200g Reef (picture heavy) Updated 7/19/06

[Bojangles]

I dont know what I'll do now. I think I'm about done with all this. I'll leave whats in the tank in the tank and maybe in a few months I'll add something who knows...

 

[garagebrian]

Man,

I'm sorry to hear about your losses! Everyone runs into setbacks(I just flooded my carpet yesterday!), just take a breather and let your tank stabilize. Relax and enjoy what is there and plan what you want to do next. This is one of the most enjoyable and frustrating hobbies at the same time!

Good luck man!

Brian

 

[WRASSER]

Hey BO, how is everything going up to today?

 

[Bojangles]

Well...I still have the two fish (sailfin tang & six line). All my corals are doing great and all my specs are perfect.

I cant get the star out of the 10# rock he's made his home and I'm out of ideas besides a FW dip. Other than that not much to tell, the fish have grown somewhat shy with just the 2 in a 200g and that kinda bums me out.

I just dont know what to do now. Im about to sell my new camera and go full blown DSLR. Should I add something this early? I just dunno...

 

[WRASSER]

Keep testing your water, and yes you can add something else. Just do it one fish a month. If you get a couple of the same species put them in together but wait. Your ECO-system has to build up its bio-load, again just go slow.
Let us know :wink: 8)

 

[Bojangles]

I havent been to the pet store in awhile, I bet they're wondering where I went hehe. I've decided to get one fish every 2 months and build my inverts when I can find them. I'm building alot of stuff in my sand and on my rocks, so I think I may go get some starfish...maybe a blue or orange lenkia? I'm also going to invest in a skunk cleaner and some peppermint shrimps to get the tank in shape.

 

[garagebrian]

I havent been to the pet store in awhile, I bet they're wondering where I went hehe. I've decided to get one fish every 2 months and build my inverts when I can find them. I'm building alot of stuff in my sand and on my rocks, so I think I may go get some starfish...maybe a blue or orange lenkia? I'm also going to invest in a skunk cleaner and some peppermint shrimps to get the tank in shape.

Hey there! Glad to see you weathered the disaster and are taking the patient route. I don't want to sound negative, but I would probably wait a little while on the linkia starfish. Their survival rate is pretty low in newly established tanks, especially the blue ones. Some more experienced people than me suggested 1-2 years before adding a linkia. This is just what I've heard though, you know how opinions are in this hobby

Keep us updated!

Brian

 

[Bojangles]

I found some crabs shells, recently broken and eaten and my six line was shredded. I can only think there is some form of predator in the tank. I guess that explains why I was losing fish :x

 

[Bojangles]

I found one of my anthias dead with a claw mark on each side of his body in the exact same place, so I'm thinking mantis right? No one around here has a trap and I dont want to lose my remaining fish and I'm pissed. So what do I do? I take down the whole tank, pull out all the rocks, clean them of sand and debris, check all the holes and then place them in a 55g full of saltwater.

Three hours later, after cleaning all the sand, glass ect and a 80% waterchange. I filled it back up and now I'm waiting for the cloud to clear. Once it does I guess I'm going to fw dip anything with any kind of holes in it and see what I get. Right now I have no idea what to do and I've pretty much put the LFS at a loss as well.

If I come up with nothing even after I dip everything then what? I guess the only thing left would be to make my last fw tank into sw, put my fish inside and wait 3-4 months until the thing dies in there or comes out.

Oh yeah I forgot I shocked the hell out of myself today. I plugged something in with only one prong and when I tried to fix it ZAAAAPPP! Thirteen years in tanks and its the first time I've been shocked! What a rush I'll tell ya, but I couldn't really use my right arm for awhile LOL

 

[Bojangles]

What triggered all this is when I found the two fish dead (at the same time) I decided to leave them in the tank. Both fish were carried off during the night by something and no sign of them remains a day later.

Keep in mind the only thing in my tank now are some snails, sailfin tang and I managed to safe one anthias and my friends 4 firefish. No crabs or starfish

Ph 8.0
Ammonia 0
Salt 1.021
Nitrates 0

test done before the tank came down.

 

[Bojangles]

Updated 7-28-05

Well I finally got my tank back together!!! The tank has been stable and its doing fine. The few corals I had all survived, sally lightfoot survived, the hermits survived but are smoking through the snails to get new shells =-(

Fish stock total includes:
Sailfin Tang
Firefish x 4

Heres some pics of the new aquascape. I like it alot more, theres more room and it seems less cluttered.

Oh yeah I nearly forgot! My skimmer sprung a leak! Oh well good riddens right? SO i'm in the market if anyone has any suggestions on good ones for a 200g.

 

[Bojangles]

I just put in my first live order!!!

I put it in 6am tuesday and it should arrive by 10am wednesday.

Heres what I got:
1-YELLOW POLYP M. (Parazoanthus axinella)
3-SALLY LIGHTFOOT CRAB (Percnon gibbesi)
1-SUN POLYP CORAL: ORANGE/YELLOW (Tubastraea faulkneri)
2-OCELLARIS CLOWN TANK RAISED S. (Amphiprion ocellaris)


This is my "tester" order. Im unsure if ordering fish / corals without having seen the actual specimin is a good idea. I mean you could get anything! So I ordered something of everything to test the waters. For the price I'm paying for this order I could have only gotten 2 corals in my LFS. The crabs alone would have cost me almost $50 and that was more than half my order!!

I set up a 55g q/t for the new arrivals 8)

 

[Bojangles]

The animals I had gotten were very nice! They were all in good health and aclimated nicely. The yellow polyp was extended hours after introduced to the light, but the sun coral has yet to open :?:

The clowns are...TINY! I'm talking less than an inch! I have them in a 55g q/t alone for right now. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I dont think I will add them to the 200g until they get bigger. I dont think they can handle the 1500g flow.

*Updated previous pictures and added pictures to be more visually friendly*

 

[WRASSER]

hey that tank is coming along nicely! nice yellow star polyps & sun coral. keep up the good work BO :wink: :!: :!:

 

[Bojangles]

Well I'm finally selling my Seaclone 150. Put the guy on ebay a few days ago and its already up to $40. I figure with all the parts I'm selling to the skimmer I'll get about $60-100.

So I bought a ASM G-4X protein skimmer
rated 450 gallons and comes with Seadra 9000 pump

When it gets here Ill have to take down my refug/sump and build a shelf for it.

 

[WRASSER]

Hey Bo did you up grade from a smaller tank or just went for the big one :?:

 

[Bojangles]

Hey Bo did you up grade from a smaller tank or just went for the big one :?:

Well thats kind of a hard question to answer. I started freshwater 14 years ago at the age of 9 with a 55g. I bought the 200g when I was 16 with money from my first job. So in that sense I guess I started with a smaller one.

For saltwater I started directly into the 200g, no smaller tanks first to try it out. Though now I have a 200g, 55g FO, 5g mantis tank all saltwater.

Basically I'm making all the newbie mistakes someone would have at the beginning of a smaller tank except on a larger scale LOL. Seriously you know what my problem was when I started out? My equipment wasn't up to par. I started with crappy lights, 300gph powerheads and a skimmer rated too low for my system. Simply because it was good enough for freshwater and I didn't know any better. Life has actually gotten a whole lot easier since my upgrades. Hope that answered your question. BTW why did you ask?

Salinity 1.022
Ammonia 0.25
Ph 7.9
Nitrites 0
Nitrates appx 20
My system has gone almost a week without a skimmer and it will never happen again!!! My skimmer sprung a leak and the one I bought hasn't arrived yet!

 

[WRASSER]

well i have a 150 that i started with and i (like all others) want to move up to a bigger tank. so i was just curious if you moved into a 200. another great job to you :wink:

 

[Bojangles]

well i have a 150 that i started with and i (like all others) want to move up to a bigger tank. so i was just curious if you moved into a 200. another great job to you :wink:

No I've always had it and thank you!

Well my skimmer arrived today!! :!:
I sold the old skimmer for 75 shipped and the spare parts for 34 shipped

I really didn't expect it to be THAT BIG! At first I had tried to figure out a way to modify it for external sump use because of its size but could not without restricting gph. So I went to the hardware store, got some plumming and installed it into the sump.

Ofcourse I pulled the whole thing apart and put it back together before I put it into the tank. Ofcourse I put one piece back in differently! The height was pre adjusted for performance and I pulled it apart and had to reset it. I'm not really sure whether I did it to the right height or not but its right on top and all I have to do is push it down or pull it up.

 

[WRASSER]

Looks good Bo, nice job on istallation. Is that going to the refugium :?: