DIY Concrete Aquarium 5,000 gallon - Anderson Family Reef

[dca22anderson]

Hah. Ya I know the feeling, have had that happen

What qt procedure are you doing?

Nothing too crazy:

I have a 40 breeder & a 20 gallon QT with show tank water in it rolling all the time.

Fish stay in there for observation for a few weeks to get them eating and used to my water.

If I see something then I treat for whatever it is, mainly copper power, chloroquine phosphate and prozipro. (I follow directions on the bottle)

Once full treatment is finished I observe for a week or two then add them to a holding tank for more observation that is connected to the system.

Once they are eating well and used to the system water I add them to the show at night and wish them the best of luck.

There are better and more detailed QT processes but that is what works for me.

 

[Bpp124987]

Nothing too crazy:

I have a 40 breeder & a 20 gallon QT with show tank water in it rolling all the time.

Fish stay in there for observation for a few weeks to get them eating and used to my water.

If I see something then I treat for whatever it is, mainly copper power, chloroquine phosphate and prozipro. (I follow directions on the bottle)

Once full treatment is finished I observe for a week or two then add them to a holding tank for more observation that is connected to the system.

Once they are eating well and used to the system water I add them to the show at night and wish them the best of luck.

There are better and more detailed QT processes but that is what works for me.

presumably that 20 and 40 are isolated from rest of systems while doing qt duty? Else there no real quarantine…

 

[dca22anderson]

presumably that 20 and 40 are isolated from rest of systems while doing qt duty? Else there no real quarantine…

They are stand alone tanks.

 

[ReefLegends]

This is a must stop and see attraction while in Utah!! You can look for hours and still not find everything that is hiding.

 

[dca22anderson]

This is a must stop and see attraction while in Utah!! You can look for hours and still not find everything that is hiding.

Thanks Skyler!! The system loves your phyto and pods!!

Any fish friends on this forum are more than welcome to come visit. Love talking reefs with the fish buddies.

It’s a work in progress but it’s getting better each month!

 

[dca22anderson]

Hand feeding the white margin unicorn tang with Sissy Lou!

 

[homer1475]

Not that I would wish anyone bad luck, but purely out of curiosity.....

With a "tank" this big, and no top, do you have issues with jumpers?

I would think with something this big, the fish have enough room to dart up without launching, but you have some really big fish that could launch themselves quite far.

 

[dca22anderson]

Not that I would wish anyone bad luck, but purely out of curiosity.....

With a "tank" this big, and no top, do you have issues with jumpers?

I would think with something this big, the fish have enough room to dart up without launching, but you have some really big fish that could launch themselves quite far.

Good question… I have about a 10” distance from the top of the water to the top rim of the tank and two sides are locked down with walls… the back and catwalk are open and so far nothing has launched out… fingers crossed it doesn’t happen!! LOL!!

When the bigs get spooked they dart sideways and down towards the rock cover so I hope they keep that up.

 

[dca22anderson]

Po4 are creeping up to the point where some SPS are not looking good so I’m implementing some lanthanum chloride injections into the skimmer to help bring them down. Here are some pictures of the setup:

Salifert test for current level

Lanthanum mixed at 80/ml per gallon of RODI water

Old dosing pump I found laying around that doses at a rate of 1.1ml per min.

Feed the lanthanum through the lid of the skimmer and to a ridgid clear airline to the middle of the body of the skimmer

Have a mixture of 5 micron and 10 micron long socks to snag anything that doesn’t get skimmed out

The socks are filling up fast so I’ll pause the dosing while I clean the socks and repeat the process till I get the po4 back down…

 

[dca22anderson]

FTS full lights ready set go… (hallway view)

 

[dca22anderson]

I made this for my brother Trav but figured you fine folks might like the walk through as well…

 

[dca22anderson]

What’s in the holding tanks??


Excited to transition these to the show tank!!

 

[Rabidsquirrel]

I'm just here for the herd of sailfins. I can't wait to see them.

 

[jeremym]

What’s in the holding tanks??


Excited to transition these to the show tank!!

Sure you have enough room for all those

 

[dca22anderson]

Here are some coral top down pics from tonight - Photo dump:

 

[bradreef]

That growth is crazy. I swear the corals have doubled in the last 3 months

 

[Andrews_aquarium]

Looks awesome! Love seeing that some Anthias are going in!

 

[dca22anderson]

That growth is crazy. I swear the corals have doubled in the last 3 months

Thanks Brad! Working on getting my Po4 down a bit now... Corals are responding well to the slow lowering efforts so far! Excited to get in range and see these things continue to grow super big!!

Looks awesome! Love seeing that some Anthias are going in!

Thanks Andrew! These will be the first Anthias I have kept. Looking forward to seeing them leverage the 8' tall back reef wall. I think they will love that area of the tank and hopefully settle in nicely. One concern is trying to get them enough food with all the other giant tangs gobbling up all the food all the time... we will see!!

 

[jeremym]

Looking good sir!

 

[dca22anderson]

Looking good sir!

Thank you! Love this stuff!!