also my first time being pregnant. Its a bitter sweet pregnancy. We are excited about it but I just wish my Dad was here to play with his grandchild like he wanted.

Anyways, I recieved all my shipments for the salty tank and have been looking for a stand. Aparently they dont make stands for that size tank anymore. Im getting one made but my father in law says he wont start that for a while. Its been MONTHS! and he still doesnt want to start it. I wish my hubby would but hes not exactly motivated to do anything at any time. This is really getting frustrating but I will post pics of what i have so far in just a few minutes

[skabooya]

Here they are. There will be more rock added as LR in order to seed the tank. Im trying to decide where to place corals so they can be seen at their best. i want just a few corals and I want to let them grow out so the tank looks full and very established. As for fish I keep tossing the idea around of what I want so it will be quite some time after coral before I get any fish I think.



Coral Thoughts:
mushrooms (blue, blue with spots, green with stripes)
zoas (blues, pinks, anything funky in the blue/pink range)
neon candy cane
kandy kane acan
green with pink/purple tip frogspawn
neon green hammer
ice blue cloves and other cloves
blue pulsing xenia
blue rics and rics with blue in them


Fish thoughts (only one of the selections below):
2 true percs
1 coral beauty
pistol yasha goby combo
blue damsels
6 line wrasse
???

[Skimmerking]

my system costs around 30 bucks a month for my full blown SPS with 3 250's i have a 150 gal too i guess it pays to live in manitoba .568 cent a kilo watt

Originally Posted by skabooya

Sorry I havent been on in a while. I ended up spending my money on bookshelves for my office $1000+ which i really needed. My knees and bum were getting sore from doing paper work on the floor and digging through piles of books and papers stacked up on average 3ft high on the floor.
Anyway I managed to save up enough money to buy some equiptment YAY! and then BOOM the electric bill comes. Did you know that there is a new residential conservation rate? It just started up Oct 1 of this year. Well you can imagine my ****yness when our electric bill went up an extra $100 because of this.
This is an incentive for people to conserve energy and to do this they are going to charge extra for power. So instead of power costing $0.06550 it is now going to cost in total $0.18 on average BUT it will depend. I quote "If you use less than 2260 kWh on a bi-monthly basis you will pay less than under the previous flat rate structure" it goes on to say "The new rate structure provides a price incentive to encourage conservation"
It says on the hydro website if you use more than 1350kWh you will pay 7.21cents/kwh until April 1 2009 at which time this price will go up to 8.21/kwh cents. But if you use less than 1350kWh then you only pay 5.95/kwh cents until April 1, 2009 when the price goes up to 6.35 cents per kwh and this is on top of the rate we are paying now which is a little over 6 cents.
BUT get this there are 2 steps to this Step one charges 0.5980/kwh and step 2 charges 0.07210/kwh so really you are getting charged 3 times. WHY? i have no idea and when i called they couldnt explain it to me either and only told me to wait until they read the meter again in november and re-bill me. I was like WTF?
So in total i am paying 18cents per kWh.
This means the tank I want to set up will now cost PER MONTH:

Heater = 100watts 24/7
Hydor K1 = 3.5watts 24/7
Hydor k2= 4.5watts 24/7
Skimmer = 10watts 24/7
Lights = ~160watts 8hrs

watts/1000 (conversion to kW) then
kW x hours x kWh cost (18 cents in my case) x 31 (days of the month)
Then you get your answer

For me its $127.38/month AND this does not include normal upkeep costs, salt, water, food, etc. This is just for electric.
Before this my 28gal would have cost me about $50/month. I feel sorry for those that have 100+ gal systems WOW!

So now what do i do. Do i still do salt water or do i switch to something else that is cheaper. *sigh* our economy sucks.

[karazy]

looking good.

for corals i would say maybe add a finger leather to your list. they always look awesome once they grow out and will make your tank look nice and mature. plus they grow quickly too.

[skabooya]

yes if i got a leather I would want a green polyp devils hand.
Things have started to get back to normal, somewhat.
My father in law finally got around to building my stand but he wont give it to me until christmas so i guess I wont set the tank up until then. I hope Im not too big by then
On a brighter note I am now an auntie for the first time. My sister in law gave birth to my little neice Teanna on November 6th. YAY shes so beautiful. A few more months and it will be me Yikes. Pretty scarry.

[BlueAbyss]

I like the way your rockwork looks already Congrats on being an auntie!

[skabooya]

Well my father in law built and painted a stand for me YAY!!! but i dont get it until christmas lol. So I guess/hope that it will be started for the new year.
I am now 19 weeks 5 days pregnant and baby is kicking up a storm

Once the tank is cycled my first purchase will more than likely be shrooms... after the CUC