Arsonmfg

So it sounds like you've come up with a solution that works for you and I won't be the guy that says "my way is the only way" but I do think you've created a recipe for disaster at some point.

I used 5/8" acrylic rods and a masonry bit, the left rock is now one giant piece that can still be taken apart if necessary. The rocks on the left are two separate pieces.

Definitely looking forward to the fight tonight!

I have to agree with Mandinga... You're on the edge of a guaranteed disaster at some point. How often do you monitor your PH? Using baking soda that isn't baked will drop your PH, sometimes quite significantly.

Thanks, it's pretty odd to me that the Poly Pad and some Carbon could do so much good and so fast... Which leaves me to believe maybe it was some sort of a toxin or just pissed off corals that really didn't like the clean nutrient free salt water. Either way I'm just happy the worst seems to have passed. Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how it came out... It's not too often you have a picture in your head and it actually comes together like you envision it. At least not for me, I usually have to aqua scape a few times before I'm ever happy. I have a soft spot for Naso's... I'm glad I'm back to a decently sized tank that I can keep one again. The left rock was the first one I built, I had some other really large pieces I was going to build from but things just kinda came together. Coral placement can always be tricky, thankfully I've started all these from frags so I've got a pretty good idea of the growth structures of each piece so that helps but it's still tricky finding a good balance that helps the colors contrast one another. As for the color, it can't come back soon enough... I was fairly happy with how my cube was looking with the exception of the lack of space left so it was hard doing the upgrade knowing there would always been some losses and things would be pissed off. This definitely wasn't my first rodeo, this whole upgrade and transfer just kept throwing me curve balls. I'm glad it's all done for the most part lol. I haven't decided what to do under the shelves at this point, some gorgs would be cool... I haven't quite gotten there yet.

Gone! Close the thread please.

PENDING

Just like the title says, 40x20x12 glass frag tank, two holes drilled in the bottom. SPS frags will be accepted as gratuity =)

So I guess an update is due... It appears the the RTN has slowed and possibly stopped, there are a few pieces that I'm going to trash that I don't suspect will make it. Most of the corals have been mounted and a few are showing a little color improvement today. So hopefully this is a sign of things to come! There are a few corals still scattered amongst the sand bed that I need to mount and will get to this week.

If this is the case you've already screwed yourself and if you're lucky you might be able to pull the nem and give it to a fellow reefer. A new tank should have nothing living in it for the first few weeks. FYI when you have questions like this pictures always help as well as the results of a full water test.

Even at a wholesale cost I think you'd run through about $500 in fish just to MAYBE get one that would withstand 12 weeks of copper so the odds are definitely on my side

I would think so if we can say that it's life cycle without a host is 12 weeks then I would think that a truly acceptable term would be 12 weeks to consider a fish 100% parasite free. I honestly believe that all of our fish are hosting parasites and that when they're stressed or sick we see an outbreak. Also we need to remember that what were seeing isn't the actual parasite itself but marks from the parasite doing damage to the fish. This is always an interesting discussion... I'd be interested to see a study done on the life cycle of Ich when treated with copper on a host animal. I don't believe one has been done. Either way as Mike said, Achilles PBT are both extremely susceptible tangs when it comes to Ich. Not many people have long term success with either fish. Mike's Achilles was amazing, they don't get much better than that!

I'll give you $500 if you can keep a PBT in a QT with a therapeutic level of copper for 12+ weeks! Let alone most any reef fish for that matter!

Anytime bud! Glad you were stoked on it! Now you can obsess about all the endless things you can do with it!

While I haven't seen that one in particular there are studies out there for EVERYTHING, wait till you have a kid! There's enough studies out there to make you insane and most of them are either incomplete or based on very short term experiments or completely flawed. It's hard to argue with people who are clearly smarter than myself on the subject but I'd love to direct an experiment using the PBT especially. If you can get one to live through a long QT and introduce it to a reef that's been ran fallow for X amount of time and then start to introduce stress I can almost promise you an outbreak. But hey what do I know...

There are many opinions on Ich, personally I think if the fish is eating leave him be, he'll either die or get over it and live to swim another day. Usually they get over it. I've killed many more fish in QT and others stressing all the animals out chasing them around a tank only to make a bad situation worse by trying to treat a problem fish. I have yet to see any research that has proven letting a tank run fallow and QT'ing every fish for X amount of time will make your reef tank Ich free... I honestly think that's a load of BS.

Well it's called 2 part because you have one for alk and one for calcium... I'm with higher in this one. Did you even read anything we've posted for you??? There's multipule recipes because they all work a little differently. But 99% of people will use the one I posted above.

Recipe #1, Part 2: The Alkalinity Part Spread baking soda (594 grams or about 2 ¼ cups) on a baking tray and heat in an ordinary oven at 300°F for one hour to drive off water and carbon dioxide. Overheating is not a problem, either with higher temperatures or longer times. Dissolve the residual solid in enough water to make 1 gallon total. This dissolution may require a fair amount of mixing. Warming it speeds dissolution. This solution will contain about 1,900 meq/L of alkalinity (5,300 dKH). I prefer to use baked baking soda rather than washing soda in this recipe as baking soda from a grocery store is always food grade, while washing soda may not have the same purity requirements. Arm & Hammer brand is a fine choice. Be sure to NOT use baking powder. Baking powder is a different material that often has phosphate as a main ingredient. Once these two solutions are created, they can be added as frequently as necessary to maintain calcium and alkalinity. For further dosing instructions, see below.

SOLD

Apex Jr. with display new orange label version. $150 Neptune PM1 module $50 OR $190 for both.

New tank is up and running and I don't have any use for this anymore. All ATI bulbs were replaced in September 3 Blue+, 2 Coral+, 2 Actinic, 1 Purple+ Comes with hanging kit. It does have two 1/4" holes drilled in the center from being mounted on a light arm. I'll get photos up tomorrow. $400

So the tank is wet with the new rock structures built and added sand earlier today, I'm pretty happy with how it's come along although I'm amazed my wife still loves me after completely destroying our house to do this project. On the down side I've lost a few corals in QT unfortunately... a couple pieces I really liked but nothing I can't hopefully replace at some point. Anyways, here's how it sits at the moment... With everything doing so poorly in QT I think I'm going to go ahead and move everything into the new display tomorrow, time for LOTS of super glue on the fingers yay!

Don't forget I also chopped up another 26 to put in my ATI Powermodule lol Thanks, I had a good initial instructor =)

Here's the calculator if you need it... http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html I can't make it any easier for you lol.

Go buy some arm and hammer and call it good... The BRS stuff is just a waste of money. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/ I used randys recipes for years when I ran dosing pumps...