Simon's 450

[ca1ore]

Got a bunch of stuff from a local reefer about a year ago. His tank had been neglected and experienced significant die off. Some pieces had real promise, though I did have to remove all the big, dying colonies. But there’s always something left. A year later, this is among my favorites ....

 

[Victoria M]

Hope the fast drop in nitrates turns out to be not too fast.

 

[ca1ore]

Me too! Looks ok so far though. The only issue I'm having with the denitrator is a very slight rotten egg smell in the house. Dog likes it, and the kids haven't complained ….

 

[ca1ore]

New video ….



Added a couple of potters wrasses and a female meleagris.

 

[albano]

Looks great, Simon! But I heard that’s an acrylic tank... where’s all the scratches?

That Zebra tang just had to say hi!

 

[Feet4Fish]

They all got buffed out! The beauty of acrylic!

Looks great, Simon! But I heard that’s an acrylic tank... where’s all the scratches?

That Zebra tang just had to say hi!

:p

 

[mattzang]

what'd the potters eat off the bat? tank looks awesome, although could probably use some more damsels..

 

[ca1ore]

Looks great, Simon! But I heard that’s an acrylic tank... where’s all the scratches?

Oh man, made me laugh!

It is a small miracle I haven’t put a big scratch in it though since I am a terrible clutz.

 

[ca1ore]

what'd the potters eat off the bat? tank looks awesome, although could probably use some more damsels..

That’s what I’ve been thinking .... 25 more yellow tails.

I’d been trolling the online places for potters wrasses for awhile, and ordered two when they finally showed up at LA. Figured if I ordered two, I’d have a fighting chance to get one into the display. When they showed up, they were the most active leopards I have ever received (including some from DD). Ate everything from day one. I QT leopards mostly to get them eating, so two weeks of QT for this pair and then into the big tank.

 

[User1]

That’s what I’ve been thinking .... 25 more yellow tails.

And to think I was always blaming you for the Damsel shortage :) Kidding. I always thought you had one of the larger home tanks with 50+ Damsels but it turns out the tank below has over 200 or so he said. Then again it is a bit larger than your tank. I also found it interesting that he said yeah, the tank is a bit too big.

Hope you and your family had a great holiday or time off - which ever do or do not celebrate :) I've always enjoyed your tank. One of the tanks I use as a reference, standard, of what I hope to grow into.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/2...ng-on-it-now-see-this-featured-on-brs.674355/

 

[charliethetuna]

New video ….



Added a couple of potters wrasses and a female meleagris.

looks great now i dont feel bad about how many fish i have u have a decent amount also

 

[ca1ore]

Hope you and your family had a great holiday or time off - which ever do or do not celebrate :) I've always enjoyed your tank. One of the tanks I use as a reference, standard, of what I hope to grow into.

Thanks for the kind words ... HH to you and yours also. I’m conscious about not having been particularly diligent in updating this thread. Tank is mostly on cruise these days .... not much interesting to share that isn’t redundant nor, thankfully, any crisis to report. I am closing in on the point when I’ll have to make some decisions on the larger colonies that have almost outgrown the tank. A reef tank is like house storage: crap just expands to fill the available space. Then you have to decide whether to get more storage (or in this case an even bigger tank) or be better at throwing stuff out (or in this case giving chunks away to local refers). Don’t want to be the reef equivalent of a hoarder LOL.

 

[ca1ore]

A few minor tank updates as we move into a new decade (or is that next year LOL) .....

1. Did a bit of downsizing - got rid of the 120XH refugium. Black tang is in the frag tank. Do I risk trying to add it to the tang gang in the display. Last time I tried with a Gem it was touch and go for a while. Resident purple is homicidal.
2. Moved the large TMC UV to a more convenient spot. Of course, now it won’t fire up. Probably needs new bulbs.
3. Had been waiting for a larger heat exchanger from AE, but I’ve grown weary of pestering them so I think I’ll just use the one I have - lesson learned.
4. Sulfur reactor is tough on alkalinity, but awesome at lowering nitrates. I’m now running a fairly high flow though the unit to try to keep nitrates at about 5 (they were close to 80). Does nothing for phosphates. I can definitely see better growth rates from my SPS. Still cannot grow chaeto though.
5. Thinking about trying one of the ReeFi lights. Seems intriguing.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

More storage...

 

[charliethetuna]

A few minor tank updates as we move into a new decade (or is that next year LOL) .....

1. Did a bit of downsizing - got rid of the 120XH refugium. Black tang is in the frag tank. Do I risk trying to add it to the tang gang in the display. Last time I tried with a Gem it was touch and go for a while. Resident purple is homicidal.
2. Moved the large TMC UV to a more convenient spot. Of course, now it won’t fire up. Probably needs new bulbs.
3. Had been waiting for a larger heat exchanger from AE, but I’ve grown weary of pestering them so I think I’ll just use the one I have - lesson learned.
4. Sulfur reactor is tough on alkalinity, but awesome at lowering nitrates. I’m now running a fairly high flow though the unit to try to keep nitrates at about 5 (they were close to 80). Does nothing for phosphates. I can definitely see better growth rates from my SPS. Still cannot grow chaeto though.
5. Thinking about trying one of the ReeFi lights. Seems intriguing.

I run a large sulfur denitrator also on my system they work awsome ,I'm suprised there not more popular, wide open for me keeps my tanks nitrate between 5-10 ppm.i dose extra alk to my system to keep the alk balanced to the calcium like you said the sulfur reactor dose deplete your alk .I also struggled with cheato until I changed the light out to a plant led ,its got red and green color to it .now it grows pretty good

 

[ca1ore]

I’ve long been using the kessil 380 over my chaeto, so light would appear not to be the problem. I also dose iron. Turf algae grows fine on the ATS. Chaeto grew fine in this system until about a year ago. I’m stumped frankly.

 

[ca1ore]

Baseline for 2020.

 

[ca1ore]

Need to add more sand. Not entirely clear where it all goes LOL.

 

[biecacka]

Settles behind the rocks where you can’t see it! Haha
tank looks great man

corey

 

[ca1ore]

Yeah, probably so. Quartet of MP60 certainly are not sand ‘friendly’. Have a couple of tubs of sand that cane out of my shut down refugium. Been fermenting ever since. Will be fun mixing those around .... phew eeeeee