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-   -   Lance's 225 gal tank (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=47331)

Lance 06-23-2009 04:04 AM

Actually, if not for Marie, it would be almost empty. Some of the live rock and the large corals came from her. I should change the name to Lance & Marie's 225 gal Build Journal. :wink:

Lance 07-15-2009 04:25 AM

If anyone is considering a Tang for their tank have a good look at the Kole Tang. (Ctenochaetus strigosus) I've had mine for 3.5 months now and am very pleased with it.
Because I have a Tuskfish, Lunare Wrasse, and Hawkfish in this tank I can't keep a CUC and was looking for a suitable detritus eater. Somewhere I read that the Kole was a good tank cleaner so I bought one. What a good investment! This guy sucks up film algae like a Hoover; and eats nearly anything ugly in the tank. It loves to eat fish poop (gross as that sounds :puke:) As an added bonus, they stay quite small for a Tang (6"-7"); and are quite peaceful. Most of them come from Hawaii, so no worries about questionable capture. I highly recommend them. Here's an older pic of mine, just after I got him. His fins are a much brighter orange colour now.


http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_3974.jpg

fishytime 07-15-2009 04:40 AM

I agree...loved mine when I had him.

marie 07-15-2009 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 430276)
Actually, if not for Marie, it would be almost empty. Some of the live rock and the large corals came from her. I should change the name to Lance & Marie's 225 gal Build Journal. :wink:

Speaking of which, the 2 big corals in my quarantine tank are not doing well (not enough light) I'm not sure they will make the full 6 weeks (to make them ick free) do you want to take them before they die? (I think it's been 4 weeks without fish)

Lance 07-15-2009 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 435033)
Speaking of which, the 2 big corals in my quarantine tank are not doing well (not enough light) I'm not sure they will make the full 6 weeks (to make them ick free) do you want to take them before they die? (I think it's been 4 weeks without fish)

Sure. I can put them in my QT for a few more weeks. Let me know when you want me to pick them up.

Lance 08-04-2009 04:44 AM

Updated pics:
Everything is going pretty well with this tank now. Fish & corals are growing nicely.

Right Side
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4468.jpg

Left Side
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4469.jpg

Bubble Coral is finally getting used to the flow. For scale: The Bannerfish in front of it is about 5" long.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4495.jpg

And this Pipe Organ is at least 12" across and 9" high.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4499.jpg

Candy Cane has grown a lot in the last few months.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4485.jpg

And a few random shots:
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4457.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4460.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4464.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4470.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4483.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4478.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4466.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4467.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...9/IMG_4492.jpg

BlueAbyss 08-04-2009 08:37 AM

Nice growth, things seem to be doing very well!

Lance 08-04-2009 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss (Post 439157)
Nice growth, things seem to be doing very well!


Yeah, things seem to be coming along nicely.

Navarchus 08-05-2009 02:35 AM

Doesn’t the Heniochus pick on corals?

Lance 08-05-2009 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navarchus (Post 439284)
Doesn’t the Heniochus pick on corals?


No, he is a well-mannered fish; doesn't bother anything. But it sure likes it's grub. Biggest pig I've ever seen.

Lance 08-14-2009 05:42 PM

I've had three Acro colonies bleach out on me in the last month! One from this tank and two from the 90 gal. I put two of them into the QT tank where there is very little algae, in hopes of them coming back. The third is staying where it is to see if there is any difference in the DT or QT as for recovery. All other corals, including the other Acros seem to be fine. :noidea: Water parameters are all fine: The only thing I can attribute to the problem is the recent heat wave we had. Although, with our A/C the tank temps never went above 83F.
Marie and Dave have also been having trouble with bleaching. Must be some kind of a wierd Powell River thing!

marie 08-15-2009 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 441120)
I've had three Acro colonies bleach out on me in the last month! One from this tank and two from the 90 gal. I put two of them into the QT tank where there is very little algae, in hopes of them coming back. The third is staying where it is to see if there is any difference in the DT or QT as for recovery. All other corals, including the other Acros seem to be fine. :noidea: Water parameters are all fine: The only thing I can attribute to the problem is the recent heat wave we had. Although, with our A/C the tank temps never went above 83F.
Marie and Dave have also been having trouble with bleaching. Must be some kind of a wierd Powell River thing!

Did all your corals stop growing as well?

If only mine had stayed with bleaching I would of been happy, it was the tissue loss from all the tips that really bummed me out. 30g water changes everyday for 10days appears to have fixed the problem though ( I say this while keeping all my fingers and toes crossed)

Mrfish55 08-15-2009 04:22 PM

At least I'm not the only one having issues, I no longer have a reef, looks more like a tank from the 80's with all those bleach white coral decorations, If not for the fact my bubble is still doing fine I would just shut it down, kind of odd we all started having issues after adding the Vortech pumps tho?

Skimmerking 08-15-2009 04:24 PM

my tank is doing really good ,however one of the vortechs crapped out on me.:cry: had to send it to OTTAWA inverts to have thme look at it .

Lance 08-15-2009 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 441313)
Did all your corals stop growing as well?

If only mine had stayed with bleaching I would of been happy, it was the tissue loss from all the tips that really bummed me out. 30g water changes everyday for 10days appears to have fixed the problem though ( I say this while keeping all my fingers and toes crossed)

No, surprisingly the others are doing pretty well. Good PE and lots of growing tips. Strange.

Lance 08-15-2009 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrfish55 (Post 441336)
At least I'm not the only one having issues, I no longer have a reef, looks more like a tank from the 80's with all those bleach white coral decorations, If not for the fact my bubble is still doing fine I would just shut it down, kind of odd we all started having issues after adding the Vortech pumps tho?



That bad eh? That Sucks! I think the pumps are just a coincidence. Can't see how they would affect that much.

Mrfish55 08-15-2009 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 441360)
That bad eh? That Sucks! I think the pumps are just a coincidence. Can't see how they would affect that much.

I think my problems have more to do with the fact I haven't touched the tank in 8 weeks while doing home renos, water change day today hoping to turn things around.

Lance 08-16-2009 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrfish55 (Post 441376)
I think my problems have more to do with the fact I haven't touched the tank in 8 weeks while doing home renos, water change day today hoping to turn things around.


Dave, you've got to get your priorities straight. The house your fish live in comes first; then you can tend to your house. :mrgreen:

Mrfish55 08-16-2009 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 441423)
Dave, you've got to get your priorities straight. The house your fish live in comes first; then you can tend to your house. :mrgreen:

I think I figured out the biggest problem, the new beer fridge in the new shop! have more water on the go for another change, things may not be as bad as they looked once the glass got cleaned:lol: still, I lost some of my fav pieces, time to visit Marie so I can fill in the newly vacated spots.

Lance 08-16-2009 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrfish55 (Post 441481)
...things may not be as bad as they looked once the glass got cleaned:lol: still, I lost some of my fav pieces, time to visit Marie so I can fill in the newly vacated spots.


That's good to hear; not about the lost pieces but that is it not as bad as thought.

Lance 08-18-2009 10:02 PM

Does a dark blue/purple Cali Tort turn green before bleaching? This coral has been losing colour since the middle of last month. Turning from blue to darkish green and now to a lighter, bright green colour. I've been moving it around the tank: less light; more light; less flow; more flow; but nothing seems to help. I've aready lost one SPS colony and several others are not doing well either. :sad:

marie 08-18-2009 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 442018)
Does a dark blue/purple Cali Tort turn green before bleaching? This coral has been losing colour since the middle of last month. Turning from blue to darkish green and now to a lighter, bright green colour. I've been moving it around the tank: less light; more light; less flow; more flow; but nothing seems to help. I've aready lost one SPS colony and several others are not doing well either. :sad:

There must of been some bad things floating in the powell river air.
I've never had my cali tort turn green but I did have a green acro turn purple when it bleached once. It regained its bright green colour again after a few months.

Lance 08-18-2009 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 442027)
There must of been some bad things floating in the powell river air.
I've never had my cali tort turn green but I did have a green acro turn purple when it bleached once. It regained its bright green colour again after a few months.



Yeah it's been a frustrating several weeks. Glad to hear your tank is on the mend though.

marie 08-18-2009 10:36 PM

It only took changing out 300 gallons of water and approx 6 cups of carbon but it is on the mend

Lance 08-19-2009 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 442036)
It only took changing out 300 gallons of water and approx 6 cups of carbon but it is on the mend


Are you OK on salt? I have a couple of buckets if you need some.

marie 08-19-2009 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 442074)
Are you OK on salt? I have a couple of buckets if you need some.

I still have a little left in 1 bucket and another full one so i'm good

Snappy 08-19-2009 02:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 442027)
There must of been some bad things floating in the powell river air.
I've never had my cali tort turn green but I did have a green acro turn purple when it bleached once. It regained its bright green colour again after a few months.

Do you guys not use R/O water?
Lance my Cali Tort is blue/purple but usually has some parts of it that turn green which I quite like as it adds a whole new dimension of colour to the colony, that said it has never turned all green and remains mostly blue/purple and it's just some of the branches in the lower light regions that get the green hues. Sorry to hear you're having problems. Any pictures so we can see what you mean?

Lance 08-19-2009 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snappy (Post 442097)
Do you guys not use R/O water?
Lance my Cali Tort is blue/purple but usually has some parts of it that turn green which I quite like as it adds a whole new dimension of colour to the colony, that said it has never turned all green and remains mostly blue/purple and it's just some of the branches in the lower light regions that get the green hues. Sorry to hear you're having problems. Any pictures so we can see what you mean?


Yup, I use R/O water. (TDS of 1). Can't get any pics up for a few days as the wife lent our camera to our daughter. Strange things happening in the tanks: Some corals are doing great. Bird's Nests, Staghorns, 2 Milli's, Digi's, Stylo's, Hydnophoras and Pocillopora are growing well, with good colour. All LPS and softies are doing well. It's just a problem with a few Acros. Water parameters are fine; pH; 8.1, S.G: 1.025, Ca: 420, alk: 8 dKH, Mg a little high at 1450 due to inaccurate readings from an old test kit, which has been replaced. NO3 at 5, and PO4 is undetectable. (all on Salifert and/or Elos kits). Haven't changed any lighting or flow, or dosing any different. The strange thing is that I have had some bleaching in both tanks which leads me to believe that it may be the recent heat wave or bad salt. Don't know what else it could possibly be?

Lance 08-19-2009 10:53 PM

I've also noticed that the film algae on the glass seems to need cleaning more often; can warmer tank temps cause this?

christyf5 08-20-2009 12:04 AM

I've noticed this too, so not sure about the warmer temps. My tank is actually a bit cooler than normal usually 79, now 77 and I'm finding I need to clean the glass every 2nd day.

Lance 08-20-2009 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by christyf5 (Post 442318)
I've noticed this too, so not sure about the warmer temps. My tank is actually a bit cooler than normal usually 79, now 77 and I'm finding I need to clean the glass every 2nd day.


Hmmm, strange. In the last month I've also been getting some of that short, brown, sorta fuzzy, real-hard-to-remove algae growing over the corraline on the back wall. Horrid stuff!

christyf5 08-20-2009 12:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 442320)
Hmmm, strange. In the last month I've also been getting some of that short, brown, sorta fuzzy, real-hard-to-remove algae growing over the corraline on the back wall. Horrid stuff!


Yeah I have that too. Sadly, its not growing over my coralline as I don't have any :neutral: On the flip side, my tank is rather ghetto right now as we have it in the basement awaiting the big tank build and its out from the wall a bit so I can scrape the entire back glass with my mag float/easy blade. So I can get rid of it rather easily with a scrape and a water change. Yay ghetto reef! :biggrin:

Lance 08-27-2009 03:59 AM

Changing my plans for this tank yet again........... (SPS Boycott)

It was originally going to be a Fowler with large cool fish: Tangs, Trigger, Tuskfish, Angels, Wrasses etc. Shortly after setting it up I moved a few soft corals over from the 90g reef. Then Marie gave me a large Pipe Organ Coral, and several large softies as well as some mushrooms. Then a little later I thought a few nice LPS would be ok, which of course led to SPS frags and colonies. All of a sudden it became a full-blown mixed reef!
However, as the fishes grow larger and the bio load increases, it's becoming more and more of a struggle to keep nitrates down. I've got 3 reactors running in the sump. One for GFO, one for nitrate sponge, and one for carbon. I also use T.A. Nitrate Destroyer and perform 10% bi-weekly water changes. With this regimen I can keep NO3 at about 5ppm.
I refuse to underfeed my fish; If I can't keep them fit and healthy I'd rather not keep them at all. The livestock in the tank now consists of: 5" Harlequin Tuskfish, 5.5" SF Tang, 6" Kole Tang, 6" Foxface, 5" Bannerfish, 5" Lunare Wrasse, 2.5" CBB, 2x 2" Fire Clowns, 4" LM Blenny, 3" Lamarck Angel, 2.5" Falco Hawkfish, 11x Chromis, many large snails and hermits and shrimp in the sump. My wife has been pining for a Blue-Chin Trigger, which I have my doubts about. The fish are all getting along well, and I'm a little leery about throwing a Trigger into the mix.
All the soft corals and LPS are thriving, but a few of the SPS are not doing so well. I lost one colony and two frags to bleaching, and two other colonies are losing colour. The faster-growing SPS (Stags, Bird's Nest, Montis, Hydno- phora) are growing well and showing good colour, as are the Milli's, Stylo's, and Pocci's. The tabling varieties are not doing as well.
IMO it's only going to get more difficult to keep SPS healthy in this tank as the fish grow, ............. so no more SPS additions for this tank. Those SPS that are doing well will stay and those that are not will go either to the 90g reef, or to fellow reefers. The 90g has few fish in it and corals grow well there. However it's mostly full, so I guess I'll have to stay away from the frag sales, and the LFS for awhile. :sad:

fishytime 08-27-2009 05:01 AM

Nitrate sponge is no good man.....contains aluminum ( I think thats what I read):redface:..... correct me if Im wrong.

marie 08-28-2009 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance (Post 443826)
...The 90g has few fish in it and corals grow well there. However it's mostly full, so I guess I'll have to stay away from the frag sales, and the LFS for awhile. :sad:

No longer being in the market for new corals does take a certain amount of fun out of the hobby...I'm thinking of changing out some of the rock in my tank in the new year just so I can start buying again :lol:

Lance 08-28-2009 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marie (Post 444001)
No longer being in the market for new corals does take a certain amount of fun out of the hobby...I'm thinking of changing out some of the rock in my tank in the new year just so I can start buying again :lol:


Ha Ha! I may be doing that as well in the 90g. My heart pounds and my hands start to shake when I think of weaning myself off of SPS. :mrgreen:

Lance 08-28-2009 01:39 AM

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
As if I haven't been having enough troubles with my corals lately. I just noticed one of my favourite pieces, (a Pavona I brought back all the way from Calgary last year), was missing. Where do I find it? Smack dab in the middle of my 10" Torch Coral. Yup, it's fried! Poor thing had the crap stung out of it. :(


This is it before the fatal tumble.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_3071.jpg

fishoholic 08-28-2009 01:53 AM

Sorry to hear about your coral. I've been having problems with nitrates as well. I started using T.A. Nitrate Destroyer in hopes to help keep the nitrates down but it's only been 12 days and so far it doesn't seem to be doing much. How long did it take for the T.A. Nitrate Destroyer to work in your tank?

Lance 08-28-2009 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishoholic (Post 444031)
Sorry to hear about your coral. I've been having problems with nitrates as well. I started using T.A. Nitrate Destroyer in hopes to help keep the nitrates down but it's only been 10 days and so far it doesn't seem to be doing much. How long did it take for the T.A. Nitrate Destroyer to work in your tank?


Laurie, I can't honestly say how much it helps. I manage to keep nitrates down in this tank to about 5 ppm, but I can't tell how much from the Nitrate Destroyer, the water changes or the nitrate sponge. I CAN tell you that since I began using the T.A., the sponge, and more frequent water changes, the nitrates were consistently at 10 ppm; so at least one of the three is working.

marie 08-28-2009 03:39 AM

If it makes you feel any better Lance (you know the saying 'misery loves company'?) this is my montipora setosa...or whats left of it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ll/aug2309.jpg


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