It begins... 345-gallon Starphire in-wall system

melev, trying to put it together now I have everything in my possession except my tank & stand, will be due today 3-9 from fedex freight. once tank arrived and check everything is ok than thread will be done, if not I will be angry. bought all those equipment and no tank will absolutely damaged me without a doubt....total system that I will be setting up about 1300gal

mrcrab, my garage looks just as dirty until I threw just about everything away..I moved in to my new home 6 months and cant imagine how much junk can accumulate in no time. I am even glad to say new home because Katrina took my other one away, but the best thing was I took my family out early and of course was priceless. some pics, this is not all pics, haven't got the chance to take more..I been following this thread from the beginning and had to say that everyone here at RC is so helpful, thanks and I can't say that enough.

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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9433058#post9433058 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smoney
A little trick that I found out helping with ich, but dont tell anyone(haha, everyone's going to see this) is adding cleaner wrasse. Although many do not believe they fair well in tanks, I find that they fair very well with the tangs. Mostly because tangs get ich like all the time because they are so succeptable to it and natural food for the cleaner wrasse are parasites such as ich. I would suggest like four Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. Its worth a try and they look really cool, so its not like they are an eyesore.
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Not to start a flame war, but this NOT a good idea.

Cleaner wrasses in general dont do well long term. Hawaiian Cleaners do worse than others. If your fish are constantly getting ich, you need to re-visit your tank husbandry practices and figure out what you're doing wrong to constantly stress out your fish and re-infect them. In a healthy system, your tang(s) wont be coming down with ich very often, and if they do, they should be able to fend it off on their own.

Best to leave the cleaner wrasses alone, and the Hawaiian Cleaners in the ocean. IIRC, I believe Hawaii will be regulating or restricting their collection here soon anyway.

Nick
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9433314#post9433314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
Not to start a flame war, but this NOT a good idea.

Cleaner wrasses in general dont do well long term. Hawaiian Cleaners do worse than others. If your fish are constantly getting ich, you need to re-visit your tank husbandry practices and figure out what you're doing wrong to constantly stress out your fish and re-infect them. In a healthy system, your tang(s) wont be coming down with ich very often, and if they do, they should be able to fend it off on their own.

Best to leave the cleaner wrasses alone, and the Hawaiian Cleaners in the ocean. IIRC, I believe Hawaii will be regulating or restricting their collection here soon anyway.

Nick
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Agreed MaxII, thanks for the input. I don't plan on putting anything into the tank until I can get it well stabalized again.

Barry
 
cbui2

I see alot of Deltec in your tank's future :)

Nick, Barry

While I agree that cleaners are not novice level fish, I disagree that they should be left in the ocean as a whole. Our cleaner wrasse is over two years old.. been through 2 tanks with us now and even eats small pellets (yes, dry food), mysis and arcti-pods (really likes the arcti-pods). Ours does not have the distinctive yellow coloration that the Hawaiian cleaners have (but other than that I cannot say where it is from) and I do agree that the Hawaiians ones are quite a bit harder to keep, (not to mention that 4 in 1 tank is a bit much) but they (some cleaners.. not saying all) can be kept responsibly. I have first hand, long term experience to back that statement up.

Barry

I am sorry to hear of your losses, it happens to often in our hobby but it still always stings when it happens.
 
Tom,
I agree with you that cleaners are not for the beginner or novice reefkeeper. However, your success with your cleaner is very similar to the success that some people have with Regal angels....the exception as opposed to the rule.

Glad to hear you're having success with it, but you're also not someone I would consider a novice reefer either.

I think Copps has one of the best sig lines...its something along the lines of "What is reccomended for the novice reefer and what the experianced reefer do, are two separate things and should not be confused."

It applies in this case...

Nick
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9433314#post9433314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
Not to start a flame war, but this NOT a good idea.

Cleaner wrasses in general dont do well long term. Hawaiian Cleaners do worse than others. If your fish are constantly getting ich, you need to re-visit your tank husbandry practices and figure out what you're doing wrong to constantly stress out your fish and re-infect them. In a healthy system, your tang(s) wont be coming down with ich very often, and if they do, they should be able to fend it off on their own.

Best to leave the cleaner wrasses alone, and the Hawaiian Cleaners in the ocean. IIRC, I believe Hawaii will be regulating or restricting their collection here soon anyway.

Nick
Click to expand...

THE WAR HAS BEGUN! haha, im jk. No the thing is that my system doesnt have any instablilities, but then again its just a simple system that I have, not real advanced, so it helps that when the Tangs get ich to have some natural cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp, its just somthing that I found to be helpfull. The thing is that I also found that the hawaiians do better cleaning the fish as well, Just My Opinion.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9436042#post9436042 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smoney
THE WAR HAS BEGUN! haha, im jk. No the thing is that my system doesnt have any instablilities, but then again its just a simple system that I have, not real advanced, so it helps that when the Tangs get ich to have some natural cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimp, its just somthing that I found to be helpfull. The thing is that I also found that the hawaiians do better cleaning the fish as well, Just My Opinion.
Click to expand...

I do have 5 cleaner shrimp and they've been busy since the ich episode started. When I first put the cleaners in from the 125 the fish were actually lining up! Needless to say the cleaners are fat and happy.
 
We employ cleaner shrimp also.. but still see more cleaning activity form our cleaner wrasse.. perhaps that is why our cleaner shrimp are so lazy ? :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9435840#post9435840 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
Tom,
I agree with you that cleaners are not for the beginner or novice reefkeeper. However, your success with your cleaner is very similar to the success that some people have with Regal angels....the exception as opposed to the rule.

Glad to hear you're having success with it, but you're also not someone I would consider a novice reefer either.

I think Copps has one of the best sig lines...its something along the lines of "What is reccomended for the novice reefer and what the experianced reefer do, are two separate things and should not be confused."

It applies in this case...

Nick
Click to expand...

I agree with you about Copps sig line and am also flatterred by your impression of my reefkeeping abilities. I am still humbled in the prescence of many more advanced reef keepers and openly admit that I still have alot to learn :)

About our cleaner wrasse, I will add that at the time of purchase our LFS had gotten in a shipment of them and 80% of them were eating mysis in their holding tanks. We obviously picked one of the fat and happy ones that was taking the food :). So I guess you could say that we stacked hte desk in our favor on this one, but to our credit we did manage to get it to start eating pellet food too (for those days I just didn't feel like diving into the refrigerator to feed the tank... you all know what I am talking about :)).
 
Just to put a little spin on it, and no offense to Tom meant here, but there has been a lot of discussion within the hobby and by marine biologists about removing cleaner wrasses from reefs in the first place. They play a vital role in the reef system, and some have suggested that their dwindling numbers could have a catastrophic affect on natural reefs.

I have 4 cleaner shrimp and they seem to be able to help the fish, but only certain fish present to them. Some do not. I had an Ich outbreak some time back and I really thought I would lose my PBT. He would not go into the trap I made! (BTW, I meant to show that to you Barry!)

I ended up following Marc's (melev) advice on feeding and after a short time of heavy feeding 3 x per day, Ich disappeared from my tank. I have not seen it since. The downside is, I believe, a lot of aiptasia. :(

While Barry was visiting, we discussed the losses and I likened it to Marc's last trip during which he lost a CBB. I theorized that the stress of not seeing Barry may have contributed to the losses. In other words, as we care for our captive reefs, we train the fish to know us and need us. Not out of any planned act, they have become dependant on seeing us and knowing that food arrives when they see us.

So I am just hypothesizing that perhaps some measures of randomizing feedings, and getting multiple people to do the feedings, may help decrease vacation stress. And for people who feed pellets or flake, using an automated feeder might help too.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8576347#post8576347 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mrcrab
Made the bases for the rock column ala Sanjay.

I've heard a couple of people talking about Thorite but I don't know if that's the brand name or what. The ingredients say Portland cement, graded sand and proprietary additives. The sand didn't wind up sticking. This stuff cures extremely fast, a matter of minutes. I'll have to break of the bigger rocks tomorrow and see it I can put on a thin layer and get some sand to stick to it then ad the bigger pieces later.
IMG_6625.jpg


First I taped the dimensions I wanted the pillars in on the driveway. I've left 6" clearance front and back and 8" on the sides. Then I placed the bases where I thought I'd like them and cut the fiberglass rods to all different heights except for the 2 largest which will actually poke out of the water. I then concreted the rods into the bases and finally tried to camouflage the bases with sand and rubble.

IMG_6628.jpg

IMG_6629.jpg


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Used 1/2" fiberglass rods Part Number: 8543K51 http://www.mcmaster.com/

The bases were purchased from Home Depot they are concrete garden stones I believe they are 6" X 9". I drilled a hole in them with a 5/8" masonary bit and glued them into the stones with hydraulic cement, a quickcrete product I bought at Lowe's. No problems with the water. The rocks are drilled through wit the 5/8's bit and threaded onto the fiberglass rods.
 
Umm... I would like to clarify something here, because people will be confused if this continues.

TOTM is Tank Of The Month
ThOTM is Thread Of The Month
 
You were nominated by someone that liked your thread. ;) That's how it starts. Then it is put up to a poll and people decide which one they like the best.

You won. :D
 
You might want to consider buying 1/4 inch acrylic sheets and taping them up along side the back and sides of your aquarium. Since it's in a garage, high traffic area, you never know what could hit the glass. They're not called freak accidents for nothing! So I take it your wife got the furniture she really wanted as you got the tank you really wanted!
 
I love your aquascape. Your tank looks great. I am going to be starting a 375 in the wall soon. I had ich on my 75 fish only and accidently put coper in it from the lfs. Rookie mistake.. I was hoping on getting some live rock form that tank for my new tank. Now I don't think it is worth the chance. A few members mentioned to me that the rock can hold the copper and release it. That is the last thin I want to happen on my new project.

Anyway My question is Do you have a UV? I have heard some contovery with them on reef tanks. All my ideas and plans have came form RC. How do you feel in regards to them?
 
Need some help here folks. seems the tank has turned into a bit of a killing field while I was away. Not sure of exactly all that's been lost but I've lost:

PBT
Pink Square Anthias male and female
CBB
mandarin

Wife says some others aren't looking good but I didn't want to turn the lights on and freak them out anymore than they already are.

Just got home and check water parameters:

Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.8 not sure why so high
NO3: 15mg/l
NO2: N/A
PO4: 0 mg/l
Ca: 300 low no flow from reactor will clean tomorrow
ALK: 3 meq/l

Hair algae in frag tank is crazy.

Any thoughts suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm doing a 10% water change now and will do another tomorrow. One problem with big tanks is the ability to store enough water changes to do larger water changes if needed. I'll also check my RO/DI water tomorrow although it's never been a problem in the past.
 
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