Barely made the club but time for my 180 upgrade (Warning: Progress may be slow)

[nightOwl]

Work picked up a little and I have been neglecting the tank. I should be back on track this week and if all goes well move everything I want from the 90 into the 180. I finally switched to my new bulbs (Radiums) as I will soon be running my real light cycle now that everything is just about moved over.



General Updates - Fish Moved from 90

I finally got around to moving my fish over to the new tank. The only thing I have left are my last inverts. A skunk cleaner, two large brittle starfish, and two peppermint shrimp. Catching the fish were harder than I thought and probably put a lot of stress on them so I will keep an eye on them for the next few days. I also moved Tiny over to the tank as well. Tiny is my bristle worm that is about 15" long. He has been in my tank for about 4 years of so. It may be longer as I have a hard time getting it to lay straight for me.

Tiny

The Clowns

The Tang

Getting adjusted to new surroundings

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General Updates - Coral Flesh Receding

I am not sure what is causing the issue but I have two corals where the flesh is just receding. I checked my levels and the only thing low is my magnesium. I will start dosing that this week. On top of that I lost one milli colony and most of another milli. I was able to frag the other (orange tipped) so hopefully it will pull through. I tried with the other and there is only one piece left and the flesh is coming off. I think it may be temperature related. The tank temps have been swinging between 77 and 80. I normally like to keep my tank at between 78 and 78.9. This week I will find time to make sure I can turn on the chiller without tripping the breaker.

Loosing Flesh...this this might be a flow issue

RIP..only one small piece left

Barley holding on...fragged up

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[BowieReefer84]

What's your Alk, PH, and Phosphate? I don't think 80 degrees should cause any issues. Is it receding from the base, or just sluffing off all over?

Maybe superglue the cut ends of any frags you make. Might help stop the STN...

 

[nightOwl]

What's your Alk, PH, and Phosphate? I don't think 80 degrees should cause any issues. Is it receding from the base, or just sluffing off all over?

Maybe superglue the cut ends of any frags you make. Might help stop the STN...

Mike - Alk, pH, and phosphate were all fine.

dKH - 8.0
Alk - 2.86
pH - 8.12
phosphate - 0.0

The orange tipped milli and the red and green mill started STNing from the base up. I also noticed I had them in a really high flow area. I was able to frag the orange tipped with no problem. The red and green did not fair so well. All the frags are now arctic white. It's the latest and greatest in coral colors . The one piece that was still alive last night I brushed with some iodine solution the other day and moved to a lower flow area. Hopefully it will pull through.

The one that is loosing its flesh is happening in a few areas. But I think it may be flow related as well. The area where the flesh is coming off is at the intersection of two powerheads. I had been tweaking the direction of the powerheads over the last few weeks now that corals are in the tank and may have put the coral in an area with too much flow. The stags don't seem to mind it as much. The weird thing is its not STNing its not bright white when flesh comes off.

General Updates -Added Another Heater

Last night I added another heater so now I am up to 3 - 300 watt heaters. It think this may do the trick. This morning the tank temp was 77.7 instead of almost 76. I will tweak the settings till it stays in the 78 range.​

General Updates -Fish Behavior

When I added the old fish to the tank I expected them to explore their vast new world instantly. I thought the Tang would finally leave the Clowns with some space. Before I added them to the tank the 9 Cardinalfish would be out in the open around feeding time and when the lights went out. Other than that they stayed pretty low key. With the introduction of the Clowns and Tang they are swimming more in the open. Maybe swimming is not the right word. Maybe more like moving out of the way of the Tang as he swims around the tank. I guess they are getting a feel for the new neighbors. The Tang now realizes he has room to swim and is loving the space. The female Clown is exploring more and the male does not let her get too far before he follows. Strangely enough the Tang seems follow as well. So even with the larger space he still does not recognize three is a crowd.​

 

[Supernova26]

Looking good.

 

[SPotter]

hey henry.....everything looks amazing. sorry for the losses!

 

[wowkingjames]

Enjoying your thread, love your set up, is there a particular fish you want to get?

 

[nightOwl]

Looking good.

Supernova26 - Thanks!

hey henry.....everything looks amazing. sorry for the losses!

Steve - Thanks for the kind words. As long as a frag survives I will be happy. All my other corals came from frags so it will be fun to watch them grow anyway .

I will have to see if I can find some more before and after pictures like the one I sent you of the birdsnest.

Enjoying your thread, love your set up, is there a particular fish you want to get?

wowkingjames - Thanks also for the kind words. It's funny you mention fish list. I have been playing around with it the last few days I am still trying to refine it.

General Updates - Modified Fish List

Currently Have
1 - Yellow Tang - Hawaii (Zebrasoma flavescens)
1 - Mated pair of Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
9 - Longspine Cardinalfish (Zoramia leptacanthus)

Want
1 - Blue Spotted Jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti)
1 - Chevron Tang (Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis) OR Spotted Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus truncatus)
Anthias - looking at the more peacful ones

3 - 5 - Dispar Anthias (Pseudanthias dispar)
OR
3 - 5 - Evansi Anthias (Mirolabrichthys evansi)​

Angelfish

1 - Female Bellus Angelfish (Genicanthus bellus)
OR
1 - Red Stripe Angelfish (Centropyge eibli)
OR
Golden Angelfish (Centropyge aurantia)
OR
Potter's Angelfish (Centropyge potteri)
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Wrasses - Still deciding the exact ones...once I can keep one of the cheaper ones I will graduate to the more expensive ones

Line Spot Flasher Wrasse Male (Paracheilinus lineopunctatus)
Filamented Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus filamentosus)
Hooded Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus)
Blue Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus cyaneus)
Hawaiian Flame Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus jordani)
Golden Rhomboid Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis)
Hooded Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus)
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1 - Butterfly​

 

[pico-reefer]

My god Tiny is the biggest bristle worm i've ever seen! I'd crap my pants if i were moving my rocks and he came out LOL, tank looks awesome!

 

[nightOwl]

My god Tiny is the biggest bristle worm i've ever seen! I'd crap my pants if i were moving my rocks and he came out LOL, tank looks awesome!

pico-reefer - Thanks for the compliments on the tank.

I have had Tiny for years now. The thing actually eats pellets whole. I use to have two this size but one disappeared. The first time I saw it I dropped the rock I was holding back in the tank pretty fast. I thought it was a baby eel or something when its head came out. A couple of times I have even seen him attempt to spawn.

 

[nightOwl]

General Updates - Aqueon Submersible Heaters Suck!!!!

First of all sorry for the venting. For the last week or so I have been trying to figure out why my temperature in the tank was dropping so low over night. The last few days the temperature has gone down as low as 75 degrees and I have been pulling my hair out :headwalls: trying to figure out why the display was showing three heaters were on and the water was taking longer to reach my desired temperature. To compound the problem when I installed the heaters I added a safety statement to the programing to turn the heaters off if the temp was below 76. I ended up checking my temperature probe twice to make sure I was not getting a false reading. The day before yesterday I decided to check all the heaters to see if I could feel heat coming from them. The first heater I checked was the one I temporarily put in the frag tank (300w) which felt good. The next was the Finnex (500w) that felt good as well. When I went to touch the Aqueon I noticed a small blue piece of plastic in my sump. It looked like a wire nut so I was confused as to why it was in the sump. Then I noticed there was a black piece of plastic attached to it. When I touched the heater there was no heat. I pulled the heater out and instantly smelled a weird burning wire scent. I unplugged the heater and held it up to see water inside. The blue piece of plastic was the temperature setter. I guess it popped off and water has been inside the heater for a while.

Lucky for me I order another heater and some goodies last week as my frustration rose about the temperature issues.


What I purchased around 5/28

What I had on 8/1

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General Updates - New Kids - Ballasts and Heater

One small problem of having different ballast is that the color from the bulb varies slightly. I wanted them to look the same or as close as possible so I ordered two additional IceCap ballasts. I know the company is out of business but I like their products. Also CoralVue is providing support for the IceCap fluorescent ballasts so hopefully the will re-brand or support the IceCap MH ballasts. They are both say the same model but one looks a little bit different than the other. I was hoping they would be both look like my existing ballast.

New Heater

New Ballasts

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General Updates - Odds and Ends

I hardly saw Tiny in my old tank so I guess he is still getting settled in the new tank. This morning when I came downstairs to check the temperature he was out.

Tiny Siting 8/3

I forgot to post I moved my Skunk Cleaner, Peppermint Shrimp, two large Brittle Starfish, and a few snails to the main tank on 7/26. My largest Brittle Starfish is about 2' in diameter.

A while back I had mentioned making an pan to catch the water when I needed to service my pump. I compared it to an oil changing station where the water could fall down a hole into a pan and I could let it drain. Well i was looking back over some pictures and forgot to post them. I finished it back around 5/28 and installed it when I replaced my loud Snapper. I cut a hole in the top (water drains into) and a hole in the front (water pan pulls out) of my pump stand.

Modified stand my pump sets on

Water pan

Water pan handle installed

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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Odds and Ends Continued
I also found a picture of the UV Sterilizer installed that I had not shared. Currently the Skimmer empties into a bucket. I will make a new container so that it can empty into once I get around to having some spare time again.

Old pic of UV Sterilizer installed 5/18

 

[kayaking2]

Is the bristle worm a pet? I don't know why but I don't like them in my tank.

 

[nightOwl]

Is the bristle worm a pet? I don't know why but I don't like them in my tank.

kayaking2 - It is not a pet . I know a lot of people that avoid them and try to trap them to remove them. In my tank I let them play their part as part of my clean up crew. I feed heavily and the more little critters that can get in the crevices and take care of any food before it starts decaying the merrier for me. When Tiny starts to bother my fish then he has to go but until then he has been a pretty good citizen. With the number I had in my old tank I was able to witness mass spawnings. It was pretty cool to witness. It looked like they were smoking cigarettes under water.

Bristle Worms Spawning

 

[SPotter]

Awesome picture Henry! But dont you think you should respect their privacy during this very intimate moment? :spin1:

 

[nightOwl]

Awesome picture Henry! But dont you think you should respect their privacy during this very intimate moment? :spin1:

Steve - The first time it happened I was in a panic. They did not seem the least bit concerned about privacy. Every bristle worm in the tank that could came out, tried to climb to high ground, and participate. My snails have also engaged in this type of behavior...LOL. There is so much love and happiness in my tanks...LOL.

 

[rehab]

Lol, one big squirmy bristle worms orgy. Great pictures!

 

[nightOwl]

Lol, one big squirmy bristle worms orgy. Great pictures!

rehab - Thanks for the compliments on the pictures! I can not wait for there to be something of interest in this tank. Currently my Cerith Snails are laying eggs monthly. I have been taking note in my tank journal but should start updating here for my reference as well.

 

[nightOwl]

General Updates - Miscellaneous

Its been a little while since my last update but things are coming along pretty nicely. I have been busy doing little things so progress is slightly slow. I broke down the 90 last week and I am so happy to be done with it. I have been selling the items this week to try to get them out the basement. I need to start making decisions on flooring.

Fish Behavior

My Yellow Tang that could not stand to be more than a foot away from the Clowns has finally realized 3 is a crowd. He now sleeps on the other end of the tank. I am so proud of him . He also seems to be happy that he can swim from one end of the tank to the other pretty fast. Swim little fish swim :fish1:​

Coral Bleaching

Some corals are more picky about where they are placed than others. Back when I had some corals STNing others were looking pretty crappy, dull, and faded. Now they are getting use to the light they are slowly starting look pretty again. My Tri-Color is starting to get the pretty purple tips and the Miami Orchard is getting the lavender growth tips. I had to move some corals around to find a better spot.​

Top-off Water Container

I had a weeeeeeeeee bit of an incident about 2 weeks ago where I hit the top off container hard enough with a 25 lb weight the back seam split and water spilled out. I repaired the seam but now I found a leak on the bottom. I will have to repair that soon as manually adding evaporated water sucks!!​

Ballasts

I finally got around to trying to make all my ballast look the same. The one silver IceCap is throwing me off and I may move it to the middle so it will be blue, silver, blue instead of silver, blue, blue. I finally installed my other IceCap 660 and removed the 430 that was running my front VHOs. I went through and cleaned up the wiring on my lighting rig and used zip ties for cord management. It looks much cleaner now .​

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Skimmer

My skimmer that I thought "could do no wrong" (excuse the grammar) has turned into the stray voltage monster. The other day I stuck my hand in the tank to pick up a frag that was knocked over and I felt a strong tingle. I checked my hand for cuts and stuck it back in the tank. "Brain to hand...tingle is not good abort, abort, abort". The funny thing about trying to find the item that is leaking voltage is that you know you will feel the tingle before you put your hand in the tank. I have 15 electrical items in the tank. It took 14 tries to find the culprit. I have emailed CoralVue about the pump and I am waiting to hear back from them on what the next steps are.​

Frag Tank

I have been searching to no avail for a IceCap 250w MH ballast for the Frag Tank so I finally broke down and put the old PFO HQI ballast over the frag tank. All the corals in there have been growing increasingly pale as the only light was from the VHOs that were on for 4 hours a day. I wonder how long it will take before things start to color up again? Updated the second pump on the frag tank with the other MP-10 from my 90. I have both on the frag tank slightly off center and they are creating pretty good flow in the tank.​

Main Display

I finally was able to install my AquaMedic Triple doser on the main display last week. I was out of magnesium so I could not start dosing. I also needed some rigid tubing so luckily that arrived from BRS yesterday. I should be able to finish up things later this week.​

New Frags

I added a few new frags over the past week or so and last night I picked up a few more. I am hoping they all pull through as I left them in the coral dip 3 mins past what I normally do. They showed signs of stress but hopefully will fine when I get home later today. In the past too long in the coral dip has not ended well for me .

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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Miscellaneous

Skimmer

I had not heard anything form CoralVue about the pump so I sent an email to them. Within 20 mins or so Jeremy the rep handling my case informed me they had sent the pump out last week and apologized for not sending the tracking number sooner. Wednesday I should have my new pump. Not too bad a turn around and customer service was pretty good.
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Wiring

I finally got around to disconnecting my previous two 20 AMP circuits and hooked up the two circuits for my tank. For the first time since having the tank up and running I was able to turn on everything, except chiller, without tripping my surge protector. I will program the chiller later tonight. Now all I have to do is repair the drywall.

Main Panel

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Top-off Water Container

Weld-On 16 and #4 are my friends again. I had to pull out my big clamps but my container no longer leaks! No more manual adding water to the tank. Woo hoo.
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Main Display

I have installed the rigid tubing and mixed up my magnesium and staring my dosing. Over the next few days I will test the levels to make sure I am hitting my target levels. Over the last few weeks my coralline algae has started taking off. I am hoping the dosing will help improve the growth even more.

• Calcium - 425 - 450
• Manegsium - 1300
• Alk -2.5 meq/L
• dKH 7-11 dKH

Tubing

Magnesium

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New Frags

I end up loosing one frag from last week but the remaining frags are looking good now. I did not turn the pumps off when I snapped a few pictures so please excuse the quality. They all came from the same person I received the last four from. He consistently has nice corals and going to his house to look at corals is like putting a kid in a candy store.

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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Miscellaneous Continued

New Colonies

Frags are always nice but occasionally I come across a nice colony I like for a reasonable price. A LFS in my area gets some nice colonies in on a regular basis. The good thing is they are relatively close and bad thing is they are relatively close. The other day I was in and picked up the two beauties below.

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