Brew's 90G. Quick Video update.

Lol. Ok ok, it was a fat short bald guy. Anyway...

Thanks for the advice. I did it today... picked up the hermit and gave him a good scratching! lol. Got a great amount of his coraline off. I really hope it blooms the way yours did. I love a tank covered in coraline.

Thanks. I'll insert "Amazing" in your blank.

 

Just a brief update...

Things are going great. I have a decent algae bloom, but my CUC is keeping it in check for the most part.

I added 3 green / blue chromis.

Lights are looking awesome. One of the actinic bulbs blew on me, so I called up Aquaticlife and they sent me a replacement, as well as a purple/daylight bulb. They're an awesome company! Very personal customer service!


IMG_1389 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr


IMG_1380 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr

 

Looking good, congrats, good to know on the service from AquaticLife, congrats on the new fish.

 

Looking great! Got a HOB skimmer too? Thanks for the update!

 

Yeah. They've been great so far.

I've wanted chromis for a long time. I may add another 2 or so in a couple weeks.

Thanks man! I love waking up to it every morning. (the bottom picture is the view from my bed. lol)

The HOB skimmer I just carried over from the 29G setup. I'm going to have to dedicate some serious time to building a real sump soon, and at that point, I'll get one of those big overpriced monster skimmers.

 

I would like some chromis for my 90 gallon as well! +1 for the serious sump! lol. What kind of skimmer are you looking at?

 

I've looked at your build thread before! You're doing an awesome job.

The sump will start within a month I hope... I just need to do some drawings. I'm planning on having a very large portion of it for mangroves. Skimmer wise, I have no idea. I haven't even started reading reviews or shopping around.

Any suggestions?

 

Oh? Thanks!

How big is the sump gonna be? Go as big as possible, so skimmer wise, you have more choice to choose from. I like cone skimmers so, Id say SWC cone? I have just ordered SWC 160 from BigAls. Its scheduled to be here on 6/3.

 

So, firstly, happy 4th. I hope everyone had a great day. Mine was filled with the joys of all my favorite scents in life; beer, sunscreen, gunpowder, and two-stroke. Took the boat out and did some free diving. I've been finding some cool things... and it seems one of them has got to go!

I've been too busy with other stuff to do an update on the tank, but I figured now would be a good time, since I need some advice too!

About 1 week ago, I found an amazing sea urchin. I brought him home and put him in my tank. He DESTROYED all the algae I had.. but this morning I woke up, and there is barely any of what little coraline growth I had. He has eaten like 1/2 of the bright purple coraline I had growing on one of my rocks. :-( I have to go clean out the boat this morning, so I'm thinking I might go drop him off in the water.

Check out the link to watch a very shoddy video update.. I also found a huge hermit crab. He has been named "Megatron", after my mother came over and said: "He looks like one of those.... transformers!"

I'm thinking about going to a local reef store to get my first piece of coral today!

The tank is doing awesome. No deaths, algae all appears to be under control.




be sure to watch in HD.

 

So it has been some time since I posted any updates on the tank.

I purchased my first corals a few weeks ago. They included a hammer coral, pulsing xenia, and a zoanthoid. My water chemistry was perfect, except for a salinity reading on the higher side. Unfortunately, due to poor handling of the coral on my part, and a few large clumsy hermit crabs, the pulsing xenia did not survive. The hammer coral followed suit shortly after for many of the same reasons. The Zoa is doing just fine. It was a learning experience, and I feel more prepared for the next few frags that I'll pick up.

I took the dive, and added a Hippo Tang to my tank.

Inhabitants now include; my mated pair of perc. clowns, (who have grown considerably larger since I moved them from my 29G tank almost 4 months ago), my pajama cardinal, 3 green chromis, and now the hippo tang. Not to mention an awesome purple urchin, and diverse clean up crew.

Needless to say, the hippo tang is very difficult to capture with my phone... but here are some crappy pictures until I manage to get better ones

Bad news is that I'm going to be moving house soon. I'll be doing some serious research before the time comes. It seems we will have both houses for around a month, so I'll be setting up my previous 29G tank at the new house for the fish, and then transfer the 90G over and get it set up as fast as possible. It couldn't have come at a worse time, but I'm going to think positive and use this opportunity to build a new sump for the tank, with a fuge... add a larger skimmer (I'll need help choosing one for sure), as well as a phosban reactor (set on the two little fishies one) and some new additions to the plumbing department. I'll also be doing some new aquascaping after being inspired by a weekend tank build with some buddies of mine.

Stay tuned.


IMG_1644 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr


IMG_1646 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr


IMG_1713 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr


IMG_1741 by Brett Marillier, on Flickr