210g in FOCO

[nadking]

After months of reading everyone else's threads I decided to post a few pictures of my tank. I have been in the hobby for 3 years now and in that time I have gone from a 29 gallon to 55 and now 210. My current tank has been set up for a little over a year, it is an AGA with double overflows. The tank originally came with a wet-dry which I have plumbed into a refugium. I know wet-drys are usually considered "nitrate traps," but thus far I have had no issues. I may replace the bioballs with LR in the future. I use the other side of the wet-dry for my heater, skimmer feed pump, chemipure, and a phosphate reactor. I plumbed the refugium into the wet-dry to remove microbubbles and grow chaetomorpha.

Lights
4x54w t5 Ice Cap retro with 4 aqua blue +
Refugium has a 24"t5 coralife fixture with 6500k bulbs
I plan to add on a 3x80w t5 retro with 2 x blue +, and 1 fiji pink in near future.

Circulation
Seio 2600, CoralVue High Seas 202B, Koralia 2

Skimmer
MR2R with BL55 recirculating pump

Po4 Reactor
MR1 with Denitrate

ATO
JBJ

UV Sterilizer
Pentair 40w runs when the display lights are on

Return Pump
Quiet One 6000

Here are some pics,

 

[nadking]

few more

 

[nadking]

heres under the tank

 

[nadking]

Sorry for the thumbnails, Im still learning how to make pics big.

 

[nadking]

Ok I think I have the picture thing down now so here they are.

View from couch right in front of tank

The left side has various softies

The right side took me about 3 months to aquascape, alot of drilling and breaking different pieces of rock along the way. I plan to put most of my sps on the high shelf

This guy loves to hang out in the monti cap

 

[nadking]

Heres the under tank pictures, It is still a work in progress
Overflows drain into wet-dry

The refugium has walts fiji mudd in the first section and biosediment and chaeto in the second

I built the eggcrate barrier to stop the chaeto from getting sucked into the return pump

I hung the UV to save space, it turns on when the display lights are on, refugium light is on opposite the display.

 

[N-dog]

great tank! I use to live in foco. I was drooling over a 210 at D&G about 1.5yr ago.

 

[nadking]

great tank! I use to live in foco. I was drooling over a 210 at D&G about 1.5yr ago.

Thanks, it is a great place to live esp. if you like drinking and looking at hott women.

 

[Titeo]

your aquascape doesnt look too solid

 

[nadking]

your aquascape doesnt look too solid

I am guessing you are talking about the right side. If so each of the pillars have 1/2" pvc through them connecting each to flat pieces of lace rock which is also drilled. They can stand upright by themselves, the shelf on top only forces more weight straight down on them. The other side that the shelf sits on has another piece of pvc going from the bottom of the shelf, and through the 3 pieces it sits on. The rock fits snugly around all the holes, but I aquamended all of them just to be safe. I am not a fan of the rock pile look so I wanted to keep the bottom as open as possible. I am still thinking of a plan for the left side :fun2:

 

[nadking]

WOAH I didnt know the yellow smiley shot the one next to it. That is not what I intended

 

[nadking]

I came across a good deal on 2 x 72" super actinic VHO's with 660 ballast. I cannot believe I waited so long to add actinics to the tank. The color is trippy, but really cool to look at. I also added 3 x 3" variable speed fans to the canopy. 2 of them are pushing in air, and the other is blowing out. I can't notice a difference in light output, the one blowing out is pulling a lot of hot air so I guess they are working.

My woodworking skills, could be better

Actinics only, I learned it is quite difficult to photograph.

Heres a shot with the daylights and actinics on. The rose anemone has grown bigger since the intro of the actinics. Hopefully he stays put, I have a birds nest about 6" above it.

 

[nadking]

I picked up 2 bannerfish a few days ago. I was hoping they were schooling bannerfish but I believe after watching them they are longfin bannerfish. I have observed them nip at a green finger leather, rasta leather, and my flat brain coral has not been opening up as much as usual. The bigger fish is about 2 inches long and they are quite entertaining to watch. They have both displayed cleaning behavior towards the other fish in the tank, esp. desjardin. I will observe them the next couple of days and make a call on whether they go or stay, and also a plan to catch them.

I also captured the flasher wrasse showing off. If you catch him at the right angle the entire top fin is irredescent blue. The last pic is kinda a blur, but I thought it was cool.

 

[robot2222]

i love your tank , cool selection of fish .

 

[nadking]

i love your tank , cool selection of fish .

Thanks, im still on the fence of whether to keep the heniochus or do away with them. The brain has perked up to its usual state, and I really don't want to get rid of them. I don't mind if they munch on softies, but touch a clam and I will have to try and catch them.
Does anyone have any idea after seeing the pics if they are indeed longfin bannerfish, or the very similar looking schooling banners?

 

[nadking]

The bannerfish continue to nip at various corals, their favorite is definately the flat brain. This left me no choice but to trap them. I set the trap with mysis shrimp and soon after the first fish was caught. Surprisingly banner #2 did not learn from #1 and he too was caught about 5 min. later. They are now in the refugium waiting to be rehomed.





#1 trapped






#2 trapped

 

[nadking]

Ive been on a fish craze as of late. I decided to add 2 female squampinis and 1 male squamp to go along with my female that I already had. The past month or so while my female was the only anthias in the tank it has been coloring up and getting the red blotches on it's pectoral fins. Im guessing it has changed into a male. My original anthias is the one on the very top of the picture.

I also picked up a naso about 2 weeks ago. It is about 4 inch right now, hopefully it grows streamers as it ages.

Yesterday I picked up a potter's wrasse, he has been named Harry of course. He is already eating mysis and marine cuisine, hopefully he keeps eating.

Here are a few other pics of the tank.

 

[nadking]

I recently made some plumbing changes, I moved the BL55 I had as a recirc pump on the skimmer to use as my main sump pump that runs through the chiller and back to the tank. This thing moves so much more water than the Quiet one 6000 with the head pressure. Next project will be too make siphon breaks on my return lines so I can angle the locline lower. This should allow me to not create the microbubbles you see in the picture due to surface agitation. I also installed a Mag5 to run to my other return line. The increased flow through the sump has greatly helped my skimmer pull out gunk, and the fish seem to like the flow. In honor of the new plumbing job with no leaks I added a powder blue tang, yellow tang, blue tang, and 2 bangaii cardinals to the tank. I added them all at once in hopes of dispersing the aggression from my desjardine tang that thinks he owns the tank. After 2 days, he seems to be leaving everyone alone for the most part. I have my fingers crossed with these guys.

 

[mjaustin22]

I need to come see your tank!!! Looks great !!! Nice growth over the last few months.

 

[nadking]

I need to come see your tank!!! Looks great !!! Nice growth over the last few months.

Thanks, your welcome anytime. Slowly but surely the tank is filling in, well atleast the lps and softies. The acro-shelf still needs some TLC, the good news is they are all still growing, i just wish they could speed it up a little bit. I anxiously await the new arrivals.