1 credit of glory

[CollegeReefer]

I have talk a lot on this forum and in the chat about the tanks i am now in charge of at my university which now i get credit for. Anyways, it has been a very slow process and the old care taker is still taking his things back. I was not left with much. a borken prizm skimmer, and a tank full of aptisia on rock that is also the old care taker. Working on setting up a new 75 gallon reef which is cycling with dry rock. Planning on seeding it with some liverock and garf grunge. Though the tank is cycleing i have yet to finish the plumbing and still need to build a hood for the mh lights i got from a local reefer. If my keyboard wasn't dieing i would type some more. Here are a few of the pics. Not much happening yet.

Old 40 gallon invested with apitisia. Most likely tare down if i can't get the pest in control.


Only has mushrooms and CUC




The pest just on one small rock!


The next pictures are of the new tank. I went with dry rock because of cost and have been doing a lot of reading about seeding rock to preserve natuarl fiji, tonga, and other types of live rock. A slow moving project, but i am not complaining.










I am hoping that i can get everything up and running very soon here so i will keep you all posted.

[harif87]

Hey looking good. Might want to keep some of those mushrooms so at least you have something when you start.

One thing i want to comment on is the sand bed. I really like how you chose to go with a smaller sized sand bed. IMHO it looks like the perfect size that will allow for sand dwellers (fish, pods, stars, bacteria etc) as well as keep long term detritus build up low. You just gotta get some coralline in there to make it look decent then start adding some fish and inverts.


Keep us posted

[Fishfirst]

hey hey hey... lookin good... sorry I've been a ghost lately at school, they got me workin a lot and I hardly have time to keep up my own tanks! I sent you a pm of when I can help ya out.

[CollegeReefer]

I finished the plubing of the 75 gallon. The only thing i need to do is add a stop valve to the return, otherwise everything is running great. I also added part of the clean up crew. I currently have a couple dozen hermits and couple dozen snails. Cleaned up the tank in a day. This next week i will be building the hood to hold 2 250watt mh and some pcs. For now i just have a set of pc attached to a small board. Kind of ghetto. Also it is hard to see the color of the rock, but i have coraline algea growing on the rock. All i had in the tank besides the dry rock was a 1 inch piece of lr from my tank and threw water from my tank into the 75 gallon when i did water changes.

Here are some pics of the tank, overflow, refigum, and 20 pounds of LR curing.













New pump i am trying out. Pushes out 600 gph. Pic isn't the best.


My return.

[Fishnewb1]

looking good. Looks a lot like my set up...
what size is that fuge?

[CollegeReefer]

It is a 29 gallon tank.

[Plyr58]

Are you going to paint the background?

[CollegeReefer]

I am not allowed to paint this tank, but i will add a black background at some point in time.

[CollegeReefer]

Here is a small update on the tanks i am setting up here at school for credit. I had added garf grunge, ipsf mud, and ipsf live sand activiator to the main display. I also added some garf grunge and macro to the refugium. You will also notice that the tank is much brighter, that is because i finally got around of installing two 250 mh and 2 65 watt pc. I was going to build a new hood, but i ended up using a old hood and hung it from the frame of the stands.

Full tank shot with hood.


Left half


Right Half


Refugium looks better with the new lights that i stole from the salamaders tanks.


I also added frags from my nano tank to 75 because i am running out of room in the nano. My plan is to pick up several new frags for the 75 gallon and foster and smiths frag swap and convention. Fishfirst and i are heading there. I will then let those corals grow into mother colonies and begin to frag and sell.

[CollegeReefer]

I thought i would post the pics my gf took of most of the new frags i picked up at fosters and smith frag swap. I am missing a couple pics but this should give you an idea of what i got for the 130 dollars cash i brought with me.

[CollegeReefer]

Hear is just a small update. Not much has changed since the last time I posted but we got some new blades and so my wonderful girlfriend cleaned the tank glass for me while I put together the new frag tank.

pictures of my work area in the aquatics lab.




Toad stool with polyps fully extended


Better pics of zoe frags

[Damon]

Looking great!!! I see the aiptasia by the toadstool. WHat are your plans for eliminating them before they get out of control?

[CollegeReefer]

those are actually yellow pallys. But the pepermint shrimp take care of the aiptasia.

[CollegeReefer]

Well I rescued a Haitian Reef Anemone from the biology department, but i do not know if i will be able to keep it in my tank. The bio department had it under pc and well it wasn't doing good. They knew about our tanks in the lab and asked if i would take it or they were going to freeze it. So i placed it in my tank in a open place with lots of light and medium flow. It moved maybe an inch and stayed their the rest of the time i was in the lab. I am worried about it moving and stinging other corals, but if it stays put i will keep it in the tank.

[CollegeReefer]

The Haitian Reef Anemone hasn't moved so it looks like it has a new home. Some of the professors at the school would like to see a clownfish host an anemone though so i will have to buy a BTA. I am not one to buy anemone because there life is shortened so much when they are put into the aqurium. But then again i am not paying the bills...well not anymore. I have put way to much of my own money into this tank.

[Ice]

Heh - have the professor give you the money for the BTA. LOL !!!

[CollegeReefer]

I recevied 500 dollars to set up the tank last semester which of course isn't enough to set up a 75 gallon reef. I am hopeing to get clost to that this year as well. I have my eye on about 200 dollars of fish and inverts.

[CollegeReefer]

Here are some new pics. I got several new zoa/paly frags last week. Some didn't open.









This is fishfirst but it has been in my tank for a couple of months waiting for him to pick it up.










a lot of growth on this monti cap since last pic

[CollegeReefer]

There are some for zoas that are missing in my pics. The gf must have missed them

[CollegeReefer]

My new frag tank is up and running. I decided to go with garfs plans so I am running a plenum. I would have prefered to have an over flow run from the main tank to a bare bottom frag tank but i used what i had and set up a seperate tank. I am running the nova t5 extreme with moonlights. Lots a light from those small little bulbs. I will have to shade an area for the shrooms. I only have capenella trees in there right now but once my glue comes i will be able to frag a few new things.