Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

I read that you should give the galaxia plenty of distance because of sweeper tentacles and that is very true. This thing is only an inch and easily can reach out well over 3x it's size.

 

[jason2459]

I picked up a few frags from a pet store closing up shop but they were really cleaned up by the time I got there. What was left was a few frags and most didn't look to good but they were just a couple bucks a peice.

Terrible pictures but here they are :

Some kind of acro on it's last leg and probably wont survive

a candycane/trumpet coral

Encrusting Montipora

 

[jason2459]

Everyone's doing great so far except the one acro still looks like it's on deaths door. I just added this beautiful pink/orange? tube anemone. It's not very colorful during regular hours with all the lights on. But when just the blues are on for sunrise and dusk hours it is GORGEOUS!! It turns this electric neon pink and super bright. I wish my camera wouldn't pick up all the blues because I can not get a good picture of the brightness or coloration of it. The tentacles are super sticky and it eats everything that floats into them.

I so wish I could capture the beauty of this thing with just the blue LEDs going. I fell asleep staring at it last night.

 

[jason2459]

I got a nice valentines day present last night. Wife got me a nice 3-4" Crocea. I also moved into the DT a few new fish! A trio of female lyretail anthias, a potters leopard wrasse, and a pair of bipartitus leopard wrasses! The leopards are a very delicate and hard to keep species. I did a little write up on my experience so far with them over in the leopard primer.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1486086&page=85

As a side note my foxface is a pig and is getting thick. At least for a foxface which I always see them as slim and slender. One of the female lyretails is starting to turn male.

For this thread some pics are due:

 

[jason2459]

The female starting to turn male. You can see some red starting to show in the tips of the fins.

 

[PaPa_Johnny]

starting to shape up nicely Jason, your foxface looks like a piggy camera hog too

 

[jason2459]

Thanks. I'm really happy right now with this setup. I don't remember going so long with 0 issues. I guess it could be due to me not experimenting with anything and trying new things. I've just been concentrating on stocking the tank with new inhabitants. The stocking list has sure changed along the way but I fell in love with these leopard wrasses. So I guess I can break that down again...

Current Stock list:
Fish:
Yellow Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus) paired up with a Tiger Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus)
False Percula (Amphiprion ocellaris)
Starry Blenny (Salarias ramosus)
Pair Kaudern's Cardinal (Pterapogon kauderni)
Sharknose Goby (Elacatinus evelynae)
Magnificent Foxface (Siganus magnificus)
Trio Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis)
Potter's Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon geoffroyi)
Pair Divided Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon bipartitus)

Inverts:
Pair Bloodred/fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius)
Pair Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
Quad Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
Crocea Clam (Tridacna crocea)
Duncan Coral (Duncanopsammia axifuga)
Grape Coral (Euphyllia Cristata)
Frogspawn Coral (Euphyllia Divisa)
Trumpet Coral (Caulastrea curvata)
Candy cane Coral (Caulastrea furcata)
Bubble Coral (Plerogyra sinuosa)
Encrusting Montipora (Montipora nodosa)

Several blue leg hermits, various snails, bunch of little feather dusters popping up everywhere, some sponges, and a ton of various pods.

I think that's it for now.

 

[jason2459]

Almost forgot one more invert to add to the list.

Tube anemone (Cerianthus membranaceus)

 

[jason2459]

After the first night the Crocea just stopped opening up. I was concerned and tried several things like adjusting flow, placement, and reducing lighting in case it needed to adjust to the LEDs. Eventually I removed the Starry eye blenny last night to see if it was the cause for the Crocea from opening up. Bingo, it's been opened up all day. That sucks as it looks like it will either be the blenny or the Clams. Unfortunately for the blenny I'm going to have to go with the clam as I would like to add a Maxima as well.

 

[SKurj]

I've just read this whole thread...

Its pretty good info for someone about to make that first step into an SW tank. I really like the ATO and water change setup you did, thats a bit out of my reach, but it sounds like something that can really help reduce the workload.

Thanks for the commentary!

 

[jason2459]

Thanks, I hope I have helped someone. Though I do a lot of this to help me keep track of things I've tried, things that worked, and things I've learned. I pretty much have kept track of everything from the start of this tank and a lot of trial and error.

 

[mjhall85]

I have learned quite a few things off your thread jason, good to see it thriving. I am in the midst of planning my new 673gallon tank!

 

[stephen77]

nice pics also learned a few things thanks

 

[jason2459]

Thanks a lot! It's nice to get some feedback. And wow 673 gallons would be nice. It's funny that now that I have the 180 up and running it doesn't seem that big anymore but I'm certainly not looking to upgrade anytime soon. I think my wife would kill me.

 

[mjhall85]

Thanks a lot! It's nice to get some feedback. And wow 673 gallons would be nice. It's funny that now that I have the 180 up and running it doesn't seem that big anymore but I'm certainly not looking to upgrade anytime soon. I think my wife would kill me.

haha yeah I am going from my 65 that I have had setup to this beast, but it's gonna be in wall think it will look awesome once it's all said and done atleast I hope :lmao: the wife wanted to go bigger! I think she wants to drain our entire bank account. but we are considering doing a drop off tank just not sure how that would look in wall yet

 

[jason2459]

Finally got a couple videos uploaded I took a few days ago. Sorry about the glare in the first one. I love the lyretail anthias and the video got their beautiful blue eyes good. Their eyes get this brilliant blue shine and not sure if it's the same under other lights but they certainly do POP under the LEDs. You can also see the soon to be male establishing it's dominance and likes to keep the other two females apart.

http://youtu.be/eqw_kXY0k1Y?hd=1
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eqw_kXY0k1Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


http://youtu.be/4hV7BN3RMrI?hd=1
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4hV7BN3RMrI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[jason2459]

I got in another Reefbrite LED strip and love it. It is exactly what I was hoping for. I rearranged things a bit like put the all blue in front and really like that placement. I didn't get a chance to get pictures of the tank with each on yet but here's the setup

Front to back (or in the case of the picture left to right)

All Reefbrite LED
48" all blue on at 10am off at 10pm
2x 36" 50/50 with 90 degree optics on at 2pm off at 7pm
72" 50/50 xho on at 1pm off at 8pm
48" 50/50 on at 11am off at 9pm

This totals about 215 watts.

Then there's the moon light leds which I believe they are current or something like that. They were cheap and they work pretty good. Still don't think I need anymore of those. We'll see if the timing is good or not but the Clam seemed to really like it today and looked really good. Didn't see any differences in the corals so I'll play it by ear.

 

[jason2459]

Still LOVING the reefbrite led strips more and more. They could be dimmable if I wanted but don't think I need to as I can ramp up and down each strip individually to get sunrise, late morning, noon, late noon, sundown like setup.

I got a torch coral in the tank doing really well. Of course I suck at taking pictures but what you can't see is a brown almost purplish polyps with these super bright green tips flowing all over the place so it was hard to get a picture of it.

 

[jason2459]

Leopard wrasses are tough. I have or had three of them and the Potter's decided after I removed the Starry Blenny due to Clam nipping to declare world war III on the larger female bipartitus. I haven't seen her in a few days. Last night I get home and see an unusual diatom bloom of which I haven't seen in years. I did a water change and my skimmer cup is unually fuller, wetter, and gunkier then normal. None of these are a good sign that the fish is still alive.

I'm nervous because I have a M. kuiteri going through QT right now in line to be added to the tank in a few weeks. The leopards get stressed easy and have a high chance of dieing from stress. So, going back and forth on removing the Potter's temporarily when I introduce the Kuiter's or not. I don't want to loose the Potter's but I hate to risk that the Potter's decides to go crazy on the Kuiter's. The Potter's doesn't take any notice though of the smaller bipartitus I have though so that's a good thing. Kuiter's also don't look like the typical leopard wrasse. We'll see what happens.

 

[jason2459]

One of these days I'll get a nice camera instead of trying to use my phone's camera.

I just wanted to share my latest addition to the display tank. A very nice pink hammer. It's the biggest piece I've bought yet at a good 4-5 inch base

I somehow managed to get a decent couple shots of my other corals