Maroun 150g Build Thread

[maroun.c]

Amazing pics.
Few comments.
-Man you are killing your thread by disappearing for weeks without any posts an then you come back with so many updates that can't be dealt with in one go and some questions get lost within the multitude of updates. still it feels great when the page takes so long to load so I know it's filled with pics.
:bounce1: so keep them coming.
-This chiller is huge isn't it overkill for a 150 G tank? any 400 watt MH in the plans?
-Wasn't it risky to change the electricals yourself?
-Nice story about the tangs, however I wouldn't post a pics with 4-5 tangs in the same tank on the board, you never know tang police could be around. :uzi::uzi::uzi: not that I have anything against multiple tangs in one tank:beer:
-Coral pictures and the growth you're getting are great, I'm really shocked that you're losing other corals at the same time.
-Very happy that the anemones are recovering.
-How long have you had the CB and was it like this when you got it? maybe check in the disease forum if you need to quarantine and medicate.
Finally you mention that you were in Egypt and Spain any LFS or aquarium displays worth visiting there? It would be great if you could post a few pictures of countries you visit. Would love to visit Egypt one day.
Again thanks for the pics and keep them and the updates coming.

Thanks for your comments,
-Unfortunately I'm on travel most of the time which means little time to process upload and post. I do try to update frequently however it's not possible. I just rely on long flights to finish processing pics and then hotel stays with free time to post... In the end this thread is mostly to be used as a calendar of things happening, when and why.. so it serves its purpose well for me, I still do get great advice and help when needed be it on this thread or individual posts...
-Agree on coral growths and losses, however as the losses and corals not doisn good ws limited to 3-4 corals so its acceptable I guess.
-Can't agree more on the anemones recovering.
-had the coral beauty since close to 1 year started having those around 5-6 months ago. will tryt opost in Fish Disease forum.
-As for chiller no 400 W halides, I just wanted to make sure to have a chiller that's a bit overrated to my tank. I should be upgrading to 280-320 G tank and this shiller is rated for 270-480G tanks so it should be OK. As for changing the boards there was no electrical connection jsut a few connectors to insert on those:

and I ahve seen it done when the repair guy was pulling it out to note the model number to ask for replacement part. guess I just didn't want to carry it to the repair center and wait again to learn if the replacement would solve it after waiting for months so I just did it myself.
-As for the tangs my 5 tangs (hyppo pair, yellow tang pair and a Kole tang) get along fine they don't even care about eachother. I barely remember any aggression between them be it at feeding time or at light off where they're supposed to eb the most aggressive while fighting for the est hideout for the night. guess the tank has so much rockwork that its not a problem... also with the coming upgrade I still hope to be able to add a powder blue which is my favorite and maybe an Achiles. I see much more fighting between all fish in the tank and my clowns especially when they have eggs and guess that keeps them from having to fight among themselves...Still if i would see agression I wouldn't hesitate to take some out.
And to make this page a bit more heavy for you here are some pics of my clown to show how huge it is:

male in the anemone: barely fits

Female in the anemone: can barely see anemone

 

[Aquafred]

And to make this page a bit more heavy for you

Hahaha. New page now you'll have to add some more pictures to make it heavier. :lolspin:
That Maroon clown is huge indeed, any idea what size it is?

 

[tangtang clown]

How old is that clown?

 

[sue711]

OMG that clown is so funny trying to fit herself in the baby anemone!! Adorable! Love your pictures!

 

[maroun.c]

Hahaha. New page now you'll have to add some more pictures to make it heavier. :lolspin:
That Maroon clown is huge indeed, any idea what size it is?

That shouldn't be a problem. Never tried to measure it will try to when I'm home next week.

How old is that clown?

Not really sure but I believe around 7 years. was a male so his growth was stunned for 3-4 years but when it became a female it grew really fast.

OMG that clown is so funny trying to fit herself in the baby anemone!! Adorable! Love your pictures!

Thanks Sue. Actully that was a concern as we thought it was the cause of the bleaching of the anemones. weirdly both clowns had stopped hosting the anemone after it bleached and became so small. they did restart hosint it a few weeks ago but still always go back to sleep in their cave as theres too much flow where the anemone is.

 

[maroun.c]

Some more pics under actinic, Still have to improve my actinic pictures but these ones weren't too bad,

Acan, Favia... this one got many IDs, still waiting for the right one:

Favia,

green monti growing fast despite falling and auto fagging a couple of times.

An encrusting monti (I believe) which I got from cleveland, got 3-4 of these taking much space in the the frag tank.

Hydnopora

Along time favorite favia. only wish it would grow a bit faster

Elegance coral, keeping this one for a friend as his PBT was munching on it. unfortunately closes underd actinics.

here it is open but not under actinics. it's colours are imnproving a bit lately.

Lobophylia

Palys, growing fast and suphocating some zoos under them.

 

[maroun.c]

RBTA

My SPS rock

side views (those were difficult)

and a FTS

Couldn't skip these.
My new assistant doing her morning job of feeding the clown in the frag tank. Well and feeding the corals if she feels like it. hope she doesn't get access tot he tank while I'm on travel as I'm sure that will lead to huge overfeeding.

I just love the interaction between her and the clown, he alwys gets this waiting for food look when she's close and seems to be looking at her...

 

[goochesfish]

you're photography is the best. Any tips? Are you just shooting with your lights from the tank or using a flash?

 

[maroun.c]

Goochesfish
Thanks, I would usually use the flash on fish shots and coral shots (limited flash power for corals to avoid washing out the corals colors) or jsut tanks light for corals also work.
Using a tripod would be ideal to limit camera motion still lately I'm on such hurry while taking pictures (between travel kids and work on the tank and other I have very limited time for picture taking) that I'm not using tripod unless I'm after very high quality shots.
for actinic shots no flash for sure.
I shoot in raw and process with adobe RAW converter and photoshop CS4.
still have to find the time to experiment with measuring whitel balance before shooting which shold improve colors and make processing much faster, can't really comment on this as I'v never tried it yet.
Other than that the usual tips apply:
-Clean the glass 1 day before shooting (haven't been doing that lately which means bore work with the clone tool) this will give you clean glass without debris of the cleaned alga that will settle or be filtered/eaten after one day
-taking pictures after a water change or changing carbon for clearer water and less yellow color cast
-shooting with lens perpendicular to glass, very very important. I'm mostly shooting with a Tamron 17-50 mm lense jsut for the fact that it can focus much clsoer to any of my other higher quality lenses. this allows me to rest the lens on the glass directly and shoot this way lens is perpendicular to glass (less distortion) and this allows slower shutter speeds without motion as camera is supported by the glass... not as good as a tripod but does the job.
for flash shots use a diffusor ont he flash and shoot with flash tilted up this way you get softer flash light and the angulation avoids having light reflections on the front glass. also having your lense stuck to the glass with a lense hood helps in avoiding reflections. Hope this helps.

 

[RobertoBcn]

Hey Man!!!

Stunning tank, it just need time to grow.

What about the new corals?? Did they arrive alive??

Greetings From Bcn

 

[maroun.c]

Hey Roberto,

Welcome to Reef Central.
All the corals arrived alive except for one and unfortunately it was the nicest one: the light blue accropora. still part of it is still alive and hopefully it'll regrow. I got delayed in my connection flight in Paris for few hours and the corals stayed in transport for around 20 hours. Still none of the bags leaked any water, Great Packing my friend :thumbsup:
Any links to your personal aquarium even if on a spanish forum? the pics of the corals you showed me in your store looked great. check out the thread again when you have some time as I should be posting pictures of the corals in your store.... Still that will have to wait as I have 6-700 pics from barcelona to process and I also have to travel to switzerland tomorrow for 5 days.
Thanks for all your help in Barcelona and looking forward to be there again.
Keep in touch

Posts: 1 Hey Man!!!

Stunning tank, it just need time to grow.

What about the new corals?? Did they arrive alive??

Greetings From Bcn

 

[RobertoBcn]

My tank is only 6 months old, and I started only with a few frags, maybe next year, with the tank full of acros
The one you've seen is a frag of 4-5 cm, similar to yours.

Now you have a new way to leave with you corals from the whole world, you just need a fly in time...

See you next time with a free hammer coral, I promise

 

[maroun.c]

My tank is only 6 months old, and I started only with a few frags, maybe next year, with the tank full of acros
The one you've seen is a frag of 4-5 cm, similar to yours.

Now you have a new way to leave with you corals from the whole world, you just need a fly in time...

See you next time with a free hammer coral, I promise

I'm sure your tank will be very interesting in short time.
Free Hammer:dance: With the prices of corals in spain I could fly just to get it:rollface:
Thanks. Hoping to have another trip there and maybe I can then order some things before I fly. Unfortunatly Spain is not within the terriory I cover and I only go there for big congresses which aren't that frequent.

 

[goochesfish]

Thank you, that was good advise. However, I have an orange spot gobie who works very hard at keeping my sand clean so my water is always a sandstorm.

 

[melev]

Have fun in Switzerland. Eat some marzipan for me.

 

[maroun.c]

Have fun in Switzerland. Eat some marzipan for me.

Marzipan, chocolate, Chese Fondu, it was a very nice week. I'mm sure I left with 1-2 KG more.
To add to that a couple of nice LFS and some new frags on the way back. Pics later on...

 

[melev]

I'm super jealous of you now.

 

[Aquafred]

Pics later on...

We're still waiting:hammer:

Would be great if you could post pics of those LFS as some pics of the countries you visited for those less fortunate who can't fly every week toa new country

 

[maroun.c]

Hi Fred,
Sorry for the late reply as well as the delay inposting pics. ACtually I spent the last 2-3 days reading DSPS 1000 G thread and didn't even getg the time to process any pics. Will do ASAP And post some.

 

[maroun.c]

We're still waiting:hammer:

Would be great if you could post pics of those LFS as some pics of the countries you visited for those less fortunate who can't fly every week toa new country

Sorry for the delay.
Finally here are some pics.

Egypt trip:

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Egypt Trip/

Spain trip: Barcelona,

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/spain Trip/


And switzerland Sion and a couple of pics from Geneva:

http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Switzerland Trip/

Visited Barcelona Aquarium, which was a bit disappointing as it didn't have a single hard coral, still it was a very nice collection of mideteranean fish and corals....
some pics: