OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[jnarowe]

Yeah, my subscribers all lost it. Something fishy there! :lol:

Thanks for the compliments guys. The reef is doing OK but I still have more to learn about growing coral. Most people do not appreciate the aquascaping but that is because I have a long-term vision about having a tank full of coral, and not rocks.

Weast chided me about it some time ago and his point to make it look good now is well taken, but not easy to undertake!

And no BT. Actually there's a purple tang and a bristletooth that look a little like black tangs in a couple of the shots.

 

[jnarowe]

So I tried uploading this vid with some Bob Marley background music and PhotoBucket's copyright filter pulled it. SO here it is without the music. And the fish were all over me until I started recording...but I figure, why waste the effort, I'll post it anyway!

 

[scapes]

this is all very impressive J. good work!!

 

[jnarowe]

why thank you!

 

[scapes]

you are soooo very welcome my dear

 

[Hop]

Cool Video. The fish looked much bigger until the hand came into the frame:lol: And the subliminal messages are messing with my head

 

[jnarowe]

:lol: you like that? One guy on DR got very torqued because we insisted that he was the only one that saw the "message". He then made a video of it playing on his PC. I would post a link to it here, but he uses some off-color language that would probably get the RC mods' attention. But it was hilarious. I mean his video is one of the funniest things I have seen.

And they ARE big fish...it's the glass that makes them look small. In fact, I have been thinking about making myself some 1" thick acrylic clothing. That should knock off about 20 lbs. I think.

 

[Kurt03]

thats more pics then you posted all last year! Looks good, are you planning on redoing your rocks now that you want them different or are you going to leave it as is. I see what you are going for with it full of coral, will just take many years to get there.

 

[jnarowe]

yeah, when I do install a new tank, I will go with the same general shape but lower the entire reef a bit. I have an idea of building a tank with a zero bottom and using acrylic or carbon fiber rods to "suspend" the rocks above the bottom.

My main design is based on Weast's curving valley, but after seeing Weatherson's and others completely over-grow, I am trying to come up with new ideas. My original design was to have the left side as a reef crest with powerful waves crashing on it, and then a coral plateau middle to right.

 

[jnarowe]

BTW, my back is out so I can't work in the tank, but I can use a tripod! I am not supposed to bend or twist. ???

 

[jnarowe]

Two new fish in QT. Incoming water a nice 80F and an SG of 1.0215, so this will be a slow acclimation. As is my custom, I always give a little snack in QT and both fish ate Arcti-Pods right away. I got these from Eric at The Shark Reef and he had said the CBB had not eaten snce they got it in on Tuesday, but although slightly small in total size for my display, this is a very bright, healthy specimen. And the scopas has been in his shop for some time now, is VERY healthy, and for $18, what a deal right? Nice to see them eat while in acclimation!

And a gratuitous nog shot:

 

[jnarowe]

I have been wondering what has been laying these new egg masses on the glass of my tank:

I really am not sure about an ID on this guy, but it sure is trying to make some babies!

 

[Goodwin9]

I for another haven't gotten notification of any updates to your thread, I was beginning to wonder what had happened to your tank. Now I see I have pages and pages to go back through. Your picture look great!

 

[jnarowe]

sorry about that Chuck. a little RC snafu I guess.

BTW, if your skimmer on your 600g isn't pulling out what you see above, you really should upgrade. I know you wouldn't build one yourself, but with the bio-load you have, I would guess at least 1 -2 gallons of dark skimmate per day would be about right.

That's a 6g bucket with about 4.5 - 5g from 4 days of skimming.

 

[jnarowe]

Quick Update on the Kalkwasser testing: I have not heard from Kevin in a while as he has been traveling on business. I have been battling back problems but have been doing alkalinity tests nearly every day and the TLF is still working well. My alkalinity is staying above 8.0 and depending on weather the range is 8.0 to 8.6.

I have lost my connection to my AquaController due to some network issues so I cannot print out graphs this weekend. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon. I will add that even with the short amount of time I have been using the TLF, I have observed dramatically increased growth rates in most SPS. I am very happy about this as anyone would expect, but it is coming to the time I should probably try another product.

I really feel that there is a difference between these products and am very happy to report things are going well with my corals in general. One interesting side note as I slowly design a new system, is that although I "enjoy" the electrical efficiency gained by allowing my reef's temperature to float up and down, it does make for some sporadic kalk dosing in its current configuration. Just warming up the tank room can increase the evap. rate and therefore the alkalinity, but this has its downsides like inconsistent dosing and lower O2 levels.

 

[jacksandgo]

Gone for a month and wow...look at all the new postings! Really enjoyed all the new pics and Kalkwasser info, J. Keep up the good work, bud. Jack

 

[jnarowe]

Thanks Jack. Still dealing with a slipped disk so my picture posting is a result of that. I have had to hang out at the house more lately. The bummer is that I cannot do any aquascaping or real cleaning though.

I warmed up the tank room but the resulting humidity iced up my refer/freezer so when I sent my son down to get a beer, he came back with a warm one. We(he) had to unload the whole thing and thaw it overnight.

 

[jacksandgo]

You're not having any fun at all lately. Geeze, man.

How are your yellow tangs getting along now? Seems I remember you talking about them beating up on one of them around 18 months into the tank setup. Are they ok now?

I've got 8 large tangs, currently split between my two tanks due to ummm...."compatibility" issues. It's a crap shoot, you know...getting them to get along with their personalities varying from one fish to the next. Hoping to bring them all back together in another year or so, when I upgrade to a 1200 or 1300 gallon tank .

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah, my back is killing me and it looks like I am going to miss another PSAS meeting.

With the larger tank you probably won't have any issues, but I would acclimate and add them all at one time.

My 2 yellows are OK. I originally had 3 and one died a very long time ago, but I cannot remember the circumstance. At one point one yellow and the purple were beating up the other yellow mercilessly and I really thought it would die. It backed itself into a crevace so it could defend itself, but I thought it would surely starve in there.

It got extremely skinny and I had about given up. Then one day, I guess it got tired of starving and started coming out. And within a week's time, it was back in the general population and is now just as fat as the other one. I can't tell which is which now.

I am seeing some agression lately as the tangs get larger, and just tonight I saw the sailfin, PBT, and orange shoulder T-off on a cat. They all took multiple swats at it. So when I see some agression, I look at feeding and water quality. It's pretty clear i feed well, so I step up water changes to see if that has any effect.

But the ocassional spats I am seeing are not anything more than posturing. No real homicidal actions and most of the time they are all screwing around playing together.

 

[jacksandgo]

That seems to be the same issue I'm encountering every time I try to keep tangs together long term. They're great for a couple years or so, and then, as they mature and get bigger, they get rather nasty tempered and territorial, and start going after one another much more serious than before. Eventually, one gets sliced/diced and you have to remove them.

But, of course, if you remove them and let them heal, then it's almost impossible to add them back without either rearranging rock work (not plausible here), or pulling the others out and adding them all back together after a few days absence (huge pain!). Sooo....they're separated as of now.

I'm going to attempt to add multiple Achilles or PBTs (have one of each now, hoping for multiples of each together) in the upcoming tank to diminish aggression like Pablo (Spectrum Foods owner) has in his 2k gal tank (PBTs). Sorta crowd 'em in there. I know from experience, and common sense though I tried it anyway, that you really cannot have an Achilles and PBT together in an 8'x3'x2' tank. I'm hoping for more luck in a 10'x6'x3' next year, but I know it's a long shot. Until then, they're separated.