Mike's 300 Double-D

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by rpjaws74

always a pleasure seeing your tank!!

Thanks for stopping by! We have the pleasure of seeing it all the time, which sometimes make us a little spoiled.

Originally Posted by crvz

love the new angels, I've considered those when I see them pop up on liveaquaria but havent had the guts to jump on them (they aint cheap at that store, which certainly influences the decision). I am also adding a algae turf scrubber (influenced by your success a bit, but more of a DIY since I had the space to add a whole new tank to pull it off), so I'm hoping to get better growth out of corals with a lessened nutrient load. I've run a large number of fish in the past, and I'm trying to be a bit more strategic with that moving forward.

Good to hear, Chris. We'll be watching to see how it turns out for you. We were tempted to try a full-size DIY ATS but Terry wanted to try the turnkey solution and see how it went. Our next DIY is going to be another big refugium. We need to get the pod production back up - all the leopards really tear through them.

Originally Posted by glaukos

Great pics mike
The new fish look amazing(realy like the angels too ) and the make-over of the left side is awesome.
Thanks for sharing

Thanks Mike - Cheers to you, too. We are very happy with the Genicanthus, especially the big male. We knew he was special when he arrived (aside from the great care that Live Aquaria took in packing/shipping him) - he has a very unique marking - on his left shoulder is an orange spot! It was actually quite a story that unfolded at MACNA this year about this fish. Long story short, he was collected in the western Pacific and shipped to Tony Vargas who really wanted to keep him but sent him on as promised, then to Live Aquaria, and then to us! We're putting together a bit of a "chain of custody" video about him that Tony is going to publish. Here's a shot showing his wonderful unique marking:

Originally Posted by Oldude

I remain a fan of your reef & your photos are fantastic. Enjoyed the update.

Thanks Greg. We need to get some coral pics and post them, but we've not been having much P/E lately at all. The orange peel angel was a terror on the polyps. Finally got her out, but the acros are still recovering. We also are suspecting something in the water, (maybe chloramines?) since we've been having some persistent base-up STN. Anyway, nothing is showing up in any of our water tests, but the acros aren't very happy.

Originally Posted by FDAWG

Amazing shots! Love your fish collection.

Thanks! We appreciate the compliments - stop on by any time.

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

Great updates as always. The new aquascape on the left side looks fantastic. Just to be curious, where are your levels since adding the Surf scrubber. Were they higher before or now that you have it you use less equipment now?

Hi Wayne, and thank you. The system-wide PO4 levels haven't changed a whole lot yet, but it is hard to draw a reliable conclusion. Overall, our PO4 levels have been higher than we'd like and they are varying quite a bit (which can't be good!) The rate of algae growth in the scrubber has been great, so we know that it is certainly doing it's job in exporting excess nutrients. We're still running GFO pretty hard, but really in order to get a dependable read on the effectiveness of the scrubber, it would probably mean doing some serious controlled testing. There's just so many things that impact nutrient levels (feeding, uptake, export, effectiveness of skimmers, GFO reactors, etc.).

Originally Posted by SaintMark

Tagging along. I have read all 61 pages over the last few days and I admire your fortitude and perseverance. Very good thread!

Thank you Mark - you showed a lot of perseverance yourself by reading this whole monster thread! Some folks at MACNA told us that "it's too long" and we should start a new one


OK, here's a short video - you can get a better idea of how we have re-worked the aquascaping and coral placement. We busted up some pretty big colonies, brought in many of our new frags from the grow-out tank and have generally opened things up quite a bit.

[Newbie Aquarist]

Great video of the update on the revamped aquascape and orals. That angel looks amazing too.

[SPotter]

Great video!!!! Love the semifasciatus!!!!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

Great video of the update on the revamped aquascape and orals. That angel looks amazing too.

Originally Posted by SPotter

Great video!!!! Love the semifasciatus!!!!

Thank you Wayne and Steve!

[kinlayan]

looking wonderful as usual!!

[dmatt56]

Impressive tank!

[Amatuer21]

Awesome tank, great song lol

[lolgranny]

Beautiful, hows the regal angel with the sps and clams? I want one so bad!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by kinlayan

looking wonderful as usual!!

Hi Kinlayan. Thank you for stopping by - we are anxious to see your next update. Hope everything is well for you and your family over there!

Originally Posted by dmatt56

Impressive tank!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Amatuer21

Awesome tank, great song lol

Thanks Josh. Terry looks high and low for the soundtracks for the videos. That one is one of our favorites so far.

Originally Posted by lolgranny

Beautiful, hows the regal angel with the sps and clams? I want one so bad!

Thanks Dave. As much as we love clams, we haven't risked one with all the angels we have in there. The regal is fine, she likes polyps, no doubt, but doesn't do any serious damage...I guess partly due to the fact that we got her as a juvenile and she's been eating prepared foods for so long (almost 10 years). She is a gorgeous fish - highly recommended for the advanced aquarist. They can be quite challenging to acclimate to captivity, but oh so worth the effort!

[rillaboratories]

Simply astonishing

[biodegraded]

Very nice indeed. Someone needs to call the wrasse police, though!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by rillaboratories

Simply astonishing

Thank You so much!

Originally Posted by biodegraded

Very nice indeed. Someone needs to call the wrasse police, though!

Thank You! And Yes, we do LOVE our wrasses, LOL!

[prop-frags]

Thought we'd share a few pics that Terry took with her iPhone:

IMG_1650 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1648 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1651 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1647 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1646 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1644 by terryl93, on Flickr

IMG_1649 by terryl93, on Flickr

[pookstreet]

Wow, not too shabby for phone pix. Was it with the 5 or the 6? I've heard the 6 has a much better camera.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by pookstreet

Wow, not too shabby for phone pix. Was it with the 5 or the 6? I've heard the 6 has a much better camera.

It was with the 5 and yes, the 6 does have a better camera. We were both pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out.

[WunderWagen]

Wow, great pics and love the video!

[glaukos]

Amazing pics mike
Corals look really happy and i love their colors!
Thanks for sharing
Happy to see this tank is going strong for sooo long time!Great job!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by WunderWagen

Wow, great pics and love the video!

Thank You!

Originally Posted by glaukos

Amazing pics mike
Corals look really happy and i love their colors!
Thanks for sharing
Happy to see this tank is going strong for sooo long time!Great job!

Thanks so much, Mike, and sorry for the delayed reply.

[prop-frags]

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been over 3 weeks since our last update...

On November 1st, we hosted our annual Reef Party and Food Drive for our local food bank which included a Reef Raffle where tickets were exchanged for canned and prepackaged food items.

Some of the items included in the raffle were:
25g Marineland Reef Ready Cube
Tunze 6055 Controllable Nanostream Pump
ASM GC-3 Protein Skimmer (rated for 300g)
60lbs of Pukani Dry Rock
AquaBox Acclimation Box
I'mAReefer T-shirts
AquaCraft 50g bags of BioSea Salt mix
LiveAquaria $50 Gift Certificate
Premium Aquatics $25 Gift Certificates
Tiki Corals $50 Gift Certificate
Chester Aquaria $75 Gift Certificate
Hanna Instruments Alkalinity and Phosphate Checkers
Premium Aquatics Refractometers










On Nov 7th, we packed up the truck and headed over to the Central Virginia Food Bank (CVFB):







The food drive was an incredible success with the final weigh in at 1,325 pounds of food and an additional $200 donation which will provide an additional 1,000 meals to local families in need. Special thanks goes out to Angel and Kim (angelsbeamer), Bobby (falconerr), and Dave for their generous cash donations. We could not have pulled this off without the generous support from the following local and online vendors:

I'mAReefer, Premium Aquatics, Bulk Reef Supply, AquaCraft, Archetype, Tiki Corals, Gr8 Polyps, Chester Aquaria, Mid Atlantic Marine Aquarium Society (MAMAS), AquaBox, and LiveAquaria.

The Richmond Reef Club has a LOT to be proud of!

[prop-frags]

Now, how about some pretty fish pics?















And lastly, an updated FTS:

[Newbie Aquarist]

Congratulations on the success of the food drive. And as always a beautiful FTS of your tank.

I will be in your neck of the woods this week as I will be with family in Alexandria and Upper Marlboro. If your not to stuffed from Thanksgiving and black Friday shopping, I would love to see your tank if time provides.

[prop-frags]

Thanks Wayne! And you are welcome anytime.

[glaukos]

About the fts no words mike just......
Loved the fish pics too...except the chromis(not your fault,i just hate them)
How beautiful can that butterfy can be??

[Dxpert]

Wow, I've almost read through the entire thread, what a journey! I had to take a break from reading to post this... Your tank and pictures are spectacular! Great work. I'd be interested in more information about the technology when you get a chance. Are you doing anything special with your apex?

[DavidinGA]

Awesome job man