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Unread 12/05/2018, 11:47 AM   #51
markalot
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Hi,

enjoyed the thread, especially the part where you killed the algae with tangs! Looking forward to seeing this grow in. I have a 150 (tall 125), it's as big as I could fit in the house without tearing out a door. I long for a 180 but this will have to do. I'm jealous of the extra depth!


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Unread 12/07/2018, 06:08 AM   #52
pisanoal
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Hi,

enjoyed the thread, especially the part where you killed the algae with tangs! Looking forward to seeing this grow in. I have a 150 (tall 125), it's as big as I could fit in the house without tearing out a door. I long for a 180 but this will have to do. I'm jealous of the extra depth!
Thanks for reading and posting, Mark! It means a lot to me to have you on the thread. Your tank is one of the ones i look at and think "Hopefully, someday mine will look like that..." I do have to admit, i was a little sad when you took your giant slimer colony out, that thing was super cool. I get why you did it and its more just jealousy that i wish I had SOMETHING grow like that

The tangs and the algae was really satisfying, big thanks again to Ed. Otherwise I would have dumped a bunch of unnecessary chemicals in. As it stands now, i have NO visible algae longer then a couple millimeters, amd im getting ready to add a trio of yellows out of QT.

Hopefully i get to post somw exciting growth progress here shortly, but growth has been painfully slow. My own slimer just took off, and a few others are growing very slow, but the rest are stagnant.

I'm continually slowly raising nutrients, amd a couple days ago my nitrates were at 10 but phos was only .02. We will see. A lot of my trace elements were non-detects on the ATI test so hopefully some trace dosing will get things moving.


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Unread 03/05/2019, 10:47 AM   #53
pisanoal
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So its been a while! Haven't felt much desire to update my thread, bit things have been cruising along steadily. I have made quite a few changes to the tank recently including adding a few of the newer jebao pumps to alternate flow patterns (ow-50's? The biggest ones), removing all of my tunzes and going with an over the top closed loop (main motivation was to quiet the tank down), added acrylic covers over the tank to keep salt spray off the lights as someone recomended, added a few new fish, and changed the aquascape!

In the mean time my corals have been doing great! The tank always has some cyano which is mildly annoying, but since the corals are happy, I don't care right now.

I have been trying to add a group of cardinals but i keep failing. I have had several mass die offs in quarantine where most if 8 or so cardinals will not make it past a couple days, the rest usually die in the next few. I'm changing vendors and trying one more time. So far I've tried thread fins and yellow striped, I definitely want some that will shoal.

On the closed loop, i tried using 2 scwd's on a jebao dcp-20000, but those things were LOUD. My tank for the most part is very very quiet, so maybe others have better luck with these not adding system noise, but they were intolerable for me. Plus they killed the flow the way i had them installed (lots of 90s). So now i just have a simple header in the back with 6 3/4" locline nozzles, and maybe I'll add some eductors later. So now, all tunzes are out of the tank, ibhavr 2 powerheads in the tank, one is behond rock work, so display is much cleaner, and much quieter. The tunzes werent very loud but they did have a noticeable deep hum. Now, when just the closed loop is on, the tank is almost entirely silent. A very slight trickle noise every so often and a very very slight hum from the sump in the garage. If we are doing anything at all besides sitting in complete silence, the tank is inaudible. The jeboas do have a high pitched whine, but the end result will be to shut those off during the evening hours when we are home and would be watching tv or hanging out in that room (6-11 pm).

The aquascape... I got a great deal on some dry rock from a tank breakdown, and decided to rescape. I was never really happy with my scape as it didnt emphasize the size of the tank. So i went taller with more open space and LOVE it now. The fish seem to really like it too as there are two distinct zones in the tank that seems to better curb aggression.

Here are some pre-aquascape photos.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk


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Unread 03/05/2019, 10:59 AM   #54
pisanoal
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Now for the new aquascape pics!

I typically foam the structures together and then epoxy/sand coat the black foam so it blends in, but that limits the structure design somewhat. It can make then look blocky in order to get them stable. So this time i utilized some fiberglass rods to make it taller and more open. While also making it stronger and more modular.

This is the happiest I have been with any aquascape in any tank I have had to date. It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.

A lot of aquascapes will look great when they fill in with coral, and thats what i kept telling myself with the old one, but the new looks great now, and will look even better filled in then tge old would have. Now to get back to focusing on coral growth! And cleaning up my mess from these projects...

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Unread 03/05/2019, 08:56 PM   #55
reefmutt
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Neat new scape!
Looks great!


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Unread 03/08/2019, 09:28 PM   #56
pisanoal
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Neat new scape!
Looks great!
Thanks! I am really really enjoying it.


So I made my first coral purchase in a while, and unfortunately FedEx in my area sucks, they never deliver early. By the time I got the corals, the water was 62 degrees. I was really excited for them but unfortunately most of the pieces I was excited about are losing tissue.

Some of the coral look stressed but ok. My two favorites a BC Wild Red, and a WWC Heartbreaker aren't going to make it. Among the other casualties are a BC Spainbow and Atlanta Aquariums Chameleon Stag. The vendor seems like he is going to be pretty cool and send some replacements even though he only has a DOA policy, and technically they were still alive.


I have also been trying to add a shoal of threadfin cardinals or yellowstripe cardinals but I can't get them through quarantine. I've tried 3 times and lost 8 the first and second time. This time I have lost 4 already. The threadfins were hard to get to eat, but the yellows come in eating like pigs. The really odd part is they look absolutely fine, then an hour or two later, ill go by them and one will be dead. Any thoughts here? I'v tried two different reputable sources now with similar results, no outward signs of disease when they die. Are they just poor shippers?


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Unread 03/09/2019, 05:52 AM   #57
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Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear about the losses. Those threadfin cardinals are bad shippers. It also seems even if they make it past the first month they aren't very long lived.

I've had friends buy them and were lucky if they lasted a year.


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Unread 03/09/2019, 08:15 AM   #58
pisanoal
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Hi Tony,

Sorry to hear about the losses. Those threadfin cardinals are bad shippers. It also seems even if they make it past the first month they aren't very long lived.

I've had friends buy them and were lucky if they lasted a year.
Good info on the longevity. The shipping issue is why i switched to the yellowlined. There isn't a whole lot of info out there about them, but I was hoping they were aa bit hardier. They definitely take to eating a lot easier, pretty much eat pellets right away.

Anyone have any thoughts on a shoal of damsels? Thinking 6 talbots or rollands. They are supposed to be "peaceful".

Current stock list is:
2 yellow tangs
Sailfin Tang
Clown Tang
Pair of percula clowns
Blue throat trigger (male)
Swallowtail Angel
7 or 8 dartfish (blue gudgeon and zebra striped, they mostly stay hidden until feeding)
Planning on a pair of leopard wrasses and maybe a female blue throat.

I really want a group if smaller interactive fish that hangs out in the open. I haven't had much luck with anthias so I'm done with them, although I feed the tank a lot more then I used to.

After that I'm pretty much done with adding fish as i think that will be a good density.


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Last edited by pisanoal; 03/09/2019 at 08:21 AM.
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