Follow my Oceanic 144g half circle reef tanks progress. 
Long time no update!
Posted 05/19/2012 at 10:50 PM by Aaarrrggg
Doesn't time fly?! I can't believe it's been over 2 and a half months! Sorry for my lack of updates. Work's been hectic and tbh not that much as been happening in the tank. I know it sounds nuts but I still only have 5 relatively small fish in a 144g!
My main concern has been QTing. I took down my Elos Mini (it's too nice a tank to keep using as a QT) and diligently cycled a cheap 20g system in the utility room. Technically it's been ready for fish for a while now, and I've even seen a few fish at the LFS that peaked my interest; but they've never been quite charming enough to tempt me through 3-4 weeks of QT. It's bad I know, I'm just so terrified of buying something and then killing it with too many meds and/or not enough water changes!
Luckily for me one of our local reef club members just opened a new business selling pre-QTed fish; like Divers Den, but in Austin! Amazing!
I'm just going to buy all my fish through them now. I've got my first couple of orders over there now, so if all goes well you should be hearing about them in 2-3 weeks.
I did have a couple of new arrivals since I last posted; 2 pairs of shrimp:
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cleaner-shrimp-bagged.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/fire-shrimp-bagged.jpg[/IMG]
The skunks have been rather sweet together, hanging under the same shelf at nighttime. I'm afraid I can't say the same for the fires though...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/dead-fire-shrimp.jpg[/IMG]
Cannibal! (This was taken only an hour or so after adding them!)
I guess the other reason for the lack of updates is the tank was looking a bit blurgh. I'm not sure if it's something that just happens when you use dry rocks to start out, but both this tank and the nano before it have come down with a nasty case of cyano around the 5mth mark. I left it for ages hoping it would sort itself out, and if I'm honest, out of morbid curiosity...
Not too bad...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano1.jpg[/IMG]
Hmmm kinda gross...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano2.jpg[/IMG]
...ARGH!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano3.jpg[/IMG]
Here was the FTS from March 11th. You can't see it so well in this but the sand was pretty lousy with cyano and diatoms.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/2012-3-11.jpg[/IMG]
My main concern has been QTing. I took down my Elos Mini (it's too nice a tank to keep using as a QT) and diligently cycled a cheap 20g system in the utility room. Technically it's been ready for fish for a while now, and I've even seen a few fish at the LFS that peaked my interest; but they've never been quite charming enough to tempt me through 3-4 weeks of QT. It's bad I know, I'm just so terrified of buying something and then killing it with too many meds and/or not enough water changes!
Luckily for me one of our local reef club members just opened a new business selling pre-QTed fish; like Divers Den, but in Austin! Amazing!
I'm just going to buy all my fish through them now. I've got my first couple of orders over there now, so if all goes well you should be hearing about them in 2-3 weeks.I did have a couple of new arrivals since I last posted; 2 pairs of shrimp:
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cleaner-shrimp-bagged.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/fire-shrimp-bagged.jpg[/IMG]
The skunks have been rather sweet together, hanging under the same shelf at nighttime. I'm afraid I can't say the same for the fires though...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/dead-fire-shrimp.jpg[/IMG]
Cannibal! (This was taken only an hour or so after adding them!)
I guess the other reason for the lack of updates is the tank was looking a bit blurgh. I'm not sure if it's something that just happens when you use dry rocks to start out, but both this tank and the nano before it have come down with a nasty case of cyano around the 5mth mark. I left it for ages hoping it would sort itself out, and if I'm honest, out of morbid curiosity...
Not too bad...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano1.jpg[/IMG]
Hmmm kinda gross...
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano2.jpg[/IMG]
...ARGH!
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/cyano3.jpg[/IMG]
Here was the FTS from March 11th. You can't see it so well in this but the sand was pretty lousy with cyano and diatoms.
[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/TheAaarrrggg/2012-3-11.jpg[/IMG]
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