o2manyfish 750g Tank, 1500g System "Built" Thread

[Reefing102]

Looking really good!

 

[ScubaShane]

Everyone who gets a big tank gets the obiligatory mermaid pic of their wife, girlfriend, or kids sitting in the tank for a size reference shot. While my wife is supportive of the tank she was not keen on putting on her bikini and climbing a ladder to get into the tank. So sorry folks, there has to be a mermaid pic.......



View attachment 32373959

Wow! Nice pillows!!

 

[o2manyfish]

First update for 2023. With all the crazy rains in So Cal we have had a few hiccups with all the outdoor tanks. Been dealing with those issues as I can in between some work, a cruise, and the weather. The outdoor frag tanks hadn't been touched in almost a year. They still had some fish in them and a handful of coral scraps. But the tanks were filthy with a layer of crap on the bottom.

Last week we emptied one tank, drained it down, razorbladed it, wet dry vacced it clean and then filled with clean salt water. We moved all the livestock into the clean tank and took the remaining dirty frag tank off line. But then the rain started coming down again before we had a chance to drain it.

Went to the Coral Farmers Market this weekend in Santa Ana with a very enthusiastic wife. She picked out a dozen + frags for herself. Plus my shopping and we ended up with almost 3 hours of mounting corals the following day.

The cabinetry for the tank and stand were finished as a birthday present to myself in January. On our vacation at the end of January we ordered a piece of art that we are hoping will be a nice finishing touch to the stand of the aquarium.

And here is the 6 month update of the 750g tank.

 

[mcfish]

Wonderful video, thanks for sharing.
I didn’t notice any Xenia in your display tank. Are they banned from your system entirely or are some outside?

 

[o2manyfish]

Wonderful video, thanks for sharing.
I didn’t notice any Xenia in your display tank. Are they banned from your system entirely or are some outside?

After the double disaster last year we lost all the corals - xenia included. I still love Xenia and I love it's ability to filter the water and act as an alk monitor. I won't put xenia in my display tanks however because with the aquascaping its too hard to control.

One of the first corals I added to the tank was a piece of the Tony Vargas Purple Cespitularia -similar to xenia.

I also have 3 chunks of the papaya / orange clove polyps.

I will add clavuaria to the tank. It's a pretty filler on the back wall, adds some movement, and peels away easily to keep in control.

Xenia, when I come across some, will go into the frag tanks and the sumps outside.

Dave

 

[mcfish]

I wonder if the Xenia can travel from your sump to your display tank.
I like Xenia so I enjoyed seeing it in your tank.

 

[o2manyfish]

We've been dealing with a mess in our house while we re-tile the downstairs of the house. After 6 weeks of disaster area, not being able to sit in front of the tank to enjoy it, the floors in the fish room are now complete.

 

[o2manyfish]

I have posted before about how supportive my wife is with 'our' hobby. For the 1500g reef system she enjoys watching the fish. With the new tank I let her loose at the last frag swap and told her to buy whatever stony corals she liked - So she had 'her' corals in the 750g.

For the past 11 years we have been together our 'deal' has been whenever she goes to a frag swap, convention, trade show, club meeting, etc --- She can pick out any cool looking clown fish she likes. She has them bag the fish and I pay the vendor.

About 8 months ago she got to meet a local clown breeder. And she thought that the baby fish were super neat, and that this could be a partial retirement gig for her (I won't be holding my breath - LOL).

So I came across a nice rack setup, did some slight modifications and yesterday got the Clown Breeding rack moved into her office.

8 Cubes for paired adults, 2 tanks for grow out. UV, Great White Skimmer and water and bio media from our existing reef system and she is up and running...

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Now we have to start collecting her some cool broodstock ---- Trade Shows for me - Stocking trips for her.

Dave B

 

[albano]

Sounds like she’s a keeper!

 

[Reefing102]

Awesome! Good luck with the breeding. I like the floors!

 

[o2manyfish]

Not everyone takes advantage of the live webcams we have on the tank. Here's a video showing just how good the webcams can be if you know what you can do with them.

This is just a few mins showing off what you can find using the Axis V59 webcams with PTZ and optical zoom.

The cameras can be found at www.o2manyfish.com and www.o2manyfish.com/right - Of course if you're going to have a giant tank you need a camera to see each end of the tank.
Hope you find this as neat as I did.

Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Very seldom do I run my tank with blues. Blues ramp the tank up and dim the tank down. But during viewing hours/prime time we keep things pretty white by today's standards. Last night the wife and I sat on the couch for a few with the tank in Windex Mode. After 3 mins my wife was bored because she couldn't see the Orange Spot on her achilles tang. But we did shoot a short video showing the tank off.

Dave B

 

[griss]

Dave, I’m with you on the trend these days of blue. I wish I could find some Iwasaki 250w 6500k bulbs. Man, the Acro growth we had with those bulbs was incredible.

 

[o2manyfish]

New Red Sea Regal, New Red Sea Maxima Clams, Surge Damsels and some new corals. This time the video is under normal tank lighting.

Have a happy Holidays

Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Wow, I didn't realize I had neglected my thread for so long...

Do I have an excuse.... Well to be honest this 750g reef has been a challenging and expensive journey. Fish have done well in the tank. Softies have done amazing, LPS have done ok but the SPS has been a constant frustrating challenge.

Even now looking back at this experience I haven't been able to say -- Oh this is what the cause was. Finally in February of this year the SPS issue started to turn around.

Now while the SPS is the 750 has been just a hair pulling experience, the SPS in the outdoor frag tanks have been doing great -- all connected same water.

Montiporas were fine but acros were just a non-stop experience of buy, mount, eventually pull and toss. If I bought 15 maricultured pieces it's not like all 15 pcs started to go to hell. But just slowly one or 2 pieces at a time, just a branch or two a day.

Lots of friends came by to try to help. One spotted a hair crab in an acro --- so several late nights with a flashlight and the lights out and I nailed maybe a dozen in my acro colonies.

But still the same thing.

Then one day while watching the tank I noticed that one of my favorite fish, a lil yellow clown goby, that has been with me for years and thru the last few tanks and crashes was being a feces head. While 90% of the time the cute lil yellow fish sits in one of my long term acro colonies looking cool. It was the other 10% of the time....

I love lil fish, those having read my threads know this. I used to collect all the colors of the lil clown gobies, till I realized the horny lil gobies would pair up and then start shredding tissue out of the middle of colonies to build a nest for eggs. So 10+ years ago I limited myself to just having 1cute yellow goby. And for years this particular one had been hardy and cool.

But now watching I see that when not sitting in his own home colony (which was 100% healthy) he would cruise half way across the tank, and start pulling tissue off an acro. I watched for a week and sure enough he decimated the acro enough that it started to RTN, then at that point the angels, couldn't resist and would finish off the damaged colony, at which time the yellow goby would start munching a different colony somewhere else in the tank.

I now had a logical reason for the just constant slow loss of acros piece by piece. At 3am with alot of cursing I caught the lil jerk. He thought he would get away from my net by being chased into a lrg monti colony---- Not this time. With nets around the colony I just used a big screwdriver and broke the colony apart till I got to him.

I moved him to the overflow of the frag tank --- it's a good nano home in which we grow corals, and the Baby Bangai's thrive in.

Things stabilized out. Then in February on this year I started dosing ammonia, and the SPS really took an upward turn.

Here is a video from last night with the tank during windex mode....

Live webcam is still up and running 24/7 www.o2manyfish.com


Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Here are some macro shots I took with my cell phone on Tues evening of this past week. Ironically on Weds night I tried to take more and couldn't get a single one..... Haha

 

[o2manyfish]

Some more.......

 

[o2manyfish]

And some more

 

[griss]

Looking great!

 

[JohnL]

But now watching I see that when not sitting in his own home colony (which was 100% healthy) he would cruise half way across the tank, and start pulling tissue off an acro. I watched for a week and sure enough he decimated the acro enough that it started to RTN, then at that point the angels, couldn't resist and would finish off the damaged colony, at which time the yellow goby would start munching a different colony somewhere else in the tank.

Wow that's crazy. The tank looks great.