o2manyfish 400g Tank, 1100g System "Built" Thread

[o2manyfish]

Art (Aceesq) has a Dastaco near me and I got to see it a couple of months ago... I loved it. And I would love to have one. But the cost of the unit and the cost to get it here was up there. My Calc Rx has handled my system load over the years with no problem. Right now it's just figuring out why the bubbles are so inconsistent.

And as cool as teh Dastaco is, I think in that kind of budget for upgrades, I have been yearning to get a couple of the Abyzz pumps and put those on the tank. I have a friend that just ordered a couple and I hope to get to help him install them and play with them before the end of year.

Dave B

[northernreefe]

Your right, I have a friend with too much money and he runs the abyss pumps, nothing short of outstanding.

Steve.

[Eac7466]

Wow amazing. I want to be just like you when my tanks grow up. Lol

[o2manyfish]

Eac7466,

It's not easy, but it is really rewarding when a tank grows up and the corals grow out.

When you're able to reach into any part of your tank and pop off branch of something for a friend, and not have to worry about it being noticed or your tank having a bare spot is really cool --- Be aware, when your tank reaches this point in time, all of a sudden you will have a lot more reefer friends than you ever knew you had -- LOL

Dave B

[o2manyfish]

Got the camera out tonight to shoot some new additions to the tank. I had 2 good sized pieces of real estate when I lost the 2 colonies with the Alk bounce.
So I came across couple of tabling pieces. Neither is gorgeous at the moment, but I see potential in both pieces.






A Little one that I added a week earlier that was barely green with just a neat shape to the branches.


On my center pillar I had a piece that I thought might be Indo Echniata that 65% died with the Alk. I found a similar sized piece to what I lost and replaced it.


And a coral that I am always excited to see more growth, my Oregon tort. This was bought 1 year ago as a flat frag, just some encrusting on a flat plug, no vertical growths at all.




So those that have read the thread for the past year might recall that when the tank crashed in the fall of 2013, that I discovered Baby Bangaii. And some of them survived in the rock sump out side and I moved some into the main tank in the past 6 months.

Well last night - was I surprised to see that the first pair of Bangais that we moved inside one is holding eggs. Not sure if the eggs are very fresh, or infertille, but they are very grey/milky looking. But I was overjoyed last night to realize that we have in a year gone full circle from babies being born to babies making babies.





Interesting while watching the tank for a few hours last night with some friends over, the 4 Bangai that we raised from babies, spent last night hanging out in a group together - With one holding eggs in his mouth. And last night while watching the tank we have 3 Bangai all holding eggs at the same time. They males are spread out across the tank, but it was clear that 3 are holding in their mouth. I know that none in the tank will make it. But hopefully the pair in the outside sump (where the babies came from) are holding as well and I will have some fresh babies from out there too.

Dave B



I

[pinnatus]

Originally Posted by o2manyfish

Neither is gorgeous at the moment, but I see potential in both pieces.

They look gorgeous to me!

[o2manyfish]

Here are some over all shots of the tank from last night.

Awhile back I saw some pretty damsels. They were light blue, and listed as Sky Blue Damsels. I hadn't seen these before so I bought 6 of them. They went into my tank and immediately turned black. Now a year later I have 6 black ugly damsels. I ordered the Aqua Medic Fish trap. Hung it in the tank over the weekend. Started putting food in the trap last night and in an hour caught 2 of the 6 ugly buggers.

[aquaph8]

Absolutely beautiful Dave.

[dave.m]

Could we possibly get a close-up of the blue/black damsels to make an identification (and warning)?

Thx,

Dave.M

[cFloor]

Your tank is looking great! How are your multibar angels doing?

[o2manyfish]

dave.M,

When I get the camera back out I will try. They look like your typical, classical - Blue Damsel. But they are a little bit taller. Strangely when I caught them in the trap I scooped them into my hand and while carrying them to the outside tank, there bellies looked light blue with pink.


Cfloor, The multi-bars are doing great. I'm not sure if I have 2 remaining or 3. Cause they take turns coming out and hiding. There isn't a distinguishing mark or size difference. They aren't interested in any of the typical prepared foods. I feed the Chefzilla chowdown food which has a mix of all kinds of seafood and several different type of fish eggs and there is something in that food which they will eat out of the water column, but they don't go after the food they will only pick it if it floats by them in one of the caves. There is a huge quantity of white stringy sponge growing under all the rock on the left side of the tank, and I hope they are feeding off of that. All the other angels in the tank are robust and fat, the Multibars are not thin, but are not bulging either. But I have all kinds of LPS (including blastos and Acans) and nothing is getting picked on.

Dave B

[jrpdriver]

Beautiful tank! I really like the look of the reef all the way up the back wall, nice work

[Mebeknob]

I must say that I wasn't to sure how the aquascape was going to turn out at first. By the time I got to the end of this thread I was very impressed with the tank! Nice job.

[o2manyfish]

Dave.M,

Well it's been a good weekend.... 4 out of 6 have been caught with little effort on my part. The largest ones were caught first. While watching them intensely trying to catch them it seems like they were pretty bossy with each other when it came to food.

So the last 2 were driven away from the food (in the trap) the most by the other sky blue damsels.

I'm guessing it will take awhile before the 2 remaining get comfortable enough to start aggressively going after the food.

Dave's Ugly Skyblue(not really) Damsels


Oddly enough the one oddball fish in the tank, the gold molly, spends a bunch of time in the trap just hanging out waiting for more food to be put in.

Dave B

[o2manyfish]

MebeKnob,

Glad you made it to the end and like the final product.

Dave B

[A_CoupleClowns]

Any updates? I just read the whole thread front to back, talk about coming back from the ashes and several times at that. Good work! Your tank is amazing on many levels.

I have a question for you, what kind of overflow design are you using and how does the water make its way out to the outdoor sump? Is it quiet?

We are setting up a 400g (96x36x27h) with a 300 gallon stock tank basement sump (located on other end of the house) and I am trying to figure out what to do about over flows and drain noise with the horizontal runs. I want the display to be as quiet as possible in the living room.

[o2manyfish]

A CoupleClowns,

The overflow is in the back left corner of the tank. I believe it's 6" from front to back,24" straight along the back wall and then another 6" that's at a 45 degree angle going to the back wall. I wanted lots of surface area for when the surge cycled.

In the overflow I put 3 2" schd 80 bulkheads. 2 of them are used for the overflow. 1 is a 2" pipe that is about 27" tall that has a 3" pipe cap around it and a vent in the cap that goes to outside. The second overflow starts as a 2" and then goes to a 3" pipe that is 27" tall with a 4" cap with a 4" piece of pipe that goes about 20"+ to pull from the bottom of the over flow. Normally there is about 2400gph running through the overflow and it's pretty close to silent. When the surge cycles it dumps an extra 26g into the tank which the overflows take out in probably less than 10 seconds. Depending how clean/clear the vent lines are from the caps sometimes there is a little bit of growling from the overflow at the end of the surge cycle.

The 2 2" lines that exit the overflow run 2' under the tank, then about 3' to outside then about 10' to the end of the sump outside. Both overflow pipes have an up and over at the end of the line so that the overflow pipe has pressure. I use that pressure to gravity feed the skimmer and the GFO reactor.


As for a tank update. The tank is doing really well. As always with a reef tank there seems to be some kind of an issue. A month ago over a weekend my giant birdsnest turned to jelly and took out a big stag colony next to it. The birdsnest I was planning on cutting in 1/2 and giving away a bunch of frags, when I pulled the skeleton out it was about 16"x12" --- it was much bigger than I realized. I have no idea why it went south, I have plenty of other more sensitive corals that didn't seem to have any issue.

The fish are all doing well!

Dave B

[A_CoupleClowns]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Wow that is a pretty technical overflow setup! With the Carlson I am sure it needs to be. Definatly not easily recreated, shoot lol.

What kind of drop do you have from the overflow on the tank to the sump?

Yeah always seems to be some type of issue with reef tanks. I just lost a really nice colony of high end Palys for no apparent reason last week. All other Palys/zoas are thriving.

[AdamPLawrence]

Very inspirational thread. Thanks a lot for posting.

[o2manyfish]

On Thursday night around 11 I was walking past the tank and I noticed my pair of Target mandarins following and circling and getting ready for some hubba hubba action. I pulled out the camera and they got very camera shy. I shot some video which I will post after I edit it. In the meantime I took some photos.

Here is a brief shot of 1 of my 2 new Borbonius. Finally found a pair of small ones with good color. They just went in the tank on Thursday evening so still a little shy



One of my frags which in person is like deep purple velvet colored.



This is one of my recently acquired Aussie acro colonies which is coloring up nicely, the coral started a pale green, now it's turning turquoise, the branch tips are purple and the polyp openings are florescent green.


While shooting my pics I came across this guy lurking in the stags with a couple of fins hanging out of his mouth.


Tonight I was staring at the tank trying to catch a glimpse of my new Borbonius, and look what I find in my acro !!!





And I am thrilled to say that when I fed the tank Chefzilla's Chowdown tonight I definitely saw the little guy eating. The male still seems to have a full mouth. Hopefully this first guy is safe in the acro and he has some brothers and sisters come join him.



And here are some overall current status shots of the tank.

[dave.m]

Crash? What crash? Looks like you have more than recovered from last year. Congrats!

Dave.M

[Keith Thomson]

Tank looks amazing. What's the trick in keeping the xenia under control.
Keith

[slief]

Originally Posted by dave.m

Crash? What crash? Looks like you have more than recovered from last year. Congrats!

Dave.M

No kidding!

The tank is looking great!

[o2manyfish]

Dave.M, ---- Thanks, it wasn't too hard. I just postponed buying a new car and now the tank is restocked

Kieth - I don't know if there is a trick to keeping it under control. I find that every 2 to 4 weeks I go in and just start pulling whatever is getting to close to my acros. This last week, the night before the photos and videos I used a pair of scissors and cut out over 125 heads of xenia out of the tank. On the left hand side of the tank is a developing colony of Red Planet and behind it is the shell of a 6"+ maxima clam. I lost it back in September when I was dealing with a family health crisis and the xenia litterally grew across the shell of the clam. I thought xenia on the clam shell was cool. But when I let it go unchecked it covered the entire shell, and grew up on the lip and then across the opening. I am watching to see if the base tissue from where I cut the xenia with the scissors wastes away or develops new heads.


Scott - Thanks !!!

[o2manyfish]

When I spotted the Target mandarins circling each other on Thurs night I pulled out the camera and shot some video. Sorry guys no steady beauty shots - just a tired guy trying to hold the camera steady.....




Dave B