Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[Ursus]

That is the biggest hammer I've ever seen. I really need some new bulbs. . . .

[kendog261]

Marc did you see how nice that tank looks with the wood work done.

[melev]

That was way too easy. A simple picture frame? Come-on, where's the challenge in that?

[oxbeard]

Originally posted by melev
Here are all the pictures I took of Fishcraze's tank:
http://www.marshreef.com/modules.php...=165109#165109

I don't think you have to log in to view the images on their site.

Awesome setup!!

I'm fascinated with the magnets to mount coral up on the glass. Definitely never would have thought of that, and am already planning what I can do with that idea

[chrisd4421]

I am feeling a little feverish.....you know...hallucinating...all about 5+ days without a post on Melev's thread...



chris

[melev]

I could add some updates, actually. I didn't really think I had anything newsy, but there are a few things actually.

Chemi-Clean - I ran this product in my tank again. This time I ran it for almost four days, and dosed enough to treat about 450g of water. My refugium was super saturated with cyano yet again, and there were a couple of spots taking hold in the reef. While treating, the skimmer was off the entire time, and I removed the carbon reactor. I mixed up a new barrel (55g) of saltwater during that time, and after four days, did the water change, fired up the skimmer and ran 3 cups of fresh carbon. All the red stuff is gone.

The interesting thing I saw during treatment was that I didn't have the familiar algae growing on the glass. There was hardly any at all, which seemed crazy since I'd not skimmed in four days. And the cool thing that happened the day after did that water change was that I saw green film algae on the front glass instead of brown film algae. I get this ugly brown stuff all the time, and I don't know why. I just clean it off. The green is what I would expect but haven't seen in 9 months. When I cleaned the glass with the green stuff, my BTA opened its mouth to get a meal.

CO2 regulator - Mine is now about two years old, and for some reason it is just not working correctly. The gauges read correctly, the solenoid closes when it should, but I can't set the bubble rate with the needle valve. Every few hours, it is significantly reduced and I have to increase the rate of bubbles. This went on for several days, and I started to wonder just how far I could still open that knob and not reach its limit. Surprisingly, it was barely open at all. Figuring the best option would be to mark it in some way so I could see if the knob was readjusting itself gradually, I clamped a clothespin on the knob with the clothespin pointing to "6 o'clock" and checked later. Again the bubble rate was down, but the pin had not moved a bit. I'm just going to buy a new one tomorrow.

Power Panel - I'm going to change out the current power panel for a different one that fits the room better. I'll have three American DJ power stations hooked up, which will help since each one can only handle 15amps or their internal button resets. One of mine is right at the limit, so I want to divvy that set of plugs up over two DJ stations. I want to clear up some space on the end of the tank where the VorTech is, and possibly move the outlets lower and out of sight with the DJ's in a more prominent and easy to access area. I also want to move the VorTech drivers to a spot where I can see their green lights more easily to make sure they are running as they should.

Magnesium - In an effort to maintain a more consistent Magnesium level in the tank, I dosed, measured, and redosed a couple of times during mere days. Several of my SPS got their tips burned in the process. I was trying to determine how much Magnesium I'd need to add once a week to keep the level steady, but was a little over zealous. Many corals are unaffected, but a few got cooked.

I took a few pictures that I'll post shortly.

[melev]

Thought I'd start off with something different. Here is my colt coral, the first coral I ever bought. I've had it now for well over 5 years. This is just a small piece of what it became, and has been fragged many times.


The small Hammer coral in my tank wasn't doing as well as I liked. One head continued to look miserable. I thought it was part of the reason my A. tenuis was declining, as it was next to it and perhaps whatever it was exuding was landing on that SPS. It was moved, but didnt' really perk up too much. After the Chemi-Clean session, it looks perfectly happy - finally.



This frogspawn was banked with me, and continues to get larger. It isn't as green as I would prefer, but that could be due to its location and the lighting vs shade it gets.



The bubble coral hasn't changed much, and is fun to look at.





This morning the Star Polyps were closed, so I could see the deep purple mat. I kinda wish they'd stay this way.

[new2u]

Awesome pics marc, I still hit myself for not picking up that bubble at franks before you did.

[Micki]

I love the colt coral. I can't keep one in my tank for some reason.

[melev]

The A. hyacinthus has lost its blue tips, but is fully polyped out. I'm thinking in another month or so, the coloration should be very interesting as it settles in.


This is my crazy acro. I never grows, just sits there and lives. The tips always grow the wrong direction. Take a look at these pictures.




Here's my poor Tyree frag. The tips are somewhat cooked, but others look great. The piece is actually getting to be tangerine-sized.


The A. nobilis frag is still pushing out those new branches. Gotta love that.


You can see it in this picture; the parent coral is on the left.


And here, in the background is my Pink Pocillopora. I really think it needs a new location from those encroaching zoanthids.


Finally, I can't end without including some of my extraneous pets: The red bugs. Two different pictures should allow you to see them. Without the macro lens, you simply don't know they are there. I'm going to have to treat the tank if I want them gone. Many have done so without incident, so hopefully I can do the same.

[Ursus]

I hate to bring this up, but does anyone see a resemblance between the bubble corals 'bubbles' and rocky mountain oysters? Maybe its just me

[Dudester]

Originally posted by Micki
Awesome pictures! How big is his tank? I didn't see that anywhere.

It's 220 gallons

Great pics, Marc, everything looks wonderful. Have you never treated red bugs with Interceptor in the past? It's quite easy and there's a ton of documentation regarding its safety for the reef, excluding shrimp, crabs and pods, which will certainly perish. The corals and fish, however, won't skip a beat. When I treated my tank, I removed the emerald and hermit crabs and moved them into a "hospital" tank during the treatment period. I also placed a piece of LR from my sump into the hospital tank, which quickly repopulated my display with pods once the rock was returned. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the shrimp and they died. I have plenty of Interceptor if you plan to treat your tank and you can't get any locally. I could actually hand-deliver the Interceptor to you if you wish; that would give me a great excuse to visit and see your tank.

[melev]

You know you've got an open invitation to visit.

I was thinking about treating the system but keeping the refugium off line to not harm the pods in there. I don't know if redbugs would hang out down there or not.

I did treat that coral you saw infested above. It was bug free, but they are back. I'm going to have to assume that it isn't the only coral being pestered.

Maybe I could catch crabs and shrimp during a feeding session or two, moving them to the cube tank that is currently holding caulerpa, LR and snails.

[melev]

And figured I'd post it in my thread for others. The names have been changed to protect the shy.

'nonamegiven' wrote on 03/11/2007 09:42 PM:
Hey Melev!
I was wondering what you put into your tank for your corals. SPS to be specific. Do you use phyto or zooplankton, amino's, vitamins? etc.
Thank you!

This is what is put in daily:

Cyclop-eeze, Mysis, & blood worms.

Every 2 or 3 days, 1/3 to 1/2 sheet of nori.

Every two weeks, Salifert Amino Acids.

I run my system with a DSB, LR, Refugium, Skimmer, and Calcium Reactor. Kent Sea Salt, changing 55g once a month. RO/DI water.

That's it.

[JTEAGUE]

Marc, I see you put nori every 2-3 days. With the tangs needing to graze is it to much to do this daily?

[melev]

I'm trying to reduce the amount of waste that is being created by the fish, and with the reduced feedings my PO4 is definitely under .1 and Nitrates are around 4ppm currently. Spock is as fat as she ever was.

She gets really angry if I don't feed her enough, and if I skip the nori feedings too long, that night when I feed the "dust" to the tank, she'll swim back and forth at warp speed basically implying "your corals are toast if you don't give me something substantial to eat! Do it!!"

[Hop]

Originally posted by Ursus
I hate to bring this up, but does anyone see a resemblance between the bubble corals 'bubbles' and rocky mountain oysters? Maybe its just me

Great! Now you've got me all hungry

Nice pics melev! But I'm with micki... I just kill the colts. They grow like mad for the first month or so, start to peter out and turn into goo. It's a good looking coral though...

[melev]

I can't explain why some corals grow for one person but not the next. The ones I can't keep happy:

Green Slimer
Blue Tort
Xenia

[Dudester]

Originally posted by melev
You know you've got an open invitation to visit.

Thanks, I'll send you a pm when I have a date in mind, thinking about the end of this month.

I doubt there will be red bugs in your refugium, but is it worth the risk to you to possibly have to repeat the treatment? I'd still suggest you move some LR from the sump into the "rescue tank," as this would repopulate your system's pods relatively quickly when the rock is returned. You could also get some 'pods in a bottle' if you're concerned about not having enough to support your reef. Just my opinion (he says, humbly).

I think it's worth it to try and salvage as many crabs/shrimp as you can. It seems like the bigger the tank, the more people are willling to just nuke the whole thing and not go to the effort of saving them, but since you already have a functional place to put them, it would seem silly not to try and rescue them. Maybe you could even rig your fish trap with food, soon after a feeding, so that some of the shrimp would wander in there, otherwise they will probably be very hard to catch. Even though my peppermint shrimp climb onto my hand whenever I put it in the tank, I wasn't able to manually remove them, and a net didn't seem to generate the same response.

[Micki]

I can't keep xenia either. My daughter in law had a 20 gallon tank that she never did anything with. Water changes every few months if that! She had xenia and colts growing like crazy! Eventually moved them to my tank to become extinct (for the xenia) and a blob from the colt. Too weird...

[melev]

Good news.

My friend Steve needed me to come help him with his tank tonight, and in the process told me about his unused equipment. That included a brand new CO2 regulator and solenoid that was the exact replica of my old one that has been failing badly lately.

For now, I'm borrowing it until our club's group buy has 13 participants for the new one I'm ordering. Rather than having to rush and pay more, I have a little breathing room.

[JTEAGUE]

Sounds like your lucky day! Good thing you didn't run out and get one today as I believe you had planned on.

My tank looks good with the new Tek Light T5

[lestat737]

Hello Melev,

Hope you'll get as many Vortech as you want as in my mind you are a great ambassador of information for us aquarist!

I noticed ou had an powder blue tang in your old setting up photos. And it is not there any more in the newer photos and videos. what happend to it?

I love the purple tang and the powder blue tang and would love to get both of them in my 100 gallon tank. I'm not quite sure if they will get along together very nicely.

What do you think?

[melev]

JTeague - nice pictures. Looks like your new tank is progressing nicely. Yeah, I got lucky on the bubble counter. The one I want, if we can manage to get 13 people to buy one, is $133 shipped. It comes with a 3 year warranty and the company building them has sold over 5000 of them. That's a pretty good track record.

lestat737 - I appreciate your sentiment. Those pumps are pricey, but I sure love the way they do what they do without being an eye sore.

I had Nibbles for about 15 months. One night in November 2005, I turned off the pumps to feed the suncoral, and then forgot about it completely. I went to bed, slept for about 7 or 8 hours, and got up to see the food still sitting on top of the tank and the pumps off. Half of my fish died that day, and I was devastated. It took me some time to swallow that and chalk it up to experience. What I do now if I'm afraid I'll forget something I'm doing, I set a timer to beep and remind me.

The purple tang and the powder blue are different shapes, so they should be able to get along fine. Crown Royal and Nibbles swam together all the time. From time to time, I think about getting another one.

[douglaslindsey]

Melve is right about the two tangs. A coupe of weeks ago I added a Powder Brown tang to my display tank with my Sailfin Tang. At first they didn't get along that great, but now they are fine...