Mike's 300 Double-D

Love the Eightline. Great pics! :) Obviously you keep multiple wrasses... Are there any concerns or advice for adding different species of wrasses? Do they ever show aggressive behaviors to the new additions that you've seen?
 
Agree Brett. I don't know that I would trust myself on a DIY controller...there's just so much at stake when you control critical systems like dosing or ATO. And yes, we're big fans of the redundancy approach and fault tolerant design. Maybe I'll just get a litermeter or some such dedicated controller. It is just that it's so much more desirable to have dosing controls that can evaluate probe values, etc.



Thanks for stopping by Corey.

I saw this and just wanted to comment. I recently picked up an Apex and am checking out all that it can do.... with that being said, I also agree that I am not sure I can trust it to do something as crucial as dosing. I bought a used system and believe I have an outlet stuck in the 'on' position that could be disaster for dosing. I have a litermeter from before and plan to keep it. I can not say enough about the litermeter and how well it works. I also bought this used and had a failure - the tube cracked. With everything I have seen on the internet, I can't recall hearing much about a litermeter failing and nuking a tank. With the Apex, although not common, I have seen horror stories (and not always the apex's fault).

I just wanted to give my endorsement for the litermeter as a dosing system (I dose kalk with it and have the remote pumps sitting in my basement waiting to be hooked up for 2 part as well). I also have plans for the Apex to do additional items so I am not bashing their system. I just agree with your decision to not put all your eggs in one basket.

Great photos and tank - your thread has been a subscription of mine for a very long time - I enjoy popping in and checking out all the updates occasionally! Keep up the good work!
 
Beautiful pictures Terry. The tank is progressing so nicely and some of the colonies are getting huuuuugee! I'd also have to agree the desjardini is certainly striking. Great seeing you all this past weekend and I can't wait to see pictures of everything you picked up this weekend, big spenders ;)
~Josh
 
Amazing tank, great shots. Is that georgian that i see in one of the pics?

Thanks! Not sure which one you're referencing. Can you elaborate?

Those are some nice wrasses. Especially the M. kuiteri

Thanks Wayne. It's been great to enjoy both the female and the male as she transitioned. We still think she was a prettier female, but we're getting used to the male version :D

Love the Eightline. Great pics! :) Obviously you keep multiple wrasses... Are there any concerns or advice for adding different species of wrasses? Do they ever show aggressive behaviors to the new additions that you've seen?

Yes, you have to be careful with the acclimation and introduction of new specimens. Use acclimation boxes. Make sure you QT new fish for several weeks until you're sure they are healthy and of sufficient size and weight to hold their own. There of course will be initial harrassment, and if you put a weak or lightweight fish in there, they will tire out quickly from the chasing, and once they show weakness, it can be big trouble.

Pay attention to the natural pecking order; the dominant fish can sometimes get "too big for their britches". We keep a close eye on this and if it gets out of hand, a couple of weeks of "time out" in the frag tank can fix it right up.

I saw this and just wanted to comment. I recently picked up an Apex and am checking out all that it can do.... with that being said, I also agree that I am not sure I can trust it to do something as crucial as dosing. I bought a used system and believe I have an outlet stuck in the 'on' position that could be disaster for dosing. I have a litermeter from before and plan to keep it. I can not say enough about the litermeter and how well it works. I also bought this used and had a failure - the tube cracked. With everything I have seen on the internet, I can't recall hearing much about a litermeter failing and nuking a tank. With the Apex, although not common, I have seen horror stories (and not always the apex's fault).

I just wanted to give my endorsement for the litermeter as a dosing system (I dose kalk with it and have the remote pumps sitting in my basement waiting to be hooked up for 2 part as well). I also have plans for the Apex to do additional items so I am not bashing their system. I just agree with your decision to not put all your eggs in one basket.

Great photos and tank - your thread has been a subscription of mine for a very long time - I enjoy popping in and checking out all the updates occasionally! Keep up the good work!

Thanks for your advice and feedback. We continue to test and find ways to improve fault-tolerance. If money were no option, a backup Apex that is kept synchronized with the same programming and just sitting on the shelf would be great, but they are just too expensive for that option to be reasonable for us. We prefer to take the approach you suggest, by keeping certain critical functions on dedicated/separate controllers.

That's a good looking eight line. Mine was so pale. even with a pair mine never looked that nice

Thanks - he's a real fatty. We just love how he has grown up. He doesn't flash those nuptial colors very often, so Terry has to keep the camera handy to try and capture those rare occasions!

Awesome tank!

Thanks, and appreciate you stopping in.

Beautiful pictures Terry. The tank is progressing so nicely and some of the colonies are getting huuuuugee! I'd also have to agree the desjardini is certainly striking. Great seeing you all this past weekend and I can't wait to see pictures of everything you picked up this weekend, big spenders ;)
~Josh

Josh, it was great seeing you on the trip - we had such a good time. It was a very well-coordinated field trip. The HRRC has some great peeps, not to mention cool club t-shirts!

:fish1: :fish2:

We haven't done much in the way of updates lately (at least not at this end of the thread!). The first 12 pages of the thread were built with our pictures being hosted at our old ISP. For years, we've managed to find ways to keep those pictures online, but finally lost the battle and they were taken down. So we embarked on the painstaking task of re-hosting all those pictures onto Flickr, and doing the re-linking. Big Kudos to Terry for doing a lot of the grunt work on this, and to Dino, for helping us with the edits. It was a big chore, but so many of you guys enjoy reading the thread, and for all the work that went into posting it in the first place, we felt like it was worth it to keep it working as intended.
 
Yes, you have to be careful with the acclimation and introduction of new specimens. Use acclimation boxes. Make sure you QT new fish for several weeks until you're sure they are healthy and of sufficient size and weight to hold their own. There of course will be initial harrassment, and if you put a weak or lightweight fish in there, they will tire out quickly from the chasing, and once they show weakness, it can be big trouble.

Pay attention to the natural pecking order; the dominant fish can sometimes get "too big for their britches". We keep a close eye on this and if it gets out of hand, a couple of weeks of "time out" in the frag tank can fix it right up.

Excellent advice. Thanks Mike! :)
 
I saw your tank in "reef hobbyist magazine." Good stuff. Glad you didn't hang it up. Very nice tank.
 
Beautiful pictures. That kuiteri is looking more and more male everytime I see it, any issues with the male bipartitus at all? Ive been kinda scared to add other leopards with mine now after how she acted twords my rhomboid.
 
I saw your tank in "reef hobbyist magazine." Good stuff. Glad you didn't hang it up. Very nice tank.
Thank you for the compliment and for taking the time to participate in our thread!

Beautiful pictures. That kuiteri is looking more and more male everytime I see it, any issues with the male bipartitus at all? Ive been kinda scared to add other leopards with mine now after how she acted towards my rhomboid.

Thank you Brett! Our Kuiteri has definitely changed over to male and is King of the Leopards, LOL. He and the male and female bipartitus get along fine, but the bipartitus leopards were already established. Kuiteri's are definitely semi-aggressive, so you have good reason to be concerned about adding other Leopards.
 
Thanks for documenting...

Thanks for documenting...

Hey Guys - I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to document your trials and tribulations for all of us, and for showcasing your accomplishments as well. I spent a few leisurely hours over the Memorial day weekend reading every post and watching your truly impressive progress from the start until now. Your steadfast determination and dedication to quality shows in every step you've taken and the rewards are absolutely justified.

I can't wait to read a concise summary of your livestock, equipment list, schematics, feeding, QT process, and everything else that's key to your success in your long overdue TOTM position and subsequent write-up. It would serve as another invaluable chapter in a reefkeeping encyclopedia that Reefcentral provides to its readers that we should all bookmark for future reference on best practices.

Thanks again for all your contributions, and happy reefing.
 
Wow Mike and Terry,

Still one off the best threads here,and those pic's are still amazing:thumbsup:

Indeed! How many fish are in that tank now - can you even keep count? How do you keep the nitrates low enough to have your SPS corals look that good? Very impressive!
 
ahhh looks similar. im a fan of it tho. great colors. gotta look sweet cruising around the tank...

Thanks Maxx, we are too. Glad we have both the male and females.

Wow Mike and Terry,

Still one off the best threads here,and those pic's are still amazing:thumbsup:

Luc, that's very kind of you to say! We're still trying to emulate the success you have had! You set such a high standard, and hope to see you back in business one day soon.

Hey Guys - I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to document your trials and tribulations for all of us, and for showcasing your accomplishments as well. I spent a few leisurely hours over the Memorial day weekend reading every post and watching your truly impressive progress from the start until now. Your steadfast determination and dedication to quality shows in every step you've taken and the rewards are absolutely justified.

I can't wait to read a concise summary of your livestock, equipment list, schematics, feeding, QT process, and everything else that's key to your success in your long overdue TOTM position and subsequent write-up. It would serve as another invaluable chapter in a reefkeeping encyclopedia that Reefcentral provides to its readers that we should all bookmark for future reference on best practices.

Thanks again for all your contributions, and happy reefing.

We're flattered that you would spend your holiday with us! And thank you for the kind words. Terry and I are passionate about helping others in the hobby as best we can; documenting our experiences is one way we can give back a little bit to the reefing community that haa helped us along the way all these years.

Indeed! How many fish are in that tank now - can you even keep count? How do you keep the nitrates low enough to have your SPS corals look that good? Very impressive!

Current fish count is 27. The NO3 are held in check by a variety of methods: we employ heavy protein skimming, filter socks, LOTS of live rock, regular water changes, sand bed vacuuming, etc. It essentially is the same set of husbandry and maintenance tasks you would perform on a smaller system, just on a bigger scale :) And the old adage is very true here: It's better to keep up than to catch up.

:fish1: :fish2:

How about a couple of pics for the weekend? We spent some time this week rearranging some corals, and doing some display clean up so we thought we would share a few shots:







Thanks for watching! :wave:
 
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