Maroun.c 390 G build thread

Incredible build and fantastic pictures and log

Thanks,
Congrats on a well deserved TOTM.

Love the way this tank is progressing.. Best of Luck for the upcoming hurdles..
Thanks

Unfortunately tank has been on hold for the last couple of months due to a hectic travel schedule. Just when I had a couple of weeks home for Easter Vacation to work on the tank and get my corals in I injured 3 fingures while cutting the return pump tubing which ended up in some stitches and no hand in the tank for 10 days when it was time to start traveling again. Expect to start moving corals in after 1-2 weeks from now and will update this thread as things start moving.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates, time for this build to start moving again.
Tank's been running for around 5 months. had a mild cycle of diatoms and cyano which was less pronounced on the rocks and ceramics and mostly on the sand bed. it could either be related to the lack of flow when I started the tank or tot he fact that the sand was old sand from my 150 G which was only rinsed so maybe things died in it and were decaying feeding the bloom.

anyway here's how the tank looked at it's worst.
DSC_1245.jpg

I chose to let the cycle happen and didn't syphon or stire the sand bed, I did get some diatomes on the rocks and ceramics as well but they were rather limited. I had been dosing vodka so that could have contributed to the blooms. few weeks later I had noticeable nitrates and phosphates and they kept climbing so I added a PO4 reactor and upped my vodka which dropped things to where I want.
My underrated skimmer seems to be a very decent job pulling this much junk in 2-3 days
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Eventually I noticed my cyano worsen with the added vodka doses so I syphoned my cyano from the sand and shut my lights for 3 days which worked great. currently I'm only getting some diatoms in areas of low flow which should be solved as I add more powerheads soon.
Tank cleared up to this after the lights out.
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couple of months back I added a second batch of fish:
Leapard wrass (Macropharyngodon Ornatus) that I got from holland
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Gramma Loretto from holland as well.
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1 Pseudochromis fridmani I found in dubai, Still looking for a second one to add
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Couple of Lubboks fairy wrass (Cirrhilabrus lubbocki) they were harrassed by my whip fin wrass but not that severly and one of them didn't make it. making it the first fatality in this tank)
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And an FTS at after the first batch of corals were moved in.
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Still have to finish light acclimation for thes and coming corals and move them to their final locations.
Few days later I noticed some light burns even with corals in the shade:
This Chalice is showing burns on the areas out of the shade following the shape of the rocks covering it.

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another euphilia loosing colors on the side facing the lights:

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At this stage the T5s are on for 8 hours and the halides are on only for 2 hours daily. Corals come from a well lit frag tank yet some of them had to be in the dark under the racks for lack of space. I placed them more in the shade and won't be upping my light period soon.

Moved a second batch of mostly LPS. 3-4 weeks later:

Red Green Favia
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Favia
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Chalice collection moved in:

one of my favorites that I got from Dubai ID?
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Red Chalice
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Christmas Chalice
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Watermelon chalice
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Meteor shower
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Scoly
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Start of my zoo garden
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Green Palys,
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Cyphastreas

Red and yellow
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Bright Green (To be)
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And an FTS with all the corals so far moved in.
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Next step will be the rest of LPS and then start with moving SPS.
 
Tough Croud heh!!!
Glad to see the build move forward and can't wait to see all your corals in.
One question about your lighting, do you plan to stick with MH or any plans to switch to LEDs on such a big tank?
Love the fish collection so far, adding anymore too?
 
Tough Croud heh!!!
Glad to see the build move forward and can't wait to see all your corals in.
One question about your lighting, do you plan to stick with MH or any plans to switch to LEDs on such a big tank?
Love the fish collection so far, adding anymore too?

Thanks Fred.
I'm sticking with halides for the time being. Actually it was a struggle to keep temp at 78 during winter time using 1100w of heaters. Might add a couple of smaller Led fixtures for more Par and to use them when running on Backup UPS or generator.
As for the fish list, I'm not a fish person but I'm definitely adding some more fish:
- Achiles tang when I find a healthy one
-School of Anthias
-School of Cardinals
-yellow eye kole Tang
-Mandarin Pair
-flame angel (still in consideration )
- Fielding up to 4 purple and 4 red
-yellow tail Tamarin wrass
-some more leopard wrasses
-1 more Fridmani
- 1filefish
- copperband

Would love to add a pair of PBT, 1 Desjardini, 1 Atlantic Blue Tang, blond Naso, and a gee more purples and yellows but that's more in my dreams.
 
The tanks coming along nicely Maroun. Any plans for dosing Prodibio, Zeovit, etc. ?
Thanks Gimmito
I travel very frequently and can't bother the wife with more daily dosing. Or commit to any strict dosing regimen that requires modification based on daily observation... So basically I stick to dosing some Zeo elements (not following their regimen) and do use Prison biodegradable. Used to use biotin before I dosed vodka. Will be stopping vodka dosing to try the hassle free BP Reactor.
 
couple of small updates.
- Added one more Tunze 6105, this one came with the wideflow housing and the 24V jumper upgrade.Like the softer and wider flow which does not blow sand 7 feet away. Guess i'll upgrade the old one I have. Will still add one more 6105 and an MP60.So far tank is running on 2x 6105 and one MP40 with 2 returns of a total of 8500 LPH it

- My RBTA split coupe of week back. for the first time I didn't lose any of the clones.
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The Bubble tips continue to roam on their island and don't seem to want to settle. This could have been triggered by the continuous changes in flow (experimeinting with different PH positions...) and the split... so far I got 2 RBTAs and one greeen. Still on the look for a couple of nice BTAs especially a yellow with purple tip one.

-Tank was supposed to start from frags or mini colonies that remain from my old 150 G, however when the 3 years old Monti of fellow reefer Pierre777 couldn't support its weight any more and broke one layer he offered me a small frag :D
Pics of it in his tank from around Jan 2011
http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af242/PierreTank/RC 2011 tank pics/DSC_3645.jpg

Nov 2011
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm185/mcaqua150g/Pierre/DSC_8536.jpg

On pick up day (sorry bad quality phone pics)
the fallen piece
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and the little frag I got (around 24 inch 60cm long)
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and in my tank still got to fix it.
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Installed my 1 HP Resun chiller in the attick and it proved to be a huge struggle for it to fit. still struggling with overheating of the attick so will work on its ventilation with directing the air flow to the attick towards the chiller and the airflow out from behind the chiller but at least I got my tank temp back to 80 F. should be adding another 1 Hp chiller (Aquamedic Titan 2000) for back up next month hopefully.
Plans for the coming couple of weeks will be to start moving SPS in and working on coral positioning.
 
Hi Maroon, How's your leopard wrasse doing? I hear they are difficult to keep. Nice frags!

Leopard is doing great. Eats whatever I throw in the tank including pellets.
They do have a dismal survival rate I believe mostly due to internal parasites. Mine was quarantined by a very good LFS in Holland and was very healthy since day 1. I guess I got lucky with this one.
 
Conrats on the RBTA split.
That's a huge monti you got there. The tank it came from looks great as well.
Looking forward to see your SPS in and the tank taking shape.
 
Thanks,
Pierres tank is meticulously maintained and showing great results in coloration and growth.
I'm hoping to move the 1st batch of SPS in 2 weeks time. Need to work on my parameters to match the frag tanks parameters for an easier move first.
 
Love your thread. Good work on all the thought you put into this! So cool that your fire shrimp mated! I hope mine do eventually :)
 
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