Michael's 168 build

[Kensington Reefer]

Mantra:
No single food has all dietary requirements, or smells and tastes good to all fish, all the time.
But if you use as wide a variety as possible, you can meet their needs and likes.

Fish spend huge amounts of energy swimming

 

[macntosreefs]

Come check it out in person! I enjoy showing the tank and would be happy to give you some frags to help fill your system a bit.

sure! where would you be located?

 

[H2OPlayar]

Some of my latest full tank shots from my last visit to the bay

 

[H2OPlayar]

sure! where would you be located?

Sunnyvale, it is in my profile if you hover over my name. Although now I am only there one week a month and I have a friend renting the house and watching the tank.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

@H2OPlayar
Hey Michael
Did you put down a layer of sand before the bones
Or is that degradation of the bones and sediment?

 

[H2OPlayar]

@H2OPlayar
Hey Michael
Did you put down a layer of sand before the bones
Or is that degradation of the bones and sediment?

I put 2-3 bags of sand in at the beginning in order to give smaller critters a place to hide and breed, but there is a lot of detritus buildup as well. In retrospect, I would not have put any sand in and likely won't in my next big system.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

I put 2-3 bags of sand in at the beginning in order to give smaller critters a place to hide and breed, but there is a lot of detritus buildup as well. In retrospect, I would not have put any sand in and likely won't in my next big system.

Thanks for the info
I am bare bottom with rock and will fill in with a “bones” (#10) and rubble mix

 

[H2OPlayar]

I'll keep the tradition of posting full tank shots every time I get back to the bay. Here are a few from my last visit.

 

[richiev]

I'll keep the tradition of posting full tank shots every time I get back to the bay. Here are a few from my last visit.

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that's super great, especially with being hands-off!

 

[Coral reefer]

What’s hapenning with the tank? Renters keeping up with it?

 

[H2OPlayar]

What’s hapenning with the tank? Renters keeping up with it?

Yeah, he is a friend of mine who is also into fish. So the tank doesn't get quite the love it used to, but they are keeping up with feeding, changing reagents and emptying the skimmer. I doubt they feed as much as I do, but things seem to be chugging along fine.

 

[H2OPlayar]

My Inkbird started acting up after 4 years of service. I was getting temperature alarms from my apex that the tank was below 75 deg F. We verified that the Apex was accurate with a couple manual thermometers we had from other tanks. The Inkbird was reading high and not turning on the heater. With all the cold weather in the bay, the heater finally needs to be on! Once I saw the tank temp hit 72.9 and I knew it was time to take the inkbird offline. My friend tried to clean the inkbird probel, but it didn't change the reading, so he took a heater and plugged it into the outlet on the apex power supply programed to "heater" and the tank temp came back to 77-78 and is holding steady. There were no reported effects to the tank life. Good friend, and good to have backups in the house.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

IME
I stand by aqua logic and Ranco controllers
Many over 10 years
IMHO
Much easier to setup too

 

[H2OPlayar]

Also, the last two times I have gone to look at the tank, the red planaria and red bugs appear to be gone. I know they are still somewhere but ignoring them seems to have made them go away. Maybe they are getting fed less and are getting picked at by the filefish or wrasses. Either way, the pest load appears to have gone down significantly by waiting.

 

[H2OPlayar]

Happy times, but the end of an era. Erica and I got married, and we closed on a house in Las Vegas. Good news is there is space for a much bigger tank in the new office, with a viewing space on the other side of a wall. So I will look at what makes sense there. Either 6 or 7 feet long, and 24" or 30" wide is what I think I have space for, then maybe 30" deep, but 24" deep that I have now isn't trivial to get to all corners with it against the wall.

This means it is time to start giving away frags and selling off coral, then the fish. I will likely keep the rock and crushed coral for the next tank, and maybe try to bring some live rock/crushed coral to Vegas if I make the drive to get the freshwater tank out or something. Definitely time to get a few more DBTC frags out to the club. Thanks for the help along the way with this tank BAR. It will help immensely for the design of the next one.

 

[Alexx]

Make the 7 feet long you will have more space.

 

[Turkeysammich]

Congratulations

 

[Joseph Lee]

Congratulations!

 

[dochou]

Congrats on the house and getting married! Hopefully you'll have kids some day.
7 foot tank sounds great!

 

[keRwin.D.]

Happy times, but the end of an era. Erica and I got married, and we closed on a house in Las Vegas. Good news is there is space for a much bigger tank in the new office, with a viewing space on the other side of a wall. So I will look at what makes sense there. Either 6 or 7 feet long, and 24" or 30" wide is what I think I have space for, then maybe 30" deep, but 24" deep that I have now isn't trivial to get to all corners with it against the wall.

This means it is time to start giving away frags and selling off coral, then the fish. I will likely keep the rock and crushed coral for the next tank, and maybe try to bring some live rock/crushed coral to Vegas if I make the drive to get the freshwater tank out or something. Definitely time to get a few more DBTC frags out to the club. Thanks for the help along the way with this tank BAR. It will help immensely for the design of the next one.

You got wed, you got a house and you’re getting a bigger tank?! Nice!
Congratulations bro!
Hope all goes well with tank and moved.