My 315 upgrade / rebuild

[Rus]

I will try to update every few weeks for now , and let you know how I make out. They are being fed 4 or more time a day to start , as I want to make sure once they are introduced to Main tank they will be strong enough to compete for food , as they will have over 30 tank mates to compete against.Most are quite docile fish as well , but a few are a little more aggressive sp better safe than sorry.

Keep my fingers crossed , as they have always been a favorite of mine , mostly because of the schooling , or shoaling effect they can give a tank but they add a different aspect to the tank as well.

[abcha0s]

Rus - your tank is beautiful. Very inspiring.

How many Anthias do you have? Do the males fight? Have you lost any?

I'm planning to introduce a dozen or so Dispar Anthias to my tank sometime in the next couple of weeks.

- Brad

[Rus]

Thanks , I currently have 8 anthias in my Tank. There are 5 Bartletts , 2 lyre tails and a Borbonius. I do not observe much fighting with them at all, although I think with multiple feedings and plenty of space this has helped . I lost 2 Bartletts right at the beginning but both jumped so not sure if it was fighting , or just startled. Since then they have all been fine.

Dispars are a nice choice , although not quite as hardy as the others I have mentioned , so I would make sure you quarantine for a while to make sure all of them are eating and healthy before introducing them. One nice thing with them is they do stay a little smaller which depending on your tank size may be a good thing.

-Russ

[Rus]

Well time for a small update on my attempt at red dot cardinals . Over the course of 3 weeks or so in the quarantine , I lost 2 of the 13 from what seemed liked just not eating , as you could see that there stomachs were concave and looked to be on there way out. Other than those 2 though , the other 11 were all eating and doing well.

So a week ago I thought i would try adding 6 of them to the main tank , they went in during the evening , and seemed to be fine, eating right away in the main tank. Next morning all looked good . Then the problems ... came home from work and only two were visible , so I tried to net the remaining 2 out of main tank , and after a while gave up , and had dinner . After dinner last 2 were gone as well.

I'm assuming one of my fish has eaten them , just not sure which one , my best guess if either the checkerboard wrasse , large damsel or possibly the Borbonius ? Not really sure . At the moment I have set up a fish trap in main tank and will try to get the wrasse and Damsel out .

Once this is done I will introduce the remaining 5 from Quarentine and see how they fare. This was a little disappointing to say the least as I was pleased to this point on the health and how easily all of them were eating , if the remaining 5 do well once introduced , I will definitely try to add more once I can get some again.

Update to follow in a few weeks , with any luck. I am interested to see if anyone has a best guess on what fish maybe the culprit??

[christyf5]

Aww thats too bad, I'm sorry to hear that. My money is on the checkerboard wrasse. My melanurus wrasse (which I think is in the same genus as yours) has definitely shown an interest in any small fish I have put in the tank. While he hasn't eaten them, I think its only because they weren't quite small enough to get in his mouth and they were rather quick to get into the rocks. Eventually he lost interest after a day or two.

Thats not to say the damsel might have had a go at them though.

[imcosmokramer]

sweet tank!

[Rus]

bit of an update : about 6-8 weeks ago or so I had some major issues in my tank , and ended up loosing around 30- 40 % of my corals , with my company crazy busy as well , I wasn't able to give it my attention it needed to fix the issues , so thus the losses. With me starting to get a handle on things work related , I decided to spend some time this weekend and reaquascape and change a few things up.

I have been thinking about going to LED lighting for a while now so bit the bullet this weekend and purchased an Illumina 260 ( 72" ) . After spending a few more hours on the re aquascaping and setting up the unit , I have it pretty much beat for now.

I must say I am quite impressed woth the Vertex Unit ( I know better be after that amount ) , and look forward to seeing how thing go over the next few weeks.

For any of you that have switched over to LED from MH , I'm curious to know what intensity you used to start out , and how you progressed it over time to ramp it up. I always see things on turning them way down to start , but couldn't you just raise them up higher and then lower down over a week or two?

I will get few pics later on today to add to this once all the lighting is at full strength.

[mseepman]

Looking forward to seeing those pictures. That was quite a huge bullet you had to bite on that thing too.

[Haloreef]

Hey Rus, I am interested to here how the switch to Leds turns out.
I am not on the band waggon yet. I would like to see some long term results on keeping sps under just led's.
Alot of money into that light fixture!
Good luck!
Ps. Don't sell your halides yet

[jimbo222]

wow Very nice job on the system.Great lookin tank.
sorry to hear about your troubles..its encouraging to see the determination regardless of the troubles.Did you pinpoint the exact cause of crash?
and yes more pics!