DA's 240 lagoon

[Reef_Noob]

Extremely well put ReefWaters!
The fact that the low suction at the intake area of the Vortech is something that camouflage the impending danger as the anemone approaches the pump and it's more prone to movin in the pump.
An anemone death fouling the water at an early stage of a reef tank can be quite difficult to control and will be more time consuming to bounce back to SPS quality parameters.
Carpet anemones though more challenging to keep are not big movers and like staying in the bottom if it's gets good light, medium flow and fed well. And would be a good choice IMHO. And am sure in a tank of your dimensions they gonna do well
Happy Reefing!!

 

[dark8nge1]

Well the anemone started to move. Found him in the top corner of the tank. Luckily he is not anywhere near any pumps. I might have to reconsider this.

 

[Ensiferum23]

First off, great work on this build. One of the best looking tanks I have ever seen. Your hard work totally paid off. Keep it up!

 

[dark8nge1]

Well I didn't make up my mind quick enough so the anemone made it for me. Came home to a cloudy tank. Anemone must have gotten stuck in a pump but managed to get back out. Somehow in all this my mystery wrasse got nuked as well. Had the guy for almost 6 years and has been through every conceivable mishap so it both saddening that I lost him and strange that he was the only one to not make it.

Good news is after a quick water change and tons of carbon everything looks back to normal. The anemone is out now and resting comfortably in the quarantine. Amazing how resilient this guy is. Not even 3 days and all his damage seems healed up already.

 

[leslie hempel]

awsome looking system.. waiting eagerly to see it grow out..

 

[ReefWaters]

The anemone is out now and resting comfortably in the quarantine. Amazing how resilient this guy is. Not even 3 days and all his damage seems healed up already.

Is your quarantine tank completely separate from your main tank? Keep an eye on the anemone. I'm sure you will. But I had one get cut up in a pump and he seemed like he was going to make it. Then all of a sudden he took a quick turn for the worse a few days later, settled under a pile of rock work and died on me. I had to tear up the pile to get to it and by then it had screwed up my water very badly.

 

[dark8nge1]

Yeah it's completely separate so no worries there.

On an happy note I moved a powder blue, watanabe angel and candy hog that were in quarantine into the display. Things are finally starting to more lively.

 

[ReefWaters]

Any updates? Its been a while. I hope everything is okay with the tank.

 

[kimes]

Just read through your thread, amazing tank! Would love to see an update!

 

[dark8nge1]

Hey Kimes. Thanks for the bump. I just read back through the thread myself. How things have changed!

Tank is definitely filled in more but since I started almost everything from frags it is still far from full. Actually fish wise it is anything but. I managed to get Brook from some hermit crabs I bought and it killed all but 3 fish in my tank (only three fish that would eat the Dr. G food). Just setup a quarantine tank so that I can start picking up new fish.

The tank is about to go through another major change soon so I'll try and get some pictures up with the before and after.

 

[ReefWaters]

Just checking in.... Pictures are worth 1000 words!

 

[dark8nge1]

Hahah... I'll try and get some pictures up.


So I pulled down all the previous lighting and went to Ecotech Radion Pros. Tank has need adjusting to the new lighting for over a month now but I think I underestimates the power of these lights and went a bit to high and bleached a some coral. Overall though I am loving being able to tailor the spectrum to my tastes and the lack of heat. I have pulled off the chiller on the tank since it tops out at 80 degrees now.

 

[dark8nge1]

Quick pic...

 

[ReefWaters]

Nice!!!! It's looking great man. Post some more pics.

The Radion set up is sick! Did you ever consider doing 6 instead of 8?

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Quick pic...

That definitely looks beautiful.

 

[dark8nge1]

Nice!!!! It's looking great man. Post some more pics.

The Radion set up is sick! Did you ever consider doing 6 instead of 8?

Thanks, I'm leaving for a 3 week trip around Asia so a bit swamped but I'll try and post a few more.

6 was the original idea but 8 ended up looking better spaced. I'm only running 54% power so I definitely didnt need 8 from a par standpoint.

That definitely looks beautiful.

Thanks Newbie Aquarist.

 

[guserto4]

Nice setup, love the stand!

 

[dark8nge1]

Long Vacation + Tank = No Bueno

Long Vacation + Tank = No Bueno

I am finally back from 3 1/2 weeks in Asia and a quick 5 day trip out of town. Vacation was great for me but not so much for the tank.

Before I left I was battling bubble algae and a bit of hair algae but it was pretty well under control. Unfortunately, while I was away some took hold in the overflow grates and clogged it up. After topping off unusually long my ATO shut off but my tank sitter did not notice the clog and restarted my ATO until it worked again. Honestly, I would have probably done the same thing and I am very appreciative that he was there to look over the tank so hard feeling there. In the end about 30+ gallons of fresh water was added to the tank which I can only assume dropped the salinity and alk. That combined with my house sitter (different person and not a fish person) adding a bulk sized flat pack of mysid to the tank over three weeks caused a major algae outbreak and die off. I lost over a 1/3 of the coral, mainly the larger colonies.

So there is where I am at now. Tank is a disaster but no one said this hobby was easy. Let the cleanup begin...

 

[ReefWaters]

Yikes. A month a way from your tank almost guarantees disaster. In reality, you probably fared much better than you could have.

I had a problem with bubble algae in that tank as well. I attributed it to a lack of grazing fish. I only had one small tang at any given time and nothing else that ate algae. If I remember correctly, my research was leading me towards buying a Sailfin Tang and a Rabbit. The hope was that between those two, fairly large, aggressive algae eaters (sometimes known to eat bubble), that I I could get the bubble algae under control. I never got around to trying it. Mostly because I am not a huge fan of Rabbit fish or Sailfin tangs. But what can you do? It's much better than battling the bubble all the time.

As for the overflow clogging, are you using all four drains in the overflow? If not, you could plumb one up as a backup. Cut a straight stand pipe a little higher than your other drains so that on a normal basis no water at all is flowing through the back up drain. If (or should I say when) the other drains clog or slow down, the water should fall down the higher overflow until you are able to fix the clog.

 

[dark8nge1]

I have a gold spot rabbit, mimic tang, and tomini tang. Normally they keep the algae under control but I think they were too busy gorging themselves on the mysid and not eating the algae.

I did setup the drains bean animal style but it was the eggcrate into the overflow box that clogged. So the water level I the tank rose 1.5". It was actually the same height as the eurobrace and starting to barely trickle over when I got back. So yes you are right it could have been way worse.