Jonas 3.13, 150G of Miracles fun

[ojonas81]

Yesterday was a big day. The first fish finally went into the tank. My two semi-Picasso clowns have been through the tank transfer method over the last two weeks and yesterday was the final day.

Took them out from the last "tank" and put them in a bowl to acclimatize to the tank.

Then they finally went into the tank. Put the small male in first to let him get familiarized himself with his new surroundings. He immediately went towards the area where the two RBTA are. Was hoping for that but did not fully expect it since he has not even shown the slightest sign of interest towards the nems during his whole stay in the nano cube. Also since the females started to live in the RBTAs in the nano she has been somewhat aggressive towards the male, not letting him in. After some time I put in the female too. She did the same as the male and went directly towards the side of the tank that has the nems. She did not go in them though but swam close to both them and close to the male which surprised me.

Then they started to get closes and closer to the RBTAs...

... and towards each other.

Finally, to my great joy, they both (!) went into one of the nems. Looking very happy. Guess the tank transfer method worked much better than expected, got the male and female to finally bond. They have not left each others side ever since.

 

[ojonas81]

I also rearranged my mangrove collection. Did not work out as good as I had hoped for by having them temporarily in the overflow. A lot of the pods went down to the bottom (due to the water flow) and none of them got the amount of light needed. They were only supposed to be in the overflow until I got the fuge up and running (hopefully next weekend). I now have them tied to the overflow but on the outside instead. The good news is that a lot of them have started to get roots. No leaves yet though. Looks kind of cool so maybe I will keep a few in the tank even after the fuge is up and running just for the looks of it.

For some reason all my 4 shrimps have decided to hang out on the same rock in the tank. This is now called "the shrimp pylon" until further notice.

The new ORA Green Planet is so far doing very well in the tank. Has not lost any color (my LFS also uses Radions over their tank to light acclimation should be very quick and easy).

The skimmer has really started to produce some dark nasty gunk. Very happy with this purchase. Dead silent too.

My anemone crab have finally found its old home, the RBTAs. Took awhile but he have made the journey across the whole tank. Looks happy.

I also worked inside the stand finishing up most of the cable management. If it wasn't for the bulky power supplies it would almost look good.

I finally got the time to install my stand door sensors so now whenever I open one of the 5 stand doors the stand light will automatically come on. Makes it so much more convenient. As you can see, I am using to code cable installation techniques. ;-)

Since most (all but one) of the corals from the nano has been moved over I decided to take off the dosers for calcium and alkalinity and move them to the new tank. Installed them but they will remain offline for now. Need to do more testing before they will come on. For now water changes will be enough since the consumption is still fairly low in the tank.

 

[ojonas81]

Shot 3 videos of the tank today.

Morning light.
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Morning light

Full daylight.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RhLOQhBwS3A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Full daylight

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gtidANkYhXk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Sump area

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

awesome update. glad the clowns are doing well. everything looks great. love the video and how clean your wires and the rest of your sump area is.

 

[gordonheimer]

Woot! Loving this build! Where did you get your clownfish from? How do you like the WP40s so far?

 

[ojonas81]

Thanks!

Got the clowns as juveniles from my LFS about 16 months ago.

So far I really like the MP40s. They are dear silent unless you press your ear against the tank where they are mounted and the flow is very good. have them dialed down a lot at the moment. Looking into getting he cable so I can control them from my Apex as well.

 

[ojonas81]

Time for an update again.

Spent the weekend finishing up some remaining items for the tank. Plumbed in the remote refugium and filled it up with water and live sand. I also installed the more permanent ATO pump and water container. It can hold about 20 gallons which should last me well over a week at this time of the year.

I also added a few more corals and glues in some of the earlier purchases. Everything seems to be doing well so far. The two RBTA are looking healthier than ever and the clowns are getting along. The female spend most of the day in the anemones but the male swims around more. He only sleeps in one of them but does never stay in them during daytime.

Did test my alk, Ca and Mg levels on Friday and then again on Sunday. No change at all in the test values which I find rather strange. Wouldn't they at least go down some over two days without dosing anything? I did however add the refugium to the system so not sure if the extra 15-20 gallons + 5" sand bed brought the values up again? Added them just before I did the testing.

Latest pictures below.

Sump plumbed in. Getting low on free space.

Empty refugium.

Full with DSB and water.

 

[ojonas81]

Found this Yellow Finger Gorgonian at my LFS/ Always wanted to have these in my tank so gave it a shot. So far very good PE.

New riccordea mushroom.

Duncan glued onto the rocks.

Small chunk of GSP that made the move over from the nano cube. Is on its own rock in order to avoid taking over the tank.

Rastas that also made it over from the nano cube. They are slowly opening up after a rough transfer (including rock splitting, long time in a bucket outside of the tank etc.).

Latest FTS.

Left side.

Right side.

 

[ojonas81]

Got a fuge light and my very fist ball of Cheato today. Nice clip-on installation. May get another one for the other side of the tank. Plan is to have a couple of different macros and make it "show worthy" and not just a nutrient export place (even though that is the main task along with producing pods).

 

[ojonas81]

For some reason I seem to have a micro-bubble problem in the fuge. Not sure how to resolve it. Anyone have any ideas I can try?

 

[ajcanale]

Wow, such a clean build. Looking forward to seeing how it develops

 

[superdragon]

Nice Build

 

[ojonas81]

Would it make any difference if I reduces the plumbing size going to the fuge in order to reduce the bubbles as I will never be even close to utilizing the full capacity of the 1" pipes I have feeding it now?

 

[ojonas81]

Just placed an order with both Tamp Bay Saltwater for live rocks and critters for my fuge and display tank as well as another order from Gulf Coast Ecosystems for assorted macro algae for the fuge.

The algae should arrive next week and will personally pick up the Tampa Bay order next weekend. Can't wait!

 

[Reef or Die]

Really a work of art! And I don't even know what to say about that sump. Great detail all around.

 

[ojonas81]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Tried to document as much as possible for both my own good and for everyone else to hopefully learn from my mistakes.

 

[ojonas81]

A whole bunch of fun stuff will arrive for the tank this week starting tomorrow ending with the big finale on Saturday evening.

Stay tuned....

 

[ojonas81]

Some sad news this morning. Last night I put my Orchid dottyback and my flasher wrasse in tank #1 for the tank transfer method. Well, this morning I found the wrasse stone dead. The dottyback is doing very good however.

I had looked forward to adding the wrasse to the main tank to get some movement in there since the clowns only stay in their nem and the dottyback is bound to the fuge. Guess I need to get my QT up and running and order some new fish.

 

[ojonas81]

Got a few items today. One frag of Flamed tip dragon's tongue Halymenia macro algae which I divided into two frags (was large enough for that) and 2250 pods as well as a small frag of a Tea Cup Macro Algae. Divided the pods between the main DT and my fuge about 60-40.

Have started to see some color coming back on many of the frags from my old tank. even my strawberry shortcake that has been purple for about a year now have started to show some green colors. Very nice to see and a testament that the Radion Pros really are awesome lights. Below are some pictures from tonight under blue light.

Flamed tip dragon's tongue Halymenia in DT.

Flamed tip dragon's tongue Halymenia in fuge.

Tea Cup Macro Algae

One of my sticks that almost died in the old tank that is starting to get the colors back.

My green slimer that is doing awesome.

 

[ojonas81]

Lost my Orchid dottyback this morning too. He was up for the first transfer but did not make the night. Wonder if it could have been too big of a shock for them going from a somewhat bad water quality to perfect water quality in the bucket?

In other news, got a large macro algae shipment from Gulf Coast Ecosystems yesterday. May have been a little larger than I anticipated since they shipped a huge quantity of each macro. Very pleased with that but would have been just as happy with half the size. Ended up having to toss some of it out as I could not find any room for it.

I ordered the following macros:

• Caulerpa Profilera
• Cladophora Profilera
• Turtle grass (they included a lot of this)
• A red macro algae sampler pack (don't know the specific names of the speices I got)
• Coralline fine branched
• Coraline cluster branching
• Halimeda Sampler (don't know the specific names of them)
• C. Barbata

Here are how they were packed. No air what so ever in the bag (which made it interesting to cut open)

All planted in the sump. Quickly ran out of space and will have to rearrange over the weekend since I will pick up some live rocks from TampaBay Saltwater on Saturday.

I also moved over my MP10 from the nano to the fuge. Put it on Lagoon mode at 30% power. Seems to be more than needed at the moment. May bump it up some later when everything has rooted nicely.