3rd Times the Charm Reefer 350

[SpaceAgeCoder]

Been a bit since I last updated. Lots of things going on. We welcomed a new baby reefer into our home. It's been a heck of a week! The tank has finished cycling and after 2 phases of fish introductions most of the fish I want are in.

During the process one of the arches I must have not glued very well so it came down. It looks pretty cool the way it is. The inspiration from that arch was one that crumbled during one of the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico. It's a bit sad that it broke in a similar way.

Livestock list:
2 Regular Clownfish
1 Yellow Tang
1 Purple Tang
1 Borbonius Anthias (favorite fish)
2 Mexican Turbo snails
1 Fighting Conch

The 2 clowns were purchased from a breeder. All the other fish are from Marine Collectors. I don't have the time to set up a QT for all incoming fish so buying fish from a reputable dealer that does extensive QT is incredibly beneficial for me. Yes, they're a bit more money but to me it's worth every penny.

The Purple and Yellow tangs are best buddies hanging out. Even seems the purple is a bit submissive towards the yellow. Time will tell though! Those will be the only tangs in the system.

 

[SeaSickness]

It sounds like your off to a really good start. The fish look happy and healthy.
By the way, congratulations on the new baby!

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

It sounds like your off to a really good start. The fish look happy and healthy.
By the way, congratulations on the new baby!

Thank you! Baby has been helping me feed the fish right after his feeding.

I’m very happy with the quality of fish. They were eating right away. The tangs are a bit more shy then the Borb but after a couple seconds they came right out. It’s really cool seeing them swim together almost like a school.

 

[Kiteboarder85]

Looking great!!

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

It's been a bit since my last update. A few things have changed. I moved both tangs out of the system. The yellow went first since the purple was being overly aggressive. Then the purple went because it was messing a little too much with my borb anthias. They were both rehomed into much larger tanks.

With that being said the tank stayed with just those 3 fish for about 3 weeks. Since then I've added a foxface and a leopard wrasse. I won a radion g4 xr30w pro in a raffle so I decided to just throw that 1 light up at 10% for 4 hours a day to slowly get the ugly phase out. Besides that everything has for the most part remained the same... The fish are acclimating to the lights since its been lightless for 2 months. The borb is not a huge fan.

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

It's been along while since my last update. Many fish have come and gone.. And such is life.. Still haven't any corals. I did break down and add a couple of anemones. The black widow will most likely be rehomed.

Corals I will most likely add in the next 2 months.. I figured I'm already 8 months in without corals with 2 or 4 more right? I am strongly considering removing the sand prior to doing so. So if I remove the sand, I'll remove it, wait 4 months, then add corals. I'm hoping it doesn't disturb things too much since I don't have any corals in there already.

Equipment has been changed. Couple notable changes are I now have 2 XR15 G4 pro's as opposed to the 1 XR30. I basically did a light swap between reefers. Planning on adding another 1 or 2 more. G5's are nice but the G4's perform well and I can get them at a better cost!

Latest front shot. None of my fish like being out when I'm around.. but such is life.

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

Cleaned up some wiring and built a quick and dirty control board. Still need to cover the section on the right and get an actual ATO container. Also, a full shot. I set up my desk and relaxing section to the right. Setup works well for me.

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

Quick update. Decided to upgrade my lighting. Went with 4x XR15 G5 Blues. I think overall the tank looks much cleaner even though there’s more lights.

I’ve also picked up an apex and dos. Hoping to set up AWC initially. Then in a couple months add a trident and another dos for dosing. Closing in on my first year with the tank. I think I’ll write up a first year wrap up.

I am hoping to have the tank moved about 10 feet or so. When I set it up I didn’t think in the future so the move will have it closer to my water changing station on the other side of a wall. Anyways.. here’s the before and after on the lights.

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

Since I’m going full sps that means sand needs to go or else it would be a huge headache. So sand is out! Next step is reaquascaping later this week. Then the waiting game to see how the bio filter holds up with all the changes.

 

[SpaceAgeCoder]

Mid January update:

Didn’t have any real outbreaks after removing the sand. Everything went well until I redid my aquascape slightly.

Breaking up already cycled rock wasn’t fun. I only did a few pieces. Unfortunately, that means when putting things back together I ended up with white rock even though it’s been sitting in the tank for almost a year. That has caused a minor diatom issue on only those rocks. Not the end of the world but didn’t make me happy. Also, made a mess with the glue so there's chunks throughout the rock. I need to take a couple hours to clean all that up with some pliers. Should come off easily.

If that wasn’t enough I also decided to move my tank. Really it only moved 6 feet so it wasn't a huge event. Luckily, removing the sand a few weeks back I think helped. In the old location it made things a little tricker for the automatic water change system. I hired an LFS to do move it for me. It was all done in under 2 hours, including a water change, sump cleaned, and vacuuming some more left over sand in the display. I was very pleased.

I had my mushroom split. And then that split split. So I've gone from 1 to 3. I also picked up a forest fire digi as a tester SPS piece to see how my system is doing after all the craziness. Going to give it another month see how things are and then begin adding some sticks. My plan is to add them in batches of 5. Wait 2 months reassess and then add another batch. Hopefully it all works out!

FTS with updated rock and location. Still some pieces of sand here and there. I'll have to suck out a bit each water change..