grassi Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Since I started my 65g this summer I wanted to add a prop-tank. A few days ago I got a nice shallow acrylic tank from MR S and here we go. The tank will be a propagation tank for all our ricordea florida, ricordea yuma and zoas. Maybe a St Thomas shroom or two (naughty) Growing ricordeas in a display tank is kinda impossible: you keep loosing the new frags and they end up in the mouth of some other coral.. So this is the "ricordeum". (clap) I spent some time cleaning, reparing, and buffing the tank. Today I built the stand, or at least the frame and some of the external panels. I also prepared the plumbing to be glued (later tonight). I think I will have it running tomorrow morning. The ricordeum is attached to our 65g display, feed by gravity. A simple solution that Frank suggested to me. The filtration will be the same of the 65, so I don't even need to cycle the new tank... Here some pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Looks good! Hooking this tank up to your DT will make it much easier to maintain. I used to have my frag tank separate from the DT but now they are interconnected and I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwcoralfarm Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 You know man, if you just put some water in that tank you wont have to worry about clamping it to the table, it will just stay there on it's own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 I just put a few gallons ;-) Almost done with plumbing... I'm buzzed... must be the primer ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stylaster Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 looking nice, next time i come over to see your basement it will be converted into one giant tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadams7 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Love the idea of a ricordea prop tank...I have been threatening to do it now for a while. What lighting are you going to run, and how much flow are you going to have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 Roy, Jamie is lucky we don't have a swimming pool! As lights I'm gonna run a 14k MH. I already used this setup and it was great. Flow will be moderate. Other than the return, I will use some spare koralia Nano to have many sources of gentle flow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 we demand more pics alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 A couple of pics with the tank connected and running and a shot of the tank room in the basement. I'm still working on the flow, but I'm almost done :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 That's a great looking basement with all those tanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgf86123 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 nah, you need more tanks, definitely need more tnaks, where that 65 is, id upgrade that to a 200 or so, an give me the 65 :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 We have a 55 upstairs to actually ;-) I love to spend time in the basement with the tanks. Helps with stress :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stylaster Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 hmmm you know... get some pond liner and just turn the whole thing into one huge tank, then you can go snorkeling too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 We are renting now, but we are looking for an house to buy. That's why I'm "limiting" myself with tanks (wife) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 It looks like you have four tanks in the basement and one upstairs and you are "limiting" yourself. That's funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmanmike01 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 How is it gravity fed when your grow out tank appears to be higher in elevation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 One of the four is not running right now ;-) The limit is the size per single tank. With a 65 you can't have some of the beautiful fish you have in your 400.. I'm not saying that I want a 400 tank, but a 180 with the right sizes will be perfect. The grow out is 9 inches tall and it sits 3'' under the top of the display bh and 5'' on top of the sump. So I have enough room for gravity feed from the top of display. The bottom of the prop-tank is higher than the bottom of the display, but that doesn't matter. Problem is that with a 3/4 bulkhead and 3'' of gap the flow was very slow. So I connected the main return pump to feed the prop-tank and it works the way I want. Now I just have to buy a couple of check valves for the 2 display tank bulkheads, so they don't gravity feed the prop-tank and from there the sump overflowing it when the power is off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadams7 Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 Lets get some Ricordea pics!!!!! Is that the 'fish need it' pendant? How do you like it? I am going to be running 2x250 on my new setup and have been testing them out so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted February 6, 2010 Author Share Posted February 6, 2010 I'm building the racks for them. I still have some 400 dremel cuts to do... I'm building 2 units that can hold 200 ricordias plus a little one for the "nursery" :-) At now the ricordias are in the other tanks. Just fragged a few days ago and some new pieces will be here soon. Yes, that's the fish need it. I got one year ago and I love it, especially with a good bulb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilmca Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 I saw some pendants from fishneedit on RC and I was impressed. They were very inexpensive and looked good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted February 6, 2010 Author Share Posted February 6, 2010 Yes they are. I like the look of mine. It's a 150w. The reflector is small and the material is poor, but with a nice phoenix it looks great. I had nice growing rates before. Somebody wrote they were catching on fire, but that was before they switch to the new ballasts. I use to have a double 175w, from the other brand they distribute (odyssea), but I didn't like it. The fish need it is similar, as design, to the Aqua Medic Spacelight. It is also modular: I like the idea to add a second MH unit and 2 t5 for connecting the pendants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted February 7, 2010 Author Share Posted February 7, 2010 I finally got some black eggcrate and I'm preparing the ricordea rack. I changed the plumbing of the frag tank a little so now I can run the ricordea frag tank independently from the display tank, when it is needed. This is very useful when fragging ricordeas because they release lot of muchus which is very dangerous to the other corals. So after fragging I can run the frag tank alone and add iodine; then I can connect it again to the display and to the main filtration system. The frag racks will be able to hold about 300 ricordeas and there will be a nursery able to hold the new mushrooms in place until they attach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 How are you going to attach the ricordea frags? I had trouble getting them glued on to anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted February 12, 2010 Author Share Posted February 12, 2010 Most of the time the only way is to let them attach spontaneously. It could take a few weeks if you do it well and you are lucky. In a display tank with powerheads and other corals it's always a bet. That's why we decided to go with the frag tank. That's why ricordeas are still somehow expensive compared to other corals :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grassi Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 some new pics The ricordeum is up and running 100%. We still have to transfer some polyps from the biocube and some small ones from the display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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