Jerone's 155 gallon reef tank

[jbfloor]

Goodies!

After a quick dip in CoralRX, the corals were put on their temporary location in the tank. Like the previous batch, the Zoa's started opening minutes after entering the tank. I noticed an Aiptasia that I need to kill though

A piece of the torch coral had come loose from the plug in shipment, but fortunately I bought a propagation kit which contained reef glue, so no harm done.

Also, I spent a long time watching the reef tank under the new moonlights yesterday evening and I have to ask: Is there anything more beautiful than a reef tank under moonlight?

 

[jbfloor]

A Canon EOS 20D Digital SLR camera is on the way! Once it arrives (and I figure out how to operate it), I will a upload a bunch of much higher quality pictures.... I hope

 

[jbfloor]

ICH!

Dammit.. Both clows have white specks on their fins. They're still very active and eat like crazy, so I am hopeful they will be fine after the treatment.

 

[scuzy]

Nice build. Did you QT the fishes before introducing to display?

 

[jbfloor]

@scuzy, hey, I see you're from San Jose, what area?

Yes, they are still in QT.

I am actually not so sure if it is Ich after having observed them for a day. There is only one speck left on one of the clownfish and it looks a lot like a microbubble that's stuck in its tailfin. The speck is very bright and almost shimmers. The yellow watchman's fins are completely clean. The specks appeared several hours after a water change.. coincidence?

 

[scuzy]

yeah I am in San Jose as well, near Milpitas. I am in the process of building my new 180 system and I am impress by your setup of the inline that I am going to copy it but my inline pump will be a water blaster 7000.

 

[jbfloor]

Cool, I am in Alum Rock, pretty much around the corner.

Good luck on your build. Let us know how your inline works for you. If I could do it over again, the only thing I would have changed is to make the intake pipe 1" instead of 3/4" and possibly make the outlet also 1" until the split where I'd go 3/4". (Surface area of 1" diameter is 0.78"^2 and the surface area of 3/4" is 0.44, so a split of 1" to 2x 3/4" matches up perfectly)

Ich update: the speck came off.. It's been on the tail for less than a full day, so it is unlikely that it is Ich. I also went to the LFS to see if any other clownfishes of the same batch were showing signs and all of them looked perfectly clean.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Reefnut2010]

Great tank and build. Nice and shallow with good depth. My only question would be ..........why didn't the tank come pre drilled for the close loop? How much do they charge for drilling a couple of holes ??????????

 

[jbfloor]

That was my bad. My freshwater former self had never dealt with closed loops, refugiums and so on. I did not plan this until after I had ordered the tank. Overall I do not think I lose much by not having holes. The tank had a closed canopy, so the pipes are hidden and this two extra feet of pipe to go over the top does not cause a whole lot of additional head-loss.

 

[jbfloor]

Toys!

The new camera arrived. Got a good deal for this one on ebay. I will have to do some research on how to operate it, but until then full auto-mode it is .

 

[jbfloor]

Here's the first set of pictures with the new toy. Quite an improvement over our $50 camera of before:

Torch coral before and after diner. Coral looks fat an happy after devouring a brine shrimp.

Acan munching on some food with a Nassarius on the prowl.

Candy Cane coral with a green mushroom in the front.

One of the clownfish in the QT tank.

 

[Knd107]

Hey, looking good!

I was looking at the typhon controller for my LED fixture. How is it working out for you? Was it easy to install?

Thanks,

 

[jbfloor]

It is pretty much plug and play with the dimmable kit I got from RapidLed using 'Mean Well ELN-60-27P' drivers. Just hook the correct output of the controller to the correct input of the driver and you're good to go.

Now that I have used it for a couple of weeks, I do wish it had some minor changes to the programming. My LED's don't come on until the controller hits 11%, so I'd like the unit to start there instead of at 0%. I'd also like better control over the fade-in and fade-out. I don't mind a quick fade-in, but I'd like it to have a fade-out curve at night where I can go down quickly to 15% or so and stay there for a while before switching to moonlights only. I know I can program a new Arduino sketch if i want to and some day I may reprogram the entire unit to incorporate these changes.

 

[danil]

Great build! I'm building my new 180g myself. I would treat QT for Ich... better be save then sorry. Clownfish have good resistance to Ich and those few specks you saw could be Ich and you don't want Ich get to your main system. Just think you will release these clowns in your display then few other 'hardy' fish like chromies then powder blue tang goes in and boom... Ich. Being in that situation before I will treat all fish in QT.

 

[jbfloor]

More toys!

The Tunze 7096 controller and two 6095's came in today.

The main reason for buying this unit is the automatic night-mode (all pumps at 30%) and the feed button. And of course the flexibility of the controllable pumps. I will play a bit with the settings with the goal being a slow rolling wave that will completely reverse the direction of the water every 10 seconds or so.

@danil, Thanks and you make a good point. However, I really prefer not to treat and stress unless I have to. I went to the LFS to look at the remaining clownfish (same spawn as mine) and none of them has shown any signs in the last week. Mine are eating like crazy and are growing quite quickly. I will keep a close eye on them.. If there is Ich, I should easily be able to detect the second cycle and treat then. The QT is kept at 78F, so if there is another cycle, it should kick in any moment.

 

[jbfloor]

More goodies!

Will post pictures once they are settled in.

 

[jbfloor]

The clownfish and watchman goby have made their transition to the DT.

This to make room for the new inhabitants of the QT

Two tank-bred Banggai Cardinals. Ever since I saw one of these on the cover of 'The New Marine Aquarium' by M.Paletta, I wanted this fish if I ever had a saltwater tank. I like how their odd shape contrast with every other fish in the tank.

A Red Lip Blenny (which my wife picked out because "it has the cutest face ever!) and a, what should have been, Tanaka Pygmy Wrasse. Unfortunately LiveAquaria screwed up the order and they sent me a Yellow Banded Pygmy Wrasse instead, which looks rather dull.

For invertebrates I added two Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Four Peppermint Shrimp

and finally six Scarlet Hermit crab

 

[Ryand63]

Gorgeous tank! I too hope to have almost those same dimensions in the future! Keep up the great work!

 

[Bernie21]

Nice build! Im eager to see how you stock your tank w such a thorough build. Good Luck.

 

[jbfloor]

There is a famous quote by Helmuth von Moltke that I like to use in the workplace, which goes: "No plan survives contact with the enemy.". This also goes for my careful planning of this tank.

This is not to say that all my planning was wasted, but I did have to make a couple of adjustments that I will lay out so others can learn from this:

The combination of my LED's being only 6" above the water, the 80 degree lenses and water surface movement turned my tank into a disco. The corals did not seem to mind, but I didn't want to risk epileptic seizures every time I wanted to look at the tank. Earlier this week I decided to take the lenses off. The tank is now much more consistent in color (similar to a cloudy day). I lost some overall intensity, but I can always add a rail of LED's if I have to.

Also, the Tunze pumps do not have a suction cup, which means that I cannot place them exactly where I want them, because I cannot reach that area on the outside to place the magnet.

@Ryand63

Gorgeous tank! I too hope to have almost those same dimensions in the future! Keep up the great work!

Thanks. I am very happy with the dimensions of the tank. It being shallow makes it very easy to work in, the 24" of depth is great and the 72" length allows for enough hiding places for all fish to make their own.

@Bernie21

Nice build! Im eager to see how you stock your tank w such a thorough build. Good Luck.

Here's what I am thinking:

Already have:

• 1x Yellow Watchman Goby
• 2x Ocellaris Clownfish
• 1x Red Lip Blenny
• 1x Pygmy Wrasse
• 2x Banggai Cardinal

Candidates for future stock:

• 3x McCosker's Flasher Wrasse (1M,2F) and/or
• 3x Lyretail Anthias (1M,2F)
• 1x Kole Tang
• 1x Blue Tang
• 1x Copperband
• 1x Mandarin
• 1x Coral Beauty
• 1x Flame Angel
• 1x Royal Gramma

Taking them all would probably overload the tank, so I have some hard decisions to make.