Jacob's 360 Gallon Build

Paul, $62+ in pennies? Could he just throw a few rolls of quarters ;)

Great job Jacob and way to keep up with the "go big or go home" mantra ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14952580#post14952580 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RiOnRoxXx
Congrats Jake! Talking to you on the phone, you can totally hear the excitement in your voice :) Good stuff my friend.
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14954962#post14954962 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RiOnRoxXx
Just checked the prices on the fish!!!! OMG!:eek2: :eek2: :eek2:
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:)

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but fish are what kept me from taking a break from the hobby when my last tank suffered a major setback after 4 years. I wanted a "fish tank" (hence 360 gallons) with corals, not so much a reef. In my previous tank I had lost about half of my collector corals and three of my prized fish which had been with me most of that time; a pair of watanabe angels and a dwarf golden angel. Getting a healthy dwarf golden is a major crap shoot, I doubt I will ever try to replace that fish. The watanabe's are one of my favorite fish due to their personality, beauty, and they're reef safe... I had to have them again. Finding a male is not easy and they usually sell very quickly when one does show up so it was an no brainer for me. Ask BrianBigoats, he's been looking for one for a while now.

I wanted a pair of large butterflies ever since swimming with pairs of dinner plate size Ornate b/fly's in the wild (in Hawaii). It was either the C. semilarvatus or C. collare, the latter of which is less expensive, less reef safe, and slightly smaller as an adult... so went with the semilarvatus instead.

As far as the $$$ goes, I try not to think about it and just enjoy the fish. Some people will spend hundreds of dollars for a small frag of a coral, I'm out of that game now but I still say do what makes you happy :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14953694#post14953694 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefgeek31
Congrat on getting so close i have read your blog from the beginning and its been along time coming to you. Those are both beautiful fish good luck.
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Thanks again. There are still lots of loose ends to tie up on "Phase I" of the tank build, probably in a few more weeks I'll be able to call it done. Then I'll be taking a break on the build to work on some other projects around the house... then ramp back up for Phase II which will be the complete automation of the tank... that's when the fun will really begin!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14953833#post14953833 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
Jacob, don't forget to put 20 pennies to the gallon in there to control ich.
In that tank that would be 6,279 pennies :lol:
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14955664#post14955664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbl_nk
Paul, $62+ in pennies? Could he just throw a few rolls of quarters ;)

Great job Jacob and way to keep up with the "go big or go home" mantra ;)
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LOL

Paul, that's a lot of pennies, I think after the tank build and fish purchases it might be all I have left in my bank account! On a more serious note, a Marine Biologist friend of mine recommended using chloroquine phosphate while the fish are in QT, since they cannot tolerate copper. I'm trying to source some, I have a couple of ideas but I'm still looking. In your vast experience, have you ever used this stuff?



Brian, thanks! As you know, it's not always easy to find the fish you're looking for. There are a lot of fish in the ocean but not all of them make their way to hobby, some much less often than others. It's a balancing act putting together a fish list, it's usually not easy to find the fish in the order you want them, and it's even more difficult to have the discipline to stick to the list :) I was lucky to find these fish at this time.

The rest of my fish list includes...

- Female watanabe angel, 1 (or 2 if I can add them together)
- Fairy wrasses, 2 or 3. Specifically Rosy Scale, African or Maldives Exquisite, Solar, Velvet Multicolor.
- Naso Blonde Tang
- Lyretail anthias, 9-11
- Evansi anthias, 5-7
- Flame angel
- Yellow watchman
- Maybe a pair of clownfish
 
a Marine Biologist friend of mine recommended using chloroquine phosphate while the fish are in QT, since they cannot tolerate copper. I'm trying to source some, I have a couple of ideas but I'm still looking. In your vast experience, have you ever used this stuff?
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Jacob, yes I have, you can either use
Quinicrine hydrocloride at 10 mg/gal or

Pyrimethamime at 6 mg/gal or

Chloroquine 40 mg/gal

Pyrimethamime can be used in combination with one of the other drugs, but just one of them.

I use Quinicrine with copper but if you can't use copper Quinicrine is the fastest acting of these other drugs.

These are all prescription medications for malaria and not easy to get unless you are a Veteranian or pharmisist.

The quinicrine will turn the water florescent yellow but it will clear with carbon, the other two drugs may color the fish a darker color but it will also fade. They are all used for Cryptocaryon in fish but I don't know how well they work alone for ich.

Of course if you Californians could get California Black worms you would not have to worry about such things because the fish would be so healthy that you would not need any medications.
:D

Good luck
Paul
 
You only need to dose it once. It will be removed with carbon, I don't know of a test to check for it but I used it in my reef a few times, for all I know, some of it is still in there.
 
Thanks again Paul. Now I'm on the hunt for the meds.


Got a couple of updates...

- The male angel did not make it, he passed away the first night. He was breathing hard from the start and I suspect had a swim bladder issue, maybe infection from being pinned (his body shape was a little off). Blue Zoo was very professional and issued me a credit, but I'm still bummed out as these fish are not easy to come by
.
- The b/fly's are looking good and eating mysis. I did have to separate them to give the less dominant fish an opportunity to eat.

- My corals are happy in the display tank. I have a 'map' that I made a while back so I could figure where to put each of them and have most of them mounted now.

- The air exchange system is working good... too good really. My water temperature is between 79-80 with the all lights and pumps running. In the morning the heaters are on and the temp is 78. I'm very happy with the temps, however now I have another problem - my heaters are fighting my air exhaust fan! 400 watts of heaters (plus all the other pumps running) can barely keep up with the heat being pulled out through evaporative cooling due to a 50w fan! Right now all the air flow is through the BOL's, eventually when I get the stand all closed up the air flow will be split and should reduce evaporation (or not, seeing that my sump is in the stand)... until then I'm going to have to restrict the fan I guess.

- Speaking of evaporative cooling, I'm losing 5-6 gallons a day to evaporation... I need to get ATO installed!
 
Any way to have it switch to "low" during the night?

Yeah 5-6 a day is a beeyatch to keep up without an ATO. How far away is that being installed?

BB
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14991033#post14991033 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bbl_nk
Any way to have it switch to "low" during the night?

Yeah 5-6 a day is a beeyatch to keep up without an ATO. How far away is that being installed?

BB
Click to expand...

Not at the moment. The best I can do is restrict the ducts. I might try putting it on a timer, like 5 hrs on, 1 off. I just want to avoid any condensation buildup around the light sockets, inside the boxes, etc...

ATO is a long way from being installed. My game plan has changed and I'm not even sure how I'm going to do it any more.
 
jacob Im so excited for you to get those fish those are going to be great additions to your tank!! I can't wait to see some pics=)
 
Yes, very excited over here. I'm still bummed out about the loss of the angel but I think I'm going to pick up a couple of wrasses with the credit that I have.

I'll get some pictures as soon as I can (of the display tank and the fish in QT). I need to get a few more corals out of their plastic cups and mounted to the rock and I need to get an algae magnet to clean the acrylic... then it will be picture time again :)
 
Jacob, You will lose some fish unless you install a GPS in that tank to help them find their way around.
How are those corals doing in your back room? Or did you put them in the tank yet?
 
Hi Paul. All of the corals are in the main tank now, for about a week. They seem to be loving it. I don't know how much light they're getting compared to the other system, but they acclimated very fast. The only 'problem' so far is having to dial my Tunze's way down. I have them pulsing between 30 and 50%. Some of the corals were getting pounded pretty hard and the gorgs were getting blown over.
 
I was just reading back through some of my first posts on this thread. All of the original pictures are missing now (I must have moved them). One thing I laughed at was this, posted on 5-8-2007...

"I'm pretty excited about the upgrade, but it'll be awhile before it's up and running (hopefully this year)."


That was right after I bought the tank. I wonder if I would still have bought it if I knew it would tank 2 years to get it running!
 
I was reading the beginning of your thread also a week or so back. Its crazy to think about an idea or dream and have it become reality before your eyes. Congrats again Jake :)
 
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