Awesome lighting. You've got some great space for low light and NPS corals, too under ledges. Can't wait to see this fill up!Made a lot of progress over the weekend and today getting the Apex moved over to the new tank. I hooked up both of the Neptune Skys and I gotta say I’m loving the blanket line coverage that two of them are providing. I’ve only got them maxing out at 7% right now. No corals except the Gorgonian but no shadowing at all.
Thank you. Those lights are turned way low and are also a good 17.5 inches above the water line. Low light corals should work out just fine. I don't know about NPS though, that's never been my thing. I do have a local friend with some Dendros though, so you never know, maybe someday.
This looks really good. You're also reminding me how much I like tanks with Gorgonians and macro algae. I may need to recenter myself...Made a lot of progress over the weekend and today getting the Apex moved over to the new tank. I hooked up both of the Neptune Skys and I gotta say I’m loving the blanket like coverage that two of them are providing. I’ve only got them maxing out at 7% right now. No corals except the Gorgonian but no shadowing at all.
Thanks. I’m pretty happy with it despite the recent fish setbacks. I like the look of Gorgs too and I think a couple more will need to be obtained. There’s a website for a company in TX that has lots of them and lots of different macros. I think it’s called golf coast ecosystems. I’ve always wanted to do a tank like that gorgonian/ricordia dominant one I showed you and Woodyman back in the Tenecor thread. I’d love to do that either in a 33 long or maybe even a standard 55. Might be the only good use for a standard 55 saltwater tank because of the height for the Gorgs. I have lots of fun ideas for tanks that I have no place to put, lol.
I've never tried dipping one so no idea but I doubt it would fair well. I usually ended up clipping off arms with algae as they had usually also lost their 'skin'.Thanks. I’m pretty happy with it despite the recent fish setbacks. I like the look of Gorgs too and I think a couple more will need to be obtained. There’s a website for a company in TX that has lots of them and lots of different macros. I think it’s called golf coast ecosystems. I’ve always wanted to do a tank like that gorgonian/ricordia dominant one I showed you and Woodyman back in the Tenecor thread. Id love to do that either in a 33 long or maybe even a standard 55. Might be the only good use for a standard 55 saltwater tank because of the height for the Gorgs. I have lots of fun ideas for tanks that I have no place to put, lol.
Speaking of Gorgs, @tharbin, I have one in the clown tank that’s got a hair algae problem. Do you know if Gorgs can be dipped in H2O2? Need to figure that out.
That’s after I scrubbed it pretty good with a toothbrush. Anyone with any thoughts on this please chime in.
Yeah, I might end up having to just frag it into smaller pieces that don't have any algae on them. If that's even possible anymore, there's kind of a lot on there. I never really had an algae problem in the Lagoon 50 in the last 2-3 years except for on that one Gorgonian. Weird.
The tank is really coming together. Looks good. I think the aquascape is really looking super and seeing two Yellow Wrasses swimming in front of a gorgonian is magical. Really nice.Things that happened today.
Caught and removed a juvenile gorilla crab. Still one more in there that I’m aware of.
I moved the ATO over to the new tank.
I did a little basic Apex programming to reassign some of the outlets to control my under cabinet lighting and the saltwater mixing pump and heater in my mixing bin. Also added the 200w BRS titanium heater to the back chambers as a backup to the 300w that was already running.
Everything is labeled on the EB832 side of the control panel.
Control Panel complete for now, pending any new equipment arrivals.
The rats nest of wires is intentional. The minute you get everything all tidy and neat you end up tearing half of it apart to get at one wire. I’m not gonna play that game cause I’ll just get irritated. With the front panel of the cabinet on none of this is visible so other than coiling up loose wire with twist ties I’m not managing this section any further.
Next to the controller board I’m re-using the same IM 5 gallon ato container as before. Love the drawer for filling. I’d like the larger version but it’s not worth the money. Next to that is a plastic tote I’m using to mix up salt for water changes. I marked it out for 4.5, 9 and 13.5 gallons because each baggie of TLF AccuraSea1 mixes perfectly to 35ppt in 4.5 gallons of water. I just add the right number of baggies to the right amount of water and I’m ready to go. I left the power cords of the pump and heater loose so I have enough slack to easily lift the container up to dump in the last little bit of new water that the pump can’t do.
Finally after several months I’ve got the old tank out and the new one fully operational.
Thanks, I’m pretty happy with everything so far despite the extended timeframe and the recent issues with fish losses. I think the yellow wrasses are the best thing I’ve done in a long time. They are so interesting to watch swimming together and interacting. I really like having pairs. At some point I’ll probably get a second blue damsel and I also want to get another pair of zebra barred dartfish, I really enjoyed them when I had them before. Green banded gobies are another possibility and I know they can be done in small groups, really like the look of them. My biggest disappointment recently was that the pairing of the Royal Grammas never got off the ground as they both died pretty quickly. In hindsight that big credit I got for trading in the anemones turned out to be very detrimental. Most of those fish I got didn’t make it and I kinda went out of character with too many changes too quickly. I’m reining it all back in now, no new livestock additions for a while as I let everything settle in.
Thanks. It's really not that bad to view, ya gotta really try and look at it the wrong way in order to see the scratches even though they are pretty long. It won't impact my daily enjoyment of the tank but I'm not to the point where I'm over it yet so I'm still pretty salty. It was just such a stupid mistake. You have to watch every second of panel cleaning on an acrylic tank like a hawk. I know this and failed anyway.
I did the same thing to my Waterbox 15 Pen; not exactly the same price point but same self-anger. Low iron isn't really much more scratch resistant. The good news, you can remove most scratches in an acrylic tank someday--no way in a glass tank.
I like the new arrangement a lot.I did a little rearranging yesterday.
I moved the long flat rock that was connecting the two big islands to the left island so now there is a true gap between the two islands.
I also moved the large gorgonian behind the right island so it’s not blocking the gap anymore or getting pounded with flow.
I moved the Jump 2k gyre to the middle of the back wall and set it to random mode between 10 and 50%.
The newer Jump 4K gyre is set to ramp up and down from 10 to 80% on the right side.
The older one on the left is set at a constant 70%.
Other than a small bare spot in the front middle the sand is pretty much staying put so I may turn down the 2k and maybe turn up the 4k’s by another 10% once I have corals.
I like the look a little better this way. The left side is now higher than the right and the gap in between gives a sense of more depth. The gorg in the background is also better.
There is now officially a coral in the tank. I grabbed a two polyp frag of Pink Zipper Zoas from the garage tank and put it in.
It’s not looking great at the moment but my experience is that most zoas adjust pretty well. It was under a Radion XR15 gen 4 in the garage, about 10 inches below the waterline with the light about 6-7” above the waterline set to ab+ at about 45%
Its new location is 12-13” below the waterline with two Neptune Sky’s about 17” above the waterline and peaking at 17%. I would expect them to be a little shocked for a while. Hopefully they start to grow new polyps. That will be my indication to start increasing the lighting intensity and maybe start to think about a green slimer or equivalent sps to test the waters further.
