Renton's Evolution from 200 to 440 gallons

Renton777 · Oct 8, 2020

Setup a couple quarantine tanks. I have 3 captive bred yellow tangs, a powder blue tang and a powder brown tang arriving tomorrow. I wanted to get them now and get them through QT so that I can add them to the big display tank at the same time I add all the other tangs from my other tanks.

Renton777 · Oct 9, 2020

The new fish seem to be doing well. They are all cute tiny babies!

The Powder Blue and Powder Brown don't seem to be trying to get at each other and fight, so that is good. They are also both eating.

I decided to put the yellow tangs into the new display tank. They looked good, they are captive bred, came from the Live Aquaria/Diver's Den facility in Wisconsin which I have a lot of respect and confidence on the health of their fish. Plus, there really isn't much in the display tank right now anyway.

The yellows schooled right up and are eating very well.

Renton777 · Oct 11, 2020

Finished the closed loop on the frag tank:

Started work on wire management. It will be an emphasis this time around as things got pretty out of hand on my last tank. Having the light power supplies up in the canopy has made a big difference. This cabinet will hold the battery backups, power supplies and be the Alkatronic and Apex headquarters.

Oh, the old system is still up and running as well

Wrangy · Oct 12, 2020

Daaaannnngggg!! Coming along so nicely

YHSublime · Oct 13, 2020

Wow, I take a quick break and you've setup a whole new system. I'm betting that was/is nerve wracking! Everything is looking fantastic, I gotta say, I was not impressed with what was happening on the bottom, but your rockwork did a fantastic job and covering everything up. You've glowed up the entire room, and your tank, that's very exciting. I'm pleased to continue watching the new tanks grow!

Now, inquiring minds want to know, have you gotten a second wife yet?

Renton777 · Oct 13, 2020

YHSublime said:
Wow, I take a quick break and you've setup a whole new system. I'm betting that was/is nerve wracking! Everything is looking fantastic, I gotta say, I was not impressed with what was happening on the bottom, but your rockwork did a fantastic job and covering everything up. You've glowed up the entire room, and your tank, that's very exciting. I'm pleased to continue watching the new tanks grow!

Now, inquiring minds want to know, have you gotten a second wife yet?

I am not sure I would say it is nerve wracking, but it is a lot of work! I have always said I only ever wanted to run 1 system, two tanks plumbed together is fine, but running multiple independent systems seemed like a bit much for me.....and it is, lol. I have the new system, the old system and two QT tanks to keep an eye on right now, while still tweaking, building out the new system. I very much look forward to getting back down to 1 system.

With all these tanks, I don't have time for a second wife right now, lol!!

Renton777 · Oct 13, 2020

I love how the 3 yellow tangs school together so much, I ordered 3 more! (captive bred again)

Renton777 · Oct 15, 2020

A couple days ago I added a large old-timer yellow tang, that lost its top and bottom fins to an infection many years ago, to the large display tank. He had been in my frag tank. It took no time at all for him to school up with the youngins!

Renton777 · Oct 15, 2020

3 more captive bred yellow tangs were added and quickly accepted into the school!

Vette67 · Oct 15, 2020

Renton777 said:
3 more captive bred yellow tangs were added and quickly accepted into the school!

That is really cool. I love that school of yellow tangs. Now I'm going to have to upgrade my tank so I can support that many!

YHSublime · Oct 15, 2020

I love that your OG old man tang had no issues getting into the gang!

Also very jealous of being able to have that many tangs school up!

Renton777 · Oct 15, 2020

I released the Powder Brown and the Powder Blue from their quarantine tanks. I was a bit worried about the Powder Blue because he seemed like he wanted to fight a bit through the quarantine tank glass.

The introduction went well and they pretty much swim around with the yellows. There is some minor fluttering between various tangs as they sort things out but not prolonged hostilities.

Renton777 · Oct 15, 2020

I continue to work on wire management. It is light years better then my previous tank.

Old Tank, not much room, lot of wires, basically a death trap:

New tank, much more room, much cleaner wire organization:

and a great place to hide from the wife and kids.......

Renton777 · Oct 16, 2020

Here are a couple videos from this morning, one before feed and the other during.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 16, 2020

Looking great, sir!!

Renton777 · Oct 17, 2020

I wanted to raise the lights even higher so I got a couple powder coated aluminum rails that the Atlantiks are able to slide right into. The height helps get a more uniform coverage and really gives the lights a more clean look.