400 gallon project

[untamed]

Originally Posted by dsaundry

I have gone through your journal twice now, the wife thinks I am a hermit in my den as I have been looking at your tanks progress..Amazing, I am planning a large tank in a few years when I retire, for now I will plug along with my current set-ups.. I gotta ask and believe me I am not trying to be rude, Have you kept a journal of your costs from start to now? I would love to get an idea of what this set-up is worth. I can only imagine. Where did you compile all your designs from for your equipment. All your design or did you get some inspiration from other sources. How is your sea-hare working out? I have a small one in my tank and he is fantastic. Whatever hair algae I had is gone or so small I can't see it. Have you run into anymore issue with your set-up? So many questions I would love to ask you..Maybe there will be a tour and I will get the priviledge of seeing your tank close-up. Once again, "Stunning Tank"

Thanks. As you are close by, I'm sure you'll be seeing the tank soon enough. We're working on a club activity that I'll probably host so you'll have a couple of reasons to drop in.

For the most part, I kept most of my bills. Partly for warranty purposes, and partly because I might someday want to add it all up. I honestly do not know what the actual total is. I'm quite pleased that people tend to think I spent more than I actually did. There's plenty of opportunity to spend a LOT more on the lights, skimmers, sumps etc (can you say Deltec?). If you are really curious, just estimate based on what you see...

I still have one, very large, sea hare. I'm a bit worried about him as there is little/no hair algae left. It is interesting that the sea hare spends most of his nocturnal activities on the sand bed. There is hair algae to be found in some other areas, but that isn't where he spends his time.

Design? That came from hours and hours of browsing other build threads, mostly on Reef Central. I also had nearly a year of time to think about the plan before I actually began to build it. You should have seen some of the earlier plans! Most were larger.

[argan]

Cool Worms

Still have these guys from your old tank?

[untamed]

Originally Posted by argan

Cool Worms

Still have these guys from your old tank?

That's Max...I miss him. As he could not possibly be removed from the rock, he went along with his rock when I sold that tank. I hope he is doing well.

I have spotted many, many Eunicid worms in the new rock/tank, but none as spectacular or large as Max was.

[untamed]

If you have ever looked at the webcam, then you know that my Blue Throat Trigger (Zues) paces endlessly across the front of the tank.

His pacing has completely scratched the lower 6" of the front acrylic panel. It has only been maybe 9 months...what will it look like in 10 years???!! I had the opportunity to give him a little back scratch recently, and I call tell you that these fish feel like they are made of steel plates.

I can't really recommend Blue Throat Triggers to anyone. They may be reef safe, but I think they need an EXTREMELY large tank. He is among the largest Blue Throat that I've seen and it seems that when they get to his size, they just don't like captivity. He clearly likes to swim..fast..constantly.

I still don't regret using acrylic for the tank. At the time I made the decision, I had no idea that the fish themselves are the cause of most all of the scratches in acrylic tanks.

[untamed]

I've been running carbon in a phosban reactor for some time, but I started to realize that the water had taken on a very yellowish hue. (it sneaks up on you!) I decided to double the amount of carbon I've been using. After shopping for a larger fluidized reactor, I finally decided that multiple phosbans were just easier to deal with than one huge reactor.

So...here's my collection of phosban reactors. The two on the right are running carbon and the one on the left is running Rowaphos. The addition of the 2nd carbon has made a big difference in the water colour. That's about 500ml of carbon running in two reactors. The reactors are supplied with a MJ1200 in the sump. They are NOT plumbed in sequence.

[untamed]

I managed to get a better shot of the Vlamingi Tang today. This one is with flash and it lights up his spots nicely. Chris calls him "Freckles", but I'm not so sure that he is going to retain these spots as he grows...and he is growing very quickly!

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Love the Vlamingi....beautiful fish. And the gorgonians.