new tank in progress

[TerraC]

here's a few pics.

firstly this is what the stand looked like when I bought it.

[TerraC]

now this is what it looks like after my wife painted it :D

[TerraC]

now a shot of the halide hung above.

a few things still to work on, top surround needs another coat of paint, need to silicone the baffles into the sump etc but we're almost there :D

[Gillybaby]

Very nice. I definitely prefer the stand painted white, very chic ;)

[SteveS]

looks great Ray, stand looks cool. cant wait to see it full of wet stuff

steve

[Pinkfish]

Looks great so far nice .... PS can the wife paint my front room please ???

No harm i asking.

Mike

[callum_parsons]

looking good dont forget to keep us updated on how its goin

[moorish]

looks really nice your wifes made a good job of it,you should hire her out by the hour.derek

[TerraC]

cheers for the comments guys. Ordered a custom overflow box to fit over my wide brace bars which should be arriving either 2morrow or monday.

Siliconed the baffles into my small sump earlier in the week so we're almost go. RO is running off as i type :)

more pics to come as I progress..

[Tangman]

Looking good there Ray when are you going to be able to swop the stock over, or are you starting up afresh. Eric

[Kev]

Great when you have the partner involved. Looking forward to seeing how this tank progresses.

[TerraC]

tank is full, sump plumbed in. just cleaned out the skimmer and moved it over today. gonna try adding new sand tonight and seed it with some from my old tank. hopefully start moving all the stock over within the next few days.

[trik]

Looks good , good luck with the moving of live stock , thats the part im not looking forward to.:eek:

[Tetley]

Great start,

Look forward to updates. :)

ATB

Ian

[TerraC]

Looks good , good luck with the moving of live stock , thats the part im not looking forward to.:eek:

I know exactly what you mean. :eek:

I'm going to have a bit of a cull on some of my corals, trade them in or advertise on here, aquascape the tank near enough to how I want it and then try to catch the fish without stressing them too much.

Ray

[MR Teee]

Looking good Ray.

Witha stand as white as that, you are gonna have your hands full keeping the tank clean to match!

[Tangman]

Hi Ray you say your dreading swopping your tank over, i am cacking myself with the thought of doing my swop over. But i suppose i will have my really good m8s to help me, crawl crawl. Best of luck m8 on your swop over and if you have any corals left over put them on here and i am sure they will get snapped up quick. :) Eric

[TerraC]

I think i'll have some bush coral frags, large pink medusa, a large leather, large green medusa and probably a few others i've forgotten so will put them up when i'm sorted. They'll be going into the shed system during the switch over.

Hopefully switching the tanks today if I get chance, i've gotta pop out and find somewhere with some Deltec putty for the rockwork first though.

added a new bag of sand last night and some scoups from both my old tank and shed system. sandstorm in both tanks, old tank has cleared again but new tank still looks a little cloudy, however, no filtration running in the new tank until later today.

[TerraC]

Hi guys

stock all moved over today, just finished for now. switched off the overflow for the night as i have added the sand from the bottom of my old tank to the sump and waiting for the storm to settle.

still to do:
turn return back on in the morning.
add nitrate and phosphate remover.
add another powerhead.
probably lots I cant remember now :D

fish were easy to catch, most walked into the net to escape the carnage :) angels and my anthias are sulking. copperband, clowns, regal tang and gobies couldnt care less. Mandy has vanished into the rockwork (no change there then) :D corals are all sulking obviously. Just gotta hope everything survives the move. burrowing snails are a sod to find! cheap plastic collander from asda to seive the sand works best :D

old tank needs moving outside, stinking the house out. waiting for some muscle to turn up tomorrow and it'll be moved. will be up for sale on here soon.

aquascaping wise we've gone for a curved central rockpile. see how it looks when the sand settles. it's hard to aquascape when it's foggy :D similarly why there's no pix as yet.

all in all total nightmare of a job. next time i'm shutting down, selling all the livestock and starting again from scratch to save stress!! hehehehe

pix to follow soon..

[trigon]

Great job TerraC, you have done a great job with the stand. A real professional look.

Always wondered about full system change just one little thing i carnt get my head round. Does the tank need to be left for a month to cycle or did you use a quantity of old water from your other tank. also read about ammonia build up under the sand so if it is dissturbed in can pollute the water (with you getting sand out to seed the new sandbed?)

keep up the good work with the new tank, would love to see some pics of the aquascaping.

[TerraC]

Great job TerraC, you have done a great job with the stand. A real professional look.

cheers was all my wifes idea on colour and she did the painting :D




Always wondered about full system change just one little thing i carnt get my head round. Does the tank need to be left for a month to cycle or did you use a quantity of old water from your other tank. also read about ammonia build up under the sand so if it is dissturbed in can pollute the water (with you getting sand out to seed the new sandbed?)

when I moved the sand I checked for rotten eggy smell but it just smelled fresh seaweedy so used it for the DSB in the new sump. I used a new bag of sand in the main tank and seeded it with some from the old tank and my frag tanks in my shed. I also used quite a bit of the old water in the switchover.
hopefully I shouldnt have too many problems.



keep up the good work with the new tank, would love to see some pics of the aquascaping.

Will post pix as soon as the dust settles a bit.

[trik]

well done mate hope all is well, i intend to change mine over in the next couple of days.:eek: :eek:

[Blue]

Nice 1 Ray, you can relax a bit now eh :D :D

[TerraC]

a little m8 :) popping into see you today, on the lookout for a centrepiece coral i've turfed out most of my large softies and its looking very bare :D

tested water last night:

SG - 30ppt
temp - 80f
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
phosphate - 0.5
dkh - 8

nitrate & phosphate sponge is going in today. will keep monitoring over the next few days.

water has finally cleared this morning so will take a pic later but be warned the tank is looking very barren :( needs to tho if i'm to go as planned and strip out the large softies and replace with SPS, LPS, Ric's, mushies & small compatible softs.

my anthias has hidden away but just seen him this morning so he's still alive, all the other fish have been out and about. my mandarin is missing but thats no biggie cos i didnt see her for days in the old tank sometimes :D

[Gillybaby]

That's good news, glad your changeover went well too, its so nervewracking ;)

Looking forward to seeing the pics.

[Pinkfish]

Im glad the change over went well. And all you stock settles in nicely

Mike

[SteveS]

cmon m8, were all waiting

pix..... :)

steve

[TerraC]

pix on the way m8 :D

cheers for the comments guys. Just bought a Glaxia today and a small piece of Xenia Umbelata from Marine Tech Cheers Chris, be in with those medusa's soon m8.

Nitrate & phosphate sponge are in now too. Found my mandarin today so happy all the fish are ok. Corals are still adjusting.

[Cudders]

Piccies . ........!!!! :D

Cudders

[callum_parsons]

cant wait to see some pics:D :D

[TerraC]

setting myself up to really disapoint you guys here when I show u the pix aint I? :D

pics soon! honest! :D

[TerraC]

Hi guys. taken some pics at last. It's a bit barren at the moment but bear in mind i've taken a lot of very large soft corals out of this tank and they're currently residing in my frag system in my fish house. large softies are to make way for some SPS, LPS etc which I hope to grow nicely into one another. Corals that are left in the tank are still sulking as the water has only just cleared, see pic of yesterdays mudbath to apreciate why :D A lot of the rocks are still covered in a layer of crap that I'm having to blast away with turkey baster so they're not as pink as usual :(

I've gone for a central rock pile, low and curved in an arc. I hope to propagate my 3 coloured mushroom colonys on the right hand side and some pulse xenia and star polyps on the left. Middle section is left intentionally bare to accomodate some Acropora, Porcillipora and Motipora at a later date when the tank has settled a bit. Here goes the pics anyway, comments welcome good or bad. It's been a bit of a strain tearing down the old tank but I guess to make a good omlette you gotta break some eggs. Will post a pic of old tank 2mor if anyones interested?

pic of my little sump attached too and a pic of the tank yesterday still clearing, you can imagine the colour when I first switched the stock over it was literally like chocolate milkshake!

[Pinkfish]

I really like your tank, think it looks great. Love the butterfly fish and is that a coral beauty angel as well in there .... looks fantastic

Keep up the baster blasting ..... I learnt this the hard way when a coral suffercated.

Nice tidy little sump,

I have just one concern, I think that you may have too much sand in you DSB in the sump and you may risk it solidifying on you later on. I may be totally wrong here though if it were me I would only keep 4-5 inches of sand max.

Tank looks great.

Mike

[Pinkfish]

Sorry forgot to ask how big is the tank now ?

[SteveS]

tank looks brilliant Ray, like the curve formation of the rocks in the cloudy pic.

steve

[TerraC]

cheers for the comments guys.

new tank is 36"x20"x24" sump is quite a compact 18"x12"x12", sand depth is about 5" which I intend to get a knife in from time to time and make sure it's not solidified.

I'd like to hide that seio pump behind the rockwork aiming upwards if I can but main thing is to get setup for the time being. Going to add an actinic tube too as soon as possible.

[Gillybaby]

The tank's looking good already...a little barren indeed, there's lots of life in there. I can see this is going to be one fun tank to watch as it develops, especially with SPS & LPS :D

[TerraC]

just traded in some of my large medusa's and a large toadstool leather at Marine Tech. Thanks Chris!.. Came away with a nice yellow sun coral, a gorgeous Organ pipe coral (tubipora musica) and a mushy rock with lovely purple mushys on it :)

pics to follow once they're settled :D

tanks filling out nicely. gonna go slowly with the SPS tho'

[callum_parsons]

looking good mate

[Cudders]

Nice pics mate. Nice scaping too!

Cudders

[TerraC]

couple more pics :D

[SteveS]

new stuff looks great m8, tank looks cool :)

first pic of the above four is my fav

steve

[Blue]

Great job Ray. Those new corals look great. I like the pic of the clown with the mushies. That sun coral looks great as well.:) The overflow box looks good too. Is it noisy at all?

[TerraC]

The overflow box is about as noisy as a normal overflow pipe without a durso, sounds like niagra falls, cant hear the bloody telly!! I've dampened the noise down a lot by stuffing some gravel tidy down the back wier though. I need to have a go at fitting a durso to it though as it's still a little too noisy for my liking.

I also could do with fitting some foam around the return pump and skimmer pump in my sump. Hopefully it'll stop a bit of a hum i'm getting from them at the moment. My sump is only small and the partition I made for the pumps is a bit too tight Doh!..

[Tangman]

Hi Ray looking good m8 i like the rock work how you have shaped it. A tip if the overflow is noisy like a drain put a piece of airline tube down the outlet pipe until it goes quite. HTH. Eric

[callum_parsons]

great looking tank and great photo of the clown

[TerraC]

cheers for the tip Eric will give that a go. I was thinking of trying to add a T peice and a 90 bend aiming downwards into the back of the overflow box to add kinda a durso but i'll give the airline tubing a go first.

thanks

Ray

[mfcfan]

nice setup terrac if my new setup is as good as that then i will be happy :)

[Tangman]

Hi Ray also i meant to say have you a tap on the return pump line, as if not it might be better if you throttle the pump back a bit as that can cause noise with to much water going through. HTH. Eric

[SteveS]

i was round at Rays the other day, this tank in the flesh looks ace, what you cant appreciate in the pics is the height of the tank, that rock pile must be 12" high.

a future totm in the making here, well done ray

steve

[Macca]

I recognise those mushies! Are they from MT. If not I spotted the same sp and was very tempted. In fact I wish I had got them. So Chris if you still have them put them a side M8!

James

[TerraC]

yep they're from mtec. he had another rock with the same type on it dunno if it's still there tho :)

[TerraC]

had a ride out to leeds today and popped into Reef Ranch, couldnt resist a couple of little SPS frags. pix to follow :D

[TerraC]

Here we go first one is a Pavona decussatus

2nd one i'm not sure on if anyone can help with the ID? form of Acropora? I forgot the name now :D

pic of my sun coral I got from Mtec last week, it's in the dark so it's a bit blurry with the camera, no flash or tank lights on this shot just our living room light bulb, excuse the quality.

other pics are the Organ pipe I got from Mtec last week.

will try get some more pics tomorrow :D

[SteveS]

great pix as always m8, sun looks cool. look at the base growth on that 2nd frag, wow :)

steve

[callum_parsons]

great lookin corals u have there i love the pipe organ coral i have looked every where for one

[TerraC]

thanks for the comments guys, i'm gonna try take some full tank shots again tomorrow. it's settling in nicely and quite a few of the corals have opened up a bit more. :)

Some nice little frags in Reef Ranch today from £10-£20 and as ever some large specemins of fantastic quality and colour that us mere paupers can only stand and drool at :D

[TerraC]

some update pics of the tank. corals are coming out a little more now. really pleased with how it's looking since the switchover.

[callum_parsons]

fantastic lookin tank

[Blue]

Very nice Ray, bet you are well chuffed. That frag I would have thought to be an acro, but it is a bit small for me to ID, but someone may help:) or wait till it's a bit bigger (then bring me a frag:D ), then it will be easier to ID.

[Guest]

great looking tank you got there terra , i dare not let my missus paint my stand tho it would look like it was artexed or done with a roller lol
keep the pics coming please

john

[Tom2006]

Called in to buy some softie frags from Ray today. Not only are the frags great, but got to see the tank in the flesh, and its stunning! Keep the pics coming Ray, looing forward to seeing it develop.:)

[TerraC]

thanks for the kind comments Tom. Very nice to meet you, hope the frags are doing well.

[TerraC]

a few updated pics. changed the halide bulb today for a Coralvue 14k that I bought from Marine Tech yesterday.

couple of pics of the tank, pavona I got from Reefranch sending out sweepers, mushys from Marine Tech and a small Toady frag from SteveS that used to be in my shed system but moved to the main tank last week.

[TerraC]

another couple.

divisa I got from Marine Tech yesterday. and a hammer i've had a while in my old tank that got hit by the heat last summer and is starting to come back a bit.

[TerraC]

finally a pic of one of my Ricordias :D

[Tetley]

Hi,

Thats a very nice clean tank, you have done a cracking job, secret ?

ATB

[Guest]

the tank gets more and more imp[ressive every time :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

keep pictures coming cheers john

[Gillybaby]

Its looking fantastic, great to see such healthy corals. Gotta love those red mushies, been looking for some of these for ages ;)

[Artyspider]

Another stunning tank. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
Clare :D

[TerraC]

Cheers for the great comments guys. Just waiting for things to start growing into each other now. Plan for later date is to add a clam at some point and some more LPS then thin out a few more softies making frags etc. The large finger leather is getting on for 10" tall and has a base diameter of about 8" down the back where you cant see so needs to be fragged soon.

Tetley:
Kept nice and clean each day with a Hobby magnet and a Kent pro scraper :D Algae hasnt taken hold much yet as this tanks only been running 2 months since all the livestock was switched over from my old system.

tank looks a lot crisper & brighter with the 14k bulb but then again i'm not sure how old the 10K blv was when I bought the halide unit so here's hoping it'll make a big difference growth wise.

[Pinkfish]

That tank is just superb a real credit to you.

Mike

Does the Coral beauty and Flame angel get along well ?

[angel1]

MINE TOO!!!:p


Looks great so far nice .... PS can the wife paint my front room please ???

No harm i asking.

Mike

[Tom2006]

Top notch there Ray and superb clarity and colour on your pictures. Great stock you have there.

[TerraC]

Pinkfish:
yeah they tolerate each other nicely, swim together at times. they have the odd squabble at feed times but nothing serious. There was hell on when I first introduced the flame to the CB but I switched the lights off for the rest of the day and they were fine after that.


Tom:
cheers m8 not bad for an old camera :D

[SteveS]

Looking good m8, quality photos as usual :)

gotta say winced when i saw that o/flow box again :D :D

steve

[TerraC]

gotta say winced when i saw that o/flow box again


It mustve had it in for you that week :D It usually behaves for me..

[callum_parsons]

great corals looking good mate;)

[TerraC]

Added a red plating montipora frag I got from Marine Tech yesterday..

[stevieh]

tank is looking fantastic ray,credit to you m8. Stevie

[callum_parsons]

nice frag mate
and the tank looks fantastic

[Tom2006]

Looking forward to seeing that grow, looks very nice indeed.

[Blue]

It really is coming on Ray, the colour looks great. Bet you are well chuffed.:cool:

[TerraC]

cheers for the comments guys. coming along now.. :D

[TerraC]

a couple of update pics. been struggling with a phosphate problem which has taken out the monty frag & my galaxea. not sure if it's residual po4 coming out of the sand from the switchover after my original batch of rowa became exhausted but i've got fresh batches of Seachem Phosguard and Rowaphos active at the moment which seems to have it down to hardly detectable on my test kit again. need to get into see MT tho' and have it tested on his hi-res kit, no doubt it'll still be off the scale on that :eek:

anyone got any plans for a home made fluidiser?

anyway a few pics..

pic 1 is tank as of last night.. pic 2 a close up of my hammer which is growing like mad since i've been target feeding it. not as clear as i'd liked but still came out quite nice. pic3 is my sun coral starting to come out for food, i've managed to train it to wait for food at 7pm each night :D pics 4 & 5 are close ups of some of the sump critters crawling around. various micro stars, pods, bristleworms, snails etc.

hope u like....

[Tetley]

Hi,

Some stunning pictures, just one small complaint - its so clean :confused: :D :D :) :)

Really nice. :) :)

ATB

[Gillybaby]

Agree with Ian, your tank is so clean. Note to self, must go home and clean rear glass on tank ;)

Love the sump critter pics too, I can spend ages lying on the floor looking at my sump. Very underrated pastime imho :D

[TerraC]

clean? honestly i've not cleaned the back glass for a week, I thought it was filthy. :D side and front get done every day tho'

yeah some really interesting critters pop up. the pods that are breeding in there have gone mad size wise over the past few months they're about 10mm long some of them.

[stevieh]

that hammer is coming on great,and your tank is stunning.Stevie

[Tom2006]

Looking great as ever Ray!...agree with you though, by your normal standards that tank is filthy! ;) :D

[Guest]

looking great ray this has been agreat post to follow mate

john

[Kev]

really nice clean looking setup, aquascaping looks good. That Copperband is sublime!

[TerraC]

a few more shots of some corals I took last night.. hammer is coming along well since I started feeding it. Sun coral was out again after it was already fed.

[SteveS]

fantastic m8, first sun pic is stunning

steve

[kissypoos]

nice tank more pics

[TerraC]

cheers guys. more pics to follow soon..

added benny the blenny.. :)

[TerraC]

got my camera out again tonight. will post some more pics in the morning. just a taster.

SteveS's clam in my tank. whole clam pic and a close up of the mantle.

[SteveS]

clamtastic m8 :D

steve

[TerraC]

here's a pic of an Acro frag I got from Marine Tech not too long ago. you can see growth polyps on the right hand side, hopefully this guy is going to branch off nicely.

[TerraC]

here is a staghorn frag I was given by another reefer. starting to grow quite nicely. Kalk & Vinegar additions seem to be working quite well.

[TerraC]

another pic of my Ricordia.

[TerraC]

and here's a new tank shot taken last night. tank could do with a good clean though tbh.

[TerraC]

Pic of my flame angel. still a bit blurred but he wont keep still! best pic i've managed to get to date tho' :D

[Gillybaby]

Great pics, as always. Don't know what you talking about, the tank needing a clean. Its spotless in comparison to mine :eek:

Note to self: go clean glass on tank ;)

[stevieh]

your tank is looking fantastic ray

[Tom2006]

Coming on very very nicely Ray!! I reall like the ric, where would I get one like that?

Once I'm back from my Hols in June I'll be making a few more purchases :D

[TerraC]

might have one to frag. will keep you posted, going to try get it to spread to a rock :D

cheers for the comments guys. i'm happy the tank is coming along nicely.

[Tom2006]

would certainly be interested in a frag Ray:D i'm sure others would too

[callum_parsons]

looking good;)

[TerraC]

a few more pics. different angle. finger leathers are sulking, did a water change 24hrs previous.

[callum_parsons]

wow your water is crystal clear looks like the fish are floating in air!!

great looking tank! really love it

what wattage is your halide?

[TerraC]

cheers m8.

halide is a 150w Coralvue 14K bulb. plan to add a T8 blue actinic soon to see what it looks like :)

Keep the water clear with regular carbon changes, good water flow and chaeto in the sump.

[callum_parsons]

thats an amazing bulb! i have a 150wunit with a 14000k bulb compared to yours its a rubbish bulb iam going to have to get me one of them!!

[slinkyslink]

Quality tank mate, I'm jealous! Definatley something to aspire to.

[Tom2006]

Looking very nice indeed (as usual)

[TerraC]

more pics soon guys..

Have started to add BAKs solution from Fauna Marin from a tester bottle I got from Jez. Not much to report as yet as it's still early into dosing (Day 5)

However, micro pod life has exploded, the tank is literally crawling in tiny white dots that i've not seen in such numbers for a long time. I've always had loads of the giant "ride em at aintree" pods but only a few of these little things. Something is certainly happening.

I'm holding off on the MIN-S dosing until i've got the nutrients down with the BAKs.

[Tetley]

Hi,

Interested on the Baks results. I note you are using algea in your sump, would you expect this to die back as nutient load is reduced?, and if so, have you given any thought to what the chamber in the sump will be used for?

One final question, do you have any LPS in the tank? (and if so, which ones?), and if so could you keep me posted on any reaction from the LPS to the dosing.

ATB

Ian

[TerraC]

I have chaeto in the sump at the moment. I'm expecting this to recede and maybe die off completely depending on how much I decide to push the ULNS system. I'll probably remove the DSB, offer a thin layer of aragonite for stability and run a live rock rubble zone for pod life.

I need to get around to building a new sump that's slightly bigger, the one i've done is a bit too small. I could do with spending a couple of hours when I get chance sorting out the flow around the back of my rockwork. Need to reposition a powerhead and frag some corals which are growing wild down there.

will post re: progress. I have a few lps. Hammer, Torch and Frogspawn. I'll be keeping a close eye on them.

I'm trying to get the nutrients down a bit really and see if I can bring out the coral colours a bit more.

[johnl69]

plan to add a T8 blue actinic soon to see what it looks like :)



What size are you after? Ill have 2 48" one free at weekend inc ballasts.:D

[TerraC]

What size are you after? Ill have 2 48" one free at weekend inc ballasts.:D

thanks for the offer m8. got a 30" one sorted that'll fit the top nicely. SteveS is gonna extend the ballast cables for me so i dont have to balance it precariously at the back of the tank :D

[Blue]

Your husbandry is second to none Ray, the visual clarity and the quality of your stock show this.;) Quality Ray;):):)

[Tom2006]

Keep us updated Ray, sounds interesting. Obviously we want more pics :D

[TerraC]

thanks for the comments guys. quick pic taken yesterday. corals growing nicely, beginning to fill the gaps up.

[TerraC]

SteveS's clam. and a close up of the blue fringe.

[Paul0582]

tank looks amazing you must be so proud.Some good choices of fish to mate :D

[TerraC]

cheers guys.. couple of new pics I took the other day..

I have added a T8 blue actinic now which finishes off the lighting colour nicely.

Also added a pretty naff actinic shot. My camera cant cope with the reduced light levels but you get the idea of what glows under the Actinics :D

[stevieh]

looks nice ray about time you got the camera out:D:D

[TerraC]

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankvideo.flv

I got the video camera out too. hopefully the above link will work. :D

camera goes a bit wobbly but I had a 3yr old swinging off my neck at the end trying to look at the camera screen :D

[stevieh]

yep it works ray nice one well done:):)

[mfcfan]

good shots tank looks magnifico:D

steve :)

[trik]

Great looking tank mate, and the photos are A+ class.

Richard

[TerraC]

anyone fancy a bit of video? :D

The links dont seem to be working.. so here's the raw links instead.

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt1.flv

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt2.flv

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt3.flv



http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt1.flv

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt2.flv

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tankpt3.flv

[ROB]

Nice very nice,

thanks for sharing,

Rob.

[TerraC]

cheers for the comments Rob. you seem to be the only one who can view them so i've added the direct links to click on too. :D

[Mark J]

Nice Vids Ray, (now that I can see em lol!)
Earmarked everything in there for when frag time comes lol!!!!! (oh ******! thats the FO setup out the window then isnt it :D)

[TerraC]

Nice Vids Ray, (now that I can see em lol!)
Earmarked everything in there for when frag time comes lol!!!!! (oh ******! thats the FO setup out the window then isnt it :D)

oi hands off! :D:D:D Hehehehe I knew you'd return to the coral side.. next time you're over this way m8 bring a bucket. :)

[Mark J]

A bucket? got one of those petrol tanker type wagons lined up m8 ;)

[TerraC]

Couple of new additions last weekend.. well 4 actually. got a small shoal of chromis. these guys are tiny, cant be more than 3/4inch long. not got a shot of them all together yet, boy these guys are fast! really hard to photograph hence the quality of these images. these were the best pics out of about 40 :D one shows the green glow, other has one going ballistic! :)

The regal tang has also been rehomed. :( had to come at some point the rate he was growing.

Hopefully i'm going to add another mandarin this coming weekend to cap off the fish stocking. might get another 2 chromis if they've any left too :D

[Mantis147]

Looks good TerraC! What size tank is that?

[Pinkfish]

Ray ya tank is just great looking good, Mike

[Tom2006]

Looking great. I have three green chromis and was thinking of added a couple more. Where did you get yours Ray?

[TerraC]

cheers guys.. tank is a 36"x20"x24"

chromis came from our local Hull fish importer Tom :D

[Shultz]

Very nice m8! :D

Have you already got a Mandarin & going to add another or now just adding one?

I have one in mine, really thought about adding another, but worried about food tbh?

Cheers, Shelton.

[TerraC]

Very nice m8! :D

Have you already got a Mandarin & going to add another or now just adding one?

I have one in mine, really thought about adding another, but worried about food tbh?

Cheers, Shelton.

I had one up until recently. Had it 4 years but then it strangely died. Plenty of pods in the tank, it was as fat as you like and not a mark on it when i got it out of the tank. she used to eat frozen food too.

i'm after getting a new one to replace.

[Tom2006]

Thanks Ray. After my recent spring (well autumn) clean of my tank I'm due another fish or two :D

[TerraC]

a few update pictures. bought a new mandarin from Blu. Corals are growing quickly, need to get some fragging done. I keep kalking those shrooms but they grow faster than I can zap em!!

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tank130298.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tankside130298.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/crab.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/hammer.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/chromis.jpg

[dollydip]

Wow tanks looking really good mate:D

[Mark J]

Dont be kalking the mushies m8y, rip em off and send em to me, as my butterfly likes pecking at mushies, so if get enough in the tank, maybe (just maybe!) a couple MIGHT not get hassled and grow nicely lol!!!

[TerraC]

Dont be kalking the mushies m8y, rip em off and send em to me, as my butterfly likes pecking at mushies, so if get enough in the tank, maybe (just maybe!) a couple MIGHT not get hassled and grow nicely lol!!!

hehe.. I gotta get used to this "cut n catch".. they tend to float off and then spring up like a weed elsewhere :D Will sort u out with some more m8...

[Mark J]

Nice one cheers m8y :)

[Aquandy]

Wow super pics, tank looking really healthy there with some stunning stock.

[cl0wn]

brilliant thread, and lovely looking tank m8:)

[TerraC]

cheers guys... it's getting there :)

[MrK]

Its really starting to look great:D. A tank of the month in the making;)

Well done

Mark

[Tom2006]

Looking very nice Ray. Wish I could have your problem with Mushies. I love mushies but despite trying lots of types they just wither away in my tank. :(

[TerraC]

A little video update of the tank...

http://s207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/?action=view&current=tank22-07-08.flv

[TerraC]

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tankjuly08pt1.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tankjuly08pt2.jpg

[fishie]

hi m8 nice looking tank. Whish i could keep a cooper band they all seem to die after 3/6 months.

[TerraC]

cheers m8.. yeah I got a good one with him.. been with me 4.5years now, loves frozen foods and grazing the rockwork, he's quite partial to the odd small bristleworm..

[dickwilly]

Nice looking tank mate with very healty looking stock. You should be proud.

[TerraC]

A few new pix.. Chromis are bloody quick! and hard to get a decent pic with my poor old camera!.


http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/chromis1.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/chromis2.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/chromis3.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/crab-1.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tank09-08.jpg

[JAYJT29]

Looking great :D Nice pics too!
Thanks
Jay:)

[H17E5H]

Hi Ray,

Hope you're well.

The tank looks amazing. Like the depth.

I'd recommend you get rid of that thermometer though have a look at this thread

http://www.reefcorals.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=11190

Wouldn't want you to lose anything

[TerraC]

cheers guys..

yeah i've been meaning to get myself another temp probe one for ages, my last one broke and scared the hell out of me as it was displaying rather alarmingly high readings! :)

[marinemike]

hi is that a porcelain crab in pic below chromis?

[TerraC]

yep porcelain crab. from Macca iirc. he lives in my ricordea colony...

[cl0wn]

some great pics there terra. love the one of the porcelain.

[TerraC]

few updated pix before the tank gets torn down for the move.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_7445.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_7444.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_7435.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_7433.jpg

[TerraC]

tank was moved this weekend.. went well all things considered, Coral Beauty and chromis have gone to Phil (dq666) nice to meet u and sorry for the small delay in catching the little ******s! :)

I have rescaped as obviously there's no way i'd get it back exactly the same again :) This time i've gone for a rockpile formation slightly to the left sloping off to a sandy area giving me space for another clam and maybe some sand dwelling LPS at a future date. The tank is looking a little sparse due to losing the covering of mushies I had, they may resurface again as most are buried in there somewhere under the scaping :)

fish stocking now stands at.. 1x Copperband, 2x Clowns, 1x Fridmani dottyback, 1x Firefish (magnifica), 1x Flame Angel and 1x Mandarin.. All fish seem to have done remarkably well despite the miserable conditions on the day and cooling of the water, was getting quite worried at one point my dad noticed the temp had dipped as low as 69f! Currently mandy is on the watch list as she got a bit upset by my aquascaping efforts lnite and stuck herself to a powerhead, she seemed fine this morning picking over the rockwork but time will tell. On the plus side my firefish and dottyback were out all day yesterday happy now that the chromis have gone and are not dashing around the tank all day.

Looking for ideas on another fish to add. Would like a moorish idol but survival rate aint good so might go for a bannerfish instead. Need some more corals to pad out too so going to have to pay Steve a visit at Coral Cultivations and see what he's got :D

Pix to follow.. Maybe in a couple of days when things settle down a bit.

[TerraC]

Finally got some pix! :D Turfed out some large frags of african bush and asparagus tip which were traded in for credit. Tank is still settling and not quite as clear as I'd like but some floss should sort that out :D Would like to add a blue maxima now that the coral beauty has gone and looking for ideas on a new fish. Could do with to miliput the frags into position too it's turning into a bit of a scatter yard at the front there :D

Added some Phosguard to bring the PO4 down. It had crept up to 0.5 on my kit down to 0.2 in 24hrs after phosguard addition but I need to check tonight to see where we are at now. Have also been adding a bit of UltraBak from a sample bottle i'd been given to see if that helps any.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tank25-05-09.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/tank25-05-09pt2.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/deresa.jpg

Actinic shot of my hammer..
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/hammeractinic.jpg

New frag from Coral Cultivations..
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/toadyfrag.jpg

[TerraC]

new BTA from Macca..

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8037.jpg

[TerraC]

couple more pix... :)

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8224.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8201.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8218.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8228.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8234.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_8235.jpg

[TerraC]

update... got a hell of a problem on with cyano just lately. not sure what is causing it. It's either bulbs related or burnout of PO4.. I've changed my halide bulb as it was about 9 months old but no change after 2 weeks. I've now switched off the actinics in my new halide unit as I dont know how old they are, they came with the halide unit so could be fuelling it maybe. going to see how I get on with that over the next few days.. they've only been off for 2 days and things are looking a little better but who knows i'll keep plugging away at it. I've always had a bit of a PO4 reading and the tank has never had a problem, I decided to go for the Magic 0 on PO4 and wish I hadnt, I've got more algae and the tank looks worse now than when I had PO4! GRR

Parameters are now

NO3: Less than 5
PO4: 0
DKH: 9
MG: 1380
PH: 8.0

i've just thrown some of muzzy's activated carbon in there too as i've not used any for a long time.

anyway, couple of new additions... Grabbed these from Steve at Coral Cultivations, Just wanna say thanks to Steve for persevering with TMC for me on these little guys they've not had any available for weeks... I've always wanted another pair of clowns, and added these little black and whites on monday evening. These guys are hilarious, they're so tiny and full of energy it's incredible. After addition they bounded right over to my existing clowns which are about 3x the size of them with a happy go lucky "hey we're new wanna play?" attitude. only to be told to right royally go forth.. so they did go forth, and back again and forth again and they finally got the message after about the 5th warding off. kudos to my existing pair they've put up with them like the pair of annoying little rugrats they are and shown no agression towards them, more of a maternal and paternal chastisement. I prepped my existing clowns for the possiblity of new additions with a clever little "stick a cutout clownfish on a plastic straw and wave it around the outside of the tank trick" which they didnt seem bothered about in the slightest. so I stuck it to the outside of the tank with blu tac for a few weeks until I got these clowns.

Apologies for the crap pic.. they just wont stay still for a second!.. probably should use flash or something :D

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9516.jpg


Here's a shot for size comparison with my other clowns and copperband...

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9532.jpg


I've been doing a bit of frag swapping lately.. here's a couple of zoo's I got my hands on.. small frags but interesting colours..

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9496.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9497.jpg


and a shot of my nem, it's grown a little bit since I got it...

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9500.jpg

colours are all a bit off as I havnt got my actinics on due to the cyano battle...

[TerraC]

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9801.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9803.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9805.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9788.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9789.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9790.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9791.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/terracuk/IMG_9799.jpg

[p&d]

nice tank and photos