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Mike's 315 Gallon Build
- Thread starter Mike S
- Start date
Thanks for the kind words. I’m pretty happy with how it is coming together. Right now I have a lineatus wrasse , rhomboid wrasse, a pair of 8 line flasher wrasses, solor wrasse, male bipartitus leopard wrasse, potters angel, midas blenny, a pair of dispar anthias, ocellaris clown, and a firefish. I have a long list of potential fish, but will need to cut it back. I’m probably going to start with the angels and the wrasses first and then the tangs after the others have established themselves. Here the rough list of what I’m thinking about:
Angels
Pair of bellus angels
Pair of watanabei angels
Regal angel
Tangs (probably just 2 or 3 from this list)
Desjardini sailfin (I’ve always liked these but they get big)
Achilles
Chocolate tang
Powder blue tang
Wrasses
Female rhomboid
Labouti fairy wrasse
Vanuatu exquisite wrasse (if I can find one)
Diamond tail flasher
Orange back fairy wrasse
Flame wrasse
Red velvet fairy (I’ve heard these can be aggressive with other wrasses)
Kuiteri leopard
Red tail tamarin
Anthias?
I’m in no hurry to start adding fish other than getting a female rhomboid before my male settles in. I’d rather let the tank stabilize a little bit. I was going to hold off on getting a bigger skimmer, but I think I’ll do that sooner rather than later. I’m looking at the SRO 5000INT, Skimz monster 251, aquamaxx cone 5 and jns sk5. I just need to sell my MP40’s to help fund it.
Angels
Pair of bellus angels
Pair of watanabei angels
Regal angel
Tangs (probably just 2 or 3 from this list)
Desjardini sailfin (I’ve always liked these but they get big)
Achilles
Chocolate tang
Powder blue tang
Wrasses
Female rhomboid
Labouti fairy wrasse
Vanuatu exquisite wrasse (if I can find one)
Diamond tail flasher
Orange back fairy wrasse
Flame wrasse
Red velvet fairy (I’ve heard these can be aggressive with other wrasses)
Kuiteri leopard
Red tail tamarin
Anthias?
I’m in no hurry to start adding fish other than getting a female rhomboid before my male settles in. I’d rather let the tank stabilize a little bit. I was going to hold off on getting a bigger skimmer, but I think I’ll do that sooner rather than later. I’m looking at the SRO 5000INT, Skimz monster 251, aquamaxx cone 5 and jns sk5. I just need to sell my MP40’s to help fund it.
Thanks for the kind words. I’m pretty happy with how it is coming together. Right now I have a lineatus wrasse , rhomboid wrasse, a pair of 8 line flasher wrasses, solor wrasse, male bipartitus leopard wrasse, potters angel, midas blenny, a pair of dispar anthias, ocellaris clown, and a firefish. I have a long list of potential fish, but will need to cut it back. I’m probably going to start with the angels and the wrasses first and then the tangs after the others have established themselves. Here the rough list of what I’m thinking about:
Angels
Pair of bellus angels
Pair of watanabei angels
Regal angel
Tangs (probably just 2 or 3 from this list)
Desjardini sailfin (I’ve always liked these but they get big)
Achilles
Chocolate tang
Powder blue tang
Wrasses
Female rhomboid
Labouti fairy wrasse
Vanuatu exquisite wrasse (if I can find one)
Diamond tail flasher
Orange back fairy wrasse
Flame wrasse
Red velvet fairy (I’ve heard these can be aggressive with other wrasses)
Kuiteri leopard
Red tail tamarin
Anthias?
I’m in no hurry to start adding fish other than getting a female rhomboid before my male settles in. I’d rather let the tank stabilize a little bit. I was going to hold off on getting a bigger skimmer, but I think I’ll do that sooner rather than later. I’m looking at the SRO 5000INT, Skimz monster 251, aquamaxx cone 5 and jns sk5. I just need to sell my MP40’s to help fund it.
A bigger skimmer??????
Oh boy here comes my crack dealer.
LOL....nah mine is packed and away in storage now. Sad note is that ATB north america is no longer in business and I havent been able to get a response out of ATB in Austria as to what they will be doing for a USA distributor. Im guessing that if something should happen to my pump I could replace it with something similar.
Hey Steve, sorry that I missed your post. I think it's too soon to pass judgment to the t5 setup. I have lost a few sps frags but that could have just been from water chemistry and the transition. The rest of my corals seem to be doing very well.
I wasn't crazy about the original bulb combination so I made a few changes. Right now I'm using an ati blue+, blue+, purple, coral+, blue+, coral+, blue+, and coral+ and am very happy with that combo. I do miss the led shimmer and have been looking at orphek Atlantis and the ati led/t5 fixtures. For a lot less money I can probably duplicate the ati led/t5 fixtures by just doing a diy row of leds between my ati fixtures. The buildmyled strips might be an option also.
I've had a few additions and losses fish wise. One of my dispar anthias didn't pull through the move. My lineatus and rhomboid wrasses really went at it for a day or two and the rhomboid was on the loosing end. I tried to get the rhomboid out an into my qt for two weeks but couldn't catch him. I thought that he had turned the corner but I found him dead this week. I did pick up a nice female bellus angel a few weeks ago. I moved her into the display this week. I also just picked up a small disjardini sailfin tang that is doing well in QT.
Other than that the tank is coming along well. I've gone through the normal diatom bloom with a little bit of brown algae and cyano. For the past week I have been seeing some dinos. After fighting them for a while in my old tank, I think that I might just go lights out for a few days and not mess around with them.
I wasn't crazy about the original bulb combination so I made a few changes. Right now I'm using an ati blue+, blue+, purple, coral+, blue+, coral+, blue+, and coral+ and am very happy with that combo. I do miss the led shimmer and have been looking at orphek Atlantis and the ati led/t5 fixtures. For a lot less money I can probably duplicate the ati led/t5 fixtures by just doing a diy row of leds between my ati fixtures. The buildmyled strips might be an option also.
I've had a few additions and losses fish wise. One of my dispar anthias didn't pull through the move. My lineatus and rhomboid wrasses really went at it for a day or two and the rhomboid was on the loosing end. I tried to get the rhomboid out an into my qt for two weeks but couldn't catch him. I thought that he had turned the corner but I found him dead this week. I did pick up a nice female bellus angel a few weeks ago. I moved her into the display this week. I also just picked up a small disjardini sailfin tang that is doing well in QT.
Other than that the tank is coming along well. I've gone through the normal diatom bloom with a little bit of brown algae and cyano. For the past week I have been seeing some dinos. After fighting them for a while in my old tank, I think that I might just go lights out for a few days and not mess around with them.
Its been a while since I've done an update so here it goes. Back in September the dreaded dinos made an appearance in my tank. I did a 4 day lights out period and dosed peroxide. They disappeared for several weeks although some cyano stuck around. Then the little stringy bubbles appeared again and this time in force. Spent a week or two siphoning them out and blasting the rocks daily, before resorting to another 3 days of lights out. When the lights came back on the dinos and cyano pretty much appeared right away and got worse than the previous times. I also lost a few SPS minicolonies and frags during the battle.
I came to the conclusion that my skimmer that served me so well in my 120 just wasn't processing enough water to keep up, so I took advantage of the Black Friday sales and picked up a Skimz Leopard 253. Unfortunately it arrived with a cracked base, but Aquacave took care of it. I've had it up and running for a few weeks and so far I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure that the DC pump offers any real advantages, but it sure pulls a lot of air and water. I also decided to simplify my take a little bit and took the biopellets off line and converted what was to be a frag tank into a fuge. I also removed a lot of sand and am thinking about taking more our and just leaving some in the back of my tank for my leopard wrasse. Last week week I blacked out the tank for another 5 days and added some GFO to try to kick the cyano and dinos once and for all. Lights have been back on for a few days and no sign of them yet (knock on wood). I'm praying that I've beaten them this time.
I also just made a switch in controllers. My Reef Angel had worked well on my 120, but when I set this tank up it forced me to locate one of the relays far away from the controller. The stock cable wasn't long enough, so I went through three or four SVGA cables trying to find one that would work. Finally I had to make one, but it still was acting buggy and I couldn't figure out what the issue was. Still seems to work fine with the stock cable, so I think it is just the length of the run. I also ran into issues with keeping a reliable connection to my wifi network, since the controller was now in a closet in my basement at the opposite end of my house from my router. I finally had enough and decided to use part of my xmas bonus for a Apex. I was worried that I'd loose some flexibility coming from the Reef Angel, but after playing with it for a few days that doesn't appear to be the case. I still think the Reef Angel is a good controller, but it just wasn't working for my situation.
I started with two 4x80 watt ATI fixtures over the tank, thinking that I'd need to a significant amount of leds down the road to have enough light. I started looking into led options and decided to get a PAR sensor to see what the ATI's were putting out before investing in leds. To my surprise I was getting 200 across my sandbed and 300 to 500 on my rockwork. No need for LEDs yet....
Fish wise I lost a regal angel in QT and my flame wrasse disappeared. The bellus angel and juvenille desjardini tang that I picked up this summer made it through QT and are doing great in their new home. I also picked up four female bimac anthias a few weeks ago. One never really ate and I ended up losing it. Another was looking a little thin and hasn't taken to pellets or flakes yet, but I'm getting it to put on some weight with frozen. The other two are doing great and one looks like its about to transition to a male. I was worried that my lineatus wrasse would be aggressive towards them, but he's paid them no mind. In fact he has chilled out a little bit since the new additions went into the tank. He still has a bug up his but when it comes to the midas blenny. The blenny holds his own against him, but at some point I'm going to catch the blenny and find him a new home.
That is it for now. I'm going to get some pictures this weekend.
I came to the conclusion that my skimmer that served me so well in my 120 just wasn't processing enough water to keep up, so I took advantage of the Black Friday sales and picked up a Skimz Leopard 253. Unfortunately it arrived with a cracked base, but Aquacave took care of it. I've had it up and running for a few weeks and so far I'm very happy with it. I'm not sure that the DC pump offers any real advantages, but it sure pulls a lot of air and water. I also decided to simplify my take a little bit and took the biopellets off line and converted what was to be a frag tank into a fuge. I also removed a lot of sand and am thinking about taking more our and just leaving some in the back of my tank for my leopard wrasse. Last week week I blacked out the tank for another 5 days and added some GFO to try to kick the cyano and dinos once and for all. Lights have been back on for a few days and no sign of them yet (knock on wood). I'm praying that I've beaten them this time.
I also just made a switch in controllers. My Reef Angel had worked well on my 120, but when I set this tank up it forced me to locate one of the relays far away from the controller. The stock cable wasn't long enough, so I went through three or four SVGA cables trying to find one that would work. Finally I had to make one, but it still was acting buggy and I couldn't figure out what the issue was. Still seems to work fine with the stock cable, so I think it is just the length of the run. I also ran into issues with keeping a reliable connection to my wifi network, since the controller was now in a closet in my basement at the opposite end of my house from my router. I finally had enough and decided to use part of my xmas bonus for a Apex. I was worried that I'd loose some flexibility coming from the Reef Angel, but after playing with it for a few days that doesn't appear to be the case. I still think the Reef Angel is a good controller, but it just wasn't working for my situation.
I started with two 4x80 watt ATI fixtures over the tank, thinking that I'd need to a significant amount of leds down the road to have enough light. I started looking into led options and decided to get a PAR sensor to see what the ATI's were putting out before investing in leds. To my surprise I was getting 200 across my sandbed and 300 to 500 on my rockwork. No need for LEDs yet....
Fish wise I lost a regal angel in QT and my flame wrasse disappeared. The bellus angel and juvenille desjardini tang that I picked up this summer made it through QT and are doing great in their new home. I also picked up four female bimac anthias a few weeks ago. One never really ate and I ended up losing it. Another was looking a little thin and hasn't taken to pellets or flakes yet, but I'm getting it to put on some weight with frozen. The other two are doing great and one looks like its about to transition to a male. I was worried that my lineatus wrasse would be aggressive towards them, but he's paid them no mind. In fact he has chilled out a little bit since the new additions went into the tank. He still has a bug up his but when it comes to the midas blenny. The blenny holds his own against him, but at some point I'm going to catch the blenny and find him a new home.
That is it for now. I'm going to get some pictures this weekend.
Things appear to have stabilized a bit. A day after my last post the dinos appeared in my tank again. I blacked out my tank once again for four days and this time stopped my water changes. When the lights came back on I waited and watched. I also bumped up my flow by adding four WP60s. After about a week or two they started to appear again, but were not getting out of control.
I had been wondering if the dinos were just gaining a foothold under conditions where other algae couldn't. Had the combination of biopellets, gfo, and aggressive water changes been stripping my tank too much? I never had any measurable nitrates or phosphates, my cheato wasn’t growing, there was no other nuisance algae, and my sps were looking pale and not showing much growth. I decided to try dosing amino’s to see what would happen and picked up a bottle of Acropower. After about a week I noticed that there were no signs of dinos in the tank and I was starting to see more colors in a number of frags. Previously I would get a light dusting of brown algae on my glass every four days. After starting with the aminos I began to see a dusting of green algae almost every day. Its anecdotal a best but I really do suspect that the dinos were just thriving in the ultra-low nutrient conditions and are now being out competed. I started back with the water changes a week ago and am keeping my fingers crossed that they are beat for now. No signs of the dinos and cyano hasn't been present since I removed the biopellets.
Not too many changes on the fish front. I added a juvenile labouti and linespot flasher wrasses a few weeks ago and they has been doing well. My lineatus is still being a bugger with the midas blenny and at some point I’m going to have to make a decision whether to remove him if I want to get another rhomboid. I'm not sure what I'm going to add next. I've been thinking about a copperband or trying a regal angel one more time. I picked up a few SPS frags in the past two weeks including a joe the coral, ice fire echinata, red dragon, pink lemonade, ora roscoe, tubb’s blue mystic, rainbow of spain, pc superman, bc pearly cadaver, and a few montis.
Still can't seem to get a good picture but here is a FTS. Hopefully in a year I'll have a full blown SPS reef.
I had been wondering if the dinos were just gaining a foothold under conditions where other algae couldn't. Had the combination of biopellets, gfo, and aggressive water changes been stripping my tank too much? I never had any measurable nitrates or phosphates, my cheato wasn’t growing, there was no other nuisance algae, and my sps were looking pale and not showing much growth. I decided to try dosing amino’s to see what would happen and picked up a bottle of Acropower. After about a week I noticed that there were no signs of dinos in the tank and I was starting to see more colors in a number of frags. Previously I would get a light dusting of brown algae on my glass every four days. After starting with the aminos I began to see a dusting of green algae almost every day. Its anecdotal a best but I really do suspect that the dinos were just thriving in the ultra-low nutrient conditions and are now being out competed. I started back with the water changes a week ago and am keeping my fingers crossed that they are beat for now. No signs of the dinos and cyano hasn't been present since I removed the biopellets.
Not too many changes on the fish front. I added a juvenile labouti and linespot flasher wrasses a few weeks ago and they has been doing well. My lineatus is still being a bugger with the midas blenny and at some point I’m going to have to make a decision whether to remove him if I want to get another rhomboid. I'm not sure what I'm going to add next. I've been thinking about a copperband or trying a regal angel one more time. I picked up a few SPS frags in the past two weeks including a joe the coral, ice fire echinata, red dragon, pink lemonade, ora roscoe, tubb’s blue mystic, rainbow of spain, pc superman, bc pearly cadaver, and a few montis.
Still can't seem to get a good picture but here is a FTS. Hopefully in a year I'll have a full blown SPS reef.
Seriously the tank is sweet. Amazing how big it looks.
Love the scape. I'd love to have that kind of space. All that swim space over the rock. It's going to look amazing when it grows out.