Very Nice! :biggrin:

what and how did you paint inside of your over flow?

Looking great

Thanks all .... Steve , I had the tank builder add in a piece of black acrylic to the inside of the overflow and then painted the rest of back side to match it . That being said this was probably the only thing i was not pleased with on the tank when I got it. You can see where it was glued on , and does show a little lighter shade of black . I plan on changing it out one of these days , and redoing it . I'm sure it can be done so the glued areas do not show thru on the front side of tank . That being said it is better in my opinion than leaving it visible to see thru.

For those of you dosing your tanks , do you know if you need to add some type of air stone or small powerhead to your buckets or containers if you are mixing more than a month of supply ? I am planning on making custom containers from acrylic to hold 3 + months of Mag,Calc., and Alk. Just trying to see if I should incorporate some form of mixing device in them .

TIA -Russ

Haven't had much time lately to post an update on things , keep meaning to , but never get around to it.

Still checking things out on the boards though , so I felt a little guilty and made some time to update things.

Tank has almost been on auto pilot since I started on the dosing system and got rid of my reactor, I must say I can't believe I haven't got around to this earlier . All parameters seem to be staying rock solid over the past 5 months or so , and when I need to boost it up for growth using the Profilux doser is so easy , takes 2 secs to up the dosage by a few Ml. and double check it in a week or so and I'm good to go. Only real issue I've had lately is freaking aptaisia growth , ( still on the lookout for a helthy Copperband to add into the mix )

Also looking for reviews on the new line of Deltec Skimmers , I've had my Deltec 902 for 5 years or so and it has been awsome for me , but I'm starting to look around for something new as it's almost time to replace pumps and such on it so I figured I would see how people are liking the new models , and decide from there.

Here's a couple of vids I tried with my new Cannon 7d . Please bear with me on the quality as it's definetly going to take a bit to perfect it.


http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u..._1069_xvid.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u..._1068_xvid.jpg

It looks fantastic man!!! Wow, I had forgotten how inspired I was by your tank room and aquascaping. Thanks for the bump and reminding me. :lol:

Man the combo of lots of fish and those stags is just awesome!! The tank looks just great, I wish I had gone with a more inspired look for my aquascaping, rather than the "two piles" look.

well i could have fun with your 902 skimmer i pmed ya too

thanks Christy and Tony,

Skimmer King , If I decide to go the new route I will let you know or post up a price , for now just doing some research on it and see what others have to say .

Incredible looking colonies and really enjoy how you've laid them out as well. Are your fish ever snapping branches off? Some of those look so long and must be delicate!

Thanks Brett. As much as I would like to blame my fish for accidental frags, it's usually me and not them.

tried my first HD Video with my Cannon 7d , found out it's a lot tougher than it looks to shoot a good video . I now have even more respect for those of you that post videos that look so professional. Hopefully next attempt turns out a little better.

I have added in a few more fish as well , most notably a juvi Goldflake ( may be hybrid , still waiting for it to finish changing color ) and a larger Copperband that has been in my quarantine for over 5 weeks , and I'm happy to report is eating extremely well. I have tried many times over the years to get one that would survive more than a few months , hopefully this is one. I love them not just for the Aptasia control , but I find them a great looking fish as well. Fish total in tank now is 30 .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hljTHY55_Zk&hd=1


Updated video of fish room area - please ignore back wall of tank , as I'm in the process of removing paint to repaint it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9shRB6BYKg

Very nice! Tank is looking great.

Now there is a guy with some cajones.....a bold move putting a goldflake in a beautiful reef like that.....how is it behaving so far?

Thanks , as far as Goldflake so far so good...... he's eating well on most foods I put in , and with all my Anthias in the tank it is fed at least 3 to 4 times a day , so hoping this will limit his picking on too many corals . Goldflakes have not "too bad" a rap for picking on corals , and I wanted a few angels in my tank so though I would give it a go. Time will tell I guess.

Thought I would try to keep a small progress report on some new fish that I have in Quarentine. Last week I picked up 13 Red Spt Cardinals from Paul at Oceanic Corals . They had been in for about 3 to 4 days at his shop , and all 13 were doings well , and eating almost everything he had put in. I have had them at home now in Quarentine for 5 days and all are eating , flake , cyclopeeze and small mysis . If all goes well I plan to give them 2 to 3 weeks and fatten them up a bit before trying them in my Main Tank.

I know some people , myself included have had a hard time being successful with these , which is why I thought I would let people know how I make out , hoping it all goes well , as they add some a cool part to any tank in my opinion.I will try to update every few weeks to amonth at the beginning for anyone interested

Couple of pics today , ( very quick so hard to get many in a pic )
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...2_edited-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...5_edited-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_1971.jpg

Rus those are nice

Great tank, really like some of the tall stags.

Thanks for the progress report on the red spot cardinals Russ! Awesome looking little fish! :)

I love those guys and yours look awesome. Good luck, will be following your progress with them as I'd love to try some myself some day.. :)

I will try to update every few weeks for now , and let you know how I make out. They are being fed 4 or more time a day to start , as I want to make sure once they are introduced to Main tank they will be strong enough to compete for food , as they will have over 30 tank mates to compete against.Most are quite docile fish as well , but a few are a little more aggressive sp better safe than sorry.

Keep my fingers crossed , as they have always been a favorite of mine , mostly because of the schooling , or shoaling effect they can give a tank but they add a different aspect to the tank as well.

Rus - your tank is beautiful. Very inspiring.

How many Anthias do you have? Do the males fight? Have you lost any?

I'm planning to introduce a dozen or so Dispar Anthias to my tank sometime in the next couple of weeks.

- Brad

Thanks , I currently have 8 anthias in my Tank. There are 5 Bartletts , 2 lyre tails and a Borbonius. I do not observe much fighting with them at all, although I think with multiple feedings and plenty of space this has helped . I lost 2 Bartletts right at the beginning but both jumped so not sure if it was fighting , or just startled. Since then they have all been fine.

Dispars are a nice choice , although not quite as hardy as the others I have mentioned , so I would make sure you quarantine for a while to make sure all of them are eating and healthy before introducing them. One nice thing with them is they do stay a little smaller which depending on your tank size may be a good thing.

-Russ

Well time for a small update on my attempt at red dot cardinals . Over the course of 3 weeks or so in the quarantine , I lost 2 of the 13 from what seemed liked just not eating , as you could see that there stomachs were concave and looked to be on there way out. Other than those 2 though , the other 11 were all eating and doing well.

So a week ago I thought i would try adding 6 of them to the main tank , they went in during the evening , and seemed to be fine, eating right away in the main tank. Next morning all looked good . Then the problems ... came home from work and only two were visible , so I tried to net the remaining 2 out of main tank , and after a while gave up , and had dinner . After dinner last 2 were gone as well.

I'm assuming one of my fish has eaten them , just not sure which one , my best guess if either the checkerboard wrasse , large damsel or possibly the Borbonius ? Not really sure . At the moment I have set up a fish trap in main tank and will try to get the wrasse and Damsel out .

Once this is done I will introduce the remaining 5 from Quarentine and see how they fare. This was a little disappointing to say the least as I was pleased to this point on the health and how easily all of them were eating , if the remaining 5 do well once introduced , I will definitely try to add more once I can get some again.

Update to follow in a few weeks , with any luck. I am interested to see if anyone has a best guess on what fish maybe the culprit??

Aww thats too bad, I'm sorry to hear that. My money is on the checkerboard wrasse. My melanurus wrasse (which I think is in the same genus as yours) has definitely shown an interest in any small fish I have put in the tank. While he hasn't eaten them, I think its only because they weren't quite small enough to get in his mouth and they were rather quick to get into the rocks. Eventually he lost interest after a day or two.

Thats not to say the damsel might have had a go at them though.

Go
 

sweet tank!

bit of an update : about 6-8 weeks ago or so I had some major issues in my tank , and ended up loosing around 30- 40 % of my corals , with my company crazy busy as well , I wasn't able to give it my attention it needed to fix the issues , so thus the losses. With me starting to get a handle on things work related , I decided to spend some time this weekend and reaquascape and change a few things up.

I have been thinking about going to LED lighting for a while now so bit the bullet this weekend and purchased an Illumina 260 ( 72" ) . After spending a few more hours on the re aquascaping and setting up the unit , I have it pretty much beat for now.

I must say I am quite impressed woth the Vertex Unit ( I know better be after that amount ) , and look forward to seeing how thing go over the next few weeks.

For any of you that have switched over to LED from MH , I'm curious to know what intensity you used to start out , and how you progressed it over time to ramp it up. I always see things on turning them way down to start , but couldn't you just raise them up higher and then lower down over a week or two?

I will get few pics later on today to add to this once all the lighting is at full strength.

Looking forward to seeing those pictures. That was quite a huge bullet you had to bite on that thing too.

Hey Rus, I am interested to here how the switch to Leds turns out.
I am not on the band waggon yet. I would like to see some long term results on keeping sps under just led's.
Alot of money into that light fixture!
Good luck!
Ps. Don't sell your halides yet ;)

wow Very nice job on the system.Great lookin tank.
sorry to hear about your troubles..its encouraging to see the determination regardless of the troubles.Did you pinpoint the exact cause of crash?
and yes more pics!