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jrlafrance
07-03-2007, 08:25 PM
OK, long overdue, but I think we've got our tank under control now, and it's starting to look pretty good! After looking at so many of your tanks, and seeing where we were lacking, we realized that we had to take this to heart, and do it right.

In the beginning there was nothing (except a book case against the wall). Then on April 30, we bought our vessel. A 60 gallon monster someone couldn't handle. It came with the following items:

Octopus NW 110 skimmer
Acrylic sump with bio-balls and Rio2100 return pump
2x Rio1700 powerheads
Overflow basket
stock flourescent lighting
about 2" sand across the bottom
stained Pine stand

We thought we were in Heaven, getting all this gear for $200!! Boy were we in for a shock. We knew nothing about aquariums, much less saltwater tanks or even reef tanks!

We took the sand out, and cleaned it, by means of rinsing it in a big bin. Then we put it back in, filled it with salt water. Then we bought some LR at a LFS, rockscaped it, and.....wha-la!
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9219/p5010001fs1.jpg
We had a reef tank! Ha ha ha...

After talking to Chris (daChrisdude) at my LFS some, and finding out about this forum, I quickly registered, and started asking questions regarding this and that. Simple questions in my mind, but childish, uneducated questions for most of you. After getting my a** handed to me on a plate, I laid low, read, and read some more. Then when I was done, I read some more did more research. We started getting some better equipment (current equipement in signature). Both of the Rio PH's went out. We replaced those with MJ900's. We replaced the bio-balls with LR. We did this, and changed that, modified that toilet thingy, and now, 2 months later we have this:

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3905/p7020029px2.jpg

Left Side:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2530/p7020065cz7.jpg

Right Side:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7333/p7020066zv6.jpg

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/7006/p7020045sf0.jpg

We are still a little light on the LR (about 70lbs), so that will be a work in progress. We have also added 15lbs of sand to raise the SB up some. After a failed experiment with a Diamond Goby, I installed a PVC "foundation" into the sand, that the rocks sit on. After the Diamond Goby commited suicide we got a pair of Gold headed Sleeper Gobies, and have had no problems with the rocks collapsing!

Livestock:

True Percula "Mrs. Nemo" (I have a 5 year old!)
Black Percula (LFS guy told us it was a true perc) "Mr. Nemo"
Purple pseudochromis "Purple"
5x Green Chromis (used to be 6, but found 1 in my overflow this morning)
2x Gobies
Coral Beauty "Beauty"
Coral Banded Shrimp "Coral"
Blood Red Fire Shrimp "Red"
Skunk cleaner shrimp "Jacque" (character in Nemo)
Peppermint shrimp "Mint"
Sebae anemone "Mrs.A"
Frogspawn "Mr. Frog" or "Froggie"
Green Bubble tip anemone "Bubbles"
Many zoas
Hammer coral "Hammer"
Pulsing Xenia
Candy cane Polyp
Sun coral "Sun"
Green flourescent mushrooms
Feather Duster
Superman Duane (compliments of Harold)
Pink birdsnest
Hard coral I got from SDGuy (can't think of the name right now)

Misc pictures:
Mr.A (about 1.5 months old):
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/7339/p7020060wc7.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3500/p7020063lr4.jpg

Mr. Bubbles (purchased from demetre...doing great!):
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/1374/p7020051rp7.jpg

Froggie:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3097/p7020042bf0.jpg

Xenia:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3829/p7020037rf2.jpg

jrlafrance
07-03-2007, 08:26 PM
Feather Duster:
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6978/p7020048au6.jpg

Hammer:
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/9561/p7020055aw5.jpg

Birdsnest:
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/8185/p7020057og0.jpg

Green Mushroom:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3876/p7020033ca8.jpg

Zoas:
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4332/p7020034ne5.jpg
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/396/p7020043ig4.jpg
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/3412/p7020044gp0.jpg
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/8229/p7020046wd6.jpg
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/3456/p7020047vf3.jpg

jrlafrance
07-03-2007, 08:27 PM
Superman (sorry, I can't get very close):
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8425/p7020036qh9.jpg

Goby pretending not to be shy:
http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/9089/p7020050ra8.jpg

Blury shot of the True perc and Coral beuaty:
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/1120/p7020061hj7.jpg

Before shot the first day we had Mr. A:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5503/p5220003om5.jpg

Redeye
07-03-2007, 08:34 PM
lovely tank

SDguy
07-03-2007, 08:42 PM
Sweet tank! That anemone is beautiful!

Big Brother
07-03-2007, 08:58 PM
wow thats some amazing progress on that H. Crispa.

nice work

TripleP
07-03-2007, 09:06 PM
Your looking good there

swissfish
07-03-2007, 09:17 PM
ai like

iwantone
07-03-2007, 09:22 PM
I wouldn't add any more live rock. I like the way it is. If you want more height use pvc tripods, that way you'll get good flow and not have to have any rock on the back wall. I think a lot of wall aquariums fail because detiritus builds up behind the rocks leaning on the wall. Just a thought....

DaChrisDude
07-03-2007, 10:49 PM
Very nice James!! Certainly a lot more filled in than the first time I came by and checked it out!

Tank is looking very good, glad to see things are doing so well. Keep it up!

rollinghead
07-04-2007, 07:31 AM
Great tank and outstanding conduct and loyality to the hobby! Brotherman if U would like to come see my 240 gal. I would love to meet U and give U a free frag to make it worth your while! U can PM me at any time with any ?'s (about this hobby :D ) and I will answer it if I can no problem! Hope to see U soon!

jrlafrance
07-05-2007, 01:19 PM
Wow, thanks for the kind words everyone. I realize that we have a very new tank, but its very cool to see it in the state it currently is in. I would like to add a couple of things also.

Rockscape/flow: The lowest tier of rocks is about 1-2" from the back glass, and the tiers above slowly stack to the back glass. We have two power heads, one on each side. The one on the left is up high, and directing the flow to the middle of the front glass. The one on the right is low, and directing the flow behind the rocks. Basically what I'm creating is a circular flow. It's not that basic though. I've got both powerheads connected to a JBJ Ocean Pulse - DUO Wavemaker on timers set at 30 seconds each. Even though the flow is going in one direction, when each pump is turned on, the water that is drawn into the pump creates a flow going in the opposite direction for a couple of seconds. You can see this in the way the Xenia, and the anemones sway in the water. Also, with the powerhead aimed behind the rocks, it eliminates stagnation back there.

Husbandry: During out last re-aquascape, we took the rocks out, toothbrushed them off, did a 50% water change, and siphoned out as much debris as we could from the sand surface. That was one week ago, and the tank was crystal clear after that. Henceforth, when we do WC's we'll blow off the rocks, and siphon out as much debris as possible. In addition to this, we added another layer of filtering. The original overflow had a circular filter surrounding the down pipe. Once I modified it to eliminate the gurgling sounds, that filter was gone. I cut a square piece to fit over that new pipe, with a hole in the top for the air tube to come out of (filter #1). When the water flows to the sump, there is a filter there, but pretty pourous (filter #2). When the water gets through there, we put some egg crate on top of our rocks in the sump, and on top of the egg crate put a finer filter there (filter #3). It has captured tons of fine debris which I was complaining about in a different thread "clicky" (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26490).

I will add a couple of pics of our sun coral (which my wife reminded me I hadn't included before), tonight.

I would like to throw a couple of special shout-outs to daChrisdude and victortrav for all their support, and sharing of their knowledge in the hobby. I'm gonna miss picking at your brain Chris, hope you decide to stay down here!

victortrav
07-05-2007, 01:28 PM
behold what we have here from that first day of posting A+++ james im going to have to take a trip up to see all the fruits of your labor. I am very impressed with what you have going on there keep it up.

barometer
07-05-2007, 01:41 PM
Wow James,

You've always said how much of a noob you are (we're at about the same level ;) ) and from these pics I don't see it. You sure do have a great start here. Much further along than I am. This is truly an inspiration to me, AWESOME JOB! Can't wait to watch it mature :)

demetre
07-05-2007, 07:50 PM
Nice! Looks like "Mr. Bubbles" is doing great in there! Looks like it found a spot it likes too, great looking tank! :)

klevur1
10-06-2007, 09:59 AM
sweet! guna get even betR w/ time i bet.. especially when things have grown and you add more WOO! what are you using to affix your frags to the larger pieces of LR? pm me if u can let me know. gracias!

jrlafrance
01-04-2008, 12:09 AM
OK, time for an update!

It's been 6 months since I last posted tank photos, and things have changed quite a bit.

Lets start out with the FTS:
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6067/p1030002ey8.jpg

Some new Zoas:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/46/p1030005dy2.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9066/p1020028bk5.jpg

Other pics:
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/2919/p1030004br3.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/1093/p1030007nm7.jpg

Our favorite host:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/195/pc170011gl3.jpg

Some new inverts:
Pom Pom crab with egg sac:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7413/pc230004ny0.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8342/p1020015bb4.jpg

My favorite hermit:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9942/p1020030qo7.jpg

A new friendship formed:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/2479/p1020033nb5.jpg

jrlafrance
01-04-2008, 12:10 AM
Our clown pair is spawning about every 2.5 weeks: (bad pic, but it shows the newly laid orange eggs, on the underside of the shelf)
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/5990/pc170002fl3.jpg

We're thinking about getting a macro lens for some better close-ups, but I think my 5 year old digital still does pretty well!

Some things we've changed since setting up our tank:
- no more skimming. Our sump I figured out is only about 6 gallons. I couldn't get a good grasp on keeping the skimmer level consistant, so one day I turned it off. Then a couple of weeks later, took it out of the sump to increase water volume. We've been skimmerless for about 2 months now, with seemingly no adverse affects. :)
- we've increased out W/C's to 13 gallons, up from 10.
- the last couple of W/C's we've blown detritus off the rocks, and it definitely helps increase water clarity (husbandry at it's simplest)
- I've been more concientious of my feedings, and rotating the food (meaty flakes, green flakes, mysis).

This hobby has been great so far, and I have no doubt that I'll be hooked for many years to come!

Thanks for looking! :cool:

pnguy3n
01-04-2008, 12:12 AM
PomPom crabs are cool. Do you have any fishes that would munch on it?

jrlafrance
01-04-2008, 12:15 AM
PomPom crabs are cool. Do you have any fishes that would munch on it?
I've had it for a couple of weeks now, and don't believe any of my livestock would harm it naturally.

My most aggressive fish is the Coral Beauty (it likes to peck at my clams some times).

DaChrisDude
01-04-2008, 12:36 AM
Wow, very nice James! Certainly come a very long way - way to go.

The Pom Pom is super cute! I wanna get one of those...where'd you get it, and ~how much if you dont mind my asking.

Those anenome's are huge! I'm so incredibly jealous that you've got breeding clowns... so cool! Ever seen them survive long enough to hatch?

jrlafrance
01-04-2008, 08:37 AM
Wow, very nice James! Certainly come a very long way - way to go.

The Pom Pom is super cute! I wanna get one of those...where'd you get it, and ~how much if you dont mind my asking.

Those anenome's are huge! I'm so incredibly jealous that you've got breeding clowns... so cool! Ever seen them survive long enough to hatch?
Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

Pom Pom crab was purchased at AW for $20. When I bought it, I didn't realize it had the egg sac, so even though the likelyhood of offspring is next to nothing, it was still a cool surprise.

After eggs are laid, the last batch took approximately 11 days to hatch. I looked in on them everyday, several times a day. They were there when I went to bed one night, and gone when I woke up, so I've not seen them "hatch". One thing we've been interested in getting is a red light to look at the tank at night. Apparently the animals in the tank can't see the red light, so you're not disturbing them, but it allows you to see what's happening. Anyone have any additional info on this, or ideas on where to get such a light?

acbaldwin
01-04-2008, 08:58 AM
Looking awesome James!! I think you need a bigger tank!
I like the pompom crab, I'll have to add that to my livestock list.