KrazyKuch's & Michika's 180Gal Tank Build

[michika]

I really am leaning towards butteryflies to address the issue now. I tried shrimp, they didn't last. The problem is clearly out of control, and its only gotten worse in the past couple months as things have gotten so busy around here.

[christyf5]

I bought a raccoon to get rid of my majanos and aiptasia. After about 5 weeks or so he had finished them all off. Unfortunately now he has become quite the generalized grazer, ricordea, blastos, acans, I've even seen him nail a few sps polyps. He also cleaned one rock of its fugly browny yellow zoos (not sad to see those gone). However when I move everything to the new tank he will be going back to the LFS. I want clams more than a raccoon butterfly and I'm pretty sure they'd just be snackycakes to him.

Go for a falcula if you're looking at keeping them more long term. I love having a butterfly in the tank but I don't love the damage he does.

[michika]

I would love the anemones to be gone, but I love my clams. If worse comes to worse I could always rehome a butterfly if need be. I just looked at the falcula in pictures, and its pretty.

Tony is this what you have?


Additional power bars arrived today. If Kevin hadn't been shoveling we'd probably not have found them. UPS left them squished between our garage and truck. I would have never even thought to look for them hiding in the back yard!

They're here though, and now this means we can update how the lighting on the 180g is controlled. Plus you can now update your Reef Keeper Elite, or Light, using Vista. Still no Mac love, which makes me sad. I'll just be happy to check in on the controller via my iPhone using iReef.

[Skimmerking]

Catherine my threadfin worked great too and didnt touch anything i was amazed and then he died what a great fish too

[Delphinus]

Threadfins have a pretty medium reef-safe rating as well and ironically I had heard they were hardy. The problem is all butterflies are pretty delicate compared to other fish though, they seem to be among the first to kick off at the first sign of trouble. Sorry about your loss there Mike.

FWIW, I had a raccoon butterfly over the summer months until that weird clam spawn incident (?? I'll never really know for sure) in September in which I lost him, my flame hawk, my rabbitfish and my sixline in the space of a few hours. Anyhow, he never once bothered the clams. Having said that though, he did do a fair bit of damage to the LPS corals and didn't judiciously eradicate the majano anemomes to the same extent that the ulietensis have. He must have been picking at them though as their numbers quickly jumped after he died.

But comparatively, the pair of ulietensis I have now pretty much removed several dozen stands of majano within a little more than a week. Within a couple days, I was sure there were fewer, and within a few days more I actually saw them picking at them .. and within a month they were ALL gone, even the ones that were hard to get at because they were in crevasses or under clams.

What you have pictured there is the falcula - notice the tightly defined triangles for the black spots. Whereas ulietensis the black is more gradual and more like stripes. This is ulientensis:


Here are mine:




I am going to have to take them out at some point, it breaks my heart to do it because I love them to pieces, but they are picking at my gorgonians. Gorgonians are about my last stand with corals these days and to start losing them now I might as well switch to FOWLR and save on electricity bills for the lighting.

Ultimately I might setup a FOWLR just for butterflies though. After seeing some incredible semilarvatus recently I'd love to have a FOWLR with some butterflies. Then I could just plop some aiptasia or majano rock in there for a cleaning and poof done problem solved..

[fishytime]

Hava you tried the Tailored Aquatics aptaisia destroyer???works great on aptaisia....and mushrooms

[Delphinus]

I tried all manner of chemical treatments for majano but the problem is they are far too small and fit into far smaller holes than aiptasia. If you have a handful it's probably still manageable by those means at that point, but once you have them .. I would say > 30-40 range you're pretty much hooped unless you remove all the rock from the tank and do it rock by rock.

Being anemones they do come off the rock if you can disturb them (ie. poke) them but this wasn't an option for me as the tank itself is 30", the stand is 36", and the tallest stepladder I have is .. well I'm not sure but definitely < 36", and I'm 5'9-5'10ish. So I didn't even bother trying that method but taller guys could probably give it a go.

[michika]

I started with a much stronger treatment that actually does seem to be working, but I'm so paranoid that its going to take forever. I am tracking it with photos though. Someone else recommended to me injecting straight white vinegar into them.

So every three to four days I've been injecting patches with maximum 2x0.5ml needles of white vinegar. It has actually been working so far and I've been tracking the progress with photos. I'm going to beat the majanos! I'm hoping to get the numbers down considerably this way. I find it to be about 10x as effective as lemon juice, kalk water, or any other product on the market designed for majanos. Plus its cheap!

Those butterflies look stunning though Tony. The photos are great!

Photos from Operation 'Die you something somethings DIE!'
December 20, 2009


December 26, 2009


December 27, 2009


By the Clam
December 26, 2009


December 27, 2009


The urchin has really been attracted to my green digi lately and has made multiple frags that I need to re-home asap.


Yesterday we set the tank's lighting up on my two new PC4s (Powerbars for the Reef Keeper Elite). Its worked out well so far. I've also started to cut back the MHs run time from 9.5 hours a day to 7.5. I'd eventually like it to be 7 or 6.5 but the tank will tell me if its too little or not.



I tried once again to set up the email notifications on the RKE-NET module, and I still get errors. I emailed Digital Aquatics once again for help. Given its a holiday week for many people I don't really expect a response or resolution to this before the new year.

Other then the majano campaign the tank is just on autopilot. We did some regular maintenance yesterday; cleaning out strainers, traps, and the sump. The reflectors also got a much needed wipe down. I have fresh saltwater mixing and heating right now for a water change tonight.

With these new powerbars we now have the option of completely changing around our control center, which Kevin has plans to work on this week. All these timers are going to go up for sale, hopefully to be re-homed to someone else who can get some good use out of them.

[Skimmerking]

catherine its looking good , u have any picture's of the skimmer

[michika]

Thanks!

Nope nothing great to show anyone. Kevin has his basement workshop set up, and is working on repairing the skimmer box this week, assuming there are no other emergencies here at home or at work.