fewskillz' 180 gallon adventure!

[pyronus]

Nice score man!

 

I think you should try SPS again without worrying about dosing too much. Try one or 2 small colonies and maybe use kalk in your top off water. With a small demand and such a large water volume it shouldn't be too hard to keep some nice pieces. Especially with that light you have there.

[fewskillz]

I probably will after a few things settle out. The new lights will help a lot, my 175s are pretty old and my ballasts all run very differently. I'm also bailing on the Natural Seawater, the phosphates are too much of a nuisance. So I'm picking up another Brute and I just ordered 200 gallons worth of Instant Ocean. I have a low bioload, a good skimmer, I feed moderately, and I do pretty regular water changes, so there's no reason I should be having any film algae or cyano problems, but I am.

 

As of yesterday the plan was to setup a small reef for my clowns and shrimp and get some aggressive fish for the 180. Coming across cheap halides will really change your plans though!

[MikeTR]

You're gonna love them lumenbrights.. that's what I have. Your tanks comin along nicely. As soon as I can epoxy a few pieces of rock in place I'll be able to put the canopy back on. The coverage is really good on them.

[pyronus]

Have you tried a GFO reactor? Also if you are having serious phosphate problems a lot of guys that run huge reef tanks use Lanthanum Chloride which is a cheap phosphate binder used in swimming pools.

 

Never had need to try it myself but from what I read, it can really be used to get phosphates out of the water and is a viable alternative to running GFO on a large reef because GFO can become really expensive for larger tanks.

 

It forms an insoluble precipitate that you need to catch using a really fine filter sock, and dosing too much at once could fog glass, but used in the right amounts is reef safe and has been effective in a lot really nice large reefs that I have seen.

 

Link

[fewskillz]

A GFO Reactor is on the list, I was going to order it with next week's paycheck until I found the 250's. I've got some Phosban coming to help in the short term since I was ordering filter pads for the FW tanks from F&S anyways. I think switching to synthetic salt will help most of my problems, the phosphates come from the NSW.

[fewskillz]

 

[Needreefunds]

No dancing until installed please.

 

...gonna be sweet Chris.

[MikeTR]

Use stainless steel screws. Cost a bit more but it wont rust your reflectors.

[fewskillz]

250's installed!

 

[MikeTR]

[Needreefunds]

[spanko]

YEAH BABY!!!!!!

[JDigital]

Sweet.. Same pendents I have over my 180G.. Sorry if I missed it, but what bulbs are you running?

[fewskillz]

No idea what bulbs they are, no markings on them. There's a hand-written 14 on each of them inside of the glass on a bit of the metal.

 

Ice Cap electronic ballasts with the nice ballast covers, Lumenbright Mini reflectors, no name looks like 14,000k lamps. They only have a few months on them and I just got laid off so they will do for now. The color is nice, a bit purple for my tastes since I prefer my blues 420nm rather than 460nm, but that's just me nitpicking.

[Lalani]

Ya, ditto. Sure is bright in here.

[fewskillz]

Apparently a red firefish can fit through 1/4" mesh. Found him baked to a crisp on the wrong side of the mesh lid. I liked that little guy, he wasn't scared of any of his tank mates. He looked awesome under the new lighting too.

[fewskillz]

Added 7 frags today.

[Weetabix7]

Added 7 frags today.

 

I refuse to believe this silliness until proof is provided.

[fewskillz]

I did. I swear. I'll take pictures tonight. I added a small yellow toadstool leather, a nice little chunk of green favia, 3 heads of green/red candy cane, a pink birds nest, 2 yellow monti digitatas, 4 heads of purple tipped frogspawn, and 5 polyps of bam bam zoas. So 9 frags, not 7.

[fewskillz]

Time to replenish the ole CUC...and order some cool inverts because they're included in the Build Your Own Reef Cleaner category with free shipping! Liveaquaria rocks. I'm excited about the cucumber, my sand looks like crap.

 

Astraea Turbo Snail, Qty:10

Nassarius Snail, Qty:5

Mexican Turbo Snail, Qty:2

Cerith Snail, Qty:15

Peppermint Shrimp, Qty:3

Porcelain Crab, Qty:2

Brittle Sea Star, Qty:1

Snapping Shrimp, Qty:2

Sea Cucumber, Qty:1

[fewskillz]

FTS

 

I hate my sand, but Lalani's ricordea is finally starting to grow. It's even spit off a couple of babies.

 

Skunk cleaners with new Frogspawn

 

New leather

 

Monti Cap

 

Monti Digitata

 

Monti digi top, candy cane middle, birdsnest bottom

 

Favia

[saltwatercoral]

New coral addidtions look great! The more I look at everyones tanks and see a mix of everything the more I think I want to try the same thing.

[fewskillz]

*on FedEx vehicle for delivery*

 

One of my favorite phrases!

[Weetabix7]

*on FedEx vehicle for delivery*

 

One of my favorite phrases!

 

I know exactly what you mean! Is it more fishies? Cause you need more.

Also, I like the new Leather.

[fewskillz]

I know exactly what you mean! Is it more fishies? Cause you need more.

Also, I like the new Leather.

Just clean-up-crew and fun inverts from the Build Your Own page on LiveAquaria, there's a list a few posts ago.

 

I do need more fishies, the tank is not nearly active enough for my liking. I'm hoping my LFS has a black friday sale, my QT is empty and ready for a guest. They have a nice McCosker's and a couple of dwarf angels I've been eyeing. Lemonpeel, Bicolor, or Flame is the question.

 

I like the new leather, too. You don't see many yellow corals. It can't decide if it likes being under the 250s or not. I'm going to try to find it a shadier spot.