FarmerTy

Haha, you know the history of my tank... sps just love to throw out the polyps in my tanks. [emoji57] You can tell when my SPS started getting happy... right around the holidays, there was an explosion of growth... shows you what stable parameters can do. Nothing really changed in my system other than a couple months of good consistency and boom... growth! [emoji41] So for the SPS lovers in the group, stop changing stuff around... just aim for consistency for a couple of months and you'll be rewarded.

Jedi mind trick: 7/2014 3/2015 Lovelli: 7/2014 3/2015 Blue mille: 7/2014 11/2014 3/2015 Mariculture: 9/2014 11/2014 3/2015

Some growth pics since I have no fish in the tank to entertain me. Blue bottlebrush: 05/2014 8/2014 11/2014 3/2015 Oregon Tort: 7/2014 3/2015 Sunset monti: 7/2014 11/2014 3/2015

My latest harvest: This plate has been going 4 years strong. [emoji4]

That should actually be the ideal spectrum for chaeto. Perhaps it is not enough wattage? Either that or maybe you don't have a nutrient issue? What evidence do you have for a nutrient issue? Algae growth? High readings?

Haha, so this is the accumulation of 10 years of pining over a new system. I fully understand and I'm impressed with the budget more so now. [emoji106] I'm still running old school halides for my tank for SPS so I'm always curious to see more LED-lit SPS tanks. I'm looking forward to seeing your build come together!

Holy moly! I think my entire setup was around $2k! I'm extremely jealous of your budget! Tank looks like it's coming together nicely. Curious, what was your deciding factor to choose kessils for your main lighting?

Did I win something? [emoji16]

I forgot about Gloria's too. I haven't had anything in there that wasn't delicious, great atmosphere, and killer sangria too.

My wife and I enjoy North at lot... delicious Italian food and great atmosphere... though maybe not the local Austin dive you may be looking for. There is the Whole Foods at the Domain which has some tasty food there and also a nice beer selection as well. Maudies is always good.

Where are the construction zone signs? Is it a hard hat area?

I got a piece of Jedi mind trick and undata whenever you want it sir. Get you back on the road again.

Yes, 3/14.

Chris, I can help next Saturday anywhere from 1-3pm. Sorry for the tangent the thread took... we're a bunch of goofballs.

Wait, I believe I can feel a pulse folks... this thread is officially alive again! Well I'm glad to hear that everything has been doing pretty well despite you being gone so much. That's a shame about the clam. I saw the picture first before you mentioned it had died and for a brief second... I thought to myself... I hope Shawn didn't buy a clam shell for decoration. Then I was like... nah... surely he didn't do that. Where you able to get the chaeto established in the back chamber like we had tried before? I know that the spectrum of the light was very important for me to be able to establish it on my old nano and the yellower, the better I say. When I ran a more white light back there, all my chaeto started to die off. I was just thinking about that to possibly help with your nutrients.

Welcome! I use a combination of evaporative cooling and a large chiller... I also run 3 400-watt halides in a canopy so heat does build up pretty quick in there.

You'll need more than a few weeks for the biopellets to ramp up. Typically, it takes about 3-4 weeks to see it fully in action as the bacterial colonies have to start building up in the reactor. I would highly recommend plumbing the biopellet reactor effluent directly into the skimmer... or at the very least, in the skimmer chamber. Most rig up a type of pvc elbow that has a direct connection for the effluent of the biopellet reactor and also an opening for it to pull additional water from the water column. Here's what a quick google search found me. It is similar to what I did on my old system. http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php/1612-Biopellets-Skimmer-modification-complete

Boom, frag gluing master! I didn't say stylo master!

I'm a level 30 reefer right now with 10+ points in coral frag gluing dexterity and 15+ points in the art of making stuff up. I'm only +3 in lifting though.

Yes, I'm talking about Gig'ems neighbor. He did a good job on the modifications on my stand though again, I don't know his reputation for building an entire stand himself so I can't speak to that. Gig'ems brother-in-law sounds like a good option as well. I know Offroaddodge has built a couple of stands on this club so maybe some will chime in on his work. This is also the guy that built his own stand/canopy and added automated hydraulic lift to his canopy so he's quite ingenious and handy.

I'm good at lifting spirits. Does that help?

That sounds like the perfect plan.

Since the last time you tested, you were at 7.1 dKh Monday morning. I'd just test it tomorrow morning without dosing anything and see where you are at two days later. Then we can calculate your daily usage and you can program your 2-part dosers accordingly. I'd aim a little lower than the calculation when you're first putting them online just to do a good test run without accidentally overdosing. At least give yourself a little margin of error in the first run.

I had a welder that did modifications to my metal stand but didn't build it. If you want his info, I can PM it to you.

I'd just PM him. He no longer has a tank but mentioned he'd still be interested in building stands.