The Upgrade Build... From 110 to 180

[Dj City]

I just can't take good pics. My tank is not photogenic.
It looks great in person but the camera won't capture it.
These are really morning shots as the lights just begin to ramp up.

 

[Dj City]

Ok.
I edited my light schedule.
I turned the white, red and green up a bit and shortened the overall light duration by 1 hour.
I will observe the tank to see what effect this has on the corals if any. I will also be watching for algae. I've never really had an algae problem in this tank and I don't want one!

As far as a new centerpiece coral...
I'm thinking of getting one of those fake LARGE across skeletons from petco or petsmart and getting some green star polyps or yellow star polips or a combination to grow over the skeleton.
I think that might make a nice and unique centerpiece.

Thoughts?

 

[TheWB]

Ok.
I edited my light schedule.
I turned the white, red and green up a bit and shortened the overall light duration by 1 hour.
I will observe the tank to see what effect this has on the corals if any. I will also be watching for algae. I've never really had an algae problem in this tank and I don't want one!

As far as a new centerpiece coral...
I'm thinking of getting one of those fake LARGE across skeletons from petco or petsmart and getting some green star polyps or yellow star polips or a combination to grow over the skeleton.
I think that might make a nice and unique centerpiece.

Thoughts?

Could be a good centerpiece. I’m having a hard time visualizing it though.

 

[Dj City]

I got this but I don't know if I'm keeping it.
It looks horrible right now because it's bone white and brand new but with time and gsp, it might kill real nice.

Are there any other matting coral that can grow over something like this besides gsp?

 

[TheWB]

I got this but I don't know if I'm keeping it.
It looks horrible right now because it's bone white and brand new but with time and gsp, it might kill real nice.

Are there any other matting coral that can grow over something like this besides gsp?

I see people use cyphastrea to encrust over things like skulls. I don’t know if it would work on something like that. Might be worth a shot, I dunno.

 

[Dj City]

I changed out what will be a centerpiece. The one I had was just too big. I now have a stag skeleton that I will put GSP on and let it grow.
I've thought about it and am still thinking about encrusting coral but that will take years to grow out.

I'm also about to make some homemade fish food.

MEATY PROTEIN
Frozen shrimp
Frozen scallops
Frozen mussels
Frozen cod
Frozen tuna
Frozen clams
Frozen silversides
Frozen squid

DRY FOOD
New life spectrum marine pellet food
New life spectrum algae max pellet food
New life spectrum jumbo fish formula
Marineland Bio Blend carnivore diet pellets
Freeze dried mysis shrimp
Freeze dried krill
BRS Reef Chili
Two little fishies sea veggies mixed seaweed flakes
Calanus
Paracoccus
Spirulina

LIQUID FOOD
Selcon
Zoe
Brightwell AminOmega HUFA omega
Brightwell Coral Amino
Kent Garlic

This is going to be great food for fish and corals! I should have enough to last at least a year.

This is the video I got the idea for the homemade food from.

 

[Dj City]

I can't believe I'm having the hardest time finding green star polyps.
I went to my lfs today because they said they had some.
I get there and I don't know what they had that they were calling gsp.

I did pick up some new corals though...

 

[Dj City]

No new fish but here are some pics...

They love to photobomb but it's hard to take actual pics of them.

I am in the middle of tank maintenance so the tank is not as clear as it should be.

I will try to take better pics of everything and everyone in a few days after the zoas start opening up and the tank is clear as it should be.

 

[Dj City]

I completed my water change. About 100g water change.
I set this tank up to be a no water change tank but I still do water changes every couple of months or so. I do them when the coral says i need to.

I usually use Red Sea blue bucket but decided to go back to I.O. this time. I got tired of spending Red Sea money.
I got 2x 200gal boxes from BRS.
WORST SALT EVER!!!
It would not get clear no matter what. I had it mixing over 48 hours and it still would not get clear.
It had a THICK brown sludge.
I contacted BRS and told them what was going on. I sent them pics of the nasty water. They said the salt should not be "that" dirty. It's not the cleanest salt on the market but it should not be a bad as it was.
They issued me a refund.

This is after about 50 hours of mixing.

This is just unacceptable!

 

[Dj City]

Ugggggh!

My maroon Clown.
She is a ROYAL PITA!!!

I'm TRYING to mount my new corals and she keeps bulldozing them over and off the rocks i'm trying to mount them to.
She broke my Hollywood Stunner.
She broke my other stick (I think it's a birds nest). She just broke a small part of a branch but still.

I have had to use so much epoxy that my skimmer is going nuts and i'm STILL not done PROPERLY mounting the corals to where they will STAY where I put them.

It's a love / hate relationship.

 

[Dj City]

My DIY fish food turned out GREAT!!!
Healthiest fish food EVER!
If feeds fish big and small plus coral.

I also used Reef Roids for the 1st time today.
WOW.

It seems to be potent stuff..
I will be using this very sparingly and very carefully.

 

[Dj City]

I was looking into the benefits of Kz Coral Snow. I understand it's some great stuff. It helps kill verminted snails and it really cleans up the water.
This is from the website..

Korallen-Zucht Coral Snow liquid filter media as well as a secondary biological facilitator for elements and nutrition.

• Treats and prevents slime algae and cyanobacteria
• Neutralizes water yellowing compounds and unwanted acids
• Increases the effectiveness of other KZ products such as B-Balance and Potassium-Iodide/Fluoride Concentrate.
• Compatible with Amino Acids and Coral Vitalizer.
• Coral Snow liquid will help with yellowing compounds that activated carbon misses. It has also been shown to be beneficial in treating unwanted slime algae and cyanobacteria. The product contains natural calcium-magnesium carbonate and other specialized compounds. Clay-like composition and properties make for a highly absorbent medium that can be taken up by corals and protein skimmers.

This is primarily a secondary biological facilitator for other Korallen-Zucht products like Amino Acids Coral Vitalizer, B-Balance and Potassium-Iodide/Fluoride Concentrate.


The product is nothing but Calcium Carbonate.
I ordered some Calcium Carbonate to make DIY Reef Snow.

This ought to be good!

 

[Dj City]

Calcium carbonate arrives today.

I will update after I make and use the DIY Coral Snow.

 

[Dj City]

I mixed up my DIY Coral Snow last night and added some to the tank. Yeah... the tank got cloudy as is was supposed to.
Lights have not come on yet this morning but I will update as soon as I can see what the DIY Coral Snow has done if anything.
I'm trying to get a jump on verminted snails. They have been popping up in the display and I know they can get to explosive numbers.

I also ordered some Bumblebee snails. I hear they eat verminted snails.
I hope that between the DIY Coral Snow and the Bumblebee snails, I can keep the verminted snails in check.

 

[Dj City]

Ya just gotta love this hobby to put up with the zillion and one little problems that arise.

So...
My DIY Coral Snow seems to work. Tank was clear and I had nice polyp extension from the corals. I will continue this regiment for a while to see how it effects the verminted snails or if it has any effect at all.

Now here come the problems...

I had an empty 4oz bottle of AminOmega HUFA Omega. This was the perfect size bottle to store my DIY Coral Snow. I had used the whole bottle in my Homemade fish food.

I rinsed the bottle out in the tank only to realize that the bottle was not COMPLETELY empty. It still had a very small amount left. About a half a pipette of product still in the bottle but now it's in my tank.
Urgggh.
It turned the tank instantly cloudy and completely STOPED skimmer production. The skimmer was producing NO bubbles. No foam at all. It was like I had the skimmer in fresh RODI water with no salt.

It took a dose of Sachem Clarity, some Pollyfill and few hours to get back to almost right.
I say almost because the pollyfill made the skimmer over skim. I went from no production to overflowing skimmer.
So, now that I have removed the pollyfill, I wait for the skimmer to calm down.

Good news is I FINALLY got some GSP.

I dread upsetting the tank by removing the centerpiece to mount the GPS to but it has to be done.
Let's see what the tank does when I disturb it. Again.

 

[Dj City]

I needed to post this so I don't lose the video and don't forget the idea

 

[TheWB]

I needed to post this so I don't lose the video and don't forget the idea

I’ve been trying to DIY something like this for a long time. After watching this video I now understand that my design is stupid and that’s why it didn’t work. This is much better. Thanks for posting this.

 

[fishybizzness]

Nice tank! How are your lions getting along with the other fish? Any issues with them trying to eat the smaller fish? I'm thinking about getting one but I'm afraid of it eating my wrasses and small tangs.

 

[Dj City]

Nice tank! How are your lions getting along with the other fish? Any issues with them trying to eat the smaller fish? I'm thinking about getting one but I'm afraid of it eating my wrasses and small tangs.

Thanks for the complement and thanks for visiting my build thread.

I've had the lion for about 5 years.
When I first set this tank up, he was the last to go in the display.

He would stalk the smaller fish but they were smart enough to dash away.
After about a month, he sees them as tankmates and no longer actively stalks them but they are still smart enough to get out his way and not be in direct line of sight with his mouth.
I have no disillusion that he can and will eat them if he wants to. I try to keep him happy and fat so he's not overly interested in them.

I also keep him very well fed.

 

[fishybizzness]

I am thinking about eventually getting a small one and will take your advice and add it last. I live in the Caribbean so I can catch any size I want as it is not only legal to catch as they are invasive but it is actually encouraged to remove them from the ecosystem! What do you feed it with?