The Washington Reef 75/200 Gal Reef Tanks

[washingtond]

Update:

I just ordered and Lighthouse Controller and planning on running it to a wireless modem. Will use to control the lights, heater, and monitor tank parameters.

 

[Guest]

What is the name of the coral right after the emerald crab?

 

[washingtond]

@Aldente P. wrote:

It is an Open Brain coral (Trachyphyllia geoffroy) that I pickup from Franks Tanks almost two years ago.

 

[Guest]

Im sorry i ment the next picture after the crab and the brain, on page one.

 

[washingtond]

@Aldente P. wrote:

It is a Fluorescent Green Pachyseris sp a slow growing coral that are somewhat hard to get.

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[washingtond]

I have made several upgrades to the tank this past month. I got the Lighthouse controller installed and working. It now controls the actinic lights along with the MH Reeflux 12K bulbs. The XM 10K’s are still on a timer since they come on at different times. The controller also controls the heater set to come on at 78 and off at 78.5 degrees.

The chiller is still control by its own internal processor and is set to come on at 80 degrees. This time of year the chiller is coming on once or twice a day and the same is true for the heater. Between the two the overall tank temp stays between 78 and 80 degrees and I am happy with that. And then there are the moon lights that I will be installing in the canopy today and it will control them as well. Everything is working out great with this setup and I am very pleased. The controller also provides daily and weekly graphs on temp, ph, and ORP that are very useful for looking at trends with the tank. The only negative I have is that it does not plot a monthly graph that would be useful for the same purpose. You can now see the tank stats on my signature line of my post thanks to Reef Chat.com and Scott and Steve great job guys. By the way you can retrieve all the chart data gather by the controller at the Reef Chat site.

I also installed a new 250W Jager heater after the old Titanium one quite working.

Overall I am very pleased with the progress that the tank is making. It is now time to frag many of the coral since they are growing into each other. Here are some examples:

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[Ashlar]

@washingtond wrote:

It is a Fluorescent Green Pachyseris sp a slow growing coral that are somewhat hard to get.

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David, I've got a chunk of that growing as well. Did it grow horizontally like that? I mounted my frag horizontally, but it immediately oriented upward with new growth.

 

[washingtond]

Just mounted flat the way that it is shown in the picture. The growth has been very slow I have had it over a year now.

 

[washingtond]

Here is a photo update of our 200 gal tank. All the pictures were taken on Jan 1, 2008.

This shot shows an Acro that broke off while cleaning the tank several months ago the original part is indicated by the yellow arrow. It continued to encrust the rock and you can see all the new growth. So the next time that you break off a coral don’t worry too much about if it will recover.

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Here is a full tank view:

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Now here are some of the fish in the tank.
Blue Reef Chromis:

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Yellow Tang

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Powder Blue Tang:

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Female Lyetail Anthias:

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Wrasse:

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Male Lyetail Anthias:

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[washingtond]

More Fish shots

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Now for some corals:
This is called a Christmas Favia

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Unknown

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On the left is a Blue Tort, in the middle is a Green Acro Staghorn, & a Birdsnest on the far right

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Open Brain Coral

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Green Millepora growing on top of two an encrusting Montiporas (the large brown one is over 8” wide)

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Yes the glass needs to be cleaned, but only after we frag the corals that are growing against it.

 

[washingtond]

Here are some Caps getting ready to touch the front glass, will need to frag soon:
A Red Montipora Cap and Birdsnest

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Green Purple Edge Montipora

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Green Acropora Staghorn

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Purple Tip Acropora

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Purple Acropora

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A Painting with out of focus background: The tip of a Blue Tort

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Blue Acropora

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Blue Millepora

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Red Milleproa

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Crab on Montipora Cap

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[melev]

Sweet pictures. Are these shot in Auto mode? The last one was a bit grainy, so I would suggest a lower ISO setting.

 

[washingtond]

Over the Christmas break we remove all the corals from our frag rack and mounted onto the LR in the tank. Those are some of the corals featured in the pictures that were just posted. This now free up space for us to get more coral frags to go onto the empty frag rack so we will be looking for something that we do not presently have.

Also over the break we changed out the Phosban media with ROWAphos media and performed good cleaning of the Mag 7 pump driving the Skimmer.

The Lighthouse controller continues to perform well and I was able to monitor the tank while on a recent trip to Japan. I could even tell what time Tippie feed the tank by looking at the ORP reading. The controller is now controlling the heater, half of the MH lights (the other half still on a separate timer to avoid a single point of failure), and the recently added LED moon lights.

Overall the tank is during well with crazy growth and this is with the mix of the Reeflux 12K and XM 10K lights. All the corals are coloring up nicely and I believe that this lighting scheme brings out the best of the colors of the corals. The only thing that I dose the tank with is Reef Solutions (3 capfuls everyday) and Mg when required. I have feed Pappone in the past once a week, but now back to once a month. Did not really see any difference in the growth rate or color of the corals I also feed Oyster eggs about every two weeks.

Future plans are to review and change out some of the plumbing. I am not real happy with the return out of the Dart pump. Will be looking to make the pipe runs shorter using flexible PVC...

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Well it is almost time to make some popcon with our new poper (one of our Christmas gifts) and take in a new movie that I purchased.

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[washingtond]

@Marc wrote:

I am using 800 ISO so that I can get a higher shutter speed so that I don't have to use a tripod. The grain as they would say in Hollywood is the film look. :lol: which is what many of the film makers like to see. By the way noise reduction is off.

Here are the rest of the specs on this shot:

Taken With: NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D70
File Size: 98 kb - 800x601 Taken On: 2008:01:01 14:52:44
Camera Make: NIKON CORPORATION Camera Model: NIKON D70
Date/Time: 2008:01:01 14:52:44 Resolution: 800 x 601
Flash Used: No Focal Length: 105.0mm (35mm equivalent: 157...
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200) Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure Bias: 0.33 Whitebalance: Auto
Metering Mode: matrix Exposure: program (auto)

 

[extinguishfire]

You can save me a frag of the green with purple rim monti that you are going to have to frag soon. Very nice pics as always. The powder blue looks great. How did you go about getting that one? Did you quarantine? Was it eating at the store? Did you have any ick?

 

[washingtond]

@extinguishfire wrote:

Chris thanks for your comments we got the Power Blue last Aug from Rift to Reef and he was healthy and eating in the store. We did not quarantine before putting into the tank. We also purchased the Yellow Tangs at the same time so they all were introduced in the tank the same day.

The fish that I would really like to get are some more Blue Reef Chromis. I have found them extremely hard to keep. Every time I buy five one may live. The one that we have has been in the tank for 18 months now and have introduced an additional 10 without any success.

Was wondering has anyone been able to keep this fish in any quantities?

 

[melev]

I have had 9 blue chromis in my tank for at least 6 months, if not longer.

 

[washingtond]

Where did you get them?

 

[melev]

Franks Tanks. I think I bought 5 and then 10 or 12. A couple died, one still in the bag during acclimation.

These 9 seem to like each other. And my 7 Anthias continue to do well also.

 

[washingtond]

I got five from Frank and all died in less than three days. Guess I will try again as I really like them in the tank.