290G Peninsula build...yet another Canadian reef

[DopeCantWin]

Lots happening with my tank these days and very little of it is good. Against my better judgement I added that Sohal tang directly to my display...well although it was healthy and fat...it gave pick to everything. Lost a large black and white clown plus my flame angel by the next day....then the sohal started looking rough. I moved him to quarantine and he passed. The my two truepercs went. Now my big yellow is struggling...hoping he makes it.
Read of this kind of mistake over and over...but thought I would never make it myself.

On your question of flow...the two 6105's and the 6205 all have to be turned way down otherwise the flow at the far side overwhelmed the corals there...don't see a problem for now.

+1 just went through around the same thing. My new addition is now sitting in the quarantine. No more mistakes.

 

[orangegoby]

sorry about your lost. Egg crate divider, not pretty but works quite well for me. I added a stripe of sponge on both side that have contact with the glass to avoid any scratching.
I have it up for few months until I finished my stocking list. I opened the gate up during the weekend for a brief moment to get an update on the situation then closed it up again.
good luck!

 

[mseepman]

Thought I would just post an updated pic of the tank from my new phone. Hopefully I'll look back at this pic in a year and say...wow how did these corals grow so much?

 

[coral_lagoon]

Sorry for the long hiatus. This have been going well with the tank. Always slow compared to how you hope it will go.

I have added some fish and quite a few frags. This will be my first SPS dominant tank and I'm learning how much flexibility I need to have to make this work.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the speaking for me. Note that I am terrible at taking pics.

Today I added this guy to the main display. I got him for a deal that could not be passed up. Normally I would have waited to add a Sohal last so that some other Tangs could go in. Hopefully I have screwed myself on this.

The yellow tang immediately started beating on him. Lights went out and hopefully they can work it out. This tank has plenty of room for both of them. Any suggestions for dealing with this?

Get a mirror and tape it on the end of the tank,and let the yellow tang see his own reflection. This will keep him busy. It has worked real good for me. Especially with tangs..
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2291964

 

[mseepman]

Just thought I would provide a quick pic update on the tank. Things are progressing and I'm slowing filling things up with frags. Will be interesting to see how these all grow out.

End shot

 

[humaguy]

the end view is my favorite on my peninsula...wish I went a foot wider...very nice set-up...

 

[Chappy]

Looking good.

 

[Twin Reefs]

Wow...this has been an awesome build. Not only did you build a stand and tank, but you built a very nice home to go around them!! You should post some home pictures since we need updates on it too!!

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Great job!!!!

 

[mseepman]

Wow...this has been an awesome build. Not only did you build a stand and tank, but you built a very nice home to go around them!! You should post some home pictures since we need updates on it too!!

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Great job!!!!

Thanks for the compliments. We do have a beautiful home. I'll see if I can get a few pics on here.

As for the tank...got some crazy nice frags this week in a shipment from the other side of the country.

 

[mseepman]

Wow, I realize that I've let this thread fall behind. Here are some updates on the tank.

Things are going overall pretty well. I've been battling some issues with PH and ALK. They were both really low and after dosing a ton of both ALK and KALK I still couldn't raise them much. I also had a cyano issue which I read could be linked to the really low ALK. I treated with Chemiclean and the cyano disappeared...although the treatment killed my birds-nest. Once that was over (tons of water changes) my ALK and PH started to rise. They sit at about 9 and 8.1 now which is better than the 5 and 7.75 that they were at before.
I use prodibio and my tank is pretty much free of Phos and Nitrates. I stopped using Reefbooster when I had cyano and my corals all look pale or brownish so I think things are starving a little. Will add that back into rotation.

Here are pics.

 

[Oldude]

Mark love the new set up!! Things appear to be doing very well for you, nicely done man!!

 

[mseepman]

Mark love the new set up!! Things appear to be doing very well for you, nicely done man!!

Thanks so much Greg. Knowing how amazing your setup is, that is a huge compliment.

Thought I would put a few new updates on here.

 

[lluv24]

Wow that looks really amazing!!!! Very nice work!!!!!!!!

You should be very proud;-)

 

[mseepman]

Wow that looks really amazing!!!! Very nice work!!!!!!!!

You should be very proud;-)

Thanks so much. I love having the tank in my house. Especially because my kids just can't get enough of it.
I do need to find a way to boost the colors but one thing at a time.

 

[Wings6010]

Absolutely gorgeous build!! I love how clean all the plumbing is!! I tip my hat to you sir!

 

[mseepman]

Wow, I just realized that I haven't updated this in forever. The tank is doing well. I actually have battles between all the corals since most of the space has filled in. I've struggled to keep my Alk up as well but otherwise all is good.

Here are some pics.

 

[MysteryReef]

Your tank and home are beautiful, love the way your stand blends with the home. It truly appears like it belongs. Not much worse than a tank that appears forced into a spot or one that appears out of place.

Are you still happy with your DIY LED fixture? Anything you would have done different with it?

Thanks....

 

[mseepman]

Sorry for the long in-activity...it's just been a busy period for me with work and family.

As for my fixture...I really love it. I have added two single 36" T5HO tubes to the fixture as I wanted some of the purple hues given by the ATI or KZ purple bulbs and so they run for several hours in addition to the LED's each day. If I had to say one thing I would change it would be that I would allow the light to drop closer to the water than the 12" that I allowed for. It's an easy fix but as yet I haven't found the time to make the change. As my corals grow, I think the increased light will be needed to compensate for the changes.

 

[mseepman]

Sadly it's been a long time since I updated this thread. There have been many challenges along the way and the tank had a major crash that I'm still working my way out of. In 2016 I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and that set me back a little. To add to that, while away on vacation my Apex failed and just zeroed all info out... It even ignored all the fallbacks. So it dumped 5 litres of ALK and 5 litres of CA and the same of MG all at once into the tank. My tank sitter let me know right away but by the time we got home, I had massive coral losses of about 90%. I pulled it all out and saved what I could. The death lead to algae and it took me over a year to fight that off.
I've been slowly getting things back to normal...if I even know what that is anymore and we are only recently reintroducing new corals to the tank. I will try to get a pic up shortly. I still love this hobby and without some of the valleys, I might not have appreciated the peaks.

 

[mseepman]

Thought I would throw a few pics of the tank in its current recovery state.