Cali Kid Corals

Brandie's 210 Upgrade

BAYMAC said:
I recommend KimChee vinegar to people when I worry about safety of muratic acid. It tends to be ~30% acid. The fumes are quite nasty though so even with it, take care.


Cool. I didn't know that existed. Where would I find it? I might have to learn how to make KimChee too. YUMM!
 
aqua-nut said:
BAYMAC said:
I recommend KimChee vinegar to people when I worry about safety of muratic acid. It tends to be ~30% acid. The fumes are quite nasty though so even with it, take care.


Cool. I didn't know that existed. Where would I find it? I might have to learn how to make KimChee too. YUMM!

Korean store. I go to the one in Daly City (Kukje).
 
Thanks guys.

All this talk of Kim-Chi got me looking at recipes. Didn't find any that used vinegar!

Having taken this thread off course I now return you to the regularly scheduled program. :)
 
LoL, at least someone kept it going.

Sorry guys, school's been really busy! As much as I've wanted to do nothing but devote time and effort to the tank, I gotta graduate first. Haha.

KR, no, unfortunately, it's not all wood, but Denzil and I are hoping to fix that. I'm not going to use the stand until I've made it stronger, for sure. Already working with Charlie on it, as well as hopefully doing some of my own ideas. FRP the inside, maybe a wooden skeleton inside, definitely wood bottom with supports, etc.

KimChee vinegar, huh. I'll have to look into that. Yeah, I was pretty bummed that the LimeAway didn't work. Hell, even keeping Saran Wrap and vinegar on it over night didn't do anything. Makes me wonder if I should just not worry about it like Coral reefer mentioned. I'm just being overly anal about it at this point, but I'm also worried it might really show up once the car vinyl goes on....

Still slow going at this point. Unemployed life sucks, although it's doing wonders for school. Working on some great ideas from both Matts at Aqua Exotic. You guys will roll your eyes, but I can sit there and ask tons of questions, and they haven't thrown me out yet... rofl. Given me lots to consider though, which is good. I love that I'm constantly learning new stuff in this hobby. Makes it much more fun. :D

Can't wait to get my fish in there!! Can't wait to see the tangs hit a growth spurt. The purple tang that came from AE was smaller than my yellow one (very much smaller) and now he's BIGGER than the yellow one. Not to mention the Kole, which went from a measly 2 inches to almost 5-6. It's definitely time to get everyone in the bigger tank. Hopefully after school is over, things can really start rolling. :D

Please forgive my lack of participation and response. It's going to be crunch time from now until May, and I have to pass my classes.... I don't want to be stuck for another semester... I'll come on when I can, and update when I can. So sorry!
 
Hey all!!

Finally finished up school! I'll still be going back in the fall for a vet tech license, but, the degree in BS (hehehe) is finally done! Now it's time to start cracking on this tank!

Plan is to have it up and cycling by the end of next month... pretty big aspiration since unemployment sucks LOL. But, I am going to do my best. :D

Stand is being worked on by my dad as we speak. We had to get some of the proprietary hardware from the manufacturer, but we got it and have decided to look into the veranda wood (weather proof, water resistance, recycled wood for decks) for the bottom of the stand, since it was so trashed after I got it, and then FRPing the exposed sides of the inside of the stand. Hopefully it will be done with in the next few weeks.

Also got a 100 tru vu sump. For those of you who've been there, I've decided to go and do something similar to the set ups at Aqua Exotic. Their sumps look clean, they are set up for easy maintenance, and high bio load. Perfect for my needs, although I am keeping the fish list light. I realized that my earlier aspirations for all the fish I wanted was not feasible in the 210, and have cut it quite considerably. Still lots of fish, but, not as many as before. ;)

Side note: fish are doing great! Finally fixed my water param issues, the nitrates are finally down, corals that are still in the tank are starting to do much better, and you can see (well, I can at least) noticeable growth on my fish ^.^ Plan is to have the mandarins in the 210 come October :D

Glad to be back! When we go to Hollister on Sunday, I'll make sure to snap some pics of the stand so I can post them :)
 
Thanks guys!! Update: Substrate is ordered, as well as the background (we decided to stick to car vinyl) for the tank. Since I was unable to snap pics of the stand the other day, I will get some tomorrow. Going to be in Hollister for a bbq.

Plan is to have it cycled in time for RAP 2013 (at the end of October). Hopefully will be going to pick up a pair of red mandarins while we are down there.

May be putting in an order for this skimmer: http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/reef-life-support-systems-r10-i-protein-skimmer within the week. :)

Going to be getting two Sicce Voyager 7 pumps for the back of the tank, and going to be putting on two MP40s on each side to do alternate pulsings later on down the line. For cycling purposes, I am going to be using koralias, until I can save up the money to get the MP40s... not ready for them yet, but as Denzil pointed out to me, koralias will suffice for the cycling. After it's set up I need to focus on saving up for lights. Wooohoo!!!
 
For those of you wondering, here's the proposed fish list, sorted by order of addition to the new tank. :)

image_zpsb7a40b73.jpg
 
It's a decent sized list for sure. About 9-10 of those fish stay under 3 inches however. There is a little fudge room ;)

Plan on getting a really nice skimmer, and have been advised on a sump set up that's supposed to do really well handling a decent bio load. So far in the 90, I am overstocked (hence the upgrade) but the nitrates (last test according to RSM, right before a water change) were in the 16-30 range. That's without a bio pellet reactor, an auto feeder going off 4x a day, with an supplemental frozen food feeding every other day or so and seaweed or broccoli in the tank on a constant basis (all the time, so I really did mean constant and not consistent ;) )

Not too bad IMO. Vast room for improvement for sure, but considering all the facts, not too bad.

I'm hoping that with the bioload, the LPS and macro algae in the DT thrive. So far the LPS I currently have in the tank are doing really well, but this was after the nitrate issue was under control. We'll see. :)
 
Yep, definitely a nice big list o fish!

Save that list, and look back in a few years, and see if it remotely matches.
Mine did not. :)

The Mandarins may have trouble getting enough food particularly with those Wrasse around.

Probably will be some issues between the tangs, figuring out who is boss.
 
rygh said:
Yep, definitely a nice big list o fish!

Save that list, and look back in a few years, and see if it remotely matches.
Mine did not. :)

The Mandarins may have trouble getting enough food particularly with those Wrasse around.

Probably will be some issues between the tangs, figuring out who is boss.

I supplement pods every 2-3 months for that very reason. :) My melanurus wrasse are pigs. I hopefully will have a good headstart though, I'm hoping to add pods (from a few different sources) starting after July. Figured that the tank will by cycled enough for them to survive after July, provided it's up and running by sometime in June. Every other week or so of pods in the sump and the DT until the first pair of mandarins go in in October... then supplemental after that. That's the plan anyways.

Teo, each group of fish will be added at the same time. I'm working with Matt at AE to make sure that the tangs we get are all relatively the same size as the ones I have now, so they all have equal chances at being the boss.

Other than that, I'm hoping that two autofeeders going off at the same time and a constant supply of seaweed and frozen food every other day will help keep down the aggression. Hey, it's working now, so there's not much of a reason to think that it will not work in the larger tank. /shrug.

And Mark, very interesting idea on the fish list. I have so many screenshots of the fish list that I will do that. ^.^ I had a bigger list than what I posted, but then I told myself I didn't want to be doing 100 gallon water changes every week LoL. So I had to narrow it down to what I really wanted. Still iffy about the powder brown, but I'm leaning more towards yes than no. If I can get my white tailed bristle tooth tang, than it will be more of a no. But since I haven't seen the fish in almost a year now, I'm not expecting it to come up any time soon = / I'd love one more ctenochaetus, but I only want that one LoL.
 
Anyone have any recommendations as to what size of CUC to have in a 210?

Currently, I have two (think they are both still in there) fighting conchs, 3 (I've seen two for sure, one may have not made it?) emerald crabs, about 11 nessarius snails, and an unknown number of hermit crabs, some blue legged, maybe a handful of red legs? Oh, also have 4 turbos, and ~10 astrea snails. Just for grins and giggles, let's say I have about 15 hermits. /shrug

Need to know about how many more to add :D any advice would be much appreciated!
 
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