Photos of my Tank

[jejton]

I finally got around to giving the tank a good cleanup and took some photos. ( I only noticed the glass stains after shooting ). Some of the corals are closed from being moved. Unfortunately I still havent figured out how to get good shots with my digital P&S but I tried.

Specs:

The tank is a 65 gallon RR with a 20 gallon acrylic sump. Octopus NW150 Recirculating skimmer (IIRC), 2 Koralia #2's, 1 #3. Lighting is provided by 2 x 175 Ushio 10K bulbs and 2 actinic PC for supplementation. Return pump is an OR2500 (or 3500 I forget ). I'm running Phosban but want to setup a manifold so I can also run a carbon reactor off the same pump ( just have to find the time and figure out how to design it ).

Livestock
Fish - 2 True Perculas ( tank raised ), 2 Purple Firefish Gobies, 2 Nematodes shrimp gobies, 1 Pink Spotted Shrimp Goby, 3 PJ Cardinals, 2 Black Clown Gobies, 1 Cyaneo Flasher Wrasse. Not planning on adding anymore fish. Inverts are 1 Bulls-eye Pistol shrimp, 2 Peppermint shrimp, 2 Cleaner Shrimp ( both are mated pairs at this point ), assorted hermits and snails, 1 Condilatcus anemone ( soon to be relocated )
Corals: Mixed bag - Mushrooms, ricordeas, xenias, Duncans, Sun coral, Assorted Candy Cane, Bali Slimer ( Green and Gold ones ), Montipora plates, Gorgonians, anthelia, zoas, and others. Oh and lots of Red Planaria ( going to tackle that soon ).

Let me know what you think!

This Candy Cane was bought as a four head frag 10 months ago. Now 12+

 

[jejton]

Condilactus

Last addition - Cyaneo Flasher Wrasse ( I'm sure that's spelled wrong ). Eats everything, bold personality but not a good photo model. Wont stay still.

I bought these Duncans from HOF at the last swap. It had 3+a couple tiny heads. It now has 6 full sized and a bunch of babies.

Some kind of palythoas. Anyone know the ID? They have done real well, spreading to a bunch of shells and when I relocated them before the photo I found they started growing to the glass. They close around and eat stuff that lands on them.

Dom - Here's one of your gorgs. I lost some tissue at first and thought it was a goner but it seems to be recovering as the polyps all come out now. Today was also the first time I saw a substantial amount of polyp extension on the white one. Unfortunatel the purple fluffy one didn't make it.

 

[nanchil]

Good looking tank. very nice. Looks like you are having issues with HA. Good luck.

 

[jejton]

The trumpet was also from HOF at the swap. I initially lost one head to byropsis but its been doing better.

Galaxia - swap find but dont remember who. Sends out nice long sweepers. This photo makes it looks like the skeleton shows more than it actually does. Must be the angle.

I owe a lot to all the members here who've helped and continue to help with advice including, but not limited to, Fritz ( haven't seen him here for a long time ), Meschaefer ( bought the setup from him and used his help a lot ), Masterswimmer, Domboski, KathyC and others I am probably forgetting at the moment.

I'll have to post some more photos tomorrow of zoa's I'd like ID'd so thats all for now. Please share comments.

 

[Keith P]

Got any pictures of under the stand?

 

[salt-rookie]

Very nice tank! I just love firefish, but all of mine went carpet surfing. Keep a tight lid on that tank!

 

[kjahp098]

Very nice duncans

 

[masterswimmer]

Eric, looks good. Glad you finally posted some pix.
Very nice collection of fish. That flasher is beautiful.

How often do you change your Phosban? How often, how much and what do you feed? How long are your light cycles? These few questions might help resolve your hair algae issue.

I posted a long response to your FW problem. That regimen works perfect. You should give it a shot. I've been FW free for over five years using that method.

swimmer

 

[jejton]

Got any pictures of under the stand?

I thought I had some on my old thread but cant find them so I'll try to upload one tonite.

 

[mckostya]

at this point with some much hair algae, i would take all the rocks out and literally scrub them with some kind of brush and do lights out for few days. Then reduce feeding and add phosbane.
tank looks good, but would look so much better without all that green crap on the rocks IMO

 

[jejton]

Salt-Rookie - There is a canopy on the tank ( forgot to show it but its just a regular old canopy with a fan and a hold I drilled to put another fan ( just haven't gotten around to actually putting the fan on and dont need it for now ).

Russ - I read your reply and bought the needed material. I'm planning on starting by the weekend. The main challenge is storing the salt water as I currenly use a brute for RODI and HD 5 gallon buckets to mix salt the night before needed.
I try to change the Phosban monthly even though my (expired) Salifert PO4 kit always reads 0. I do 1-3 ( depending on how much time I have ) 5 gallon water changes a week.
Feeding - I am pretty random with this. I have about a dozen different foods that I feed on a random schedule. The staple is Fornula One Pellets. I mix it up with Formula One flakes, freeze dried krill, live black worms, live brine shrimp, frozen mysis, brine shrimp, Formula One Reef cubes, frozen clam, squid ( though no more since the fish barely touch it ), oyster eggs, Rotifers, Cyclops and Rod's Food. I feed on average once a day, sometimes twice, though I often let the tank go 2 or 3 days without feeding. I only feed as much as the fish will eat within a few minutes and target feed some of the corals. My water parameters ( test two days ago ) are:
Temp- 78 degrees F
SG - 1.023 ( working on getting it up to 1.025, hence the frequent small water changes ).
pH - 7.8/9
NO3, NO2, NH4/3 - 0
PO4 - 0
Ca - 300
Alk - 7.2 dKh/ 2.57 mEq/L
Mg - 1050.

The sump has a fuge section with sand, rocks, and chaeto and is run on a reverse lighting schedule. The skimmer return also has some rock but is not directly lit and is full of tubeworms and other things. I dose with Mrs. Wage's Pickling Lime for calcium and alkalinity - this is nonscientifically done. I basically add a 1/4 tbsp into my 5 gallon RO/DI ATO bucket ( I use a double float valve from autotopoff.com ) twice a week. I dose magnesium same method and just started using Tech-M in an attempt to get rid of the bryopsis. I think that about covers it all.

 

[jejton]

Taking out all the rock and scrubbing it down for some HA is a bit extreme. The bryopsis has actually been improving with more aggressive WC and phosban and I'm hoping the magnesium will finish it off.

I forgot to mention that my skimmer and one Koralia were not hooked up for a couple of months ( parts had to be replaced and I took my time doing it ) and thats when the algae and planaria really started exploding. Now that everything has been hooked up again, I'm starting to see a change and hopefully the trend will continue.

 

[masterswimmer]

I try to change the Phosban monthly even though my (expired) Salifert PO4 kit always reads 0.

Feeding - I am pretty random with this. I have about a dozen different foods that I feed on a random schedule. The staple is Fornula One Pellets. I mix it up with Formula One flakes, freeze dried krill, live black worms, live brine shrimp, frozen mysis, brine shrimp, Formula One Reef cubes, frozen clam, squid ( though no more since the fish barely touch it ), oyster eggs, Rotifers, Cyclops and Rod's Food. I feed on average once a day, sometimes twice, though I often let the tank go 2 or 3 days without feeding. I only feed as much as the fish will eat within a few minutes and target feed some of the corals.

My water parameters ( test two days ago ) are:
Temp- 78 degrees F FINE
SG - 1.023 ( working on getting it up to 1.025, hence the frequent small water changes ). I agree with 1.025-1.026
pH - 7.8/9 Not terrible, but I'd try to shoot for 8.0-8.2
NO3, NO2, NH4/3 - 0 Great
PO4 - 0 Never true zero. The only reliable test is the Hanna Photometer.
Ca - 300 Extremely low. Need to raise to 430-460
Alk - 7.2 mEg/L Low, shoot for 9-11
Mg - ( I believe it was around 900-1000 but dont have the readings with me ). VERY low. Raise to 1300-1350

As you can see, you've got a few parameters that need to be adjusted. When you've got everything in line you'll likely see a decrease in algae and overall health (color & growth) improve.

Russ

 

[jejton]

Thanks for the advice Russ. I was also surprised by the low pH/Alk/MG/Ca readings considering that I do the frequent WC's and dose for all three ( Mrs. Wage Lime, Seachem Mg ). I'm using Seachem Two Part to bring up the Ca and Alk right now, along with the Tech-M. I'm using RC for salt so I dont know if thats the problem or if it was just due for a water change. I do recall that some batches of RC were made incorrectly and not sure if I just happened to have a bucket of those. The other alternative is that my test kits are no good or I'm not using them correctly because, oddly enough, I'm seeing decent growth on the handful of SPS in the tank.

 

[masterswimmer]

We're staunch believers in ESV B-Ionic as opposed to dosing Seachem. I've got no doubt the Seachem works, but you're having issues, so maybe its something you want to research. RC should be fine also. I do know that some other brands of salt have high Mg, high Ca, negating the need to dose heavily, or at all.

Remember, when correcting out of balance parameters, you do NOT want to increase/decrease the offender too much too quick. Take your time and dose it slowly to bring it back in line.

R

 

[jejton]

Here's some more.

FTS

Inside of the canopy. This was taken through a hole I cut for a 2nd fan but haven't yet installed.

Keith - Here's under the tank. On the left is the 'fuge. There's sand, rock, chaeto, bristleworms, asterinas, and lots of tubeworms in there. The drain itself is a Y with one branch leading directly into the skimmer. The skimmer then drains into the right chamber - which is not directly lit and has some rock with tubeworms and other things growing in it - and both drain into the center chamber where the return pump is. In the right corner you can see the fan I have set to go on with the MH's. The float switch is in the middle. There is a minijet in the left chamber that feeds the TLF Phosban reactor.

Pink-Spotted Shrimp Goby

Another shot of the wrasse.

 

[Keith P]

Great fish. I love that goby!

As we discussed earlier today, it looks like you could easily put a "T" in your return plumbing to run the reactor too.

 

[Bxfinest712xx]

hey I just had a major crash in my tank and I was looking to start over. Is everything still available?