My 225g Build Thread

 

I also was having some issues with blowing sand and a couple of corals not opening all the way; I am hoping the reaquascaping will address those issues.

 

 

The gyre thing worked pretty well - actually, a little too well... It was creating sand dunes in the tank and partially burying stuff, and exposing other parts of the sand bed.

 

Another downside to having a long, narrow and steep island "wall" was that it was hard to place corals without them being in the shadow of the rock wall... unless they were near the top of the rockwork.

 

Lastly, building a stand-alone rock island without any support or tank surface to lean on... well, things would fall down alot, especially when I tried to clean the front glass. There was only maybe 8 inches between the front of the island and the tank glass; trying to manuever the acrylic scrapers down to the sandbed line usually meant knocking something over and kicking up a sandstorm...

 

 

So, I went a little "retro" and used my single center overflow as the support for a single large rockpile right in the center of the tank... keeping an eye on not placing any rock too close to the front glass, or the side panels either. Plenty of swimming room on both sides of the rockpile.

 

 

I think it turned out OK:

 

 

 

I have (3) Koralias coming off the overflow; right now (2) # 4s and a # 3, but I will go to all # 4s once i find a flow nozzle for the middle #4 - without the nozzle there is too much "splash" against the water surface and it is rather noisy... also have (2) Koralia # 3s; 1 near the bottom corner on each side... I tried going without, but started getting a littel cyano in the front and rear corners of the tank. I turned the corner Koralias upsdie down so the power cord goes down in to the sand bed, instead of up the back wall of the tank. I routed all the wiring so that most of it is hidden under sand or behind rock. Makes for a neater - looking setup, I think...

 

 

 

 

 

I really have to get a better camera... these shots look plain "dull" compared to the tank in person. Way too subdued; no "shimmer", too much washed out colors.

 

Anyway, here is the front view in sections:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the corals are still a little unhappy at being moved (like that big Toadstool Leather and the Duncans), but things are settling in nicely.

 

From the sides, you can see there is still plenty of open space for the Tangs to swim around:

 

 

 

 

 

Corals are coming along nicely... have a few new ones since last time (I think):

 

 

A nice Blastomussa colony

 

 

 

 

Some purple Acans

 

 

 

A decent sized Pavona colony

 

 

 

Some Blue Candycanes to go with the blue-green ones I already had:

 

 

 

Everybody else is doing great!

 

Remember these bleached-out Hammer Corals that I salvaged from a KSL ad tank being torn down a couple months back?

 

 

 

Well, look at them now  -

 

 

 

 

Will's Gorgonian has opened up nicely

 

 

 

Electric - green Trachy looks sharp

 

 

 

Red / Green Open Brain is fluffed out

 

 

 

 

 

These 2 famous jbutler Acan colonies are doing fabulously

 

 

 

 

 

The Sunset Monti is going strong, fully polyped out and starting to grow over the live rock - but the Superman (Spiderman?) part is shrinking away... not sure why

 

 

 

 

Blue/green Candys are holding there own

 

 

 

Orange Fungia and Gold Torch are both doing fine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow scroll contrasts nicely with Bronze Kenya Tree

 

 

 

 

Monti Cap is not only getting wider, it is getting thicker on the rim

 

 

 

 

"Frag station" has the Purple Milli, Meteor Shower, Green Eye Favia and Tri Color frags all doing well

 

 

 

 

"Clamenza"  is still HUUUUGE

 

 

 

 

This Yellow Acro is really more yellow - green, but still pretty neat

 

 

 

 

This Acro I got from Steve (CapnMorgan) at the Fragging Demo back in October... at the time it was mostly brown with a little pale green on the tips. Now it has colored up to a really nice semi - neon green most of the way down all the branches

 

 

 

Neon Green Candys

 

 

 

 

And, of course - the Scoly Brothers

 

 

 

 

All waaay better in person... Santa has to bring me a better camera

 

 

 

 

I also did a 40 g water change over the weekend (first one in 3 months ); I have been changing out the carbon in the reactor regularly, though (every 2 weeks)...

 

Tested my parameters and here is what I got:

 

 

SG =        1.0255

Temp =    76.0 - 78.4 (24 hr cycle)

pH =         8.1

dKH =       10.5

nH3 =       0

nO2 =       0

nO3 =       0

pO4 =       0

Ca =         420 ppm

Mg =         1360 pm

Io  =          0.30 ppm

 

The only casualty I had was Chad's big yellow Fungia Plate ... I t was fine for about 2 weeks - I even fed it chopped silversides twice - then it just basically RTNed overnight... Woke up one morning to skeleton...

 

I saved the skeleton up near the top middle to see if any babies regenerate out of it. Hey, you never know...

 

 

Otherwise, things are looking pretty good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when the tank was torn down I recall  Chad commenting on how 'clean' the lower portion of the sandbed looked, how there was no smells, etc.

 

The only reason I did not go with a plenum on my current 93 Cube system is that I went with a shallow sandbed (2" - 3") and a finer grade of sand, since I wanted to keep more wrasses in this setup.