Christy's 180 build

[Doug]

Mr. Regal....." wow, look at me go now". Good job Christy.

[Leah]

Wow, Christy!!

Congratulations... tank looks amazing, you are one determined girl. Ya, girls rock.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Finally done!!

um.. I don't see any VHOs on thoes lights.. what are you trying to pull saying your done??

Steve

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

um.. I don't see any VHOs on thoes lights.. what are you trying to pull saying your done??

Steve

Well the VHOs are 6ft long, the ones in my 90 are only 4ft so.......

Basically I've run out of money. The ushios are stupid bright on the HQI ballasts and I'm liking the bulbs as they are. When I have more money and the inclination I'll likely add either the VHOs or a LED light bar.


Thanks for the comments guys! It was a long day yesterday. I forgot how much I truly hate aquascaping. I can never replicate my "vision" (especially when some of the rocks have encrusted corals).

[christyf5]

Got most of my frags mounted. Couple are still in the frag rack as I haven't decided where they belong. A couple I think might be "doubles" so I'll wait them out and see what they do.

Still haven't seen the candy hogfish. I'm starting to get pessimistic. The gramma was out today though and the lavender is starting to feel more comfortable now that there is nobody harassing him.

A better full on photo. We put some of the kitchen together today so I can finally get a decent shot from in front of the tank

[christyf5]

Spent some time on Tuesday night tearing half the tank apart looking for the candy hogfish. I finally found him yesterday, under the catwalk. Fish jerky I guess he didn't make it over to the tank in the rock, I heard him flipping about in the rock and moved it over quickly but I guess he dislodged himself and landed on the floor and I missed it in the rush to get everything moved over. I'm pretty bummed about that and curse myself once again for my stupidity.

[muck]

Wooooo.... me likey.

[kien]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Your hippo looks so small now :-) I'm glad to see he kept his purple though!

[lastlight]

That's gonna look sick as it all grows out! Nice job with the rocks.

[christyf5]

I've been meaning to update this but you know what they way, its worthless without photos. So I finally found time to take some photos

It didn't take long for the cyano to set in, less than a week I'd say. It came over from the other tank. Didn't help that I had most of the powerheads off for the wrasse, although turning them back on doesn't really blow off the cyano, they're not that kind that is affected by "slow spots". I have both red and green, the tank looks like christmas in a really grungy sort of way. Makes taking photos difficult due to the number of bubbles that refract the light making any picture I take look like complete a$$ so no tank pics until I resolve that (it sucks because the tank looks nice to my eye, I take a photo, its completely overexposed due to the bubbles, then I turkeybaste all the bubbles away, then have to wait for the tank to settle down because there is freaking cyano flying everywhere, then I forget to take the photo. The next day, the bubbles are back. Rinse. Repeat. I'm tempted to chemi-clean the whole thing but I love how hard my skimmer is working and I love my coral coloration so... yeeeah).

The tank also has other issues, namely:



Who seems to enjoy picking at my midas blenny while he sleeps. I found a rather large lesion on the blennys dorsal yesterday. This morning I found him dead in his sleeping hole, the crab having a nice light snack. I tried skewering him with a fondue fork but he's a crafty bugger.

Oh and these little beauties, I think I know the source of these, my own damned fault:



I'm hoping the wrasse develops a taste for them.

Wow that photo did NOT take well to cropping

Since last I posted, I've added the Aquatronica ATO that came with my controller. Previously I used my trusty float valve gravity fed by a topoff bucket but I decided to go "high tech" for this one (mostly because the float valve was pretty much done, I replace it yearly). Its working out nicely.

I purchased a vortech mp40 (non-wireless gen1) but haven't added it to the tank yet because 1. not sure where I want it to be, I just can't decide and 2. it didn't come with the little rubber disk for 3/4" glass (that is being shipped to me right now, it just got lost in the shuffle). Yeah I know, new toy and its not being played with. I've already taken both the wet and dry sides apart just for fun

Ok enough talking, gratuitous photos!

Recovered Pocilipora damicornis






Recovered Cyphastrea decadia


Current favorite


Second recovered P. damicornis and partially recovering yellow acro




Clams are back in the tank, yep they're being snacked on again. I'm suspecting the regal tang, it was likely him all along. Their mantles are out and healing somewhat so I assume as long as I feed the fat bastard often enough he might leave them alone. Oh and best shot of the lavender tang I could get (fast little bugger).