Gablami’s 260 gallon Rimless SPS Build

[Janci]

Love the addition of the magnifica and ocellaris. They are a perfect match.

 

[rds85]

Now about fish.

The old standard for ich fallow period was 76 days, set in stone by humblefish himself.

He has advocated for a new fallow period of 6 weeks as long as tank temp is >80.6F and no “anoxic” zones. I haven’t seen any reports of failure from this, but this recommendation hasn’t been around for that long. So I think I’m going to aim for about 8 weeks fallow before putting fish back in.

Now, to be fully transparent about what’s going on, I started copper treatment on my fish one more time before going into the DT. After treating my first batch of fish, I bought some new additions thinking I would treat them and add them to the tank all at the same time. But given the deaths that I had initially with copper, I decided to add 6 black mollies to the tank to observe and see if I even needed to treat. I inspected them every day for 2 weeks and didn’t see one spot. I felt confident enough to transfer the new fish with my previously treated fish in the 150 gal rubbermaid.

Big mistake. Another example of me thinking I know it all, and cutting corners. I had left the mollies in the 40breeder and two days after transferring the fish, I turned on the light to the mollies tank, and the mollies were COVERED in ich. Like it wasn’t a few spots. It was like a nightmare. This photo doesn’t do it justice how apparent ich is on a newly converted molly.

So that left me feeling pretty crappy. I stared at my Achilles for a long time with an underwater viewer and he still looked spotless, but I knew that there was a decent chance ich was now in the holding tank.

So I bit the bullet and decided to treat again.

The good news is, that this time around has been MUCH better than the first time. Most importantly, all the fish were healthy and eating in the Rubbermaid tank for several weeks. They were used to the tank, and it had a robust biological filtration built up. Secondly, I used copper power instead of cupramine.

I did dose directly into the holding tank with about 100lb of live rock. There is a lot of absorption of copper and I was testing three times a day, and pumping copper into the system. But it’s now super stable at 2.25, all fish are still eating well, and I’m about 1 week in at therapeutic. I have had no issues with ammonia and copper given the live rock.

So I learned a number of lessons through this. I think that I like copper power over cupramine. I think rushing to get your copper therapeutic right when you put your fish in the tank is going to increase fatality rates. And 2 weeks is not enough time for a molly assisted QT.

Appreciate the honest update! I really prefer copper power of cupramine. This day and age you almost have to proactively treat everything to reduce risk. 2020 is a very infectious year for everyone...

 

[rds85]

Sorry for the lack of updates! When you go into a fallow period, it kind-of feels like a pause in reefing. I do have some updates though.

About 3 weeks ago I purchased a green-tipped magnifica from a local reefer. He bought it from a LFS and treated it with 7 days of cipro, and then transferred it into his display. It was wandering all over the place looking for better light, and the reefer decided to sell it.

When I went to look at it, the base was purple, the tips were yellow, but the rest of the nem was bleached. However, it did look otherwise healthy, and I decided to go for it. I had previously prepared a spot for it on one of my tall rock formations. I used some reef cement to form a smooth base for its foot to attach. So far though, it seems pretty content to attach on the side on the rock and not go all the way up. I'm optimistic that it will eventually, given time.

This is a photo of within the first hour of being in my tank. His mouth looks pretty horrible. But since then it has improved.

The mouth is still not closed but the nem is almost always extended and inflated. I've asked some experts, and they have told me not to worry too much about the mouth if it otherwise looks healthy. Now, during the day when he is totally extended, he's probably 16+ inches across. Don't see any return of color to the bleached part yet, but I am feeding it mysis every other day.

@rds85 dropped some knowledge on me that ocellaris clowns were more well-behaved and handled multiples better than Percula. I did my own research and seems like it’s the case. I had previously only seen one clown pair per nem, but I’ve now learned that many clowns can be hosted by one magnifica in the wild.

One of my local LFS had a bunch of wild caught ocellaris, and I bought 4. They are currently in treatment. I like the idea of wild caught fish. I feel like all the in-breeding has made designer clowns stupid and shortened their life span. That’s just a theory of mine, not supported by any real evidence.

Here is some evidence of wild ocellaris sharing a mag. I took this picture diving in Komodo while in Indonesia. So it isn’t a just a google image. There is four in there.

 

[Gablami]

Here is some evidence of wild ocellaris sharing a mag. I took this picture diving in Komodo while in Indonesia. So it isn’t a just a google image. There is four in there.

That is a beautiful photo. Huge mag! I have some crappy photos diving using a disposable Kodak in a waterproof shell before digital photography took off. Your photo looks a lot better than the stuff I got.

 

[this is me]

Ocellaris are the least agressive of clownfish and more chance of keeping more than 2 in a tank. However, I think your focus is to keep the mag anemone alive before introducing clowns into it. With their natural host, the wild clowns will not hesitate to go in. New anemone with mouth open like that will quickly deteriorate with clowns clowning around in it.
Fish are PITA.

 

[Gablami]

Ocellaris are the least agressive of clownfish and more chance of keeping more than 2 in a tank. However, I think your focus is to keep the mag anemone alive before introducing clowns into it. With their natural host, the wild clowns will not hesitate to go in. New anemone with mouth open like that will quickly deteriorate with clowns clowning around in it.
Fish are PITA.

Thanks for the tip. I also read that clowns can be detrimental to a recovering nem. I’ll keep the clowns out of the tank until the nem is doing better.

 

[Gablami]

The back wall is a pain to clean, but it lets me do stuff like this with a 20$ strip light. I have it on a timer, and there are unlimited color options. Took a few quick snaps with the phone this morning because I wanted to share the concept with @Karliefish.

 

[brett_schn]

The back wall is a pain to clean, but it lets me do stuff like this with a 20$ strip light. I have it on a timer, and there are unlimited color options. Took a few quick snaps with the phone this morning because I wanted to share the concept with @Karliefish.

That orange looks like a a beautiful sunset over the reef

 

[Gablami]

That orange looks like a a beautiful sunset over the reef

I agree! It looks great during dusk and dawn, but once the reef lights are all on, I basically have the backlight set to white or blue. Just looks a little more natural.

 

[brett_schn]

I agree! It looks great during dusk and dawn, but once the reef lights are all on, I basically have the backlight set to white or blue. Just looks a little more natural.

Awesome!!

 

[this is me]

That orange looks like a a beautiful sunset over the reef

will the horizon ever be below the reef?

 

[Gablami]

will the horizon ever be below the reef?

Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book. I’ve been reading too many of those crazy books these days.

 

[brett_schn]

will the horizon ever be below the reef?

Just have adhd you don’t notice that it’s below

Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book. I’ve been reading too many of those crazy books these days.

And yeah I feel you I have a little sister AND my mom teaches younger grades lol!

 

[this is me]

lol. I’ve been tuned to “ E I E I O” and “baby shark, doo doo doo”
I used to be anal about marks on the glass. Now, it’s all finger prints, foot prints, a little of booger here and there and I don’t even care.

 

[Gablami]

LOL, as long as it’s not vomit or poop around the house I’m ok. I’m surprising comfortable now with pee.

 

[SkiCatTX]

The back wall is a pain to clean, but it lets me do stuff like this with a 20$ strip light. I have it on a timer, and there are unlimited color options. Took a few quick snaps with the phone this morning because I wanted to share the concept with @Karliefish.

That's Awesome! Now I want to add some lights to project on my white background and change colors...lol!

 

[Gablami]

My custom Clearview Pisces EXO lid arrived yesterday. I ordered it on July 26 and it was shipped 10/23. That’s 88 days. Their website says 77 days plus 10-20 addition days for custom lids. So that’s pretty accurate.

I think it’s a really nice lid. It’s my second lid from them — first one was the classic version. The Pisces exo is definitely lighter, and a bit flimsier than the classic. When I was shopping around, I would have gone with Toplids, but the reviews on the customer service were horrible even though the end product is top notch (kind of like my experience with advanced acrylics).

It is two panels that do not interconnect but sit VERY snugly together. There are three feed doors. They did a nice job cutting out the corners for the armored seams. And I have a few cord slots cut. It’s a good product but it’s surprisingly expensive. So I guess the lid meets my expectations.

 

[Empire]

thank you so much for sharing this thread. i'm in the process of planning a similar sized tank (upgrading from my elos 120xl). i hope you don't mind me reaching out to you about the tank builder, etc.

 

[Gablami]

thank you so much for sharing this thread. i'm in the process of planning a similar sized tank (upgrading from my elos 120xl). i hope you don't mind me reaching out to you about the tank builder, etc.

My pleasure. Let me know if you have any questions about CDA, via PM or on this thread. I have nothing bad to say about them, besides taking a bit longer than expected through the pandemic.

 

[Gablami]

After 8.5 weeks, fish back in the tank yesterday. The mandarin, amazingly made it through the entire time. I think it probably started eating frozen. I just never saw it for sure.

The tank is doing pretty good. Uglies are slowly going away. It's nice to see all the tangs munching on the turf algae. The magnifica is looking more and more healthy. Starting to see coralline algae on the rocks.

My trio of yellow tangs played fine together in the holding tank, but once I put them into the DT, one went ballistic on the other two. One of its victims was so harrassed that I found it stuck to an MP40 powerhead in the corner twice. I guess that was the only place the aggressor couldn't get to it. I ended up catching the offending YT and putting it into an acclimation box. I don't mind leaving it there for weeks until the other YTs heal up and grow stronger, maybe develop some territory. Hopefully when I let it out, the tables get turned a bit. If not, I may have to make due with a pair of YTs.

New additions since going fallow are: a school of 11 dispar anthias, 3 bimac anthias, pair of potters angels, and a white-tail bristletooth tang.

Having two young ones running around, it's hard to devote that much time to tank photography. It really does take patience and a lot of shots to get decent photos of fish. But here are a few to commemorate the fish being back home .