NeveSSL's 180g Mixed Reef

Daniel@R2R · Nov 24, 2014

Mike&Terry · Nov 24, 2014

mdbannister said:

Agree! :xd:

NeveSSL · Nov 24, 2014

Haha! Working on it, guys. :)

Brandon

NeveSSL · Nov 24, 2014

Forewarning: This pics are not real great. My phone sucks. Having said that, they're still better than nothing! :)

Here's an FTS while feeding last night:

The loner anthias, magnificent foxface, coral beauty, and one clown:

The three amigas (till one turns):

First coat of Kilz on the canopy! :)

This is the "second lid", if you will. Its just the front part of the top that will be hinged. Hinged to this will be the very front of the canopy, producing a couple hinged lid, if you will. I'm hoping to Killz this tonight.

Hello!

Jmcdaniel0 · Nov 25, 2014

Man it is coming along great! I Love the fox face! I wish my tank was big enough to hold one. a 90g Cube just isnt enough space.

NeveSSL · Nov 25, 2014

Thanks, Josh! The fox face is awesome. He's shy, but the anthias are already helping him with that a bit. How is your tank doing?Brandon

NeveSSL · Nov 25, 2014

I forgot to add, the 4th anthias found the others at some point yesterday. :)

That was a nice surprise. I was worried she was going to be or had already been rejected, but they're all happy and nipping at each other, trying to figure out who is going to turn. Haha!

Brandon

schooleyosis · Nov 25, 2014

My magnificent foxface is much more shy than my one-spotted foxface was. However, since I've added the Niger Trigger, it comes out a lot more. I say give it time. Next thing you know it will be begging for food like a dog!

NeveSSL · Nov 25, 2014

Yeah, I can tell a difference since I've added the anthias, too. Its funny you mention begging for food... I feed him some specific algae pellets that none of the other fish will eat, so I somewhat spot feed him and he's learned that when I walk up to that side of the tank, he's ready to eat and looking for the food to start falling. He hides under the rocks until I put it in, cautiously looking out. Its funny.

Brandon

schooleyosis · Nov 25, 2014

Sounds like you've got it trained!

Jmcdaniel0 · Nov 27, 2014

My tank is doing well, I am currently battling a nasty green hair algae outbreak... Changed water sources, since my rodi unit gave out, and it must be high in nitrates. I ordered two phosban reactors, I'm going to run them in sequence with nitrate pellets and activated carbon, should help the battle.

In other news, I finally felt comfortable adding a bubble tip to my tank. Tank has been up for over two years now.

NeveSSL · Nov 27, 2014

Nice, man! I never thought I'd see a reef in Blaine, gotta be honest. Haha!

Check out Bio Pellets when you get a chance. Will help a lot with those nitrates. A WHOLE lot. All you need is a reactor and a good skimmer. :)

Brandon

Jmcdaniel0 · Nov 28, 2014

I got my reactors coming... I'll look into bio pellets. I picked up three pajama cards, 3 blue/green chromic, 25 margarita snail, 10 blue leg hermits, an electric scallop, and a flame angel today. The coral reef had a nice Black Friday sell going on.

Jmcdaniel0 · Nov 29, 2014

Oh yea, I moved my build thread over here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/club-cube/182636-jmcdaniels-90-cube-build.html#post2097406

NeveSSL · Dec 7, 2014

Got some more done this weekend. I put another coat of Kilz on the inside of the canopy. I'm really anxious to get this thing on the tank, but my wife is wanting me to add a router table to our table saw (as an extension) so we can make some custom trim for it. Its probably going to look just like trim we could buy... lol But maybe not. I can't imagine we'll do much more than some roundovers, but we'll see. :) Really and truly, its a good excuse to put a router table in. I've been wanting one, anyway.

I did some other work this weekend, too. I've almost got my RODI and booster pump automated. I also cleaned the skimmer and got my new EB8 rolling, including moving the return pump to it, moving my second pump to it (that powers the 40g breeder and my biopellets), my automatic water changes are going again, and making some programming changes. Its been fun so far. Still have lots more to do today. As soon as this coffee kicks in, I'm heading to the garage. :)

Its also time to start looking at either dosing or a calcium reactor. I got my Hanna alk checker in this past week and alk is low at 6.7. Gonna have to do something about that! I'm just not sure what yet.

Brandon

NeveSSL · Dec 20, 2014

So I've started dosing kalk for CA and alk. I'm hoping to really start gearing up for corals soon. My biggest challenge with kalk is the pH, though. My tank usually hovers around 8.4, so if I dose too much kalk, the pH will get really high, really quickly. Ask me how I know. :mmph:

I got my first two tangs in today. :rockon: I was able to grab a whitetail bristletooth tang and a purple tang. They're both in my 40g breeder in the garage for now until I get the other two (achilles and desjardini). I may also add in a flame fin... maybe... but I'm leaning toward not. I'm not 100% sure when I'll get the other two in, but I'm extremely excited to get them in! I've been waiting on tangs for a while now. Still have lots more fish to add, also, including some more wrasses, gobies, and blennies (smaller stuff). I also added three cleaner shrimp tonight and 5 peppermint shrimp. My ultimate hope for the peppermint shrimp is for them to breed. Baby peppermint shrimp are great coral food!!! :)

I'm hoping to mount my canopy this weekend, if I can talk my wife into it. Its not completely finished, as we're wanting to make our own moulding for it, which means I have to build a router table first. :suspicious: However, I'm dying to get that thing over the tank, even without a front and without it being painted. I want my lights!!!! So I'm thinking about just doing it this weekend. We'll see if the wife agrees. :)

Here's a pic my buddy took of my whitetail: