Bonnie Shallow Reef - 75 gallon mixed reef

[Blubbernaut]

Rest of the rock arrived yesterday along with the sand. I've made some major progress with the aqua scape and its looking good waiting for the water to clear up before taking some pictures.

 

Been testing for Amonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Still 0 across the board and that's it been almost a week with rock.

 

It's cured LR, from the same place as I got my last batch and I cycled my tank pretty quickly then. Hate this waiting part >

Sounds tasty. I just moved the 'scape around yesterday myself, since some of the boulders were loose. Can't wait for the pics

Your tank looks so nice I want to bathe in it.

Um....My guess is you'd be able to fit about one arm in it.....

[polarblair2000]

Sounds tasty. I just moved the 'scape around yesterday myself, since some of the boulders were loose. Can't wait for the pics

 

Um....My guess is you'd be able to fit about one arm in it.....

Cool, do you have pictures of your new aqua scape. I still need to add my aptasia infested rock and the rock from my nano to finish it off but I'll get pics up today hopefully.

 

Haha, you can fit more than an arm in my tank, I reckon you could bathe in it if you really tried.

 

So after two weeks I haven't really seen any spike in ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. I have added fish food to try and get some kind of results but nothing. I have seeded the tank with some of my sand from my nano as well. This happened last time with the cured LR I got. I think I am seeing the start of diatoms or some kind of algae on the glass.

 

I have ordered by first batch of CUC which should arrive on Tuesday - 5 Trochus snails, 1 orange lipped conch and two hermits (they came with the pack) also I have orderd a true peppermint shrimp to take care of the aptasia. I've got most of the big ones with a syringe and vinegar but I see small ones appearing.

 

I added a small zoa frag last night as a test and it opened up really quickly, will see how it does over the next dew days. If all goes well ill be transferring the rest of the live stock soon.

 

Pictures to come this afternoon.

[BattleAthletics]

Um....My guess is you'd be able to fit about one arm in it.....

.....I was being sarcastic.

[polarblair2000]

Aquascape round 1

 

As promised some photographic updates of the tank as it stands today. Imm not 100% finished with the aqua scape. Theres still another 3-4 kg of rock to add from my nano tank.

 

 

Front View

 

 

Side View

 

 

Top down View

 

 

Zoomed in view of the "Trench"

 

Please give me your thoughts on the aqua scape so far. I really like the view from the side, which is where I view the tank from the most. But the first view of the tank you get when you come in to the room is from the front and I want it to be just as good from that side.

 

Im wanting to add more rock the the far end of the left wall (top left corner when looking from the top down photo) and I want to add some height to the left trench.

 

I really love the front right wall of rock and the random branches of rock I have coming out from the rock work.

[Blubbernaut]

Looks pretty nice. And no, sorry, I don't have any pics of my tank. I don't have anything to take them with....

[polarblair2000]

7. Chromis in Quarantine

 

Purchased some new inhabitants for the tank yesterday. I picked up three Blue/Green Chromis.

 

There were about 9 Ghost Cardinals that I was considering getting and I had trouble choosing between the two. I wanted a small group of fish in the tank and I love how the Ghost cardinals group together and look like a mini shoal of fish but except from that they arn't particularly striking and look like fresh water fish. So I decided to go with some blue/green Chromis like I had originally planned.

 

I really like them and think they are a very attractive looking fish. + my wife loves them so that settles it apparently

 

Bad news first though.

 

One of the three didn't make it. When I got them home they were all pretty dark in coloration but one was breathing heavily and on its side in the bag. I floated the bag and acclimated the fish for the next hour matching the water between the tank and the bag.

 

I hopped he would turn around but unfortunately he didn't make it.

 

Good News

 

The other two are doing very well and were eating this morning. I am feeding the frozen brine shrimp to start of with then i will try other frozen foods and then get them on pellets.

 

They also let me take some photos of them this morning.

 

 

 

[Blubbernaut]

ThEy'Re pReTtYyyyyyyy

[polarblair2000]

Well had a wee scare this evening. Power went out for 15mins, I was freaking out as I have no battery back ups. Was just about to start wrapping the tank up to keep it insulated when BAM the power came back on! - Definatly need to be more prepared for the next time.

 

Whilst I'm here, I got two more chromis in the QT the day after I got the first two. I was a bit worried if I added 1 the original two would bully it so I got two hoping it would even the odds, but the four of them are best of friends and they spend most of the time crushing around in a group

 

I was about to ramble on about how much I love the radion, my aquascaping adventures and the livestock transfer. But I'll save that for a proper image supplemented post.

[Blubbernaut]

Awesome. Yeah, I've had a couple power outages that both lasted around 6ish hours with no back-ups and everyone did just fine. I think you should have a school/shoal of 15 or so chromis

[polarblair2000]

Awesome. Yeah, I've had a couple power outages that both lasted around 6ish hours with no back-ups and everyone did just fine. I think you should have a school/shoal of 15 or so chromis

 

Yeah? I was reading that fish and coral "start to die after 4 hours" which puzzled me as I order nearly all my coral online and they take about 18 hours to arrive. But that's good to hear, our power cuts only really last a few hours anyway.

 

Haha, that would be cool. Almost got 7-9 blue eyed cardinals instead, they kinda shoal - shame they don't really move around or aren't more colourful otherwise they would of been perfect.

[Blubbernaut]

To be honest, I'm not much of a cardinal person myself. I much prefer damsels and chromis, since they remind me of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And whoever said that fish start to die after 4 hours lies. Probably takes more like 24 hours for fish, depending on species and how heavily stocked the tank is. But I could see it being 6-8 hours for the more touchy corals.

[1.0reef]

Chromis remind me of death

[polarblair2000]

To be honest, I'm not much of a cardinal person myself. I much prefer damsels and chromis, since they remind me of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And whoever said that fish start to die after 4 hours lies. Probably takes more like 24 hours for fish, depending on species and how heavily stocked the tank is. But I could see it being 6-8 hours for the more touchy corals.

 

Yeah the only thing that made me consider them is that they are really the only fish (I have heard of) that can shoal in a tank my size.

 

Damsels are pretty but I would never buy one, all I hear is that they are little bullies and really hard to cacth if you want to get rid of them.

 

Love my Chromis though. I have two that are maybe an inch and a half, one thats an inch and one thats 1/2 and inch. They look like a family.

 

Chromis remind me of death

 

How come? Did you find them difficult to keep?

[BattleAthletics]

Damsels are pretty but I would never buy one, all I hear is that they are little bullies and really hard to cacth if you want to get rid of them.

Iv'e moved mine about 3 times from different tanks. Not too hard to catch. I have the three stripped that doesnt mess with my 3 osc. clowns. It knows its place around them.

[1.0reef]

How come? Did you find them difficult to keep?

Because they always kill eachother off, cheapest ripoff ever to me. I'd much rather have a cardinalfish (Some are very bright, unlike PJ's) or some anthias.

Scape looks awesome!

[BattleAthletics]

baller overflow...

 

 

Love the overflow and the Balvenie. Personally my favorite distillery. Looks like a beautiful set up!

 

 

Sweat? Check! - I've broken into a few during this build, from planning wood like a mad man to struggling my way through plumbing in tight corners Blood? Yep, cut myself numerous times with saws and stanly blades Tears? Today, almost!!! All it seems to take is one minor but hugely irritation all thing to mate be go from all gooey eyed over my glass square to wanting to smash the damn thing with a sledge hammer. It's TOO LOUD! For the life of me I can't get the Xaqua to not sound like a water fall. I have tried moving that stupid pipe all over the place and nothing really works. My original plan was to take the hose tube and connect it to a small amount of hard plumbing that had a ball valve and a drain pipe leading to the sump, so I could shut of the feed from the display if I needed. Either it's quite and my tank almost overflows or the level is good in the display but so much air gets sucked down the tube it sounds like there is a raging river in my living room. I have disconnected the hard plumbing and put just the soft tubing and flopped it into the sump, it's not as bad, but still unacceptable. Ill post a less ranty post with photographs tomorrow hopefully, and try to explain myself better. I think I really need some advice on how to get this thing working better.

 

 

This overflow is awesome. The videos out there show the wavemaking potential. Do you have it on yours? Is it pricey?

[polarblair2000]

This overflow is awesome. The videos out there show the wavemaking potential. Do you have it on yours? Is it pricey?

 

Yeah I do get a nice rippling wave when the return is on by itself, but when the vortech goes on it kinda over powers it with what ever its doing which isto be expected as the MP40 moves a lot more water than the X-aqua.

 

Pricey? Kinda but plumbing in general is quite costly. If you consider the cost of a weir, bulkheads, pipe, connectors and valves there's no much difference. I got mine for just over £100. The reason I got mine was for the aesthetics, it takes up very little room in the tank which leaves more space for fish to swim and corals to grow.

 

As mentioned I had problems with noise but I've sorted that out. Still not silent like some of the other overflow designs out there, but I guess it's a compromise you need to make wether you prefer noise over looks.

[polarblair2000]

8. New Beginning

 

Over the past week since my last update I have been tinkering with the aquascape, move some rocks then stare at it for a few days then move some more rocks until I got something I really like. I wasn't happy with what I had originally, it was to rigid and not very natural. I kept the trench idea but tried to add in a lot more interesting shapes rather than two walls of rock.

 

So after many hours of wet arms and a few packets of epoxy later this is what I ended up with.

 

 

 

 

I have added a lot more overhangs and ledges within the rock work and tried to keep coral placement in mind when laying out the new scape. Im wanting to have dark areas to keep Dendros and sun corals and also allow places for fish to hide out if they want to.

 

As you can see in the photos there is life in the tank.

 

I transferred the livestock from my nano just over a week ago and mostly everything has either settled in or really excelling.

 

Meet the livestock

 

 

Meet the only fish in the tank at the moment, "Hercules" the clownfish. Here he is hosting his Duncan coral, it didn't take him long to find it again after the move.

 

 

I noticed today whilst I was feeding the duncan that there are 11 heads now from what I can see. There were 5 when I got it about 6 months ago.

 

 

Another one of the original members. "Marbles" the cleaner shrimp.

 

 

This guy is obviously camera shy as it was fully puffed out but as soon as I turned the camera on it closed up a bit. Anyway this is one of my newer Acans, seller called it Purple Lava.

 

 

One of my first Acans which as of late has been closed up and not eating or responding in the nano. Now its in the big tank, puffing up and getting its colour back day by day and eating like a champ.

 

 

Again for some reason this one closed up just as I was going to take a picture but this one really puffs out during the day and has gone back to a nice red colour, was a yucky yellow in my nano.

 

 

Not really in focus but this one is another of my newer Acans. Was brown in the nano, now its back to a lovely area of purples, res and blues.

 

 

Top down shot of the corals on the right hand island.

 

 

This is one of my favourite shots of the tank. Can't wait to take photos from this angle when its fully grown in with corals and fish.

 

You cab see my orange lobo which I forgot to take a picture of on the sand bed in the middle and my recovering Dendro frag under the overhang below the clownfish.

 

Coming up...

• Will be adding the 4 Blue/green Chromis to the tank in three weeks.
• Still waiting for the Vertex Omega 150 Skimmer to arrive in the UK
• Once I get the skimmer running and the left over algae gone I will look at getting some more LPS and Zoas
• Need to make some doors for the aquarium cabinet

More distant future plans for the tank

• Once I feel comfortable with the tank and keeping the LPS I will add some easy SPS, like Montiporia.
• Will be adding a Midas Blenny, another Clownfish, some kind of Goby
• Try out bio pellets with the tank

[Blubbernaut]

Yay for the chromis! That cleaner shrimp is kinda cute, I'd get one but I've found a small colony of hitchhiker shrimpies. They're pretty small, but I have no idea what type they are.

[Thelizardkin]

Looking good

[Rain24]

I like how the rockwork looks now! So much nicer!

 

I also love all those acans.

[Justind823]

Very nice.

[Hexadron]

So organized

 

The scape looks amazing!

[polarblair2000]

Yay for the chromis! That cleaner shrimp is kinda cute, I'd get one but I've found a small colony of hitchhiker shrimpies. They're pretty small, but I have no idea what type they are.

 

Love my Chromis! As they are such a cheap and common SW fish I felt I was maybe being a bit boring with my fish choice but I decided to screw what I felt other people might think and go with what I think looks nice and these guys are handsome looking fish.

 

Hitchhiking Colony of Shrimp? Sexy shrimp possibly?

 

I have a love hate relationship with my cleaner, I dove watching him scurry around and he is really interesting to watch. But he does drive me crazy when Im trying to feed my corals.

 

Looking good

Thanks

I like how the rockwork looks now! So much nicer!

 

I also love all those acans.

I know, Im really happy with it. Glad people think so too.

 

Yeah I really love them.

Very nice.

Thanking you

 

So organized

 

The scape looks amazing!

I try my best - Thanks, I really like it too. JUst trying now to decide on where Im going to put all my corals! - To many places in such a big tank. It was easier in a nano as I had less choice... to many options.

[Blubbernaut]

Hitchhiking Colony of Shrimp? Sexy shrimp possibly?

I honestly don't know what type they are. They kinda look like sexies, but at this point they're so small that a can't tell. Either way, though, I like them.