KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[Phanman]

tank looks great cathrine

[michika]

Thank you!

We thought we had sorted out our RKE problem, but now we wonder if it even is an RKE problem at all. Our lights do not run the RKE. This morning when the T5s came on, at that same moment the skimmer pumps shut off, and turned on again. My first comment to Kevin was that we might be overdrawing the circuit when things start up. He gave me a big lecture about how power draw works, and my eyes glazed over.

At this point we/I do not know if the last time we heard the skimmer pumps if something else had just turned on. Maybe adding the RKE to the tank's circuit took it just too far, and is the cause of the skimmer pumps randomly turning off.

We are still seeing steady growth, and colour from all our SPS. Unfortunately I STILL can't get the white balance quite right. My photos have too much red in them. While this green piece shows reasonably well the green is a bit more of a neon green, and less yellow-green as shown in the photo. I'll keep working on getting it right.




When we first got it


This one here actually is a cream colour, with bright royal blue tips. I just can't get my camera to capture the colours.




And to show some growth, the photos below are from when we first got this colony




This one is actually a light purple


My purple monti from a previous order,


The 'bush' is coming along well. Either it came with an acro crab, or one already in the tank, but there is one there now,


The supervisor is not impressed at our lack of sump progress

[michika]

We cleaned the skimmer pumps today, and so far everything has been running smoothly. I'm thinking that the skimmer noises we were hearing earlier were because the pumps were quite filthy. The fact that when the T5s came online and we heard the pumps stop was just coincidence.

I picked up two more yellow head jawfish to replace the pair that died. However they didn't even make it home in their bags. They were packaged separately because the drive was over an hour from the store home. I called the store immediately, provided photos of the corpses per their request, and then have been told too bad, they left the store, so its my own fault. I am not impressed, I've spent A LOT of money in this store over the years. I think this is the epitome of bad service.

The raccoon butterfly did not come out today for nori, so I am worried it has perished, or been eaten by something in the tank we still haven't identified or seen. I saw the fish yesterday when I was getting ready for our awards ball last night, but nothing this morning. I am already thinking the worse.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

WOW. I can't believe the store was so dismissive. That's absolutely insane. Do you think they're cyanide caught or what?

[michika]

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

WOW. I can't believe the store was so dismissive. That's absolutely insane. Do you think they're cyanide caught or what?

I'm starting to think so. The butterfly was from the same store, so that is 5 fish now from this particular store that died very quickly. Both pairs of jawfish died at around the same time. Each pair was from a different batch per the LFS employee. I'm no longer going to be dealing with that particular store.

[Lance]

Unbelievable! I can't believe they treated you like that. That is a very poor attitude to take with any customer.
Catherine, do you happen to know the origin of the butterfly and jawfish. I read an article in last month's FAMA stating that cyanide fishing is on the rise in Indonesia, the Phillipines and Vietnam.

[michika]

Red Sea for the butterfly, and I don't remember where the jawfish came from.

[michika]

Alright so a quick update before I vanish again for a little while.

We've decided not to attend MACNA, and passed our tickets onto a couple of derby girls who are at Rollercon in Las Vegas this week. We are picking up our house hunt again as I am coming to the end of my tolerance of condo living.

The butterfly did no reappear, and no body was found. This is now two fish that died in the tank with no remains. I suspect there is something unwelcome in the the tank, and it is capable of attacking fish under 2" at night. I'm thinking a crab of sorts.

We haven't had any more RKE problems since we ran through the update. I will move our lighting onto the RKE mid-August when I know someone will be home to watch the system. I've already sent off my MLC certificate, so now its just a waiting game. Overall I'm really pleased with the controller, the price is great, the customer service is fantastic, its a great little unit!

There are some color changes I am starting to see again. Some of the pieces that aren't growing were changing colors, and now some are changing yet again. I am so thrilled to have SPS again. My 28g nano really made me question how much I loved this hobby, and how much I was willing to put into it.

The chiller is doing amazingly well. It doesn't run that much, and its cured my fears of the tank overheating while I am out. It also has not impacted the evaporation on the tank. I still go through about 5g every 3 or 4 days.

The Doctor tang is growing at a stunning pace. The crap this fish drops onto my clams is stupidly big. So far the other fish have plumped up, but not gotten much bigger. I am hoping that this fish starts to slow down a bit growth wise, because this fish looks different every other week.

Our goal is to get out of our condo for November 1st, so hopefully we will have more luck this time around with the house hunt. Cue round 3 in the Calgary house hunt!

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Catherine and Kevin Sorry to hear of your fish loses and your not so great experience at a LFS here in Calgary. I don't have many fish in stock right now due to our renovations but I would be more than willing to order something in for you. BTW the "BUSH" acro is doing incredible, I remember the day you got it "I said I am not sure what color it will be but the shape is spectacular", and you said "I want it and it will color up nice." Good eye. Good luck on the house hunting. If you wait till Dec. 1st you would most likely get a bargain. Just my opinion.
Kevin

[Delphinus]

FWIW, the jawfish is an Atlantic/Caribbean species. I think the range extends from the southern parts of the eastern seaboard down to South America.