Uhuru Part II - ADA 120-P w/overflow

[octoman]

hey, how's the tank doing? May i recommend some red saddled anthias for your fish list? I wish i had a tank big enough for them.

[Amphiprion1]

I second the call for updates!

 

What would be cool once the mangroves have grown in would be to attach many of the azooxanthellates to the roots and stems. I've seen pics and footage of them hanging on a "aerial" root, basically floating midway in the water column. Cool stuff.

 

Something like this:

or this

[Uhuru]

Hello! The last few wks have been so crazy trying to get everything up and running. Not even time to take pics, sorry! But everything is looking good. There is some algae which is expected but my planted tank seems to be getting the most of it. Like you amphi I've let the planted rank become an algae scrubber within itself. I like your ideas guys, keep em coming:) Im out of town for the next few wks, I'm hoping I come home to a slightly more mature tank. You have to see the refrigerated doser I've been running. It feeds everything, corals and fish, on an hourly basis. 4 different dosing pumps to feed a variety of foods. Right now I have a shoal of blue eye cards and a pair of sunburst anthias, all fat and happy and I don't have to do much.

 

Oh the sad thing though is I lost my potters angel during capturing and my Ada tank is far from Ada quality. Very disappointed in the quality. FYI the German made ADA tanks are inferior to the newer Chinese made ones, which is why ADA made the switch. I think ADA shouldve done something for the customers that bought German tanks during the transition. Ironically the German manufacturing plant is the sane one that makes GLA tanks.

[Justice]

Hello! The last few wks have been so crazy trying to get everything up and running. Not even time to take pics, sorry! But everything is looking good. There is some algae which is expected but my planted tank seems to be getting the most of it. Like you amphi I've let the planted rank become an algae scrubber within itself. I like your ideas guys, keep em coming:) Im out of town for the next few wks, I'm hoping I come home to a slightly more mature tank. You have to see the refrigerated doser I've been running. It feeds everything, corals and fish, on an hourly basis. 4 different dosing pumps to feed a variety of foods. Right now I have a shoal of blue eye cards and a pair of sunburst anthias, all fat and happy and I don't have to do much.

 

Oh the sad thing though is I lost my potters angel during capturing and my Ada tank is far from Ada quality. Very disappointed in the quality. FYI the German made ADA tanks are inferior to the newer Chinese made ones, which is why ADA made the switch. I think ADA shouldve done something for the customers that bought German tanks during the transition. Ironically the German manufacturing plant is the sane one that makes GLA tanks.

 

 

Thanks for the update Uhuru! I can't wait to see some pics of everything. I'm curious to know whats wrong quality wise with your ADA tank?

[Uhuru]

Oh yeah I changed out the tunze pumps for 3 mp10w es pumps. So far it seems to be enough but we'll see once the tank fills up.

[Fishfreak218]

Thanks for the update Uhuru! I can't wait to see some pics of everything. I'm curious to know whats wrong quality wise with your ADA tank?

IIRC, something having to do with air bubbles in the silicone seams? Purely an aesthetic problem, not a structural problem. But thats the problem- the reason people choose ADA over other tank manufacturers is because of the aesthetics! tisk tisk :/

 

(hopefully Uhuru doesnt mind me answering the question for him )

[octoman]

sorry about ur potters. Man, that sucks He was sooo cool! Hope you get some nice fish like that one.

[animalmaster6]

Sorry about the Potter's Angel

[octoman]

ooh, sunburst anthias! my favs!

[octoman]

http://gobyfrontiers.org/gf/eg-086.htm you need one of these it would be, like, pimpin!

[Amphiprion1]

Sorry about the angel and the tank itself. On the other hand, I'm glad to hear that things are maturing. Yeah, the algae is natural, but you'll see a progression over time. I'm noticing that my turf algae is beginning to wane as the tank matures. You just have to be very patient and let things take place naturally. I know you feed a good deal more than I do, but I've still got extremely low phosphate and undetectable nitrate concentrations, respectively, with 5x daily feeding (4x with frozen--3 of which is broadcast style for invertebrates). With a slightly larger tank and a lot of photosynthesis, you may very well be able to keep undetectable levels or very close to it. I'm very interested to see how that works out.

 

Anyway, about the aquascaping ideas, just do some image searches on Raja Ampat, which is where both of those pics are from. It was the first place they found that such corals grow right on top of the mangroves.

[Uhuru]

According to my mom who is watching my tanks for me, the algae has all but disappeared from the planted tank and the grasses are really taking off. She said the grass looks gorgeous and the water is super clear. Before I left I couldn't even see through the glass because the algae was growing so thick. I asked her to send me a pic and I will update it in my planted tank build thread. Depending on how things look I might have to ask her to increase the feedings. Crazy, considering how much I feed already.

[animalmaster6]

Can't wait to see it!

[d'Espresso]

meee toooooo! lets see sum pitchers

[Uhuru]

I have been staying in Boston (at MIT) doing some pretty cool research work dealing with things like neuroscience, brain mapping and the latest in genetic modification/embryo transfer technology. Still, my brain was hungry for more! So, this past weekend I had the chance to visit the NE Aquarium. Overall I was impressed with the quality of their displays, the health of their animals, the amount of conservation education they had interlaced into everything and how friendly the volunteers were with answering question after question. I know there are better aquariums out there, but there are also much, much worse ones.

 

Anyway, here are some pics. I have a ton more, as well as videos, but I won't be able to post everything tonight. Also I didn't have a chance to do any color and brightness correction so sorry in advance.

 

The first thing that caught my attention was the vet clinic with windows so everyone can see the medical side of things:

 

 

A Queen Trigger healing from a wound.

 

I could see myself working here (doubt it would actually happen though).

 

Couple of downdraft skimmers and lots of UV for the hospital tanks.

[animalmaster6]

The NE Aquarium is incredible. I want to intern there but it's hard to do.

[Uhuru]

On to some of the animals I saw...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the coolest tank they had there. My camera does this tank no justice. It rivals the most colorful SPS tanks out there:

 

 

 

[animalmaster6]

Did you see the Rhinopias Frondosa in the scorp tank? He's incredible.

 

That anemone tank is also stunning! Definetly more colorful than a lot of SPS tanks.

 

Did you get a behind scene look at the aquarium?

 

That triggerfish is always in one spot in the Giant Ocean Tank, so I think I know who he is. I wonder what happened

 

I'm going to the NE Aquarium again in the next two weeks

[Uhuru]

Yeah I have a pic of the Rhinopias too I'll post it later. There was another Queen Trigger in the giant tank, maybe even more. There were a few fish where you could tell they got into a fight. Even in something that big I guess they can still have territorial battles. I didn't get a behind the scenes tour. Would've been nice though.

[animalmaster6]

Oh I know where you got those pics. Nevermind

 

They made that tank well. There is a lot of territories but in any tank with triggerfish, parrots, wrasses, tangs, damsels, jacks, trevallies, there will be fights....

[Uhuru]

Just a little update. I have added a Genicanthus bellus female to my tank, and she's eating like a pig. I also added a few Dendronephthya corals. One from DD which came in excellent condition, and 2 from BZ which came in questionable condition. One of them looks like it might be ok but the other is a DOA.

 

I used the club PAR meter to test my tanks today, and was very impressed with the output of this 4 x 39w T5 setup. I was consistently getting about 200 on the sandbed, with the lights a full 14" above the water surface.

 

In comparison, my seagrass tank which has a 250w Iwasaki 6500K bulb in a lumenmax pendant, also measured about 200 PAR around the edges, and almost 300 in the "hot spot." This light is about 10" from the water surface. Both tanks are the same height, but the seagrass tank has a 6" sandbed so in total the sandbed is much closer to the light.

 

Just for fun, I measured the PAR on the sandbed of my NPS tank, which is lit by a 5 x 3w Cree LED lamp and got about 100 or less.

 

Tonight I'm going to switch out some of the T5 bulbs and see how much the PAR decreases, but man these overdriven 6500K T5 bulbs are monsters!

 

With that being said, I'm sticking to all azoox stuff in this tank for now, except for a birdsnest that I got as a freebie from Fraggle Reef (great customer service). I'm going to see if I can get this to grow despite the high nutrients and provide "treats" for my OSFF from time to time.

[Zer0]

Ya know... i'm sittin' here waiting for this tank to become a bombshell.. yet i be seein nuffin.

 

What's the status on this tank dude?

[Uhuru]

Thanks for checking! The tank is doing very well. I will try to get an FTS this weekend, but if not this weekend the next for sure. For now, here is a vid of one of my dendronephthya corals, and if you watch through it you can see my bellus angel swimming around a bit too.

 

[Giga]

Lookin good my friend

[animalmaster6]

Some of those NPS are just stunning.