Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

[asylumdown]

Most recent pics:





Still having some annoying issues with my corals. I've got this weird tissue abnormality in a few of my acros that no one on the internet seems to be able to explain, but otherwise things are doing pretty well. I keep trying to kill my whole tank by making stupid mistake - too much H2O2, not noticing that the tubing connecting my doser to the alk reservoir had cracked and it stopped dosing for an entire week (discovering your dKH is 4.1 is never a good way to start a Saturday morning), and accidentally cratering the salinity be letting an overflowing protein skimmer drain the tank for a night are just a sample of the dumb things I've done so far in 2015, so maybe the tissue problem isn't so mysterious.

I've beenh crossing my fingers that a few of my previously majestic colonies that have survived the last year of tank hell with me but in really rough shape would leap back in to health, but I've started getting ruthless about tossing things that are limping along and replacing them. Friday night I took two big rocks that were covered in caulerpa (pro tip - don't let that stuff go! it literally dissolves coral tissue!) and bleached then acid dipped them. I'm also really digging the look of fewer, but larger colonies, so rather than replacing all the stuff I'm tossing, I've started fragging things that I like and have done well no matter what I've thrown at this tank and spreading them around more.

I do have a spot to fill but I want something truly awesome and hard to come by. Something that has a dumb name like Strawberry Shortcake or something. Anyone got any ideas? I'm hoping for an acro that spreads out.

[asylumdown]

Also, all my fish have grown up and they're starting to look ridiculous. This tank is supposed to be huge, but between 8 fully grown anthias, a mature powder blue, a full grown dilutes rabbit, and near adult cowfish, the tank looks small.

Has anyone ever fished a powder blue tang out of a tank like this? Him and the rabbit have really started going at it, but the rabbit is more important to me as a herbivore.

Also if someone is like "man, I really want a big a$$ cowfish" and lives in Calgary - you just let me know.

[asylumdown]

Sad day for me

Ferdinand the cowfish has moved on to a bigger home. Saying goodbye to him was the hardest thing I've ever done in the context of reefing. But it was time. He's off to a 600 gallon tank where he'll have more room to move around.



The tank looks empty without him, but it was the right thing to do.

[asylumdown]

Slowly but surely the tank is getting back on track:





Nearly lost all of these corals when things were crashing but they've hung on and are starting to grow again:


This frag is super blown out but one I'm really excited about:


These guys really took a beating over the last year, but they're making a pretty strong comeback:


Pink lemonade



This rock was infested with caulerpa to the point where I couldn't keep up with pruning it back, so I chiselled everything off, bleached it, then acid dipped it. Note to the world: this works great, but the rock REALLy needs a curing process afterwards. I put it straight back in my tank and had a hideous outbreak of dinos almost immediately. It's just on the tail-end now. I decided to go more for a 'mass planting' of only a couple of bright, contrasting acros on this rock, should look spectacular when they grow in.



I lost a teal A. scale that used to be in this spot, but I think I replaced it with something even nicer.

[kien]

Looking great Adam! Can't even tell you had issues. Recovering like a BOSS ! :-)