Pickupman66's 180 GC build

[pickupman66]

it was true HA. there was no feathering of the strand like bryopsis. the urchin does ok. leaves paths where it walks but does OK. It was not the solution to the issue.

the naso is a great fish. very passive and calm. he does pace about the tank alot. I am beginning to think that a 6' tank is too small for one.

 

[MimicOcto8]

cute kid. gorgeous tangs. since achilles tangs are out of the question for me i really want a purple tang

 

[pickupman66]

OK, lets see, where were we...... Need to do some updating here. sorta fell behind with life getting in the way and all. So, I dosed the algaefix Marine product for a few weeks. I am so pleased with the results, it is incredible. now I am battling a cyano issue that I cannot trace. I test within zero to reasonable levels on both phosphate and nitrates. getting .04 ppm of the Phosphates, and the nitrates are undetectable. still chasing this one down. im thinking it is an imbalance of bacteria so I am going to get some chemi clean and go from there....

anyways, now to some photos. I got a new camera and and learning how to use it. all of these are clickable to a larger image.



notice the growth difference in these zoas.

 

[pickupman66]

now for some closeup coral photos..

 

[pickupman66]

Sad sad day today.. Our Purple Tang has passed on. he had been sick with what I think was a swim bladder issue. he just rather wasted away. all other fish are doing quite well. We are also 24 hours into a treatment with Chemiclean to rid the remaining Red slime. HOPEFULLY this will be its final straw. a water change will come tomorrow night.

 

[skinz78]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[pickupman66]

Water change done. Thankfully I had a submersible Sump/Utility pump so I just hooked up a garden hose and pumped the sump almost dry. filled 7.5 6 gallon buckets. then dropped it in the top off container which was filled with premixed SW and pumped it dry back into the sump. took me maybe 30 minutes max.

Now on the ChemiClean. It will completely screw with your skimmer. I use an MRC Mr-2 with the Becket injector. Thankfully I can completely control the air into it because it only took a fraction of the air intake to completely fill it with foam. I also noticed a milky color to teh water exiting the skimmer. this was actually Air in the water. after 12-16 hours, it was clear discharge and I was able to pump up the air back to normal levels. talk about alot of foam!!! it is now almost dialed back to where it was before the tank. I had to keep the water supply to it running due to the system setup. otherwise it flowed a bit too much thru the tank and made it gurgle...

all coral were extending polyps and looked great!

 

[pickupman66]

As promised, FTS. taken with the cheap camera.. Ill get a better one soon.

 

[amay121]

Wow, your zoas are really taking off.

 

[Zef004]

Very nice pickupman! And sorry about your loss.

 

[pickupman66]

OK so I got the camera out last night and took some good photos right at lights out time. bad part is I gorfot the FTS with the good camera and forgot to photo the Zoas! they are growing like MAD!

Corals:

Broke this little tip off the Robin's egg. seems to be liking the high lights...

 

[pickupman66]

 

[pickupman66]

now some of the Fishes
Spike and his "camouflage." sadly we can see him still. he stole a frag plug with remnants of the robin's egg on it.

This is an easy fish to photo.

Do these stripes make me look fat?

 

[pickupman66]

wow, those came out large.. and I even resized them too..... yowza.

 

[skinz78]

LOL @ spike!!!

Looking good man!

 

[orthokardia]

Looks good. How about a FTS.

 

[rkrolak1]

Awesome setup! The plumbing looked a little to complicated for me. My wife would kill me if I ran that much PVC piping. My philosophy is to keep it simple.

 

[pickupman66]

It looks complicated but it really isnt. just a little bit larger scale.

here is FTS I took today.

 

[pickupman66]

December 20th 2010

April 8th

June 1st

 

[pickupman66]

Happy Father's day to everyone. what did you get? My Lovely bride wanted a frogspawn, so we had a nice bi-color one ordered and went and picked it up today. it has been in the tank less than 3 hours and is FULLY extended. 4 heads. then, to replace the lost purple tang from a month ago, my son picked out this little gem! Atlantic blue tang. I LOVE the color of this little juvenile. so far, it has eaten and none of hte other tank mates are upset at his arrival. the Sohal barely raised an eyebrow. only the little pygmy angel harrassed him. at about 2.5 inches, he fits in perfectly...