Glad to see your catching those pesky little things.

Oh yes...it was also interesting to watch the Yellow Tang use his tail blades. I always wondered how the fish would actually use them to attack/defend.

Beautiful addition!

Time for a new full tank shot!!!!

I don't think the tank has changed too much...but here's a unique view. This is what you get with a panarama close up with a wide angle lens.

You can see, I'm in the cyano stage....

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/101_0140.jpg

Yay cyano! Fun fun. But, if it's any consolation, the tank is looking good anyhow. I love the "gorg tank" look (I realize some of them are actually sponges). Actually about the sponges - are they feeding on phyto or zooplankton or anything like that?

I had not intended to create a gorg-tank, but that is the way it ended up with the LR that I got. It's a really nice benefit to have some very large coral in there while the SPS grow up.

I feed phytoplankton every day. I'm not currently feeding zooplankton, but I do intend to. I'm pretty sure that the sponges would be feeding on nothing larger than phyto, but I've not been able to find any research that confirms that this is what the sponges actually consume. It could be bacteria.

The branching orange sponges seem to be doing OK. However, the tall red sponges are dying fast. The yellow ball sponges can't seem to fend off algae...and I have two types of other red and orange sponges sheltered in the rocks that seem to be doing fine. So if one type of sponge might be getting what it needs, some other types are clearly not.

Warm days...
 

Yes, it has been pretty warm the last few days. The graph below shows how the high temperatures have affected the tank temperature over the past few days. No..we don't have air conditioning in the house.

You can see that it is hitting a bit above 81.5 F. That's only 2 degrees warmer than the operating goal of 79 F. The daily cycle is about 1 degree increase every 3 hours as soon as the halides come on.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0650.jpg

Time for a Air cond

Nice tank.

I have the package as well. I had one red sponge that dissolved away in about 4 months. After doing some research I came across this article by Randy Holmes.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm

In it he says, "Sponges are the second largest consumer of dissolved silica in the ocean." I would be interested in seeing if the addition of silica to your tank lets them survive.

Thanks, Red Six....I watched your tank build for a long time during my planning stages.

It is interesting that Holmes-Farley wasn't able to keep his particular sponge alive for long regardless of his attempts with Silica. Nevertheless, if HF recommends Silica additions, that's enough recommendation for me!

Crabs
 

Even I have a limit as to how large I let a crab get before he makes me uncomfortable. I never saw this crab kill anything that caused me concern. (just some hermit crabs, which was quite entertaining...), but he reached a size that began to worry me. I'm sure that at some point he was going to graduate to larger prey.

So...he's moved into the sump. I hope he will be OK there. Certainly food travels into the sump all the time.

Capture was pretty easy. I small piece of shrimp in a tall glass just as the lights went out. (He was obviously hungry, because he slid in in less than a few minutes)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0090.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0091.jpg

creepy, great pictures!

tee hee, what a lil cutie pie:wink:

in case you're interested, from the secnd pic i can tell you it's a boy.

Wow......having followed this thread from the beginning I was privileged to see this system up close. Nothing is left to chance with this system. The tank room is very organized and the rock work and bar look a lot better in person than the pictures here. My wife found it facinating (well...not the tank room. She could care less about the hardware). She was amazed at the diversity of this display. She could have sat there for hours.....on wait...she did. lol

Thanks Brad...and thank your wife for allowing us to visit.

Scott

silica
 

I've proven that if you dose silica, you can grow diatoms. This did make the tangs happy as they are back to grazing the rocks again. Unfortunately, growth of diatoms hasn't caused the cyano to slow any....I just got both.

So I'm temporarily suspending the silica experiment until I can get the cyano under control.

Do you use any phosphate control like phosban?

Yes, I'm running two Phosban reactors in line...one has AC, the other has phosguard media.

In observing my previous tank, I saw no reaction either way to using the AC/phosguard or not. Right now, because I have cyano, I'm running it...but I'm not really sure that it is making any difference to anything.

Tank update
 

Some weeks ago, I introduced a smaller maroon clown fish in the hopes that it would pair up with the older maroon that I've had for years. When I first introduced the new one, the original clownfish attacked it mercilessly. I'm quite sure it would have killed it if I had not rescued it.

I placed the new clown in a small cage on the bottom of the tank for another day or so. That seems to have given the other clown time to get used to the idea of having a friend.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the original clown became increasingly friendly, leading to this....they've moved in together and now seem quite happy.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0111.jpg

First blood
 

Zues here got his first taste of human blood when he bit my friend Tim who was watching over the tank for me while I was away. He's nipped me a few times...I guess I don't bleed as easily as Tim!

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0113.jpg

Don't ask me what that white line is...it's not a scratch. This fish really moves so you have to pan in order to get a shot of him. The panning has caused some small white object to look that way.

Here's a nice hitch-hiker. When I first saw this guy, he was about the size of a dime. He's already 2". I think I would like to get a few more of these guys somehow.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0108.jpg

sweet, a gorgeous bluethroat that is bloodthirsty to boot! what more could one want from a fish?

man i wish i got cool hitchhikers like that... and i was happy with pods...

New Fish!
 

I guess that one of the benefits of hosting a fish party is that sometimes people bring things that they really don't want to take home again. Such was the case for this frisky bicolour angel. He seems quite happy in his new home, but man...is he ever difficult to photograph. He doesn't slow down..ever.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0123.jpg

Then, Daniel (yvr75) was selling his Leopard Wrasse, so I drove into Vancouver and picked up this guy. He has also settled in nicely and the other fish pay no attention to him at all. My sand is quite heavy so when he buries at night he hardly kicks up anything at all.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0128.jpg

Finally, just to show that I am capable of taking a decent photo when the fish gives me a chance....here's one of Zues showing the technique he employs to get the entire tip of your finger in his mouth!
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0131.jpg

Everything looks like its coming along really well!

Nice photos too!

Tank is looking great man how about a full shot of the tank and oh ya get your misses to get in the tank now with the trigger:lol: :lol: :lol:

Not a chance...He's a killer. He got me the other day at the party.

The tank does seem to be heading in a good direction. I was seriously concerned there for quite a while. Cyano was bad and it wasn't getting better. I spent a long time trying to figure out what new skimmer I was going to get...then...it just went away.

I'll probably get a new skimmer anyway, because it is fun to do. I've also decided that I need one that self cleans. I have to clean that skimmer 2 or 3 times per week at a minimum. It's not hard, but anything you have to do that often gets tedious.

Nine fish
 

The fish list:

Male Blue Throat Trigger
Yellow Tang
Blonde Naso Tang
Achilles Tang
Gold stripe Maroon Clown pair (they're working it out...)
Mystery fat hitchiker goby with the B&W striped tail
Potters Leopard wrasse
Bicolor Angel

9 fish. Well....more than I've ever had before. Let's see...estimated $ spent on habitat to support...divided by 9 fish...that's...man, these must be valuable fish!

I see your tank is coming along nicley. Seeing your start to stock on sps. BTW thats is a beautiful trigger. GRATE JOB ON THE TANK UNTAMED.:mrgreen:

Can we get a full tank shot pleas.:biggrin:

OK..OK...by popular demand...here is a full tank shot. I thought I would do one better and attempt a video instead of a still photo. Here goes...

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...h_4f91a072.jpg

Wicked!

Grate video loved it.

Hermit Hotel
 

I've been meaning to document this for a while now. It is my observation that hermit crabs have their favourite resting places in the tank. Each night, they roam around, then return the favoured spot for the day.

Unfortunately for this particular coral, about 30+ hermits spend their days in it. This coral used to have a resident acro-crab, but he didn't survive the transfer to the new tank (or something got him). The acro-crab was quite good at fending off any hermit that attempted to get near his coral. The hermits are having a long term effect on the coral growth pattern of the coral as the areas they sit on don't get any light.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0133.jpg

reply
 

I think you might be able to solve that problem by either fraging that acro and placing the frags in different areas. Or adding several more acros to try and spread out the hermit territory. I like option 2 personally. :biggrin:

Is that a prostrata?

I don't know what it is. I'm not so much into coral IDs. I continue to add more coral frags all the time, but few of them are large enough to tempt the hermits to move out. It is also my observation that the hermits like to huddle in collections. (Maybe they like to swap accommodations!)

I'm not worried about it. The coral will just have to deal with it's residents.

Untamed,

I only recently found Canreef so I've just joined the "watch" on your project but I have to say, what an amazing job! I've read the whole thread and you've given me tons of ideas on how I want to do a new 280 gallon tank that I'm looking to put together.
Thanks for going into all the detail that you did as I know I'm going to use a few of your tricks.
Excellent Tank!!!

That's the entire idea. I owe a lot of my plan to others who posted their builds on reefcentral etc.

Wrasse goes to bed
 

This is old-hat stuff for you fish people...but to a lot of people who follow this story, they won't have seen this before!

Here's a quick video showing the leopard wrasse going to bed for the night. Every evening, about 10 minutes after the halide lights go off, he finds a place to sleep and dives in. You don't see him again until about noon the next day.

Sorry for the blue colour of the video...the flourescent lights are on in the evening and I can't do white-balance when I'm shooting video.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...h_100_0306.jpg

Great Vid Brad. I never see mine go to bed so it was cool you were able to catch it.

J

Daily pH cycle
 

I just recently added an additional pH probe to begin monitoring my tank pH. Here's a shot of the daily cycle that the tank is currently experiencing.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0141.jpg

My immediate thought is that this is a pretty high pH to be reaching (8.8)!! I have only just recalibrated the sensor, so I'm pretty sure this is accurate. I'm going to ask for pH advice on the other forum...

Now that I'm monitoring the pH, the plan is to add a Kalk reactor and run the Ca reator and Kalk reactor on opposite cycles to try to minimize the pH swing.