Careys Tank(s) Lots of Pictures, Questions & Thoughts

[bribo12]

I'd do the sps tank as well !

[BigRedsReefs10]

Originally Posted by carey

I've never gone with more than a small handful of sps before, but thats cause I generally dont like em. lol But I thought maybe it would grow on me and it seems like a challenge. But, well, I don't know. lol Should I put stuff in my tank for the challenge or because I like how it looks?

I would go with your tastes. That being said sps have a habit of growing on people . I saw an amazing euphie dominated lps tank, I'll see if I can find that article again.

[carey]

Like I could totally see a bunch of anemones and clowns just dive bombing them and everything just flowing with the water current....Thatd' be cool too. I would "like" to have one more set of clowns, this time a designer set like I have been hoping to buy for several years now and just never could. The prices have come down so low it could be do-able for me. My one lfs has snowflakes for $25, some really nice ones too. BUT if I do sps I'm not sure what type of fish i would get. It's even hard to just throw together a community tank, but with sps you have to pay attention to so many details. The wtaer has to stay crystal clean, so nop big poopers or large fish which will just make it that much harder to keep the parameters good. No potential polyps eaters, and most likely no anemones. Lots to consider..

[bribo12]

IMO sps are not nearly as touchy as they're made out to be. Especially with so many corals being grown in captivity now. Montipora, birdsnest, poccilopora are all pretty easy sps ime. Acros can be a pain in the rear but even then not all acros are the same care wise. But a full nem tank would be crazy awesome too

[carey]

I've got the lighting to have anything I can think of with no doubts about having enough light. This is the last tank i can really do, I am out of room in the house and we arent even thinking of moving lol. So, I wanna make this one count. I didnt have much luck with the 60g when it was running before, it was just happy fish and no corals after I burned them all with the tao led panel.

[BigRedsReefs10]

A nem tank would be really cool! Bunch of BTAs and rock flowers would be awesome

[Criptix]

Looks great Carey!I am thinking of the same hangers for my set up but I am concerned about how to fit them on a longer stand. Could I just use one hanger or would 2 be better?

[Macscale]

The sneak peak of the 40b in the 60's pictures looks great...
Honestly, I think a clown harem tank would be really cool, but maybe a full mixed reef look. Unless that's the plan for the 40. Maybe the SPS reef too..

[carey]

Criptix: The bars come separately, so you can adjust how far apart you want them, so they would work just as well for your setup.
I would definitely go with the two brackets though, while they are sturdy enough, they always worry me a little bit. lol You can also adjust the height of the hangers by adding a wood block on the back of the tank so you can hang it higher up on the back of the stand, which is what we did. Though that setup looks like a deepblue stand and I think they have a solid back, at least mine did.

I would love love to have a tank full of clowns and anemones. lol How cool would that look? Get like 20 clowns and let em go at it. I wonder how many clowns you would need to alleviate any fighting though, I know 4 isnt a magic number. I was just before looking at photon clowns, they look silly awesome! maybe that can be my clown pick. I mean, I have to have clowns, what tank is complete without clowns? Specially mine, I always have the max count of clowns per tank, i just love how adorable and cute they are!
I just did a water change on the 40b and added some purple up, for what its worth anyways. I did win a gallon of it at the last reef convention so might as well use it. So the tanks are a bit cloudy, or I'd take some MORE photos. I don;t mean to be obnoxious with all the pictures i post, I just really love looking at them lol, I even look through the book I had made of all my fish and corals I have had. Its like a coffee table book at my house, people are always like wow, you had this? And this?
Yes, I had an official photobook made of all the pictures I have taken over the years. Cost me like $20 with a coupon on shutterfly and it almost looks like its a professional portfolio. Hardcover and glossy. Was soo worth it. wish I could have you guys see it somehow.
Anyways, back to fishie stuff for now, it's getting close to the stocking time for the 60g so I should really make up my mind soon. Just so many choices.....

[bribo12]

If you really wanna get crazy do a seahorse tank with lots of macroalgae and soft corals!

[Macscale]

Originally Posted by bribo12

If you really wanna get crazy do a seahorse tank with lots of macroalgae and soft corals!

That'd be interesting...
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I'd love to see you put a clown harem tank together though.. I'm not sure on the number to eliminate aggression. I think you'd have to factor in the number of anemones too.

[BigRedsReefs10]

IMO there's no such thing as too many pictures I flood my thread with them too.

[carey]

LOl, cool. Just don't want to lose any viewers. I tend to yatter on and on too so hopefully that doesnt turn people off either.

So, I will now post some shots of the 180g finally, along with whats in it and running the beast. I hope I don't forget any fish, I have so many sometimes they slip my mind.

I have the four tangs:
Yellow
Pootie the blue tang
Tomini and the new Mustard tang. they are all veyr happy cruising around together, that mustard is THE most active fish i have ever owned by the way. He is constantly zipping back and forth at all hours of the day and night. lol
I have a pair of fat b&w clowns
mated pair of filefish ( who ate all my polyps) :-(((
Rabbitfish
Midas Blenny
Melanarus Wrasse
Yellow coris wrasse
pink spotted watchman goby
combtooth blenny
a lined squirrel fish
a falco hawkfish and an arc eye hawkfish
5 chromis in the tank plus one that lives in the right overflow
And a hermit about 5 inches, my king crab lol Along with other misc snails and hermits
No shrimp, last time I had some "one" I dont know who, killed them all, all 15 of the cleaner shrimp i had. So no more shrimp I dont think
Holy fish batman, thats a lot of fish isn't it? LOLOL They all behave fine and I havent had any issues with aggression or water parameters so I guess it all works

For hardware, since it's a 6 foot tank I have 3 of the chinese led fixtures, dimmable ones of course over it. I will rant about these lights soon, not enough space in this post to do it. hehe

Running a 40b as the sump, no refugium, just a pretty big skimmer, an ASM G3 or G4, I cant remember which right now, I always get them mixed up. Running a mag 18 for the return, should have gone with the mag24 but oh well. Might decide to run dual return pumps at some point, not sure if 2 mag 9.5's would be better or not. Anyways. i was also running biopellets since I started the tank BUT about a week or so ago I stopped running it, my corals all look like crap. It's either the lights or the pellets but they arent coming back even after discontinuing the pellets.
For flow I have 2 wp40's and a koralia 1500. Perfect flow in there now, corals move ever so sligtly and nothing sits on the sand. I also used about 300lbs of pool filter sand in this tank, which I have been doing over the last few years with no issues.
I am also controlling everything via a reefkeeper elite unit, no net option but I never really go out so its a moot option for me.
Hope that helps you all understand whats making this tank tick and how it's all set up.
Now for some photos:

[carey]

You can see how floppy the toadstool is now, for those who remember the toadstool was a monster in my 125g, absolutely huge and now its all shriveled up and looks gross.
But here are some more photos:

[carey]

[Macscale]

40b! 40b! My favorite tank of yours until the 60 cube gets up and running.

[carey]

I was saving the best for last!!! It's fast becoming my favorite, probably cause of all the coral. In fact, I moved one of the sinularias that I got from Mrx over to the 40b from the 180g today. the one in the 40b is looking awesome while the exact same thing is looking bad in the 180g. So I figured I'd get the one crappy looking one back up to full health and go from there.

AS far as the 180g, I have a big decision to make. I want to go back to the same t5 fixture I was using over the 125g, I can pick one up with new ati bulbs for $250 from a friend. regular 12 bulb setup that I had so much success with over the 125g. I have given these led's a real good long try, over 6 months already and they just are NOT working for me. They dont shimmer, the water doesnt look right to me and the corals are all suffering. The hard part is getting the $250 into the budget to get the t5's. Plus I will have to cut out the right side of the canopy I think since the fixture mounts on the tanks side rims and so does the canopy.

Any ideas how else I could mount it? I dont think the wooden dowel I have the leds panels hanging from will be strong enough to hold the t5 fixture, it was quite heavy and only had two mounting points if i remember correctly.

THEN AGAIN, should I even do this swap? Or should I give the leds' even more time to grow on me? I guess i am just old school as I know the t5's work for me and I am getting uber frustrated with these stupid panels. Bad enough I lost almost ALL my coral cause of burning them but now what i have left is slowly fading out of health.

[bribo12]

That stinks about the LEDs . Maybe sell them and use that money to pay for the t5 fixture. Or maybe when you see how well the radion does over the 60 your faith will be renewed in LEDs. So maybe wait?? Idk

[Macscale]

So, the Taos are just bad now? Is this the only tank you keep them on?
If you had great success with the T5's then it may be well worth it to switch back. I haven't been on AA long enough to see the old 125, so I can't judge too well.
From reading all of the problems with it in the old 185 thread, id say the panels aren't worth it. Maybe if you kept the LEDS and tried the T5's and if it doesn't change anything sell it off again? It's a bit of ahassle if the T5's don't make a change though.

EDIT: Could it be too clean of water affecting the Softies and LPS?

[TheTodd]

I'm jumping down to comment on the 180g shrimp thing...don't Hawks eat shrimp? If you have two, maybe that is it? Not sure if they just go after smaller like pistols or if they mess with the bigger ones.

Keep posting pics and ramble away. I'm still following!