FarmerTy's 215-gallon SPS Tank

[b4tn]

Its very difficult to tell the difference. I guessed far right though the difference is barely noticeable, just slightly whiter. I prefer a whiter less blue color in my lighting and banged my head against the wall looking for an LED fixture that I thought looked like it put out the color I would like without busting the bank. Looking at your tank I am positive the T247's will be a perfect fit!

 

[FarmerTy]

Well I'm happy it helped make a decision for you. I too dislike overly blue or actinic tanks and that's probably one of my biggest reasons for sticking with MH as long as I did.

You should have seen me at our local reef conference in Austin with all the vendors. They probably thought I was nuts, sitting there with 14k spectrum on when everyone else was actinic/blued out. What's up with that dude and his white channels? [emoji41]

 

[FarmerTy]

Went to Colorado for a wedding this weekend and came back with one of these bad boys! Colorado sunburst anemone from Elite Reef!

Totally lives up to the hype!

 

[FarmerTy]

That was just under a 400-watt halide! When I was acclimating it in the sump under LEDs, it looked like it was on fire!

 

[FarmerTy]

Well, I have made some livestock changes, some of my choosing and some out of circumstance.

First, I rehomed my dussamieri tang. I thought I could have at least 1-3 years of it in my tank before I had to rehome or upgrade but he was growing ridiculously fast and I even felt bad to have him in a 215 gallon.

Instead, I have picked up a nice orange shoulder tang, currently in his ugly ducking phase between juvi and adult forms. I'm pretty sure it murdered or chased my cleaner wrasse out of the tank. I don't blame him though, the cleaner wrasse was pretty annoying.

My black Niger trigger decided to jump out of the tank... Though I have my suspicions that my little niece and nephew had a part in spooking him.

Added a pyramid butterfly fish and he's been doing great and taking to frozen food well.

I've had a regal angelfish still being trained to eat in my sump before releasing him to the DT and also have a powder blue tang down there for a month now that is acclimated and happy to tank life. I just haven't released him yet to the DT as I want to get my last set of fish in there first before releasing the "kraken". They're so territorial and so high energy, I want to put him in last, even though he's tiny. I just know what kind of bullies they can be to new additions.

 

[FarmerTy]

That should be it for stocking other than some anthias down the road and maybe one more fairy wrasse but I'll wait for my system to balance before adding anymore.

 

[jolt]

I really want a butterfly and an angel in a future build! I'll be following to see how yours do

 

[mainn]

Was just at Elite Reef, the sunbursts are beautiful.

 

[FarmerTy]

So last time I went radio silent on the build, I came home with a Colorado sunburst anemone.

This time around, I'll update everyone on my fish livestock additions over the past 6 months. As most of you know, I went through a self-inflicted marine velvet epidemic that wiped out half my fish population at the beginning of the year. I've been slowly adding back to the fish population and allowing the tank to adjust to the additions.

Most notably, I added this juvi emperor angelfish.

Which turned into this behemoth!

Then I got a replacement leopard wrasse and a flame hawkfish.

Then I picked up a tomini tang and shortly after, a dussemeri tang.

In the short time I had him, the dussemeri tang grew 1.5" and was quickly getting too big for the tank already. I knew he was going to need an 8' long tank soon so I made the decision to rehome him to a bigger tank. Goodbye handsome!

I also picked up a powder blue tang during that time and kept him in the sump as I wanted him to be one of the last additions to the tank since they are so territorial, especially with new additions.

To replace the dussemeri tang, I picked up a naso tang and an orange shoulder tang. [emoji41] I made sure to get a small naso tang and a larger orange shoulder so neither would have too much issues with the current medium-sized tomini tang in the tank. It worked out as I had hoped... No fighting anywhere. The orange shoulder is in it's ugly ducking phase between juvi and adult forms.

Oh, did I mention the pyramid butterfly? [emoji16]

I'm making one last attempt with a regal angelfish before I throw in the towel with them. So far so good, he's looking nice and healthy in my sump for the past week but he's still just grazing the rocks and not eating what I've given him yet. In time... he's finding plenty in the sump to eat. If you were paying attention, you're probably wondering what happened to the powder blue tang in the sump. Well, he got booted to the skimmer/CaRX chamber for being a jerk.

Alright, everyone is caught up now. Oh wait, forgot to mention my niger trigger met his end carpet surfing. I have suspicions my little niece and nephew played a part in spooking him.

Only additions now if everything goes right is maybe one more fairy wrasse down the road and a few anthias... But I'll let the tank adjust a bit more before that happens. Keep in mind all of this happened with about 1-2 fish a month added to allow the system to adjust... so nobody go crazy and start throwing tons of fish into the tank thinking I did the same. [emoji12]

Happy reefing y'all! I'll try to be better about posting.

 

[FarmerTy]

New updated video because I got bored.

 

[Tahoe61]

No go

 

[FarmerTy]

Can you not see the video? It shows up on the mobile version and full version but not on tapatalk for some reason.

 

[jstuver]

Says this video is private

 

[jolt]

Yup. private ....

 

[FarmerTy]

Maybe I shouldn't post videos late at night. Fixed!

 

[diablomaster9045]

Looks good Ty!

 

[s2nhle]

Wow. angles in a reef tank. You must be brave. Thank you for sharing.

 

[FarmerTy]

Wow. angles in a reef tank. You must be brave. Thank you for sharing.

I think I'd be more brave if there were a ton of softies and LPS. I removed my zoas and LPS in anticipation of adding angels to the system. I'd like to get a blueline angel as well and call it a day. I was hoping for a regal angel but I haven't had any luck in getting a good specimen and getting it to eat.

 

[FarmerTy]

Some new shots of the corals with my fancy phone camera.

 

[FarmerTy]