Eric's 90 Gallon Upgrade

[x19]

Woot! The aquarium is in Chicago but will take until Monday to arrive at my local depot. I'll be picking it up Monday evening and spending the day Tuesday setting it up! Now the prospect of moving critters from one tank to the other is really starting to set in....it'll be chaos I'm sure. The new tank is going in the same place the old one is currently in so everyone will need to spend two days in a temporary holding tank.

I picked up some Dr. Tim's bacterial culture to help seed the rock I've been curing for 2 weeks (this stuff is legit) and I plan to start dosing prodibio after about a week. Hopefully the rock has built up a sufficient bacterial load and when paired with the bacterial supplements my livestock will make it through the transition.

Oh, and I had one more piece of gear show up last week :-) Not entirely sure how I will make it work since I don't have a computer anywhere close to my tank but I'll figure something out...

 

[BL1]

Can't wait to see this up and running.

Have you read the other thread where someone reviewed the Senseye? It was pretty disappointing.

 

[Smitty]

Sounds like fun times ahead...congrats. Can't wait to see it come to life.

 

[x19]

Tank is broken down and everyone is currently living in 2 holding tanks. I was able to save everyone with a name and a good number of cleaning crew members, but sadly neither of the my brittle stars. Corals look good so far, so here's hoping. Tank arrives tomorrow.

I had to go searching for the post about the Seneye. I'm hopeful that this will see updates along its lifespan.

(PS I meant I had been curing the rock for 2 months last post)

 

[x19]

Quick update. Tank is up, and I'm working on bringing up the salinity.

Bit of a micro-bubble and noise problem but hopefully I'll be able to get them under control.

 

[Smitty]

Wow, that looks good already.

 

[Sir Alex]

So have you been experimenting with programming that light fixture? :bounce:

 

[x19]

Wow, that looks good already.

Thanks :-)

So have you been experimenting with programming that light fixture? :bounce:

I had a program I was happy with for the 30 gallon, but I'll need to up the intensity significantly due to the increased depth.

 

[x19]

I figured I was past due to post an update. I moved everyone into the new tank after about 3 days as their was starting to be some invert die off in the holding tank. Its been really great so far. Corals that had lost much of their color have really started coloring up.

Here is a FTS from 2 weeks ago:

Now some crappy cell phone pics. Yesterday, I received an order from Live Aquaria. First up, 3 ignitus Anthias:

I seeded the tank with copepods before adding the Anthias since I started with dry rock. They're eating, but being bullied a bit by the yellow-tail damsel. The trick is going to be getting them feeding regularly without overloading my biological filter. I'm hopeful that the pods will prove to be a reliable food source for them.

2 Diver's Den pieces, both Bushy Acros:

A little more deep red in real life:

This one is like soft purple with baby blue polyps which opened up about an hour after being added to the tank:

 

[Smitty]

Very nice additions bro...

 

[AmberSunrise]

Looks great! I love the openness of it doesnt seem overcrowded or cramped and it will be easy to keep all sides of the glass clean! Awesome

 

[ErinCahir]

Looking great!

 

[little_fish]

Looks great! I too love the openness of it

 

[beeguiles]

It's so clean! For now haha love it!!

 

[beeguiles]

I name your tank Mt. Coral. It would look awesome as a big coral mt.

 

[x19]

Thanks everybody. While I wouldn't call this a minimalist tank, I definitely took inspiration from that style and wanted to provide a lot of negative space to balance the aqua scape.

I've been pretty religiously cleaning out the small amounts of bubble algae and hope to avoid the major algae outbreaks that plagued my last tank. I have bio-pellets setup but only since Tuesday so they will need time to build up. I'll post a picture of the sump tonight or tomorrow.

 

[x19]

Pics of the new Ignitus Anthias. A little blurry but I haven't had a chance to reshoot them.

Anthias still look thin (top left pic), but I swear they are eating... Any idea how long it takes for these guys to fatten up to a less scary level?

 

[BL1]

Nice additions! How often are you feeding them? Anthias have a high metabolism and need to be fed multiple times a day.

 

[x19]

Nice additions! How often are you feeding them? Anthias have a high metabolism and need to be fed multiple times a day.

Thanks. They're getting fed 2x a day now, and were getting 3x a day last week when I was off work. 1st feeding is Reef Nutrition Rotifiers and Arcti-Pods and second feeding is either Cyclopeeze or Mysis. I also pre-seeded the tank with a ton of Pods and I watch them picking them off the glass all the time. My phosphates have creeped up to .1 ppm from all the extra feeding, Nitrates are at .1 ppm and Ammonia is at zero. I'm going to see about getting some chaeto for the fuge to bring down the phosphates before it becomes a problem.

I watch them eat, and they've definitely regained their color after being very pale the first few days...but they just still have that pinched stomach look.

 

[x19]

I also picked up this frag at Midwest Coral Farms this weekend. They guy insisted it was Galaxea but I picked it up anyway since it was clearly not. The polyps close up into fists like Xenia. Any ideas? I was thinking Blue Sympodium.