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[Ranger]

After a 3 year Hiatus, I am going back to reefing. We have a small house here in AL so we were not able to get the 150 I was looking for, but we got a great deal on this 46 bow front with the lights for pretty cheap. It should tide us over until we get done with the army. Setting up and tearing down and selling all your pets every 2-3 years is a pain so we figure this one we can transport with relative ease to my last duty station in 3 years and then when we build the house I will have a 2-400 in the wall set up built in. Here is the tank from the start. Just added water and live sand the first week. Tank was officially born on 7 jun 2005.

46 gallon bow front with stand
2x96W 50/50
cpr Bakpak 2
3 powerheads
initially a penguin biowheel to get it going
45 lbs live sand

I am not going to have a filter other than the live rock. I had success with this similar setup before deploying to Germany, kosovo, and Iraq.

[Ranger]

Week 2 added 2 pieces of live rock and a naso tang. Just kidding I didn't add the rock.


Ok I added the rock but no tang.

[Ranger]

July 2005 Added more rock and the first live critters. A flameangle the kids named fireball, and a cleaner shrimp named jaques of course. Also added some blue leg hermits and a conch and 5 snails. Stomatellas are already starting to multiply and provide a great deal of the clean up crew.

[Ranger]

Next fish to add was a pearly jawfish. Unfortunately he was a digger, and under the one piece that was not on PVC was where he was found pinned. Jaws did not survive the incident and was the first casualty of the tank. RIP jaws.

[Ranger]

In late august I was contacted by a reefer going out of the hobby. I picked up a Yellow tang and a ton of LR covered in zoas and a few shrooms. I aquascaped the tank with teh tang and the cleaner in mind. the rock sits in the middle of the tank to allow the tang to swim and has a arch for a cleaning station for the shrimp. Meanwhile the flame loves the ins and outs of the rock work and has claimed the center of the island as his own. I also picked up some xenia, and galaxia.

[Ranger]

I received a early christmas present in Bingo hooking me up with some great frags. Thanks a million Bingo. I think the frogspawn is the smallest coral I have ever seen it is so damn cute lol.

[Ranger]

Here is the tank today the 9th of October with my new lights. 2x250w MH HQI aqua medic pendants. Current occupants:

yellow Tang (bubble of course)
fireball the flame angel
jaques the cleaner
4 conches
7 blue legs (4 in skimmer)
5 snails
a ton of stomatellas
2 types of mushrooms
2 frags of monti digita orange
green and white candy corals
galaxia
hammer
frogspawn
GSP
encrusting gorgorian
2 types of zoas
xenia

Parameters
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
5 nitrates
8.0-8.02 PH
SG 1.025
temp 80-85 degrees (chiller next purchase probably although inhabitants don't seem to mind, just takes a lot longer to acclimate new comers.)

I dose 2 times a week with kent liquid reactor at nights.

In the process of getting the equipment to set up a sump. Probably be december january before it is up and running though. Plane tickets and christmas come first.

[Ranger]

OOPS hope I didn't need that brace.


and the Fix.

lesson learned 6 inches from a 250W HQI is still hot enough to melt plastic in about 3 minutes.

[Ranger]

I "rescued" a sun coral (tubastrea) from a LFS that I only rarely go into because of their poor husbandry IMO. However we went in for Sh*ts and giggles and low and behold they had a suncoral that was totally receded and almost white. It was kept in direct MH and looked as if it were starving. Knowing that the amount of care required for a tubastrea is pretty high and doubting the LFS was accomodating the coral, AND that he was offering it dirt cheap, I went ahead and picked it up in the hopes of restoring it. I took it home and floated it for a few hours and then slow drip acclimated it over 3 hours (partly for the coral, but he also had inadvertantly left a snail on the LR that the coral was attached to) and then I attempted its first feeding in the bag. I dripped some juice from the myasis into the water and it took about an hour, but the polyps finally started to come out and it started getting its orange color back. I fed it in the bad and it devoured the food. I put it in the tank last night at 1900 and by 2000 its polyps were almost fully extended and it was bright bright orange. Here is the pic after a few minutes in the tank. I am quite pleased with it and hopefully it makes a full recovery and will be a great addition to our tank.

[Ranger]

Hard to believe that it was almost white and sunken in only a few hours before. I really was only giving it about a 20% chance of making it. I now think I will upgrade that to about 95% lol. It will get its second feeding tonight and then on to a regular scheduled feeding program.

[Ranger]

I just received a great set of corals from a guy going out of the hobby. I received 7 frags.

1 blue mille
1 blastomusa
1 hydro
1 pavona
1 unID acro
1 green with purple rim monti cap
1 orange with purple rim monti cap

Here are the pics minus the Blastos which I placed in the shade and haven't turned the light on for yet.

[Ranger]

here is the hydro and the un ID'd Acro.

[Ranger]

Pic of the TR Ocellaris in their host field of zoas.

[Ranger]

Picked up a used Knop C CA reactor from a guy going out of the hobby. Got a great deal on it and a 50LB CO2 tank. So I hooked it up and tested it for a few hours and then put it into the tank. The effluent was running at about 6.5 PH, and ALK DKH were 5.60 and 17 respectively. After running it for about 3/4 of the light cycle yesterday I tested this morning and the results were great. Calc was 425 and DKH was 11. I am very pleased so far and PH was holding at 8.1.

[consigliere]

what is that you used as a repair to the centerbrace???

hope it doesnt have any stretch to it...

[Ranger]

I used thin cable. It was from a picture hanging kit actually. I think I might have used one piece from the left overs of my light hanging kit. At any rate I used the cable and have been measuring it both before and after repair and the distance has remained constant. No change.

[Ranger]

Recent additions are a acro colony, my only actual colony, and some monti frags which were fragged off of a piece that broke in a rock move. I also added about 25 lbs of LR which is covered in worms and small clams. I have noticed alot of dark purple sponges showing up along with a ton of little fan worms. I reduced my original rock load by extracting the large piece of rock with all the zoas on it. The clowns have started to regain the original coloring since I removed the rock. The freckles are almost gone. I am still waiting for the bubble tip anemone to come in. In my large acro colony I have found 4 acro crabs that are doing splendidly as well. Here is a recent photo.

[Ranger]

tank as of 9DEC05

[MartinE]

looks good ranger, fish look fat and sassy. love the clowns playing in the zoos

[Ranger]

Well we had some issues with our support repairs snapping, so we had to upgrade. We picked up a new 90 rr from All-Glass. I built the stand and sump. The equipment is

2 250w HQI 14k Phenix
Knop C calcium Reactor
1/4 HP chiller
Euro Reef CS6-2
Mag 12 return
mag 5 chiller
2 penductors
1 MJ Tunze stream MOD

Corals
SPS
3 types of A.Tortuosa 1 ORA , 1 Cali
3 types of A. Formosa blue and purple tip
3 types of A. Millepora Rasberry and blue, red, and yellow
Pavona
Monit cap Orange, green with purple rim and white with blue polyp
2 Encrusting Montis 1 fake superman and a purple with blue polyp
Idaho grape
A. validia tricolor 3 varieties
10-15 un id acros
2 types of montipora digitata Orange and bright purple tip
porites bright green
pocillopora green
LPS
Hammer
2 types of Blastomussa Merletti Green center Red skirt
Christmas Favia
2 types of Caulastrea neon green
Galaxea

Soft corals
Xenia
Pachyclavularia green
mushrooms
asst hitchhiker zoas

Inhabitants
Flame angel since July 05
Cleaner shrimp since July 05
2 candy spot hog fish Oct 06
2 False percs since OCT 05
Rose Bubble Tip Anenome since Apr 06?
Fighting Conch
Blue legs
red legs
turbos snails
stomatellas
cerith snails
Star fish