Carey's Final Reef Upgrade- 180g

[Cichlidjon]

Excited about that a third I remember the last one you had!

 

[carey]

Went to my reef club meeting tonight and it was held in a LFS soooo of course I didn't leave empty handed. I got 10 red legs AND a black combtooth blenny! He's about 2.5 inches and he is going to go into the biocube. I debated which tank toput him into and the biocube seems the safest. The 60g has that mean barnacle blenny, the 125g has the tangs and I just added 2 fish yesterday so thats a no go. That leaves the 90g which is waaaay aggressive or the cube. lol So now the stock in the biocube is: a pygmy hawkfish, royal gramma, chalk bass, this combtooth and the teeny tiny sailfin blenny.

That should about do it for the stocking, still want some interesting inverts tho. I was thinking some emerald crabs and a sponge crab, they look so adorable. Any other ideas for cool inverts or small fish?

Thanks so much for following along!

 

[redsea]

Awesome, even MORE new additions, what an awesome fish week!

Have you seen the Squat Lobsters on LiveAquaria? They look really fun!

 

[carey]

havent seen them, will be sure to take a look though.

 

[Gregcoyote]

They looks WAY to much like a nasty spider. And we hates spiders. My phobia...

He looks like something I would buy and see once a year out of the corner of my eye for a second.

 

[redsea]

They looks WAY to much like a nasty spider. And we hates spiders. My phobia...

He looks like something I would buy and see once a year out of the corner of my eye for a second.

Haha, they do look fairly small! I am not a fan of spiders in the house either.

 

[carey]

Ok, they are just creepy redsea! Maybe it's a guy thing. lol

As an update, all three new fish are doing well so far. The anthias and wrasse are good, though the anthias is yet to eat. :-( I am hopeful for tomorrow as he is swimming around the tank more and more so he must be getting used to the tank. The wrasse eats like a pig though so i am quite happy about that. The combtooth is still hiding in the cube so tomorrow we'll see how it shakes out. lol

As a side note, I'm at my reef club meeting tonight and get a call from my b/f, apparently one of the new clown fish in the 125g managed to get himself stuck in the overflow on back! I rushed home to save him and by the time I got home my honey had already fished him out. lol Now have a double screen over the overflow intake in the tank needles to say. I tell ya, these clownfish in the 125g have always been a hassle. Three pairs jumped out over the last few years and this new pair wants to be trouble too. HA ha.....Not this time.....

 

[redsea]

Ok, they are just creepy redsea! Maybe it's a guy thing. lol

As an update, all three new fish are doing well so far. The anthias and wrasse are good, though the anthias is yet to eat. :-( I am hopeful for tomorrow as he is swimming around the tank more and more so he must be getting used to the tank. The wrasse eats like a pig though so i am quite happy about that. The combtooth is still hiding in the cube so tomorrow we'll see how it shakes out. lol

As a side note, I'm at my reef club meeting tonight and get a call from my b/f, apparently one of the new clown fish in the 125g managed to get himself stuck in the overflow on back! I rushed home to save him and by the time I got home my honey had already fished him out. lol Now have a double screen over the overflow intake in the tank needles to say. I tell ya, these clownfish in the 125g have always been a hassle. Three pairs jumped out over the last few years and this new pair wants to be trouble too. HA ha.....Not this time.....

I am glad the new fish are doing well this far! For me, the most reassuring part is when you check the tank the next morning and see that your new additions made it through, it is always a good feeling.

Well, I guess we know how Clownfish get their name, as they are always doing crazy things (like a Clown would).

Yep, the lobsters are a bit creepy looking, lol. They are definitely unique though, I never heard of them until a Diver's Den Alert from LA, I think.

 

[carey]

Since you forwarded that alert link to me I've still been receiving them all these past months. lol There's always at least 10 things on the list in fish at any time that i would gladly buy. I still want a pair of coral crouchers, they are soo cute

 

[redsea]

Since you forwarded that alert link to me I've still been receiving them all these past months. lol There's always at least 10 things on the list in fish at any time that i would gladly buy. I still want a pair of coral crouchers, they are soo cute

They are cute! Venomous fish scare me though, lol.

They always have so many great critters in the Diver's Den. For instance, for a little while now they have had this Blenny that seems pretty uncommon.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=197831

What a price tag though! I have never seen such an expensive Blenny!

 

[carey]

He's awesome! But quite the price tag for a blenny. lol If i were spending that kind of money I would get a tusk and/or a chevron tang. But I wont', I've kept really well to my under $50 rule, I've hit $50 but never gone over it for one fish.

I've been trying to organize my thoughts for this build so I guess i need input from you all out there. This topic is the return pump. I have a mag18 that I bought like 2 years ago cause I've always known I was going to go up to a 200g tank one day. Should that be enough of a pump to power a six foot tank with I'm guessing 4 outputs? one for each drilled return hole in the hidden overflow thingees? I'm still blindly finding my way with sumps so sorry if thats a dumb question. LOL

Thanks guys, this is just the beginning! i can't wait to get to the stocking part of the build.

 

[Qube]

Hey Carey! I've heard of people having good luck feeding anthias with some of the Fauna Marin products, in particular, the Marine Base Color version. Either way, it seems you have to seem them off frozen to the dry stuff over time. They seem to require many feelings throughout
The day too. Hope this helps you along!

 

[Qube]

Hey Carey! I've heard of people having good luck feeding anthias with some of the Fauna Marin products, in particular, the Marine Base Color version. Either way, it seems you have to seem them off frozen to the dry stuff over time. They seem to require many feelings throughout
The day too. Hope this helps you along!

"Ween them off" not "seem them off". Stupid auto-correct...

 

[Ericwm]

He's awesome! But quite the price tag for a blenny. lol If i were spending that kind of money I would get a tusk and/or a chevron tang. But I wont', I've kept really well to my under $50 rule, I've hit $50 but never gone over it for one fish.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that tried to set a limit. Mine was $30 and that didn't go very well, I bought my midas blenny for $40 and my black occ for $60, I think my coral beauty was $35. So I broke my rule on 3 of my 4 fish.

I wish I could help you out with the return pump thing but I have only bought one and it is still in my dry sump and hasn't seen water yet.

 

[Grizz]

The mag 18 has what 1800 gph split into 4 returns = 450 gph each return without head loss. I dont think it's enough for a coral tank, i'd say your gonna want some power heads to add more flow. Just be sure the over flows can keep up or the sump will run dry

 

[carey]

Oh, I fully intend to go with powerheads, thats another day's conversation though,. LOL i wanna make sure thats enough flow to got hrough my sump. I am going straight berlin, no refugium this time around. I want a HUGE center section so I can get the biggest baddest skimmer I can afford! (we'll see how that plan works out lol). I want 2 separate filter sock inputs too I think, it should cut back on the amount of sock changes wouldnt it?

This tank won't have any SPS really, maybe some monti's, love those, some stunner chalice or something similar. So does that all make a difference then knowing that? I don't want to over power the sump but I also want the most filtration I can get.

 

[Grizz]

Yes that's plenty of flow through the sump remember the slower the flow the longer the dwell time longer dwell = more filtration. I'd go with 4 socks if you have the room.

Also you can put a valve on the return to slow the flow through the sump as the overflows can only dump as much as there fed. Or tap off and use the extra to run a reactor.

 

[carey]

How would I use 4 socks with only two lines coming in?

 

[Gregcoyote]

I like being controversial. I don't use any socks or fine particulate filters at all, never have. My water is clear because my algae scrubber catches stuff. My theory has always been that there are tiny floaters present that are beneficial.

 

[Grizz]

I avoid them also i figure with a tank full of filter feeders im starving them
Carey you can split the two lines with a T thereby making 4 drains.