so, after finding a 75 Gallon plexiglass aquarium for under 250$ delivered(used), i decided ill break down my 20 and assimilate it into the new tank, together with my dottyback's 10, take the dottyback back
the main plan is for it to be a patch reef style aquascape with some schooling fish and 1 or 2 really showy fish
so far i have
1 pair false perc clowns
1 pair of yellowtail damsels
1 bicolor angelfish
1skunk cleaner shrimp
1 fire shrimp
and the usual CUC(hermits, snails

Live rock was already collected 3 weeks ago from the beach together with a sand bed

the proposed stocking list is:
6 chromis (blue green)
1 Copperband (at the lfs now, doing really good takes mysis and frozen, has minor ick tho)
1 sand sifter goby (probably a yellowheaded)
1 convict tang
1 banggai cardinal(my dad loves this fish, mite as well)

here are the inspiration pics for the tank







the corals will consist of mostly large polyp scleractinians and octocorals, zoanthids, gorgonains and mushrooms, and eventually some SPS corals when i can upgrade the lighting

filtration will be by the berlin method and using an algal turf scrubber (my 20's back wall is covered in turf now and i scrape that so it would be basically the same thing, just, more purposeful
as well as a 2" sandbed using very fine sand(when i went to the beach they topped off the sand(they do that here) with some gorgeous mixed sand, hs some darker rocks, teeming with pods and other life

lighting is now 2x55w compact t5 double tube, 20w atcinic and 30w actinic T8 and some ikea LED system, adds a nice shimmer to the tank

flow is by 5 powerheads that give good chaotic flow, higher flow to the top of the tank and med flow at the bottom.

the aquascape is planned to be an alcove/cave structure on the right hand side of the tank, and a small island, with lots of swimming space, it looks more natural, and gives the fish more room, as well as leaving space for corals

heres pics of the tank so far



livestock is going in tomorrow from the other tanks

Be careful with butterflys and corals. They don't always mix well. Tank looks great though.

yea, ive read the copperband is not as bad as some of the others tho
(that post was from 2 weeks ago, i havent had time to rite a diary on the tank as often as i would like, so here is as close to a proper diary as i can get haha)
here is the tank after moving across the livestock, 2 days later i went to the LFS, traded the dottyback and picked up most of the other fish on the list

water params
Nitrate-2ppm
Nitrite-0.01ppm
Ammonia-0ppm

need Calc. Mg. tests and 2 part dosing liquid

How long have you had this tank for?

Anecdotal observation - my bicolor had some dark spots on her head and discolouration in the blue section, like a melanin deficency. after moving her across these dissappeared and she returned to a solid blue/yellow, i think it may have been stress from such a small system

here is the tank, a week after adding all the other fish
this may have been too fast, i was only planning on taking the chromis and the goby on that day but the LFS suggested i take the butterfly as they where unpacking a new shipment, and it would be mixed with new fish (could lead to parasites etc) and i got a pair of bangaii with the lot
the copperband went straight in, as did the chromis, the bangaii and goby went to QT to get them feeding, a week later they where added but one of the bangaii where not feeding and wasted away overnight
- i understand the problems of moving too fast but in 2 weeks i go on holiday for a week, keeping the fish at the LFS wasnt an option, they dont usually quarantine livestock there they did for me as i am friends with the owner, and i wanted the livestock i paid for in my tank before i leave on holiday, to give me time to adapt and monitor them.

The butterfly and sand sifter are taking frozen in the display, to my relief, and are not stressed
the butterfly chases his reflection for a large part of the day and stops when the sun goes down(indirect light on the tank, might cause odd reflections or something)


Params
Nitrite-0ppm
Nitrate->5ppm
Ammonia-0
SG 1.025 - strenght of water at the beach, facilitates acclimation of wild collected specimens




tonite would be about 3 weeks or so, all the rock i have had for 3 months cycling in a rubbermaid or in my 20gallon ( i was planning on buying a 55gallon and doing the same, but with a new tank, this is just with a used one)

side note
the copperband seems to have slight ick, it goes to the cleaner shrimp often, if it worsens its going into quarantine and ill have to use either hyposalinity or the transfer method (dont like copper)

Nice looking tank! I love the look of a coral oasis. I would like to set up a nano coral oasis tank that would be center overflowed and viewable from all four sides kind of like the idea behind coffee table tanks.

thanks!
i kinda dont like the wall of rock look, i also love the sand and wanted it to be a big part of the aquascape
im going tomorrow to see if i can get more LR, and build the centre tower higher, and put some nice SPS on there, i think it may be possible to have montipora and maybe some acros very high up given my current setup (2x55w t5compact, 2x23w HO compact florescent, the bulbs u buy at the supermarket, rated at 6700k with 1600lumens per bulb)

I really like your 'scape. You have a very nice looking tank. May I also commend you on an excellent stocking list.

I love the patch reef look. Too many tanks in my opinion are overstuffed with live rock. Nice to have some breathing room. I'm planning something similar for the 60-P ADA I just got. Won't be starting until after I get back from holidays though.

thanks, alot of thought went into the list cus i didnt want aggressive fish that could upset my bicolor (i love that fish)
same for the aquascape, if i can find a convict tang the aquascape was intended to give as much swimming room with as much place for corals as possible.



yea, its been a little pet peeve going against the wall of rock, there is a thread here
that has lots of islands that i used as inspiration with the pics above
give it time tho im sure stocking with corals itll become a huge pile of rock as well haha
and that was the plan, initially, to keep the tank dry until after december, but i guessed a 75 would be more stable than a 20 considering my housekeeper would be feeding it and only that, so it was done
worth it tho

i also find a tiny baby zoa, when the sun goes down ill get my dads SLR and take some pics of the tiny thing for the thread, i dont think zoa growth has been documented either has it?

HEY!! I've seen some of those inspirational pics before!!

Nice looking setup - post up some closer shots


hope that butterfly comes through - beautiful fish. I'd imagine the cleaner shrimp will do a pretty good job with him though.

i love that thread haha, added my tank to it:D
yea, the butterfly seems better, most of the spots on the body are off, a few on the tail but thats about it, he still eats, the tank gets fed 2x a day on 1cm cubes of mysis, mite step it up to three cus i just built a fuge and mite add another algal scrubber there, but more food generally boosts immuinty, i lost a clown once ages back when i fed once every 2 days. need some vit to soak the mysis in now

yea, tonite ill get the SLR and get some good shots of the setup,
had a little problem last night, power outage when i was asleep, tank went 7 hours witout power but everything seems okay:D

looks good.

nice aquascape!

Looks great!... I like the concept behind the scape.

Dude i love the inspiring pics, did you take them? ha PM, ill probably loss track of this thread.

great job!!! im trying the same outcome, but i think yurs is looking better than mine so far! keep up the good work!!! i also hate the wall of rock look. when i started mine, it ended up looking like that, so recently i redid the tank and im liking it a lot now! great to see someone else trying to replicate the ocean we love! keep up the awesome job ur doing!! good luck!

some new pics, been a bit long in taking them








Nice HQ FTS
moved the powerheads around a bit now tho, tomorrow ill get more pics

i was also a little naughty and got a cleaner wrasse, wasnt intending to but it was taking mysis, and has been in my tank as well, eats more voraciously than my damsels haha, cleans my hand when i do work in the tank too.
its so cute haha, and i feed now 3x a day to make sure its healthy, it kinda scares off the copperband but cleared off the black specks on the fins i suspect where lymphocytes.
havent got pics of it yet, and also went to an older marina harbour thing and found a couple metallic green mouthed zoas and took frags, look great, and have really already spread out, no pics either
hopefully for xmas ill get a metal halide and eventually start putting SPS into the tank, as the pics above ^^^^ suggested

and whoever asked bout the inspirational pics, sadly no, i dont dive, im planning on doing a course in january and it was suggested to me as my new LFS cant bring in SPS and LPS yet that i go diving and collect my own, which would be awesome.

so all thats left to go into the tank is a kole juvenile ive got waiting at the LFS till jan 3rd (when i get back from holidays) and perhaps a blue regal down the line, id also like a peaceful pseudochromis if they even make those and perhaps a squamipinnis anthias female pair and a male, but im not too sure yet, though with my 3x a day feedings i guess the anthias would do alright
anyone know a good peaceful purple-ish psuedo or something that would be that colour?

Soooo
its christmas soon
who wants to send me stuff xD
wishlist, hopefully ill get at least one thing on the list
150W clamp on metal halide, so i can collect corals and buy some (heard of a beach where there are stony corals growing off the shore at snorkeling depth, checking it out when im back
probably gna get the Haqos one i posted about, its cheap haha

4 koralias, either the 600GPH or the 800GPH, giving me either 2400GPH or 3200GPH, thats one hell of a lot of flow haha! would look nicer than the army of powerheads ive got in there anyway

thats about it
ill add pics when im back from vacation, fingers crosed my tank sitter will manage, im printing a sheet with instructions to go on the tank in case

well i got my blue tang the other day (a mix up at the LFS ment that the kole was sold >:[ so they gave me a 5 inch blue for the same 30$ price as an apology(my tank is just under 5 foot(4'11))
anwaay cus im writing biology tomorrow my dad went and got it for me, was a little thin but hey(i didnt tell him the usual acid test routine of selecting fish, he said he got the most active one tho which was good, schooled him afterward)
he also, as a present got me a blue girdled angelfish for xmas:D
so my tank is now fully stocked
so they are in the tank here are some pics
the tang has a little bit of ich but my tank has been ich free to my knowledge as has my LFS's
anyway the cleaner wrasse and shrimp have been cleaning it, and ive been feeding the usual 3x daily with vit supplements and fresh garlic juice added (and a few pieces that get left behind, the angel and it eat them too lol)
so fingers crossed
pics:

he looks reeli thin here, hes fattened up LOADS



[img][/img]
FTS


oh, i also bought myself a 150 W metal halide
the bulb says 20 000k but it looks like a 10 000 k (its a haqos) so im gna get a 14 k or maybe a proper 10 from arcdia when the lfs gets some
after the hols my algae scrubber was full of turf but nitrates wer the same that the sera kit said before i left, API registers 0 nitrate tho so i guess it must be between 25 and 0 (the sera showed the exact same red hue before i left)
scrubber is doing really well gna add some filter floss to get out some of the larger food particles that arent eaten up, but the higher plankton count means i have LOADS of microfauna growing

That is a GREAT looking tank. I like the depth and aquascape.
I be following this one.

great job

lol thanks
i dont think ill be doing anything to it for a while, got Biology A level exams tomorrow, chem and math on friday(weekend here >:() and physics on tuesday
next weekend im gna go to the beach further down the gulf about 30 mins drive, the manager of Atlantis aquarium said there is sorta small reefs in snorkeling depth around there, ill probably frag a few corals from there, cus the only other place that i know has SPS is owned by an arab who "would rather see his livestock die than sell it cheaper" and i dont want to give him business

ill take an underwater cam with me if i do find anything interesting:D
ill probably get a video when the tang is all fixed of his 8 spots of ich haha, the cleaner seems to be doing a good job on keeping him clean and hes still eating, garlic and extra feedings should do the trick

Sick tank man!! Loving it! The inspirational photos are awesome as well.

thanks
dude, sorry i havent replied to ur message yet, ive got a buuuunch of unfinished tracks i havent bounced and uploaded yet, when i do ill holla(got exams and schit goin on)
if u wanna get a feel for my music i usually make dubstep beats, great for spittin fast over, a little like UK grime rapping, youtube it
peace

I love UK hip hop man. I used to listen to alot of Trilogy

I saw you were looking for a peaceful psdeochromis sp? well some thing that may work for ya could be a springers dottyback, they stay small and generally arent to aggressive(like a royal gramma a bit)

oh yea? its quite a pretty fish, i still like the look of the bicolor but oh well
i dont think im gna add any more fish to my tank, ive got 18 fish in now, 2 of which are large fish, and im happy it looks happy but not too crouded, and with the algae scrubber Nitrates arent a problem
hers a fish list
1 Paracanthurus hepatus - Blue Tang
6 Chromis viridis - Blue Green Chromis
1 Pomacanthus navarchus - Blue Girdled Angelfish
1 Centropyrge bicolor - Dwarf Bicolor Angelfish
2 Amphipron Ocellarus - False Perc Clownfish
2 Chrysiptera parasema - Yellowtail Damsel
1 Labroides dimidiatus - Cleaner Wrasse
1 Pterapogon kauderni - Bangaii Cardinal
1 Chelmon rostratus - Copperband Butterfly
1 Valencienna strigata - Yellowheaded Sleeper Goby
1 Unknown Goby - Caught from a harbour, also a sleeper goby species
(that was more a test for me knowing my scientific names of the fish than anything)

im more after corals, any ideas anyone? nothing too meaty, so as not to entice the angelfish, might try an open brain LPS but more after nice branching SPS corals and some gorgonians to look like the pics up there ^^
any ideas? 150 W 10000K MH and 60W compact T5

new updates
added another piece of aquacultured live rock for biodiversity, love the scape now
also got a pair of pipefish, banded, (had to use the store credit lol) and my pod popuation is going strong cus of the 'fuge / scrubber
one sems really active the other is just curled round the rock, kinda bummed if it dies >:[ i think it might have overstressed during transport
tangs ich went down a few days ago but adding the rock made it stress and a few spots are back but im keeping high vitamin feedings now and its going good
some how my nitrates are at 0, still, with the API test(which showed some nitrates when i didnt scrape the screen for too long, so it works), the sera still shows 10 as it did before the scrubber, after the scubber, dont trust it.

also got a nice toadstool leather kinda psyched hope the clowns host it
tried some queen scallops from the beach they are filtering away now, noticed some barnicles on my rocks, a few tunicates and sponges here and there,
i love going skimmerless,
i wanna go check the jetties for corals now, as my LFS dosent stock hard corals and i dont like the only place that does(the dude that owns it said hed rather they die then lower prices) and these corals arent on a reef, a proper one, so technically its 0 impact
anyway, pics and updates to come

I think I just fell in love with this tank.

And now I know exactly how I'm setting up my breeder..

hahah, thanks!!!
send me a link wen u start it
ill get another pic, made the island larger, with a cave, added more sand(DONT do this unless ur sure the sand is silicate free, got mine live from the sea, and now i have a massive diatom bloom haha!) and a leather

thers a thread with some other nice inspiraitional pics, its called Patch Reefs
peaceee

I haven't seen your thread before, I followed the link from your post in David's thread. WOW!!!

Your tank looks amazing, I love it! I'd love to see a new FTS with the new rock when you have a chance.

I'm also avoiding the wall o'rock look, and interested in seeing how others are scaping to avoid it.

Yeah, I was reading the other thread and that's how I ended up here :] The sand I'm looking at is a sugar sand, it's pretty cheap and I know it's pretty much 100% crushed aragonite. I'll be running a 5g fuge in the back of the tank as well (as in, actually inside of the tank, separated with a false wall) to help control the blooms, I guess we'll see how it goes

yea, i have an algae scrubber which probably is why my fish arent covered in GHA
um, so my tank had a massive ich outbreak when the tang stressed after a 6 hour cut(diatoms went up into the water and it was brown) lost my CBB, and majestic angel
just finished gettin the SG to 1.012 will drop it to 1.010 tonight and hope those bastard crypt ****ers die, moved all my coral and CUC to a seperate tank cus my 10G quarantine wont be able to support 13 fish..
when the treatments over ill get another butterfly, a regal angel, perhaps a moorish idol (have access to live sponges at the beach, will try feeding live sponge) and another pair of pipefish
also the 10G is going to be converted to a pipefish tank for my bedroom

GODDAMN ICH
>:[

Hey man, great tank so far. I'm thinking about setting up an indo pacific biotope tank! I'll be following your progress intently, although, to be honest, I'm surprised you haven't gotten ripped for having 20 fish in a 75 Gallon tank. I believe that is why you are having such an issue at the moment. To many fish can cause things to spike. I would wait till everything's stable i.e. 6months to a year before adding a Moorish idol.

yea, i think having ich present then adding the tang, and having a power outage for a few hours caused the large spread, but at least now im treating the tank for ich and im gonna QT every new member. the only thing i see with stocking levels is
a) overcrowding - not too many large fish in a small tank and
nutrient levels
so considering most of my fish are passive small fish, and with my ATS and10% weekly changes my nutrients are at 0, i think im doing well
my levels are usually all stable, it was only the power outage that caused stress i believe, perhaps insufficient flow led to lower O2 levels? im not sure. im going to wait a while before i get a new fish.

also i saw an sps tank with around 50 fish in it, the key is not numbers but keeping more fish that have a small bioload (gobies, damsels) and a few large bioload fish(tangs, angels)
http://www.ultimatereef.com/TOTM/2008_august/ theres that tank.
but anyway, ive placed an order at my LFS for a regal and a moorish idol, and im placing an order for new life spectrum food, they should be here in 1 - 2 months

Nice aquascape dude.. what is your tank's dimensions? LxWxH? do you have refugium?

Aquascaping looks amazing!! I love the inspiration pic of the reef you provided, too. It's awesome to have that kinda goal in mind when you're beginning a project like this...

Have you had any problems with your angel or Coperband attacking your corals? I was toying with the idea of eventually getting one (if not both) of those....

Sorry to read about your ich outbreak.

How's everything going now?

niether of the angel or the CBB touched my corals really, but i didnt have any LPS at the time
i got over the ich lost the majestic angel and the copperband, everything else is healthy, still going through my diatoms from the new sand, and i got a longnose butterfly and sailfin tang as a birthday present, pics to come, sadly i took my tank back out of hypo too fast and the new additions have ich, but its back to hypo and they should keep clear, gna stay there for 6 weeks or so, and toying with the idea of a regal angelfish cus i cant afford another majestic angelfish. also re did the rockscape got a few larger caves now and more open space pics of that too.

random fact, shrimp, hermits and true crabs can survive true hyposalinity
im happy i didnt loose heart after the diatoms + ich

Sweet setup and tank....speaking of what kind of tank is that, brand wise?
Sorry to hear about your losses...ich is horrible and i know you said you were dosing vitamins but i am curious if you were dosing vitamin C by itself. I have noticed for the pass 8-9 months dosing vit C by itself daily with the frozen mysis has kept my tank disease free (ich, zoo pox, etc.) (knocks on wood)
i swear by it now!

i think its a Jebo but im not sure, got it 2nd hand.
i was dosing Zoovits hadnt tried vit C i had read about a dosage of tht in a lab on P. hepatus that prevented HLLE and the group that didnt get it got HLLE, i mite pick some up this weekend, cus i took the tank up too early and its back on the new tang and butterfly but its back in hypo, sure itll be fine but wud be a good experiment considering im all out of my vits. ill post results
just siphoned diatoms off the sand and rocks it looks schmexi, will put up a pic wen my cam charges back

well here is an update, finally!
replaced the sandbed, and the diatoms are finally subsiding, got a protein skimmer as well, skimming half dry half wet, and i like the results.
added a few small grunts( i think, from the beach when we wer fishing, got them taking mysid already)
also, i got 2 new zoa rocks, both are starting to colour up(where under 1 20W t8 actinic) and lost colour, but its becoming flourescant red and flourescant green, one became lilac, its looking really good
oh, i also added a sailfin tang, name escapes me, its not the desjardinii one, u can see it blury just above the new coral rock, the first pic





bad pic of the new addition, i added 7 of em

also apparently crabs, hermits and most hard shelled inverts can withstand hypo
hypod the tank and couldnt get all of them out

whoever asked for dimensions its like 48x24x18(high), which kinda makes it a 90US gallon tank, i was working with UK gallons, when i named the thread
lol

you have got to find the reason to the algae blooms.

There is phosphate and silicate coming from somewhere and you need to isolate the problem or youll be fighting this all the time...

are you using ro water or fresh water that is free from phosphates...have you tested for phosphates in the tank? what salt? what are you feeding? how often? how much ? are the fish eating it all?

you have a decent bio load....what kind of skimmer is in there...and how often are you doing water changes...

???

you have some questions to be anwered
decent tank...can be a lot nicer...

Nice tank but why did yoy have to go and change the scapingit looked so nice be for

hahaha, the tank is fine now, no new phosphates, i added sand from the beach, which was realllyy high in silicates and it fueled the bloom(Cus diatoms grow faster than turf, my turf cudnt compete and take up the phosphates) when i took out the sand its stopped, i also added a skimmer to supplement the turf scrubber, and everythings fine now, no3 is 0 and po4 dosent show up, the turf scrubber is growing back too. i do 5G twice a week changes.
its all under control

thinking of adding a pair of mandarins, pair of pipefish and maybe a few gobies, small bioload fish
maybe even another dwarf angel sometime soon
where do u get ur livestock from? i need coral :D interested in a swap?


i prefer the new scape, more place for coral and more caves for the fish haha, itll look nicer when i actually add corals

hey east, looking great!! i dig the new scape! glad to hear you gotz rid of the nasty blooms you were having!!

hey that empty space on the left, you should place a single, maybe round type rock covered in some crazy zoas!! it would still be keeping with your theme!

great job!!!

needs some more picz!!!

yeaaa, i was thinking that, but i like the space(cus the tank is kinda peninsular, but from the short sides, lol) so when u sit on the couch u look right into the cave under the big rock, but im probably gna put a few small pieces and make a cave in the corner, try hide the powerheads, or something.
need to get coral now, the new zoas didnt cost much but i want some bigger softies, gna go looking for SPS as well, and i wanna get some smal fish, mandarins, pipefish, dartfish, etc
oh and an angel
this setups gna cost alot before im happy lmao, but its so nice to be able to look at it and not see brown
pic update tomoro, gna guage my dads SLR for it

THE DIATOMS ARE GONE, the sand is white, life is good lol
the skimmer is producing a cup of thick black skimmate every week or so, for a cheap skimmer thats not bad, and together with the algae scrubber nitrates are 0.
added some new fish to replace the losses from january, a lamarcks angelfish, copper band butterfly, longnose butterfly, trio of camel shrimp and a 3 stripe damsel cus my dad likes them.
now a whooole load of new pics
the lamarcks had its fins nipped in the tank he was rooming with a trigger, but he was active as anything, and cheap lol. both the butterflies and angel are eating now, mysis and my blend of frozen cocktail shrimp and clams, and todays the second day
pics











lovely white sand
and the tank colour is bluer now the skimmer is pulled out the yellowing from the turf scrubber

new small-ish update
everythings eating, got them all on mysis, blended clams and blended shrimp, blended the shrimp a bit too much but the zoas seemed to consume some of the tiny parts, just gotta defrost and rinse more i guess
soo happy everythings eating though, real relief i thought id spend ages training the CBB