My new 200g tank

[Hyolee]

My wife and I just had our first born daughter, so that's part of the reason for the lack of updates. Here are a couple quick pics taken with 400w 12k reeflux and 250w 20k radiums. The output and color is surprisingly similar although I definitely prefer the radiums. Besides being a tad bluer, it somehow makes my tank look cleaner / clearer although that could be my mind playing tricks on me.

I've also found out how hard it is to take good full tank shots. I'll take a better shot next week which aren't so over-exposed.

 

[Hyolee]

To get my corals to grow faster, I'm going to try:

Bumping up my water change schedule from 20% / month to 40% / month
Adding T5 actinic supplementation
Feeding corals
Maybe throwing in a couple more powerheads (koralia or tunze)

 

[jamesw]

Beautiful tanks and aquascape(!) - it looks very natural to me.

Have you tried whitebalancing the photo by using the eyedropper and clicking on the sand? You might find that they photo isn't as overexposed as you think.

On the other hand you might not like the result as much I guess just choose the one that looks most natural to your eye.

I'm thinking now that fall is here you can probably get away with running more water-cooled motors in the tank, w/o adding too much heat.

Cheers
James

 

[Len]

Coming along great. If I was going to remove any rocks (I don't know if you need to), I'd just remove the left side and call it a day. I like the changes you made to the tank compared to the first aquascape you posted.

I didn't realize your Chevron was that big already.

 

[Len]

Take some pics of each side; Maybe you have some of your frags placed in suboptimized locations, effecting their growth. Or maybe you just don't realize they're growing Take growth shots each month ... it helps.

Oh yeah, and you need a pair of fairy wrasses.

 

[kevindub]

I like the 20K look too. Is it much more dim, 400 to 250 and 12K to 20K? What 250 ballast did you get?

Congrats on the baby!

 

[Anonymous]

Are you having problems growing corals?

IMo, I wouldn't do anything different ... just have patience and before you know it, your tank will be grown in.

 

[Hyolee]

I like the 20K look too. Is it much more dim, 400 to 250 and 12K to 20K? What 250 ballast did you get?

Congrats on the baby!

The difference in color between the two bulbs in greater in person than the pics suggest. (The pics look almost identical to me) Strangely, I couldn't tell the difference in brightness between the 400w reeflux and the 250w radiums.

I was previous running old-style Icecap 400w e-ballast and am now running Sunlight Supply Galaxy 250w e-ballast.

 

[Hyolee]

I had a minor plumbing accident with my overflow which was directly feeding my skimmer. Decided on a more simple setup, so I'll be changing over to an in-sump skimmer. Christmas came early so I also have a new Tunze setup.

 

[Hyolee]

A glamour shot of my new skimmer. The build quality of this skimmer is pure SEX.

 

[Anonymous]

Bubble Kings are awesome. I remember the day mine arrived like it was yesterday.

Tunze Streams are great too.

You had a very nice Christmas.

Louey

 

[Len]

Oh wow, you got the Tunze too. Let me know know quiet the new ones are.

 

[kevindub]

Lucky you! How come you changed skimmers and ditched the vortechs?

 

[Hyolee]

Hey Kevdub,

Sorry for the late reply. The DAS EX-3 was a beast of a skimmer, but was too loud (with three aquabees) and consumed too much power. The vortechs were just too loud, but they were great flow. If they were as quiet as Tunze, I'd still be using them.

After swapping skimmer and to Tunze, my system is super quiet.

 

[Hyolee]

Just wanted to give a quick update.

I'm very lucky that my tank is in decent shape considering how little effort I've had to put in maintaining it. At one point I was barely cleaning the glass with a magnet cleaner. My excuse is that in the few years that I've had the tank, my wife and I have been taking care of my 2 new daughters born soon after the tank was started up.

My fish list:
Regal angel
Acanthurus nigricans
Chevron tang
Purple tang
Flame angel
Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus (pair)
Mystery wrasse
Bodianus bimaculatus

The fairy wrasse pair are fairly new, but the other fish have been with me for a few years now. My grail fish is definitely the Regal. He started eating mysis, but after a couple months he started eating NLS pellets from the auto-feeder like the rest of them.

Here are some pics I took and put up on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34866519@N ... 107443643/

 

[Anonymous]

Very nice growth! 8)