My 175G bowfront

[rsisvixen]

Its been around 15 years since I was last in the Saltwater hobby, things have certainly changed since then :)
Since immigrating to Canada I've looked forward to getting back into the hobby and finally in June we got a brand new 175 second hand-hadn't ever been used.
I actually think I used up all my luck finding the tank as its been pretty bumpy since then.
It sat in our Garage till Aug/Sept as we were trying to find help to move it into the house and a kind member helped us out.
Water was added-tested for leaks and that went well :)
Its not reef ready so I am doing a CPR hang on the back overflow.
Heaters were ordered as well as an American marine wireless thermometer.
After 4 days the thermometer went off the rails-started reading higher and higher temps even though the glass thermometer read no such change-so back it went.
Finally we have all the rock and sand and that was set up last weekend, aquascaping was frustrating to say the least.
And now 3 months after getting the heater it randomly died-light is on but no heat.
Feeling a little cursed with electronics at the moment :(

Last few pics are cloudy as sand was just added.
Not sure if the pics came through.

[WarDog]

Looks like a great start to me, keep us posted!

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=13590&d=1418888559

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=13591&d=1418888559

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=13592&d=1418888559

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=13593&d=1418888559

[Bblinks]

Welcome back. That's a great size tank to start with. I am just not a huge fan of that cpr overflow, I woke up to cpr raining saltwater all over my face and my bed. It was definitely not a good wet dream. Just make sure you have a lifter pump to start the siphon. Looking forward for more updates!

[rsisvixen]

Yes I got the lifter pump with the CPR, I also got the hubby to drill a small hole in the return pipe just at the water lvl so I break the back siphon in case of a power out.

[mohammadali]

get a water detector from ebay or the home depot

[Dearth]

I feel for your frustrations as I think we all can relate in some way.

Keep moving forward and looking forward to your tank build never be afraid to ask questions even if you think it's stupid the only stupid questions are the ones that are not asked.

[rsisvixen]

Sand has settled.
Got myself a second heater while I wait for the first to be replaced-guess it pays to have a backup
Let the cycling begin
Already noticed brown spots on some of my rocks, assume its some form of algae from the real reef rock pieces.

On a side note my curse has now moved to the house's plumbing and I have 3 leaks that decided to happen simultaneously in the ceiling.
What a way to end 2014.

[rsisvixen]

Well update, the worst of the diatoms have been taken care of by the ceriths, just a bit left on the glass.
Ceriths have been laying eggs so I'm assuming between the baby ceriths and the copepods my glass should be clean in a week-they seem to be eating roughly 2 square inches a day.
Added a red grape macro algae and a Coral Banded shrimp ( not the easiest to get a pic of as he hides during the day ) Just moulted last night as well.
Also have a few blue leg hermits, hard to keep track of them-they seem to change shells everyday ( must be females http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.png )
Got my first batch of fish in QT, 5 vanderbuilt chromis, although depressingly lost 4 overnight the first night-not sure why as all my parameters are perfect, did a proper acclimatisation and they were all fine just before lights out. So I have no idea what happened. Last one is fat, eats like a pig and swims about just fine. My theory is either there was something already troubling those 4 and the change to a new place was enough to kill them or the big one chased the others till they died during the night. http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/images/smilies/frown.png ( Probably the most fish I've ever lost overnight in all my years of fish keeping)

[Animal-Chin]

Hey tank is looking good. I'm a local Maple Ridger too and I'm running a 125 full reef. I don't know if you're planning on doing coral but I just had a bunch of branching green montipora break off and would be happy to give you a few frags to try out. It's the green coral in the middle of my tank up high. If you ever need an hand with anything tank related just let me know, I'd be happy to help...

[rsisvixen]

Wow, nice setup-mine is still a long way from looking like that lol.

I appreciate the offer, I am planning on doing coral, want to have a mixed reef setup. I'm not sure if my lighting is enough for the montipora at this time as I'm currently running coralife T8's (they came with the tank) Planning to upgrade to leds later in the year.

You don't have any algae you want to get rid of by chance? Lol, between my ceriths and copepods I'll be algae free by friday at the rate they are going. My tank seems to be running counter to most people as I have a lack of algae issue vs an Algae problem. I felt like being different ;) lol

[WarDog]

My tank seems to be running counter to most people as I have a lack of algae issue vs an Algae problem. I felt like being different ;) lol

You've jinxed it now, lol.

[Animal-Chin]

Well thats a first, not wanting free coral and asking for algae...lol Don't worry, you start adding fish and your tank will figure a way of growing algae. With an empty tank there is no nutrients for algae to eat, once you start adding fish, food and poop you'll be on your way...

Ya your lights wouldn't support the monti at all. Just thought I'd offer since we're neighbours (well close enough, maple ridge isn't that big). Once you get your LEDs going and if I still have frags around you should be ok.

[rsisvixen]

Well its not the case of not wanting the free coral, but rather I don't want to kill said free coral lol.
And there is food going in the tank-CB ( my coral banded shrimp ) gets a small piece of clam once a week, and a few mysis 3 x a week. Hermits clean up what he leaves. I think my lack of algae is probably because of the phosphate and nitrate removing stuff in the sump, I thought I would be proactive-maybe too much so.

Its okay wardog-I touched wood before I typed that so no jinx ;p

[Animal-Chin]

Trust me, you don't want algae. Enjoy the algea free life you're living right now. lol

[rsisvixen]

A Quick update-Just got my Coralbox DC700 skimmer delivered ( only waited 3 months for it lol) Looks amazing-good quality construction and solid acrylic pieces-looks way bigger in person than any picture-but it fit perfectly in my sump. Now to let it break in, so far producing a ton of bubbles.

[rsisvixen]

I must say its fun watching the rise and fall of various populations in the Tank. First I had diatoms, the copepods totally destroyed it and I had millions of them all over the glass, then I got hydroids and now the copepods are gone and I have hydroids all over my glass, they are slowly going away as their copepod food source is now gone. And slowly algae is starting to grow again.

I added a few new additions to the tank, electric blue hermits named Goliath, Bruno and Col (short for Colossus) and a few bumble bee snails.

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_20150312_171013.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_20150312_171013.jpg.html)

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_20150314_191734.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_20150314_191734.jpg.html)

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_20150314_191214.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_20150314_191214.jpg.html)

They are fun to watch lumbering around the tank :)

[rsisvixen]

An update on my lone vanderbuilt chromis, halfway through quarantine now, still eats like a pig. But alas he got ick ( wondering if thats what caused his buddies to keel over the first night)

Using a product called hydroplex, so far pretty impressive, first treatment cleared up all his ick overnight. Got to the second treatment and tank was looking a little murky ( had taken carbon out ) so added some filter pads but didn't realise it was carbon impregnated ( they really need to put that on the label) so overnight he had the white spots again. So out came the pads and restarted treatment. Cleared up again really fast, its around 4 treatments, did the 3rd tonight and last is due on wednesday. Then I guess its quarantine reset back to 0 and wait another 4 weeks.
Thinking of setting up a TTM as well.

[daplatapus]

A caution in thinking medication is working because you see spots one day then none the next. This is a quote from RC with full credit to Snorvich and a thread he started. And this is why I'm a huge proponent of the TTM over anything else, because it totally interrupts the life cycle of this parasite:

The life cycle of this parasite is interesting and is important to understand when evaluating a treatment. The stage where the parasite is attached to a fish is called a trophont. The trophont will spend three to seven days (depending on temperature) feeding on the fish and that is what you see symptomatically when you see "salt sprinkled on the fish". After that, the trophont leaves the fish and becomes what is called a protomont. This protomont travels to the substrate and begins to crawl around for usually two to eight hours, but it could go for as long as eighteen hours after it leaves it's fish host. Once the protomont attaches to a surface, it begins to encyst and is now called a tomont. Division inside the cyst into hundreds of daughter parasites, called tomites, begins shortly thereafter. This noninfectious stage can last anywhere from three to twenty-eight days. During this extended period, the parasite cyst is lying in wait for a host. After this period, the tomites hatch and begin swimming around, looking for a fish host. At this point, they are called theronts, and they must find a host within twenty-four hours or die. They prefer to seek out the skin and gill tissue, then transform into trophonts, and begin the process all over again. What this means is that when your tank is infected, you can actually see symptoms during a very small part of the life cycle, and it why your tank is infected even though your fish are resistant. It will also explain why symptoms come and go.

Many hobbyists are fooled into believing they have cured their fish of the parasites, only to find Ich present again on fish a few weeks later; a reason why following through with a full treatment protocol is so important. Don't make this mistake and be lulled into a false sense of security. The parasites may be in a stage where they are merely regrouping and multiplying for their "next offensive." In the wild, this sort of massive reproductive phase ensures that a few will find a suitable host to continue on the cycle. In the close confines of our aquariums, though, it means comparatively massive infection rates.

[Myka]

Your tank is coming along nicely, nice to not have algae issues. :) A few things to note... Bumblebee Snails are known to not always be 100% reef-safe. They are known to eat Zoanthids and other polyps when they are hungry. Also, your hermits will eat the Cerith Snails when they get hungry too. Hermits are opportunistic predators, Scarlet Hermits are the lesser of the evils, but they too have been known to cause grief with Snails - especially Cerith and Nassarius.

[rsisvixen]

Thank you Daplatapus, but I was already aware of the ick cycle.

Myka, I'm sure I'll have my fair share of algae issues one of these days-lol.
I only have 7 bumblebees in the tank, so I'm hoping they'll have enough food to stay fed once I eventually have the tank more stocked ( but at the rate of my fish issues-might be 5 years lol) So far the small blue legs-9 of them have been model citizens, although 1 of them does love climbing the silicon in the corner of the tank all the way to the top.
Once a week I put in some algae wafers-the 3 electrics usually make off with the whole wafer-lol

[Myka]

So far the small blue legs-9 of them have been model citizens

:lol: They are always model citizens until...they aren't! It's not like they go on murder rampages - they just slowly take out a snail here and there over time.

[rsisvixen]

The serial killers of the tank ;)

[rsisvixen]

Update time

The tank is starting to age nicely, algae is now starting to grow, although copepod populations are increasing too. I keep the front and sides of the tank clean but let the back panel grow its algae, ceriths cruise around there, and are back to their egg laying ways, guess they are happy :)
Hubby also got me a kessil for my birthday.

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_4569.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_4569.jpg.html)

Latest addition is a Variegated rose bubble tip from Canada Corals

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_4573.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_4573.jpg.html)

Very impressed with them and will most likely get the rest of my corals from them.
Although when I picked it up from the group buy host I was wow, this is a large? It was in a tiny bag and was pretty small, I was thinking I would hate to see the size of a small then. lol. Once it was placed in the tank it doubled in size and moved around 5cm till it found a gap between 3 rocks and has happily stayed there since. It has since expanded even more and is looking great.

On a sad note the last remaining chromis did not make it :(

Some lessons I have learned so far

Lesson 1:
Brand names mean nothing really, so far 2 heaters have died within 3 months of adding them, not buying jaeger again, wireless temperature probe died in 3 days-I'll stick to a glass thermometer for now.

Lesson 2:
Don't ever buy fish from private 'importers'

[reefwithareefer]

"On a sad note the last remaining chromis did not make it :(

Some lessons I have learned so far

Lesson 1:
Brand names mean nothing really, so far 2 heaters have died within 3 months of adding them, not buying jaeger again, wireless temperature probe died in 3 days-I'll stick to a glass thermometer for now.

Lesson 2:
Don't ever buy fish from private 'importers'[/QUOTE]"


Sorry to hear about the fish. I just bought 6 chromis a few weeks back and within a week all were dead. Seems odd that such a hearty fish dies while all the others I bought are fine.

Tank is looking good! Better luck with the fish next time.

[rsisvixen]

Well time for an update I imagine.

This was the tank a few weeks back ( phone camera seems to pic up a bluer tone than my actual camera )

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_20150514_231055.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_20150514_231055.jpg.html)

So far its been one roller-coaster ride, I go from being pleased to frustrated to irritated all the time lol.
Since the photo I've pruned the red grape kelp and found to huge feather dusters near the base-bonus :)

The RBTA decided it wanted to split so magically one morning I came down to find 2, they hid out in caves for a week and then slowly made their way back up to the top and I have 1 on one side and another the other side of that back tower. They are feeding again but seem still a little shyer than the original, any time I need to work in the tank they retract into their caves

The coral banded shrimp ( CB for short) has grown a bit and is quite the anemone bully, specially when they were lower down

I've also added a mushroom, a ric of some sort I think, I did glue it down, but do not underestimate the persistence of the electric blue banded hermits, came in to find it a week later off its rock and face down in the sand. So I just flipped it right side up and left it on the sand for now. First few nights it was reflipped face down but I think they tired of the game and its been left alone ( fingers crossed )

Got a fragbox order, got 5 zoas/palys : Ring of fire, green crack, space monster, candy apple red and a wysiwyg snow white cluster.
Space monster hasn't opened so not sure if its going to make it, snow white cluster is half open and of course it wouldn't be my tank if there wasn't some weird hitchhiker, a vermetid snail in the snow whites, I glued the hole closed but might have gotten glue on one of the polyps too :neutral::redface:

Of course every hermit in the tank made a beeline for them, they have some super radar that knows when something new is in the tank, the small hermits are a minor annoyance, the electrics make me want to smack them, they just pull the whole frag plug out of the sand where I planted them, proceed to nibble on any imaginary algae and then dump the zoa face down *sigh*

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with them ( but they were the hubby's pick )
I can say for sure I have 1 female blue leg hermit, happened to catch her trying out a new shell and saw the mass of eggs she was carrying-pretty cool.

On the fish front, well still nothing in the tank, but this weekend the bicolour and mandarin come out of QT, yay! The mandarin will be in heaven I think as there are copepods everywhere, on the glass, sandbed, rocks, they even drift around the tank for fun, they run around on the hermits shells. Its literally a copepod paradise, although once the mandarin goes in I'll hear their screams of horror.

I'll do an update once the fish go in and try to get pictures.

[rsisvixen]

1 year update

Well its now a year since I started her up, still a long way to go but getting there slow and steady.

Current fish:

1 Bicolour blenny
1 Mandarin
3 Bangaii cardinals ( 2 have paired off and the third hangs out alone)
4 Zebra dartfish ( tons of personality and eat like pigs )
2 clowns ( 1 wyoming white, 1 snowflake currently in QT )

Corals:

4 types of zoas, most have added new polyps since I got them.
There were 5, but my space monster got beamed up somewhere along the line as it came off its plug and vanished.

Red macroalgae has taken over a portion of my rocks, but adds a really nice deep red to the tank, hopefully a future tang will keep it managed.

here is a pic of the tank

http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o574/rsisvixen/Saltwater/IMG_20150912_160256.jpg (http://s1148.photobucket.com/user/rsisvixen/media/Saltwater/IMG_20150912_160256.jpg.html)