180-Gallon Upgrade Starts NOW!!!

[ryshark]

Thanks everybody! On Tuesday I was extremely close to purchasing more fish from liveaquaria. I had an Achilles Tang, Hippo Tang and a couple Emeral Crabs in my cart and right before I finalized the order I noticed the Achilles mysteriously disappeared from my shopping cart. Somebody snatched it up seconds before I got it. I ended up cancelling the entire order because the more fish you get the more the high shipping costs make sense. Next time it becomes available, hopefully I will be the fastest one.

 

[rive1404]

Somebody snatched it up seconds before I got it.

I HATE when that happens. The tank is looking great! Keep it up.

 

[fishmonkey]

did you know that they have a thing where they can email you when they get one in stock, i highly reccomend it

 

[Etunes]

Wonderful, The copperhead hasen't picked at any of the corals. Awsoeme looking by the way.

 

[ryshark]

I HATE when that happens. The tank is looking great! Keep it up.

Thank you!

did you know that they have a thing where they can email you when they get one in stock, i highly reccomend it

Yes, I am signed up for that. That is how I knew they got the Achilles in stock, however it sold within minutes of being listed.

Wonderful, The copperhead hasen't picked at any of the corals. Awsoeme looking by the way.

No, it has not picked at any of the corals or clam yet. It pigs out on PE Mysis and live blackworms. And best of all, just today I can finally say for the first time my tank is aiptasia free. I had a bad aiptasia problem and I just couldn't keep up with the Joes Juice anymore.

Next I am going to purchase a couple Emerald Crabs to help eliminate some of the bubble algae I have around my tank.

 

[ryshark]

I have decided to switch my lighting from Ushio 10k to Radium 20k. I purchased the Radiums last night and I am anxiously awaiting for them to show up. I am looking forward to getting more of a blue color in my tank. Also the Ushio 10k inside of Lumenarc reflectors was very intense lighting. I had to be careful about putting coral directly underneath the reflector. It can be done but very slowly. I am expecting to get much better coral coloration with the new Radiums. Hopefully the growth does not slow down much, I don't want to have a 180-gallon frag tank forever.

 

[fishmonkey]

cool. cant wait to se the tank with the new lights!

 

[ryshark]

cool. cant wait to se the tank with the new lights!

The new lights are in (250w Radiums) and I added 5-fish and 2-emerald crabs.
3-Lyretail anthias
1-Blue Hippo Tang
1- Diamond watchmand goby

I still need to take picture of the new additions. I got all the the livestock above from liveaquaria with the Anthias coming from the Divers Den section. I recommend this company, they have high quality livestock and good customer service.

 

[fishmonkey]

pics?

 

[ryshark]

pics?

I will get some posted soon. My Goby is making a big mess with the sand and the tank is very cloudy because of it. I hope this will clear soon! I have also been afraid to clean the acrlylic with my magnet cleaner becaue of all the sand floating around from the goby. But I will get the best pictures I can. I wanted the goby to take the sand cleaning duties away from me, well he has done that to the extreme. I am getting very frustrated with the sand everywhere and I am having second thoughts about adding him. Fortunately, I hear this should all subside in a couple weeks. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[ryshark]

I am also in the market for a new skimmer at this time. I am still using the same Reef Octopus NW150 I had from my 75-gallon tank. I will most likely be getting one of the new trendy "cone skimmers."

 

[h8z2luze]

I really like the aquascape! Looks like islands.

 

[ryshark]

I really like the aquascape! Looks like islands.

Thank you. I like the island look, I was trying to get away from the rock of wall look. Plus the islands leave lots of room for good flow for sps coral and also lots of room for coral to grow in.

 

[ryshark]

Here are pictures of the new fish and also a full tank shot. The lighting in the full tank shot doesn't look so great in this picture. But I guess it does show that I need to add a third halide under the canopy. With the naked eye the light from the two halides blends much better.
MALE LYRETAIL ANTHIAS

HIPPO TANG

DIAMOND WATCHMAN GOBY

ANTHIAS TRIO 1-MALE AND 2-FEMALES

FULL TANK SHOT

 

[fishmonkey]

cool! great lookng tank ryshark!

 

[Etunes]

Good job but defiantly needs another halide.

 

[fishmonkey]

now, if it were me, id keep the two MH. i would change the live rock around instead, creating low light and high light areas.

 

[ryshark]

now, if it were me, id keep the two MH. i would change the live rock around instead, creating low light and high light areas.

Thats actually the way it is now, the low light area is in the middle canal. Thats is where I have the Acan, Chalice and Zoa. But I'm way more into the sps than those so I will get a third Halide eventually.

 

[ryshark]

More purchases were made in the past 2-days. I finally ordered a new protein skimmer after hours upon hours of researching. I am so happy I finally made up my mind and I cant wait for this skimmer to show up next week. (slow shipping) I got the SWC 1A cone skimmer with a Laguna/Askoll pump. From the threads I read and pictures of skimmate I saw from this thing... it is a beast! SWC Xtreme Cone Protein Skimmer 250 1A SWC Xtreme Cone Skimmer 250 A [Xtreme Cone 250 1A] - $899.99 : SWC - Salt Water Connection, Protein Skimmers, Calcium Reactors, Filters & Lights

This past Sunday we had a local coral "show" put on by Reeffarmer Steve Tyree. There were tons of other vendors there too with just about every coral frag you could think of. I picked up 4-new pieces
LE Rouge Milli
LE Acropora Lovelli "Mike Paletta Turquoise"
a possible future LE which Tyree called "Skye" acro stag
and another ORA Pearlberry, because I managed to kill my last one with too much flow from the Vortech. As wide, random and wavemaker pattern of flow they put out, you still need to be carefull about direct flow. In my experience it is a coral killer with any powerhead.

 

[pat8you]

Very jealous that you got to go to the tyree coral show. His coral is amazing looking. There are a ton of nice places out in California. I've heard thats where most of the coral shipments come in from over seas and that's why so much of the best stuff ends up out there.