47 Column Mixed Reef

[animalmaster6]

I'm sorry about the dottyback

 

That Splendid is awesome!

[aaron1987]

Great tank! I just bought one two weeks ago, and was wondering how to light it - I think I've found my answer! Glad I found it when I did (and on clearance from Petsmart!).

 

Couple of questions if you don't mind:

 

Did you get your skimmer online or at a LFS?

Any issues with heating your tank? (I'm thinking 200 Watt to be safe)

You mentioned your flow a couple of times - any reason for the 20 (Other than its a cool toy , or did the Hydor's just make too much wave action on top (I think it is a combo if I remember through the thread correctly). Would two K2's handle flow?

 

Sorry for all the questions!

 

Thanks

 

No worries about the questions, that's the purpose of this site -- find out from someone who's already been there .

 

The skimmer I got used in NR's classifieds, I wouldn't go any less powerful than the HX2 (I'm quite happy with mine and their customer service is top notch) if you're keeping SPS there are several other quality HOB skimmers around its price range. One of the others I was looking at in addition to an octopus 800s, deltec MCE600, was the Bermuda Rogue. It's not very well known but it's an absolute beast of a skimmer and possibly overkill http://www.bermudaaquatics.com/rogue.htm . I ran a Remora C when I first set the tank up and it wasn't up to the job.

 

Just checked the wattage of my heater; 250w stealth but 200 is probably fine unless your house is freezing.

 

Flow is the ultimate trick in these tanks. You're correct in your read through that it was a combo of the MP20 being a cool toy and the K3's I was running being too much flow up top. That said, the reason they were too much is that I couldn't space them in such a way that they weren't directly flowing into an SPS colony an inch or two away and not so much total flow being a problem. I was actually happier with the overall flow in my tank with the two K3's and the K1 than I am with the MP20 and K1 (but I couldn't have half the SPS up top that I do were I still using a K3 up top so the MP20 is better for them). A lot of that is my rock structure, though. In an ideal world I would run two MP20's but that gets expensive. I'm not sure what your livestock or aquascaping plans are but if you're going to be doing the same sort of thing I did, two K2's won't be enough. I'd at least do K3's and plan your stocking and scaping better than I did if you want to use Koralias . To get nice agitation up top for SPS you will need 2 pumps with colliding flow and another to move the bottom around -- I really don't think there's a good way to agitate both the top half and bottom half of this shape of aquarium well without two 'sections' if you will, of flow unless you stick two powerful pumps right in the middle but you'll have very little surface agitation that way.

 

Sorry for the rambling response, hopefully it helped. If you have any other questions feel free to ask away!

[Arc Katana]

Hey thanks for the info Aaron! Would two K3's on the bottom back corners facing up, and then two of the new EVO Nano's (425 GPH) on the top corners facing down handle it? Then again, I don't think I'll be very heavy into SPS's, so that may be overkill.

 

Thanks again, love the tank!

[animalmaster6]

Splendid on DD

[aaron1987]

Right before I leave town for a week! Drat.

 

Arc Katana - I think that might deliver flow well, the big question mark is aquascape that you'll have to play with on your own and figure out what works and doesn't but theoretically at least it sounds like it would move water fairly well.

[violinist]

Including those already added? I just assumed they were territorial but not outwardly aggressive to fish that had already been added in typical pseudochromis fashion. Bummer if they're truly that aggressive.

 

Had one that was added after two azure damsels who were added after two clowns. It pretty much kept to itself and would beat down the damsels if they started encroaching on him, that was it. No murderous rampages killing every fish in the tank. Added another damsel after the pseudochromis had been in the tank for a good while, again no murder spree.

[reefer123]

wow . y isnt this totm yet?

[aaron1987]

Thanks for the kind words reefer123. All things in time . I'm back from spring break and grinding out the rest of the semester. I'm being kept busy enough I haven't been able to tackle the storm that has been brewing in my aquarium from while it was in my friend's care over break. He overfed a bit and the basslet rotting away at the bottom of the tank under the pillar where I couldn't retrieve him compounded the issue. I also mistakenly instructed him to top off with a bucket prepared for a water change and not pure RO which resulted in a sg of 1.031 . I've brought it down to 1.026 and will continue until I've got it back to 1.024.

 

The result of this has been a severe loss of coloration to several pieces of SPS, although not the ones I would have expected. I also have hair and bubble algae coming out the you know where. My birdsnests have bleached almost completely, my rainbow monti is toast (RTN'd), other tyree monti's have lost a decent amount of color and mille's have zero PE. I've also lost some coloration in my acros but nowhere near as badly as the birdsnests. I figured if anything the Torts and Purple Monster would be the most dramatically effected. This hobby always surprises me.

 

The algae will be taken care of in short order, I placed a rather large order with Blue Zoo for CUC members (nassarius, ceriths, nerites, and a fighting conch - as well as a hairy sea hair that will have me hair algae free about 48 hours after I receive it based on past experiences). I'm also taking a stab at another McCosker's Flasher Wrasse... Hopefully the third time is the charm with these guys. My previous two attempts resulted in dead fish out of the blue after a couple months for no apparent reason, which is a shame because they are one of my favorite fish. I'm hoping for a painfree introduction despite the velvet fairy wrasse that I keep, I hear there may be some initial chasing. Anyone with long term term success with them care to chime with what you do for them (if anything special)?

 

I'm not as upset about the coral as I might have been. The rainbow monti was taking up some seriously prime real estate and I had fragged it for several friends so I can get a new frag once the tank is back under control and place it in a less ideal spot. I'll be shocked if the birdsnests don't recover (and even if they don't, let's be honest.. they could regrow in a month from fresh frags) I also expect the Mille to recover. The good news is that I imagine the basslet is about finished decomposing at this point and if its not, the army of nassarius snails I ordered will make short work of what's left. Feeding will be back to more controlled levels and I fully expect that my every 3rd day water changes will have me out of the woods in short order. It's disappointing to have to wait on coloration to return but all things considered, I'm glad I didn't experience a full on crash.

[bitts]

sorry to hear about the mishap but glad it was no worse than it was.

[aaron1987]

As long as someone can always say that about my mishaps, I will will be in pretty good shape

[animalmaster6]

Sorry to hear about the losses

 

Pics when the CUC arrives!!

[aaron1987]

Pics of the tank or pics of the CUC? I might be persuaded to take pics of the new arrivals but I'm not sure I want to show how bad the tank itself is . Once they've worked their magic I'll be sure to post some new pics, though!

[animalmaster6]

CUC I love sean hairs and conches.

 

I have a Tonga Fighting Conch thst i love!

[bitts]

dont worry it will be back on its way to totm in no time.

[aaron1987]

As promised, here are some pictures from my order with Blue Zoo. I was quite impressed with the packing and the inclusion of a drip acclimation line was a nice touch. All the livestock was in great shape and has taken to my aquarium quite nicely.

 

The box

 

Unpacked!

 

Warming everything up; the bags were a bit cool

 

 

Using the handy dripline that Blue Zoo included

 

Lawnmower

 

Wow! I was blown away by how small this guy was. Maybe a hair over 1". Really little guy.

 

I got everything acclimated and into their new home and took off for Chicago for the weekend.. Where I found something that piqued my interest. Here's a teaser since it's still floating in the bag.

[aaron1987]

After trying for entirely too long, I finally managed to snag a semi-focused picture of the new addition. The little guy has got to be on crack; I don't think I've seen him stop darting around the tank yet. He's also been displaying far more than any other that I've seen so he's quite entertaining to watch

 

 

[Diskusting]

wow these column tanks are impressive. Must be hard to reach the bottom of the tank for stuff though.

[aaron1987]

Not only that but the way I have mine aquascaped it's almost a guarantee that I'll knock something else off if I'm reaching for the bottom because there's so little room between the SPS and glass.

[bitts]

that new guy looks great. hope the tanks doing better.

[aaron1987]

It is. Still not ship-shape just yet but the massive number of inverts is doing wonders even over the 3 days they've been in the aquarium. I got less algae on the glass over a weekend than I would have in 24 hours a week ago and my skimmer has settled down considerably. The sea hare has his work cut out for him but he's devouring the hair algae like a champ.

[Justind823]

This tank makes me want to set-up a column tank immediately.

 

This is really awesome.

[aaron1987]

Thanks Justin! It's a love-hate relationship. Love it right up until I have to do any aquascaping or maintenance inside the tank

[aaron1987]

I didn't even bother to mention the small green clove polyps that I got from Blue Zoo because I bought them to round out my order and figured they'd be the typical green center with boring grey feathering.. boy was I wrong. They opened for the first time today. I love surprises! This picture was taken with flash on:

 

[bitts]

now thats nice.

[animalmaster6]

Wow.