700 gallon tank, or how i spent my daughters inheritance

[Reefski's]

it's a week later and they laid another clutch two nights ago.

looks like the female tangled with one of the bristle worms in the tank. i know how much that hurts when i do it. she must be in a lot of pain. she seemed to be eating normally yesterday and seems a little less swollen today.

 

[Reefski's]

 

[dahenley]

that looks a little painful...

and i have never seen a fish lay eggs on the sand. cool.

 

[Reefski's]

what? no sump with caluerpa now. what page were you on? no refugium any more either.

i do have a cool sponge though.

and a great dog. click to watch video


Carl

 

[Fish4Me2]

I love the clownfish eggs: that's pretty amazing. I'll admit I winced when I saw the female's picture. That probably means I have too much empathy for a fish, but I hope she heals up quickly. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Reefski's]

after a couple of days the eggs turn dark. in a couple more days they will have prominent eye spots and then hatch.

the female is all better.
just yawning here.

this is not a very good picture. he is out so seldom. just wanted to comment on this guy. i have had him/her for about 5 years now which i am told is very old age for one of them. a recent article in one of the magazines talked about them being cleaners on the reef. i saw him recently cleaning the Falco Hawkfish at sunset. he is very shy during the day. he continues to molt about every 2 months.

his longest antenna is 8-9"! sometimes that is all i see poking out of the rockwork.

 

[Reefski's]

feeding time-7pm

Dad must take care of eggs while grabbing dinner too. mom flits in occasionally to fan the eggs too.

4am. i just checked and the eggs have all hatched.
the following videos are at 3 different resolutions









this one is a little wider angle

 

[dahenley]

Carl,
Hey, have you gotten any news on selling the house, or selling your old tank, or setting up or anything?

just checking in.

Also, hows the sunlit reef going?

 

[Reefski's]

Carl,
Hey, have you gotten any news on selling the house, or selling your old tank, or setting up or anything?

just checking in.

Also, hows the sunlit reef going?

it has been 5 months and no legitimate offers. first week we had an offer at full price that didn't work out. crazy people.

i got a deposit on the tank though last week. contingent on selling the house first or if house sold and they want to keep the tank or worst case we decide we just can't/won't sell at any price then i would of course not sell the tank. it will probably cost more that the sale price of the tank to remove it and patch everything.

actually i just got a note from a realtor i work for, roofing, that has a house coming for sale that might be perfect for us. large 16,000 sq ft lot with old house. very few lots that size in our area.

so the tank is pretty much on auto pilot. just enjoying it with the present inhabitants. if we do sell i will probably sell most of the livestock. i have people that are just waiting for that.

i do have a few new inhabitants of the sump setup that is now at our office. it has been running for a few months with just live rock, sand, and sunlight. i put a small amt of chaeto in the tank and it has grown really fast. a couple weeks ago i traded 5 gallons of a much larger amt to the LFS for a few fish. tailspot blenny that is just so cute. blue and yellow blenny, shrimp goby and pair of mandarins. all are doing well. oh and a couple of corals that are growing. a couple monti caps and a green pocillipora.

when i do set up a system again i think i will have less big fish and lots more little ones.

the Hippo tangs in the 700 are mature now and have been doing the spawning dance at sunset every evening. i have seen gamete release once. they are about 7-8". since spawning the male has been bullying the sailfin tang and cutting him and stopping him from eating.

i have tried to catch him to put him in the other system but no luck yet. i was hoping to be emptying the tank soon and be able to catch all the fish at that time but i have to do something sooner now.

i have some video i took that i have to edit down to post of the fighting.

this system is awaiting the sale of the house to move the livestock to.

it has done fine outside so far with a bit of shading to keep the temps in the low 80's. no chiller, fan or any cooling. lucky i live near the moderating effects of that big body of salt water.

i hope what ever happens is before the weather cools off too much. even though winters are mild here i don't want to have to heat 500 gallons of water outside and protect it from the rain over the winter.

here are a couple photos of the Copperband that has some kind of growth on it's gills. it has had this for a long time.

it is bilateral although one side has two lumps and the other only has one.

Carl

 

[Reefski's]

i have been busy not selling the house. we did not sell the house and are staying put for now or forever. my daughter got married last summer and is moving to Victoria Vancouver Island, Canada this week.

i will miss her immensely and her tank sitting for us when we go OOT.

i moved the sump tanks to the office in anticipation of selling the house and moving the fish there while finding a new place to live. now that that didn't happen i will be moving them back to the house in about a week.

the nitrates and PO4 have continued to rise without the bigger sump with DSB and inadequate water changes.

nitrates have peaked about 35-40ppm. PO4 0.14ppm

i am looking forward to having my system reunited. it has not been as stable.

i lost the place i had stored my 120 gallon tank so we decided to set it up at the office. it is very popular already. i came in the other day and there were three chairs with three kids in them watching the tank.

i am using two of the Santa Monica Scrubbers and no skimmer. the two scrubbers are powered by a Mag 9.5 split between them. they seem to get good flow over them and the water level in the bottom of the scrubber is 1/2-3/4" deep.

the first picture of the scrubber is after only two weeks of being online. the tank had had water and sand for about three weeks before the rock, fish and scrubbers were added. i woulkd have waited much longer, maybe adding a rock or two. however, i had a lot of pressure from everyone i saw at the office. "When are there going to be fish?"

the sand was mostly dry with a few pounds of well established sand with critters.

there is still a fair amount of algae on one big rock. i only have a few snails in the tank for cleanup crew. the tank is mostly the anemones and ten small fish, and a few corals that are doing well so far.

it is still too early to tell how it will work out but so far so good. the algae in the tank seems to be diminishing.

 

[dahenley]

YES!!!
IT lives and so does HE!

(are you going back with the huge acrylic tank? just curious?
and all the garage sumps?)

 

[Reefski's]

i still have the 700 gallon acrylic tank and it still has life in it.

my wife and i worked on the tank together yesterday. first time in a long time.

Carl

 

[fishcatdog66]

Well,I'm really glad your back at it Carl even though you didn't sell your house.Victoria and Vancouver Island are spectacular! If you havent visited yet,I know you will be impressed.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Hey Carl,
Sorry to hear that the sale didn't work out. But you have a beautiful house and a great tank and sitting room. Glad you are getting back to the tank. I know how hard it is sometimes as I've been there as well, but for other reasons.

Take care buddy and see you around. Oh, and don't go visit your daughter during the winter, it's COLD up there with a bunch of white stuff.

 

[Reefski's]

the office tank continues to do well. it is Skimmerless using two of the Santa Monica turf scrubbers. nitrates and phosphates remain almost undetectable.

 

[Reefski's]

double post
so here is something else

i sold the old energy hog skimmer and got a much more efficient one. putting it together today. i'm ready to start trying to grow some corals here again soon.

Carl

 

[bullitr]

Carl
Its good the hear
I also want to try ATS thats why I bought the sump from you
Also I email you

 

[dahenley]

is the skimmer a secret?
and does this mean big nasty (i calling your old tank this, because of its shier size)
is getting back up and going? i know you were waiting because of multiple reasons. so i was just checking in on that

glad to see you post again!!

(bullitr)
i havent seen any pictures or mention of this sump on your setup!

 

[Reefski's]

the skimmer is a Skimz SM302
about 1/3 the power draw even with a feed pump and much better skimming. if i gravity fed it it would take even less electricity.

the sumps in the garage have been restored. without them and the old crappy skimmer my nitrates had soared to 35ppm and PO4 .20ppm

 

[Reefski's]

a friend gave me a torch coral that seems to be doing well so far. only a couple of days though.

i need to measure my water parameters. i know the bad stuff has decreased a lot. i will post soon what the new numbers are.

we took out a lot of calcified sand in the tank. about an inch thick all over the bottom.

just added about 300 pounds of #1 aragonite sand to the tank and about 500 pounds in the sump tank.

i think i have been overdosing on the calcium and alkalinity. i have slacked way off and the numbers are more NSW levels now. should be healthier and cheaper too!

the tank is clear now.