Warren's 90 gallon Zeovit tank

[wangspeed]

Um sir, what kinds of wrasse is that? !?!?!?!

That's my supermale lineatus wrasse that I got from Diver's Den. New ruler since he is larger than my red velvet fairy wrasse. They occasionally flare for dominance. They are also crazy good driven.

 

 

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Warren

[wangspeed]

Here's the bracket I made to support the LED strips. I'm debating adding more or moving to the "pro" version, but the color is pretty good right now.

 

 

 

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Warren

[matt]

It's always hard to tell from online pics, but those pics have a very nice color. You have me wondering if I shouldn't try a regular or pro strip on either my new 90 or existing 46. I have reef brite tech strips for both, but these seem like a cheap way to get a bit more coverage towards the top of the tank. My cali tort has gotten pretty big and is definitely reaching to the front as I run my reef brite up front from dawn to dusk continuously. I'm thinking a second led strip in the back might encourage growth towards the back top of the tank.

 

Are you considering more strips for par purposes, color, or coverage? I saw that you can dim these ....not bad for the price. Not many reviews, so looking forward to seeing your experiences.

[wangspeed]

I'm quite happy so far with the non pro version. Reef Brites aren't easily dimmable which basically put them off my list immediately. Since my T5s should have enough par for any SPS, this is really just for a mild color shift.

 

I actually take pics with the strips off since royal blue LEDs make camera sensors go crazy. Another side benefit of going T5. I do run a lot more white than most T5 recommendations. I tried the commonly recommended 4 B+, 1 P+, 1 C+, and I got the Windex look, which I hated.

 

 

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Warren

[DCReefer1964]

I see I am not the only one up thinking Reef !!!!!

[dangros]

What if we started a crowd funding drive to get one for the members? It would belong to the group and would be available to us as a service whose operating costs could be shared by member subscribers - if there were enough to commit. We would need an attorney who could write up the contract, etc. I wonder if it's feasible?

It would be nice if we could get a LFS to get a THRIVE Lab Machine!!!!

[YHSublime]

Good luck. Those machines =$$$$$

[DuffyGeos]

Good luck. Those machines =$$$$$

 

Darn it! I just gave one of those away on Craigslist the other day!

Edited November 2, 2014 by DuffyGeos

[TrueTricia]

That's my supermale lineatus wrasse that I got from Diver's Den. New ruler since he is larger than my red velvet fairy wrasse. They occasionally flare for dominance. They are also crazy good driven.

 

 

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Warren

Love love love that wrasse.

[DuffyGeos]

Love love love that wrasse.

 

Yea- that baby made my list.

-Lineatus Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus lineatus)

[matt]

So I'm really liking how your tank is turning out and I'm paying particular attention to some details as I've got a 90g build underway. A few questions for you...

 

1) What are the heights of your pipes in the herbie and would you do anything differrent at this point? Looks like I'll be ripping out some factory plumbing and bulkheads to do a herbie myself...my pump is a eheim compact 2000.

 

2) How many pounds of Reef Flakes did you use? How many would you expect would just barely cover the tank framing? Has the grain size worked out well for your jawfish? Are you seeing any build-up of gunk between the grains?

 

3) How long did it take your original aqua-mag to take on the color of your rocks and did you do anything special to help that process? That is what you have as those 3 rocks in the back right?

 

4) How often are you feeding those anthias and what food are you using?

 

Will continue to follow along. Really dig the tank!

[wangspeed]

So I'm really liking how your tank is turning out and I'm paying particular attention to some details as I've got a 90g build underway. A few questions for you...

 

1) What are the heights of your pipes in the herbie and would you do anything differrent at this point? Looks like I'll be ripping out some factory plumbing and bulkheads to do a herbie myself...my pump is a eheim compact 2000.

 

2) How many pounds of Reef Flakes did you use? How many would you expect would just barely cover the tank framing? Has the grain size worked out well for your jawfish? Are you seeing any build-up of gunk between the grains?

 

3) How long did it take your original aqua-mag to take on the color of your rocks and did you do anything special to help that process? That is what you have as those 3 rocks in the back right?

 

4) How often are you feeding those anthias and what food are you using?

 

Will continue to follow along. Really dig the tank!

 

Greate questions! I'll try to address them.

 

1 - I'll have to measure the heights when I get home. I'm travelling for work this week. I'm happy with their heights now. I just have them slipped into the bulkheads w/o gluing them, because I knew I would probably want to adjust them. I adjusted the lower one a few times, because I got tired of it being too sensitive to water level. However, now I run it closer to the high mark to reduce noise of water flowing over the overflow. I really like the straight pipe approach as opposed to a downturn, because it starts the siphon so easily.  Just make sure your emergency is equal or larger diameter, and do not go too large on your primary pipe, otherwise it will be a pain to adjust, even if you have a gate valve.

 

2 - I think I used 2 or 3 bags. I forget. I put in a little more, because I have a jawfish and had a melanarus as well. Not entirely sure what happened to my melanarus, but he croaked, so the jawfish and goby/shrimp pair are the main reasons I haven't siphoned some sand out. The size is perfect. I don't get any buildup of stuff on the sand. Not even cyano for some reason, but in the event someone stirs up sand, it settles very quickly.

 

3 - Yeah, they are aqua mags. In my tang, coralline is a bit of nuisance almost. Anything I put in turns purple/pink in probably under a month. The one on the left has been in there near the start, and the one on the right just went in last week or so.

 

4 - I feed heavily with frozen in the morning one time, and that's it. I have a mish mosh that I make from Cyclopeeze, Roggers (which I don't like, due to the way in binds together), PE Mysis, and Larry's. In the future, I will probably just mix LRS, PE mysis, and Cyclopeeze. I like the variety of sizes due to the fish differences. My wrasses obliterate anything that hits the water if it stays chunky, so I need smaller things like Cyclopeeze, and broken up parts of the LRS to feed the anthias. Once in a while, I will put in some Reef Chili as a treat for the corals and anthias. The Bartletts are pretty stout, and don't seem to have any issues with being fed once a day.

[dave w]

Too bad you can't get your wrasses in pairs to hold until I could buy them off of you or just give you a newer pair of younger wrasses.  Your tank looks much better.

[TrueTricia]

I'm rebooting my tank. Switching to biopellets and will probably build a T5/LED hybrid. Saw Paul's and I love the look. No disco, and the colors were great. I shoulda stuck with T5HO in the first place. That's what I used to grow more than 2 dozen orchids indoors.

 

Ok...now that I'm reading the whole thread for Zeovit learning... What made you switch?

 

Also, did you one-eyed wrasse make it?

[wangspeed]

The one eyed Labouti is doing well. He's a trooper. In fact, all my wrasses seem pretty bulletproof, despite the fact that they LOVE to carpet surf when I take the mesh off.  Tried a regal angelfish, that ended up not eating. Perished :(  I am down to only 1 of my Bartletts. The middle one got beaten up by the big one, and I have no idea what happened to it. After that, the big one decided it was the end of life as he knew it, and wouldn't come out of the rocks, even to eat, just to look, and then go back to solitary confinement. Jawfish hopped out or something while I was in Paris. Can't find corpse. Maybe the cat got him

 

On the plus side, my SPS are growing like weeds. I eventually got fed up with dealing with the Zeovit rocks more than anything else. I had to refrain in that last sentence, otherwise lots of stuff would get filtered out. The reactor would jamb up from little rocks getting out, and getting people to shake it while I was out of town was a pain too. It just wasn't worth it, and there are more than 1 ways to skin a cat. I'm thrilled with my switch to the Reef Dynamics BP reactor. It is rock solid, and my nutrients are very low, despite what the red algae turf says. I had a bunch of chaeto, and red algae in my refugium before the BP reactor. The red algae seems to have escaped after swapping to the biopellets. It's getting grazed on by my turbos.  I still use some of the KZ additives, but it is likely that I won't repurchase most.

 

I've been on a massive SPS collector frag purchasing spree. I have no idea where these things are all going to grow. I need to sell off a bunch of the older stuff and LPS that I just don't care about that much.

[TrueTricia]

The one eyed Labouti is doing well. He's a trooper. In fact, all my wrasses seem pretty bulletproof, despite the fact that they LOVE to carpet surf when I take the mesh off.  Tried a regal angelfish, that ended up not eating. Perished :(  I am down to only 1 of my Bartletts. The middle one got beaten up by the big one, and I have no idea what happened to it. After that, the big one decided it was the end of life as he knew it, and wouldn't come out of the rocks, even to eat, just to look, and then go back to solitary confinement. Jawfish hopped out or something while I was in Paris. Can't find corpse. Maybe the cat got him

 

On the plus side, my SPS are growing like weeds. I eventually got fed up with dealing with the Zeovit rocks more than anything else. I had to refrain in that last sentence, otherwise lots of stuff would get filtered out. The reactor would jamb up from little rocks getting out, and getting people to shake it while I was out of town was a pain too. It just wasn't worth it, and there are more than 1 ways to skin a cat. I'm thrilled with my switch to the Reef Dynamics BP reactor. It is rock solid, and my nutrients are very low, despite what the red algae turf says. I had a bunch of chaeto, and red algae in my refugium before the BP reactor. The red algae seems to have escaped after swapping to the biopellets. It's getting grazed on by my turbos.  I still use some of the KZ additives, but it is likely that I won't repurchase most.

 

I've been on a massive SPS collector frag purchasing spree. I have no idea where these things are all going to grow. I need to sell off a bunch of the older stuff and LPS that I just don't care about that much.

 

Glad to hear about the wrasse! I had a one-eyed saddle clown that did great for at least a year before he was killed by a horrible pet sitter aka my ex-brother in law. It's always sad to me when fish die! Still, if you're going to lose a fish, being in Paris is a good way to do it!

 

That's good to know about the zeovit. I've been thinking more and more about going to a biopellet route. I'm finally to the point where I need to choose which direction I'm going and just pull the trigger. I'm glad to hear your SPS are doing so well! Let me know when you're getting rid of some of your more common SPS frags! Aren't you down this way too by Quantico? I remember having a conversation with you at some point about all of that.

[TrueTricia]

Oh, and FTS?

[wangspeed]

FTS as of a few minutes ago.

 

 

A very rare shot of my red velvet wrasse flaring. Love when he does this. Super hard to catch :( Maybe 10 seconds a day.

 

[smallreef]

Sooo pretty!

Tanks looking great!

[wangspeed]

Oops. Forgot to answer one of Tricia's questions. I'm in Manassas.

 

I'll do a proper FTS sometime. I didn't kill the pumps or clean the glass.

 

 

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Warren

[YHSublime]

Still looks good

[TrueTricia]

FTS as of a few minutes ago.

 

 

A very rare shot of my red velvet wrasse flaring. Love when he does this. Super hard to catch :( Maybe 10 seconds a day.

 

He's beautiful! Great looking tank!

[wangspeed]

Updating the thread. I've got a little bit of bubble algae and bryopsis showing up. Up to 1600 Mg using Kent Tech M.

 

SPS are growing like weeds. Some of the frags I've picked up lately:

 

Reef Raft: The Vinh , Sleep Hollow

Battle Corals: Hyperberry , Frankenberry

Pearlberry (slight STN. I don't think it likes the high Mg )

Procorals Superman Table

Twilight dragon

Tyree blue matrix

Vivid Rainbow

2 Oregon Torts. One for gws3, and another from Flounder on R2R

Cali Tort

Copps Miyagi Tort

Copps Bella Acro

Wild SSC from piper27

Another SSC from gws3

and more. Too many. Need bigger tank.

 

There's more. I really need to post some stuff for sale for this weekend, but my goby or shrimp seems to have relocated one of the very nice multi colored chalices into a cave.

 

Trying my first leopard wrasse. A blue star male. He hasn't gone crazy over food just yet, just going off pods. Hope he eats enough! He is stunning.

 

 

Hyperberry, and a not so rainbow nasuta. The nasuta got pissed when I dipped it.

 

 

 

Strawberry Shortcake from piper27

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by wangspeed

[TrueTricia]

Updating the thread. I've got a little bit of bubble algae and bryopsis showing up. Up to 1600 Mg using Kent Tech M.

 

SPS are growing like weeds. Some of the frags I've picked up lately:

 

Reef Raft: The Vinh , Sleep Hollow

Battle Corals: Hyperberry , Frankenberry

Pearlberry (slight STN. I don't think it likes the high Mg )

Procorals Superman Table

Twilight dragon

Tyree blue matrix

Vivid Rainbow

2 Oregon Torts. One for gws3, and another from Flounder on R2R

Cali Tort

Copps Miyagi Tort

Copps Bella Acro

Wild SSC from piper27

Another SSC from gws3

and more. Too many. Need bigger tank.

 

There's more. I really need to post some stuff for sale for this weekend, but my goby or shrimp seems to have relocated one of the very nice multi colored chalices into a cave.

 

Trying my first leopard wrasse. A blue star male. He hasn't gone crazy over food just yet, just going off pods. Hope he eats enough! He is stunning.

 

 

Hyperberry, and a not so rainbow nasuta. The nasuta got pissed when I dipped it.

 

 

 

Strawberry Shortcake from piper27

 

 

Love the wrasse. Interested to see how he does for you. This is one of the ones my boyfriend wants for our tank (well, as much as he wants anything), but I'm hesitating.

 

Also, Flounder on R2R has some amazing stuff. Did you just get the Oregon tort from him?

[DuffyGeos]

Awesome looking fish and corals! congrats!