Biff's 90 Gallon Downgrade

Bifferwine said:
Long story short, we moved the fish, every fish was accounted for and acclimated for 2 hours before I added them to the new tank. The water was too cloudy for me to aquascape so I stacked the rocks as best as I could with the intention of re-doing them once the dust settled. Did a head count, tucked the fish in, went to bed. The next day there was a rock slide. Three fish are dead, one is still missing. All others are doing fine. The casualties are one lyretail anthias, the yellow eye kole tang (his name was Yote) and Tangent the pink tail trigger. They were all found crushed under the same rock. The coral beauty angel (named Doc) is still missing.

The anthias is replacable. The kole tang is a tragedy, but is replaceable. Tangent is not replaceable. Tangent was by far one of the best fish I have ever had. I was absolutely heart broken and I bawled my eyes out. I feel awful today. I loved that fish so much. I had him for a long time, and he was so active and full of personality. I loved being able to keep a trigger in my reef tank.


Why didn't the rockslide kill a chromis? Or a damsel? Of course it had to be Tangent. NDB helped me recover and remove the three bodies. The bad news is the ammonia went up (who knows how long the fish bodies were in there -- it could have been as long as 18 hours). It's less than 1 ppm right now, so I'm not doing anything drastic and am going to try to let it run its course. The skimmer and sump are hooked up and running well, luckily. Nitrites and nitrates are both at zero.
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Sorry Biff, but I just saw this....you killed Yote!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So sad...
 
Great looking tank, Biff. Your X coral is awesome. I've never seen anything like that. Love the shrooms. Now you got me in the mood to buy myself more.
 
Biff, I just got up to speed on your build. I am so sorry to read of the trouble you have endured, both with your build and in your personal life. This year was tough for many of us, particularly the last part of it you and I both it seems. I commend you for sticking to the hobby and remaining active on the forum. I couldn't handle everything I had going, and disappeared for a while but I am happy to say that things are looking up... for us both it seems. I am truly sorry for your losses in your tank. I know how special each of your fish are to you. Your tank is beautiful though and I look forward to seeing your continued success with it. I hope the new year is starting off well for you!
 
So what I suspected all along is true... I have been using the T5s (4 bulb) that were over my old 55 gallon tank. I was HOPING it'd be enough to keep the corals that I already have happy. I have not bought any new corals since I set this tank up, so I didn't have much to worry about. My mushrooms, leathers and zoanthids have been doing just fine. I had two other little frags in there that a friend gave me (a candy cane and a chalice), but even at the top of the tank, those guys just weren't doing well. I've temporarily moved them into my 10 gallon ricordea tank so they can get more light. Come tax time this year, I'll be buying the 90 a new set of lights.
 
I haven't even looked, honestly. I can't spend a lot of money. Every penny of my upcoming tax refund is spoken for. To pay my Home Depot, Lumber Liquidators and Lowe's credit cards! Hahaha! That $8000 first time homebuyer tax credit doesn't go very far when you buy a foreclosed home in need of some fixin' uppin'!!

I was hoping to get by with the 4 bulb T5 set for as long as possible (since I already had them!), but to my dismay, I'm not even going to be able to keep LPS with them.

I definitely want to stay with T5s. I think I want more light than a 6 bulb with IRs. Maybe an 8 or 10 bulb with IRs.
 
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I ordered my new lights today! Since I got some of my tax money back already. Oh and because I do NDB's taxes as well, and always list my account for his refunds as well :)

I ended up ordering the 48" Nova Extreme Pros. Although I wanted a MH/T5 combo, I just didn't want the higher electric bill! Hopefully the lights I ordered will be good enough to keep more than mushrooms and zoas -- which is what I'm limited to right now!

BTW, I got them from AquariumPlants.com Largest online sales / service site for the live aquarium plants & aquarium products community.. They had the lowest price I could find -- $344, $355 after shipping was added in. No tax. That is a GREAT price for those lights.
 
Awesome biff. I actually have those lights now. They work pretty well. I have multiple sps corals anywhere from 4 to 10 inches below the water and they are growing and doing well. I also have Oregon tort acro about 6 inches under the water and it's growing like a champ.

Although I don't have anything to compare the lights to. I believe they are working well
 
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SeattleDarko said:
That is exciting :) what kind of corals are you going to get first???
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None! I have no money for corals... I'll just stick with what I have for now until I get some cash. The only corals I will get are ones for trade or other hobbyists giving away... Gotta stick to my budget of $0!! ;)
 
Oh yea everybody gets the THIS HOBBY REQUIRES A LOT OF MONEY SO BE PREPARED TO BLAH BLAH BLAH, but Biff doesnt get the lecture?????? whatever...


HAHA jk!! :D
 
glad lights are on the way! thats awesome! I liked my nova extreme. it was nice and bright and it was only the regular not the pro.
 
You held that measly 30g more than me for so many years.You just wait until you see what I might set up soon.


90 freaking measly gallons!Pathetic!
 
reeffreak said:
You held that measly 30g more than me for so many years.You just wait until you see what I might set up soon.


90 freaking measly gallons!Pathetic!
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:cry:!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't care what you set up soon. It will probably spring a leak. Just like your last tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cry:
 

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