Yes he loves flow!

He is a little bugger though. He leaves big snails alone. I am going to have to rethink my clean up crew now. He actually leaves the larger hermits alone too but I doubt that will last.

I think I will add some smaller fish that hopefully will clean up what the other don't eat. The two damsels are good for that.

I will also pick up some more larger snails I think.

Any clean up crew ideas?

Not really. I've just got the 12 Chromis who do a good job of picking off all the small pieces. And the large Turbos. I've got 2 peppermints and 4 hermits in the sump. A large Coral-Banded Shrimp might be OK, not sure.

Yeah my chromis do a good job too actually.

I highly doubt even a large coral banded shrimp would last 5 minutes around this guy. He ate a huge Emerald crab the other day as soon as he found it. Ripped all the legs off and then ate the body through the bottom of the shell.

He strikes hermits so fast that they don't even have time to get back in their shell and if they do, he picks them up and bashed them on rocks or the glass (which I don't like) until they come back out.

He is a pretty wicked fish! I love him!

Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with mine too. Well, I guess we'll have to be the CUC. Frequent siphoning and water changes.

I think your right.

I do weekly water changes and will have to start siphoning out as much detritus as I can I think.

I really don't see much of anything collecting in the rocks (my tank is so open) but it would probably be a good idea. I think I am going to add more flow too. I could easily hide some powerheads behind the rockwork.

Fortunately I have quite a bit of flow through the sump. (About 2700 GPH) so any detritus I can get up into the water column goes down the overflow pretty quickly. I could probably use another PH myself.

LOL...maybe I am just about done for fish. I just counted them all last night.

Naso Tang (Brodie)
Yellow Tang (Bubbles)
Powder Brown Tang (Brock)
Kole Tang (Cole)
Hippo Tang (Dorian)
Coral Rabbitfish (Jacob)
Copperband Butterfly (Gambit)
Harlequin Tusk (Hades)
Hawkfish
Pair of Clowns (Zeus and Hera)
Fang Blenny (Iceman)
Cleaner Wrasse
Scissor Goby
8 Chromis
2 Blue Damsels
Orange Spotted Sleeper Goby

Meh...who am I kidding...there will be more. Just no more tangs for sure. Small guys only.

That is a pretty big list all right.

Mine are:

in the 225 gal:
Harlequin Tuskfish (Sydney)
Foxface (Michael J)
SF Tang (Poon)
Chocolate Tang (Cocoa)
Lamarck's Angel (Angelina)
Hawkfish (Hawkeye)
Lawnmower Blenny (Toro)
Bannerfish (Gil)
12 Chromis

And in the 90 gal:
Coral Beauty Angel (Halo)
2 Ocellaris (Marlin & Coral)
Green Mandarin Dragonet (Hookah)
Ruby-Headed Fairy Wrasse (Ruby)
Pajama Cardianl (PJ)
Yellow Watchman Goby (Toby)
Blue Gudgeon (Frankie)

Yeah see your list is more reasonable! I just can't resist fish!

Got a free Bubbletip clone over the weekend. Actually its a decent size already. Free because the mother anemone has lost color in my friends tank and he wants to see how it does in mine (plus I dont think he wants two of them in his tank anyways). It was in his sump for a week with little to no light but still looks ok after just a day or two in my tank.

I don't know if its stopped moving yet but I hope so. It was on the move all day yesterday. Hopefully its happy now.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb006.jpg

You can see the placement in this picture.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb017.jpg

Too lazy to read thru all 29 pages, what are the dimensions on your tank? love the layout looks great :thumb:

And Lance (poon) tang? you crack me up :pound:

72"long x 30"wide x 22" tall

Its the 30" from front to back that I love about the tank and so do the tangs.

Don't look at me! My wife is the one that names them all.

Same dimensions as mine except mine is 24" tall. I agree the 30" depth is great.

That's my next dream. That and 96 long. My 180 would become it's sump. But not for 8 years, at least, as I don't plan on moving again before then. Then there is the problem of paying for it and the associated equipment :sad:. Ah, to dream.

This is pretty close to my dream size. I would probably just go 96" long and 36" deep and keep the 22" tall. I am not someone who would want a really huge tank even if I have the time, space and money.

Pretty sad night...almost. Got home from the hockey game tonight to find my Harlequin Tusk on the ground! I knew right away it couldn't have been too long since he was flipping around a bit and in a puddle of water. I grabbed him and dropped him back into the tank--within 10 seconds he was begging for food.

I NEED to get my new mesh top built tomorrow. I am going to do what I have done in the past. Aluminum window screen with window framing. The top goes on all night until light on. I will take the top off when the lights go on if I am home. I work from home (beside the tank) and am home most of the day. If I go out, the top goes on. When I come home, it can come off. Not ideal but loosing fish to jumping is not an option.

I have no idea what happened but he gets super freaked out for a few seconds at lights out. He darts around and he has splashed a few times. I am pretty sure this is what happened.

Anyways...he seems fine. I don't think he was out of water more than a 2 minutes max. The lights had turned off less than 2 minutes before I got home. Thank god we didn't for that extra beer after the Canucks big win :D



On another note, I tested nitrates and got 0. Had to test again since I didn't believe it. Tested 4 times. LOL. 0 each time.

I have been feeding 5 times a day heavily to deal with ich and am shocked I have 0 nitrates. I think I am a real believer in ZEO now.

25 well fed, fat fish (8 large ones) in a 200G tank, no refugium, VERY minimal LR and 0 nitrates. Gotta be the ZEO! Corals are starting to look pretty nice too the past week ;)

So it's not a sad night after all.
Your fish survived the suicide attempt, nitrates tested 0. And the tank is doing great.

Yeah, indeed, how horrible. :p

Seriously though, glad you got there in the nick of time. What are the odds ... and man I hate losing fish to jumping (or escaping as in the case of eels). What a sucky way to go. I can't believe I lost my canary wrasse when I had eggcrate on the tank .. did he have a one in a million shot and fit through the squares just right? Or did he have enough inertia to lift the eggcrate up, pass through over the glass, and the eggcrate just fall back down onto the tank? Guess I'll never know. (And yes I know I've complained about this a lot and yes it was a year ago but yes I really do obsess over things like this. I want to know so I can take steps to ensure it can't happen again!!)

I like your idea of a cover when unattended although that's something I see not working for me for very long. I prefer something permanent that I can circumvent just enough for ease of feeding, like a little flapper hole I can open up to get my hand through..

...AND the Canucks beat the Sharks ;)

Yeah, yeah...I said almost :) It was more like a wake up call to get my screen top done asap.

Very lucky not to go for the beer...me turn down a beer? So weird. I guess after spending like $50 on disgusting, over priced hockey game beers, I wasn't in the mood.

The mesh works well and is super light and easy to remove or replace a few times a day. It does block a lot of light though. So it doesn't work as a permanent solution. It works for someone like me who is home all the time. When it is over the tank, its just simply like a cloudy day. No big deal.

If I left the house for work each day though, I would have to come up with something else. I would most likely do the same thing though but light the tank starting at 4PM or whenever I got home.

Many of my friends in Florida used to go with nighttime photoperiods because of heat issues in the day. I used think it was kind of cool.

Why no try building one of those nearly clear mesh tops from reefcentral? Would be a lot less hassle than having to put the screen on everytime you leave.

Nah, I just dont like them. Its no big deal for me. I get into routines very easily. I don't see it as a hassle at all.

When I looked into the clear mesh in the past, I also couldn't find it anywhere.

EDIT: Although I guess making it out of the clear mesh would be great as long as its still easily removable. Same idea but may as well use the clear mesh if I can find it somewhere.

Do both halides turn off at the same time?

[quote=GreenSpottedPuffer;396836]Pretty sad night...almost. Got home from the hockey game tonight to find my Harlequin Tusk on the ground! I knew right away it couldn't have been too long since he was flipping around a bit and in a puddle of water. I grabbed him and dropped him back into the tank--within 10 seconds he was begging for food.


Holy Crap! Lucky or what? What could have been a disaster was in reality a pretty good night for you: Tuskfish OK, 'Nucks beat the Sharks, nitrates at 0, corals looking good. Must have been the "Lucky 7" in the date yesterday. Don't push it though, get that cover built! :wink:

While your out getting materials for that cover, stop and get a lottery ticket! luck like that don't last long.

No, he is fine when the first one goes off. Its the second one that freaks him out.

[quote=Lance;396918]Yeah I guess it was a good evening. Its been a while since nitrates were 0. Corals are looking either great or still terrible actually. I should have mentioned that a few that browned seem to be staying brown.

Yeah I think your right.

Apparently I had a mantis or pistol shrimp in the tank and my tusk found it. He was kind of parading it around in his mouth this morning. Occasionally bashing its head on the rocks. By the time I got the camera though, it was eaten. I don't know where the shell went though--maybe he ate that too! I was only able to grab one of the legs. It was very big.

Blue legs with purple stripes. The one leg I removed from the tank must be 3/4".

Could it have come with the live rock you got yesterday?

Yeah most likely.

And the string of good luck continues....did you buy a lotto ticket yet:mrgreen:

LOL...not yet. But I was actually planning on it today. We'll see if the luck continues :)

Now that the Powder brown has been here a week, I am finding he is getting quite bold with the other fish and it turning into a real bully. He may not work out so well. He hates the tusk who now has badly nipped fins, my Naso has nipped fins, Copperband a little bit of a nipped tail, Yellow Tang nipped fins...the only one I see chasing any other fish anymore is the Powder Brown. I will give it a few weeks and see if he clams down. Hopefully they are just working things out. Its flaring up the ich in the tank quite a bit though. Funny thing is, the Powder Brown doesn't really have ich. Its the poor tusk thats covered. Kind of weird but I guess he is stressed out. Should go away in a few days.

Added about 20 lbs. of LR the past week and so did some rearranging. Finally got the left side of the tank done too.

I am finding that there is way too much sps though and not enough variety or diversity. Not looking natural enough for me :) So I am after some more softies and LPS right now.

I have some beautiful photosynthetic sea fans coming from Cuba in a month or so too that will really finish this tank off I think. As well as a variety of photosynthetic gorgonians from both Cuba and Florida hopefully.

Really needs some time to grow in but I am starting to see some potential I think :)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb016.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb010.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbb017-1.jpg


Lots more new pics to come later :D

Tank is looking really nice! I like all that open space for the fishes to do their thing. In a few more months when the corals have filled in more it's going to look terrific.

Thanks.

Im thinking about 6-8 months, things might really start to look how I hoped. The fish have even more room than you can see in the pictures because the pictures really don't give a good idea of the depth of the tank. Being 2.5' deep is really nice. Most people who come by don't really realize how big the tank is unti they look at it from the end. I will take some pics of the depth.

Right now I am just focused on dealing with this ich outbreak that the Powder Brown seems to be causing. Hes such a little brat.

"Hades"

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb058.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb053.jpg

He's out of focus but I like this one :)

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...bbbbbbb118.jpg

[quote=GreenSpottedPuffer;397472]Thanks.

Im thinking about 6-8 months, things might really start to look how I hoped. The fish have even more room than you can see in the pictures because the pictures really don't give a good idea of the depth of the tank. Being 2.5' deep is really nice. Most people who come by don't really realize how big the tank is unti they look at it from the end. I will take some pics of the depth.


Mine is 30 inches deep too. I love the extra 6 inches. Large fish can turn around at full speed instead of having to put the brakes on.

[quote=Lance;397526]Yeah your tank is just taller right? I think a few inches?

[quote=GreenSpottedPuffer;397560]Yup. 72x30x24