A Miracles in Roanoke - My New Tank Build

[eengmd]

Not much has happened lately but fish will occupy the tank here in February! I moved some new corals from the q tank along with 2 cleaner shrimp. It is definitely less exciting when you are fallow. I live the sps but fish really give the tank life. The only major update I have is I replaced my Elos ATO with the Genesis Renew and Storm pro this past weekend. Pretty sweet product. It took a long time to plan out the layout and tubing but to not have to do water changes is pretty sweet. I like doing daily maintenance but water changes has always been one of less desirable maintenance tasks for me due to the time and cleanup afterwards. The renew us set to do a 2 gallon water change daily. This amounts to approximately 24% total water change each month. I had been doing a 30 gallon change evey two weeks which is about a 26% change for my system each month. The storm serves as my auto top off. It also controls an electrical valve called the ROCv that keeps my top off tank filled. The genesis system seems to be well thought out with multiple fail safes in place.

I will post some pictures of the installed system in the future. Anybody interested in a 4 month old Elos digital top off system?

 

[eengmd]

Here is an iPhone 5 panoramic photo of my tank sans fish. I have not been able to take a FTS with my DSLR nor do I know how to take on well. The main reason I am posting this is for the PAR values of my 4 ecotech radions without the upgraded lens.

Keep in mind, these are dynamic par values averaged. The PAR constant goes up and down with each ecotech pulse. They were measured when the lights are at the maximum intensity still about 85% of what my radions allow. SOme people measure PAR with all pumps off but I thought I would report active real life PAR values. Please see previous post for how I configured my lights in terms of spacing. I am open to any suggestions and will probably upgrade my radion this fall quarter when their upgrade is available. I am just beginning to understand LEDs.

 

[eengmd]

My red fromia came out today! I thought it had died. My two pairs of shrimp seem to have paired. I have two blood shrimp and two cleaners. I also have a bunch of baby shrimp hopping on the sand bottom. I'm sure they will make tasty treats when the fish come back soon. Phosphates 0.02, alk 8.5, calcium 450 today.

 

[dadyoj21]

looking good Eugene I have to get out to see it in person. But I hate how slow reef central is now, times out with internet explorer, and with firefox it is painfully slow

 

[lighthouze08]

Looking good Eugene!!! can't wait to see more pics. Jorge, reefcentral is so fast today i thought i was dreaming for a sec there

 

[ade]

Ditto what the others said.

 

[Der ABT]

Aw man ive been away too long, Great looking tank, those dimesnions are just prefect....freaking perfect.....

Glad to see alot of the older regulars still around....missing blacksburg alot

Lemme know when you make it to DC and ill have some SPS for ya.... (also will put up some pics of my new 156 build ...90g is too overgrown and dirty to show haha)

anyways keep up the nice work
Evan

 

[eengmd]

Time to celebrate! 70 days of going fallow are over. I'm going to slowly move some fish back in.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

How is the fish transferring going?

 

[WillM]

Good luck, Eugene Can't wait to see it with fish again!

 

[eengmd]

How is the fish transferring going?

Going well thus far, fingers crossed. 4 fish back in including 2 wrasses, a butterfly and foxface. I still have a melanarus, twinspot hog, clown, two neon gobies, a geometric pigmy hawk, purple tang and powder blue. I have in quarantine currently 3 ignitus anthias and a yellow long nose. They are looking healthy and are currently being treated with prazipro for one week after acclimating and eating. Should I treat prophylactically for ich with cupramine or crypto pro? The fish so far look spot less. I continue to debate treating regardless since I have now gone through the 10 week fallow ordeal and running 4 separate q tanks. Now I'm down to three.

My plan is to acclimate the non tangs soon, wait for the yellow longnose then add the powder blue and purple the same night. I would appreciate any input on if I should treat the longnose and anthias for parasites regardless.

PS I like the new changes to the ATS. A friend bought one recently and I like the new heat sink design.

 

[eengmd]

Just a side note, I received a colony of zoanthids which are quarantined currently. Beforehand though, I did a Beyer dip. I totally forgot that I did the dip and left them for 3 hours in the dip! They survived and came out fully the next day. That dip seems very forgiving. Every single creature living in the zoanthid colony I am sure died though.

 

[eengmd]

Well I have slowly moved my inhabitants from various Q tanks. So far the tank has two butterflies, 2 wrasses, a twinspot hog. FIngers crossed, spotless fish thus far.

Parameters were measured yesterday as well. I think I am running a very low nutrient system tank inadvertently. Phosphates 0.01, nitrates 0.5, Alk 8, Calcium 450, Mg 1400. My Geo calcium reactor is up with zeovite Mag and calcium media. I am feeding heavily still. I think the combination of my Bubble King and Turf scrubber are keeping my parameters in very good range. Algae turf scrubbers rock!

 

[eengmd]

I have started feeding heavy for the past week. My food includes cyclopeeze, pe mysis, standard mysis, rods food and roggers food. Phosphates and nitrates are staying low and the ATS harvest has increased this past week for sure. Here is a picture of a seemingly parasite free longnose butterfly picking at my homemade roggers food. It is evening time with the 20k dimming to all blue moonlight in this picture. It is an iPhone 5 picture.

 

[eengmd]

It almost been 2 months and the fish all seem to be parasite free. I thought I saw one tiny spot for one day on the yellow longnose butterfly. The tangs have been completely spot free. There is only one fish left in the q tank, a Tanaka pygmy wrasse, mainly because he was being beat up by another wrasse. Here is my current stick list in the approximate re-introduction order.

Copperband butterfly
SA oscellaris
Magnificent foxface
Pair ignitus anthias
Yellow longnose butterfly
SA neon goby x 2
Mystery wrasse
Twinspot hogfish
Powder blue tang
Geometric Pygmy hawkfish pair
Purple tang
and the most recent addition, Fathead sunburst anthia

I lost a melanarus wrasse which I found crispy after a vacation. I also lost one anthia which was being picked on by the dominant ignitus. Otherwise all so far is well. I may add some bartletts in the future and hopefully my Tanaka.

 

[eengmd]

My battle with asterinas

I love my rock covered in that purple coralline however recently I have had too many asterinas eating my pretty algae. I have a pair of harlequins to battle that but recently I also purchased 12 inch tweezers that have assisted me in the battle. I pick out 25-50 starfish a day. Over the last week I have noticed a major difference in the coralline picking up. I have not seen my shrimp in several weeks but this morning I found my shrimp sitting out right in the middle of a prominent rock. I plucked several larger asterinas and dropped them right by the shrimp. Absolutely fascinating to watch their blade like "claws" go to work. I tried to capture video and pics but with the moon lights only on, I could not capture a decent image. It was amazing to watch.

In addition to the harlequins, I also have a pair of cleaner shrimp and a pair of fire or blood shrimp. My only other major invertebrates include one red marbled fromia, 2 croceas, 2 maximas and 50 or so banded trochus snails and 10 giant nassarius snails. I am not a big fan of hermits or any other snail for that matter. Hopefully I can get a stock list of corals soon as well.

 

[eengmd]

Non iPhone 5 pictures of livestock

Sorry no geometric pigmy hawkfish as I cannot entice them out and get a good shot. They tend to stay in a cave and dart out for food.

Mystery Wrasse He is hard to photograph being always active. I love the colors on this guy.

Purple Tang This guy originated as a tiny one from Steve Dyer. He is the boss of the tank.

Twinspot Hogfish Probably saved a clam with parasitic snails, always hunting for worms and tiny snails.

Powder Blue Tang My must have just because it is an awesome looking fish. If I had ich, I figured this guy would have it by now.

Ignitus Anthias Also hard to capture, I could not get one with open fin where the purple and pink fins are more impressive.

 

[eengmd]

Yellow Longnose Butterfly I love the longnosed fish, but this guy has eaten up my tube snails. I hate those things and this guy loves to snack on them.

Sustainable Aquatics Clownfish Everybody has to have a clownfish right?

Fathead Sunburst Anthias I love the head. This came from the Diver's Den.

Sustainable Aquatics Neon Goby I have two of these guys. Watching the cleansing is always fun.

Magnificent or Metallic Foxface I generally do not like foxfaces but this one is a stunner. Also munches on bubble algae. Pretty fish that eats bubble algae, what's not to like?

 

[eengmd]

Copperband Butterfly My favorite fish. Loves blackworms, plankton, mysis, and roggers food. This one seems to know first when food is coming.

Maxima Clam I have two. The other one I got back at a meet at Ade's years ago.

Purple Montipora Digitata My first SPS coral over a decade ago. I have to have one just for nostalgia's sake.

Crocea Clam Again one of two. The other has some gold in the middle. This one became retracted and I could not find anything wrong with it. I was about to do a freshwater dip but noticed it starting getting better after my twinspot hog was re-introduced.

My son vs Darth Vader Recent trip to WDW and my son got to fight Darth Vader. It was pretty cool!

 

[reefdadx2]

Looks great.