Taqpol's 120 gallon All in Stand Reef Build

[MrGone]

Yep, very slim pickings in the Pullman area. I take it you must have got out of here?

The only coral I've ever got from Pets are People too is my really cool frogspawn, and all I have ever got from Palouse Pets are my three chalk bass and some snails covered in red planaria flatworms...

For the most part I get my corals from Aquatic Dreams or Aquarium Solutions in Spokane. I've also found some good deals at Bob's Pet and Pond in Lewiston, ID and made the trek across the state for the Barrier Reef Aquariums 3rd anniversary sale.

Actually I'm in Pullman (graduate this May) but I changed my location because it was getting confusing with the classifieds (but now I don't have 50 posts so I can't do anything anyway lol). I also changed it because my tank is at my Dad's house in Issaquah. I took it home at the beginning of last summer because it was getting to be too risky over breaks and such and I just wanted it somewhere stable.

I wasn't going to have a tank here this year found a 55g setup I couldn't refuse at the beginning of the semester. I've been so busy this semester I've barely had time to maintain it and haven't had any time to enjoy it so I'm breaking it down and taking it home this friday. Plus I never really got into this tank because I didn't want to buy duplicate equipment and supplies.

Although ironically I'm thinking about bringing my little picotope back because I can put it on my desk where I'll actually enjoy it and hopefully find some coral frags. I'll decide over break lol.

I'd love to check out your setup some time after break, it looks amazing! Barrier is awesome. I went to the sale last December but wasn't able to make this years because of school so my Dad went for me to snag some stuff. I haven't made it up to Spokane yet but I've heard really good things about Aquatic Dreams. If you need anything from Seattle over break let me know, I know how it goes

 

[Taqpol]

Actually I'm in Pullman (graduate this May) but I changed my location because it was getting confusing with the classifieds (but now I don't have 50 posts so I can't do anything anyway lol). I also changed it because my tank is at my Dad's house in Issaquah. I took it home at the beginning of last summer because it was getting to be too risky over breaks and such and I just wanted it somewhere stable.

I wasn't going to have a tank here this year found a 55g setup I couldn't refuse at the beginning of the semester. I've been so busy this semester I've barely had time to maintain it and haven't had any time to enjoy it so I'm breaking it down and taking it home this friday. Plus I never really got into this tank because I didn't want to buy duplicate equipment and supplies.

Although ironically I'm thinking about bringing my little picotope back because I can put it on my desk where I'll actually enjoy it and hopefully find some coral frags. I'll decide over break lol.

I'd love to check out your setup some time after break, it looks amazing! Barrier is awesome. I went to the sale last December but wasn't able to make this years because of school so my Dad went for me to snag some stuff. I haven't made it up to Spokane yet but I've heard really good things about Aquatic Dreams. If you need anything from Seattle over break let me know, I know how it goes

It'd be great to have you over some time so we could "nerd out". There seems to actually be a fair number of people in Pullman with reef tanks, but considering most of us are out of here in 1-4 years it seems like we would have trouble keeping a full fledged reef club going. Oh well, its only an hour up to Spokane and they have my two favorite stores AND a good reef club.

 

[Taqpol]

Not the best update. A little bit ago I saw one of my chromis really beat up looking, and the next day all three chromis had completely disappeared. I'm assuming they died in the tank because when I checked my nitrates they had jumped from 0ppm to 20ppm in a little over a month!

It might not just be the fish deaths, I also added the sargassum trigger and chevron tang in pretty quick succession, not to mention the fact that I have been feeding the tank extremely heavily each time I added a new fish as both the CBB, the trigger, and the chevron tang were quite finicky for the first week or two. I also do not have nearly enough flow in the cube tank and have been getting nuisance algae on the sand and some detritus buildup in the corners.

As possible solutions I am going to up my vodka and MB7 dosage slowly, cutting down on feedings slightly, and definitely looking into a flow upgrade for the cube tank.

 

[MrGone]

I've heard about it before but what does dosing vodka do? I hope the nitrates have settled back down.

I'm back in Pullman and brought my picotope and some soft corals over. I think it would be sweet to meet up, do you have any free time this weekend?

-Shawn

 

[Taqpol]

People dose vodka because it is almost pure ethanol, and ethanol is a carbon source for bacterial life, just like sugar or vinegar can be (when you see people dosing VSV, it means Vodka-Sugar-Vinegar). When you dose this to your tank the bacteria start proliferating rapidly because they have extra food, and when they do so they have to use nitrates and phosphates from the water to build new cellular machinery. Eventually they're growth plateaus out and the population crashes because there is not enough food for all the new little beasties. They're dead carcasses are then skimmed out by (normally) oversized skimmer and take all that nitrates and phosphates with them.

MB7 is just a bottle of "natural" good salt water bacterias so that when you dose vodka you select for grown good bacterias and not bad ones like cyano.

I don't really know what I'm doing this weekend, but when I find out I'll get back to you!

 

[Taqpol]

I really like the look of my ORA Spongodes. It took a LONG time to start encrusting enough to hold itself in place when I dial up my vortech, but now that it has it is really taking off.

I still think this is the hardest coral to photograph, looks much better in person!

Close up of a growth tip on my Pearlberry. I love the colors it has developed.

Believe it or not I always have trouble photographing my Birds of Paradise as well. Look how much that Purple Haze has grown in the background!

I think someone requested some pics of my green candy cane colony, so here it is.

 

[Taqpol]

This is one coral I've always wanted to showcase, but could never get good enough shots of. This is a maricultured acropora I picked up and then almost immediately had troubles with it. Most of it has recovered completely now, but the interesting side effect is that most of it has long, fluffy polyps, one branch has really retracted polyps and a green base.

When you look closer you can see that it actually has a coral barnacle living inside it!

In an even closer shot you can sorta see the feeding net sticking out of its one tiny hole. I have a video of it feeding I'll try and upload later.

In other news, I convinced my fiance to try and take pictures of my tank the other day. She is amazing with landscape and flower photography so I thought she might enjoy taking pictures of the corals. Turns out she hates it (having to shoot straight through the glass and use a tripod was to restrictive for her), but managed to take some amazing fish photographs!

 

[iroll253]

Awesome update! Those are great pictures.

 

[Taqpol]

Guess what, I have more pictures!

For some reason both of my tangs like eating off of the sand, sometimes even more so then the rocks.

Its also crazy to see the black coming in on my picasso clowns.

 

[Taqpol]

1/26/2010

Left Island

Right Island

And my two favorite pictures of the day,

New maxima clam, hopefully it colors up even more.

and I FINALLY got a flasher wrasse flashing picture!

 

[Taqpol]

Also, videos!

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[jake65]

great pics Alex! luv the wrasse

 

[Taqpol]

Awesome update! Those are great pictures.

Thank you!

great pics Alex! luv the wrasse

I really like wrasses now. I think I'm going to try and pick up a fairy wrasse in the near future, but you really have to see them in person before you buy because they can be so variable.

 

[Taqpol]

I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but I just now took the time to go back through all of my pictures.

FTS progression time!

5/5/09 - Started filling the tank!

5/11/09 - All of my old livestock transferred, everything pissed off.

5/21/09 - Going through my algae outbreak.

7/9/09 - Added cover to overflow, still having remnant hair algae problems.

9/1/09 - All the algae is gone, but now I have flatworms. Last FTS containing both my original tangs.

10/28/09 - A bunch of new corals.

11/17/09 - Toadstool gone.

12/13/09 - Sargassum Trigger and CBB.

1/26/10 - Latest.

 

[OCDreefer]

Man some of those corals are growing like weeds. Looks great. What caused your algae outbreak? and how did you get rid of it? I am dealing with a similar problem right now.

 

[Taqpol]

The Algae from May to July came from transferring algae covered rocks from my 38 gallon (not enough skimming in that tank) along with some new-ish rocks that hadn't been cured enough before I added them. Chemicals in the water were fine (no detectable nitrates/phosphates) but there were so much bound up in the rocks it took months for the algae to deplete it all. After a few months of HEAVY skimming and weekly or biweekly 10% water changes the algae was gone.

 

[MrGone]

Very cool! It's fun to see the progression pictures and get to the point when everything is stable again. How do you like the MP40w's? The tank looks amazing, I can't wait to see all the SPS's grow out.

 

[Taqpol]

Well, I got my phone call today! After a stressful week of not knowing I have been accepted into the Duke Molecular Genetics and Microbiology grad school program. That means sometime between May and July of this year my tank has to take a journey pretty much across the entire United States. Wish me luck!

 

[DolphinLVR]

Well, I got my phone call today! After a stressful week of not knowing I have been accepted into the Duke Molecular Genetics and Microbiology grad school program. That means sometime between May and July of this year my tank has to take a journey pretty much across the entire United States. Wish me luck!

Wow! Thats awesome news! I wish you nothing but the best in your new adventure!

 

[jake65]

congrats Alex!!