280 gallon tank project has begun!!!!!!

[Travis]

It works great. It cuts down on noise because you don't get the gurgling sound. It also allows for more bubbles to rise out of the top of the water while the water goes to the bottom of the sump.

[tang_man_montreal]

Travis,
Could we have a picture of that area in action?
Are the slots higher than the water level within the sump?

[Travis]

These pics are the best I could get.

In the first pic you can see that some of the water also exits out the sides. I have some of the slots above the sump water level to allow for larger air bubbles to exit above the water.



I couldn't get an accurate picture of the micro-bubbles rising from the slots underwater. In this picture you can see some larger bubbles. In reality there is also about 10 times as many micro-bubbles rising from the slots.

[Travis]

The largest and most aggressive anthias is already morphing into the supermale. Here are some pictures that show his colors changing.







It is so cool to watch him swim around displaying to each female one by one. Sometimes he will wrap his whole body around a female. These anthias have quickly become my favorite fish.

I got another order of corals in last week. You can
click here to see pics. Unfortunately, a couple pieces had an infection when they came in and succumbed to RTN after the first few days.

[Travis]

Link gives red x's for some reason. Try this link to see my most recent coral additions: http://sio.midco.net/cdshelton/websi...als-page-2.htm

[Lunchbucket]

wow mighty small frags for such a big tank

when/ if you want to frag them sometime i am only 50miles remember and in DESPERATE need of SPS

Lunchbucket

[Travis]

Yup, those frags are pretty small. It just makes it that much more rewarding to watch them grow into colonies. I won't be fragging anything for a LONG time.

[Lunchbucket]

yeah i know it will be a LONG time...but keep me in mind

i picked up three corals this weekend.

Lunchbucket

[SOMEthinsFISHY]

i find it is well worth the wait !

[joseney21]

awesome thread, just read all of it in a few hours. learned a lot, and got a lot of inspiration from all the hard work you've put into this tank.now a trip to your website for dessert.congrats on the great setup, hope everything is working out great for you. thanks for all the time hard work you've put into your system and then taking even more time and work to share it with all of us.....

[gatohoser]

More....pictures..must..see..more..pictures! I will bug you until the end of days to see more pictures of your tank man Can you get a webcam set up on it so i can just watch it all day haha. Actually video would be cool! Id like to see what the turnover in ur tank actually looks like! Do you have a camera you can do that with?

[Travis]

joseney21, Your welcome and thanks for the kind words.

gatohoser, I do need to take some more pictures. I've gotten several new corals and frags since I last updated my site but haven't gotten around to taking any pictures. I've also moved the anthias over to the display and will have my last 2 fish that will be going in the tank (a powder blue tang and emperor angel) going into QT within the next week. I'll try to get some pics up within the next week. As far as flow, I think it is pretty good but nothing that will blow your mind away or anything (like when I had over twice the flow before replumbing everything). My digital camera can take video but I've never played with that before. Nor do I have any idea how to use the video software or upload it. Been pretty busy catching up with my classes and getting ready for finals lately. Maybe I will play around with the video settings and see if I can't get a short vid uploaded during X-mas break.

[lovetoreef]

Travis

What size emperor angel did you go with and what steps are you planning on taking to make it comfortable?? I am planning on going with one in my future setup. Thanks and looking forward to the pictures.

gm

[Travis]

It is 2-4". Not really planning anything special for it. Just the regular quarantine until I am certain he is healthy and eating well. I was supposed to get him with a coral order from Reefer Madness this morning but they didn't have any healthy ones around the wholesalers due to the holiday coming up. So they sent me the corals and will probably send the emperor when things pick back up again next week.

[Lunchbucket]

dude post pics

why is it everytime i call to stop by you aren't around LOL hope to catch up sometime soon
Lunchbucket

[Travis]

Lunch, just let me know in advance next time you are coming so I can know what time to be home.

[Lunchbucket]

LOL - will do buddy

hope you had a good Thanksgiving
Lunchbucket

[LittleBlueGT]

How is your clean up crew doing? I know you have a lot of snails.

Are your Ceriths very small, like less then 1/2 of an inch?

Is there enough algae for them to feed on?

I know you are following Bombers suggestions, but he only has about 150 Astraeas in a 450, you have 330 in a 280! If you read the latest post on my thread you will see why I ask.

Thanks.

[Travis]

I saw your post in Bomber's thread. My clean-up crew is doing great. I have no nuisance algae whatsoever. My rocks are completely clean. I clean the front pane of my aquarium once a week when I can barely see a film of algae starting to develop on it. I haven't cleaned the back or sides of the tank yet and you can just barely see a film of algae growing on them. I did move 25 astreas and 50 ceriths to my clam tank. I also gave my mom 50 astreas and 100 ceriths for her tank. I don't remember how many I started with but after you subtract those, that is what is left in the tank.

Yes, the ceriths are TINY. They are all about 1/2" long. They are kind of a pain because they like to crawl out of the water all the time. They never actually crawl out of the tank though. Because they are so small they can get through the overflow teeth and I occasionally have to move a bunch from the sump back to the tank. I guess it doesn't really matter much if there are a bunch in the sump because they will eat detritus whether they are in the sump or the tank.

I don't see algae on my rocks but I think it is because they keep up with what grows. I'm not worried about them being underfed or anything.

[Travis]

I did finally run into a problem with feeding outside air to my skimmer. I came home from work yesterday morning and my skimmer was hardly bubbling at all. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I took apart the skimmer pump and everything was fine. Then I noticed that the skimmate in my collection cup has the consistency of mud (I think the water drains easily but the thicker skimmate collects at the bottom of the cup eventually clogging the drain) so I thought this may be the problem since I haven't emptied the collection cup for a couple months. So I cleaned that out and still nothing. Then I checked my injectors for debris and still nothing. Finally, I checked where the air goes into the injectors and both of the air lines had frozen shut. The temp was down in the single digits here and that must be the point where the injectors will freeze shut. So I cut off the air intake plumbing before the carbon filter so it now draws air from the room. I will hook it back up to draw outside air again in the spring.

[LittleBlueGT]

Thanks for the info about the snails and the skimmer. I guess I might get a few more snails. You should put a valve on your skimmer's intake so you can switch between summer and winter modes.

Has your ph dropped since it is not drawing in fresh air?

[Travis]

Can't tell if the ph has dropped much yet. I'll let it run like this for a week and then check my aquanotes ph graph log against the previous week when I was using outside air. Right now I don't think the ph will drop much. I have two high power fans mounted in the window. I have these fans come on along with two fans over the sumps when the tank temp increases and then they shut off when it drops. This keeps the room full of fresh air at all times. So there should still be plenty of O2 going through the skimmer. As it gets colder out I may have to close the window and then I will probably experience depressed ph levels as the CO2 builds up in the room.

[gab24m3]

I second Lunchbucket's request post some eye candy. Love to see where you placed all those frags!

It be cool if you could get a shot of the male anthia wrapping itself around the females, lucky guy

[Travis]

Unfortuantely, it won't be until next week before I get pics. I'm leaving town for 4 days in the morning and don't have time before I go. I will get some soon, I promise!!!!

I will try to get a shot of the male anthias wrapping himself around a female but I can't make any promises.

Another note on my anthias. I think I'm beginning to find out why they are one of the more difficult fish to keep. One of them jumped out of the display the day after I moved them in there. Then, a couple weeks later another one died. It kept losing weight and was down to skin and bones and then just went MIA. Funny thing was it was eating fine and not getting overly picked on by any of the other anthias. So now I'm down to 8 (the minimum recommended to keep a shoal). Two of the eight I have left are developing a fungus on their fins. On one of the fish it is also on his body. Unfortuanately, it is impossible to catch any of them in this tank to move them to quarantine.

[Travis]

What can I say.... I was feeling the "BLUES" today so I decided to give you all a little tease until I get back.

Blue Acropora nobilis:


Blue Acropora sp.:


Blue Acropora tortuosa (Oregon tort):