210 gallon Dream tank

[MichaelB]

Here is a one month update:


The lyngbya was wiped out in 4 days after dosing Azithromycin aquired online.

Sadly I've lost corals from it smother some of them out. Mainly a few hammers and torches. I've also lost some of the candy cane and trumpet corals. There are two barely holding on even in the aftermath I'm not really expecting them to make it.

The leathers are looking great so are the bulk of the remaining torches and hammers.

I've added another mp40 to the tank for a total of 3. I have one more mp40 to add in addtion to a gyre wave maker.

Since adding the Azithromycin I haven't turned the skimmer back on or the gfo reactor. Giving the antibiotic more time to stay in the system to ensure this stuff doesn't come back.

The tank is scheduled to end the fallow period on may 15th. Though I won't be back in the country until may 28th. So it will be fallow we'll beyond the recommended 72 days.

 

[jaysway]

best of luck with the recovery!! curious, has your clown tang remained friendly?

 

[MichaelB]

best of luck with the recovery!! curious, has your clown tang remained friendly?

He was the boss of the tank. It didn't make it through qt lost it week one.

They are know to be jerks especially if they are the biggest fish. Pretty much the same with all tangs. Yet clown tangs are a bit more aggressive than many of them.

 

[MichaelB]

So all the fish have now been added to the 210. After 90+days of being fallow.

The first day I added my pink straited wrasse, and pj cardinal from the nem tank.

The next day I added my largest maroon pair from the nem tank. I gave them a full 2 days to establish themselves in the new tank.

day 4 I added the flame angel, coral beauty, foxface fish, and tbr scopas tang to the 210gallon. Giving them another 2 days to fully settle in.

Day 6 I added the Porcupine puffer to the tank.

In the process I've found zero aggression from any of the fish.

It's now closing in on day 8 since adding all the fish. Minus the one lighting maroon I'm seeking to still remhome that's still in the 40 breeder observation tank. I've almost been tempted to just add the other maroon as see what happens.

My llargest maroons have been paired for over 3 years and have always been laying eggs.

The other lighting maroon was in the qt and observation tank with all the other fish with no issues. Except when the puffer ate the 1/2 inch male that was probably beginning to form a pair with the lighting maroon.

All the fish are swimming about freely and none are hiding except the straited wrasse seems a little shy but still comes out into the water column making his grazing rounds.

Forgive the noise my son playing his game meh.


As far as coral. I've lost more hammers and a few more torches. I'm suspecting I need to add more lights to the tank. Where the torches are I have 2 kessil 360xs and the torches look happy under them. The hammers are under a single 360x and they aren't looking as happy. I have another 360x I need to get around to adding. Though I need to find another power strip as my current one only has 4 outlets.


Based on seeing @JVU and @Arvin R tanks they each had between 8-12 360xs on their similar sized tanks. I expect in time I may look to do the same especially if at somepoint I transition to sps in the tank. There currently is only Leathers, mushrooms, rockflower nems and lps in this tank.

The rock and crushed coral is green in many places. I'm not certain if it's green coralline alage that hasn't turned red yet. I don't dose this tank at all yet. Leading me to suspect that things may really take off once I start testing and actively dosing this tank as well.

Overall I think the tank is heading in the right direction and just needs time to fully mature.


current protein skimmer is still shut off. I also have a under powered uv that I may hook up on this tank when I get enough motivation to get it installed.


I'm hoping for more tangs in this tank. Maybe long term double the current amount of fish with no current specific fish in mind.

 

[spuri87]

Looking great! Invest in a good size UV, trust me it will solve a lot of the issues we reefers face on a periodic basis, including managing ich to a certain extent!

 

[MichaelB]

Looking great! Invest in a good size UV, trust me it will solve a lot of the issues we reefers face on a periodic basis, including managing ich to a certain extent!

Maybe one day. Beyond what I'm able/ willing to currently spend at present.

 

[PjFish]

Puffer never takes its eyes off you!! Lol.. Have you gotten it to eat a variety yet?

 

[Coral reefer]

I suggest spend money on equipment before animals. Not saying you need anything specific. That’s just my general opinion

 

[MichaelB]

Puffer never takes its eyes off you!! Lol.. Have you gotten it to eat a variety yet?

Sadly no. He bites the shell of clams on the half shell for like 10 seconds than ignores them once he gets the taste.

He mainly eats krill and mysis. He will eat frozen Roe or brine shrimp as well. If I drop the frozen Cube in before thawing them and they get tiny he'll gulp down half the cubes. I don't want him getting a taste of fish so I've purposely not attempted any frozen fish options. Even though the sucker ate a super tiny maroon clownfish in qt. So I'm not really willing to try the fish options to have him seeing tank mates as potential food. The maroon was smaller than some of the krill I feed him so I would say I was probably a idiot putting them in the same tank.

He's also ignoring the cuc beyond the extremely tiny door snails he has tried biting a few of them and spitting them out. So I'm also not feeding him crab meat for same reasons.

I might try prawns, shrimp, maybe cut up squid or similar.

 

[MichaelB]

I suggest spend money on equipment before animals. Not saying you need anything specific. That’s just my general opinion

I agree. I'm not really certain I wanna invest in a uv for this size tank. I have a 55 watt uv clarifier currently that I may or may not hook up. It's made for ponds so should be adquate for a 250 gallon system. By not wanting to invest in one I refer to a higher quality/cost uv for this size system. That could potentially run around $800 +or so new. I expect if a good quality used one came up I might be inclined to upgrade at some point.

I have another mp40 i haven't install and some gyre wave makers as well for this tank. There isn't currently a need for them with current amount of corals and lack of sps. It would be over kill.

Currently I have 3 mp40s running plus I'm running dual return pumps on the system one dedicated return pump for each side of the tank.

The one thing I wish I had if I'm honest was a reefmatt 1200. I couldn't use one currently without major sump modifications it just couldn't fit because sump is designed for filter socks/ cups. So I would have to cut those out the tank to be able to fit a roller. It's something I would like to do but haven't gotten the nerve to do it yet.

After dealing with ich this last time any new fish is getting qt. So any new addtions including coral and future inverts would get qt treatment. Either copper etc or ran in a fish less system for 72+ days.

So if I add more fish it would likely be 3-4 added at a time to go through qt. Though I'm not in any rush to add anything else to this tank. Only speaking long term here.