Mark's 80 gallon build

[imustbenuts]

I'm considering one of those for a frag/coral quarantine. Any reason to run them like that instead of lengthwise with the width?

I have a center overflow on my 90 too and hate it. Takes up way too much room. With the 18" depth I really need to change mine or put in a synergy reef overflow,SRO. I have one sitting on the floor but am contemplating an upgrade instead and using the SRO on the new tank. I would probably do a 60x30 if I did.

[pellikan]

Hey Nuts, I think one of the mounting options for the Hydra is lengthwise. I bought my used and they came mounted as you see in the pic. I figured that if it worked for the previous owner it would work for me and be less work than trying to take the mounting hardware apart and re-orient. Check the AI website for mounting options before you pull the trigger. I hear you about the size of the overflow taking up a lot of room. At least it allowed me to get my plumbing in there, after that the size was bothersome. A 60x30 sounds like a nice sized tank. I should have gone with the 120 G instead of this one, my stand will accommodate it. You know how it gets in the beginning, you want the best but the $$ starts flying out the door and you feel that you need to conserve somewhere. I like the little catwalk on the front of the stand this smaller size tank allows but I'd like the space in the tank when trying to aquascape too. Everything is a compromise in the end.

[pellikan]

I continue to work on restocking my tank. I've added a shrimp goby and pistol shrimp combo. The goby promptly disappeared into the rockwork and hasn't been seen since. At least the shrimp stayed right up front. If the goby ever comes out of hiding and joins his buddy I'll be set up nice for viewing. I also added a diamond goby. I like how he keeps the sand looking clean. He's only been in the tank a few days so is still skittish and I only see him once in a while. The fathead anthias I got was fine for a month, now he has a bulging eye. He's still eating like a pig so I'll leave him in the tank and hope. I feel like trying to catch and hospitalize him would be more traumatic, and stress might exacerbate his condition. Unless he's eating he's hiding behind the rocks too. So, while I've now got 5 fish I usually only see the two clowns. I need to get me some middle swimmers!

[imustbenuts]

Keep up the faith! Are you putting your new fish through Quarantine?

[imustbenuts]

My new additions.

[pellikan]

I had a Kole, he was pretty cool once he settled into the tank. Last time I tried PJ Cardinals. This time I'm thinking Banggai

To answer your question, yeah, I've been putting all my fish into qt.

[imustbenuts]

I just noticed a few spots on the fins of the Kole Tang. I started reducing the SG in the QT. I have cupramine just in case but I hate using copper if I don't have to. Hopefully hyposalinity will do the trick.

[pellikan]

Nutsy; I'm glad for you that your kole is in qt. When my tank crashed the kole was the first to get spots and it went downhill rapidly from there. I think tangs are sensitive to stress and changes freak them out so much that their immunity is reduced. Copper is another stresser but it helps kill velvet/ich/whatever. I dunno, it's a toss-up either way. Keep an eye on your kole, if he stops eating well or the spots get worse then he's going downhill anyway so add the copper. Good luck.

As for my tank:
I haven't seen my shrimp goby for about a week, maybe a little more, I'm afraid he didn't make it. The pistol shrimp has moved too, not sure where he went but he was seen a couple days ago and doing well then. I think he just dug himself a new hole somewhere. I had wanted him up front where I could watch.

My diamond goby is doing well but still shy. He bolts whenever someone approaches the tank. Still, he's doing his job and the sand looks much better. In time he'll probably be a greedy pig like my last one was.

I still have high nitrates, the biopellets haven't kicked in yet and the jury is still out on them. I turned up the skimmer and have reduced the amount of food. I tried adding more pellets but the little fountain pump wasn't strong enough to tumble them. If the reactor does work, even somewhat, I'll spring for a real reactor that can tumble the recommended amount for my tank. At least the experiment hasn't been too expensive (yet).

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