FarmerTy

Oh, you have a limited edition TT birdsnest. Just kidding! I'm glad it's growing great in your tank! Once they are happy, birdsnest will grow like crazy. You're more than welcome to swing by whenever you make it here. I over document my tank so much it probably feels like you've stood in my fish room already I'm sure. As you might have noticed when looking at the video, the powder blue did not make it. I probably shouldn't have tried to add him while upgrading my tank at the same time but it was a gamble as to getting one healthy enough to survive the new tank and also adding all my tangs at the same time to avoid territorial issues. I opted to add all at the same time to avoid territorial issues and it ended up not making it and also causing an ich outbreak with my established population. So, I would highly recommend a stable tank first and also to QT but QT in the largest tank you have as the powder blue seems to get more stressed than other fish in being in a small tank. Mine had flukes to start with, so QT is not something I would skip. Also, it was super territorial, so as far as tangs go, he probably should be your only one in the tank. I would add your other non-tangs first as well just in case and add him last. I will definitely try another one down the road but he's going to have to be a big one as now my current population has their terrories set up and may not be very open to him joining the tank.

Macros in tubes... what will they think of next?! FTS looks awesome Kim! Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Why bother? Who's looking in there? Unless you mean there is algae growing in there. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Its always with my phone. I don't have any of those fancy smancy electronics. Did you upload it to Youtube?

That music was hand-picked! I feel like I should be holding a ridiculously small microphone on a stick and should now ask people what they want to bid on that showcase! If you get it within $100 of the actual retail value, you'll get both rock islands! And remember folks, spay and neuter your dogs and cats! -Ty Barker

I might be classified as an SPS addict so always happy to see more SPS dominant tanks! Looking forward to the build bud. Should I go ahead and say it now? Watch your salinity? -Ty

Since the robot arm project got shelved... here's your video Manny.

Glue your corals keeping in mind their expected growth form and rate. Nothing like scraping anthelia or trying to kill off an encrusting monti that is on an unremovable base rock.

Due to a recent and unpredicted explosion in the number of frags I have via a chopping robot arm, I will be shutting down the robot arm until further notice. Thank you. -MGMT

Ummmm yeah, I'm going to need you to build me a chamber like that but longer so I can acclimate new fish to their new tankmates. If you could do that... that would be greeeaaat. Awesome work James!

I started with the skinning this weekend but with so many other things on my plate... it didn't get completed yet. Soon! You know Manny... video's were so last week. I'm going to be installing a camera that is controllable via an online interface and installing a robot arm so that people can interact directly with my tank. Feed my fish... sure... why not? Want to knock down my ORA hawkins echinata colony? Give it the robot chop! Knock yourself out!

Don't heed anybody's advice until you see their handywork. Everybody has an opinion, make sure you follow the correct one. That almost sound like something from a fortune cookie. Tankfucious says...

I'm sure there would have been a period of a week or so where acclimating them to the 400-watt lighting versus the 250-watt lighting and the different flow patterns and tank newness would have had them at their less than stellar colors but I doubt I would have had the rampant STN I had when I thought I was running a system at 1.026 when it was really around 1.032 for an extended period of time.

Thought this would be a fun thread for everyone to post their "lessons learned" to help future reefers avoid the same pitfalls we found ourselves in at one point in time. Lessons Learned: 1) Buy a refractometer! Don't even allow a hydrometer in the house! Cost me some of my large SPS colonies! 2) Dip everything! I mean everything! You have no idea how many plagues I have fought over the years due to poor dipping procedures. 3) QT is your best friend! Your whole tank population is at risk otherwise. 4) Don't leave things and say you'll get to it eventually... like a frag that fell down, or not removing that one aiptasia, or that one piece of bubble algae. You could have stopped a plague! 5) Stock slowly! Let your system adjust to each livestock addition. All other roads lead to algae, cyano, dinos, and diatoms. 6) Reap the rewards of a stable system. Aim to have everything stable. Hitting target numbers are less important than stability. 7) Good test kits are worth it! 8) If you can keep alk stable, you are a reef master! 9) Always have a towel within reaching distance. 10) A skimmer and a controller are my two best friends when it comes to my tank. Get technology to help, its readily available to lend you a hand. 11) Always have a backup plan when the power goes out I think that's a good start. I'm sure everyone else has a ton of other "lessons learned" that they can share! -Ty

Yes yes, can you give it more blue undertones like the first pic? I think the lime green polyps are kind of gawdy, almost like a cheap red lipstick. You have something more subtle... like a pastel green? Oh yeah, the colonies were fine with the transitions, even with the stressed state. All of the foster tanks are really stable systems so the transition was easy. Even with the differences in average temperature, alk levels, lighting, and even salinity. I just goofed it all up by letting my salinity go sky high on me but I think if that didn't happen, the transition would have been very smooth if that eases your concerns on upgrading tanks with SPS. Hindsight is 20/20 but for those out there still using a hydrometer, get a refractometer already! I never check my salinity since I don't do water changes but the one time I needed it to be correct with the tank upgrade, it let me down! Lesson learned!

+1 to what Jestep said. I'd be hunting for an Apex Lite instead of a Jr. You'll exhaust the 4 controllable ports in a heartbeart and end up buying the additional EB8 for $150 anyways so you might as well get the unit that already has 8 ports.

Ha, it's always nice to have a canary in the tank. Mine canary is my duncan colony. First to tell me something isn't right!

I'll send you all my brown colonies sir and pay you a coloration service. Can you highlight the areas around the polyps and give them a subtle yet bold masking underneath the corallites?

It just makes life easier and makes your tank that much more stable. 24-hr monitoring is a small price to pay when you have $1,000's invested in coral and livestock. When I used to travel a lot for work, I'd literally have $100-200 of coral die on me each time I left from the instability of regular topoffs and dosing. I'm no math major, but it didn't take me long to realize paying $400-500 for a complete Apex system to circumvent all the death is worth it.

Have you had any other livestock die in the last year?

My tank has been pretty stable as of late... enough so that I went ahead and collected back my SPS colonies back from their foster homes. Thank you Richard L, Juiceman, and ol' aggie for saving my babies. I took some time tonight to glue all my colonies back on the rocks before my urchins walked off with any of them. Here's just a couple of quick snaps of the tank. It's good to have my SPS back! Blue lemonade Blue tenius Purple stylo Left side of tank FTS

You may be on the trail of my new screen name change. Been a year since I sold my jeep... it's about time!

I thought this was going to be a children's story.

I hear ya! Well, this way you can go super big once you get settled! GLWS!

That's a beautiful setup! Sorry to see you guy's go! Are you staying in town? Setting up another tank in the future?