my 240

[hobogato]

thanks for the comments, the fish really like the revised rockwork, they spend lots of time going in and out of the tonga branches.

chris - glad you like the reactor, just remember not to put too much flow thru it - mj 900 or so will be perfect.

 

[hobogato]

well, as some of you know, i have been putting together a 180 for christy and her micromussa/acan collection. that tank will actually be the new home to all of the lps in the 240 as well. that means i got to do a little rearranging of the rockwork and corals now that her tank is pretty much starting to take on corals. i took out about 50 pounds of liverock and alot of sand. i only kept one blasto, a couple of chalices, and the rest are sps. i just left in enough sand to cover the bottom. the fish really like it.

here is what it looked like just a few weeks ago

full frontal

left half

again

right half

again

 

[roktsintst]

Very Nice, your tank has always been an inspiration to me!

 

[NanoGurl]

Amazing! Love the less rock.

 

[LoneRanger]

Very sharp, this tank gives me LOTS of ideas!


see thread here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1285337



L.R.

 

[hobogato]

thanks for the comments all

looking forward to following your build rob - if you have any specific questions, dont hesitate to ask.

well, the fish love the extra swimming space, and i am really enjoying the look of the tank again. it was a nice change. it has also improve my water quality a bit - my ORP rose about 40 points in two days. i think it is because of the increased water movement thru the rock and the removal of the excess sand with all of the detritus that was in it.

side note - i finally decided to try a cleaner wrasse since i have plenty of fish, and it is awesome to watch. this morning, the vlamingi entered his cleaning station and turned completely white except for the yellow markings on his fins and the blue on his mouth. i ran for the camera, but by the time i got there his turn was over and the tusk was being cleaned.

 

[hobogato]

since taking out the excess sand and liverock, the ORP on the tank has gone from 300 to 360, and the corals are starting to show new vibrance. here are some new pics of some of the corals and fish

spotted hawkfish

GSM

nearly 6" algae blennie

niger trigger

clown tang

vlamingi

 

[hobogato]

them monster of the tank

new mille frag

A. insignis - one of my oldest colonies grown from a 2" frag

unknown acro - orange/peach with glowing yellow tips

salmon mille with yellow tips starting to color back up

pink and yellow deep water acro

 

[hobogato]

last batch

A. meridiana

another of my oldest colonies - A. valida (i think) grown from a 3" stick

red chalice with blue blotches - developing neon green rings on some mouths and orange sheen in one area

unknow crazy yellow/green table - locally know as the bigbird toxic acro

blue tip tenuis

samon with green polyp mille finally looking like itself again

 

[TandN]

is that a SSB or a DSB in your tank ?

 

[erics3000]

What kind of eel is that? Does he eat your littler fish? Looks sweet.

 

[hobogato]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11626308#post11626308 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tanya72806
is that a SSB or a DSB in your tank ?

it used to be about 3 or 4" but now it is and average of 1". i do run a dsb in the fuge.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11626413#post11626413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erics3000
What kind of eel is that? Does he eat your littler fish? Looks sweet.

its a zebra moray - hasnt touched any of the fish, it will only eat thawed squid. its about 3' long.

 

[erics3000]

Cool real cool...

 

[radiolunatic]

Ace, AWESOME !!! Can't wait to see it again in March.

 

[Elliott]

does your zebra moray disturb your aquascape or have any detrimental effects on anything? why did you choose this type of eel for your reef?

 

[TandN]

What is your matnience on the SSB ?

 

[hobogato]

thanks eric, we really like it.

thanks roy, look forward to the visit.

elliott - the eel is pretty destructive around feeding time, so i have everything glued down pretty well. this species tends to stay smaller and this one in particular is a picky eater, so i am hoping he never starts eating my smaller fish.

tanya - just switched to the ssb from moderately deep sand bed, so i am planning to stirr it up a bit occasionally before water changes.

 

[hobogato]

my tank has been very disappointing lately. alkalinity swings are horrible for tanks, and with my undersized calcium reactor, that is exactly what was happening. i had the CO2 and flow so fast to keep up with the demand of the tank, that it was causing fluctuations in alkalinity and eventually started burning the tips on my coral. the problem is that i only have 6" of space between the sump and the inside of my stand. necessity breeds creativity in this case, and i came up with this space saving design for a dual calcium reactor with 6" tubes. my old calcium reactor (pictured left) could hold about 15 pounds of media. the new one (picture right) holds about 60 pounds also, the two chambers are separate reactors, essentially it is a single chamber reactor with an effluent chamber added on. a little rough looking since i never take time to finish out the stuff i build for myself, but it seems to be working great.

i also added a probe bulkhead so i could use the controller to control the pH in the primary chamber and not just turn the CO2 on and off based on the pH of the final effluent.

 

[chris wright]

Hope it works out for you mate. Have you suffered any loses because of the swings?

 

[hobogato]

i lost a few small frags and a couple of recent wild colony additions. i also had to rescape the middle of the tank a bit because things started shifting around after i pulled out most of the sand - im gonna snap a couple of pics later today.