Smaller place, bigger tank...My 200DD build

[E.Rude]

Nice rock work.. looks like you keep space around the rock for good flow which is very important for long term health off your inhabitants...

Thank you. In my old 125 I had the rock against the back glass since there wasn't much space to work with. The foot print of this tank allowed for plenty of room in the back and I tried to leave vertical room for coral growth. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

 

[E.Rude]

Looking for ideas on a stocklist. I'm thinking of sticking with smaller fish: anthias, wrasses, a flame angel, a mandarin and maybe a midas blenny. I'd like some blue in there so if I do get a larger fish it will probably be a powder blue tang, but they are so touchy. Also, I don't have a ton of LR and I don't want to push my filtration to its limits.

 

[burkhart.5150]

Are you planning on having sps in the tank? If so the flame angel may nip at the sps polyps.

 

[E.Rude]

It will be an SPS dominant reef. I'm aware of the risks of a flame angel, but a lot of people get away with it. I'm going to have an automatic feeder for the anthias and I plan on feeding frozen food every day in addition to the pellets. I think that with a full belly and a varied diet the flame angel will be okay.

 

[stevenson22]

I have a flame and a coral beauty haven't had a prob in the 6 months I have had them.. also have clams.. so far so good... every fish is different... Hell I had tangs do damage ...

 

[prop-frags]

Nice rock work and Congrats on the new tank!

 

[kaxt]

Your tank looks great so far. I'm enjoying your build.

If you want something blue that stays small you could get a cherub angle. I have one in my tank- he is very active and doesn't bother my SPS.

 

[reefer333_]

Done painting DT

And started working on the light hangers

Would you mind sharing where you get those light hangers?

 

[E.Rude]

Nice rock work and Congrats on the new tank!

Thanks!

 

[E.Rude]

Your tank looks great so far. I'm enjoying your build.



If you want something blue that stays small you could get a cherub angle. I have one in my tank- he is very active and doesn't bother my SPS.

Thank you! I'm pretty set on getting a flame angel and I don't think 200 gallons is enough to attempt two dwarfs.

 

[E.Rude]

Would you mind sharing where you get those light hangers?

I made them using 1" electrical conduit. It was an easy, cheap project.

 

[E.Rude]

So, there's a bunch of little patches of hair algae growing on the MarcoRock shelf rock I ordered and seeded a few months ago. It's not on any of my other rocks. I'm not going to start this off with a hair algae battle, so I'm just going to leave the lights off for a few days then I'll put some GFO in my Phosban reactor. It's really not much hair algae, but it's enough to have dropped the nitrate reading from 10 to 0ppm. I've never had a personal experience with H.A. but I'm hoping this will be the extent of it.

I'm guessing, then, that it's time to regenerate my kati/ani resins, which I'll hopefully get to this weekend along with ordering a small CUC.

 

[E.Rude]

Added a CUC a few days ago:
20 Nassarius Vibex snails
20 Dwarf Cerinth snails
10 Nerite snails
4 Trochus snails
2 Emerald crabs
and some tisbe pods for seeding the display. Will add more pods to the fuge when I get around to it.

 

[anbosu]

Thank you! I'm pretty set on getting a flame angel and I don't think 200 gallons is enough to attempt two dwarfs.

Sure it is - you may not want two in a reef, but you could have several in a tank of that size.

 

[E.Rude]

Sure it is - you may not want two in a reef, but you could have several in a tank of that size.

Yeah. I will probably just stick with the one.

I went out today and bought a purple tang and a cheap acro and acan as tester frags.

(need to start working on my photo skills since I'm starting to add stuff to the tank)

 

[E.Rude]

Plans for the next month:
-Get and set up a biocube for a QT
-Next fish order will be a powder blue tang, midas blenny, and three cleaner shrimp
-Get refugium light and chaeto
-Get Monterey canopy
-Order 20 piece SPS frag pack

There are some frag swaps in Feb that I'm looking forward to going to. I'm guessing that the frag pack will pretty much be bread and butter stuff, so I'd like to look for rarer pieces at the swaps.

 

[deansreef]

what does 200 DD stand for ?

 

[dave.m]

200 US gallons
Marineland Deep Dimension Aquariums - an aquarium series noted for their generous width

HTH

Dave.M

 

[E.Rude]

So, there are no phosphates or nitrates in my FW or SW holding cans, which is fantastic because I eliminated a possible source. I didn't test the tank, because the hair algae is the indicator in and of itself, and a reading of 0 would be a false negative. My guess is that phosphates are leaching from the rocks. I have a phosphate reduction filter pad in the sump and I've been running a small amount of GFO. I'll replace the filter pad and double up on the GFO. I'll do a water change this weekend and hopefully will get the fuge lit and with chaeto, too. I think some macro will go a long way in reducing the hair algae and exporting these nutrients.

 

[E.Rude]

I got ReefBreeder's Photo-Link cable in the mail yesterday, but I may wait to get the lights into the canopy before connecting them. It drives me nuts that they aren't synchronized. I also ordered a 6,500K LED fixture for the fuge which I'm hoping will be delivered sometime this week. I really want to get some macro growing in the fuge to help with this H.A.. I've never had to deal with it before, so this is an interesting experience. Manual removal will start this weekend with the water change.