Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

[Ashish Patel]

So i over did the garlic cloves in my home made frozen food and didnt realize until 1 month of heavy feeding it caused issues in my corals opening up. I moved most of the zoas back to QT and sure enough they bounced back

I am in a major cleaning mode in my tank and realize i need more turnover in my sump. I did a measurement and was slightly above 1X turnover. I removed the 3/4" seaswirl locline and closure to 2x turnover. Next i have to just remove the 1" seaswirl and run plumbing 1.5 straight up. I realize that velocity is not important when dealing with head pressure, water volume is key. Im going to order a new return pump. Same brand just one that goes to 6000 gph and at 12 feet head i figure i may get aroune 4x turnover. All my fish have grown more than 3 times and i notice the tank is foggy during the day bc of this lack of turnover

 

[Miami Reef]

Can I see a picture of the orange shoulder tang?

 

[Miami Reef]

Here’s mine,

They grow fast.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Can I see a picture of the orange shoulder tang?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Sorry for the bad picture, just cleaned the back glass and its hazy.

I didnt want to get the Orange shoulder. I purchased a hippo tang from a fellow hobbyist and he said he has some Orange shoulder for $50 bucks, I was planning on adding him to my older 120 gallon as only tang for algae and nutrients, endedup adding him last minute bc my gem tang was too big and aggressive and switched its place.

He needs a ton of food, creates a lot of waste, and with the speed in which it grows probably should be in a 1000gallon tank. He was maybe 2" in February of this year and now 8" and 1.5" thick!

 

[Ashish Patel]

Pellets just wont do it for these fish, they need chunks of meat so while I have to make frozen food blend, for now I just throw in chunks of Cod in the system and the fish devour it!

 

[Miami Reef]

How did you get yours to change? I have a yellow tang with mine and I think that’s the reason he isn’t changing colors.

 

[Ashish Patel]

These are the chucky cod pieces. Haha

 

[Ashish Patel]

He started changing on his own pretty early when i put him in the tank. Probably bc he was one of the smaller tangs. Hes still transitioning

 

[Ashish Patel]

Added a turf scrubber temporarily. May just go with a tray bc i dont have a strong return pump to give enough flow.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I removed my jebao 36 watt UV for cleaning 2 week ago and just dont trust it anymore. It has black grutt coming out of it and i smelled burning when testing the bulb. I got it over 5 years ago and used it continuously for 4 years. Also dont like how the sleeve cant be removed for cleaning. I have not notice any negative effect with ich as fish are healthy. I do notice a ridiculous amount of algae growth. Like i can clean the glass and within few hours algae grows back.

 

[Ashish Patel]

The prices of named brand UV are insane and rather surprising to me. Ive been a longtime user of icecap and coralvue and outside of ecotech marine these are my go to companies. I found a 40w icecap UV on aquacave. The UV is build well and has good threads and abilitie to remove the sleeve for cleaning. It was around $300. Still not cheap but i have a lot to lose in this system and my 2 biggest fears are heater and UV failures.

 

[flagg37]

I removed my jebao 36 watt UV for cleaning 2 week ago and just dont trust it anymore. It has black grutt coming out of it and i smelled burning when testing the bulb. I got it over 5 years ago and used it continuously for 4 years. Also dont like how the sleeve cant be removed for cleaning. I have not notice any negative effect with ich as fish are healthy. I do notice a ridiculous amount of algae growth. Like i can clean the glass and within few hours algae grows back.

That reminds me of that movie The Santa Clause where Tim Allen just gets done shaving and a moment later his beard is back again.

 

[Ashish Patel]

That reminds me of that movie The Santa Clause where Tim Allen just gets done shaving and a moment later his beard is back again.

Haha. Thats exactly how it is.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I am patiently waiting for coraline algae.. i didnt add it bc i beleive it should be free. I added snails that had coraline on their shells.

Should i just add some coraline in a bottle? I prefer not so much coraline but some would be nice

 

[Ashish Patel]

Just for fun uploaded a video of feeding some pellets to showcase the speed of my tang gang. I hate to see them eating each others poop so just decided to give them tons of flow and tons of algae, pellets, and frozen (6 pellet drops per day and frozen 3 times)

 

[Ashish Patel]

I know its ambitious but I believe i can have a SPS dominant 400gallon with only 2 internal propeller pumps (mp60s) and vectra l1 on a closed loop. When the tank gets filled in and only if needed i will add my seasweep with maybe a 5000gph pump. Also left the option to modify my closed loop

 

[Ashish Patel]

Here’s mine,

They grow fast.

I just found this pic, taken 2/11/2022

Insane growth

 

[Ashish Patel]

Time to make more fish food

 

[Ashish Patel]