My 210 Gal Mixed Reef

[supervdl]

First, sorry for not posting in a while. I was just a little busy with other things at the end of the summer and had my hands full with just taking care of the tank. My camera was stolen during the summer and I hope to have a new one within the next couple of weeks. Therefore, equipment pics have to wait.

Now, I am back and I have a new pet project. I want to expand my quarantine tank to a frag tank, since my tank is getting full in terms of fishes. I have a few fishes in my 29gal QT and once they are out I want to frag some of my larger corals that start growing into each other.

I made a set of watertest yesterday night following my 35 gal waterchange:

Temp 77.9
Salinity 3.5%
PH 8.08
Alkalinity 4.00 mg/l 11.0 dkh
Calcium 470 ppm
Magnesium 1270 ppm
Phosphate 0.01 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm

The Nitrate is unusually high and it might only be temporarily - I will keep an eye on it. No significant algae growth.

Magnesium I raised to about 1320 ppm with ESV Mag Solution.

The Calcium seems high, but it has been there for a few weeks - better high and stable than low :-)

[irishsea]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by supervdl
[B]Here are some more pics of the tank:

Smaller of my two Green Brittle Stars

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Keep an eye on your Green Brittle star mine like's small fish if he can get them.

[supervdl]

I feed my brittle stars regualarly and they have not touched a fish or shrimp as far as I can tell. Maybe I am lucky and if, I hope it continues.

[supervdl]

I have a few new fishes in my qt tank:

1 small and 1 large Flame Hawk
1 Kole Tang
2 Squarespot Anthias (Male&Female)

The Kole Tang is a beautiful fish that was in another reef tank before. I bought it through my local fish shop and it is eating very well and looking very healthy - really excited that I got this one.

The other fishes are from Liveacquaria.com and the femal Squarespo Anthias looks a little shaky. It ate a little bit last night, but it is concerning me a little. Two other females did not make it past 2 days (it's now a week). The Flame Hawks are very active, look healthy and eat well.

Over the summer, I lost my Magnificant Foxface. It is not a particular difficylt fish to keep, but I seem to have no luck with foxfaces in general.

[ClayWagner]

Nice tank there.

[supervdl]

Unfortunately, the Anthias are not doing good:

I lost two females and the male is ailing - I see his belly being open! I don't know what this is, but I am scared that it spreads to the others in the quarantine tank. Every other fish is doing great and eating like a pig.

I added this week a few others to my quarantine tank:

two female Squarespot Anthias,
a small male Blue Throat Trigger,
a Flame Angel.

It is interesting to see the Neon Goby doing a cleaning job on the larger fishes!

I also got some Halimeda and Cheato, that I put into the QT for the time being. I plan on adding a refugium on the QT and the main tank with the Cheato. The QT will then also function as my frag tank.

[spleify]

Great job, beautiful set up.

[gary faulkner]

supervdl,
I tried the Anthias also, and like you I didn't have much luck with them.
They went through QT for six weeks and were doing fine. I then placed them into my display and they slowly died, one by one. They looked healthy and were eating. I don't know what I could have done to save them. Everything else in the tank was doing fine. I had six or seven in a 120 display and the QT was a 40.

Hope yours make it.

[supervdl]

The Anthias are not doing great - only one female is left. At least the other fish is holding up well. I hope the desease does not spread. The LFS gave me some medication for bacterial infections which I started dosing yesterday.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Just bought a new camera and I will post some picks, including equipment on the weekend.

[supervdl]

Looks like my new fish is turning it around - no more losses - the medication seems to work.

Just ordered some halides for over the quarantine tank. It will be my frag grow out tank once the fish moves over to the main tank.

[supervdl]

The new fish is still doing fine. Thank god.

Today I received 24 Berghia Nudibranchs from Salty Underground. Great service and I hope they will take good care of my increasing problem with aptesias.

[supervdl]

Here are finally some equipment pics as promised long time ago.

Here is a few of the total cabinet under my tank.

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I also have things on the other side of the wall in our laundry, the reeffiller pumps for dosing, the RO/DI system and my chiller:

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[supervdl]

Here are some updated tank shots:

Left side:

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Right side:

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Full tank shot:

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[supervdl]

I haven't been online for a some time. Unfortunately, since the last post a few months ago, some of my larger corals lost tissue and bleached out. I lost about three larger corals and some smaller ones as well. Looks like since a stabilizing now.

[supervdl]

The Kole Tang and the Blue Thraot Trigger are doing great inmy main tank. I try to make some pics over the next few days.

[supervdl]

I made a set of watertest today after doing a 35 gal waterchange on Sunday:

Temp 78.6
Salinity 3.5%
PH 8.07
Alkalinity 3.83 mg/l 10.75 dkh
Calcium 4790 ppm
Magnesium 1470 ppm
Phosphate 0.015 ppm
Nitrate about 20 ppm

The Nitrates are high and I turned my Biodenitrator back on after replacing the tubing and valves on Sunday.

The filter media (Rowaphos and Carbon) was also replaced Sunday. I basically did a total clean-up of the system with skimmer, filter pads, filter media, waterchange, cleaning of front and cover glass etc. Due to time constrains I was a little less scheduled with my maintenance over the last month and I plan on getting back on a regular schedule.

[thegheco]

Super, your tank is beautiful and I love the end picture, (taken from the end).
Your fuzzy shrooms have took off and look awesome.
I have them also and they are covering half of the 75 now.
I have a question. The powerheads that you have on each side of the tank, are those the tunze and are they anchored by magnet?
I am looking for a few powerheads to put down low and in the back sides to push water behind the rockwork and am looking at the Koralia for this job.
How much turnover do they do per hour?
Again, beautiful tank and love the Tangs.

[supervdl]

These are 2 Tunze 6200 with 5,300 gal/h each, but they have smaller volume pumps as well. They are run by a multicontroler (also Tunze). Their flow is very wide and not as narrow and strong as other powerheads. Great product in my opinion and I am very happy with it.

[manosdr]

Very nice tank...

[supervdl]

I had to soak my Tunzes and my top-off equipment in vinegar tonight to get it back in working order. How often are you doing this? I have to clean my Tunzes every two to three months.

[supervdl]

I have made a few pictures with my new macro lens for my canon Rebel XTi. Still learning, but I want to share and see if you have any suggestions how to improve the quality.



My Purple Bonsai

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Pink Poccillipora

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Super Hairy Green Millipora

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My new Blue Throat Trigger (Male)

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[supervdl]

I wanted to share a few more photos for the New Year:

Here is one of my favorite fishes, the Bicolor Blenny, who has a lot of character and is very entertaining on my purple rim montipora taking a rest:

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My Multi Color Acro/ shot taking with the Macro:

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Close-up with Macro:

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Full tank shot 12/30/2007:

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Happy New Year for everybody!!!

[Reeftanks6]

great tank love it do you think i can put a powder blue tang in a 90

[supervdl]

Thanks Reeftanks6. I think the 90 is unfortunatly a little small for a PBT. When I planned the tank I wanted to go large especially for keeping the tangs that I always wanted. I think the PBT is a tang that should be in one of those 6 feet long tanks. 4 feet long IMO is more for Yellow, Purple and Kole tangs.

[Reeftanks6]

ok thank you