Pics of aggresive tanks please!

[ccampbell57]

Yeah, my angels are my favorite. If I could I would add a bunch more, but I have to wait for my new tank to be built later in '08.

Besides triggers and puffers, angels have the best personality.

[masher09]

That tank is sweet.

Your Bio Load must be huge.

How often do you change water?

[ccampbell57]

Thanks Masher!

I am a freak about the tank. Mainly because I love my fish to death. It is a fish only with live rock. I have about 275#'2 of LR in there now so I have a ton of biological filtration. I had so much from when it was a reef about 18 months back and my angels ate all the coral (my experiment went wrong).

I have an Auto top-off unit that supplies my RO/DI water to the sump (about 2-3 gallons a day). I clean the glass daily and clean the rocks with a tooth brush every 3 days.

I do a 35-40 gallon water change every month and smaller ones if required throughout the month.

I have a ASM G3 skimmer running the 180 which is awesome!!! Helps reduce the bio-load. I also have a 100g hang on filter on the refugium helping out the mechanical filtration.

I also change filtration pads in the refugium every 2 weeks.

Also, when I do water changes, I vacuum the substrate carefully so that I dont get the water hazy. My fish just hang around my hand when I do this.

[justinpsmith]

Certainly not the most aggressive tank out there but a semi-aggressive tank...oh who am I kidding, theres only a few fish that should be aggressive and they are quite docile!

Sorry...Camera Phone pics....

[justinpsmith]

Heres the sump and refugium...

[espo72]

Here's one my my 210's at it's peak of aggressiveness. The only fish I still own from this tank is the Bumblebee Grouper.

Theese pics are from 2005




This is the grouper today. My LFS estimates him about 40+ lbs.

[treny]

wow nice looking tank justinpsmith love the rock work.


espo72 that fish makes your 210 look like a 30g!!!!lol

[Titan*69]

espo72 how'd the angel handle it's tankmates in there?

[jreefer113]

thats just wrong......that grouper has no business in that tank, especially if its 40 lbs which i doubt it is, a 40 lb grouper is big.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7271717
http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=7271718

one picture is an american red snapper that is 26" or 27" and probably weighs 10 lbs or a little under, the other is a red grouper that is around 24" and weighs 10 lbs or less. you can imagine how big a 40 lb grouper would be.

[mattsilvester]

This relaitvely short thread has some of the best pics I seen on RC (and I've been here longer than most - no.552 out of some 170,000+ members) .........

Comments:
ccampbell57 - great looking fish, angels in particular, and fab looking tank. respectfully, I disagree with the practive of keeping multiple large angels but each to their own and your tank (and fish) certainly look great and very healthy (probably from snacking of 2 grands worth of corals LOL!)

espo72 - those fish are a pretty impressive size, and have great colours...... must be honest, the set up is not my cup-of-tea ..... but it certainly is a remarkable system, and again, everything appears happy & healthy from teh pics....

Finally, justinpsmith - your aquascaping is amazing. I think it could quite possibly be my favourite ever. Well, giving the typical "long box" shape of your tank (like most of us have) I think you have done a great job! I won't say its easy, but lets say you have more choice and scope in chunky tanks that are 30"+ tall and deep....... but your tank at 72x20x20 is more or less the same proportions as my 96x24x24...... I'm going to save yoru image, mirror it (coz my tank is the other way round), print it off and then try and replicate that aquascaping...... its excellent, and once I get a few plating montipora growing I will hopefulyl have the look I have been searching for.......

Well guys, great thread so far - keep those pics rolling!

[jreefer113]

im sorry but that is just wrong........that grouper has no business in that tank, if it is 40 lbs which i highly doubt its not, than it deffintitely shoudlnt be in that tank.

[jreefer113]

oops i didnt know my other post went through

[mattsilvester]

jreefer113 - when you double post like that (by accident) you can just click edit - delete the contains and type "double post".... if you like..... then it clutters up the thread a bit less

[jreefer113]

ok sorry i will next time

[DamnPepShrimp]

Nice tanks everyone!

ccampbell57, I LOVE your angels! They are my favorite fish! I only have a passer right now, I had an emperor and queen, they were always attached at the hip! Unforuntunately I had to down grade, gave them to bigger homes. I plan on getting another emperor, maybe queen or blue face for my 360g, all depends on my passer's aggression.

justinpsmith, gorgeous rock work! That took a lot of ingenuity! Are you planning on adding any other fish?

espo72, love the passer! He is HUGE! How was his aggression? I don't know how well mannered mine is yet, because he is in a tank all his own. I thought you were donating that grouper to a local aquarium? So what exactly do you have now in your setups?

jreefer113, I believe that grouper is 40 lbs. Those are old pics, you should see it now and what tankmates it ate! He tanks up nearly the whole 210g! He is easily 3ft in length now and twice as fat! And that wasn't a recent picture of him, but more recent then the ones just posted. He's a beast, and he should be in a public aquarium, but sometimes it's hard to find better homes for fish like that.

mattsilvester, wish you went with the FOWLR now? LOL, you could always set up another tank! I loved your original stock list idea, I still may replicate it if my passer doesn't accept any other angels.

Here's a crappy pic of my passer (iphone camera sucks) but you get the idea and how amazing his colors are, he has a blue crown like the queen, amazing blues, oranges and yellows on this fish!

[baldomero]

guys i agree fowlr tanks are nice,if i wanna see corals i just go snorkeling and see all the corals i want.ihave a real nice 90 gallon-1 porcupine puffer,3 blue chromis,1spanishhog,1yellowbellydamsel,1harlequinbass,3wildcaughtwrasses,1frenchangel,1anenome,aloto f-f,dusters,and an aquascape of live rock

[justinpsmith]

Hey thanks so much on the comments about my rockwork! Its nice because it really took a while to get it right. But really the secret was drilling the LR and making columns with 1/4" fiberglass rods (made for parking flags). The columns were used kind of like a base and then LR was added all around them so that they didnt look too obvious and fake. I also have the LR columns come right out of the water which gives the tank a nice look. If you want pics of the columns, let me know!

I am going to add more fish but Im not sure what yet. This is what I have now:

Porcupine Puffer
Green Spotted Puffer
Long Nose Hawk fish
Long Nose Butterfly fish
Orange Anthias
Flasher Wrasse
Golden Head Goby
Yellow Tail Damsel
Flame Angel

Might be getting close to full but I have a big refugium and skimmer, so I know bio load will be fine. Its mostly aggression I have to worry about. I am trying to keep a wide variety of fish that will get along ok. Im thinking of another goby but I will have to see if gobies get along together first. My Golden head sleeper goby is pretty big already.

[justinpsmith]

Do you guys think a clown would get along with the damsel??? What about the others? Believe it or not, in all my saltwater years, I have still never owned a clown fish!!! I hear they can be pretty aggressive with other damsels though.

[reeferaddiction]

get a maroon clown they are the most aggressive that i have had and prob could hold its own with damsels

[mattsilvester]

justin,

its obvious you have put alot into the aquascaping, and once again I commend you for it.......

as far as the clown & damsel situation goes..... well it depends on the clown species, the size of the clown and the size of the damsel..... I wouldn't worry too much about the damsel, its visa versa really..... something like a decent sized clarkii would be good..... they are generally tough enough.... as long as he is as big, or slightly bigger........

Now, I have no direct experience with this, but that is what I would do personally.

HTH

[justinpsmith]

Yeah I think I will wait on the clown. I did add some small fish today though. My brother was willing to part with 4 or his 12 Chalk Bass! I am pretty excited because I have always wanted some schooling fish that will get along. He has had them together for a long time now and never had issues with them killing each other like chromis eventually do. I love these little fish and how active they are. Really brings even more life to the tank and they only get about 3".

[mattsilvester]

DamnPepShrimp..... I will always have an urge for the fish only systems - as it clear from the fact that I'm always hanging around this board...... but at the same time dont be surprised if I end up like ccampbell57....... an sps tank with no sps coz my emporer eats them all.

To be honest, what put me off the FO idea was that half the fish I wanted had a high chance of being big trouble - and unlike most people, help in the form of a supportive LFS is 160 miles from my home........

The second thing is that the Mrs. has a liking for reef tanks, and as long as she has interest, I have license to continue......

But I love looking at other peoples Lunare wrasse's and passer angels..... and big groupers & triggers..... but I do not envy them the heart ache of when things eventually go wrong, and something that you may have had for yearsends up either dead or returned to a shop........

A further don't envy the thousands of gallons and hours spent on water changes.........

I like my clean up crew...... I like my white sand and coraline algae..... I like emptying and cleanign the skimmer weekly rather than daily......

Thing is, if I had gone FO, I would have ended up buying all the gear anyway, to automate things...... so I figure I may as well put it to use.....

So in short, I really miss my big fish..... and I miss the idea of having them, and planning them, etc....... but at the moment, I am happy I made the choice that I did..... and I'll get my regular FO fix by visiting this board regularly

Regards,

Matt

[Absint Reefer]

150gl fowlr

[jmccown]

Updated pics




New videos coming as soon as they upload

[jmccown]

my camera sucks, man that last pic is blurry. Sorry guys.