wdebenedettojr
Well-Known Member
So i have hardly been on here for about 8 months or so and finally getting back into the tank. Last september my girlfriend and I decided it was time to buy a house so after about 4-5 months we finally moved into our new home and are settling in nicely. During that time i really neglected the tank because of obvious reasons surrounding the house. During the time of serious neglect i only lost one of my acro colonies which wasnt to bad. However when it came to actually moving the tank about a month ago thats a whole other story....
Lets start from when our offer was accepted on the house and we knew we were actually moving....
Since we knew we were definitely moving i figured why not take this time to upgrade my system right?
So my old stand and canopy was a production Sedona Series model (about 10 years old) and i absolutely hated its design. Because the stand (i have a 90 gallon) was so small my sump was tiny and i could not get a decent size skimmer to fit because of the height. I had a 20gallon high as my sump and a ASM G1 as my skimmer. For what it was, the ASM worked awesome but i wanted to upgrade.
First thing was to get a new stand and canopy built. After talking to a few people on here, i managed to get in touch with a member (calciumbuff), Jim, and started working with him on the new stand and canopy. I knew a few people on here that had used him before and saw in person his skill in designing these pieces so i was confident in choosing him. So a few weeks before closing gf and i drove way down to jims house and spoke with him and his wife regarding our design. He had many options to show us but i was pretty set on a design i had seen from another member. I wanted the stand to have doors on the side as well as one large opening in the front for ease of access when needed to service the system. Gf and I settled on a style, wood type (maple), and finish where Jim started building. Few weeks into the building process Jim sent many pictures to show progress and get my approval. Jim even met my short time frame for completion which was awesome and he delivered the furniture to my house for me shortly after closing. Jims craftsmanship is awesome and you can tell he spent tons of time building. Pictures at the end to show how nice it is. I would highly recommend him for anyone looking to have a custom piece made.
Few weeks prior to moving the tank i got to start picking out my new filtration system. After doing a bunch of reading online I had settled on upgrading my skimmer to the Vertex Omega 180i skimmer. I have been in the hobby for almost 15 years now I can confidently say this skimmer is the best skimmer i have ever used/sold/installed/seen. The build quality is phenomenal, pump is silent, and it almost immediately started pulling crap out of the water. My GF always yells at me every time i clean the skimmer because of how bad it smells. I will say this skimmer is very sensitive to water level changing so I would say that is the only flaw in this skimmer. However i would strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a new skimmer. I decided on the Trigger System Emerald Series 34 model sump because of its adjustability. Its well made and so far i love all the space it provides. I love the fact that it has the space built in for a refugium. I would also strongly recommend this sump to anyone looking for all its features. I kept my pump the same (mag 7).i also have a BRS GFO/Carbon reactor on the system. For dosing i am reusing the Pacific Sun Kore doser which is awesome. I bought the mount that Pacsun offers for it and mounted it inside the new stand which looks pretty cool. I am also using the ecotech mp 40 QD power heads; i use two of them. For lighting i use a pacific sun hyperion s with a t5 retro fit kit. I also use an apex with the eco tech modules to control my equipment; must have for any serious reefer.
Now fast forward to moving the tank day. This is a day any serious reefer hates to do; taking the tank down and moving. Long story short during the move i lost 90% of my SPS pieces. My orange cap, red planet, pink lemonade, Blue Oregon Tort, $500 Efflo, Strawberry shortcake, bubblegum Mili, purple passion, almost all of my blue stylo (managed to save a few pieces), red dragon, ice fire echinata. I also lost my gold torch, green torch, rainbow acan colony, mixed zoas, and a big lobo colony. To say the least i was very bummed out considering all these pieces were growing very well. For fish i lost my lawnmower blenny and leopard wrasses but my yellow coris and purple tang were fine. I brought my blue hippo tang, clowns, and anthias, back to a LFS for credit because they were all becoming very aggressive and figured now was the time to do it. When I was reassembling the tank on moving day i left out about 30% of the live rock i had to make a more "open" look to the tank and allow more swimming room for the fish. Overall i think it was a smart decision for not adding all the live rock, i really enjoy the more open look now.
Since the move, the tank has stabilized well and i have begun to replace my old SPS pieces along with a few new ones. I also have added a beautiful Hawaiian Blonde Naso Tang, another pair of leopard wrasses, beautiful Potters angel, and another lawnmower blenny. Surprisingly the Naso and purple tang did not fight once and look to be best friends. Potters hasn't touch a piece of coral yet either *knock on wood*. Overall i think everything is doing well now and hopefully everything starts growing big again! I have added some pictures of the build thus far. I am working on getting a better camera to take some actual coral pictures and will upload soon. I still have to do a little bit of cleaning up with all the wires to make it look a little neater but its coming along. Let me know what you think
Thanks,
Bill
Lets start from when our offer was accepted on the house and we knew we were actually moving....
Since we knew we were definitely moving i figured why not take this time to upgrade my system right?
So my old stand and canopy was a production Sedona Series model (about 10 years old) and i absolutely hated its design. Because the stand (i have a 90 gallon) was so small my sump was tiny and i could not get a decent size skimmer to fit because of the height. I had a 20gallon high as my sump and a ASM G1 as my skimmer. For what it was, the ASM worked awesome but i wanted to upgrade. First thing was to get a new stand and canopy built. After talking to a few people on here, i managed to get in touch with a member (calciumbuff), Jim, and started working with him on the new stand and canopy. I knew a few people on here that had used him before and saw in person his skill in designing these pieces so i was confident in choosing him. So a few weeks before closing gf and i drove way down to jims house and spoke with him and his wife regarding our design. He had many options to show us but i was pretty set on a design i had seen from another member. I wanted the stand to have doors on the side as well as one large opening in the front for ease of access when needed to service the system. Gf and I settled on a style, wood type (maple), and finish where Jim started building. Few weeks into the building process Jim sent many pictures to show progress and get my approval. Jim even met my short time frame for completion which was awesome and he delivered the furniture to my house for me shortly after closing. Jims craftsmanship is awesome and you can tell he spent tons of time building. Pictures at the end to show how nice it is. I would highly recommend him for anyone looking to have a custom piece made.
Few weeks prior to moving the tank i got to start picking out my new filtration system. After doing a bunch of reading online I had settled on upgrading my skimmer to the Vertex Omega 180i skimmer. I have been in the hobby for almost 15 years now I can confidently say this skimmer is the best skimmer i have ever used/sold/installed/seen. The build quality is phenomenal, pump is silent, and it almost immediately started pulling crap out of the water. My GF always yells at me every time i clean the skimmer because of how bad it smells. I will say this skimmer is very sensitive to water level changing so I would say that is the only flaw in this skimmer. However i would strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a new skimmer. I decided on the Trigger System Emerald Series 34 model sump because of its adjustability. Its well made and so far i love all the space it provides. I love the fact that it has the space built in for a refugium. I would also strongly recommend this sump to anyone looking for all its features. I kept my pump the same (mag 7).i also have a BRS GFO/Carbon reactor on the system. For dosing i am reusing the Pacific Sun Kore doser which is awesome. I bought the mount that Pacsun offers for it and mounted it inside the new stand which looks pretty cool. I am also using the ecotech mp 40 QD power heads; i use two of them. For lighting i use a pacific sun hyperion s with a t5 retro fit kit. I also use an apex with the eco tech modules to control my equipment; must have for any serious reefer.
Now fast forward to moving the tank day. This is a day any serious reefer hates to do; taking the tank down and moving. Long story short during the move i lost 90% of my SPS pieces. My orange cap, red planet, pink lemonade, Blue Oregon Tort, $500 Efflo, Strawberry shortcake, bubblegum Mili, purple passion, almost all of my blue stylo (managed to save a few pieces), red dragon, ice fire echinata. I also lost my gold torch, green torch, rainbow acan colony, mixed zoas, and a big lobo colony. To say the least i was very bummed out considering all these pieces were growing very well. For fish i lost my lawnmower blenny and leopard wrasses but my yellow coris and purple tang were fine. I brought my blue hippo tang, clowns, and anthias, back to a LFS for credit because they were all becoming very aggressive and figured now was the time to do it. When I was reassembling the tank on moving day i left out about 30% of the live rock i had to make a more "open" look to the tank and allow more swimming room for the fish. Overall i think it was a smart decision for not adding all the live rock, i really enjoy the more open look now.
Since the move, the tank has stabilized well and i have begun to replace my old SPS pieces along with a few new ones. I also have added a beautiful Hawaiian Blonde Naso Tang, another pair of leopard wrasses, beautiful Potters angel, and another lawnmower blenny. Surprisingly the Naso and purple tang did not fight once and look to be best friends. Potters hasn't touch a piece of coral yet either *knock on wood*. Overall i think everything is doing well now and hopefully everything starts growing big again! I have added some pictures of the build thus far. I am working on getting a better camera to take some actual coral pictures and will upload soon. I still have to do a little bit of cleaning up with all the wires to make it look a little neater but its coming along. Let me know what you think
Thanks,
Bill
