Neal's SPS & ZOA/PALY SYSTEM Coral & Livestock pics thread...

[pallobi]

i recently obtained a 180 AGA RR with corner overflows and a custom tube steel stand... i also have a 120 standard i will use as the "fuge"... and most likely a 50 or 60g sump of some sort... and t5 lights, though i may go with (3) 400 watt halides if i can get the double ballast i have fixed or get one to replace it... i have the other single ballast as well... i would need bulbs and high quality reflectors though, and i would want 400 watt radiums... and the utility on it will be unreasonable most likely, though i dont mind dishing out cash for my hobbies... but we will see... so i may stay with t5's... and jus get a 10 bulb 60" ATI bad boy

same idea with the system as where i am at with the one i have now... same presentation and approach in husbandry... jus larger scale... all barebottom, very high flow in the entire system, and powerful skimming and lots of activated carbon... and adequate lighting for growing sps only... will most likely add a third chamber for carbon and boost the pump a bit... i also have a 100g rubbermaid feed stock tank should i find a way to fit it in... i may make this the sump, which is actually more likely than not...

i have no date for this upgrade, it will happen naturally, but is there in the wings jus sitting in my garage waiting its turn... i will not do it until my corals start needing the room... i will still not have a large bioload of fish... will most likely only add 2 more tangs to the display with the purple tang and maybe another wrasse or two that does not require sand necessarily... before someone says dont add anything after the purple tang, believe me i know, he wont even let me stick my hand in the tank with getting after me... pretty awesome actually... but he will be set aside in his on holding tank until i can get the other tangs in there... and let them settle in...

the 120g "fuge' to be will have my captive bred bangaii pair, and the coral beauty unless/until i can get a nice pair of potters one day, and this could happen anytime from here on out should i have the extra loot, not need any gear and everything else is in order, and i come across a healthy pair from Divers Den or something... so it may be a bit, but i will get them ... i will also have another fish, maybe two in the 120... so in what will be at least 300 to 350 gallons of water in my system to be, i will have no more than 10 fish, most small with 3 tangs at the very most in the display...

with powerful skimming, high flow throughout, and lots of activated carbon... like now, i will keep my system ULNS (ultra low nutrients) naturally, without a deep sand bed or any carbon or bacterial dosing whatsoever...

the whole upgrade will not happen fast, and as i said, i have no date set... it will happen when it needs to... my main reason for this, is i do not want to disturb my corals, and i want to keep them comfy, settled in, and happy as long as i can, and let them do their thing, and reward me in the process

 

[pallobi]

 

[pallobi]

this is my red planet about 2 weeks after complete bleaching, and on the mend, i have had this for 7 weeks or so

the pics' colors are actually lighter than they really are, but both are far from 100%... but again, getting much better as we go...

and my sunset monti i got about 7 weeks ago, it came in the mail and was very much light in color and has also been coming around as growing... another 8 weeks or so and it should be 100% and looking real good i hope...

 

[pvh]

Where are the zoas? I don't see any yet.

 

[Neya]

Where are the zoas? I don't see any yet.

Post 4 last photo has some zoa

 

[pallobi]

Where are the zoas? I don't see any yet.

they are coming

i dont have as many as i used to as i sold off some of the colonies i jus didnt care for so much anymore... i wasnt gonna keep zoas anymore at all, but i jus like them too much to not keep the ones i really like in particular... plus i can sell a few frags of them here and there and help with the up keep of my system as far as its funding, though this isnt something i do constantly, only when its feasible as i dont like to destroy my colonies and have any less than 25 healthy polyps of each... and i dont really ever frag my sps, and will only do it with larger colonies when i do... and at this point, i dont plan on doing it for quite some time as i jus want to let them grow... the sps are my pride and joy, whether some are very common or not... so hacking them up is not an option whatsoever until its basically needed due to space constraints... or jus basic pruning to keep them looking nice...

but again, more pics are coming, especially the few zoas i have at this time

I will also put up a stock list of all my corals for the heck of it and a point of reference as well...

 

[reeferpj]

looks great!!! lets see a FTS

 

[pallobi]

looks great!!! lets see a FTS

working on it bud

i'll have a new one today, hopefully sooner than later...

 

[MikeG]

though i may go with (3) 400 watt halides if i can get the double ballast i have fixed or get one to replace it... i have the other single ballast as well... i would need bulbs and high quality reflectors though, and i would want 400 watt radiums...

I have an old 5' PFO fixture that had three 400W bulbs. My double ballast works fine, I gave the single away but it wasn't the right ballast anyway. You are welcome to it if you want to trade me your single. I am just keeping it for spare parts. The hood had actinics as well that no longer work so those would need to be swapped out or just gut the fixture for parts like sockels and wiring.

 

[PSU4ME]

Nice stuff Neal.......those SPS really do look nice.

I'm sure you mentioned it somewhere but what are you doing for Ca/Alk mantinance? Are you running a Ca reactor?

 

[loki32687]

I don't see zoas...

 

[pallobi]

Well guys, I had taken a bunch of pics today, and jus got them uploaded to Photobucket when we had a bad storm start to rip through my area and now the power is out... so looks like ill be baby sitting my system until it comes back on by oxygenating the water and creating some sort of flow... hopefully its up sooner rather than later... and ill have all the new pics up after this ordeal is past... wish me luck...

 

[reeferpj]

good luck man if you were close id say come grab my geny but it would prob be back on way before you got home with it lol

 

[jfourn83]

cool idea for a tank.....need a fts

 

[pallobi]

good luck man if you were close id say come grab my geny but it would prob be back on way before you got home with it lol

Thanks pj... so far so good, but still babysitting the system... right now I'm out in my ride listening to tunes and thumbing through the net with my phone in the power outlet cuz I'm bored lol... at the moment I have 1 vortech plugged into a battery backup I took off the computer ... I let it go for about 10 to 20 mins then turning it off for about 30 to conserve and so on... and use a pitcher to scoop and dump to help for oxygen

Hopefully its on in the next couple hours...

I was all excited to show u guys my pics too... lol

 

[Neya]

Do you have fish in your system?

 

[pallobi]

I do... I have a purple tang and Sixline wrasse in my display... and a coral beauty angel and tank bred Banggai cardinal pair in my "fuge"...

 

[pallobi]

Nice stuff Neal.......those SPS really do look nice.

I'm sure you mentioned it somewhere but what are you doing for Ca/Alk mantinance? Are you running a Ca reactor?

Hey Brian...(I think I got that right?) ... lol anyways, I guess I didn't mention it here yet... I only use bulk reef 2 part in my system, and its worked well for me... I'm sure there is other 2 parts that work well too, but if it isn't broke, don't fix it

And at the risk of some ridicule, I don't ever plan on using a reactor regardless of the price the two part gets too... however its not that costly at all... I jus beleive simpler is better and I don't wana deal with a reactor, its tuning and many parts involved, and all the extra things to plug in... manual dosing gives me peace of mind too, and keeps me more involved, which I really like, cuz I am all about hands on... I automate nothing but my lights which are in that sense, on a timer...

 

[pallobi]

hey guys, finally got internet access for my laptop and power back as it was out from about 5pm yesterday to about 6am this morning... it wasnt all fun and games as i lost my heater and had some stray voltage in the tank this morning when i got up around 8am, (nice little surpirse that was, ouch lol)... but all appears well other than that... all i have at the moment is a 50 watt heater to substitute, which isnt that suffice of course, but its better than nothing... and as the temp in the basement doesnt get cold and with all the pumps i have, along with the outside weather this time of year, the temp should stay within acceptable range until i can work on getting a new one early next week... i am going to newport for the weekend so i cant take care of it till then... but i'll get more into why all this happened and my experience with my first extended power outage i ever had to deal with... but overall, i would like to think it could have been alot worse...

but for now, lets get to some full system and full tank shots, as well as some shots of my current zoa collection... and a few more to throw in here and there

again, sorry for the quality, all my pics are taken with my phone camera

 

[pallobi]

first off, please dont mind the white eggcrate in the front right handside of the tank, a make shift frag rack... i used to keep my zoas in my 65g "fuge", however after selling my light for it, i needed to put them somewhere for the time being, so until all the frags are gone, it has to be in here for proper lighting... normally the whole front row is spread all the way across the front and isnt so packed in... so its a bit unsightly for the time being, my aplogies