IPisces' 180

[user 26995]

There are a couple corals in the tank. I have a good size piece of pink stylophora in there and a stalk of blue xenia. The blue xenia is on one of the magnet rocks on the back wall. Thats were it will stay....hopefully. They are easy to remove so I am not too worried about it.
Just getting a feel for where I want things yet.
I am also going to pull the lock line on the closed loop returns, and take each one down from two nozzles to just one. I might need to add a powerhead to the tank too. I dont think the flow is quite enough for sps, but I may be wrong. I will see about putting another piece in today. There is a big piece of the birds nest that needs to be cut.

 

[Peppie]

Now the fun part has started all over again.
Looks great Lorie.
I am envious, that you get to decorate a new LARGE tank.

 

[user 26995]

Well, since I moved the fish out of the 54 corner tank, I moved the occupants of the 34 RSM into the 54. Those would be the RBTA, the picasso and platinum clowns and the black bar chromis. I acclimated the anemone in its rock and the fish in the same bucket. It was pretty funny when I picked the rock with the anemone up out of the bucket to put it in the tank, the two clowns never came out of it. They made the transfer from the bucket to the tank still in the anemone. I dont think they even know they've been moved.
I got myself stung too. While I was submerging the rock I was reaching across it to set it in place and the nem stung me pretty good on the forearm. It actually left welts.
So the 34 RSM is empty.

 

[Peppie]

How long do you thinks all this switching around will take.... A year or two ???? LOL

 

[user 26995]

How long do you thinks all this switching around will take.... A year or two ???? LOL

HAHA!!! nope...I'm on a roll now. The next two into the tank will be the blue hippo and the orange shoulder tang. I put the trap in the tank today and they have both been in it already. I will wait until next saturday and shut the door on one of them then. I'd like to move the orange shoulder over first then the next week move the blue hippo over. Then last but not least, the purple tang the next week.

 

[user 26995]

Well I caught the orange shoulder tang frinday and he/she is now in the 180. I caught one of the the chromis. The male. I want the female. I want them out of the 90 gal tank. Shes a little butt head!!!! So until I catch her, he is in the sump. I think they will go into the qt until I decide if I am going to keep them.
Next week I plan on catching the blue hippo tang and put him into the 180.

I put a few more corals on the tank. One of my acans went in and some how a branch on one of my acros was broken off, so I put that in the tank and a candy cane colony went in.

Oh and Peppie.....my trap works great!!! lol

 

[Peppie]

Well I caught the orange shoulder tang frinday and he/she is now in the 180. I caught one of the the chromis. The male. I want the female. I want them out of the 90 gal tank. Shes a little butt head!!!! So until I catch her, he is in the sump. I think they will go into the qt until I decide if I am going to keep them.
Next week I plan on catching the blue hippo tang and put him into the 180.

I put a few more corals on the tank. One of my acans went in and some how a branch on one of my acros was broken off, so I put that in the tank and a candy cane colony went in.

Oh and Peppie.....my trap works great!!! lol

Another success story!!
I knew that it was going to work, no matter how many times you had to take it appart and reassemble, or how many extra pieces you robbed. LOL
Glad to hear you transfers are going well.
Are things turning colors yet?

 

[user 26995]

Are things turning colors yet?

Things...meaning rock? No. With the move into the big tank and adding a couple more LARGE uncurred rocks I am going thru minor diatom algae bloom. The snails are keeping up with it though. I added a couple pieces of live rock covered in coraline to the tank. hopefully it wont be too long. I will probably regret that one day, when I have to scrape it off the front.

 

[user 26995]

I rinsed 60 lbs of sand today. I put all the sand thru three freshwater rinses. Started adding it to the tank...sorry Peppie....I am not going BB.
Adding 4 cups a day to keep the tank from getting too cloudy from the left over residue.

 

[Peppie]

I have been excited to follow along with your great build up till your last post. Now you have forced me to go against all my past values of running sand in a reef tank. That being said.
I will still follow your latest adventure in the reef keeping hobby. LOL
Keep up the good work, and dont forget to let US see.

 

[user 26995]

Yeah!!! I caught the female chromis. Her and the male are being acclimated to the qt/frag tank.

The big trap is now in the 90 to catch the blue hippo tang. I bait it with a sheet of seaweed rubberbanded to a small rock. Let it sit open all week so he gets used to it and keep it baited

Also, you remember that 4 out of the 5 bulkheads from the closed loop system had two nozzles on each one. Well I removed those 4 sets of lockline and changed them out to just one nozzle on each. It looks a lot cleaner and directs a heavier flow across the top of the rocks too.

Here is the area that I added some sand too so far. And a few corals I added.

So the sand bed will be just about the way it is here with just a little more coverage.

 

[Derbird]

Looks great!

How are you adding the sand without clouding up the water?

 

[N1Husker]

I put an acrylic mirror on the backwall of my trap and I couldn't keep the tang out of the trap. He was upset someone elsr was in his tank.

 

[user 26995]

I put an acrylic mirror on the backwall of my trap and I couldn't keep the tang out of the trap. He was upset someone elsr was in his tank.

LOL!!!
Thats too funny!!! Great idea

 

[user 26995]

Looks great!

How are you adding the sand without clouding up the water?

I am using aragonite sand. I rinsed the sand out three times in fresh rodi water. The first bucket was like 2% milk. The second was like fat free milk. The third bucket was still cloudy but not nearly as bad. I laid the sand out on towels outside in the sun for a couple hours, tranfered it to another towel and then dumped it in a shallow container. The towel soaked up most of the water. Then I am just using a plastic measuring cup and adding 1 cup at a time. It starts to haze up just a little about the 4th cup so I wait a few hours for it to settle before adding any more. The big thing is rinse, rinse, rinse!

 

[user 26995]

OMG....You know I moved my livestock from the 34 gal tank into the 54 gal tank since I had taken the fish out of it and put them in this 180. One of the lifestock I moved was a RBTA. Well My amemone split! I have never had an anemone spilt before. The big one doesnt look any smaller. The small one is already a pretty good size and beautiful. I noticed last weekend that what I thought was the anemone was just hangin out of three different holes in the rock. I knew there was two holes in that rock, and was thinking the other night that I didnt think there was a hole in the rock on one side that I saw the anemone on, but promptly forgot about it. I was right. There was no hole on that side of the rock.

 

[user 26995]

I know, its not in the 180, but here is the new baby anemone. Cant really call it a baby. Its already 5" in diameter

 

[Raamiah]

Too cool Lorrie! Looks like that clown has already laid claim to it.

 

[user 26995]

Too cool Lorrie! Looks like that clown has already laid claim to it.

Yeah, they are doing pretty good about splitting their time between the two nems.

 

[user 26995]

I caught the purple tang tonight. He was acclimated and released into the 180 just a little while ago. He has checked out the entire tank already, but still skittish when I come around. Go figure! LOL!

I have decided I dont want the blue hippo in the 180. I am going a different direction. I am not going to do sps in that tank, so I can have a couple fish that you cant have sps with. I want a dwarf angel and a butterfly fish.