Reef nutrition

Crabby's "Elite210" tank at the Romberg Tiburon Center

 
Thanks for your comments -

FYI today I pulled out a couple of monti frags and checked under the microscope for nudibranchs or eggs. I saw none, nor have I seen signs of montis being eaten in months....

On the bad news side - the random gyre flow patterns that I had set up with the 6 tunze pumps has been lost for a while because the pumps aren't talking with the controllers. So, all 6 pumps are just on all the time. There's a lot of flow, but some areas of the tank are getting some detritus buildup....the corals seem relatively happy, anyhow.
 
It's been a while since I provided a tank update. Everything is good, flow is fixed, and four new fish added: a Kleins butterfly that has munched nearly all the Aiptasia, two flameback angels and a bicolor anthias.

I made a video of the tank today. There's a link at the bottom of my lab website (http://online.sfsu.edu/~stillmaj) I obviously need to fix how I coded the HTML, but you can watch it for now....plus see all the instructions for how I should have posted it!
 
Thanks! That clown tang was just a skinny little fish when I bought it at Albany Aquarium about 4-5 years ago. It was so skinny that I didn't even think it'd make it. Now it's the big beefy boss of the tank!
 
And so far, no signs that the kleins has nipped at the corals. It was you who turned me on to those fish. Best Aiptasia Eaters Ever.
 
It's been a while since I posted an update...

Here are some pics from yesterday. I changed the MH bulbs to some old 20Ks that I hadn't thrown out yet a few days prior. Though will switch back to the 10Ks next week as growth is much better.

The pics are viewable in the link below. When there were duplicate pictures of the same view, I've adjusted the color tint and saturation on one of them to remove the blue background color. That's about what the tank would look like with the 10K bulbs and the reef brite strips that I haven't added yet.

http://gallery.me.com/carol_fang#100060/DSC_0001&bgcolor=black

for comparison, here's a movie from Feb 2012:

http://gallery.me.com/carol_fang#100052&bgcolor=black&view=grid

And here are photos from Dec 2010. The tank has really taken off since then! Though back then the corals were far enough apart that they didn't fight. Now the orange acan has grown so much and it is killing the war coral underneath it that I was unable to move away.

http://gallery.me.com/carol_fang#100077&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Some equipment issues: The Tunze pumps have started to fail. The older pumps, which have run nearly continuously in one tank or another for about 7 years were the first ones to go, and I've lost several others and one of the multi-controllers died. In the process of replacing them I have upgraded to the programmable controller, and now have a bit more wave action in the tank on top of the gyre flow.

I'm seriously contemplating switching to Plasma (ala Jestersix). First, I need to selling off some tank stuff I'm not using to help fund the purchase! Look for some items for sale!

Other changes I've made: not much. I'm flowing the calcium reactor a bit faster and I've added an automated feeder for pellets. I never do water chemistry tests! (aside from salinity)
 
A few tank shots, left, front and right views taken today. Coral growth has been great! The protein skimmer I've got is a bit undersized now that the corals are filling up the tank. So, I'm going to be upgrading it to a recirculating unit, which will give me some room in the sump for a frag tank. I'm also going to add a separate 12G tank to the sump with a second return pump that will also be feeding the skimmer and will provide some backup should the first return pump fail.

Attached files /attachments/sites/default/files/DSC_0088.JPG /attachments/sites/default/files/DSC_0089.JPG /attachments/sites/default/files/DSC_0093.JPG
 
I love this tank!
One of my favorites.
scratch that.
Other than mine. :bigsmile: My favorite that I have seen in person!
 
Thanks guys! Especially Jon - that's HIGH PRAISE!

I just realized that the older pics are no longer visible on the MobileMe site - I'll have to update those so that the "progress" series is viewable.

Happy holidays!
 
Hi Everyone, It's been many years since I posted...my increasingly busy family and professional life has gotten in the way of my posting to the club. Apologies for being lame.

I am moving overseas for a year or two and I will be taking my big reef tank down at the end of April or early May. Everything will be available (livestock, rock, hardware), some for free and some for sale. I'd like to see all the fish and corals go to good homes. To say that the corals have suffered some neglect is an understatement, but there are some nice pieces still. There is Aiptasia in the live rock, so corals should be fragged to prevent Aiptasia transmission. I've uploaded a recent tank video here:

Ideally I'll take this down in one big day and distribute all livestock then. I don't have the capacity to frag in advance, so the coral fragging will happen at the time that the tank is taken down (or corals can be distributed as larger colonies). I'm happy to give away the corals in a DBTC fashion. Would folks from the club be interested in an "unofficial" event involving the tank takedown?

Thanks,

Jonathon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top