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New 90 gallon bow (well, new to me)

You know how sometimes you just "fall" into a deal? Well, this one FELL on ME!

90 gallon oceanic reef ready, stand, sump, skimmer, dual 175wattMH with t5 actinic lighting hood, all rocks, sand, water and fish just fell into my lap for $500!! WOO HOO!

Anyway, after 14 hours of moving time, settling, literally fist fighting with the rock, and a couple of weeks to settle in, this is the result:

Tank1.jpg


tank2.jpg


elegance1.jpg


anemone1.jpg


I added the elegance coral (which is loving that tank, its opening up twice the size as it was in my other tank) and the anemone (in hopes the clown will host it).

The tank came with a yellow tang (which has some "battle damage", but is healing nicely), the sailfin tang, a clown (percula? ocellaris? who knows...) a purple gramma, neon goby, 2 camel shrimp, a skunk cleaner shrimp, and one nasty evil little black and white strip damsel (regretting putting him back in the tank!! shoulda kept him out while I had him in a bucket! LOL!). But, I added a small huma trigger which oddly enough has been keeping the damsel in check and bothering no one else. No one else in the tank seems the least bit concerned with the trigger, so the balance has been temporarily restored.

I'm not usually one for bow fronts, but I couldn't pass up the deal, and it's turning out to be a really nice tank. It ran for about 3 or 4 years before I got it, so everything was relatively unphased by the move because it was pretty stable prior to. I did eliminate about half of the sand, and did about the equivalent of a 40 to 50% water change through losing water, and inability to transport all of the water. So far, coming along nicely! Just thought I'd share!
 

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Looks great, Matt.

One suggestion I have would be to move the heater into either the sump or the overflow. Less chance of it getting broken by a fast swimming fish in those 2 places.
 

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Looks great Matt, and most importantly WELCOME BACK! Glad to see you back around here. I missed your subtle *cough* sense of humor!
 
Thanks Matt. The plan is to actually change out the entire sump. It is a wet dry filter, which I'm not fond of, but I didn't want to futz with the system too much especially given the move time. Once I get a proper sump in there, I will relocate the heater. I also want to replace out that beast of a pump on the right side of the shot with a couple more koralias. Thanks for the suggestion tho!

Actually, I just caught the suggestion of moving it into the overflow, hadn't thought of that. Good idea for a temporary fix. eventually it will be replaced, I don't like those heaters anyway. They fail too often. I actually like the new rena plastic encased heaters that are designed to work with the filstar canistar filters as a pass through. they function accurately, are relatively inexpensive, and best of all, PLASTIC encased. :)
 
JohnS_323 said:
Looks great Matt, and most importantly WELCOME BACK! Glad to see you back around here. I missed your subtle *cough* sense of humor!

Thanks John, I've been "in and out", but hope to be more "in" than "out". Me? Subtle? Well, I NEVER! LOL! ;)
 
The next project will be getting my 90 gallon aga over here... ug... I really need to buy a pick up truck! Then I could be a REAL red neck! ;)

*no offense to "red necks" was intended in the posting of this comment!* ;)
 
panmanmatt said:
Looks great, Matt.

One suggestion I have would be to move the heater into either the sump or the overflow. Less chance of it getting broken by a fast swimming fish in those 2 places.

I know you're moving the heater - but another reason (if you need) is in case the anemone decides to walk and attach to the heater. if the heater kicks on, it means certain burn...possible infection/death later. You could cover the heater with pvc - Same goes for the pumps - will need some kind of cover unless you are confident that anemone is never moving.

mfisher2112 said:
The tank came with ...2 camel shrimp...
I thought they weren't reef safe?
 
phil519 said:
I thought they weren't reef safe?

Beats me. They were in the rocks. We didn't even see them when moving everything. The guy I bought it from was fantastic and helped me move everything, but he told me he wasnt sure if they were still in there, and we never saw them. That is, until I started pulling the rocks out of the stock tank, I saw them skitter across the bottom of the stock tank. They must have dug in and held on deep inside some of the rock.

At any rate, they are in there, I've seen them flitting around a bit, and I've transplanted quite a few small zoa frags etc into the tank, and haven't seen any signs of harrassment or nibbling yet. I sure hope they don't cause a problem, I REALLY don't relish the idea of tearing that rock apart to get the buggers outa there again!
 
phil519 said:
I know you're moving the heater - but another reason (if you need) is in case the anemone decides to walk and attach to the heater. if the heater kicks on, it means certain burn...possible infection/death later. You could cover the heater with pvc - Same goes for the pumps - will need some kind of cover unless you are confident that anemone is never moving.

So far the anemone has stayed relatively close to that position. It climbs into the rock behind where you see it there, but it always climbs back out shortly after the lights are on. I don't expect it to stay put, though, they never do... At least not when I want them to anyway!
 
I would move that elegance coral into the sand and off the rocks ASAP. You're risking killing it unless it is horizontal in the sand.
 
Thanks Jonathan, my understanding from the research I did before I bought it was as long as it was horizontal and relatively free of direct flow and intense light (aka: low in the tank) it was ok on rocks because of it's hard "cone" base.
 
mfisher2112 said:
Thanks Jonathan, my understanding from the research I did before I bought it was as long as it was horizontal and relatively free of direct flow and intense light (aka: low in the tank) it was ok on rocks because of it's hard "cone" base.

They like to have their base submerged in the sand. Really, being on the rocks will likely kill it in a few weeks/months. They absolutely cannot tolerate their flesh scraping against rocks, which is why placing it on the rock wall is not a great idea. I see it done that way a lot and 99% of the time, the elegance brown jellies in a short time.

Sorry for being a bit anal about these, but I'm pretty adamant in taking solid care of them because as far as know they are becoming very rare in the wild and are over collected. Along with the fact that probably 80% of them die.
 
This from Live Aquaria "The Catalaphyllia Elegance Coral is moderate to maintain in the reef aquarium and makes an excellent choice for the beginner to expert hobbyist. Provide ample space in the aquarium between it and other neighboring corals as it will expand to twice its usual size during the day and will sting other corals in close proximity to it. It is best to place the skeleton of the coral into a soft substrate. The soft substrate is less likely to irritate the fleshy underside of the coral when compared to the rockwork. Clownfish may accept this coral as its host if no anemone is present. Use caution when handling, as it is very fragile and can also sting its handler."
 
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