jenjen's upgrade to 180gal

Hi jenjen,

Hadn't heard anything for a while and was getting worried. I too went away (to Northern Ontario) came back to a bleached-out tank. Now 2 weeks later, everything seems to be bouncing back...no tank sitter, so I'll never know what really happened. Sounds like nearly everything made it in your tank. Can't wait to see some tank pics!
 
Hey Sunny, so is the tank upgrade still on hold? And have you added anymore fish? And speaking of pics, I'm still awaiting pics of your tank too!

I've had a look around for the camera and I think my husband must have taken it to work with him, so pics will have to wait 'til he's home (darn this sharing a camera!).

One of my fish has dug a HUGE hole the sand in the front right corner of my tank. It's about 5inches across and all the way to the bottom of the tank. The clown, sixline and yellow tang are all hanging out in it, so not sure who actually constructed the thing but apparently it's the place to be in my tank.

My yellow leather is acting strange. I thought I was going to lose it after the heat - it was all shrunk & terrible looking. But a few days ago it started opening it's polyps again and it's colour is looking better although it's still squished up. It has now detached from it's rock and is laying loose on a different rock. I got it as a frag only a couple weeks before I went away and it wasn't totally healed yet and didn't look to be well attached at that time anyway. Not quite sure whether I should try and super-glue it again or just leave it be. I think I'm going to give it a few days before I do anything, just to see if it recovers.

As for my aiptasia plague, I'm going to switch to boiling water and see if that has any affect on them. The Joe's Juice works, but it's getting expensive.

Well, off to make dinner. Hopefully pics to follow a bit later.
 
My upgrade is officially on hold...until the rest of the house stops falling apart! That is actually a good thing right now, 'cause I can focus on nursing all my bleached corals back to health. I am starting to wonder if my CO2 levels are high (as in just high enough to bump my water chemistry but not enough to affect human health) in my basement, though there is little chance of fixing that in this house.

I still have the same 7 blue green chromis though I am worried about one of them not looking his best right now. Looks like a couple of the others have been picking on him, not surprisingly from what I know about chromis. I figured it was only a matter of time. Tank pics will have to wait until the corals start looking more like themselves.

Boiling water over Joe's Juice, huh? I'll definitely want to know if it works as well. Didn't want to try peppermint shrimp? I am not crazy about them but I know they do work.
 
I had some peppermint shrimp a while back, but they didn't seem to do any damage to the mutant-aiptasia I seem to be breeding. The heat has killed all the pep's and I do think I'll try a few more, but the will likely need a bit of a hand with the mess I've got going on in there. :mad2:

On the upside, the rest of the tank is recovering nicely.
 
Wow very nice setup! I'm about to do the same and go from a 90gal to 180!!! Pretty much on the same boat here. Congrats on the new tank and marriage.

Quick question for you jenjen. Did you use the same return pump? If so how many gph are you pumping through your sump? I'm trying to gauge out what most people with a 180 pushes. TIA :)
 
Thanks! I love the 180, despite all the frustrations.

I didn't use the same return pump, but only because the one I had on the old tank bit-the-dust a week before the upgrade. I have a Sedra-9000 and it's rated for 900gph. I have about 10% diverting to the 'fuge and the other 90-ish% going to the main display through two returns. I've got 2 Koralia 4's in there as well right now, and between them & the returns I have pretty good flow.

I do have some cyano right now, but I think it's due to more frequent feeding while I'm trying to nurse everyone back to their happy place. I've never had algae issues before.

RiOnRoxXx - do you have a thread going with your upgrade? I always like checking out other's similar setups.
 
OMG, I actually found the camera! Not great pics but I figure I can't be too picky. Ignore the date on them - looks like we're trying to pretend it's 2008 again but I really did just take these a minute ago. I hate cameras!

FTS:

Picture001-1.jpg


Right Side (the hang out):

Picture002.jpg


Some happy Zoa's (all of these colonies started from 5 or 6 polyps each, around 6 months ago):

Picture006.jpg
 
Strange, I sized those down on photobucket but they still posted big. Oh well, now we can play 'I spy Aiptasia!'. Thank goodness they're grainy and not well focussed afterall I guess. :rolleyes:
 
I added 5 little blue hermit crabs & 4 peppermint shrimp today. The hermits are to replenish my supply.. I seem to have lost a few along the way. The pep's are to help in the aiptasia battle. I also got 2 bottles of Joe's Juice. So far I've used one bottle and I haven't even hit every one once - there's tons of them in there! Fingers crossed that at least one of the peppermints has a taste for them.

My Kole tang has a scratch on his face today. Looks like he's been fighting with the Yellow tang again. You'd think he'd learn not to pick fights he can't win!

Water param's today:

SG 1.026
ammonia 0
nitrate 10
calcium 360

And I think it must be water change time again. I'll get to that sometime this weekend.
 
I've been away on a business trip for 10 days, so haven't had much time for the tank. Unfortunately while I was away something got clogged (not entirely sure what) and the tank overflowed and dumped a couple gallons of water onto the floor. Luckily I have a large area rug in front of the tank which absorbed most of it, but I do have a couple of small damaged areas in the hardwood flooring and one angry husband. :eek:

When he refilled the water he used fresh rather than salt, so the SG dropped to 1.020. I've slowly brought it back up to 1.025 over a couple of days. Some of the LPS looked unhappy but seem to be coming around. My poor fiji yellow leather isn't looking great. The fish & inverts are all fine.

I haven't seen any of the pep shrimp since I put them in, but the aiptasia doesn't seem to be as bad as it was so maybe at least one of them has a taste for it. I'll get in there with yet another bottle of Joe's Juice today.

I'm going to put a guard in front of the drain from the fuge to hopefully prevent anything from getting through to the return (pretty sure this is what caused the overflow) and am considering using filter socks on the lines as well but am unclear on the cleaning and changing process for filter socks, so won't put any in until I figure that out.

As for today it's time to get a guard on that fuge drain, use up a bottle of Joe's Juice, and do a nice big water change. Then sit back with a cold one and enjoy. :rollface:
 
Just a little update.

Somehow the micro bubbles have gotten far less all of a sudden. Something during the 'dump a bunch of water on the floor' situation must have changed things, but be darned if I can figure out what it is. But for now at least, we're mostly micro bubble free which is a refreshing change.

The yellow leather is still looking bad, but isn't getting worse so I suppose there is hope for it yet.

The BTA is still completely white with orange/pink tips. It's been like this for 5 weeks now, and is behaving completely normal with the exception of it's colour (ie: it eats, it's got a nice closed mouth, it's not moving around, it is out every day) but it is not regaining it's colour.

I am hoping to add a sand sifting goby of some sort this weekend. I'm excited... I haven't added any fish or corals since well before the wedding (mid June) and am looking quite forward to picking out something new to look at.
 
hey jenjen how you doing? i have not see you round that much; probably busy right? any good news in the tank, and can we see new pictures...
 
Hey H.Veras - the tank is doing quite well, but I've been BUSY... got that right! I've been lurking (your tank is coming along really nicely btw!) but haven't posted much. Darn work! I should have more time freeing up soon.

The most recent pics I have are from two weeks ago (although the date on them is wrong):

Picture001-1.jpg


Picture006.jpg


Things are going well, and I'm looking forward to having some spare time to work on the tank, as well as just be 'around' for the family.

Appreciate you checking in!
 
Well, the tank is plodding along. I spent some time on the weekend doing a nice big water change and cleaning up the glass again. The glass is looking better since I've been mag-floating it every second day. And I feel like I'm finally putting a dent in the aiptasia since I've been attacking it daily.

I have recently started doing two very small feedings per day rather than one larger one, and less food is going un-eaten. I know I don't have to feed multiple times per day, but my personal feeling is they eat all day in the wild so I'd rather simulate that if I can. What can I say, I like chubby fish. :D I try to compensate by skimming wetter, running a good healthy fuge, and doing larger water changes to keep on top of the parameters. So far it's working out ok.

My brain is settling in nicely and starting to show signs of growth. It's been in the tank about a month I think, and has looked 'good' the whole time but is starting to look 'happy', which is nice to see. The other LPS in the tank all seems to have made a leap in the right direction recently as well. I added a nice red blasto on the weekend, and it's looking wonderful already.

On the fish front, I decide to go with a chocolate tang. I've got a really healthy little guy in QT. I brought him home on Saturday and he is settled right in and eating like a pig - he's destined to fit in well in my tank! He's happily eating nori, mysis & pellet. Tonight is 'Rods Food night' which I'm sure he'll enjoy.

I'll be looking for a couple of smaller fish to add as my final additions, but over the next few months will be focussing more on getting the water quality consistently good enough to add a little SPS coral to the mix. I've also decided to convert my long-time FW 55gal to salt, so that will be my next 'big' project.

I've been playing with the panoramic option on my camera, and if I can manage to get it to work I'll post some pics. I really wish I was good at photography - my tank always looks so much worse in the pics I take than it does in real life, is seems ashame to post the pics!
 
hehe jenjen you and i r in the same boat with pictures i really suck taking pictures, but one little secret take lots of pictures and just show the good once... pro will16 told me that... i hope that help.. you should see my pictures got much better....
 
H.Veras said:
i got a T1 canon
Click to expand...

Nice. I think that's what I need... a new camera. Though my photo skills are questionable, by far my biggest problem these days is actually finding the camera. My husband uses it for work all the time, and most of the time it's left in his truck. The rest of the time the battery is dead.

My new chocolate tang is doing AWESOME in QT. He is out and about, doesn't seem too shy, and eats like a pig. He LOVES nori and eats everything else I put in the tank as well. I haven't had to vacuum anything out so far. He'll be nice and chubby like the rest of my fish in no time! His colour is fantastic too - he's a gorgeous fish. He's only about 2" at the moment, but will definitely be a showpiece in the tank when he gets a bit bigger. I just hope my grumpy yellow tang doesn't beat him up too much.

I'm going to add one more fish as soon as the QT tank is free - something that stays close to the rocks. Then I think I'll let the tank be for a while, while I get the other one going. The only exception is I want another crocea clam, so when I see one I like I'll pick it up for this tank.
 
Did some routine tank maintenance today... big water change, scooped out some cyano, killed some aiptasia.

Time for some update pics I think. Please excuse the date on them, I still haven't gone through the menu to figure out how to fix that. :rolleyes:

One hard working skimmer... I love my Vertex:
100_0431.jpg


Right side:
100_0437.jpg


Left side:
100_0435.jpg


FTS:
100_0433.jpg
 
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