180 gallon. Time to get started.

[gradth]

I actually got a few decent pics yesterday on my camera. Couple new additions and some updated shots.

 

Hydnophora(im told) that I picked up from Woody.

 

New white cheek tang

 

Slimers growing good.

 

This birdsnest is growing like mad, look at the post before and you can see it has grown quite a bit in the last month.

 

Devils hand is growing well too. Wife says it looks naughty when the polyps are not out.

 

Fred doing his thing.

 

Zoas I got from OIB came with a little feather duster.

 

LMB peeking out.

 

Then over to the 55. Sadly I lost my beloved cubicus for some unknown reason. So the wife insisted that we get a new one. This little guy is a bit shy still.

 

Again, the wife insists on having a bicolor blenny even though I have bad luck with them. Hes a cute little guy.

 

and my new dragon goby since I have had bad luck with the last 2 diamond gobies I tried to put in there.

 

Thats about it this month, hope my new tang does well. Seemed pretty happy and sure of himself this morning, actually saw him eating some algae of the powerhead, so thats a good sign.

[andy]

Looking good, LMBs always make me laugh... Watch those green palys, they grow like mad.

[gradth]

Looking good' date=' LMBs always make me laugh... Watch those green palys, they grow like mad.[/quote']

 

LOL, dont I know. I just posted to see if anyone wants some for trade or something.

[gradth]

Updates

 

Well I have not updated in a while, not alot has changed, mostly coral growth and fish getting big.

 

My clowns have started laying eggs over the last couple months.(my next project(scary). heres the male protecting the stash(nicely hidden under the clay potDOH!

 

most of my flock.(sorry for crappy photos, I think my cell phone would take better ones.

 

Fraggle rock

 

Fred getting huge.

 

some zoas

Not sure what happened with these, but had these for about 2 years and they never grew, maybe 15 heads or so. In the last month they have took off.

 

now some growth pics

march

today

march

today

march

today

 

FTS

 

And my one failure

Some type of monti

april

today

 

Not sure what happened with this one. Have a smaller frag of the same stuff that seems to be fine. Tried high, low, bout everwhere in the tank. Could not stop it from bleaching. Any ideas?

 

Thats about it, more pics but this post has got tons already. That and they kinda suck.

[ReeFit]

maybe its supposed to be white? mines white with blue polyps.

[gradth]

Well its been a long while since I updated this thread. Got side tracked with that 40B project. Which is now goneDOH!.

 

Had some issues and lost both my large birdsnest colonies(sad).

 

I opted to go the cheap route and bought those Plusrite bulbs. Had great growth for a couple months then they died off and pretty much killed most my sps in my tank. Lesson learned. So if any of you that might of got a frag of either the purple or neon green birdsnest from me(naughty), Id gladly buy a frag back from ya.

 

So I got rid of the 40b and decided to focus on my main tank. No more trying to barely maintain 2 or 3 or 4 tanks, gonna try and run just one. Some new pics, like I said most my sps bit the farm, some are making a come back. Fish are still fat and happy, added the skunk clowns to the tank, so far they are getting along with the other pair.

 

Full tank shot

 

Few new things from ocean in a box. Some cool zoas and a milli colony.

more zoas

Some mushrooms. Frags anyone?

This ones getting big

My skunk pair and a bunch of RBTA's

My egg laying pair of false percs

Slimer, one of the few sps to make it.

Some kinda of chalice. Anyone Know?

 

Ill post some new pics of the fish later, same fish, just fatter.

Got a Carbon reactor coming next week made by Wanareef.

[Bicyclebill]

What did you end up doing for venting on your light hood?

[gradth]

What did you end up doing for venting on your light hood?

 

Well the light itself has built in fans in both ends. But I still have not done the end piece to the canopy so its just open. My plan is to enclose it with a couple pc fans or something in the end. My tank doesnt get to warm and I normally have one side of my canopy always open it seems.

 

Update

Well thanks to Robert down at OIAB we narrowed down that my magnesium got really depleted and more than likely that and lack of consistent water changes led to the demise of my sps. Have been doing some pretty hefty WC's and dosing for MG and all my levels are coming back up nicely.

 

Lost one of my oldest fish my Kole tang yesterday. Stopped eating and never did figure it out. Added a midas blenny since my wife really wanted one.

[ShaunMonahan]

Set up looks good' date=' you may want to plug in the pump far about 4-5 seconds and see if it vibrates especially if the base below is hollow. I have mine sitting on i/2" insulation board, the vinyl might also do the job[/quote']

 

A mouse pad always does the trick under vibrating pump feet.

 

 

NM - just noticed the dates on this thread - oh well

[Hozer21]

Tank is looking real good

[gradth]

Thanks, its getting back to where it should be. Mag, alk and Cal are back to normal levels. SO with any luck I can see if my little bit of SPS will start to grow.

[gradth]

3 years later.

 

Well this month marks my tanks 3 year birthday. good or bad its still kicking.

 

After losing most my sps last year I have not really tried but once to keep sps. I have been trying to narrow down my issues with the tank along with life and work which takes it toll. My current issues are Phosphates I think. Everything else seems pretty good. I just cant seem to shake the PO4 for some reason. After talking with quite a few reefers its hard to come up with a definitive answer. Have I got "old tank syndrome", do I over feed, Do I just need to do a massive water change, are my softies giving off something that the SPS doesnt like?

 

I give you a run down of what I have going as of 3 years later.

 

Fish (approx age/time I have had them)

 

Female blue throat Trigger(lost her partner of 3 years recently(sad))

Hippo tang 4 years

Sail fin tang 3 years

White cheek tang 2 years

Occelaris clown(egg laying pair) 4 years

Pink skunk clowns 2 years

Lawn mower blenny 3 years

Yellow Coris Wrasse about a year

2 diamond gobies 6 months or so

 

Inverts and such

 

4 RBTA's( they like to split)

1 Green with purple tip BTA(thanks Wannareef)

1 cleaner shrimp

1 Harlequin shrimp

Misc snails and crabs.

Red mushrooms(they are like weeds)

Green hairy shrooms

Large toadstool leather(thanks Saltfinsax, gave me a tiny frag long ago)

Misc Palys green and tan.

New torch/hammerhead coral(thanks Kilmca)

 

Thats pretty much it now days for livestock.

 

Equipment is pretty much the same with some newer stuff.

 

3 250w Se hamilton 14k bulbs

ASM G3 skimmer

Added a Carbon reactor(thanks Wannareef again).

Will be adding a Phosban reactor as soon as I can hook up with Charles again).

 

My parameters dont seem out of whack. As of this morning.

 

Specific gravity - 1.025

Mag 1300

Cal 480

Alk 8.4

Ph 8.2

Temp 79

Nitrates ? ( I have 2 test kits and both are giving a different reading. 1 is .20 and the other is .40)

PO4 ? need a new test kit.(make sure you screw them lids on tight)

 

Im using RODI, which is coming out at about .002. I just changed the sediment filter and flushed the membrane so that may fix it.

 

Aside from that its still the same tank.

 

Looking for anyones thoughts on my sps problems.

 

After talking with Kilmca the other night, I decided to stop feeding spectrum pellets for a while, and just stick with nori for the big fish and mysis and brine every other day for the other fish. I feed my RBTA's about once a week with frozen cut up shrimp from winco.

 

Im going to set up a phosban reactor soon as I pick it up.

 

Any other thoughts would be great.

 

I have not posted anything on this in about a year since I really have not had much going on with the tank. So I thought I would update it and get some advice. Ill post some pictures later once I take some(whistle).

[Burningbaal]

sounds like phosban reactor is a good plan and cutting back on food. what about skimmer? I assume yours is plenty? only other thought is to run macro in a fuge, push it with really bright fluorescent bulbs (6500K or so) and it'll tend to soak up all the phos and nitrate you can produce, harvest the macro as it overgrows the fuge to physically remove the nutrients. I'm planning on starting my fuge with a dsb (display will be ssb) and prolifera, maybe other rooted macros and probably add chaeto at some point. for me, it's a dual-purpose cause it'll also be a food source for the vegetarians (even though my YT apparently doesn't realize that formula 1 pellets have meat in them)

 

glad you're persevering, can we see some pics?

[gradth]

I have cheto in the fuge in my sump, stuff grows like crazy.

 

I will get some new pictures up soon.

[gradth]

So a month later I get to pictures.

 

Today I decided to make a huge mess to go along with everything else. I have been meaning to remove the eggcrate I put in the bottom of the tank for a while now. Now I know why I put it off. Made a big mess, pissed off everyone and everything in my tank. But on the lighter side I was able to do some aquascaping that I have wanted to do for a while. For the most part it was a chance to really get in there and clean things up. Lots of loose rubble rock, shells, old coral skeletons. I still need to move some things around once the water clears up more. But I want more open space, so I now have kind of 3 islands going on. Pictures are a bit cloudy but you get the jist. Ill update when I get finished.

 

 

 

 

 

I have been using microbacter 7. just got done with the 2 week initial treatment. Oddly enough my rock smelled really strange. Not like fresh seawater. Discussing it with Cos at OIAB and smelling good rock there was a big difference in the smell. Bad bacteria? it was worth a shot. After the 2 weeks my rock appears to smell fresher(if that is the right term), I have some red coraline growing all over the place. Never new it grew red, always thought it was purple. I was checking out Wannareefs tank today and noticed the same thing on his rock and he told me it was coraline. Learn something new ever day in this hobby.

 

Anyone had any experience with MB7 and bio fuel from Brightwell? The directions are crap on the bottle and everything I have read about how to dose it is from one extreme to the other. I was told to just add a capful of biofuel a day and stop the mb7 after the 2 weeks, but others have different opinions. So if anyone has experience I would like to get some knowledge on it.

 

Feedback and opinions welcome.

[gradth]

short video before I moved the rock work around.