My 100 Gallon Marine Journal.

[ben1987]

tank looks great. Reef works does a nice SPS frag pack to get you started!

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Hi guys.
Just a quick update on my plans.
As some know, I am moving house shortly and after stressful times with corals I have decided to sell all my corals and just have a fish only with live rock setup.
There is also a very good possibility of getting a 200UK (240US) gallon tank for my birthday which is in July.
If all goes to plans I will have a 200gallon tank with around 4 large angels, a couple of butterflies, my current tangs, trigger and rabbitfish as well as maybe 2 or 3 more tangs.
If I get the new tank for the larger fish I will most likley sell my bangaii cardinals and six line wrasse as they would more than likely struggle for food.

Anyway, I just thought you guys would be interested in my plans for the next 2 months or so, so wish me luck!



josh

 

[tropic_john]

Ohhh!!!! This reef tank is awesome On the good side of things, look into yellow-spot anthias, they are abut £250 each but are pink and yellow!

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Time for a long and overdue update.
As some of you know, I have ben busy moving my tank around after a house move and finally I got around to moving it into its desired location. I will also be update frequently over the next few weeks as I have more fish, new lights ect to buy.

Anyway, so here goes with todays update.
The tank stood in the garage with poor rock aquascaping, no sand and those awful ugely pipes in the middle.
My plan was to move the tank inside so I began by draining the tank and putting all the water into a large (unused) koi vat I borrowed from work. The vat holds just enough water to fit all out fo my tank in it.
Here are some shots of the tank in the garage showing how bad it looked.
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Here is a shot of the vat I kept the fish and rock in while I moved the tank. The fish stayed in it for around a week, a little longer than I had originally hoped but we had some radiator problems.


After I had drained the tank, the stand was strenghthend, the tank was cleaned, and best of all the black pipes out of the middle of the tank were cut out.
Here is a shot of it in its new location after the clean. A pane of glass was glued down over the holes left from were the pipes were cut out.


Here is a shot of the tank slowly filling with the new sand put in.


As the water level in the vat got lower from me filling the tank, the rock began to get mroe exposed so I took it out and just threw it in the tank with no intention of scaping until the following day. Here is a shot with the rock thrown in.


As the water level continued to get lower, I began to fill the sump instead of the tank. When there was enough water in it I put the fish in here to keep them out of the way. At this point I also added the 5th yellow tang to the other 4, he had been in quarentine for around 4 weeks. Also I would be adding alot of new water so I didnt want to stress them with a large water change. Here is a photo if the fish in the sump and the new water mixing up in the vat.


I filled the tank with the new water and got everything flowing using my new overflow box. The overflow box unfortunatly had a hole in it so this has been sent back. The fish were gradually acoustomed to the new water in the tank and the onespot foxface rabbitfish (a mouthful), coral beauty and sixline wrasse were put in the tank. The yellow tangs remained in the sump as I will be getting a powder blue tang soon and want to add all the tangs to the main display at the same time.
I aslo did some aquascaping which turned out pretty well. Here are some shots of the full tank, scaped, sand in and 3 fish in.


Here are some photos of the tangs in the sump. Once the tangs are all in the tank, I will be ditching the sump on this tank and just run it with LR in the main display. I and my dad dont really like the idea of an overflow box now and we cannot drill the tank now as it is full. Since I dont have a reef it wont be much of a problem, as long as I keep up with water changes.


I also got a new addition who is now in the quarentine tank, a picasso trigger. However, he will be returning to the store tomorrow as my mum, the purchaser, decided she didnt like him anymore and we are going to get a pearscale butterfly instead, so I will show some pics of that tomorrow. In the mean time, here are some pics of the trigger.


So there you have it, a nice big update and a nice big change.
My plans over the next few weeks are to get a couple more fish and some new lights so keep checking to see whats going on.

New challenge, clownfish breeding!


josh

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

sorry the pics werent in the original post, it wouldnt work for some reason, or maybe its my fault ive tried my best to put the pics in the order they would have appeared in the post, there are more on the next page

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

 

[-Nemo-]

Looks pretty good
How's the picasso behaving?

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Hes on his own in a quarentine tank, but behaving. But like I said, im swapping him for a pearscale. Once my mum realised what fish I could no longer keep with an adult picasso around she didnt want it anymore. Im just glad she decided before I put him in the main display.

josh

 

[RegalTang]

What fish does she want that you couldn't keep the trigger? I could never give up a picasso trigger for anything lol I would pick it over almost any other fish.

Also lovely tank!

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

She likes smaller fish, sixline wrasse, blennies, anthias ect. Once the tigger got big there would be a possibility he'd have a go, also smaller fish would struggle to feed with such a greedy eater around.

josh

 

[seffieuk]

looking good, but have to agree, I wouldn't be able to give up the trigger either

Seffie x

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Its just one of those things seffie

The trigger went yesterday and has been replaced by a new fish, a crowned pearscaled butterflyfish (yellowtail butterflyfish) - Chaetodon xanthurus
She has been feeding very well and is very brave and Im pleased to have bought her.
Here are some pics.

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

I also bought a new powerhead yesterday to replace my largest one. The pevious one was large and unsightly and had a small nozzle so it directed its 3000lph flow in one direction, creating a long stream of flow which, especially in a reef tank, is not desirable. It was also very noisey! The model I have replaced it with is an Aquarium Systems Newave, very quiet and small as well as being able to kick out 2200lph, not as much as before but enoug for FOWLR. I will most likley buy another one soon to replace another powerhead I have which, like the other, directs flow in one direction.
Here is a pic of it anyway.


Hopefuly my next buy will be a new light system consisting of two 54watt T5's.

josh

 

[seffieuk]

Josh, s/he looks lovely

Seffie x

 

[1234-fishy-freind]

Time for an update.
Well as explained before, I have been hoping to get a powder blue tang, however, my lfs where I work has not been able to get in a healthy enough specimen for me to want to take. (My boss goes to tmc to had pick the fish himself and the last time he went there was only one small and skinny powder blue, which he wouldnt risk me having). So I would have been waiting at least 2 more weeks for this fish and then it would be in quarentine for 2 weeks, which would mean my yellow tangs would be in my sump for at least 4 weeks until I could add all the tangs to the main tank at the same time. I have decided to just put the 5 yellow tangs in the tank and not get the powder blue until I upgrade my tank next year. A shame yes, but I care more about the welfare of my current fish than the look of a new fish to my tank.
So my yellow tangs are in and they are so much braver than when the tank was in the garage, which I am very pleased about!
I have also treated myself to a new T5 light unit. It runs 2 54w bulbs and is so much brighter than the single 25 watt flourescent I had over the tank before.

Anyway, here are some pics of the tangs in their new home (again) and the new light unit.
Enjoy.