A Reef Tank in the Desert - +/- 1,400 gallon system

QT Updates - Sohals and Borbonius Anthias

QT Updates - Sohals and Borbonius Anthias

Dan, I know I'm impatient but how's the QT going?

Brett,

Thanks for asking. They are all doing well. The Sohals are best friends. Here is a short video of the upper QT, my two Sohals and a Cleaner Wrasse.

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In the bottom QT, I have 6 Borbo Anthias (3+ weeks now), 4 Red Spot Cardinals, 2 Yellow Tangs that have been there for 4 months, a Blonde Naso (3 months) and a small Clown Tang (3 months). All are doing fantastic!

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Finally peace at last with the sohals. Good luck with the red dot cards. I had a school of 10 and they slowly disappeared and were eating healthy.
 
how are both the Achilles doing? did I spell that right? doesn't look right for some reason

The Achilles are doing great! Best buds! They always stay close to one another in the main display. If I can get a good iPhone foto of them later, I will post it.
 
I can't see the videos :(

I uploaded them before to PhotoBucket. These are now uploaded to YouTube. Lets see if that works for you.

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Wow! My husband and I spent the entire day reading the story of your build. Simply amazing!!! You should write a book or make a documentary about this entire adventure!

We are so glad to have joined and will be following along as it continues!

Thanks TangMaiden!

I am glad that you have found my build and have enjoyed reading it. One of these days I am going to have to lay back and read my thread from Page 1. I am curious now to see all the mistakes that I made and take note as to what I would do differently.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
 
Hey Dan,
A couple of questions. How often do you clean the fluidized sand reactor and do you think it adds much to your filtration? Are you running any carbon sources? Do you have a feel for which of your filtration units may be most efficacious in your system? Some of us seem prone to fads and trends, but I am interested in your opinions and thoughts to what works for you. Tank is sweet as always. Thanks for your input to the hobby.
 
Thanks for posting the vids. So glad to see the sohals swimming together.

Dan, Glad to see the Sohals are doing so well. I knew you would get there.

Joe

Finally peace at last with the sohals. Good luck with the red dot cards. I had a school of 10 and they slowly disappeared and were eating healthy.

Thanks guys!

The Sohals are absolutely beautiful fish and I could not be happier with them. They are behaving wonderfully together. I am not sure when they will get put into my main display. I still have another Clown Tang, 2 Blonde Naso's and 6 Borbonius Anthias that I want to get acclimated into the main display first.

Wayne, the Red Dot Cards have been doing great! I have had 4 of them in my QT for over a month and just received 5 more this morning that were in Diver's Den. They school together really nicely!
 
Update - Sunday, May 12th

Update - Sunday, May 12th

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's online, your spouses and/mothers. Without the support of my wife, I know that I wouldn't be in this fun & crazy hobby.

I am sorry that I have not been online much lately. I have been really wrapped up with a new venture that finally got off the ground, to much success, this past weekend! So this afternoon, after hosting a brunch for 8 mothers and their kids and grandkids, I finally was able to get around to taking care of my own tank needs.

I am happy to report that things are going very well with my systems. I am a little lax on changing my GFO and carbon, but I hope to be able to do that this week. I also have a couple more of the Radion Pros to install.

I have decided that I won't be moving my Sohals into the main display until atleast after I return from summer vacation. Sometime in July I suppose. Within the next two weeks, I will be moving my Borbo Anthias and my Red Dot Cardinals into the main display along with another Clown Tang.

I have also decided to turn one of my QT's, when everything is finally in the display, into a Clown and Anemone tank. I may have an acrylic divider made to split the tank down the middle, and try my hand at breeding a couple different pairs of Clowns. Maybe some Wyoming Whites or something fun.

Sam will also be back in the next couple of weeks and I am anxious for him to create some new videos for everyones enjoyment - and to see how much everything has grown!
 
How will you be acclimating the Sohal Tangs into your main display?

When the time comes, I will be placing the Sohals into two different acclimation boxes that I had made out of egg-crate. The QT system that the Sohals are in is now being operated on the same water (system) as my main display so I won't need to go through any temperature or water acclimation process.

I will place each Sohal in a separate box and will hang them in the display for a good week or so. I want everyone to get used to one another. I will probably release the smaller of the Sohals a day or two earlier than the larger one, to see how it reacts with my other Clown Tangs, Purple, Achilles and Powder Blues...
 
Hey Dan,
A couple of questions. How often do you clean the fluidized sand reactor and do you think it adds much to your filtration? Are you running any carbon sources? Do you have a feel for which of your filtration units may be most efficacious in your system? Some of us seem prone to fads and trends, but I am interested in your opinions and thoughts to what works for you. Tank is sweet as always. Thanks for your input to the hobby.

Osteoclast,

I am sorry for the delay in responding. I have never cleaned my sand reactor nor do I believe it is necessary. The sand is constantly churning so it's not necessary to replace. The only maintenance, involves adjusting the flow into the reactor on occasion. As bacteria grows, it sometimes clogs the sand a little and the sand level in the reactor will lower. As soon as I adjust the flow a little, it breaks up the sand and raises the level.

I have two different Avast reactors running Carbon. One is connected to my Ozone reactor and the other is tied directly to my sump.

What's most beneficial???? Not sure... I think the most important is a good source of macro algae, constantly turning and churning under a light. My chaeto has 3 different powerheads constantly turning it in circles under a Radion. I cut my Chaeto in half every 10 days or so. I run GFO in addition to Carbon and those are both equally important. The Sand Reactor certainly helps keep my Nitrates low as does Ozone to a degree. My Nitrates aren't at zero though. I feed a ton and have a heavy bioload! I feed over 20 cubes a day, plus Nori, plus dry food...

I am probably not much help. They all benefit my system. I just can't quantify as to what degree.
 
Dan I think your tank need a Gem Tang. Aqua Touch in town have a Gem Tang for sale
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