180g reef Softy/LPS with Video

[RayAllen]

Following my yellow head eel drama ive decided to make my 180g a soft/LPS reef. Even took out the niger and hes gone to.

I visited ErikH's house Sunday night and although seeing his 220g tank before this time it really struck a cord and I decided I want a reef with a bunch of little fish and color! Thanks a lot Erik your tank pushed me over to the large reefside!:ph34r:

Reworked the rockscape after destroying it last night. Not real happy with it at the moment, but I will work on that.

Much easier and better to be able to rockscape without water in a tank, im up to my armpits in water.

Only tank inhabitant is a 10-12" harmless snowflake.

I will be combining my BC29 into the 180g so those corals and fish will now be in a much larger home.

Pics to come when im happy with the new look.

[ErikH]

Cool man! :) Can't wait to see your progress

[Europhyllia]

That will be exciting!

[txav8r]

I knew you wouldn't leave it FOWLR for very long. LOL

[RayAllen]

I knew you wouldn't leave it FOWLR for very long. LOL

I think everyone knew!

Including myself; as soon as i decided to start adding softies.

[txav8r]

Ha ha! Looking forward to following along on the progress. What are your plans for lights? I think you have VHO's currently, Correct?

[Mr Cob]

Awesome Ray. Whatever you do will be great.

I did an all damsel tank once when I first started in the hobby it was a 55g and then upgraded them all to a 120g. It was one of my more enjoyable moments in the hobby, tons of color and lots of movement. There was always something going on in the tank and it was cheap to get my tank fully stocked with color. It was LR, softy and LPS under only VHO's. Just a thought. It was of course a pain to convert over to a peaceful tank when I decided to do that.

Look forward to pics and your progression.

[RayAllen]

Im going to stick with the VHO for a while, Its 420watts so it will take care of all the coral I have now and any softies I add. Im not a SPS fan so im not going that route so.

I do want to add some LEDs for moonlight. Would like to make a 60-72" DIY if I find the time to figure out how to do that using PVC and LEDs.

[RayAllen]

Rob not going damsel.

Once I move the bc29 over the stock fish list will be

Chalk Basselet
Flame Angel
Purple belly wrasse/ Lemon Meriagn (spelling)
Clarkii Clown
Tiny Snowflake eel

Want to add

Another wrasse or 2- not sure of species (reefsafe)
group of cardinals
Yellow tang or two (been in the hobby a while and have never had a yellow tang)
Another dwarf angel

Of corse none of that set in stone, i do want a variety of color and movement. Make sure I have something going on in all zones of the tank.

[Mr Cob]

A Yellow Watchman goby will add some movement down low (didn't see that zone covered beside the eel) ...and they make little caves....even better when you add a tiger pistol with it at the same time. I love watching my pair.

[RayAllen]

Current Corals includes the basics/easy coral

Yellow palys
Brown/Green Palys
Powder Blue Palys
Red Shrooms
Striped Green Shrooms
Hairy Shrooms
Blue with red spot shroom
Purple/Green Shroom
Orange Ric
Kenya Trees
Pulsating Xenia
Teal candycane colony
Cryptonite canycane coral
green Star Polyps
brown star polyps

Various Zoas
Green
eye of raw
bam bam
lime green zoas

I should take this time to thank my fellow maastards, not a single coral I posted was purchased. Some through trades, but no money paid for any of them. Sorry if I forget anyone but off the top of my head.

THANKS!
txav8r- Jack
Kristy and Mike
ErikH
StangChris

[RayAllen]

A Yellow Watchman goby will add some movement down low (didn't see that zone covered beside the eel) ...and they make little caves....even better when you add a tiger pistol with it at the same time. I love watching my pair.

Awesome thanks for the suggestion, watchman would also keep the sand bed stirred. I love gobies. May even ad a clown goby. I had a yellow clown goby a couple of years back with the coolest personality.

[Big_Pun]

I have a large toadstool I'm going to get rid if soon. let me know. also I like the idea of dwarf angels, I have a cherub and coral beauty very colorful and fun to watch them swim around the whole tank.

[RayAllen]

Chris Just let me know about the toadstool. I have the perfect spot for it.

[RayAllen]

Some pics I took tonight.

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[RayAllen]

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[RayAllen]

and last the filtration. You can see the skimmer is really pulling out some nasty stuff. I also increased the fuge area to rougly 12x12

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[RayAllen]

The fish are loving their wide open space compared to the BioCube 29. As you can see they like to swim together at times.

[Europhyllia]

nice. when my clowns moved from the 29g they had lived in for years to the 120g they completely changed.

[hobogato]

nicely done ray :)

[Big_Pun]

how do like the Octopus skimmer. I'm very happy with mine best bang for the $$. rock work looks good

[RayAllen]

Thanks Folks.

Octopus skimmer is great. The 3rd one ive owned.

[RayAllen]

The newest members to the 180g reef. Picked them up from Gabes yesterday. In the last pic I somehow managed to get picture of all 6 of my fish in one shot.

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[lakers10]

Very Nice Ray..

[Mr Cob]

Looks great Ray! love the fish.

[Europhyllia]

oh I really like that chalk basslet. Stop posting pics of it -my tank is full...
Looks great! :)

[RayAllen]

My Newest edition

a 12-13" toadstool I got from stangchris, also a full tank shot so you can see its placement.
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[RayAllen]

Just got back from Teebs place. Picked up a 4 line, Red Corris and Juvi X-Mas wrasse.

I love wrasses!

Bring the 180g fish list to

1 Clarkii Clown
1 Chalk Basselet
1 Yellow Tang
1 Yellow Clown Goby
1 Flame Angel
1 Purple belly wrasse
1 Four Line/Pink streak Wrasse
1 Red Corris Wrasse
1 Juvi Christmas wrasse
1 small snowflake eel
1 Coral banded Shrimp

All of my fish besides the eel are juvies 3" or smaller which is kind of cool because I get to experience them growing up. Look forward to a year from now to see how the tank and its inhabitants has matured & grown.

[ErikH]

Oh man that looks great Ray!

[hobogato]

man, that really looks nice ray! love all the open swimming room for the fish

[RayAllen]

thanks guys, this fish love all the open space.

[Big_Pun]

toadstool looks good glad its in a bigger home

[RayAllen]

yea, its foot/stock is in a cave so only the head sticks out. Pretty cool

[Europhyllia]

I am glad the toadstool finally found a worthy home too (no more snipping and chopping...lol)
Looks great. Here's to happy fish! :)

[Big_Pun]

I am glad the toadstool finally found a worthy home too (no more snipping and chopping...lol)
Looks great. Here's to happy fish! :)

actually this one was never touched i had a bigger one i sold a while back

[RayAllen]

yep, Chris had 2 toadstools. This one he never posted for sale, I happened to pick something else up from him and he asked if I would like to have it. As you can see I wanted it :)

Its here to stay, Love it when they get to 18" + a cool show peice.

[txav8r]

Looks really nice, Ray! Love the open space!

[Gseclipse02]

Its here to stay, Love it when they get to 18" + a cool show peice.

its a cool show peice but takes up so much room lol i had to move mine into the corner of my tank and now she looks like a taco

[RayAllen]

its a cool show peice but takes up so much room lol i had to move mine into the corner of my tank and now she looks like a taco

Thats one of the reasons why I placed it where it is. There is no coral around it at least in a 5-6" diameter so its has space to grow in a complete circle. The closest corals are some bam bam zoas to its right which are ~6" away and ~6" above a cryptonite candy cane and thats it. Going to give it the space it needs.

[RayAllen]

Think im going to move the bam bams though so that they do not spread into the toadstool future space....

[RayAllen]

Oct Update

On Sept 26 I picked up a large yellow tang from Z28pwr 4-5" about 1" thick. Im trying to get some picks of the new wrasses Pink streak, Juvi X-mas and a Red corris in transition from juvi to adult but man are they fast. My camera has a hard to catching them.

Here are some picks I took with in the last few days.

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[txav8r]

Looking good Ray!

[RayAllen]

A few more 971697159714

[RayAllen]

Thanks Jack,

All in all im happy with it. Still have the occasional diatoms on the sand bed. Really need to go buy a more effecient cleaning crew. Im down to just a few snails. The wrasses make quick work of the hermits.

[RayAllen]

Im very happy that the two yellow tangs get along so well, especially with the size differnce. The large one is 2-3X larger.

[Kristy]

Wow Ray... the tank looks great. Love all the color with the new additions!

If you add a few more snails and a diamond goby, your sand will be snow white.

[RayAllen]

Kristy Ive been thinking of a diamond goby may have to pick one up soon. The tank has really come alive with the new fish.

Right now the red corris is constantly picking at the sand, causing mini sand storms. Teeb assured me that he is a great ridder of pest though so thats something I can live with.

[Europhyllia]

The yellow tangs are really adding some color to this. Nice!

[ErikH]

Looks really nice, it is coming along well!

[RayAllen]

After work today I decided to clean my Koralia Hydors, because they were getting pretty dirty. Cleaned them put them back in like ive done many times before, and just a few minutes ago walked over to look at the tank and found the small yellow tang stuck to the side of one of the hydor 3s dead. This was within a 3hr span, if I were to look just a little sooner I may have saved it.

Totally bummed, the little guy was perfectly healthy and eating very well. Must have swam just close enough to be sucked against it. Just odd that the day I decided clean the pump is the day it became stuck :(

They were pretty caked with algae and crud. When I cleaned them it could have helped increase the flow and the tang just happened to get close enough.....

[Reefer4ever]

Sorry to hear about your tang :(

[Europhyllia]

So sorry. But wow that's so weird!
I have a group of tiny pygmy gobies living right beneath my Vortech MP40s and they seem to be able to avoid them.

[Kristy]

Hmmm... gotta think that a tang in good health could have pulled itself off the powerhead, regardless of the improved flow. I once watched a newly released flame hawk swim around and attempt to perch on a Vortech powerhead and then get sucked hard against the casing with a look of total panic. I jumped in to help him, but before I could get there, he had pulled himself free and swam far away from that thing, a mistake not to be repeated! I've only seen fish that are dead or dying get stuck for real.

Sorry about your tang loss. If you intend to replace that smaller one, I'd do it immediately before your big guy decides he likes being the lone yellow tang.

[RayAllen]

If it was sick or weak there were no signs. It was swimming around and eating today. Really disappointed, going to see if I can find another later this week. You can clearly see from the above pics that it looked in good health. I took those pics this weekend.

[RayAllen]

I carefully observed all the fish this morning to make sure everyone was in good health. No signs of anything so they sm yellow tang getting stuck could have been a fluke.

Another guess maybe that he was being picked on and chased against the pump. The tank is in the entry room of my house so unless im in there i do not see the tank the majority of the day. You can not see it from my living/family room where we spend all of our time. When I do walk in there all the fish perk up and follow me, so their behavior is slightly altered when im in the room.

Just a guess....???

[Mr Cob]

That's too bad Ray. Sorry.

On a positive note....just browsed your pics and the tank looks amazing. I love all the color the fish add.

[RayAllen]

Thanks Rob,

Other than a few set backs im really happy with the tanks progress. Zoas are noticeably growing new heads, The Kryptonite candy can is doing awesome, now has three heads since moving from the biocube and all the other corals are thriving.

The flame angels health is actually what im most happy about. The last two ive owned over the last several years did not do well and this one ive had for a few months and its doing great. All the other fish as well, beside last nights loss..

[RayAllen]

Oct 25 Update

All fish are doing great. Noticing growth in just about every coral. Have ew rics, shrooms, zoas etc...
Also upgraded to a larger reef octopus 150 skimmer and its kicking butt, the 200model will not fit in my sump. The sump is on 12" wide.

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[RayAllen]

Havnt posted anything in 2months so figured it was time for a update. With the exception of losing my 4line wrasse to a leap out of the tank everything is growing fast and looks great.

I do not have a single colony or fish that has not grown which makes me very happy that the tank has found its happy place. Yuma has grown a baby. Nuclear green zoas that I got from Jack with only 2 heads that were not growing in his tank has 6 heads now. Today I added a Rasta Leather that has settled in nicely.

I added a pink spot goby about 4 weeks ago and its doing great, loves PE mysis. Thanks to the pink spot and red corris my sand bed has never looked better.

After several attempts to catch my yellow tang I decided on keeping it and it is doing extremely well and eat like a pig.

As far as equipment everything running like a champ. Got my new moonlights in the mail over the holdiay. We with three 3watt LEDs that are super powerful and bright! Now I see why people are going the LED route. Going to attach them to the canopy and fire them up tommorow. One will gover each island. Left, center, right.

Anyhow some current pics

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http://www.maast.org/images/misc/pencil.png

[RayAllen]

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[RayAllen]

New led moonlights, will go on the canopy tommorow. Ive already played with them and man do they make the neons pop!
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[Scream311]

Reef Is Looking Madd Crazy Ray. And glad to Hear you decided to keep the Tang. Every Reef Needs a Tang despite some Losses

[Mr Cob]

looks great Ray! Love the FTS. Tell us more about those LED...looks like the home depot or lowes kind? I saw some yesterday and thought about picking some up but they weren't cheap.

[RayAllen]

Rob I got a recommendation on these bulbs from another member on maast. Bought them from http://www.superbrightleds.com/

They are the kind you can screw into a standard bulb socket and will last up to 10,000hrs. I paid approx $9 for each bulb + shipping/tax and once I buy the sockets and wires which cant be more than $15, I will be in at around $60 which isnt bad at all for a DIY LED moonlight setup.

[RayAllen]

NOTE: ive never seen these bulbs at any homedepot or lowes.

[Mr Cob]

Yeah...check it out:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_120941-3-78621_0__?productId=3110481&Ntt=led+bulb&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dled%2Bbulb

They had all kinds to choose from. But like I said they weren't cheap.

[RayAllen]

Oh yea, a lot more than I spent.

[RayAllen]

tank looks a bit different after yesterday, at least the left side does. Bought some nice frogspawn 17heads at least, what I think is greenbay packer zoas, some purple/blue zoas and blue/purple shrooms.

Had to rearrange a bit to get them to fit.

Also installed my NEW LED moonlights and man does the tank look wicked at night. The zoas have the radioactive glow, INSANE! Really looks like a completely diffrent tank with only the moonlights. The fish seem to really enjoy them as well. The eel was swimming around and the clowns white stripes are bright.

Going to see if I can get a video tonight, dont think ive ever posted a vid before...

[ErikH]

::chants:: POST A VID! POST A VID! ::chants::

[Scream311]

Yo ! Where's the Vid Ray ? We are DYING to see that bad boyy. *Screaming*

[RayAllen]

made the vids last night, just need to upload them to photobucket or something. Will be up tonight for sure!

[Europhyllia]

Geesh Ray. We are waiting... :D

[RayAllen]

I have one uploading now, who knew it took a hour to upload a 4min video.....at this rate I will have them on there sometime tonight, lol.

[RayAllen]

Hope these work, I didnt make a vid with any cheezy music. You get to listen to me talk instead, lol

1st Vid Daylight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLwYlHHPetM

tLwYlHHPetM

2nd Vid Moonlight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDBMlnTUYOE

KDBMlnTUYOE

[Europhyllia]

" I didn't put them there" lol

Love the moon lights. :)

[RayAllen]

The scratches annoy the heck out of me so I have to make it known that I did not put them there, lol.

[Kristy]

Wow, those moonlight spotlights worked out perfect for you Ray! Glad that was so easy!

PS: Love that chalk basslet!

[Scream311]

Wow Ray your tank has really taken off ! Since the last time I saw it. Back when you had just set it up.

I dig The islands bro and I'm gonna have to order me some of those led lights as well. After seeing mike and kristys and now yours ! Whoo Nice

[RayAllen]

yep, the leds were definately what the tank was missing. That for the tip ;)

Now that the equipment is all out of the way im going to start adding more medium to high grade coral. Probably start weeding out some of the fast as weed growing corals I have.

[RayAllen]

Thanks James.

The leds rock, easy solution at a easy on the check book price.

[RayAllen]

I have 1 more video to upload.

I adjusted the white balance on my camera when taking vid with the moonlights. It takes away the blue light but really shows what the corals actually look like in person. Shows how they really glow.

You tube upload should take another 25-30min or so.

[txg8gxp]

Looks great. I really like the simple three islands. My next tank will have alot less rock for sure.

[ErikH]

Nice vids! :)

Don't know what y'all are doing New Years Eve but we're going to my cousins for BBQ and beer!

[RayAllen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9bVElSnhPA

z9bVElSnhPA

Last vid, with white balance adjustment.

[RayAllen]

sent you a pm Erik, I just re-read your above post and answered my own question...

[RayAllen]

year 2011 update

Tanks doing well, everything growing like wildfire

Some big changes coming. Just purchased 2 250watt PFO HQI pendants with IceCap ballast, should be here next week. Going to run 20ks for now. With that said I have to modify the canopy and make it taller, at least 8" or so.

Lighting will be a total wattage of 780watts. 2 250watt MH and 280watts of Actinic VHO 2 60" bulbs

Making changes to the coral list. Removing some of the fast growing stuff powder blues, yellow stars, brown/green pallys, xenia and kenya trees are all going to new homes.

Tank will not primarily house zoas, various shrooms/rics/yumas, LPS and some easier/lower maintance SPS. Probably give a clam ago again to, not sure with the Flame Angel.

Rock work/aquascape is about to get a major over hall as well.

Will update with pics when I get all this done!

[ShAgMaN]

Nice tank Ray. I was going to tell you that you will be getting some SPS sooner or later, but you beat me to the punch on your last post (by less than 3 hrs.) Cool man!

Oh, and I see higher end/maintenance SPS in your future.

[txav8r]

Embedded the videos for you Ray. Looking good!

[RayAllen]

Thanks Shagman, its really coming along nicely. Ive always said im not much of a fan of SPS, but SPS have some crazy unreal colors that you just can't get with Softies and LPS.

Thanks for embedding those vids Jack, wasnt sure how to do that.

[ErikH]

Were going to q it up again soon... Y'all need to invite us over to chill sometime so we can scheck it oot!

[RayAllen]

Were going to q it up again soon... Y'all need to invite us over to chill sometime so we can scheck it oot!

For sure man, On a day im not having a allergy fit. Mountain cedar and cats not a good combo for me, lol.

We will get with you guys here soon and get something planned.

[RayAllen]

Update

Metal Halides are finally on, Canopy altered and holding two 60" VHOs. Current bulbs are 2 250w 10ks and the 2 VHOs- 1 Actinic and 1 50/50 which helps the color a little.

Plan on replacing all bulbs with 2 250w 12k Reefux or 14k phoenix and the VHOs will both be actinic. Just have to buy them all.

All powered by ICECAP ballast- 2 250watt MH ballast and 1 660.
Rockwork also a bit different. There are now 4 different SPS in the tank, do not ask me to name them. I have no idea.

Some pics to show the color and the setup

With VHOs on the tank, 10k MH are extremely yellow. UGLY

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With the VHOs on it helps a little
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All in all, im very happy with everything. Once i get a different color spectrum bulb it will give it a more crisp white/blue look.

[hobogato]

lookin good ray!

[Europhyllia]

Can't believe you let it go! It was definitely on its way to awesome~!