o2manyfish - 750g Display Tank, 1500g System with Outdoor Frag Tanks

[o2manyfish]

This is my irregular Bellus. I brought this one home about 3-4 months ago. It has the irregular stripe. Waiting to see if it develops into a special cool fish or just an irregular angel. Am looking to find a couple more of similar size to grow out together. Not quite 2" long.

My Gold Midas, I inherited this from someone breaking their tank down last month.

One of the Flameback Angels

I'm worried something like the tang police is going to pop up to give me flack for the chubbiness of some of my fish.

One of 2 of my adult Venustus

And proof my Venustus are eating enough in my tank

Half of my pair of Black Percs

One of my 2 male Dispar Anthias - I have 8 total Dispars

My Big boy

 

[o2manyfish]

Can't neglect my school of yellows

Cardinals

The male of my wrasse pair

Yes I have some Mollies in my system. This one went through the sump overflow, through the dart pump and ended up in the display tank. Happens to be missing a spot on its tail. It's been in the tank for probably 4-5 months and no body ever pays any attention to it.

I have 2 lubbocks wrasses - I think they are both male

My larger midnight clown

And my final shot for tonight... I was taking a photo of my Baby Venustus. The shot was photobombed by my Golden Angel. At the time of the crash last year I had a pair of Golden Angels. Since the crash in the last year 2x I have caught a glimpse of what I thought was a golden. But I was never 100% sure. Well when I looked at these photos I was so happy to spot my Golden lurking in the cave.

 

[AddictedtoSalt]

Dave your tank and story is amazing and inspiring. I was at your place for the fragging demonstration several months back and thought your tank looked awesome than. It's even better now.
Absolutely incredible and one of my favorites.
I love your no quit attitude towards the hobby and your concern and care of sick animals. You truly are an inspiration to me and others in the hobby.
Keep up the good work.
I cant wait for the next meeting you host at your place.

 

[Spewed]

Oh wow, you have endured some horrible times with your tank! Sure hope none of this happens to me along the way, because my sump is not outside.

Also, you must be loaded! If I was able to acquire as much as you have over the years I'd be set.

 

[Shep]

This is one of the best looking tanks I have seen! I could spend all day watching it.

 

[Eienna]

Don't do that to me...I'm drooling...XDD

 

[Isgon26]

what a set up!

 

[o2manyfish]

AddictedtoSalt - Glad you enjoyed the Frag demonstration. I host a couple of things a year for the club at my house. And if you ever are in the mood to visit, just shoot me a message, the Fiancee and I are used to having fish related guests over all the time.

Spewed - Loaded is so subjective I just have different priorities. I have no kids (only nieces & nephews) so the costs for the things I love is still much cheaper than having and raising offspring.


Shep - That's what the webcam is for. My Fiancee sits at work and watches the tank. And I check in on it all the time. So don't be shy, you're not the only one peeking in on the tank. During the week the camera has a couple of hundred visitors, and on the weekends that number goes over double. And the IP addresses are from all over the world, which is neat. I get IP addresses in Russia, the middle east, and Africa. I have gotten emails from different places in the middle east, and all over Europe - Which is very cool.


IsGon26 --- Thank you!


Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

I have been contemplating this update for awhile and finally came across a deal.


My RO system is outside and I don't check on it that often. So I came across a Hanna Instruments TDS controller. It measures the TDS, and then you dial in the setpoint you want. When your TDS reaches the preset level the controller closes a contact - Perfect connection to a Break Out Box.

The controller is on Amazon for $38, you can order the probe with a 4m cable (which is what I needed) for $74 - a standard cable probe HI7634 is about $40. A trip to Home Depot and I got a threaded T and 2 John Guest threaded connectors for about $8.


For my application this is a great and reasonably priced tool.


Dave B

 

[AddictedtoSalt]

Thats a handy little thing for those that have theor ro/di system running regularly in to their tank for top off.

 

[o2manyfish]

I got the opportunity to be one of the first tanks to try the Triton Water Test back in July.


I was pretty surprised by my results. Since I don't do water changes, and I don't dose anything regularly (or accurately). My dosing consists of my Calcium RX and Kalkwasser for Topoff.


These are the results from July 25, 2014

I wasn't surprised by my Phosphate levels, but thought that was one of the things I could easily resolve. The first step was I pulled out my little Hanna Pocket Colorimeter the $50 toy, and was happy to see it was within 2 1/100ths of the Triton value. I pulled out my reliable Deltec 509 Fluidized Reactor and put in maybe 3 cups worth of media.


After a week the phosphate levels had dropped by half. In August and Sept I stayed on top of replacing the GFO every 3-4 weeks. However, for the past 6 weeks I have been dealing with an ill parent and I have left the tank untouched, other than the Alk issues from the Calc Rx. I haven't had time for any maintenance.


Last week I sent in another water sample to see how things were looking, and these are the second round results

Tonight when I get home, I will definitely be cleaning out the Deltec Rx and putting in a fresh batch of GFO and work on getting the Phosphates back down. At the moment, even with these high phosphate levels the corals in the tank look really good. The only coral that sticks out as not looking as good as it could is my Suharsanoi. It's color lightened dramatically when the Alk was bouncing all over the place, and it has darkened back up yet.


Dave B

 

[Thle009]

All I say is wow. Such dedication.

 

[o2manyfish]

Got the camera out tonight to shoot some new additions to the tank. I had 2 good sized pieces of real estate when I lost the 2 colonies with the Alk bounce.
So I came across couple of tabling pieces. Neither is gorgeous at the moment, but I see potential in both pieces.

A Little one that I added a week earlier that was barely green with just a neat shape to the branches.

On my center pillar I had a piece that I thought might be Indo Echniata that 65% died with the Alk. I found a similar sized piece to what I lost and replaced it.

And a coral that I am always excited to see more growth, my Oregon tort. This was bought 1 year ago as a flat frag, just some encrusting on a flat plug, no vertical growths at all.

So those that have read the thread for the past year might recall that when the tank crashed in the fall of 2013, that I discovered Baby Bangaii. And some of them survived in the rock sump out side and I moved some into the main tank in the past 6 months.


Well last night - was I surprised to see that the first pair of Bangais that we moved inside one is holding eggs. Not sure if the eggs are very fresh, or infertille, but they are very grey/milky looking. But I was overjoyed last night to realize that we have in a year gone full circle from babies being born to babies making babies.

Interesting while watching the tank for a few hours last night with some friends over, the 4 Bangai that we raised from babies, spent last night hanging out in a group together - With one holding eggs in his mouth. And last night while watching the tank we have 3 Bangai all holding eggs at the same time. They males are spread out across the tank, but it was clear that 3 are holding in their mouth. I know that none in the tank will make it. But hopefully the pair in the outside sump (where the babies came from) are holding as well and I will have some fresh babies from out there too.


Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Here are some over all shots of the tank from last night.


Awhile back I saw some pretty damsels. They were light blue, and listed as Sky Blue Damsels. I hadn't seen these before so I bought 6 of them. They went into my tank and immediately turned black. Now a year later I have 6 black ugly damsels. I ordered the Aqua Medic Fish trap. Hung it in the tank over the weekend. Started putting food in the trap last night and in an hour caught 2 of the 6 ugly buggers.

 

[fishroomlady]

wow - that's all I can say :biggrin1:

 

[FishDooD65]

incredible colors! your system is awesome and I love the coral and fish selection!

 

[o2manyfish]

FishDooD65,

Thank You!!! I am really happy with how the tank is doing. There are always things to fiddle with. But the problems I am dealing with at the moment, are Xenia growing too quickly, and a birdsnest which has gotten too big. My phosphates came back very high on my last Triton test, so I am going to work on that, but the tank is looking good, so I am not going to make too much effort lowing the phosphates.

Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

Some Updated Photos from tonight


Full tank shot

I was remounting some frags that had fallen and a couple of new pieces that I picked up today. And while leaning over the tank my Janns pipefish goes cruising through the middle of the tank under my nose. I seem to only seem this guy about every 6 months - But such a joy when he pops up and goes cruising past. Sorry no photo of him...


This is a pink alveapora I picked up about a month ago. Color has deepend a little and it's filled out nicely

My mispatterened Baby Bellus - Growing slower than I would like

My recent fish additions

One of my monti collections

My Grafted Cap slowly getting bigger

My group of cardinals

The deepwater I picked up in November colored up nicely

Island Full Shot

Montis on the Spire

 

[o2manyfish]

Oregon Tort getting bigger and bigger

This is one of the new ORA releases - Purple Plasma

Monster Monti Cap

Stags growing together

A table that I ignore and it keeps changing shape

Tort

My Valida -- Its just bright -purple with flourescent green polyps but I can't capture the colors with the camera.

My little yellow Acro

Center of Tank

Island

Kind of a neat thing to witness. I have 2 lawnmower blennies in my tank for maybe 4 or 5 years now. They are large and fat. For years they keep several feet of tank between themselves or there is frantic chasing of each other. The other day I'm walking past the tank and the 2 blennies are sitting together in the surge tank outlet. One of them swims out of the pipe and sit on the rock work. Then the other one comes out and starts shimmying against the first one. Then they switch taking turns shimmying against each other. Then after about a minute of this they went to there seperate sides of the tank. Always cool things happening in the tank!


Dave B

 

[Mike&Terry]

Dave,
Your tank looks fantastic! Love that Oregon Tort and the deepwater acro...

:beauty::hail::dribble:

Thanks so much for sharing the picture update of your gorgeous reef! :bigsmile: