Lionfish 90(ish) gallon peninsula build

[ngoodermuth]

The top structure wasn't stable enough to suit me so I reworked it a bit tonight. Much more secure.

Love the scape! Good start

 

[fermentedhiker]

Added some live sand from gulfliverock.com to seed the sand bed. It's quite coarse and has lots of rubble in it and is darker than most reef sand(similar to caribsea black which ironically isn't black but has black grains mixed in). I need to mix it in with the existing sand so it looks more uniform. I also have to figure out how to color correct my phone camera to reduce the blue sensitivity.

 

[fermentedhiker]

GYRE XF250 installed. I think I need to order one of those acrylic safe Tunze care magnet scrapers as the diatoms are fading and being replaced by a green type that won't just wipe off.

 

[najer]

Great build, love the scape.
Do you know what lenses are on the maxspect, 120 lenses really help the spread and "soften" it, less like spotlights.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Great build, love the scape.
Do you know what lenses are on the maxspect, 120 lenses really help the spread and "soften" it, less like spotlights.

To be honest I'm not sure. I got it used off of another local reefer without any documentation. I haven't noticed the spotlighting being very noticeable, but I'm planning on getting a second one to improve coverage.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Added the first wave of cleaners to this tank.

From reefcleaners; DT=5 Nerites, 5 Florida Ceriths, 50 zig zag periwinkle(they are tiny),10 nassarius.
Overflow DSB= 1 Nassarius
Refugium= 2 small Nerite

From ebay;
10 bristleworms
10 Stomatella snails.

Now to give them a couple of weeks to see how they do while I wait for my acrylic safe scraper to arrive.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Got my second razor. Unfortunately they changed the height of the mounting legs compared to the older model I had. I've got to see if I can get a set of longer legs for it.

 

[najer]

Does the far light not just have the longer part of the legs inside the light?

 

[fermentedhiker]

Does the far light not just have the longer part of the legs inside the light?

Not really. While the part inside the fixture is longer, the shorter legs outside no longer have threaded holes to fasten them inside the track so the legs can't be reversed. I can of course make the near light shorter as the older fixture legs are adjustable(multiple threaded locations) but I liked having a little elbow room for working on the tank, so I would rather raise the new light instead of lowering the old one.

 

[najer]

I never worried about the threaded holes on mine so it worked ok for me.

 

[miyags]

Most people I know try to keep bristleworm out. Tanks to new for nassarius snails. Stomatella snails worked well for me.

 

[miyags]

Your tank and cabinet look amazing!! The Volitan lionfish was the reason I started the hobby.That was back when they only sold fish around here.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Most people I know try to keep bristleworm out. Tanks to new for nassarius snails. Stomatella snails worked well for me.

Most people are wasting there time avoiding bristleworms as they are awesome detrivores and unless you have something that eats them you'll end up with them anyways. Normally I would agree about the nassarius but after the initial cycle finished I switched from ammonia dosing to ghost feeding to better replicate the load of a carnivore tank so they'll have plenty to eat.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Your tank and cabinet look amazing!! The Volitan lionfish was the reason I started the hobby.That was back when they only sold fish around here.

Thanks. It's the first time I've paid attention to making the setup look like furniture instead of a mad science experiment

 

[Husker]

That will be a really cool scape for a lionfish tank. I think you will be happy with the gyre. I found them to push amazingly more water than Vortechs, they just are a bit of a pain to clean (but I'm a bit lazy).

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looking good!

 

[trevormass7]

This is the first feed I've read every comment in. Amazing build and setup, hope everything goes great

 

[fermentedhiker]

Looking good!

Thanks

 

[fermentedhiker]

This is the first feed I've read every comment in. Amazing build and setup, hope everything goes great

Thanks, I hope it fulfills the needs of the fish and ends up being a real show piece.

 

[fermentedhiker]

minor update. Still going through the ugly phase(s). Diatoms still going fairly strong but starting to show a little slow down. Ammonia and Nitrite showing consistently 0, but Nitrate is still high. So far water changes haven't knocked them down a lot(>50) but persistence will win out...........eventually. It's really too early to add stuff but I threw a couple frags in that weren't doing well and figured they'd have a chance in this new system where they were struggling in the old. So far they're actually looking better..........go figure.

My biggest problem is the skimmer has gone crazy and wants to overflow all of the time, even dialed back all the way so it shouldn't be skimming at all. Hopefully with enough water changes I'll remove whatever contaminant is driving it crazy. I've been running carbon, polyfilter, and purigen in hopes of cleaning things up but so far no luck. Another vote for persistence I guess.