thanks mark, i played around more tonight and these are more realistic to the actual color of the pieces. does anyone have a trick to catching a fish in the overflow. i have an open top canopy but it still does not give me a lot of room to dig around in there. i was thinking of syphoning all the water out and sucking him up with the tubing.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1130.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1131.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1132.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1133.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1134.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1135.jpg


and here is a couple new additions acclimating to the lighting

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1136.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1137.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1139.jpg

Looks good are you having a problem with algae in your over flow as for chatching a fish in the over flow it is very hard with the deep over flows on these tanks I have been dreading the day it happens to me I picked up some gutter guard mesh to put around the tops of the over flows so fish and snails dont go over I had a wrease that loved to be in the over flow on my 72 bow I would fish him out and the next day he would be right back in there he lived like that for over a year till he died

What I've done that's worked well for me in the past with fairy wrasses is actually the opposite of what you're thinking. Turn off the sump return and turn off the overflow drain, and then flood, overfill if you can, the overflow. Wrasse got in on his own, and he came out on his own. I had to wait 15 minutes or so and sometimes entice him out with flake food on the surface ... or show him a net and that would sometimes startle him and he'd jump out.

Another idea maybe is remove the standpipe and let the water drain out, fish and all (be ready to catch him). Maybe have a few buckets on standby to help flush him out once the water's drained in case he doesn't go down the hole. I've never tried this though, I'm just brainstorming some ideas for you.

Or hope he finds his way down into your sump one day. (??) :neutral:

Best of luck!

those sound like good ideas, i'll try them. i never thought of flooding the overflow. yes i just noticed tonight the algae issue in the overflow. i'll have to clean that up next water change.

A quick fix for the algae in the over flow is cut off the light source to the over flow other wise you will be for ever cleaning it out I used some black coraplast I have yet to have to clean out any algae from my over flows since I did this

thanks bullit67. what is coraplast? any pictures of what you did?

colin

Coriplast is corigated plastic just like cardboard only plastic comes in a 4X8 sheet you can get it at most hardwear stores comes in lots of colours including black purfect for tank related projects I also made my floating probe mount for my controler out of this stuff it is handy to have around and easy to work with

Doug

Colin

Somthing I thought of after you left the store last night did the smell problem start after you set up your fans? I wounder if they are sturing it up blowing the oder out of the sump

Doug

Colin if you want a bit of coriplast I have some black left save you from buying a whole sheet

Doug

thanks doug, i have some alot egg crate laying around i'm going to try and make something out of that. and cover the top of it with some black plastic. the smell started around the same time as i installed the fans but cannot be sure. i got some chemipure and put it in last night so i'll see how it is today

Those are some nice acros .

I agree...those are some nice looking acros.

thanks for the compliments. i'm pretty stoked about having my first sps. i've been studying about them for months as i built the system and it is cool to finally have them in the system

i finally mounted my pocillipora ( i think that is what they are). they have almost doubled in color in the week and a half that i have had them home. the purple one was pretty rough when i brought it home. the only color was on the tips so it is pretty cool to see it recover

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1180.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1179.jpg

i got some new additions yesterday. really nice acros and i believe a porites if im wrong please let me know.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1178.jpg

this piece is hard to tell by the picture but the polyps are fluorescent blue.
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1177.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1176.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1175.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1174.jpg

WOW those are beauties Colin. Where did you pick them up from?

hidden reef got them in yesterday. i could not resist bringing them home

Three words...

Grow, Frag, Visit.

Brad

:biggrin: sounds good brad. i finally got a picture of my whipfin wrasse today. the second one i have had, the other got stuck in the overflow and then jumped and became a fish stick. i got this guy yesterday. these are jut a couple length shots. this is the view from coming down the hallway. as you can tell i've been bored today and playing with the camera. actually i've been recovering from my bday party last night, and i'm not feeling to great today:drinking:

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1183.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1182.jpg

Nice looking at 84" of length. I'm trying to imagine what my 72"L will look like from the right side viewing panel. sigh...

so today i did my first attempt at cutting the acros from the base plug. i was bloody nervous thinking i was going to destroy these pieces. i dont know if people already know this, but i figure out today an easier way to removed the acros from the plugs. instead of cutting it off with shears, i used a flat head screwdriver and at the base of the acro i wedge the screwdriver in and wiggled it which popped the acro out of the plug. the cool part is you dont end up killing the base of the flesh because the skeleton that was in the plug can now be used to glue to the rock. it worked for these anyway. anyhow here is some pics of their new locations

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1216.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1215.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1212.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1211.jpg

these last 2 pics are of a piece i 'borrowed' from nicky at HR. she had this piece on hold in the tanks and after annoying her enough she agreed to sell it to me but on the basis that i HAVE to give her the first frag. thanks nicky

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1214.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1213.jpg

I just HATE those plugs. I guess they are a necessary evil. Nice job mounting those. In some cases, I can't even see any cement at all.

i finally got my hands on a super pink birdnest. its a frag and in awesome shape. the seriatopora is got to be one of my favorite pieces. while at the store a friend of mine found this pocillipora that had green polyps. i hope the picture catches it because this piece is so cool. it is peach base and neon green polyps

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1220.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1219.jpg

big change today. i got rid of both my vortechs and installed a tunze wavebox. this thing rocks. extremely easy to setup. it drove me nuts all last night i couldnt hook it up so as soon as i got up this morning i went swimming. i was a little bummed out though as to where i had to place it. it is at the end of the tank that is visible from the hallway. i just couldnt fit it at the other side because of rockwork and other tunze/wavebox setup. but it is not too nasty looking. i went with 2 6200 magnets. i was a little worried because they are rated for 3/4" glass max and i am at 7/8" but they still hold very well. you are probably going to think i'm a little loopy but an hour after it was installed the fish seem more relaxed in the tank. i'm assuming because of the more natural feel of the current. also there is a couple sps that the PE is already improved where usually these pieces didnt extend well until night. needless to say i'm stoked i went this route. almost had an overflow, thank god the wife wasnt there. i was trying to tweak it to get the max wave and i went just a tad bit more. i looked in the stand for something and heard a weird noise. the wave was crashing over the eurobracing. at first i was freaked out but after i had a huge smile thinking this thing is AWESOME. about 7" from the output of the box i mounted a new bright green monti frag last night. 5 mins after the unit was on it at broke a piece off the frag. what a chore it was grabbing that little piece. it is only about 3/4" by 1/2" frag but i couldnt just leave it there so i dug it out and mounted it somewhere else in the tank. i'm curious to see the growth difference of the two pieces being in different locations.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1228.jpg


any input on the name of this piece would be awesome. not a clue what it is but i'm thinking it may color up really nicely. it has some purple/blue hues to it.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1225.jpg

this is the monti frag before the wavebox attack

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1223.jpg

Where did you get the birdsnest?

i got it from hidden reef. a customer brought it in from his tank

Dang Colin, that looks just like a birdsnest i used to have.
Hope it does well for you!! (cause when i make it down to Abby next Im dropping by with my snips. :mrgreen:)

Colin, you are my HERO! Your set up is bloody fantastic. Any chances of a visit so I could see it first hand & get some advice?

i was kind of shocked this morning when i took some 1 month pictures of a few of the acros as to their growth. the purple cross really does not have the white on it that the picture shows.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1074.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1246.jpg


http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1106.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1248.jpg


http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1109.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1243.jpg

so i've mentioned before how my tank hits 83.5 degrees by the end of the day so today i bought another GHL fan assy but this time i got the 5 fan assy. i mounted it in my canopy and within 2 hours it lowered my tank temp 1 degree. i also picked up 2 wild colonies although the pictures do not do justice for the colors in these pieces. i'm hoping they have some good potential. there was another little frag i could not leave, it has the biggest PE i've seen in an acro yet.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1257.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1255.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1253.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1254.jpg

I assume you are on the upcoming tour...?

I'm glad that the additional fans have helped. I think that you might get even better results if you tilt the fans more toward the surface of the water.

I think that the cooling effect that you are getting is because you are removing the hot air from above the water. This increases the temp differential between the surface water and the air above it. That results in increased evaporation, which is cooling.

By tilting the fans toward the water, you'll increase evaporation even more causing more cooling. The downside is that you will also whip up salt onto just about every horizontal surface in the entire room so you want to control the fans such that they only run when really needed.

thats for the input untamed. i'm not looking for a huge drop in temperature nor the additional salt creep. this is why i have the fans positioned the way they are. i mostly wanted air circulation within the canopy to blow the insane heat from the MH. the pendants do not have fans either so that is another reason i wanted so circulation within the canopy.

i am not on the upcoming tour. i dont think my tank is the point of showing off yet.

Ha..ha..Modesty... I don't think it is your choice. If we want to see your tank, then you are on the tour! ;-)

:biggrin: i'll be sure and tell the wife that.

the fans definitely did their job today. the tank never went over 82.4 compared to 83.5. so it was definitely a good investment compared to the cost of a chiller

its been awhile since an update. i lost a few fish from some bacterial issue. it bummed me so i wasnt in the mood to update. i lost copperband butterfly, male black clown, female oscellaris clown, powder blue. the other fish have fully recovered now thank god. other then that set back awhile ago, the tank is coming along pretty good. there is a crab that is determined to kill my pink birdnest frag. it doesnt want it mounted and i am continually looking for the frag and remounting it. today i got my first small school of anthias, 3 female and a male. i'm not sure 100% the type, but they are definitely beautiful. the flame angel seem to have an issue with them for the day but this evening he has let them be and all are eating already. here are some pics but not the greatest since this fish are not the easiest to make stay still. the water looks a little dirty right now but i just finished feeding cyclopeeze

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1366.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1364.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1362.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1361.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1360.jpg

Lyretail Anthias
 

Hey Colin,

I believe those anthias are commonly known as Lyrtail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis). Beautiful fish to say the least especially when the male get's his full color. Good score!!

Cheers,

Paul

Yep. Paul's got the correct ID.
Ive always wanted a school of those in a very large display tank one day.
Too bad about losing some of your fish Colin but the new ones are looking great!

Nice fish! I have the same plans for a school of lyretail in my tank. I've actually purchased an automatic fish feeder specifically for them since my understanding is that they need almost constant feeding.

i was in hidden reef today and they got an awesome shipment of fish. i grabbed a juvenile powder brown and juvenile powder blue tang, both same size and are instant best friends (for now). i also grabbed a tiny regal tang, the healthiest i have seen yet when they are this small. i lost a powder blue about 2 weeks ago and is one of my favorite tangs so i'm trying this one again. they are eating really good so far and have only been in the tank for an hour. the striatus tang does not like them at all. but they are finally pushing back against him. the blonde naso seems to be the referree which is pretty cool. he gets right between them when they are flaring up. the peace maker i guess. they powder blue is really hard to get a pic of as you can tell by the picture. he's so bloody active

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1373.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1372.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1370.jpg

haventy updated in awhile. corals are really growing. its a matter of tweaking my reactor to keep up with the demand now. i started the interceptor treatment last week. very impressed with the results. i could see the red bugs fall off in a matter of hours. i have to do the second dose this weekend. the corals recovered within a matter of days. here is FTS and some other practicing with the camera

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1492.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1493.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1495.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1497.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1498.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...f/100_1502.jpg