120gal mixed predatory reef tank

[corpusse]

Tank looks really great, while I have seen this thread before I went through it today for the first time in a really long time, it's great to see the changes throughout the years.

What is almost equally impressive is that you wear gloves! I've never seen a refer wearing them! I used to wear smaller gloves sometimes when fragging, but I can't tell you how many times I've been stung by bristleworms and other things, and once even stung by my own dwarf lion fish. Your hands must love you!

[whatcaneyedo]

The lionfish hasn't stung me yet but bristle worms have pricked my figures a lot in the past. I've also been bitten by the clownfish a couple of times too so I find gloves to be necessary when putting my hand in the tank.

I've attempted elevating the Mg in my tank to 1500ppm and above in the past using a conventional 9:1 magnesium chloride and sulfate salt mix. Even after several weeks the bryopsis still persisted. Take a look on RC and you'll find many reports of people successfully getting rid of it with Kent Tech M. Here is one of them: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...esium+bryopsis I tried to find a thread with one of Randy's posts in it but I'm running a little short on time. This product doesn't seem to work for everyone but for whatever reason it worked for me and Madreefer.

Edit: here is the original Tech M treatment for bryopsis thread from RC: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1113109

[benzzz]

Just went through the whole thread. Great tank and many nice changes. I have had a dwarf lion for about 3.5yrs and he eats like a champ. frozen mysis and he knows when I enter the room as he comes to the glass and sits on a toad stool and looks at me until i come over to feed him.

Thanks for sharing!

[whatcaneyedo]

Just a few of the sponges growing under my rocks. FYI I don't use any liquid phytoplankton foods.

[ludinano]

Well to start I must say your tank is inspiring to say the least. I came across your thread a while ago when searching for images of the bullet 3 skimmer. Your coral and fish husbandry show amazing results. Sorry about your loosing most your clams they looked amazing too. I have already planned on attemping to have my 100g stock tank sump look as clean as yours, since most stock tanks are just a mess of cords and tubes.

I must say i would appreciate your input on my (your) skimmer. I normaly frequent on RC and have recently ran into some confusion on sizing my skimmer.

Ive always thought a skimmer should be sized to your system. And when i was posting that i planned on using the bullet 3 i was told it was to big. Then got different responses one saying to size skimmer to display anouther just to size to your bio-load.... Which if you ask me is a loaded response.

Anyway my system will be similar to yours with 120 display, 100g stock tank, want a 50-60g frag tank, 50g refugium, and recently decided to have a small (30-40g) softy tank or other type of specialty tank added in.

To judge by (bio-load) main display to be packed with SPS and LPS 3-4 tangs and many smaller fish, then i would have frag tank probably with a fish in it, and the specialty tank with some fish ( thought about doing a mini predator tank.)

To judge by whole system would be roughly 370 with out rock displacement.

And to judge by display 120 G

It sounds like you've been very happy with your bullet 3.

long story... long Do you feel my system would be ok with the same?


Here is a link to my build thread. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1969241

[whatcaneyedo]

I've tried to cut down on the mess of plumbing by keeping mine very direct and simple. However if you look closer I do have a lot of wires. I just try not to photograph them.

I plan to continue to use the bullet 3 when I eventually upgrade to a 250gal display which will boost my total system volume up to around 350gal. At the moment it seems to be more than enough of a skimmer for my tank so I'm confident that it will handle just fine. However the whole reason I use this skimmer is because I got a great deal on it buying it used. If I were to buy something new I'd probably get a modern design that is compact, quieter and more energy efficient.

[whatcaneyedo]

I've been wanting an Ornate Wrasse since last July and I finally got one! A big thanks to J&L for getting it in. I've only had it for five days now but its settling in nicely. Having the wrasse in my frag bin makes it pretty difficult to get a good picture. Out of the 200 I took this is probably the best.



I also picked up a tailspot blenny because they're so cute.



Oh and I tried bio pellets again for the first few weeks of March... Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. There will not be a third time! It took months for my poor toadstool to recover from bleaching last time. So I tried cutting back to just 100ml of pellets but as you can see the results were the same. Everything else in the tank remains the same but my soft coral begin to bleach.

[whatcaneyedo]

I recently picked up a couple of new additions when a local shut down his tank.

This powder blue tang is now enjoying itself as the king of the castle in my lit 140gal stock trough sump.


Although I've been wanting a nice derasa and maxima to partially replace the seven clams I lost last year I couldn't resist this moderately sized 6" squamosa.


While attempting to take a half decent pictures of the top two I did manage to get a pretty clear shot of the ornate wrasse.


The tail spot blenny is in better focus than last time but its still no award winner.


The first picture I've been able to get of the reclusive female mandarin dragonet that lives in my sump. She was pretty slim when I bought her from the LFS several months ago.


19 month old elegance that was fragged 11 months ago.


Not bad for 10 months growth don't you think? From roughly 10 polyps to this in that amount of time:


Heres the pic again from September last year.

[spawn]

Sweet Pics

[Madreefer]

I was wondering if you were goin to pick up one or all of those clams. I thought about getting one myself but I dont think my wife would be too pleased as i'm goin to be a poor student for a few months starting monday. Your post before your last one with probidio in the title, what is the coral in the second from the top?