Ludnix's tropical 120!
- Thread starter ludnix
- Start date
iwishtofish
Active member
Looking incredible, Eric!
ludnix
New member
Thanks for the comments!
Tonight I saw the maze coral's sweepers out. I moved the whisker coral a while ago so it wouldn't be so close, but I might have to do it again.
The right side of the whiskers is significantly smaller than the left, likely from being stung for so long. So far they seemed like they were far enough away, but it might not be that way for long. You can see one of the sweepers within an inch of the torch in front of the purple coraline.
Tonight I saw the maze coral's sweepers out. I moved the whisker coral a while ago so it wouldn't be so close, but I might have to do it again.
The right side of the whiskers is significantly smaller than the left, likely from being stung for so long. So far they seemed like they were far enough away, but it might not be that way for long. You can see one of the sweepers within an inch of the torch in front of the purple coraline.
ludnix
New member
I'm not really pleased with the idea of an anemone walking around my tank either, which is part of why I got rid of them. So far the camel doesn't seem to have an appetite for any corals and he's been in there for quite a while. If he does start nipping at some corals he should be fairly easy to remove.
ludnix
New member
I took some short videos of some things in my tank and thought I should share them. Eventually I'll put together a video of the full tank once I get used to the new camera.
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rk3Um0HxVek&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rk3Um0HxVek&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k63qYNttHJ0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k63qYNttHJ0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rk3Um0HxVek&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rk3Um0HxVek&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k63qYNttHJ0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k63qYNttHJ0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>
iwishtofish
Active member
Great videos, Eric - thanks for sharing. Your tank is quite an inspiration. I love the engineer gobies, but I think my wife would think they look too "snakey!"
Are those fish fry, or baby shrimp? I don't know much, obviously!
Edit: Never mind, saw the video caption...
Are those fish fry, or baby shrimp? I don't know much, obviously!
Edit: Never mind, saw the video caption...
Last edited:
ludnix
New member
My mom and sister complain about them being too eel like as well. When it comes to moving sand I've seen no one better for the job though!
Thanks!
ludnix
New member
Here's some shots of my tank from above.
Click to maker bigger!
I ordered a sun coral from my LFS. It's awaiting placement in my frag tank. I'm trying to decide where to put it where it can be easily fed but not too exposed to excessive lighting.
I recently redid the shelving eggcrate in the frag tank. The old structure didn't make the best use of space. This new system allows me to remove individuals sections of the frag tank for cleaning. I can also add addition shelves if I find the need arises.
I had been battling bryopsis in the frag tank so hopefully this new system will help. Here's a picture of how I'm trying to clean some of the frags now. I can put the frags covered in bryopsis on one of the shelves and drop it in the 120. This way the tangs can clean the plugs for me and it's easy to move back to the frag tank.
Sorry for poor picture quality, my camera was set to 1600 ISO and I didn't realize it until I had them open on the computer.
Click to maker bigger!
I ordered a sun coral from my LFS. It's awaiting placement in my frag tank. I'm trying to decide where to put it where it can be easily fed but not too exposed to excessive lighting.
I recently redid the shelving eggcrate in the frag tank. The old structure didn't make the best use of space. This new system allows me to remove individuals sections of the frag tank for cleaning. I can also add addition shelves if I find the need arises.
I had been battling bryopsis in the frag tank so hopefully this new system will help. Here's a picture of how I'm trying to clean some of the frags now. I can put the frags covered in bryopsis on one of the shelves and drop it in the 120. This way the tangs can clean the plugs for me and it's easy to move back to the frag tank.
Sorry for poor picture quality, my camera was set to 1600 ISO and I didn't realize it until I had them open on the computer.
ludnix
New member
Thanks, speaking of DIY stuff:
I wanted to reduce the moisture build up in my canopy, so I installed a 12cm fan the other day. The canopy has a lot of allowances for air to escape, for one thing, it's made of peg board so it's riddled with holes hidden by the "grass" thatch. There is also a large gap allowing air to escape just below the edges of the roof line.
I purchased the fan off www.xoxide.com, it's a standard 120mm case fan. I chose it based on the amount of air flow rated in cubic feet per minute, and the decibel rating. This was the quietest and strongest fan I could find.
The fan is connected to an external computer power supply, it's not a full on power supply for a real computer, but a small transformer with computer molex connectors on it. I was able to easily plug the fan into this power supply unit and not have to worry about the electrical aspect at all.
So far the fan seems to be working great. The air is being pushed into the canopy to blow cool dry air in. Having it blow in should increase the fan's life as well since less humid air will touch it this way. The aquarium has been stable between 80-81F, previously it was closer 82-84F. Temperature isn't that important to me though, it's more of the issue of moisture that was bothering me.
I wanted to reduce the moisture build up in my canopy, so I installed a 12cm fan the other day. The canopy has a lot of allowances for air to escape, for one thing, it's made of peg board so it's riddled with holes hidden by the "grass" thatch. There is also a large gap allowing air to escape just below the edges of the roof line.
I purchased the fan off www.xoxide.com, it's a standard 120mm case fan. I chose it based on the amount of air flow rated in cubic feet per minute, and the decibel rating. This was the quietest and strongest fan I could find.
The fan is connected to an external computer power supply, it's not a full on power supply for a real computer, but a small transformer with computer molex connectors on it. I was able to easily plug the fan into this power supply unit and not have to worry about the electrical aspect at all.
So far the fan seems to be working great. The air is being pushed into the canopy to blow cool dry air in. Having it blow in should increase the fan's life as well since less humid air will touch it this way. The aquarium has been stable between 80-81F, previously it was closer 82-84F. Temperature isn't that important to me though, it's more of the issue of moisture that was bothering me.
jbird69
New member
Ludnix. Your system is fabulous! You seem to have an excellent handle on diy projects as well as reef keeping. Did I read somewhere that you are only 15/16? All the more impressed if thats true! We arent too far apart geographicaly, Im just over the border in Medford. Where do you get your livestock?
ludnix
New member
I was 17 when I started this tank, but I'm 19 now. My parents just visited Medford to get their VW serviced so you're definitely not that far off. We get our livestock from Fin N Feather pets in Eureka, they seem to be the only place locally who has decent saltwater live stock. They will also try to get things I specifically request as well which is nice (like the sun coral). I've also been lucky enough to trade some corals with another local reefer. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to get a club going here locally so I can trade more often.
ludnix
New member
I have some new pictures of the sun coral open and feeding.
Right now it's opening around 8pm, but I would like to train it to open a few hours earlier. If anyone knows any good information on training them to open I'd love to hear it.
I've been feeding it the same thing my fish and other corals get, a mixture of pellets, prawn, mysis, brine and chopped mussel.
Right now it's opening around 8pm, but I would like to train it to open a few hours earlier. If anyone knows any good information on training them to open I'd love to hear it.
I've been feeding it the same thing my fish and other corals get, a mixture of pellets, prawn, mysis, brine and chopped mussel.
ludnix
New member
It's been a while since I updated and I had some interesting things happen so I thought I'd share.
In mid December my family and I went on a 3 week vacation to Hawaii. I had setup a large 100g stock tank with RO/DI water and kalk to top the tank off over the vacation which worked great. We had also hired a local guy from the LFS to check on the tank every other day. Unfortunately about a week or two before we left I noticed certain SPS corals were looking strange, the flesh around polyps was fading or disappearing but the polyps remained fine. I tried to do several small water changes, run carbon and test everything I could but there was no obvious reason for the SPS issue. I let the LFS guy know what was going on but he never found a reason for it either.
When I got back I had found about 3-4 colonies of SPS had died and all of the remaining looked pretty bad except the orange/red monti cap. I removed all the dead corals and frags that looked like they were on their way out. I still don't know what the problem was but it seems to be gone now. All of the corals are almost finished healing and looking normal again.
Here's a picture of the famosa healing. You can see the new growth on the polyp tips where it's much bigger. During the SPS issue all that flesh had disappeared and had algae growing on the dead spots. The flesh is now growing back over those dead spots though.
I was very relieved to see the SPS issue disappearing even though I never found out the reason why it occurred in the first place.
Shortly following the recovery of most of the SPS we had a 6.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Eureka which shook things up a bit. A lot of water was sloshed out of the tank but fortunately it's all still standing with no leaks. All the sloshing got water all over the place by the tank though so I immediately disconnected all the power to the tank to prevent and risk of an electrical fire. I righted all the corals that were knocked over and dried all the water that spilled everywhere. The tank must have really been sloshing around because even the T5's were dripping wet. Ultimately anything attached with a good amount of putty stayed in place though so there wasn't too many corals knocked around.
Things are still going well though, everything has been pretty stable and looking for a while, though we did just have another 5.9 earth quake yesterday, it thankfully was much smaller and caused no problems.
Here's a picture of the tank:
Natural disasters are an important part of the Hawaiian reef's diversity, If it weren't for natural disasters the Hawaiian reef would become dominated by a few select species of corals over time. With the disasters such as lava flow, earthquakes and tsunamis there is a chance for greater diversity by knocking the dominating corals back to give the others a chance to grow again. I'd like to think of little tank setbacks as a chance to improve the diversity in my tank as well. New frags are taking the place of some of the SPS colonies that didn't survive the SPS issue. These frags are from a local reefer who gave them to me a few months ago. Now that I finally have room I was able to move them from the frag tank to the display.
We found a place for the sun coral to go aswell!
In mid December my family and I went on a 3 week vacation to Hawaii. I had setup a large 100g stock tank with RO/DI water and kalk to top the tank off over the vacation which worked great. We had also hired a local guy from the LFS to check on the tank every other day. Unfortunately about a week or two before we left I noticed certain SPS corals were looking strange, the flesh around polyps was fading or disappearing but the polyps remained fine. I tried to do several small water changes, run carbon and test everything I could but there was no obvious reason for the SPS issue. I let the LFS guy know what was going on but he never found a reason for it either.
When I got back I had found about 3-4 colonies of SPS had died and all of the remaining looked pretty bad except the orange/red monti cap. I removed all the dead corals and frags that looked like they were on their way out. I still don't know what the problem was but it seems to be gone now. All of the corals are almost finished healing and looking normal again.
Here's a picture of the famosa healing. You can see the new growth on the polyp tips where it's much bigger. During the SPS issue all that flesh had disappeared and had algae growing on the dead spots. The flesh is now growing back over those dead spots though.
I was very relieved to see the SPS issue disappearing even though I never found out the reason why it occurred in the first place.
Shortly following the recovery of most of the SPS we had a 6.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Eureka which shook things up a bit. A lot of water was sloshed out of the tank but fortunately it's all still standing with no leaks. All the sloshing got water all over the place by the tank though so I immediately disconnected all the power to the tank to prevent and risk of an electrical fire. I righted all the corals that were knocked over and dried all the water that spilled everywhere. The tank must have really been sloshing around because even the T5's were dripping wet. Ultimately anything attached with a good amount of putty stayed in place though so there wasn't too many corals knocked around.
Things are still going well though, everything has been pretty stable and looking for a while, though we did just have another 5.9 earth quake yesterday, it thankfully was much smaller and caused no problems.
Here's a picture of the tank:
Natural disasters are an important part of the Hawaiian reef's diversity, If it weren't for natural disasters the Hawaiian reef would become dominated by a few select species of corals over time. With the disasters such as lava flow, earthquakes and tsunamis there is a chance for greater diversity by knocking the dominating corals back to give the others a chance to grow again. I'd like to think of little tank setbacks as a chance to improve the diversity in my tank as well. New frags are taking the place of some of the SPS colonies that didn't survive the SPS issue. These frags are from a local reefer who gave them to me a few months ago. Now that I finally have room I was able to move them from the frag tank to the display.
We found a place for the sun coral to go aswell!
Last edited:
