Equipment note: Added UV sterilizer a week or so ago and have noticed much more clear water and extremely less algae growth on the glass. My orange and green zoanthids have a bit more color also. But this might be due to the better light system than I had before. So I have to leave them out of the experiment results.

New additions: Australian Lord Acans and a duncan.











I am expecting better color soon as these are just a few days in the tank.
This Ducan is more bright green than this photo can show but where I have placed it in the tank makes it very hard to get a good clean shot without glass distortion.


This guy had a rough shipping. Hot water and damaged package. Since this photo was taken their is a hint of green coming back in the center. They will all be bright green stripped zoanthids when the color returns.


Crab cleaning a snail as the snail cleans the sand.

Actinic shots with the Acans. Too bad camera can't show everything. They truely look awesome under Actinic lighting. (note: I have since moved these guys out of direct MH light and on the bottom side of the tank. Look at the my previous post to see current location. Anyone have a hint on how to grow these guys fast? They seem not to like being under direct MH light.

Flash

No Flash



Food!!!

The green one actually looks the worst under actinics. Looks pretty much like this.

Ducan


A tang might be in the tank by Friday! You'll have to wait and see.

Cheers,

big tanks are great! the only suggestion i have for the acans would be to feed them regularly with enriched meaty foods. any corals coming with that tang?

The new corals look so awesome

My birthday Nemateleotris decora (Purple fire fish) has gone missing. It has been 4 days since anyone has last seen it. I had the fish for 1 year and 3 months. I'm afraid my crab might have had something to do with this. No cement surfing of any kind. No location of any body. I'm just baffled at what happened.

I've checked everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Even under the rocks it used as its dart hole. Sad.

I'm tang hunting tomorrow. <--- Leaning towards powdered blue. We'll see. I'm worried about its aggressive nature. As I want more than 1 tang in this system.

New acans look awesome!!

How was the tang hunt?

I never made it. Bought 4 of these: Damn pothole lined with rebar Was hoping to get another 5k miles out of the tires.



I am going to go Thursday and see what my LFSs have in stock.

Those acans are pretty! Where'd you get 'em?

I can't wait to see what kind of Tang you're going to get! And I love your Acans. Are all Tangs prone to ich or some more than others?

Edit: your sandbed and tank look so clean

https://hydra.liquidweb.com/~aquarium/catal...5c5ba204d872976

I would not purchase anything not on their current special section. Way to expensive otherwise. They have minimum head count orders also. But I purchased the minimum on my 3 acans and I got 1 free. And not to mention all the acans came with more heads than I ordered. Order 6 total polyps get 2 free "their choice"

Good customer service and great responsive with emails. I'd do business again when I'm acan hungry again.

I <3 Aquarium Specialty! I've never ordered livestock from them, but now I want to! Anyhow, glad to see that your tank is progressing so nicely!!

Yeah but you won't believe just what my clean up crew is. Plus it has only been almost 2 months. I water change once a month. I do not touch my sandbed. No siphoning or anything.

ich can happen to any type of fish. But tangs seem to harbor the disease and when they stress because of being in a small tank the tang becomes susceptible to ich. If I did my research right, ich will not happen in a system that has not been contaminated by ich before. So I have to be careful with fish selection.

Ok, I bite....what is your clean up crew? I'm thinking I need more (especially since I fighting Bryopsis!). And I totally agree with not touching the sandbed. When my RSM was 3 months old I decided to rescape it. Took out rocks, added new "cured" ones blah blah blah. Obviously got the sandbed all stirred up. Came down with dinoflagellates right after that and haven't gotten rid of them since!!

That is why I'm breaking down the RSM and put up the 90 gallon. I just can't deal anymore with the dinos and the caulerpa that has invaded 1/2 my rock.

So funny, I'm talking to a kid who's half my age I saw your picture

Oh I'm sorry got sidetracked with my last post. I have 7 trochus snails and 8 hermit crabs with 1 very large Emerald crab.

That is odd that your Dinos did not go away. You are using RO water right?

I went to the LFS for tangs and have settle with the idea of a powdered blue tang. All in the store where pre-sold so I am on a waiting list. That is ok though. As I was thinking about it I really need to increase my Clean up crew count. I really don't like the hermit crabs that much so for now I'll boost up the Trochus snail count maybe 3 fold. I want more of a variety though too. So at least 2 turbos and a few more sand shifters. A starfish would be nice but I don't know if my tank is ready for one. Have to research that.

What 22 too young for you? I can be any age you want

Powdered blue tangs suck man, I'd stay away they get sick all the damn time.

What size is the UV sterilizer? I've always found that they help keep ich at bay.

36 watt coralife turbo twist. I think its big enough.

Yeah that should help out a good bit.

You really are half my age! HA! That's OK, I can keep up with the best of them...

My CUC consists of 15 blue leg hermits, 5 Turbos, 5 Astreas, 5 ceriths and some other black snails with silver on the top. I was thinking about getting some more hermits too. They do a great job eating whatever my algae is...bryopsis, derbesia , whatever.

Mr. Fosi has been helping me all along with my dino problem. Actually they are Raphidophytes. Same damn thing! And yes, I use RO. And I've done everything in the book to get rid of them. AH! I don't even want to talk about it. Just makes me PO!!

I'm just now transferring my fish from the RSM into the 90. And trying to decide on what Tang (or maybe a Foxface). Something that will eat algae. So I'm following along with your decision.

Rocket-I will drop those corals we talked about this weekend off sometime this week. I have a small blue sps frag, green slimer, and which monti-caps did you want orange or the green?

Orange Monti Please

* New Corals. All SPS some monticaps and I think its acrapora. (sp)



Pictures to come once I find my camera.

Pics are needed!

So....how about those pictures.........

Yeah um those pictures.... I found the camera, now to find the time to take good photos!

Tonight when I get home I'll try to post some shots.

I did my first water change after 2 months. I plan on 1 month water changes from now on. In the process I managed to splash water onto my timers, so they shorted out and "released the white smoke." I've have since promised myself that I will finish the stand before doing anything else. Well besides waiting for my Powdered blue to come in. Can't wait for that fish. Tank seems so dead with only two clown fish swimming in one corner of the tank all the time.

Everything has grown. Even the Acropora, and monti's JCW sent me. I'm well pleased. I even have a 2 month growth shot of the Ricordia garden I'll through up here on the photo update.


Cheers,

looking good. makes me wish i kept my 125 around for a nice sps or softie reef

Due to the forums going corrupt I have to repost again. I'll try to update what I can remember.

Changing water on July 11 23 gallons total. Needed the water change due to calcium, for the first time ever, being below 400.

Changing lights to 20k Radiums, The 10k look of Ushios is just not cutting the color I'd like to see.

Photo update:















Cheers,

New additions to the tank tonight. Went to the LFS with the girlfriend. Damn had to hold her back or she would have bought the whole store. We came home with 9 more fish.

5 Green Chromis
1 Yellow tang
1 six line wrasse
1 male Maldives Lyretail Anthia
1 Blue Mandarin.

Pictures will come after my 150 hour photo log of burning in 20k Radiums @ 12 hour intervals. Should be a cool thread once I complete this project.

Oh and I'm having a hard time programming my Reefkeeper LT1 for some reason after I program anything I can't get back to menu I have to wait 3 minutes for the system to go back to the home screen so I can save it. Am I missing something?

Nice additions, looking forward to the pics, Ive been tagging along. I think your tank will be awesome when your done. I like the Anthias and Mandarin additions even though it may be a little early for the Mandarin. Are you going to be feeding him, or hope that there will be enough copepods kicking around?

No exp with Reefkeeper.

Keep up the great build log!

Pods everywhere. I sometimes freak out at night when I look at the tank. The sandbed moves I have so many pods. Tank is 5 months old but some of the LR came from my 42 hex.

Another note worthy: My snails are reproducing like crazy. I started with 8 snails. Now I can count 15 new baby snails. And what I believe to be snail egg hatchlings sprouting even more. At least 30 of these "hatchlings" are in the sump/fuge.

What I have been doing as the snails grow I move them from the fuge to the display. "

Tiger banded trochus snails. paid $2 each for them 2 years ago. About time they start making me money.

P.S. I will photograph this phenomenon also.

Nice! Well in that case I think you will have a happy Mandarin. And yah you should let us have a look at these baby snails.

Tank is looking good!

haha, Look at all the 125s where they belong, the Top!

LOL, 125's dominate!

Nice, thanks guys. I tried last night to find all the 125's on the site. I like seeing how they are doing and what is working for you guys. I think there is 2 125's in the members aquarium section though, I wish they would move here though since this is primarily a Nano forum. I consider us big guys experimenters and with good results can trail down to the nano's.

I feel like it's the other way around. I treat my 125 like a big nano. Good flow, good live rock, a little bit of chaeto, and a medium bioload. The volume allows me to be a little slack with the water changes, but everything I needed to know about reefing I learned with my first 20 gallon.

Rocket, I researched your thread when I was setting mine up so it helped in a way to convince myself that I could do a large reef

I look at my 125 is like it's a really big 20 long

nice bump for all the 125's fewskillz!

Well Today has been interesting. I come home to this:



Yeah that is correct. My 20K Radium 150w center bulb has turned RED. I've sent Hellolights.com a email. Awaiting return procedures.

Well I tried to do a 100+ hour 12 hr interval photo log of a MH bulb burning in and it failed today.

This is what I got Consider the top photo 36 hrs:

12hrs:

24hrs:

Then BAM RED!!! grr... So my 9 month old USHIO 20K is filling in the spot. CENTER remember!


The Radiums overpower it and put out a nice blue hue, makes the Ushio almost look purple. Its funny to watch my green chromis swim the tank length, they change from green to dark blue and then back to green.

More photos to go once I upload them. Another post. I like to stay organized.

Thanks! I just took the screen shot though, Rocket bumped them all. I just happened to be in the right place when Wiz's popped up.

Rocket, that's pretty interesting what's going on with that bulb. Keep us posted on what the manufacturer says.

booooooooooooo

55 > 125g


I need to upgrade

Well I think these are what baby Trochus snails look like. Since about a month ago I watched the snails spawn. 1 snail was "smoking" for an hour and another 2 snails where releasing eggs in big puffs. couple of days latter these started to pop up. Plus I have at least 10 new tiny baby snails that I can count.



Find the baby!

Nice build, but those aren't baby trochus but are limpets (still good snails to have).

Got my replacement 20k Radium MH 150w bulb from Hellolights a few days ago. Let it burn in before I take more photos.

Spent some time cleaning out and properly installing my 36w UV turbo twist.

Question for anybody: How long do UV lightbulbs last? This one has had 3 years of almost continual service. You can't look at UV light so I can't tell if it needs replacing. I know it still lights though as their is a indicator cap on the bottom of the unit.

I'll try to snap a few photos tomorrow during feeding time. Having more fish than 1 certainly drains the food supply quicker. Buying Largest mysis frozen as I can. (not cube form). I would like to mix up foods so any other recommendations either frozen or dry would be appreciated. The big fish eat a lot.

Stock:
1 True Perc
1 Yellow tang.
1 Mandarin
2 chromis ( 2 killed off by the others, 1 disappeared)
1 Maldives Lyretail Anthia ( Male) Need to find some females.
1 Six line wrasse.


Lastly. Fish suggestions! looking for bigger fish. I'm looking at more tangs at the moment.

Coralife states the 36w bulb is effective for 8000 hours. That's 333 days Constant use. EEEK I better replace the bulb then. Looks like when I replace MH lights I replace the UV lights. BULBS are EXPENSIVE!

For anyone wanting to get cheap UV bulbs I found this site.

http://americanaquariumproducts.com/UVCReplacementLamp.html

My 36 watt UV bulb from the drsfostersmith.com was $70

Ordered my new bulb for 40 with shipping! YAY for savings!

Tank is doing great. I'm busy calculating wood dimensions to enclose the bottom to reduce heat loss and try to stem evaporation rates. Tank is running great at a constant 81F now. Fish are nice big and maybe slightly fat. Like last time I ran the UV on the tank Algae buildup on the glass has been reduced. I noticed switching to from 10k bulbs to 20k bulbs a reduction in algae but the UV really makes a bigger difference. Scrape the glass every 3 days now. With the new bulb coming I hope this extends even longer.

Photo update:

Used the flash for once!

Serpent starfish! Found it a couple of days ago. Another hitchhiker.

Group shot!

Current FTS. Slight algae build up on sand. Took Vortech pump down for maintenance for a few days.





My favorite shot out of the bunch! When I got it and almost 1 year latter!


Oldest and first coral I ever received.

Ric Garden

6 feet of clear blue marine water!

nice pics. looking at your ric garden, did you buy those separately or did they all come on a rock? if you bought them separately, how do you get the rics to stick to the rock? glue?

Originally had 11 rics from a ric pack order from a sponsor of this site located in florida.




I get asked this question a lot. Here is how I did it.

Super glue gel.

1. flip ricordia over
2. add glob of super glue
3. dip ricordia upside down in a bowl of tank water
4. quickly place in tank on rock
5. press gently to seal the glue

Step 3 is vital. You dip it out of tank to skim the super glue over. This step can leave a residue floating on top of the water if you do not dip fast enough. Also why you dip the coral upside down. Once skimmed you have a about 30 seconds to find a spot on the rock and press the ricordia down. This breaks the skim seal and glues your coral to the rock.

Learned this trick on this website. No need to take the rock out of water.

Tonight I discovered one of my 96w PC actinic 03 bulbs by Hamilton has burned out. The bulbs tubes near the base are really black. For now I'm running my spare 460/420nm bulb.

Ricordia's are growing. Deciding if I want to frag them and sell or frag them and place somewhere else in the tank. Most likely will keep them as I am in need of filling up the tank with lots of coral.