My new 200g peninsula build!

[hawkeyejp82]

I have re-introduced my fish into the display tank today. Probably shouldve done a water change first however I suspect the decent amount of carbon filtration I have with 2 large chemi pure bottles has cleared any wrong doing from the sea anemone. Going to switch strategies away from anemones into a mixed SPS LPS display. Just a few weeks away from placing my quarantined corals into the display so I'm going to setup my water analyzer and 2 part dosing in the next week. I have a large order of more corals on the way April 15th.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Some updates with attached photographs. I now have 1 dispar anthia 1 madarin dragonet goby, 2 clownfish, and 1 lawnmower blenny in the main display along with a corcea clam. In quarantine I have 5 benga cardinals and a firefly goby.

I was unable to get a photograph of the mandarin goby as he prefers to hide but the blenny has really befriended this guy. I am only 2 weeks away from placing my quarantined corals (1 hammer 1 acro 1 goni and 1 lepto) into the display and I have 16 corals enroute to go into quarantine for the next round (mostly sps but a few zoa and a torch).

Over the weekend I am going to fix my UV sterilzer and get my trident analyzer setup. I will caution anyone setting up a pentair UV sterilzer make sure you do the leak test on the ballast area as that cost me an extra $300 to replace the ballast and bulb. Hope everyone out there is doing well hopefully this tank will get growing soon.

Future additions I am looking at a Japanese swallowtail angel fish and a reef safe wrasse probably another type of blenny and then on to the tangs.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Time for some updates on the happenings in my 200g tank. I received a new shipment of 16 corals mostly SPS some LPS as well and placed them in QT (photos attached)

The 4 corals I had living in quarantine have been moved to the display (I see they are much happier in the display however they don't look as good under the T5 compared to the XR15 on the QT).

The display has developed quite the green hair algae problem. The lawnmower blenny can't keep up with it on his own any suggestions to get rid of it?

 

[Sean Clark]

Maybe more snails to help your blenny out?

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Maybe more snails to help your blenny out?

I just ordered a reef cleaner pack with 20 hermit crabs and 20 snails we will see how they do. I figure the best weapon is probably Tangs but I want those to be the last fish I introduce.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Here is my current stock in the display:

1 Powder Brown Tang
1 Blue Hippo Tang
1 Sailfin Tang
1 Japanese Yellowtail Dwarf Angelfish
2 Blue green Chromis
2 Fancy clownfish
1 mandarin dragonet goby
1 Tailspot Blenny
1 Sixline Wrasse
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Dispar Anthia
40 blue dwarf hermit crabs
10 red hermit crabs
10 fighting conch snails
20 cerith snails
1 Corcea Clam
1 sandsifting starfish
4 corals (1Birdsnest acro/1Blue hammer/1Gold Lepto/1Goni)

Almost all of the livestock is well the Goni went into hiding weeks ago and never came out so is likely not going to make it and the Acro was bleached prior to the transfer with much of not growing. The tangs have removed all green hair algae rather quickly much faster than the snails or crabs. I have 16 corals that are about 2-3 weeks away from the 75 day quarantine ready to go into the display (again not much luck with acros in quarantine theres a couple in the QT that are bleaching).

The tank is in overall good shape got my water analyzer working and will begin dosing it soon on a schedule with the tests. The only real issue left is cyano grows like crazy and nothing seems to eat that so I have to remove it myself. I'm considering a GFO reactor to control phosphates as that is the likely contributing to the cyano.

Attached are photos for viewing the latest fishies!

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Finally bit the bullet and purchased a few XR15 radion eco tech lights for the display 3 should cover it gonna make the corals look nicer than the T5's.

 

[dustinc]

Finally bit the bullet and purchased a few XR15 radion eco tech lights for the display 3 should cover it gonna make the corals look nicer than the T5's.

The XR15s are great lights. I always had solid luck with them in the past when I used a couple systems ago. I think you will be very pleased!

 

[hawkeyejp82]

The XR15s are great lights. I always had solid luck with them in the past when I used a couple systems ago. I think you will be very pleased!

The hybrid mount I have will allow the XR15s to attach to the T5's. Im going to scale back the use of the T5's to 4 hours at the peak of the day once I have the XR15s running all day.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Ok so here's an update on my 200g tank. I got some new fish so I now have a Naso Tang to go with the Sailfin, Blue Hippo, and Powder Brown tangs. I also got a court jester goby to eat cyano. I've added 3 XR15 lights from eco tech which was an adventure I accidently dipped one of my XR15 lights into the tank while trying to hoist the hybrid T5 and XR 15 fixture to the hooks suspended above the tank. The one XR15 was ruined and wouldn't work even after drying it out but I shipped back to EcoTech and they honored the warranty even though it was probably my fault that it failed so they fixed it free.

Attached are some photos of the coral under the new light my green stem duncan, 24k gold lepto and candy cane cloves. Hope you enjoy.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Im on the verge of being able to have success with acrapora too as my anacrapora is coloring up really well along with my montiporas given the new light and my gfo reactor to control phosphates and nitrates. I cleaned the tank which was super stressfull the sump over spilled but I got most of the cyano out by hand and Im hoping it wont come back in numbers with the reactor.

Ive also dialed in dosing which the tank really only needs mag and alk without calcium so much. I think I'm getting close to taking off with coral now.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

The only bad news to report is that I have a few flatworms in the tank but my sixline wrasse should keep them down so I'm not to worried.

 

[Sean Clark]

What happened here?

I cleaned the tank which was super stressfull the sump over spilled but I got most of the cyano out by hand and Im hoping it wont come back in numbers with the reactor.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

What happened here?

I turned the return pumps off to siphon water out and was an idiot and didn't close the main drainage line so the water over filled the sump by a little bit. That said I was down there when it happened so I was quick to react not much water leaked out of the sump.

 

[dustinc]

Love hearing the update! Good luck with managing your couple small issues. Those can be easily handled generally, so I think you will be ok.

 

[cpschult]

I turned the return pumps off to siphon water out and was an idiot and didn't close the main drainage line so the water over filled the sump by a little bit. That said I was down there when it happened so I was quick to react not much water leaked out of the sump.

That will be an issue if you ever have a power outage. Anyway to reduce the amount of water that drains down into sump or decrease volume in sump?

 

[hawkeyejp82]

That will be an issue if you ever have a power outage. Anyway to reduce the amount of water that drains down into sump or decrease volume in sump?

Yes your right I have already ran into that problem once a month ago when the power went out. I should lower the water volume in the sump so it doesn't happen again. The good news is I did such a good job with the electronics within the sump everything was raised above where any water would leak.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

So because the tank is looking super photogenic with it being cleaned and all 3 of the XR15's on it I thought I'd provide some more pics. The anacrapora is looking really good so are my 2 hammers and the zoa garden is coming to fruition as well. Also fed some Nori to the fish and a frenzy ensued enjoy.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Might help with identification if I labeled. Placement seems good nothing in these guys way. The lepto and Cypastrea have already began growing on the rock work beyong there initial frag plugs.

 

[hawkeyejp82]

Love hearing the update! Good luck with managing your couple small issues. Those can be easily handled generally, so I think you will be ok.

Yeah I can't speak highly enough about eco tech marine. I already loved the lights but the fact they just sent me a new XR15 worth $500 when it was my fault that I fried one by dipping it in the water on accident was super cool of them. Corals are digging the LED light too! Not only do they look better under LED lights but I suspect they also really needed that full spectrum UV compared to the T5's. I still run my T5's but only for 4 hours just to get fuller coverage of the display.