Planning a 225g reef tank

Dave,

What is your copperband taking right now in terms of food? Did you train it in QT?

I am thinking about adding some clams to my system but worry that they would be munched by my CBB.

Waxx
 
It eats mainly mysis. I was told it was eating at the LFS I got it from (SWC) and it's been a pig in my tank.
 
hey Dave, how are you doing? I haven't heard a peep in quite some time. Lets have an update and some full tank shots!

Tyler
 
The tank is doing fine. I'm just getting the calcium & alk/hardness to where I like it and then the ca reactor & kalk mixer should keep it there. Everything is growing pretty good and coloring up. The rocks are still pretty green and I'm seeing algae tufts in a few places but overall it's maturing. I'm finding it tricky to get the right amount of flow given the soft corals I've got and the SPS I'm adding. It's definitely a bit of a balancing act. I can see why many people go all hard or soft. I've now got a few more fish in there... Yellow Tang, Sailfin Tang, 2 Maroon Clowns, Powder Brown Tang & Copperband Butterfly. Here's some pics as of today...

DSCN0634.jpg


DSCN0635.jpg


DSCN0636.jpg


DSCN0637.jpg
 
Thanks for the comments. I've added to the livestock and the tank now contains:

2 Maroon clowns
Yellow Tang
Sailfin Tang
Powder Brown Tang
Copperband Butterfly
Nazo Tang
Regal blue Tang

I've also managed to get my water parameters much closer to where I wanted them...

pH 8.1
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1250
Alkalinity 3.37
Salinity 1.025
Amm/Nit/Nit/Phos 0

I was struggling with elevated Alk and low Calcium so I stopped dosing kalk and lessened the flow from my ca reactor until the alk dropped. While that was happening I was dosing calcium chloride. By the time I raised my calcium up over 430 my alk had dropped to a reasonable level. It had been as high as 4.55. So now I've got my ca reactor running and it's maintaining the calcium at 450 and I'm slowing increasing the pH that I'm trying to maintain with the kalk mixer. It seems to be working pretty well and my alk isn't rising as I increase the pH.

The 5 tangs are all getting along great. There's absolutely no aggression in my tank at all. I feed them 3x a day with flake, nori sheets, cyclopeeze & mysis. Since the tank is bb I can get away with heavier feeding & a heavier fishload. In fact I'm trying to feed lots to provide some nutrients in the water column since none are being sucked into the sand bed. Seems to be working well so far though I've still never seen any nitrates in this tank.
 
Your magnesium is rather low. It needs to come up about 100ppm.

Glad those tangs are eating well. :D
 
Yeah I know. I keep adding it to my w/c water and I have put a good 1" of Ultra-Mag in my ca reactor. Between the two I'm surprised the mag levels stay as low as they are.
 
nice job, love the sfiligoi lights!

i pm'd you with a couple of questiosn about that MTC ozone setup...
 
I absolutely love your tank!!! Fantastic, well-laid out setup. Very nice use of the space under your tank. I'm truly impressed. Can't wait for my own upgrade. You and Naka are setting some good standards with the lighting system and the starphire tanks!!

I only had time to briefly skim your thread, but what's your process for doing water changes since your sump is located so close to your electrical work? I'm sure it's efficient similar to everything else in your set-up. Keep up the good work.

Phu
 
Thanks for all of the comments.

I have run some 1/2" pvc pipe from the return pump in my sump, around the perimeter of my office, through the wall and to my house drain. I can shut off the ball valves to my tank and open the valve to the drain and empty my tank sump.

Then I have a 80g holding tank in the room where my house drain is. It has a pump for recirculating and a 1/2" pvc pipe that connects to the drain line previously mentioned. By turning a few valves I can refill the sump under my tank. Then just set the valves back the way they were, turn on the pump in my sump & the w/c is done.
 
Yes it is. It was the nicest one I'd ever seen so I harrassed the store owner until he caught it in the display tank and sold it to me.
 
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