My new 200g peninsula build!

[hawkeyejp82]

Time for a monthly update at this point the cyano is mostly gone ugly stage pretty much over. Here is a new pic of the corals from the long end of the peninsula. I think I have reached a autopilot stage on the tank where there is a balance of copepods, fish, snails, crabs, corals, etc. I struggle to keep the PH above 7.7 but the corals are all growing (even the sticks). I'm going to start heavy stocking coral the only other fish Im interested in are a watchman goby combo with a pistol shrimp and maybe another tang.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Oh yeah I also have several areas of coralline algae growing on rocks and glass and the back wall.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

I'm not sure how I got so lucky with where my tank is at. Everything sort of just came into balance (I have loads and loads of copepods) despite having a mandarin and clowns and chromis the copepods have exploded in population and overtook the cyano easily and are now working on the algae. The corals are all colorful and growing (slowly). My numbers are very stable with alkalinity around 11-12 PH around 7.6-7.8 salinity 32.2-32.6 mag 1100-1150. I can't really seem to raise the PH much but it doesn't seem to bother any of the corals so long as it remains stable. If I close my windows the PH will drop to 7.2-7.6.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Tank is in autopilot mode but I did get a few new corals like the beautiful alveopora in the first pic and the ORA Stylo w/ Rainbow Lobo that is in the 2nd pic (didn't come out to well sorry). Also captured a nice pic of my first coral the 24k gold lepto that is encrusting on the rock with a rather sizeable hermit crab that decided to photo bomb in the 3rd pic. The 4th pic is a nice comeback story my rose petal goni came back to life after months of hiding. FInal pic is my acros. Enjoy!

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Here is a different pic of my new favorite coral the alveopora. The T5 light was on so its easier to see with the camera.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Took advantage of the back to school sales on corals and stocked up on some more LPS and SPS so here is some new pics of the new corals. Also I had my chocolate chip starfish decide to eat some of my Rasta Zoas in my Zoa garden he ate like 90% of the coral before I got him out of there so he lives in the refugium with my copepods and sea lettuce now.

 

[t5Nitro]

I hired profession aquarium movers to move my 200ext. They brought 6 guys and had to travel down 6 stairs. They used 5 suction cups and several rolling carts. The movers were very impressed with the quality of the tank. Best of luck with your move.

Did your tank come with a fitted screen top?

Who did you use? Wonder if they might come to WI.

Tank is looking great, OP!

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Who did you use? Wonder if they might come to WI.

Tank is looking great, OP!

Me and 3 friends did it ourselves with 7 suction cups I purchased. We also got a little help from our wives it was quite heavy. Didn't use the stairs we took it through a sliding door from the backyard into the basement. WI is too far from VA for us unfortunately and one of those 3 friends already moved to another town. Here's a picture.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Things are remaining in auto pilot lots of growth over the last month on the majority of my corals and the coralline algae has consumed the back wall of the tank. I think the tank overall is in a happy place so I'm just going to wait it out let it grow out and eventually start to frag for $$.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Well autopilot remains. I did lose a 6 line wrasse for some reason he decided to jump out the tank, however he has been replaced. Attached is the tank now over 1 year old.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Given its been awhile thought Id drop some pics of the corals and tank. Pretty much everything on autopilot still. Something in my tank has a taste for Clams though I've been through a few now and all that is left is shells. I can only guess that its either the pistol shrimp or one of the fish. Zoa garden has grown out nicely as has my Bonzai Acro.