BenaPilot's 75 Gallon Build

[benapilot]

Thanks!

I'd love to know what your lighting schedule is. I downloaded THIS study from the forums. A wholesale aquaculture company switched to Radions and took note of which settings promoted the best growth in their tanks. I find their lighting recipes very heavy on the blue side- almost too blue for my tastes. (I had to play around with the spectrum to get it bright enough for the pics below).

I've got a couple trumpet coral colonies, a blasto colony and a hand full of mushrooms. All are responding great to the Hydras- better than they ever did under the Ecoxotic fixtures I had in my 46.

DSC05081 by benapilot, on Flickr

DSC05083 by benapilot, on Flickr

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DSC05077 by benapilot, on Flickr

 

[Jean55]

Nice Job

 

[benapilot]

My Tamba Bay Saltwater live rock and sand is on it's way!!

Tomorrow morning I'll head to the airport and grab the boxes!

Christmas in July!

 

[Jean55]

Happy Christmas

 

[mmw64]

following

 

[Jean55]

yes

 

[benapilot]

Here's from the last two weeks:

Drove into Anchorage to get the 75 lbs of sand and half my live rock from the airport. This sand and rock traveled 4000 miles from Tampa to my home!

Hitchhiker:

 

[benapilot]

Exactly one week after part 1 of "The Package," Tampa Bay Saltwater sent me Part two:

More live rock and bag after bag of goodies. Hermit crabs, snails, shrimp, porcelain crabs, sponges, gorgonians.

Here's my son checking out all the new arrivals:

Here's everything in the tank

 

[benapilot]

 

[country22171]

Love the reclaimed pallet

 

[benapilot]

I got some new friends (except the cleaner shrimp, he's been with me for a while now).
I think the Cardinals have drawn out the Royal Gramma that came with my TBS package.
I'm really glad I went with a black background. It really creates a nice contrast with the sea fan and these guys. The way my tank sits on the stand, it's about 8" away from the wall; that and my plumbing is all a couple inches from the glass allows me to get back there with my mag cleaner to keep the clean look.

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[benapilot]

Found this little guy cruising around my rocks. One of he many hitchhikers on my TBS rock.

 

[benapilot]

Did my first online fish order. I grabbed a couple wrasses and a Potter's Angel from Divers Den.

So here's my fish list and my 12 year old daughter's names for them:
Banggai Cardinal (x4) "Salt and Pepper"
Royal Gramma "Dot"
Ocellaris Clown (x2) "Marlin" and "Nemo"
Flame Angel "Tiger"
Powder Blue Tang "Paul"
Potter's Angel "Maze"
Red Fillamented Flasher Wrasse "Lenny"
Yellowfin Flasher Wrasse "Squiggy"

I think that's enough fish! Everyone is getting along perfectly.

 

[benapilot]

10/2/2016 Update...

I lost the Powder Blue- He must have succombed to the ick- very sad day.
Then a couple weeks later the Potter's Angel died. Not sure why- no ick spots or anything. Just woke up one morning and he was on his side with the shrimp and hermits scavenging. Another bummer.

I never got the Vertex Omega 130 skimmer dialed in. I'd set it, then come home from work to find it spewing water all over the place. Very frustrating. I tried everything from adjusting the water level to restricting the air inlet. Nothing seemed to work- so it's sitting in my garage now. I bought a LifeReef skimmer and it's been running like a champ for about three weeks now.

Here are the latest photos:

DSC05186 by benapilot, on Flickr

DSC05744 by benapilot, on Flickr

DSC05745 by benapilot, on Flickr

DSC05747 by benapilot, on Flickr

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DSC05750 by benapilot, on Flickr

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DSC05755 by benapilot, on Flickr

 

[benapilot]

And today's full tank shot:

DSC05759 by benapilot, on Flickr

 

[benapilot]

Under the hood pics:

738970C5-2F6D-49A5-83F9-DFB6AAF19D29 by benapilot, on Flickr

1A9DBC2A-C767-476A-B850-1D8F9F5D55D0 by benapilot, on Flickr

DDA31711-8CF0-4303-BC38-70F4DF84748B by benapilot, on Flickr

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

And today's full tank shot:

DSC05759 by benapilot, on Flickr

WOW! That's crazy awesome! Thanks for sharing! I'm loving these pics!

 

[benapilot]

WOW! That's crazy awesome! Thanks for sharing! I'm loving these pics!

Thank for following along!

 

[benapilot]

Tuxedo Urchin and his bling:

 

[benapilot]

I've been a little lax in updating this thread... I've had some successes and some failures in the last few months. I've added some coral only to see it wither away, although others are thriving.

My Wrasses somehow jumped through the barely 1" gap in my net top- one fell behind the tank, the other dropped into my sump. I fished him out only to find him dried up on the floor a couple days later.

I got a little blue hippo tang who, thankfully, successfully battled itch his first couple weeks. He's now a star in my tank.

I picked up a red bubble tip anemone. He stayed where I put him and seems to be happy. My clowns either haven't found him yet or are just uninterested, they stay in their little section of the back of the tank for some reason.

On the equipment side, I finally installed a couple Digital Aquatics DP1 dosing pumps that have been sitting in a box for months. Only one right now is doing anything. My nitrates have been steady in the 7-10ppm range. I'd like to get that down to 1-2 so I've started dosing Red SEA's NoPoX. It's only been a couple day at half dose, so no change yet. I'll give it a few more days then maybe up the dose if there's still no change.

I ditched the Vertex skimmer and got a LifeReef. MUCH easier to work with! That Vertex was just so finicky! The Life Reef is pretty much set-and-forget.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon...