Ace25's 75G Build Thread

OMG.. you find me a small piece of this prostrata and I will give you my whole mini colony. Just saw it in someones tank on RC.

Snowcone Prostrata
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Well... I kind of feel guilty posting this now after DSRs bad day but my day went pretty good. I sold my 2000 Civic Si .. it was bleeding me dry in maint costs and needed a whole new engine still. I really did love that car though, loved the look and feel, but I grew up and bought a Hyundai last year because I have drive at least 100miles a day, every weekday, for the past 15 years now for different jobs. Gas was like $5 a gallon last summer for Super Unleaded around here, which is the only gas you can put in a Civic Si and it only got 18 miles per gallon. Had to fill the tank 2x a week @ $50 a fillup at the end. New more practical car fill once a week and it cost me $25 now. So.. loved the car but it was killing me. Sat in my driveway for the past 10 months now because I couldn't let go, always dreamed of fixing it up again, but finally came to the reality that it wasn't going to happen and keeping 2 cars registered and insured didn't make sense, especially in the current economy.

So.. good news.. got some $ to spend and I am ordering a Vortech MP40 Gen2 tomorrow and will be here on Friday. I can install it when I break down my tank to do the repairs and get rid of the big koralias on the back wall. I am so excited about the flow on them after watching the videos of them in action.
 
Man, Ace that will be cool... and inlight of my tragic horrible terrible loss of yesterday i think you should order the smaller version for me... as my two year old says, " ...that would make me happy." hahahaha. Congrats on teh sale of the car (first time I have heard anyone say the maintenance on a honda was bleedin' dry). I have been reading up on those ph since you first mentioned it and I spoke with my 11 year old boss this morning. And we both are in agreement that we need the small version sometime this summer. I like the Koralia (and it will probably stay just low in the tank) but the idea of having alternating power and current is very cool. COngrats.
 
Ok, stroll down memory lane.. :) Here is a quick snapshop of my reefing years since the beginning in 2001. I had done SW predator tanks from 1996-2001 (All wrong from what I know now also, but only fish I ever lost was a lionfish that wouldn't eat).

Here I am, a complete NOOB! Let me count how many things are wrong in this picture. LOL. I will point out my mistakes for you. This is my tank in 1. Yellow Tang in a 29G?!?! 2. Not enough live rock 3. Too many corals to fast without any understanding of water chemistry 4. Using a #28 block because it sounded like a magic water chemisty block 5. HOB Magnum filter, Prizm Skimmer, no powerheads 6. Air pump and bubble plate under the rocks. This is around December 2001, tank running for about 4 months at this point.
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Here I am being stupid again, thinking I could put a small baby porcupine puffer in a reef tank and it would stay small and happy. Still have air hose in the tank but added a powerhead by then. Puffer lasted about a week before I realized it wasn't right and I brought him back to the LFS.
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Here we are in November 2002. Lost some corals, yellow tang all beat up and stressed out, died shortly later. Wow was I an idiot then. I learned about sumps by then, bought a "sump kit" on ebay for around $200, little did I know I could have made it much cheaper and better myself then, so moving on the right track. In this picture you can see my first Potter's Angel. Unfortunately he died in the "heatwave of death in the summer of 2005". That was my first learning experience about keeping temps down. Never really thought about the tank getting too hot until we had a few 120degree days. The lawnmower blenny you can barely make out in the bottom right is the same one I have today in my 75G.
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This pic I believe was taken around late 2006. Finally starting to get the hang of things after 5 years of doing things wrong in some way or another. At this point I finally reached a level were at least things could live and I was meeting the low end of their requirements. Hydophora didn't make it long, condy anemone took it out.
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And finally this is what it looked like in June 2008 when I tore it down and upgraded to my 75G. It has since been resurected in my bedroom as a softy reef that is doing quite well.
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Still waiting for UPS man with my Vortech and was staring at my tank and saw this for the first time ever. Check out the extension on this 1 sweeper tentacle. Usually this coral has sweepers that come out at night all over it, it looks "hairy" at night, but usually only extend 1/2" or so normally. This one is easily 4" long.

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I've seen a couple of those on some of my rocks. Mine just have 1 or 2 tentacles that reach out about 1 to 2 inches. Any idea what they are?
 
On mine, that is a sweeper tentacle coming off my Merulina coral. Here is a fuzzy morning picture with all the tentacles out, I couldn't get the picture good because of the low light though. If you look closely around the edges it looks furry with white dots. In person is was really nice looking, picture doesn't do it justice. In your tank, your Galaxia coral would do the exact same thing.

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