450 Gallon Reef, 855 Gallon System

[oxx155]

Update:

The cleaner crew has been doing an awesome job, the brown algae is almost completely gone.

I have ordered some fish now and they should be here next week. I am going to start off with Green Chromis', Pajama Cardinals, Lawnmower Blennies, Scooter Blennies, and a Six Line Wrasse. I will add the tangs at a later time due to their aggressiveness.

I recently added two Phosban Reactors (running about 250ml of RowaPhos each) and another Reactor that will hold Carbon.

 

I have purchased the following for my fish and coral diet

Baby Brine

Sea Veggies

DT's Oyster Eggs

DT's Phyto

Zooplex

Phytoplex

Garlic Xtreme

Zelcon Plus

Coral Frenzy

Marine Snow

New Life Spectrum (good for Tangs I hear)

Now I have to get a new fridge, my old college mini fridge just isn't going to cut it.

 

More pics to come soon.

[impur]

Looking good!!! Keep em coming

[oxx155]

Update: 12/09/07

Tank is doing really well, over the last 6 weeks I have added the following fish

15 - Blue/Green Chromis

8 - Pajama Cardinals

5 - Yellow Tangs

Blue Tang

Kole Tang

Desjardini Sailfin Tang

Purple Tang

2 - Tomato Clowns

2 - Pink Skunk Clowns

2 - True Percula Clowns

Pink Anthias

Copperband Butterfly

3 - Lawnmower Blennies

3 - Scooter Blennies (one red)

2 - Sand Sifting Gobies

I have the following Inverts

200 - Blue/Red Leg Hermits

40 - Scarlet Reef Hermits

15 - Turbo Snails

50 - Nassarius Snails

20 - Cerith Snails

20 - Astraea Snails

3 - Green Brittle Stars

3 - Sand Sifting Stars

Cleaner Shrimp (ordered 4 and only received 1 alive)

Coral Banded Shrimp

2 - Maxima Clams

1 - Derasa Clam

Neon Bubble Tipped Anenome

Rose Bubble Tipped Anenome

Purple Tipped Anenome

I added one coral recently (Pagoda Cup) and while I am in L.A. for christmas I am visiting some companies (Pacific Aqua Farms and Sea Dwelling Creatures) to hand pick some corals.

Probably in the near future I will offer some people the opportunity to get some fish and corals (and maybe some dry goods) at wholesale pricing, my christmas and new years gift to everyone.

Tank Updates:

I took off the Fluidized Bed Filters as I needed to cut back on electricity (about $100+ a month). The fish room now has 5 dedicated circuits. I am crazy.

I took out my two 400 watt heaters and replaced them with 800 watt heaters. I was having a hard time keeping the temp above 75 and it was really taxing the heaters. Now the heat stays at 78 all the time and the heaters run maybe 2 hours a day or so.

Refugium lighting exploded this week. I guess thats what I get for buying lights through Ebay. Thankfully I was just finishing lunch and saw smoke pouring out of the fish room, I quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and didn't have any loss other than the lights and a house full of smoke, thank god. Anyway, I will be building my own lights in January.

Testing shows the following

Nitrates - 0 ppm

Ak - 8dkh

Calcium - 460ppm

Salinity - 1.024

Temp - 78-80 F

PH - 8.3-8.5

I am listing a couple of more things for sale in the "Classifiedes section" if anyone is interested in a Pinpoint Calcium Monitor or Lifegard Fluidized Bed Filters.

Last but not least - Here are some pics

More updates after christmas

[oxx155]

Update: January 13th, 2008

 

I left to California during Christmas for a week. Unfortunately during that week some issues came up with the tank (one being that the skimmer pump shut down) and I came back to an algae bloom and some lost fish (the people that were watching the house don't know anything about aquariums unfortunately).

I got everything back online and fortunately its lead to me making some improvements in the system.

1. I changed the Iwaki 100 to a Sequence Dart for the main return

2. I am putting a brand new Sequence Snapper on the Protein Skimmer and 3 brand new Sedra 9000's for the circulation

3. I am adding a 114 watt UV Sterilizer

4. I removed the Fluidized Bed Filters - too much issue with sand making it back into the pump

5. Added a 48" 760w Lighting System over the Refugium (since the old one burned up)

Latest Parameters

Salinity - 1.023

PH - 8.31

Calcium - 430

Temp - 78 F

I will be adding more fish and corals soon (and will be adding pics).

I recently added a California Stingray to the Refugium, kind of a rescue from a friend that got in over his head. Once it gets too big for the Refugium I will either get another tank for him (make a nice FOWLR) or donate him to a friend.

I will have some more stuff for sale soon (changing things and found more stuff from previous tanks I don't need anymore).

Also, I am ordering from Sea Dwelling Creatures and Pacific Aqua Farms in L.A. over the next few months, if anyone wants to piggy back on my order and get things for themselves let me know (email me a list of what you are looking for and I will get you pricing). All of the stuff flies into Eugene, so you would have to come here to get it.

 

Anyway, more to come later

[DiverDan]

[language filter] that is amazing, sorry for the losses though

[180Brandy]

Thanks for the update.

[oxx155]

Another Update: February 10th, 2008

 

The shipment came in Friday instead of Thursday unfortunately. Thankfully I only lost 3 chromis, no corals or inverts had issues. Thank you to all those that took me up on my offer and I hope everyone is happy with what they got, I know some great stuff came in on this shipment.

Anyway, I finally hooked up my two Aqua 57 Watt Sterilizers for 114 watts of U.V. Sterilizing Power!

I have also purchased a Sequence Barracuda and Sequence Snapper to add to my Sequence Dart for all my circulation needs, they are quieter and take less electricity than my Iwakis (who I have loved, trusted, and used for many years).

The Skimmer is currently pulling about 2 liters of crap every week and keeping the tank nice and clean.

I finally got rid of all the algae and purple coraline is taking over.

Here is my attempt at taking multiple pics and combining them for a full tank shot

Here are pics of some of the corals I have received over my last few orders

About an 8" wide Pagoda Cup.

The little fish in this pic was sold to me as a "Purple Chromis", but I don't know for sure.

Yes, this is a Superman Montipora.

My 3 Cleaner Shrimp and their "Station", just below them in a cave is a huge 5" Coral Banded Shrimp.

This is a pic of one of my Aqua U.V. Sterilizers

I was watching the tank the other night in the moonlight and was very suprised to see most of the fish pairing up and some doing what I think are mating rituals, very cool to watch (especially the scooter blennies and their dance that almost looks like the end fight scene out of Matrix 3, swirling around each other mid air then going back down to the ground).

I probably won't update much in the upcoming months, I am focusing more on my wedding and most of my weeks will be filled with preparations, hopefully when I am done with all of it the corals will have grown out a little and I will update with more pics.

One final pic though, just next to the front side of the tank my father has his "Man Area" with his guitars, thought some of you might enjoy it.

 

One last comment. For those that want to order from me again or for the first time I will probably be ordering again in June, so get those wish lists going.

 

Later

Douglas

[impur]

Tank looks great Douglas! I can only hope to have one that big someday.

 

And thanks for getting the inverts for me, you saved me $$ and time. Much appreciated!

[fishiefish]

oooo keep me posted I'd love to put in a order in june! and it comes to eugene!!!!!!!!! thats music to my ears.

[oxx155]

The tank is coming along great. Obviously making tweaks here and there, but overall everything is still the same (just corals and fish growing).

I will try to take some pics this weekend.

 

I am definitely making an order in June, so I am giving everyone 2 months advance notice, get your lists together! Obviously I can't give pricing till the end of May, but when I get back from my honeymoon May 22nd I will start taking lists and send out pricing and gather my order.

I will officially submit the order June 3rd, so everyone needs to have their order into me by then, delivery will be on June 4th or 5th. I prefer pickup same day, I can possibly hold for the weekend, but don't offer a guaranty on the hold. I do offer an arrive alive guaranty, if your order doesn't arrive alive (at my location) you don't pay for it. I can't ship to anyone because I don't know how to do it well enough to ensure the safety of your items, sorry.

 

Later everyone!

[Miniwhinny]

OH My gosh !!!! I'm going to have to sit still while my heart palps quit !!!!! Incredible (clap)(clap)

[fishiefish]

wow still loveing this.......and I cant wait till your "list" comes out and ordering in june. hope you have a wonderful wedding/honeymoon.marriage is wonderful...but yeah buy what you can(laugh).

[oxx155]

If any of you haven't noticed I have my own forum for my occassional open purchases.

Here is a link http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=74.

I prefer to keep all future talk about purchases to that forum.

 

Thanks

[oxx155]

New Images

Left Side of Tank

Right Side of Tank

My new Black & White Oscellaris

My school of 15 Green Chromis and 5 Purple Chromis

Starfish Love

Some Corals

 

Corals are growing pretty nice and hopefully in a year they may be big enough to frag a little.

[spectra]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. How much of a pain is it to clean? Looks like it takes a while.

[oxx155]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. How much of a pain is it to clean? Looks like it takes a while.

 

I have the largest Mag-Float they make (about 8"X3") that gets most of it, its an arm workout for sure and takes about 15 minutes, done about twice a week. I then use a scraper (acrylic safe) to scrape the top and bottom areas which is even harder on the arms and takes about 30 minutes, done every other week.

I already have one or two scratches in the acrylic, but they aren't highly visible.

 

The flow of the tank (not designed this way, just miraculously happened) causes all detritus (or most) to be swept into one corner which is easily accessible and cleaned.

 

I have 192 watts of U.V., a monstrous Protein Skimmer and 5 pounds of Carbon that do most of the cleaning for me.

 

The only thing I haven't fully figured out yet is my bloody Calcium Reactor. I have to tweak with it constantly (although with each tweak I try to let it settle for 24-48 hours) and try to get it to kick out a constant supply of Calcium. Without any touching of the dial, one day its shooting 30bpm and the next its shooting 90bpm, I don't quite understand it. On my first bottle of CO2 I was hovering around 430ppm Calcium and now on the second bottle I am hovering around 370ppm Calcium. I guess it could be the Coral Load has increased, but I can't adjust the reactor to up the ppm Calcium, and I don't want to shoot 180bpm into the reactor.

Any ideas from anyone? I am using a Geo 624 Calcium Reactor with 16 pounds of large cal bits, and a Pond pump is providing circulation at 600gph and a Maxijet 1200 is providing intake water from the sump. I have the Effluent-out set at just above dripping (slow stream).

[Nyles]

is it on a controller?

[oxx155]

is it on a controller?

 

Its on a Milwaukee Controller that was set at 6.6 PH and I have now brought down to 6.4 PH.

I upped the bubble count slightly yesterday to a steady bubble of about 100-120 BPM and am waiting to see if that does a difference.

I am just so new to Calcium Reactors that its a learning process.

[Nyles]

Are you using the calcium calculator? if not that could speed things up for you. Keep in mind you should test same time everyday, as ph in the tank will vary, however in your tank it should be less than a smaller tank.

 

http://reef.diesyst.com/reactor/reactor.html

[oxx155]

Finally got the Calcium Reactor figured out and am playing with it over the next week or so to get all the measurements right.

I am going to run

40 BPM

45 ML-PM

6.7PH Reactor

8.35PH Tank

I used some Liquid Calcium to bring the calcium up to 390ppm and will do that again this week to hopefully bring it up to 420ppm (actually 450-460ppm in the main tank)

 

Updated Fish List (what I currently have in the main tank)

6 - Pajama Cardinals

2 - Black & White Oscellaris Clowns

6 - Blue Sapphire Damselfish

15 - Blue/Green Chromis

5 - Yellow Tangs

1 - Desardini Sailfin Tang

2 - Basslets

2 - Anthias

4 - Tomato Clowns

2 - Sailfin Algae Blennies

2 - Scooter Blennies

1 - Mandarin Goby

1 - Spotted Goby

2 - Sand Sifting Gobies

1 - Six Line Wrasse

1 - Leopard Wrasse

1 - Exquisite Wrasse

1- Scott's Fairy Wrasse

Inverts

1 - Blue Linkia Starfish

2 - Fighting Conchs

1 - Long Tentacle Anenome

2 - Rose Bulb Anenomes

1 - Green Carpet Anenome

3 - Green Brittle Stars

3 - Sand Sifting Stars

1 - Sand Sifting Cucumber

1 - Blue Tuxedo Urchin

In Refugium

2 - Blue/Green Chromis

1 - Six Line Wrasse

1 - Long Nose Yellow Butterfly

 

Still looking at adding in the future

1 - Blue Tang

1 - Other Tang

5 - Blue Sapphire Damselfish

4 - Anthias

 

I started the tank with 2 clams and have unfortunately lost both. I am waiting for everything to settle before trying more clams.

 

All corals are doing great and visibly growing.

 

I will probably do fish, coral, and clam additions after my June order and will definitely post pics for everyone.

Till then, back to wedding preparations.

 

P.S. - Thanks for the help Nyles

[superjohnny]

Very nice. So when are you hosting a PNWMAS meeting

[oxx155]

Very nice. So when are you hosting a PNWMAS meeting

 

LOL

 

Definitely not this summer, too busy. Maybe winter time. I would definitely have to talk to the organizers first to find out details.

 

I would also be interested in doing it at a time where I could frag some of my corals for trade.

[oxx155]

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, my camera is crappy and I just haven't had the time and/or money to invest in a new camera.

Is anyone good with taking tank photos and is willing to come over and take updated pics of my tank?

 

Also, I just removed 3 very large Green Brittle Stars. At least one of them was wrapping around my acros at night and taking out large chunks. If anyone wants to adopt them please let me know (one is missing a couple of legs cause he got himself sucked into a pump in my quarantine tank).

 

Everything is growing great, filling in everywhere and covering over the blue crates.

I have been playing around with different types of halides and am probably going to settle on 14k XM 250 watts. I now will have the following above the tank

5 - 250 watt 14k halides

4 - 96 watt 20k Fluorescents

4 - 96 watt Actinic Fluorescents

4 - 75 watt 10k Fluorescents

4 - 75 watt Actinic Fluorescents

 

I am also on the lookout for a new Protein Skimmer and Chiller that can handle my 850 total Gallons and well stocked, if anyone knows of any on sale now or soon or can recommend a brank that would be great. (I am currently talking to someone on here about a Pacific Coast Imports 1HP chiller, is that a good brand?)

 

Hopefully I will have updated pics in the near future.

[coralreefaquarist]

im no professional nor is my camera but id love to come check it out and take pics. id say im pretty good. pm me and wel arange it

[ThePremiumAquarium]

I am running the C-1000 and it does an awesome job! Definately a good choice for a system of your volume.