700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[Reefski's]

three videos of my tank/fish
all taken in the afternoon with sun only.
lawmower blennie- the first fish in the tank. he was by him/her self for 2-3 months.


more RBTA video. the clowns are regularly laying eggs on a rock near the anemone.


the tangs doing their thing-algae eating

 

[snoopy1980]

Carl, I am completely new to this hobby, as in i just finished setting up my very first tank EVER. I have read your entire thread from the beginning. I am grateful for your post as well as everyone else. i Have learned a great deal in the hours spent reading. I hope the future brings you some better luck, i am very sorry for your loses. You are an inspiration to me, to keep my chin up and let time take its place in life. Thanks for everything and GOOD LUCK!

 

[dahenley]

Reefski, hows the tank coming?

and what are your future plans. i know that you have thrown a few different things up in the air, but no real solid things yet.

 

[Matt_Wandell]

what is this?

Ptilosarcus gurneyi, Sea Pen. It's a temperate colonial octocoral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_pen

 

[Reefski's]

Reefski, hows the tank coming?

and what are your future plans. i know that you have thrown a few different things up in the air, but no real solid things yet.

haven't really got much work done on the tank the past few weeks.

future plan is to work in the garage this weekend. get a lot of sand in the sumps and move some fish into the DT, pink tail trigger, hippo tang, and ?

we shall see what i get done.

thanks Matt- interesting animals. how much work is it to feed them? how long have you had them?

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i have lots of interesting sponges in the system. i hope they don't get messed up tomorrow with all the moving of stuff.

urchin

urchin video-trying to scratch the tank.

 

[Reefski's]

a couple of the corals that have survived for a long time in the system.

not sure if a Monti cap or Heliopora.

a Pavona i think

 

[Matt_Wandell]

thanks Matt- interesting animals. how much work is it to feed them? how long have you had them?

Carl

Hi Carl, sea pens are really tough to keep. In the wild this species is found in a very narrow range of flow parameters that maximize their food capture rates. You simply don't find them in areas of higher or lower flow velocities. They also have a very narrow range of sizes of particles the polyps can capture. We feed the tank phyto and rotifers although I suspect they are not actually capturing the rotifers. The individuals in that tank have been with us for at least 3 years now.

That coral you posted is definitely Heliopora.

 

[Reefski's]

thank you Matt-

Congrats on keeping it for three years.

i really wish i lived closer to SF. i will make it back there ASAP. i do have a season pass for my local public aquarium, Long Beach Aquarium and the have a wonderful reef tank too.

carl

 

[Matt_Wandell]

thank you Matt-

Congrats on keeping it for three years.

i really wish i lived closer to SF. i will make it back the ASAP. i do have a season pass for my local public aquarium, Long Beach Aquarium and the have a wonderful reef tank too.

carl

They sure do! I am super jealous of the great big colony of pink Pocillopora eydouxi they have there.

 

[Reefski's]

is this the one in this video?

 

[Bax]

The file fish is pretty cool.

So are the sun light only vids!

 

[Reefski's]

two weekends ago i did some major work on the sump tanks. killed lots of aiptasia and cleaned out one of the tanks and added a 5" #1 aragonite sand bed.

i seeded it with some of the fan worms and spaghetti worms that were in it before.

also put a few hundred pounds of sand in the first sump tank too.

so once this sand gets a little maturity in a few weeks i will break down the DT. yow!

 

[Reefski's]

i put the three big fish from the garage tank in the DT, Hippo tang, squirreled rabbitfish, and pink tail trigger. so far they are doing great with one problem. the sailfin has a slice in his dorsal fin. i have not seen any aggression but there must have been some. it is already starting to knit back together after only a few days.

future use- frag tank with CPR aquafuge underneath.

three hundred gallon water change ready to go. we used it all that day.

 

[Reefski's]

the pink tail has gotten much less shy in the big tank. out swimming most of the time now. before, whenever i would come into the garage he would hide for a bit. he would come out eventually and eat Nori out of my hand. he loves Nori. i don't think that is part of his natural diet but he seems to be doing very well with it and he is of course eating the frozen food too.

i have had him for about 4 years now and he has grown considerably but not as much as the Rabbitfish which is the biggest fish in the tank.

 

[dahenley]

i know you cant put your cross hatch back as your avatar, but every time i see your name, i cant stand not seeing a trigger fish..... maybe you could think of that pink tail as a new avatar....


also, i love it when you show us pictures of your equipment....... Those small pictures just dont do justice when you mention 200gal here and 300gal there...

let us know if the new sand makes a differences and shows improvement in some way. (so exciting) (i wish i was a local, i would deff help you and do some of yoru dirty work just to be around your tank.)

keep us updated!!

 

[digitalchrisg]

How do you keep the temperature with the tank in the garage. I have been thinking of doing the same, but that has always been a concern for me.

 

[Reefski's]

i know what you mean about my avatar. i am not really happy with the sponge as an avatar, even though i think they are very cool and under rated for the filtration they can add to a system.

the new Coral magazine has some great info about sponges and their filtration ability and ability to make food for the corals.

i have had the same thought about making the pink tail my new avatar. i have had it twice as long as the crosshatchs'. it has grown a lot since i got it. stay tuned.

 

[Reefski's]

How do you keep the temperature with the tank in the garage. I have been thinking of doing the same, but that has always been a concern for me.

i don't only have tanks in the garage, they are connected to the tank in the house so they share the heating and cooling and the garage tanks are on a reverse photoperiod.

probably the biggest factor is my mild climate, even for los Angeles. i am about 2 miles from the beach and we benefit from the oceans moderating influence.

a couple weeks ago i had a 9am appt in the San Fernando Valley. when i left my house at 8:15 it was 65 degrees and it was 90 degrees when i arrived at my destination about 15 miles away and over the hills away from the ocean.

when i left there at 10am it was 103 degrees and when i arrived back home it was 72 degrees.

my garage is also below grade on 2 1/2 sides. three sides are concrete block about 5 feet tall and then wood framing with insulation above that to the ceiling which is also maximally insulated. the garage door itself has 2" insulation too!

i don't have a chiller and i haven't had to turn on the big fan to blow across the sump yet this summer. it has been a mild summer even for us.

winter time we rarely get temps into the 40's at night.

winter can actually be sunnier with albeit shorter days, summer time here is frequently overcast at least in the mornings. which is great if you are a roofer but not so good for coral growth.

the large water volume i am sure helps stabilize the temp too.

i have the light on in the garage at night from 8pm-8am. that probably adds a little heat.

i have not opened the skylight over the tank yet this year. the tank temp has ben very stable around 79 degrees. i only had a couple of days where it hit 80-81 for a brief period. i would like it to be a little warmer but that is what i got.

we have not turned on the AC yet this year. just open doors and windows, and some of the other 7 skylights in the house, just not the one over the tank. i would keep it warmer in the house than the rest of the family want to keep it. i am always going around shutting a door or window.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

nitrates in the tank a week ago were about 8ppm, family consensus on Salifert color chart.

nitrates in sump just prior to tank return is 3-4ppm family consensus.

the rest of the chemistry values-
pH 8.2
PO4 0.09ppm
Mg 1350
Ca 420
alk dKH 10