Updated tank views
 

FTV's...

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0455.jpg

For those who haven't had a drink at the bar for themselves....
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0456.jpg

The view that only I see...(this is the far back corner, viewable only from one small spot in the fishroom.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0459.jpg

Looks Great Brad

J

Awesome, your fish look very very healthy. Way to go! :)
What about some chalk bass for a schooling fish? I was going to do blue stripe/eye cardinals but only have one left :(

Tank looks great. A tip about schooling fish is get them all at once from the same school at the LFS and even get a couple extra in case a couple don't survive. Fish from different schools may not bond and even if the same species can kill each other, even timid fish like chromis.

That sounds great. Your own wild kingdom. A snorkeling trip to Brad's house is a lot cheaper than a trip to the Caribbean.

Tom R

Woo, looky at all that white sand. Those gobies have been busy!! :biggrin:

Yes...it is completely different. It is far cleaner than I was ever able to make it by vaccuuming.

Just out of curiousity (and apologies if you've answered this before) but do you plan on replacing the sand at any kind of interval?

Without trying to open up too much debate on this topic, I'm sort of torn, for my 280, I want the benefits of a clean BB tank, but I like the look of a sandbed (at least when it's nice and clean). But I have to admit that there's no way that over the typical lifespan of a reef tank that I'm going to keep up with weekly vacuuming and whatnot. But then again, I don't want the sand for filtration, I just want it to look like a sea floor and not an aquarium floor.

I don't plan on replacing the sand. Further, it would seem that I will NEVER have to vaccuum the sand bed ever again. The tank is BB at the back and the sand varies in depth (depending on the mood of the Gobies) from less than 1" to over 4". At this depth and movement, I don't think the sand bed is providing any kind of anaerobic filtration.

The gobies have achieved the (almost) perfect compromise. Their downside is that they tend to place sand on top of the display rocks from time to time. This can bury a coral and do a lot of damage fast. They don't do it all the time, and I think that it is a breeding behaviour that causes them to suddenly decide to build a new mountain. (more on that later)

For me..I dislike the look of BB tanks. I was prepared to live with the sand as dirty as it was. Now, it is beautifully clean, but I have to pay a bit more attention to turkey basting than I used to and lower placed corals are at risk of being buried.

Get a strip of fiberglass sheeting...make the shapes you want..bumps, valleys etc..expoxy aragonite over it :) the thin fiberglass(like thick paper...)

do you have any problems with water clarity becuse of the sand and gobies. This is the problem i am having in my 280g but i dont know if it is from the sand or the 6 large tangs that i have.

Chris

The gobies certainly kick up some sand. It is 100% caused by the gobies. It is not that they directly kick up the sand, but they frequently deposit it directly in front of a CL outlet. As soon as the outlet fires, it shoots sand into the water column.

There are good times and bad times. I find it acceptable, but I'm sure other people would not.

Mostly, the goby behaviour is good. They munch away on the sand...dig under the rocks...and generally keep the tank looking very nice.

Unfortunately, from time to time, the male goby (I think the larger one is the male) seems to get obsessive about building a gigantic mound of sand that covers entire rocks and corals. If left undisturbed, I think he would attempt to move the entire sand bed into one large pyramid.

Here's a photo of his handiwork. The scary thing about this photo is that it took him ONLY 2 HOURS TO DO THIS. Only 2 hours earlier, I moved all this sand away.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0021.jpg

Now..the reason that I am blaming HIM for all this is that the female has disappeared again. It seems that when the female holes up (last time it was 3 days), the male starts this obsessive building behaviour. I don't know where the female is, but I strongly suspect she is under the pile trying to tend to some eggs.

If so... first dibs on a baby.:wink:

Female goby has returned (again...3 or 4 days). Yesterday, she appeared briefly only for feeding time. Today, she was out and about much more. After a little observation of her coming and going, I realized that they have tunnelled completely under a 3 foot rock.

They have entrances at both ends. If you look at the previous picture, that's about where the front door is (the male goby has buried the door in the photo) The back door is right close to the back wall of the tank...about 2 feet away.

No danger of rock shifting. All my rock was placed directly on the tank bottom. They must have found a hollow tunnel under the rock.

The male goby has returned to more tolerable behaviour....for now.

Thanks for the trip!
 

I've been riding along with this thread since the beginning. At > 100,000 hits, many of which were mine, I think it's time for me to express my appreciation. Thanks, Untamed, for all the fascinating information and entertaining video clips and images. Don't stop now. Your system is in place, but there is still much growth and change for us to monitor. Thanks again.:biggrin:

Ha...ha...and congratulations on your first post! You are always welcome to come see the live show.

Brad.

Well... I just read thru ALL 58 pages in full! Took me about 3-4 hours I think.

I must commend you are such a project! The tank is truly amazing. :biggrin:

Atlantic "Blue" Tang
 

A quick update:

All is well with the tank. The coral and fish grow...I chase the male goby around trying to remove his sand piles...I clean the glass and do water changes...I chop seafood, I chop seafood...The tank has just fallen into a rhythm.

All the frags I purchased at the recent auction are doing fine. I haven't lost a single one. (although one was foolishly attached near the green carpet and is being harrassed by the anemone) Only one has blossomed into what I paid for, so far.

One of the larger fish fragged my huge green digitata last night. Broke off a 6" branch and you can hardly notice it. If you look closely at this photo, you can see the spot where the branch was broken off.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0099.jpg

Here are some interesting pics...The first is the Atlantic Blue Tang on April 29...the second is the same fish on June 2. Why is my Atlantic Blue tang turning yellow?

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0079.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0088.jpg

Moe is definitely developing some streamers, so it looks like we don't have to change his name to Moe-reen!
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0089.jpg

Your tank is looking absolutely fabulous except for one horrendous little thing. It is completely overrun with gorgonians! You need to get rid of them at once. I can offer my services as a gorgonian disposal. I'm here for you man, and it's only your best interests that I have at heart with this most generous offer. :)

Fish look great, corals look great, everything looks great. Interesting about the tang. I wonder if it's a sort of "teenaged" colouration?

I'll keep you in mind, Tony! I'm sure it is those fern-like ones that you like. The larger, candelabra-type, seem pretty easy to come by. In that front cluster, there is one single blade-gorgonian. Unfortunately for you, those gorgonians are growing extremely slowly. I would predict a frag to be available in 2012.

I just checked your tank thread over on 3reef....

Very Impressive! You and Untamed are true Kings! lol

Tank looks great love the sand sifters, and Moe is one fine fish.:mrgreen:

Your tank has come a long way and looking good. Can't wait to see it in another year after things have really filled out. Keep up the good work.:biggrin:

FTS plzz:biggrin:

Well...it hasn't even been 1 month since the last bunch of FTS. Here you go. (you made me clean that bottom 1 inch of 'glas to get these....)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0105.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0104.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0103.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0100.jpg

Looks awesome!!!!

Very nice !!!:mrgreen:

Thanks all....As Snappy said..."another year"...

I'm personally very surprised with how it looks at this point. I did not expect it to look like this after 1 year. I figured it would take 2 or 3 years before it started to look quite nice, but coral grows a lot quicker in this tank than they ever did in my old one.

Brad.

Wow, really, really nice Brad...

Inspiring!!!

I don't know... I think those bar stools look kind of empty to me.:wink:
Yes, after some thought I think they need some butts on them. I will gladly offer mine to cover one of them at anytime you need. :lol:

And just think how cheap refreshments would be for ya.....we'd be too busy looking at the tank to worry about having drinks!

How has your fish room changed since you first set up this system, or has it? When you planned out your tank room did you over plan, or leave extra space for future unknown improvements?

I made only 1 change to the original plan, and that was the addition of the refugium. That used up just about all the flexible space that I had to work with.

I have the ability to improve the skimmer, provided I stay with an in-sump model. That area was designed to accomodate a skimmer up to 7 feet tall, 18" square. Outside of that, it is really difficult to make many changes back there because everything is crammed in. Right now, it is working, so I'm not inclined to make any changes.

I agree.

I've lost count of how many times i have read through this thread. Your hard work is paying off in a big way!

Water change system
 

Spec of the water change system has now been included on pg. 3 of this build thread.

SLICK!! haha... that is soo sweet!