jenjen's upgrade to 180gal

I tell ya, I think I'm getting curses on this tank because the first one went so smoothly! My mom once told me that the first child is always 'easy', in order to trick you into having more... I'm beginning to think my fish tank luck is the same thing!

Anyway, it's definitely the skimmer pump causing the problem, and thankfully my fiance figured out some clever way of measuring the voltage that didn't involve me sticking my hand in the water to see if I got electricuted again. For now the skimmer is off, but I'll be putting my Coralife SUPERskimmer in on the weekend. I'm hoping that something is better than nothing for now. We ordered the Vertex online from the states, so while they are going to replace the pump for us, it's bound to take a while.

The wedding is on the 20th and we'll be out of town until the 26th, so at least our yet-to-be-elected tanksitter won't get electricuted while we're gone!
 
Well, I think we've found the poor friend who drew the short straw and is stuck tank-sitting while we're away. I was hoping to find a housesitter to actually stay over, so the tank mainenance wouldn't seem so icky, but no such luck - the people who could've stayed over are much to clever and feigned other obligations.

Anyway, the tank-sitter will only be able to come once a day. On that note I'll have to get him to over-fill the tank with top up water, as currently I top up 2x a day (ICK, I know!). Also, my anthias who is used to two feedings a day will be on a diet for a few days and my sun coral will also likely not get fed.

But hey, at least someone is coming to do a little maintenance... coulda been much worse. I think I better get myself out to a local reef club right smartly when we're back though, so I can be better prepared for the 'real' honeymoon in January.
 
Beautiful setup! I'm currently in the process of having my new born, hahaha...

Starting off with only a 75 due to no space. Are you running a chiller in your setup or do you have central A/C. I grew up in B.C. it's pretty moderate all year round but I know summers can get hot in the Langley region.
 
No chiller or central. It seems to peak around 30 degrees, so it's reasonable to control most of time.

How's the75 coming along?
 
WoW! That's 86 F, that's fish death!! Isn't it? What do you do when you see it peak? Water change? I would really look into a chiller or even some sort of DIY chiller like using a little mini-bar fridge or something with some lines going through it.

Thanks for asking, I just finished soundproofing my 75g stand so it's on to water works and filling the tank. What's the going rate of liverock in B.C.?
 
Except for one day, the water has never seen a temp swing of more than 5 degrees. 'Normal' water temp in my tank is around 82 degrees, and it hits around 85 or 86 only on the hottest summer days. I panicked when I saw the high temp on that one day, but since it hasn't happened again I think I'm ok with just opening the top and turning up the sump fan on the hotter days - it's not like we get too many of them around here!

I get almost everything from J&L, but have never bought rock there. When I upgraded to the bigger tank I added base rock because I already had 100lbs of live. I got the base rock for $1/lb. Liverock though is anywhere from $5.99-8.99/lb around here from what I've seen. When I set up my first tank last year I paid $5.99.
 
Well, nobody new in the tank until after the wedding, but here's a few pics anyway. Things are staying fairly on track, with the exception of Cyano and Aiptasia. I'm telling you ... I got curses on this tank! Ha, but how can you not love this hobby?!?

Dinner time...

Blasto:

blasto_061309.jpg


Acan:

acan_061309.jpg


Fat B***ard:

fb_061309.jpg


Lu (and the Cyano epidemic):

lu_061309.jpg


The Crew:

lu_fb_061309.jpg


Small Feather:

sm_fd_061309.jpg


Large Feather:

Acan_0603.jpg


CUC (well, part of):

CUC_061309.jpg


Candy Cane:

candy_061309.jpg


GSP:

gsp_061309.jpg
 
The wedding is June 20th... exactly a week away. Thanks for asking!

After living together 7 yrs it seems a little like 'formality', but I'm excited regardless... looking forward to the party afterwards too!!!
 
Well folks, I'm back from the wedding and honeymoon, and ready to get back at it with the tank. The tank-sitter did amazing! He has never had ANY sort of tank before, let alone SW... but I think we may have a future addict on our hands now. No one died, and tank chemistry is excellent. Even the cyano seems to be on it's way out.

We got a very generous wedding gift of gift certificates to two of the local SW stores, so today I'm off to scout out what they have in stock. Not sure what I'm looking for other than I know I want a 'nice' acan and possibly a brain. I also lost the Atlantic Blue tang in QT a few weeks ago, so want to find another (healthy!) one of those if I can.

Pics coming later today.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15261803#post15261803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by n00by
Blue tnag = drama queen of the sea :D
Click to expand...

Oh ya? Atlantic Blue? Please do elaborate.
 
Well, I ended up with a blasto, an orange ric, yellow polyps & 3 zoa's. I also found a BIG atlantic blue tang, but didn't get it because it's quite a bit larger than my other fish and I wanted to give some thought before adding a much larger fish - was hoping for something more the same size as the others. It's a really nice healthy one though, so was a tough choice not nabbing it up.

Anyhow, pics coming just as soon as everyone settles in.
 
All tangs are drama queens, IMO. I've read in the RC archives how they pretend to be dead in some cases, etc... Stress out for no reason, all this spells drama queen with a capital!

But they are beautiful fish I think the yellow tang is probably the hardiest out of them all.
 
Thanks, and I have a daughter who's a drama queen too so he'll fit right in. My yellow tang is sure to be disgusted at the addition of the new guy, but the foxface seems to keep him in line so I'll cross my fingers it'll all go well.
 
Well, lets go with 'better late than never' on the pics. :)

Here's a few pics I took of the stuff I added last week. Everything is settling in nicely.

Picture001.jpg

Picture004.jpg

Picture005.jpg
 
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