120G Rimless shallow peninsula tank

[Janci]

I love the clown tang. Its one of my favorite fish. I like that you now have a built in excuse for a future tank upgrade!

From my original fish list not too many species come available quickly here and the tank needs the fish load to add nutrients to the system.
I hope she does well as I do not have too much luck with fish lately.
2 wrasse jumped out of the tank and 1 clown fish went missing the other day.
No more upgrading for me. This is as big as I go. If I upgrade it will be in systems only. Such as AWC, better ATO,... (still dreaming about Radions...) This tank size is more than enough.

Wow! Nice setup. Following.

Thank you.

Your tanks looking bloody beautiful at the moment mate!
Some great looking corals in there.
I see you're making good use of the new camera to, Great photos!
Is the skimmer back to normal now that the top off water no longer has the magnesium in it?

The skimmer is not yet back to normal. I start suspecting it is a problem with the skimmer itself start looking out for some upgrade.
A Bubble King 200 Delux sounds great and is easily adjustable with the DC pump.

The camera is great. But I really struggle with the light settings and good focus.
When I see you all posting those great pics, wonder what I am doing wrong.
More practise needed...

 

[prsnlty]

Well Janci I love your pictures I think you're doing pretty good with the new camera!

Beautiful fish and corals!

 

[Janci]

Well Janci I love your pictures I think you're doing pretty good with the new camera!
Beautiful fish and corals!

Thank you Jackie.
A FTS is in the making as soon as I manage to take a decent picture.

 

[Mattres]

That's a shame about the skimmer. If you do decide to change to a Bubble King you won't be disappointed though. I'm still super happy i went with one.

Those last set's of photos have some good photos in them. Focus is hard especially with fish. I recently bought a tripod and it makes taking pics of corals a lot easier, especially to get them sharp and the focus right. I still struggle with getting fish in focus but all i can recommend is a fast shutter to stop any motion blur, I set my aperture to correlate with how much of the subject i want in focus, eg. Set wide open to get the face and eye of a fish in focus or more wide open to get the whole fish in focus. Then play with ISO and maybe a little exposure compensation to make sure the picture isn't too dark. Then just take LOTS of photos. I'll often take a bunch of photos and then delete all of them as I'm not happy with them. I need to get a decent post processing program and start shooting raw as a lot of photos can be saved with a little work.
Keep at it mate and you'll only get better!

Oh and the clown tang is a stunner!, When i recently picked up my Kole tang the LFS had 2 Clown tangs that were no more than 1 1/2 - 2 inches long. Crazy cute.

 

[gurumasta]

Awesome build and sweet tank!!

 

[Janci]

Pic taken with DSLR camera and with Samsung mobile phone [emoji46]

Same detail... same background... different picture.

 

[choss]

Big difference. Beautiful coral but second shot I feel like I'm diving in your tank.

 

[Janci]

This morning, before leaving for work, I found the clown tang close to the bottom, struggling to find a spot to rest or lay donw.
She did not show any spot, but looked like sick and in a not good shape.
I tried to feed her but she did not wanted to. All other fish are doing fine.
I hope she will be still there tonight.
Long day ahead...

 

[Janci]

FTS

 

[choss]

Sad news about the Tang. I've been there. Leaves you feeling helpless especially when you have to run off to work. The tank looks great for what it is worth.

 

[prsnlty]

The tank looks beautiful! I'm very sorry about your clown Tang though I had an orange shoulder tang do this after a year in my tank. I'm still not sure what killed him but I always suspected the powder blue stressed him too much. I hope he survives. Do you have a QT that you can put him in with some medication?

 

[prsnlty]

What about a freshwater dip to see if any flukes come out of his gills? It's possible he's sick on the inside with a parasite and in this case you need to be careful about your DT also. It would parasite you can treat him with copper and he'll feel better pretty quickly. Provided you catch it in time

 

[prsnlty]

Jacni, have you checked these links out? Maybe they'll help.

Fish disease index & Pictorial
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/285708/
Fish treatment guidelines with chart
https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/283450/

 

[Janci]

Thank you @prsnlty - Jackie.
That is great information which I will save for the future.
Unfortunately when I came home tonight the clown tang was nowhere to be found.
I had a bad feeling this morning but work was calling and I did not have the time to take out the tank and put in QT. QT is also not set up yet... shame on me.
After searching for a while and close to giving up I saw several hermit crabs gathering together in the rocks. Enough to know that the tang was there and to remind me that the hermit crabs are part of the clean up crew.



I will stay away from new LFS fish for a while.
Focus on coral and the fish which I have for now.

 

[prsnlty]

Awe, I'm sorry he's gone I do I understand how you feel. Since my orange shoulder died (he was a gift from my daughter and new son-in-law) in the 180 after a whole year, I haven't purchased another fish for that tank. I am hoping that with the reaquascape in a month or 2 that I can add a few more fish and the powder blue won't notice them. Otherwise I have no hope for new fish in the 180.

 

[Michael Montgomery]

What did you do about the cord to the powerhead?

 

[Janci]

What did you do about the cord to the powerhead?

Nothing yet.
Might try something tonight.
I will keep you posted.

 

[Janci]

What did you do about the cord to the powerhead?

I was a little lazy lately about doing something to that cord.
First of all when I saw all the wires that were going through that small hole I made, I realized it was not going to be easy to squeeze the MP40 through it to get the cord to the other side of the tank.
Second of all, I wantd to wait to see how the flow was and how the corals reacted. Now that part was easy because overall it was a good improvement.
So @Michael Montgomery , when you reminded me to do something about the cord, I got into it and got until this...

I might paint the black cord in white to hide it a little more and will probably cut the plywood to make a 7mm sleeve to let the cord pass more easily.
Not the best, but good for now.
Something to think about when planning the next tank (not very soon)

 

[Janci]

As I was arranging the cord of the MP40, I also took the time to do the last tube connections for the CaRX reactor. The CO2 lnes are finished and dosing pump has been connected.
The corals started to grow nicely. Tonight I will test ALK and switch of the doser for 24hrs. Then tomorrow I test again and see how much ALK is consumed during the day.
I have kept ALK at 7.6dKH for the last weeks and corals have been responding very well.

Best example is this frag:

Added to the tank end of May 2017:

2 months later: encrusted and doubled in size.

 

[Janci]

Yesterday evening I switched off the Alk doser and tonight, 24hrs later, I measured again.
A drop of 1.2dKH. That is more than enough to get the DaStaCo calcium reactor up and running.
We know what to do this weekend!!