470 Gallon Mixed Reef + 150 Gallon Frag Tank

[nuxx]

Thanks guys!

Will let you know how the Gem goes

 

[nuxx]

Little guy is on the way

 

[nuxx]

Got the Gem Tang in yesterday and after about an hour of acclimation I had "issues" getting him into the tank.

First he got stuck in the bag, then he got stuck in the container I used to drain out the bag's water...

Tore his dorsal fin a bit, but it'll grow right back in no time.

He ate nori in the first few minutes and a mix of frozen, pellets and flakes in the evening

Here's a video of him eating mysis and formula 1 and 2 flakes soaked in Selcon and Vitachem.




Thanks so much to Jordan at Among The Reef again!
[email protected]

 

[nuxx]

Fin's healed and eating like a champ

 

[nuxx]

Eats 1/2 a sheet of Nori and two feedings of a mix of frozen/flakes a day... pig...

 

[Desmond]

Nice tanks and good thread. You have some nice fish and corals will be watching this one

 

[nuxx]

Nice tanks and good thread. You have some nice fish and corals will be watching this one

Thanks

Our large CBB passed away yesterday

Just giving up on these... not sure if it's the diet or aggressive nature of the tank that does them in.

This one got along with the tangs, but the Bandit Angel would chase it from time to time.

He ate with gusto and seemed fine until yesterday. Ate mysis, formula flakes (3 variants), spirulina and a huge variety of mixed frozen meaty foods...

 

[Desmond]

Sorry to hear that. Never good to lose a fish.

 

[revhtree]

Eats 1/2 a sheet of Nori and two feedings of a mix of frozen/flakes a day... pig...

Gorgeous fish but yours is exceptionally striking!

 

[nuxx]

Gorgeous fish but yours is exceptionally striking!

Thanks!

 

[nuxx]

Maybe I should update this thread...

Back in April of 2017 I decided that I needed to take the tank down.

Nothing catastrophic happened, but there were some very troubling things starting to occur.

From the beginning of 2017 until that April I started losing a few fish each month. There was nothing obvious as to what was happening, just every once in a while I'd notice a dead fish.

Mostly it was smaller things like Anthias or Cardinals.

Since there was no obvious signs in the water chemistry or bite marks from something like the Triggers, I was just a little stumped.

First I started changing things like the having the house cleaners use vinegar instead of chemicals to clean the floors, installing charcoal filters on the skimmer, etc...

Nothing seemed to help and I kept finding dead fish.

Even large water changes didn't do anything...

My wife and I had a trip to Mexico coming up in April and a few days before the trip I decided to take the tank down. This was one of the hardest decisions I had made in my life.

I came to this decision solely based on the livestock I had in the tank...

The highlights were the following:
- Genicanthus personatus (Masked Angelfish)
- Bandit Angelfish
- Gem Tang
- Black Tang
- Black Tang Hybrid
- Achilles and Achilles Tang Hybrid living well together
- Crosshatch Trigger Pair
etc...

I would have basically felt like the worst person in the world if any of these fish passed away while we were out of town. So I got in touch with a friend of mine (who I ended up selling most of the fish to) to come over and help me pull the fish before the trip.

Some videos before the teardown :/

 

[LaloJ]

I just found this thread, you had an extraordinary tank and an exquisite taste for fish, it's a shame you had to sell them, few people have a gem like Genicanthus personatus, did you ever find the cause why the fish died of the nothing? Do you have any plans to return?

 

[nuxx]

I just found this thread, you had an extraordinary tank and an exquisite taste for fish, it's a shame you had to sell them, few people have a gem like Genicanthus personatus, did you ever find the cause why the fish died of the nothing? Do you have any plans to return?

Never found the cause... it might just have been bullying by a tang or trigger when I wasn't there? Sandbed issue?

I was running an online coral/fish sales site around the time and that really helped with acquiring fish.

Eric Cohen (used to run Seadwelling and was on Tanked) called me up just over a year ago and asked if I wanted to partner with him and make a new site. I had been out of the hobby since 16/17 but still knew everything I had learned over the years and still had an interest, so I was all for it.

We started Tankstop at the beginning of the year : https://www.tankstop.com/

Just being more around the hobby now, it's starting to make me have that itch to try again.

We moved from the Austin area to a small town west of Austin 3-4 years ago and started a brewpub and remodeled both a 100 year + old home and building and recently just moved back to the Austin area after selling the brewpub and our house there is under contract.

My wife and I just had our first children, twin girls a month ago, and are in a new house. Having done a full foundation to roof remodel of the last house, we're going to do some work to this house (built 2016, but builder grade) as soon as we close on our old house.

The new house has an amazing view, but the media room upstairs only has a window out the front of the house, not the back. I don't like media rooms, so we're going to take out all the carpet upstairs and put in wood and add two big windows out the back of the media room and make that my office.

When that is done, I think I might do a small species only tank for sps/lps and a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. It's a fish I've always wanted, but impossible to keep. I had a diver send me three, but all passed in QT. I'm hoping with the slight possibility of getting a tank raised (or few? / will they be ok if tank raised, know cleaners don't do well together, but wild) Hawaiian Cleaner I might have more luck. Also since species only and tank raised, no real reason to do a full on QT.

We'll see, but I'm finding myself really think more about the hobby, especially being on R2R a lot now.

I know I don't want to be in this house longer than 5-10 years, so doing anything HUGE is probably not going to happen here. That was one thing with the last tanks that was always in the back of our heads... what if we want to move?

 

[LaloJ]

Congratulations on becoming a dad, I'm sure there is no greater joy than that, surely the plans with the family are exciting. Eric is one of the most influential people in the aquarium industry, and I think he is also in charge of Among the reef or I'm wrong?.
Whatever your plans are to set up a new system, I'm sure it will be spectacular, possibly the loss of your fish was due to some aggressive situation, I believe that tangs can become more aggressive than it seems, and remember that stress It's the fish's worst enemy or at least I've always seen it that way.

 

[nuxx]

Thanks we've been really tired

I spoke to my wife about doing a small tank a few days ago and she's actually fine with it lol

I believe Among The Reef is going away, some of the higher end offerings and services like quarantining are coming to TankStop

Yeah it makes sense it could be aggression because not one of the bigger fish were dieing. Mostly small things like Anthias. Just really freaked me out with what was in the tank. It's all fun with you keep adding rare fish until something goes wrong :/

 

[nuxx]

I guess this was the first time I tried a Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse. Looks like two super delicate fish together...

 

[LaloJ]

Man, I have seen that fish on television documentaries so many times, is there something that differentiates it from Labroides dimidiatus? It seems that some people keep it up successfully.

 

[nuxx]

Man, I have seen that fish on television documentaries so many times, is there something that differentiates it from Labroides dimidiatus? It seems that some people keep it up successfully.

I had a common cleaner in the tank no problem, went through quarantine and everything.

I was speaking to my business partner Eric Cohen a few days ago about it and when he was running Seadwelling, he would tell divers to not collect them. He said they are impossible to keep.

I think they require almost constant feeding and maybe would have done OK if I just skipped QT and tossed it in the tank with all my larger Tangs, Angels and Triggers. Just no way I'd risk the tank for an un QTed fish.

The tank bred ones are eating pellets, so probably just put an auto-feeder on the tank. I'd be curious if two or three would work in a smaller tank since tank raised. I know you can't do that with wild cleaners. Eric knows the breeders, but I'm not sure how often, if at all they're doing them at the moment. Guess we can check as I get closer.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is really coming along!!

 

[nuxx]

Tank is really coming along!!

We took it down in 2016/2017

Strange smaller fish deaths I couldn't figure out, didn't want to risk the rarer fish I had in there, so I thought it was the smart move to break it down and spread the fish out among local reef club members