Gobie74's wide peninsula 200

[Gobie74]

Last week I picked up a new coral, ORA Marshall Islands something or other

Not too bad, there's even a small acropora crab in there, that's why I choose this particular piece. I can see it in there, not sure if anyone else can find it.

I was trying to take a picture of my latest addition to my vertibrate crew, but couldn't get a shot. So in it's place, here's a shot of one of my yellow tailed damsels.

 

[gasbatalla]

Very nice looking frag. How do those yellow tailed damsels behave? Any problems are they very territorial?

 

[Gobie74]

Very nice looking frag. How do those yellow tailed damsels behave? Any problems are they very territorial?

They're pretty well behaved, not perfect by any means, but good. I have 3, the seem to have a pecking order, but in 200 gallons, they have plenty of room to keep out of each others way if they want. Although they usually stick together.

 

[cato]

Lookin good Dave!

 

[Bigjoe2531]

Nice ORA Marshall Island....

 

[Gobie74]

A few posts back I hinted I had a new addition to my crew, well here he is...

That's one of ORA's captive bred mandarins. I picked him up a week ago at my LFS and he seems to be fitting in just fine. He's still a little nervous and doesn't move around the whole tank yet. But he seems to be getting there.

 

[Bigjoe2531]

Wow,such an awesome shot...love it...That mandarin is amazing!!! Good luck with him. What has he been eating? Did you qt him?

 

[icedgxe]

The mandarin is awesome! There is one at my lfs that I wanted to get today but until I see how they are eating I can't justify spending $50 on them. Keep us updated on how he is doing/eating.

 

[Gobie74]

Wow,such an awesome shot...love it...That mandarin is amazing!!! Good luck with him. What has he been eating? Did you qt him?

Been trying to feed him some pelleted food, he doesn't seem too interested. But it seems many people in the Reef Fishes forum are having a similar problem. Didn't QT him, thought it would be best to get him right in with the food source.

The mandarin is awesome! There is one at my lfs that I wanted to get today but until I see how they are eating I can't justify spending $50 on them. Keep us updated on how he is doing/eating.

He is pretty awesome. I'm starting to see more movement from him. Looks like he's getting more used to his new environment. Now I just have to see him hunting and I'll be happy

 

[needmore-reef]

Just read the entire thread last night... Awesome!

I'm from Arizona and one of the problems with my system is high water evaporation. Will you add water as needed or set up a float valve to RO? I'm trying to come up with a better setup than a Kent float valve to 5 gal bucket, just curious what you plan on?

 

[Gobie74]

Just read the entire thread last night... Awesome!

I'm from Arizona and one of the problems with my system is high water evaporation. Will you add water as needed or set up a float valve to RO? I'm trying to come up with a better setup than a Kent float valve to 5 gal bucket, just curious what you plan on?

At the moment, I'm just adding topping off every day about 1 to 1.5 gallons. Yeah, evaporation can be a chore, its the one thing I don't have automated, and while there is controls for it on the Profilux, I don't think I have the room for it. Or at least, I don't think I have the room for a top off tank. Unfortunately with no basement below and no room in the stand, I'm kind of limited in what I can do. I don't want to have some random bucket in the middle of my house, that wouldn't look great. Maybe I can figure something out, but for now, manual top off.

 

[Gobie74]

wow tanks looks great. do you find that you have enough flow at the end of the tank ?

Just going to respond to this again with some observations I made today. I had some vinegar left over from cleaning my old tank and skimmer and decided to give the Vortech wet sides a good soaking and cleaning.

I cleaned the pumps one at a time and while one was soaking, I cranked the other up to 100%. Well, at least for a little while. I was creating a sand storm at the far side of the tank because there was just a ton of flow.

Normally the pumps are on the new Eco-Smart Tidal Swell mode, so while they do get up to 100% occasionally, they probably dont stay there too long.

So it would seem that I 'm not having any problems with flow, in fact, I have room to spare.

 

[Gobie74]

Well the colors in this picture are a bit messed up, and there's plenty of reflections from the front door and windows, but here's what I get to look at while sitting on the couch relaxing on a nice Sunday morning.

 

[Rickyrooz1]

That's ORA's Blue Bottlebrush

 

[Gobie74]

From this not too long ago:

To this today:

Not too shabby.

 

[FishNutty]

beautiful tank!

 

[Gobie74]

This past weekend I took a drive down to ReefBum's house which is about an hour or so away, but the drive was totally worth it. His tank is, without a doubt, the nicest tank I've seen to date anywhere. So we talked shop for a bit, and I bought a few frags from him. Bought 5, and he threw one in for free. Sweet. So here's some pictures, one didn't really come out. I'll get back to identifying them in a bit.

Still a little too blue, but I'm getting better IMHO.

I'll be borrowing a macro lens pretty soon from a fellow club member, we'll see what kind of pictures I can take with that.

 

[Bigjoe2531]

Reefbums tank is unbelievable, i've seen it on his homepage. I can only imagine what it looks like in person. You look like you've scored yourself some nice pieces there.. good luck with them....

 

[808Rob]

incredible, just simply incredible. well thought out plan and put together very well. I am extremely impressed with especially the way u put the sump together with the color coding of the plumbing. I take my hat off to you. I could go on forever but u know how it goes....lol
Are u using LED lighting? and where did u get them from? It seems coral growth are doing very well..

 

[Gobie74]

incredible, just simply incredible. well thought out plan and put together very well. I am extremely impressed with especially the way u put the sump together with the color coding of the plumbing. I take my hat off to you. I could go on forever but u know how it goes....lol
Are u using LED lighting? and where did u get them from? It seems coral growth are doing very well..

Thanks for the kind words.

Yes I'm using LEDs. Those are the AquaIllumination units. You can see some pictures of them at the top of page 7. I talked to Chris from AI about upgrading the LEDs to the latest generation ( Cree XP-G ) so that I could use a lens with a slightly wider angle to get a bit more spread. I still haven't decided what to do yet. My credit card hates me already

I borrowed a 100mm Macro lens last night from a friend but by the time I got home the lights were already on the way down. Over the weekend I'm going to try it out and of course post the best pix here.