Kent’s 500 gallon build

[Ashish Patel]

Looking good! Nice pictures!

 

[jkentfite]

We have water! Some anyway. Starting to cycle dry rock. Added some wet cycled rock, about 200 gal water and a mp60 to keep some flow.


Should have it fully filled by Friday and have sump plumbed in Friday/Saturday. Will have more pics then.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Those fish are... just wow

 

[jkentfite]

Cycling rock! Added prob 50-60 lbs of live wet rock from my old tank. Added bacteria (Fritz), pods and phyto (nutrimar). Might be adding first fish this weekend. Wish me luck!

Fish update: Gem tang got pretty worked over by larger Koi scopas so have them separated now. Hopefully it recovers quickly and they work out their differences in the big tank. Fingers crossed...

 

[LBReefer]

I love the setup. Folllwoing along.

I tried adding a second pair of clowns to my 180. I am sad to report that I'm down to two clowns. Strangely the original female and the new male. I think it could be a plot from a bad Rom-Com.

 

[jkentfite]

Sorry haven’t posted many updates....

Fish are doing well. Had some delays with cabinet and top but should be back on track. Still no lights. I don’t think I’m going to do 4 months. Maybe 2 and hope for the best.

Some pics of fishes

Tuesday I’m adding all the remaining fish in holding and QT.

That includes:
Gem tang
Koi scopas tang x2
Watanabei angel female
Spotbreast angel female
Flame wrasse male
Pintail wrasse male
Melanurus wrasse male
Leopard wrasse female
Bimaculatus anthias x6
Yellow watchman goby
Zebra dartfish x3

It’s a big bump in bio load. I’ll add some more fritz bacteria when we go up but I’m confident system this size will do fine.

Had Two regal angels - both died in QT. I’m going to try and get some from Elliot at marine collectors. He knows his stuff it seems... hope for better luck next time. Those are a favorite.

I’ll try to get pics of all the new guys/girls when they go in!

 

[jkentfite]

pics

 

[jkentfite]

Fish room. Still lots to do here. Need to plumb in dual closed loops, refugium and frag tank. Hang cabinets. Set up ATO. Hoping to be done in early/mid Feb with fish room.

 

[jkentfite]

Life comes at you fast.

Koi tangs and gem found dead yesterday morning per my LFS. He will refund me the money. Just sucks. I never got to see them in the tank.

 

[Ashish Patel]

dang, sorry to hear about those fish! Tank and fish room look great!

 

[jkentfite]

dang, sorry to hear about those fish! Tank and fish room look great!

Thanks!

 

[jkentfite]

Pics of the new guys/gals. Still no lights so this is just ambient sunlight.

Glass prob needs to be cleaned too... just a little dingy. Still pretty fishes



Ended up getting a captive bred red mandarin. My local guy felt bad bc the tangs all died. I put 12 bottles of tiger pods in about a month ago. Hopefully he will have enough to eat. Went ahead and ordered more pods....

 

[jkentfite]

So some more bad news. Somehow. I got an outbreak. Seems like brook.
Lost tusk, borb anthias, female bimac anthia, mandarin, white tail tang, swallow tail and Watanabei angel, blue hippo tang. All in about 2-3 days.
Treating entire tank with formalin in last ditch effort to try and save the rest.

This hobby can be a real heart breaker. All of these fish went through quarantine through just 2 different sellers. Somehow something still managed to get in. Gut punch.

 

[jkentfite]

Decided to treat the entire system. Treated with formalin for a few days and saved most of the remaining fish. After that, dosed entire system with CP for planning 2-3 weeks. Yesterday was day 14 so I plan on doing large WC and running carbon this weekend. I lost my last anthias and flame wrasse from the chloroquine. But I had to do something. I physically couldn’t catch all the fish without tearing down the cemented rockwork. And that stress might’ve killed them.

Survivors:
Black tang
5 yellow tangs
3 zebra dartfish
Melanurus wrasse
Leopard wrasse
Yellow goby

Real heart breaking to lose so many fish...
but I’m ready to build back.

 

[jkentfite]

Some updates. Got frag tank all set up! And got some new fish.
2 Madagascar flasher wrasse I am very excited about from WWC. They’re in the coral tank foe the time being. Only fish in there.

New in main display
Regal angel
7 bimac anthias
2 Hawaiian flame wrasse

 

[ReefLaw]

Where did you get the flame wrasses?

 

[jkentfite]

Where did you get the flame wrasses?

TSM

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Great tank.