280 gallon tank project has begun!!!!!!

[Travis]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I will have some new pics soon. I actually cleaned the coralline off the front of the tank before I left on vacation. It took about 2 hours. Over half of the front was literally covered with a solid plate of coralline. And it wasn't more than 4 weeks ago that I last cleaned it. This coralline stuff is really becoming a nuisance. So now that the tank is clean I will try to get a couple pics this week.

In regards to the Seachem kits, I don't know why they don't just include the same tips. Maybe Salifert has a patent on them???? But they obviously know their test kits are less accurate because they don't have the tips. I will refrain from any other comments on the kits until I get some time to perform some more tests with them, hopefully in the next couple days.

The BK has been up and running for a few hours now. Of course, the first thing I did when I got home was ran downstairs and started taking everything out of the sump so I could get the sump out and the BK in. The pump on this skimmer is performing the exact same as the pump on the broken one I got. With the nozzle in the "recommended" position, it just seems really weak. But other BK owners say you just need to let things break in for a couple weeks before seeing the true power. So I will try not to jump to any conclusions until a couple weeks have passed. I am impressed that there is already a nice foam head that has formed after only a few hours.

arconom, I will have your skimmer packed up and on its way back to you this week. Thanks again for letting me borrow it. That is one awesome little skimmer.

Lunch, your skimmer is ready to go when you want it. I am guessing you will just grab it when you are down for the meeting next weekend.

Sorry I don't have much else to share right now. Catching up on subscribed threads is a real pain after you are away from the computer for a few days.

[melev]

Tell me about it!

[Lunchbucket]

Travis - hope your holiday was good. glad you got the BK hooked up. please get pics and post as a lot of people are wanting to know about taht bad boy.

weak?? hope the break-in time allows it to do more...did it last time? what is a little weak on it?

later
Lunchbucket

[Travis]

No use in posting pics right now. As far as performance goes, everything looks the same as last time.

[Travis]

How about some growth pics.....

Acropora suharsanoi
10-26-04


12-27-05


Acropora sp. (turquoise stag)
12-10-04


12-27-05

[Travis]

Acropora nana
12-10-04


12-27-05


Acropora tortuosa (cali/ORA tort)
12-10-04


12-27-05

[Travis]

And just for fun, an Idaho grape frag I picked up when I went to see otolith's tank in Minneapolis.



BTW, otolith, you inspired me to mount some monti cap frags to my back wall. That and I pretty much ran out of places on my rocks.

[melev]

Nice growth for one year!

[Travis]

Thanks Marc. Some things grow fast. Some grow ok. And some grow oh so sloooooooow.

[Travis]

Some more.......

Acropora efflorescens
12-10-04


12-27-05



Acropora solitaryensis (LE soli)
2-18-05


12-27-05

[Travis]

Acropora tortuosa (Oregon tort)
10-28-04


12-27-05

Definitely not the fastest grower.

Acropora loisettae
11-5-04


12-27-05

[Travis]

A break from the growth shots....

Here is an efflo I got about 6 months back that is turning out to be fairly decent:


The war is on! My orange cap and my purple polyp birdsnest are growing into each other. Both are pretty "weak" in regards to aggressiveness so I am letting them duke it out and we shall see what becomes of it. So far it actually looks like the cap may be a little more aggressive as it is causing the tip of the birdsnest branch to turn colors. I am going to let them keep going and see what happens.


Here are a couple more frags I got from otolith a couple months ago:

red milli


suharsanoi

[Zoom]

Nice growth.

[Lunchbucket]

Travis - awesome growth. doesnt' seem like they grew that fast though. even through all the problems they are growing great!

ok i NEED a piece of that LE soli and the suharsanoi!! pretty please!!!

Lunchbucket

[asnatlas]

Travis, mine came in one piece the first time, LOL

[Lunchbucket]

asnatlas - NICE so were are the running pics?

Lunchbucket

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Travis

I really like this piece Nice pics Travis...

[nbd13]

Very nice Travis!

that solitaryensis really took off for you! i also like the Idaho Grape too!

i hope the BK works this time for you!

Nick

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
asnatlas - NICE so were are the running pics?

Lunchbucket

LOL, it’s only been home for a few hrs... But I think it's a little over kill for my 92gal ROFL... I should be getting my 600gal tomorrow and hopefully have water in it with in the next wk or two, which at that time the skimmer will come to life...

If you want to follow along...
LINK to my thread

[Lunchbucket]

i'll check out your link

[melev]

Travis, you've got some stunning corals there. It would be nice to see a few more reef shots if possible. Do you have many fish in your tank?

[arconom]

Yeah it been awhile for a whole tank shot




Also with skimmer

[Travis]

Thanks everyone. There are more pics coming. Just have to take the time to edit them, upload them, and post them.

Lunch, next time you swing by remind me, I will get a frag of the soli for ya. You do remember what I want for the suharsanoi frag right? We were waiting until your pink prostrata was ready to frag.

asnatlas, glad to see you stuck with your original decision on the BK. Can't wait to see yours up and running, and the tank too.

melev, Here is my current fish load:
1 achilles tang
1 blonde naso tang
1 purple tang
1 yellow tang
7 blue/green chromis
2 ocellaris clowns
1 lawnmower blenny
1 copperband butterfly

I need to add some more small fish that help make the tank look "busy". I really miss my anthias. I probably won't try any of them for a long time as I think they are not very hardy and never really hear about people having good long-term luck with them. I have thought about maybe doubling my chromis population. They are really fun fish and school up all the time. I have also considered getting some wrasses but don't like having fish that you have to worry about jumping out of the tank. Decisions, decisions. I will for sure be adding 3 or so 6-line wrasses in the near future. They have been on my wanted list for this tank but haven't gotten around to getting them. I did order 1 with my last order of tangs but they forgot to include it. Not only do I like the 6-lines but I have a lot of reddish/brown planaria in the tank. The planaria don't really harm anything but are kind of ugly to look at.

[Travis]

Here is a full tank shot:



I really don't like to post full tank shots because they don't do anyone's tank any justice. It just doesn't accurately represent what you see when you look at the tank in person. But it is the best we can do with pictures.

There are a couple things to take note of in this pic.
1)Notice the coralline on the front bottom of the tank. That is the part I couldn't get to easily. Before I scraped the tank, that is pretty much what the whole front looked like. Within a month or so, it will be completely covered again.
2)Notice the dark film algae on the back of the tank. This is the stuff that started growing after trying the Seachem salt. I'm not trying to say that the salt caused it but that is when I first noticed it. There are just way too many things going on in a reef tank to ever narrow a single occurence of something down to a single event. If there was one thing I learned in college, it is that correlation does not imply causation. Anyways, the back of the tank was also completely covered in coralline a month or so ago, except for the top few inches. This dark film algae seems to be choking the coralline out. I really don't mind as I think a tank looks better with a black back as it helps the coral stick out.

[Lunchbucket]

Travis - sounds good about the soli. i remember what you need for the suharsenoi i'm growing tha tbaby up good. i think i could get a frag now...dont' know why i couldn't. just might be hard to break one off w/ out giving you 1/2 the colony as it all grows together so well. if the gomezi keeps up it's spirt you'll have a frag of that too soon

geeze have enough coraline on there?? man mine doesn't grow near that much!!

6-line wrasses are a blast. i'd Love to add one to my tank again! they are just a cool fun busy fish

see your prolly saturday.
Lunchbucket