Makena95GT Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 I just want to stare at that pond all day lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bigsby Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Wow almost a 2 year bump! Thanks bigsby! Come over anytime. No purchase necessary. You bet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Holy wow. I just went through this build thread for the first time and it is first class all the way. Really beautiful execution on the original design. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Holy wow. I just went through this build thread for the first time and it is first class all the way. Really beautiful execution on the original design. It's always fun to look back at day 1 and see how far builds have come. It seemed forever ago that the system was started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted October 29, 2014 Share Posted October 29, 2014 Shawn, now you have an excuse to buy a frag from Richard and go see that setup in person. It's amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Yeah, actually he told me that he was going to show me some toadstool fragging techniques as well! So, I think I have an in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 As some of you have surmised when my tank went up for sale this week, I'm getting out of the hobby for a while. We are moving to a new house and I thought this would be a good time to take a break and leave on a high note. My tank has been on autopilot for the last 6 months as my interests have wandered elsewhere. No water changes, no supplements, no carbon, no GFO, no water testing, no filter socks, no fragging, no new additions. Just fish food, Kalkwasser and simple carbon dosing. Cut my skimmer back to 4 hours at night. I was practically ignoring my tank compared to my past behavior. About a month ago I was chunking in the food and it struck me that my display tank was just killing it (in the good sense). Colors and growth were amazing. I also realized that I hadn't had any RTN losses or other dramatic events. Acros, which were always a struggle for me, were now huge, beautiful colonies. LPS and softies were plump and crowding each other out. Eventually, I'll get back into the hobby, and when I do, I'm going to seriously think about keeping things super simple. Anyways, here's some parting shots of my tank the night before the teardown. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Wow Richard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Nice Richard! You pulled a Peyton Manning! It almost looks like your backdrop is the American flag with all those asterinas back there so perfectly placed! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Your tank looks (looked) incredible, wow! It's good to hear a simple system can be that successful. I wish I could figure out how to make that work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gig 'em @ NDstructible Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Man Richard, way to end on a high note. Where are all these super healthy corals going btw? I know of a guy who has a new tank with lots of open real estate [emoji847] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 WOW! Stuff looks fantastic! I am curious what your water parameters are. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 [emoji24] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBMarlin Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Congrats Richard on amazing success, your tank looks fantastic! Please post the lighting that you ended with, Kalc dosing regimen and your water parameters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 WOW! Stuff looks fantastic! I am curious what your water parameters are.. I'm curious too!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 Congrats Richard on amazing success, your tank looks fantastic! Please post the lighting that you ended with, Kalc dosing regimen and your water parameters. Three radions peaking at 40% mid-day plus a 5' BML super actinic strip for some UV. 1 Tbs of Kalk per gallon in my ATO tank plus about 40 ml of alkalinity solution per day. 10ml of Red Sea's NoPox (carbon dosing) per day. Last water test was 2 weeks ago: 6.1 alk, and 0.0 phosphates (both Hanna Ckr) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 WOW! Stuff looks fantastic! I am curious what your water parameters are.As of yesterday when I grabbed some of his water:Salinity - 1.027 (digital refractometer) PO4 - 0.0 ppm (Hanna ultra low phosporus meter) NO3 - 0.25 ppm (Red Sea Pro) Ca - 360 ppm (Red Sea Pro) Alk - 7.7 dKh (Hanna meter) Mg - 1560 ppm (Red Sea Pro) Bare in mind that a large portion of his corals and fish stock were removed earlier in the week I believe. Also, from our conversation, he was still running Red Sea NoPox (basically carbon dosing), running his giant skimmer rated for 500 gallons, and dosing 2-part in conjunction with kalk in ATO. So altogether, still dosing foundation elements and running ultra low nutrients while in cruise control. I can't remember if he said he was running GFO still or had any macro growing in the sump but Richard can fill that in if need be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Ha! Thanks Ty! That higher alk level (6.1 up to 7.7) is interesting. I'd think the bulk of the increase came from the large amount of fresh saltwater I had to introduce to the system when I was removing livestock and live rock. No GFO or macro algae, btw. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Ha! Thanks Ty! That higher alk level (6.1 up to 7.7) is interesting. I'd think the bulk of the increase came from the large amount of fresh saltwater I had to introduce to the system when I was removing livestock and live rock. No GFO or macro algae, btw. I'm a complete nerd... I know. That's very interesting about the lack of GFO and macro algae. I wonder where all your phosphates went? I guess you had so much coral mass that the phosphate was utilized by them? I've heard discussions about having stock large enough that it starts to become your phosphate sink via their uptake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Lol, then my frags were the nutrient exports out of my tank! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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