Ph8's 225 build

Dextereef · Dec 19, 2014

This is such a sweet setup. I have a 120 and hope to upgrade someday to a 200+ tank. Your tank is a tribute to the obvious care and husbandry skills of yours. I'll be following along. What has been your biggest challenge with this tank and what has been surprisingly easy for you?

Aquaph8 · Dec 19, 2014

Hi Terry, I really do need to do a video, it's been a really long time. I'm out of town taking the kids on a polar express train ride right now. I'll break out the video camera when I get back. After three diamond tails I'm done I think. Maybe if DD gets some larger ones but no more from NYA.

Aquaph8 · Dec 29, 2014

Dextereef said:
This is such a sweet setup. I have a 120 and hope to upgrade someday to a 200+ tank. Your tank is a tribute to the obvious care and husbandry skills of yours. I'll be following along. What has been your biggest challenge with this tank and what has been surprisingly easy for you?

Hello and thanks for the nice comments. Sorry for the untimely reply. My biggest challenge is definitely stopping. I'm a hoarder and I love new fish and acros, I should have quit adding stuff long ago. Hmmmmm, surprisingly easy, probably the water chemistry part of keeping SPS and in time I've learned it's easier than I once thought. Turns out I've been making it hard on myself all these years, haha!

EW_Fish · Dec 31, 2014

How big is that red dragon colony? It look HUGE! very nice tank

Aquaph8 · Dec 31, 2014

EW_Fish said:
How big is that red dragon colony? It look HUGE! very nice tank

Thanks Josh, it was a little bigger than a soft ball but unfortunately I tried to move it to the other side of the tank and it didn't like it too much. I lost most of it but was able to make a couple small frags. With the angels in there if something starts going downhill they tend to help it along. Luckily it's a fast grower and hopefully I can get it growing again.

Lalo J · Dec 31, 2014

Very nice build , love the colors of all your fishes !

Aquaph8 · Dec 31, 2014

Lalo J said:
Very nice build , love the colors of all your fishes !

Thank you, where do you live in Mexico?

Lalo J · Dec 31, 2014

Aquaph8 said:
Thank you, where do you live in Mexico?

I live in the state of Veracruz .

Aquaph8 · Jan 7, 2015

Ok, Terry this ones for you. Im not any better at video than pictures but I did my best :) Just realized this the first video Ive done since 2012

[video=youtube_share;eXeku9fqVE0]http://youtu.be/eXeku9fqVE0[/video]

Aquaph8 · Jan 8, 2015

Daddies little girl became a man and he's a pretty one

[video=youtube_share;Q6ex-WtRbp4]http://youtu.be/Q6ex-WtRbp4[/video]

cmaxwell39 · Jan 11, 2015

Nice videos Brett. The tank is looking good. Some of those colonies are getting huge.

Nice Cf. Lancelotous as well. He is gorgeous. Congratulations. How long have you had him?

Aquaph8 · Jan 11, 2015

cmaxwell39 said:
Nice videos Brett. The tank is looking good. Some of those colonies are getting huge.

Nice Cf. Lancelotous as well. He is gorgeous. Congratulations. How long have you had him?

Thanks man, I've been doing weekly water changes and things have responded well and I'm really liking the ESV salt mix. As you can see in the video my SPS collection is a little more than the tank can handle, hopefully I can get a frag tank added at some point this year.

cmaxwell39 · Jan 11, 2015

It does look like you are running out of room. A frag tank is definitely in order, or maybe even a second tank.. A second tank would five you more room for fairy wrasses.

What salt were you using before the ESV? What are your targets for your water parameters. Whatever you are doing definitely seems to be working. Keep up the good work.

Aquaph8 · Jan 11, 2015

cmaxwell39 said:
It does look like you are running out of room. A frag tank is definitely in order, or maybe even a second tank.. A second tank would five you more room for fairy wrasses.

What salt were you using before the ESV? What are your targets for your water parameters. Whatever you are doing definitely seems to be working. Keep up the good work.

Before I was carbon dosing and running half reef crystals/ half Tropic Marin Pro in an attempt to creat a lower alk salt

Now I've stopped the carbon dosing and using ESV my tank is running
Alk 9dkh
Mag 1400
Cal 420
I'm not sure if it's the raise in Alk or the more frequent water changes but I've seen some improvement in a couple acros I was struggling getting to color up. Biggest problem now is I know there's a few that would do better with more light but I don't have the real estate to move them up.

ncfishguy · Jan 11, 2015

Makes me miss my 225

Aquaph8 · Jan 11, 2015

cmaxwell39 said:
How long have you had him?

Sorry, just realized I dodged your question. I honestly can't remember but if I had to guess I'd say about 8 months or so

ncfishguy said:
Makes me miss my 225

Thank you

cmaxwell39 · Jan 11, 2015

Aquaph8 said:
Before I was carbon dosing and running half reef crystals/ half Tropic Marin Pro in an attempt to creat a lower alk salt

Now I've stopped the carbon dosing and using ESV my tank is running
Alk 9dkh
Mag 1400
Cal 420
I'm not sure if it's the raise in Alk or the more frequent water changes but I've seen some improvement in a couple acros I was struggling getting to color up. Biggest problem now is I know there's a few that would do better with more light but I don't have the real estate to move them up.

What form of carbon dosing were you doing? Also, why did you decide to stop? Were you dosing any bacteria product with the carbon?

No more real estate? Time for another tank of some sort (frag or otherwise)

Aquaph8 said:
Sorry, just realized I dodged your question. I honestly can't remember but if I had to guess I'd say about 8 months or so

Didn't feel that you dodged the question, but thank you for circling back and answering. He is still a beauty.

Aquaph8 · Jan 11, 2015

cmaxwell39 said:
What form of carbon dosing were you doing? Also, why did you decide to stop? Were you dosing any bacteria product with the carbon?

No more real estate? Time for another tank of some sort (frag or otherwise)

I was using vinegar for years and used Zeo bacteria. I stopped cause I started having some cyano issues and decided not to dose while I took care of it. While not dosing I let my Alk creep up a bit and noticed my corals were looking better and the cyano stopped. Keeping a close eye on NO3 and PO4 I realized that nutrients weren't really an issue. It's been a few months now, and things still seem better. I'm not sure where the improvements were but my life is easier and my tank is happier so I'm rolling with it.