Rishu's Really Ridiculous Reef: a 96x20x20 penny tank build

[gobytron]

I dig the aquascape origami..

[rishu_pepper]

Originally Posted by gobytron

I dig the aquascape origami..

Haha thanks. Except the plan didn't really turn out like the model. Oh well, we like it as it is right now.

Just sucks that there's no fish, but gotta do the fallow, for the long term health of the fish. In the meantime, looking at inverts has become pretty interesting, actually.

Invert list:

RBTA
sebae anem
porcelain crab (hosted by RBTA)
3x serpent sea stars (man, these guys are EFFICIENT and fast when leftover mysis is on the sandbed!)
2x peppermint shrimp
cleaner shrimp (this guy molts pretty often)
blood red fire shrimp
many snails of various kinds
red legged hermit crab (had another big one but it went ballistic on the snails so was taken out)
blue legged hermit crab
stomatella (speedy!)

Thinking of picking up a pompom crab. No urchins for me, thank you.

Any other suggested inverts to add?

[.bubbles]

So husband is away for a few days and I've been left with the company of our aquariums. He also left me this lovely note...


Thanks for the vote of confidence dear


Anyway, nothing better to do, so here's a photo dump of current coral conditions:


Our RBTA was really extended yesterday..approx. 11"



mutant hammer night view - spot the snail?


reg. hammer


c'monnnn little zoas...growwwwww


bubble


Brian's fav.


patiently waiting for my mushroom garden to develop...

[Ron99]

In my experience you'll have a mushroom forest eventually. I won't have them in my tank again :-/

[.bubbles]

Originally Posted by Ron99

In my experience you'll have a mushroom forest eventually. I won't have them in my tank again :-/

That's what people keep saying! But our mushrooms don't really seem to want to do much to change status quo. Meh I guess time will tell. Ideally I would prefer a zoa forest and only a small mushroom garden.

[rishu_pepper]

Update on water flow situation:

I have concluded that the two RW-15s on the overflow end does not carry adequate flow for the tank, but MP40s at the other end were an extreme eyesore, so I have procured two Gyre 150s. One is in place at the overflow end already, currently set at a 1 sec pulse at about 60/70% intensity. Corals seem to like it so far and it doesn't create gullies in the sand like the RW-15s did. It did not come with the new silent mount and by gosh it's loud Going to order a silent mount from IA. The second incoming one does have it, it will be placed at the other end of the tank.

Here's hoping Maxspect gets their act together and implement Apex compatibility soon.

Speaking of Apex, anyone has experience with the Apex auto feeder? Thinking of picking one up soon as we sometimes go out of town or just want more frequent feeding especially for anthias and it's practically impossible to feed multiple times with work schedule.

[rishu_pepper]

BIG update in the works, stay tuned.

[rishu_pepper]

Fish list:

2x Snowflake clownfish - Tofu and Sesame
2x Onyx clownfish (in timeout in QT) - Bo and Quessie
2x blue chromis - Henrik and Daniel
Orange shoulder tang (juv.) - Shire
Mimic tang - Chairman
Hippo blue tang - Blue Rain
Yellow tang - Officer Pecko
Starry blenny - Cup Noodle
Lyretail anthias - Yaki
Melanurus wrasse - Melon Pan
Yellowtail damsel - Stick Shift
Coral beauty - Siri

Picture update incoming very soon!

Future potential additions:

Red sided jawfish (already put on hold)
Yellowheaded jawfish
Tonozukai wrasse
Assorted gobies/firefish/anthias?
Fowleri tang

That's about it. At the current list, is it considered a heavy bioload already (200g total water volume)?

[rishu_pepper]

Long awaited update:

It's been almost two months since the tank is up. I've had some trouble with the skimmer and redid the plumbing (pipe was blocking) to raise the skimmer's water level. Now the BM Curve 9 is producing like it's supposed to, not overflow like a rabid coyote.

As for flow, I had been using two RW-15s and also tried two MP40s on the other side, but it didn't achieve what was needed, so I procured two Gyre 150s, one of each end. Still playing with the flow rate to see what the corals like the most and also pushing the maximum waste into the overflow on one side.

Besides the fish that I used to have, I picked up 3 more fishes from Albert last week (and 3 more in QT now, a jawfish and a pair of gobies).

So far so good. I'm going to order a Jebao doser soon and will start my dosing regiment when it gets here.

Bo and Quessie, Onyx clownfish from Mindy (Myka). I put them in timeout QT when Bo, the male, was mixing it up with the snowflake female Tofu. Just released them back into the DT near the RBTA, now they're being hosted, and all is well. (I had to shoo Tofu numerous times back into her own anemone using my stern finger wagging... I can't believe it worked lol.


Here are Tofu (female on the left) and Sesame, comfortably in their sebae anemone.






Siri, the coral beauty. I think it got bullied as you can see the discolouration on her body and the chip in the fin. I haven't seen the aggressor since I've been at work most of the days, hopefully they'll work things out. She's extremely beautiful, I have never seen one with such great orange colour.


Shire the orange shoulder tang. Still a juvie. I love this guy! Looking forward to seeing his colour transformation


The old favourite, Blue Rain the hippo tang. He's ich free and much happier now, swims like a spaz.


Chairman, the lemon peel mimic tang. A very gentle fish.


End shot. Hope to add some SPS on the rock if the RBTA allows


FTS: (please excuse the ghetto screen top, they are unfinished aesthetically, wife is in Europe and I don't trust my DIY skills they do function though).

[Aquattro]

Got any pics of Warren's plumbing job?? Bet it's amazing, you're lucky to have him around to do it for you!!