barbianj's stuff Time for a new reef tank

You and your family are always welcome to visit. It's getting to be a mini aquarium here, which is what I was afraid of, but, whatever.

Still no leaks this morning, so we'll be good to go.

If you look at the front left bottom of the tank, you can see a gap between the tank and the stand. The odd thing is that the tank molding bows up slightly at all four corners. With a 6' level, the stand is just about dead flat. The shims are in there to take up the space at the corners. I jacked up the floor slightly in the basement so that I wouldn't need to shim at the floor at all. The floor is super stable now and doesn't bounce at all.

 

The tank is up and running! No issues, no leaks. I'm considering selling the Pinktail and the Hawk, so they are still in the 100 gallon section of the sump. The Blueline trigger went in a couple of days after the rest of the gang. The Harlequin Tusk (the only new fish) is doing great and getting along with everyone. ;D

The new glass tops came in today, but they were broken. The purple styrofoam will have to do for a while. I haven't decided which color the sides will be, but they will be granite, like the rest of the tanks. The rockwork is temporary until I come up with a design that I like, and actually do it. That may be a bit.

There are no lights on the tank until the tops come in, so most of the pictures are with a flash.

















...and a FTS of the reef.

 

Congrats on getting it done, well water and fish. They looks so much smaller in that tank.

Nice FTS on the reef.

 

I had mentioned in another post about two things that have made a world of difference for me:

Any LPS that is not healthy or eating needs a dip in Furan 2.

Amphipods eat the new flesh of corals.

I'm not sure if the amphipods chowing on the corals caused the infections, but since the tank was dosed with Interceptor, there are no amphipods, and no infection. Most likely this was due to an overpopulation, but they are gone, for now.

Everything was going great, when out of the blue, a number of corals started showing recession. The first was a small colony of pink Micromussa that literally disappeared overnight. They were healthy and growing new heads one day, the next morning, completely gone. Nothing but white skeleton.

The corals in the next pictures suddenly showed signs of recession. After verifying that there wasn't a water issue, I checked the tank a 3 am. Every single coral that showed damage was mobbed with amphipods. The next day the tank was dosed with Interceptor, and that was that. The damaged corals grew back very quickly, and the ones that seemed fine grew even faster. The amphipods probably did more damage than I could see.


This Echinata shows a white area of infection. It was dipped twice in Furan 2, but it lingered. After the amphipods were gone, the infection was also gone, and since then the coral has covered the bare area and then some.


This acan had two small heads eaten. The head by the right arrow is growing back from being eaten on it's lower left.



This chalice was growing very quickly. The area to the right of the arrow shows how far the new growth went. All the rest of it was eaten the rest of the way around.



The Dendro was growing new heads while receding at the same time. That didn't make sense. These pictures are from today, and are nearly healed over. It was worse.





On the Lobo you can see some exposed skeleton. Just above it is lighter colored flesh that has begun to grow back.

 

Here is how everything else is doing:

 

New fish



New corals

Australamussa





Forest Fire Digi (colors are off)



Chalice



Purple Unknown, I think



Super Girl Millie



ATL Appleberry



The pink Acan and the orange Ricordia from above are also new.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

 

Sorry 'bout the pods damage toward the corals. Your reef is AMAZING! Hows the new fowlr doing?

 

Nice photos! Despite the amphipod issue, your reef tank appears to be doing quite well. I really love all those acans!

 

Thanks, appreciate it. The fish are doing great. Since the 300 has been up running a bare bottom, the tank and water have been extremely clean. The new Tusk is always out swimming around.

The Lunar Wrasse in Big Mamma's tank has been missing for over a month now. : No sign. The female seahorse has the same affliction as the male had, no snick. She hasn't eaten for a long time, and no idea how to cure it. I'll have to put her down today. The reef tank will go the direction of Leopard Wrasses. No more seahorses. They were awesome to have, but sad watching them die.

 

It's taken me a LONG time to get to this point, Seano. I've always liked Acans, and finally I'm getting a nice garden going. ;D Thanks!