Mike's 300 Double-D

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by klondike4001

Looks amazing!

Originally Posted by Alex T.

Wow is all I can say. I hope my tank can look as nice as this one day. It's really starting to take shape very nicely. Great job!

Originally Posted by Prince916

Very nice. Totm material, keep it up.

Originally Posted by budisetiawan

AMAZING

Originally Posted by budisetiawan

Amazing

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

Thats definitely a perfect wallpaper for a desktop or laptop computer.

Originally Posted by david00061

nice!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by egis

We apologize for not replying sooner... it's been a busy week. Thank you very much everyone for those AWESOME compliments! We truly are appreciative!

Originally Posted by pookstreet

Nice job, M&T! That kuiteri sure has gotten big.

Thank you Kenny! And, yes, she has grown quite large, LOL.

Originally Posted by aandfsoccr04

Hey I know you already answered this but what sand did you use

Originally Posted by klondike4001

Tropic Eden Reef Flakes & Miniflakes

Yes, that is correct. We have been very pleased with the sand and just cannot say enough good stuff about it. Nothing we've found is cleaner, or more natural looking.


Just a small update:
Our C. rubrisquamis (Red Velvet fairy wrasse) spent several weeks chilling out in our prop-tank/refugium with a territorial Ocellaris clownfish and a dominant One Spot Rabbitfish and we have to say it has done wonders for his disposition. We added him back to the DT yesterday and everyone is getting along well.

Terry has had her hands full with our QT over the past several weeks. We had purchased 5 small wrasses from LA DD and unfortunately they came in with ich and the 3 female laboutei's had swim bladder issues. Sadly, we lost 4 of the 5. The good news is the last one is doing well and we just moved her to the refugium side of our prop-tank/refugium with a mated pair of banggai's and so far, so good.

Lots of chores on the tank today. Algae scraping, water changes, reflector/bulb cleaning, siphoning sand, all the usual maintenance. The corals are growing in nicely; we did some minor re-arranging, and promoting frags from the prop tank up to the display.

Since it is getting to be storm season, we wanted to add a bit more to our power-loss safety blanket. We have the big-daddy battery backup unit that will keep the main return pump and skimmer running for about 90-120 mins, but as with any good contingency plan, it's all about layering different solutions. Here's a very simple contingency for power outages that can save your tank inhabitants from disaster. It's a battery-powered air pump that cuts on when the A/C power fails:





What we did is run some black air line down the back inside of the tank with an airstone looped around a small rock. The Silent-Air unit is mounted in the other room along with all the other display tank electrical equipment. It's virtually invisible, and talk about a great peace of mind! Such a simple and elegant answer that can save us thousands if the utility fails while we are asleep or not home.

[aquaph8]

Mike, Ive gotta do something like this too. Im gonna order a battery backup for my vortech but would also really benefit from something like this also.

So sorry for your losses, Terry Im sure you did everything possible. Could you imagine how many fish we would have lost this year between our two tanks with out the QT's. Everything is looking beautiful, best of luck with the remaining labouti.

PS, you can have mine if you want He lives in my Qt with some orange line cardinals. Ive been tempted to give him another chance though. I wonder what giving him a girlfriend would do?

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by aquaph8

Mike, Ive gotta do something like this too. Im gonna order a battery backup for my vortech but would also really benefit from something like this also.

So sorry for your losses, Terry Im sure you did everything possible. Could you imagine how many fish we would have lost this year between our two tanks with out the QT's. Everything is looking beautiful, best of luck with the remaining labouti.

PS, you can have mine if you want He lives in my Qt with some orange line cardinals. Ive been tempted to give him another chance though. I wonder what giving him a girlfriend would do?

Brett, these little battery air pumps really do come in handy and every little bit of added "insurance" certainly does help.

As for the fish in QT, that was tough. If I had just been dealing with ich or just the swim bladder issues, the outcome would more than likely have been better. And you are right about QT - the thought of how many fish we could have lost is just staggering.

The female Laboutei is going to stay in our refugium for a good while. She is really tiny and probably would not fair well in the DT at this point. As for your male, maybe a small harem of females would help his disposition. I would think they would take his focus off of the other fish in the tank and if it were me, I would definitely give it a try.

-Terry

[prop-frags]

The sandstorm we stirred up earlier finally subsided so we took a few pics.

Our male Eightline Flasher is growing up:






Our C. earlei:






One of our C. rhomboidalis


Continued in next post...

[prop-frags]

Some of the frags we moved to the DT:




View from the left side of the tank:


And lastly, an updated FTS:


-Mike and Terry

[maddmaxx]

Beast!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by maddmaxx

Beast!

Thank you!

[aandfsoccr04]

such a beautiful tank and an inspiration to all who stumble across this thread.

[Newbie Aquarist]

Fragalicious and Pimpalicious.

[jt48]

Can't wait till I get a slow day at work so I can read all 46 pages. Tank looks great.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by aandfsoccr04

such a beautiful tank and an inspiration to all who stumble across this thread.

Thank You! This has to be one of the nicest compliments we've ever received. We hope that sharing our experiences, both good and bad, will benefit and inspire others.

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

Fragalicious and Pimpalicious.

Hahah... Thank You!!!

Originally Posted by jt48

Can't wait till I get a slow day at work so I can read all 46 pages. Tank looks great.

Thank you! Hopefully, there's enough drama and decent pics and video to keep you from nodding off before you get to the end, lol!

[110galreef]

do you have a shot from the side a bit furthur back to see how the rockwork is from the front and back to get a better feel for the layout?

[110galreef]

double post

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by 110galreef

do you have a shot from the side a bit furthur back to see how the rockwork is from the front and back to get a better feel for the layout?

We'll snap a couple of pics and post them later today. Need to wait for the MH's to turn on.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by 110galreef

do you have a shot from the side a bit furthur back to see how the rockwork is from the front and back to get a better feel for the layout?

These are not the best pics as there is not a ton of light back there, but hopefully this is what you were looking for.

There is approx. a 7-8" clearance between the back glass and the the trees that make up our aquascape. It blends in a bit, but you can see one of the closed loop nozzles (there are two on each of the 4 outlets) pointing up. The other nozzle is aimed at the back of the rock structure to keep detritus from collecting. The rock that sits further back against the back glass (closer to the center overflow) is a Tunze rock for a 6106 Turbell stream pump that we run full blast during the day specifically for our Desjardini as his personal endless pool.


nt 2592 by terryl93, on Flickr


nt 2591 by terryl93, on Flickr

[110galreef]

Thanks, yeah that is what i was looking for, but do you happen to have a FTS of the side too?

I have a pretty similiar tank 66x 36 x 24 and am considering redoing rock work. I have about 3-4" between rock and back and like 8" of open space pretty much everywhere on the front and like 6-8" on the sides.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by 110galreef

Thanks, yeah that is what i was looking for, but do you happen to have a FTS of the side too?

I have a pretty similiar tank 66x 36 x 24 and am considering redoing rock work. I have about 3-4" between rock and back and like 8" of open space pretty much everywhere on the front and like 6-8" on the sides.

Sorry it took a while to post. We have integrated side cabinets with about 36" of space between the tank and the wall on each side which makes it a bit awkward to get a full shot of the side of the tank. Hopefully, the third time's the charm.



There is about 6-7" of space on the front. The rock structure on the right side of the tank has 7-8" of open space in the back and 8-9" in the front. Our center section has quite a bit more open space in the front, but not much in the back due to the center overflow.

-M&T

[110galreef]

That is exactly what I was looking for....pretty similiar to what I have going on overall.

Thanks

[prop-frags]

We've been busy with some other things around the house, including our new kitchen bar project, but of course we still find some time to work on the big ol' double D reef!

We decided to give these wide-flow Tunze nano-streams a try. It's always a good day when the familiar blue boxes show up:





These 6095's are pretty sweet; a whole lot more flow, and a much wider dispersion, which is just what we needed. The box says up to 2,500 gph, and only 21w. Not bad. After running them for about a week or so, the corals are showing they are very pleased with the upgrade (we replaced two of the 6055s). Might just have to swap out the other two when the bank account recovers.

We snapped a few coral shots to share:









cont'd in next post...

[prop-frags]

-M&T

[david00061]

Nice looking corals. That last pic great.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by david00061

Nice looking corals. That last pic great.

Thank you David! That A. secale is one of our favorites.


For a small update, we thought we'd share a few wrasse pics:

Our largest female M. bipartitus is in the process of transitioning into a male and is definitely in the "ugly duckling" stage, lol!


We snapped a couple of decent pics of our new McCosker's Flasher:




Our male Lineatus:


Our new initial stage male Rose Band Fairy wrasse:


Our super male Red Velvet Fairy wrasse has definitely mellowed out since being re-introduced into the display. The 6 weeks of time-out in the refugium did wonders for his disposition.


-M&T

[drummereef]

You have the best wrasse collection I've ever seen on here. Beautiful fish.

[nanonubey]

Your tank gets even better everytime i check out your thread! Great work guys.

[alford35]

Beautiful! And love the fish.