Ksfulk's 180 Penninsula

ksfulk · Oct 1, 2015

Took a long video of the tank since adding the wrasses, hippo tang, dottyback and the female swallowtail angel. Still some flashing and jockeying for position, but nothing too serious with all of the newcomers. The pyramid butterfly, however, took a spine to the side at some point (he's generally been beat up looking, as he challenges all of the big fish in there, but is at a disadvantage against the tangs and/or rabbitfish). Having a hard time with the camera and getting a good picture that isnt blurry of those wrasses. They are really pretty now that Im not looking at them in the QT.

Now, a few pics and a video - Enjoy!

ksfulk · Oct 14, 2015

Update....things are going relatively good, just had a minor issue finding some aiptasia on one of my rocks, so there was some "reconstruction" that had to be done and some corals needed to be moved around as well. But everything is looking much better now. I also picked up the Icecap Gyre Apex Module so getting that all programed and running has been engaging as well - but its a nice product once you get over the learning curve.

We have a scheduled power outage on Saturday for about six hours, so Im hoping that the battery powered air pumps will hold the tank over until the power kicks back on. Shoud be fine for temperature, as the basements a nice 70 and 300 gallons should hold water temp for a few hours. Im putting some styrofoam over the sump on Friday night to keep the temps up. We'll see how it goes I guess.

ksfulk · Nov 6, 2015

No real update photos... or at least not until tomorrow morning. But today was a bit momentus in that I got the dosing pumps set up and loaded up the Triton Elementz system to begin dosing. Ive been tracking my parameters and testing daily for the past three weeks so I can make sure they are at the right levels before starting and throughout the start up levels. Everythings looking good, so I figured I should fire it up.

Ive also got a few bulkheads and a diamond bit coming so I can drill my 30 gallon cube for the refugium and tie it into the whole system. The drill bits, bulkheads and HPS lightfixture should be showing up this week. More pictures when they show up and I get them going.

Spent some time tidying up the wiring, apex and the fish room - boring really, but I did hook up the spex break out box and wire my ATO and skimmate locker to it so those are up and rolling, which is good. I also decided to toss another powerhead into the tank, as the flow was not fully reaching some of the corners of the tank. So there's a small Tunze powerhead in the far back bottom corner of the tank and Im seeing a positive response from the derasa clam already.

ksfulk · Nov 7, 2015

So, starting with 1/2 the recommended starting dose for Elementz, as my tank seems to yo-yo with Alk sometimes, as there's isnt a ton of demand yet. Plus, bumping up the dose is always an option. Already seeing greating polyp extension as well as poylps peeking out of from acros that had never had any PE before.

Recommended dose: 10ml per 25 gal = 120 ml / day
Starting dose: 60 ml / day (5ml * 12 doses daily)

Alk measurement (11/6 Day 0): 143ppm = 8.01 dKH
Alk measurement (11/7 Day 1): 143ppm - 8.01 dKH

Here are a few Day 1 pictures and we'll see how things go from here!

Bonsai type - lost its green polyps during the transfer - they are just now starting to come back. This guys lost a lot of flesh on the underside as well. Theres also an "appleberry" monti that doesnt seem to want to change colors from tan/brown to anything else and an unknown acro frag that I found behind my rock work in my little tank. I think it might be a PC sunset Milli, but its too early to tell. It looked completely white when I tossed it in here, and it just started getting back this floruscent green color in the past two weeks. Still no polyps out yet though.

One of my only SPS thats doing well. This bonsai type is encrusting on the rockwork really well. The green A. aculeus is putting down some "nice" gray crust on the frag plug. First time Ive seen polylp extension on the spath, so thats promising, since Ive had that for about 1.5 years

Green digi that seems to grow no matter what at the top, with a tiny booger of spogodes that I found wedged in the rockwork epoxied next to it. To be honest, I shove it in the exopy when it was still setting so I didnt lose it, then promptly forgot about it. LOL. Below them (in the background) is a frag of CC Hellboy that seems to be doing well. Nice red and turquoise coloration and putting down some crust as well. In the foreground is a CC jolly rancher tabling acro that hasnt done a thing for six months, but Im seeing polyp extension now, so maybe we'll start getting somewhere now.

Purple turaki that started as a smooth single nub. I really like the white polyps - I hope this one takes off!

PC Rainbow - lots of crust, but no branches yet. Still, something is better than nothing. Also there's a red planet frag thats behind the shoulder of rock parallel to the PC rainbow frag. Oh, and theres a yellow polyped purple turbinara on the far left

Green polylp, orange fleshed encrusting monti in the background and a ORA Miami Orchid frag in the foreground. This one encrusted over an entire 10" x 10" sheet of eggcrate, but never sent up any more branches. Had it 1.5 years now. Frags are weird sometimes.

Jedi Mind Trick Monti and another piece of green digi. Ive got bits and pieces of these two corals all over the tank. Both seem to be happy where ever they land.

Gratutitous Full Tank shot.Lots of brown looking sticks... hopefully that changes soon

Some LPS shots as well for documentation

Blastos

Looking down the side of the Pennisula. Lots of LPS here as well.

ksfulk · Nov 14, 2015

Got my refugium all setup finally! I drilled a 3'x3'x1' tank with two 1" drains and a 3/4" return fed off the main pump manifold. I purchased a Mini Floralux HPS 150w grow lamp and picked up some Ulva from a local reefer and have a few more species of algae coming in the mail next week. I'll post up pictures when they come in.

Good news (kinda) on the TRITON front, Ive been testing ALK everyday and the numbers havent varied much 138 ppm - 146 ppm nearly every reading coming out at 143 ppm (8.01 dKH). So it looks pretty solid numbers wise. However, Im seeing "burnt" tips on a few of my acro's with one of them showing flesh lose at the tips and the base. Not exactly sure whats going on, but the bigger SPS colonies are looking good.

New video of the tank below:

ksfulk · Nov 19, 2015

Picked up a nice little frag pack from the AquaSD live sale this weekend - and spent about two hours last night removing the little beauties from their frag plugs and moving them to new ones. Its something Ive become slightly more anal retentive about recently, as a rogue aiptastia has found its way into my tank via a plug that was merely inspected and not replaced. Its not a knock on any vendor or hobbyist - I just prefer to have clean plugs going into my system is all. Also prevents any nuisance algae from getting into the system too! Frags look awesome and had plenty of PE even throughout the Bayer dips and the refragging process.

One minor gripe - I hate aggregate frag plugs. They are ugly and seem to be better at collecting those rogue nuisance algaes and pests. I like my smooth ceramic plugs! Anyhow, here's a quick video of the new frags settling in. Enjoy!

ksfulk · Nov 20, 2015

New algae came in... wow.. looks like a real fuge now!

ksfulk · Dec 7, 2015

Picture update. I'm losing some acros, which is making me question what exactly I could be doing wrong, even though my parameters seem to be in the right place. Nothing seems obvious - so Im sending in another Triton test to see if there is some underlying issue that I cant "see". Whats amazing to me is that Im losing some acros, while others are really taking off.

CC Raspberry Shortcake (this had no color at all to it when I started the Triton Method a month ago, its really colored up since then.

GARF Bonsai Ive been moving around quite a bit. Lost all of its green polyps, and its now getting them back and the acro is starting to encrust as well.

Green digi and a Spogodes nubbin. That nub had no color when I shoved it in to the expoy. Seeing good polyps and green coloration coming back

Sunset (?) montipora. Hasnt really climbed down onto the rockwork, but its starting to put out a bit more orange crust. Also, bonus jedi mind trick nub at the bottom of the pic.

CC Hellboy acro. I thought this one was a goner, but its starting to put out a nice solid crust as well. Its lost a lot of its red coloration, though you can see it in the polyps still.

A bonsai type acro - really encrusting all over the place. Had this for well over two years, nice to see it take off.

Wellsophyllia - had this one forever... maybe four years now? It always looks amazing, no matter what the parameters. FEED ME, SEYMOUR!

Another nice piece from Cherry Corals. Had this one about a year - A. wilsoni - slow grower, but the colors keep shifting in it, so Im happy if it doesnt want to grow, and put on a color show instead!

$5 rock nem I picked up from Live Aquaria. Nearly tripled in size in the past 5 months

Mini maxi anemone I picked up locally a few weeks ago. Really couldnt get a good shot of this one. Its a deep purple with electric green tentacles. A real stunner

Gratuitous zoa shot

Bowerbanki - streaks of green through it, though they arent very photogenic

Blasto from CC - I love this coral... Its starting to split, so its really pinched, and you cant see the lime green mouths... but its a beauty!

Derasa clam that I thought was a goner - the mantle was ripped at both ends and it just didnt seem like it would make it. Tought little devil, and its starting to show a nice bright white growth ring on its shell now. Mantle has grown back together at the ends and even the siphons starting to come back

CC Moon Mist Litho... this one Ive struggled to find a good placement for it. Apparently falling into the sandbed is the right place, as its started kickin out more growth since leaving it there. Who knew?!?

Acans that I picked up locally.Was just a single head a few months ago.

Fuge is really filling in. Ive thrown out a few handfuls of ulva so far. Will need to prune the caulerpa soon.

ksfulk · Dec 8, 2015

ksfulk · Dec 11, 2015

Just doing some "busy work" around the tank tonight, and I realized that Im throwing out a TON of macroalgae. It doesnt seem like that much really, as I fill up a 600ml beaker PACKED full. Doesnt seem like a whole lot, until I realized Im tossing that amount out every 2 or 3 days! The HPS light is really paying off. Hats off to @d2mini for that tip that I totally stole from his thread. Granted, its no spinning chaeto beach ball death star, but it works.

I also think its interesting Im getting this amount of growth out of macros and none of it is chaeto.

Anyhow, here's some gratuitous refugium shots after I was done cleaning some of the algae out.

d2mini · Dec 14, 2015

Gotta love that HPS light! Except for having to clean the glass a lot more often.

ksfulk · Dec 15, 2015

d2mini said:
Gotta love that HPS light! Except for having to clean the glass a lot more often.

No kidding there! Still, it was a great idea, and I'm reaping the benefits now.

ksfulk · Dec 17, 2015

Triton results are in... and there's some copper in the tank somewhere.... Better swing by the LFS and pick up some cuprisorb or something similar to get that crap outta there!

ksfulk · Jan 27, 2016

So, my 180 gallon tank experiment lastly nearly exactly a year before I decided it was time to go another direction. I really really liked this tank build, but as it started to grow, I found that there were several things that I wish I would have done differently, all the way from stocking to plumbing. My biggest issue, however, was the tank. No matter how much buffing I did, this tank always looked scratched. Part of it is our inherent OCD with noticing every minor imperfection in our own things, but this one seemed to always have just one more scratch. It got to the point where I couldnt scrape the coralline because I didnt want to impart another scratch, or even risk it. Here's the one of the last shots of the tank before tear down.

Here's one of the other things that brought me to tear down this tank ... invaders! In the next couple of pictures you can see the nuisance aiptasia spouting their nasty little tentacles throughout the rockwork. I superglued a few of them, but it was starting to creep into the realm of an invasion.

Another fun "visitor" I had was zoa eating nudibrachs. Ahhh, my first real experience with these monsters, I didnt know why my zoa garden was shrinking little by little until I noticed a bright green "polyp" in a field of red. Ugh. So, knowing that I needed to take this beast by the horns, I ripped out all of the zoa rocks and moved them to a 10 gallon tank and began the judicious use of Flatworm Stop as treatment. Amazing results after only the first application. I proceeded to treat for an entire month, well after all of the pests had ceased existance.

But! The story does not end here... I'll be starting a new thread with the 125 gallon tank that I picked up to be the new DT for this system. Lots of awesome things have happened since picking that tank up, and I'll post a link to that thread once I finish combing through all of the pictures in my phone.