Sawdonkey’s 240 Gallon Peninsula Build

[jp_75]

Which store did you buy fish from? Heard Tank it easy does qt now.

 

[sawdonkey]

Which store did you buy fish from? Heard Tank it easy does qt now.

Old Town. I hadn’t been to their store since they moved out of Old Town. The retail aspect of the new store is very limited on fish, but they have a weirdly large amount of dry goods. I surely overpaid, but convenience matters too.

 

[sawdonkey]

Really love my Life Reef skimmer. This thing just simply produces the stinkiest blackest grossness. Other skimmers I’ve owned don’t even come close. This thing doesn’t care if the neck is clean or dirty. No fussiness. I just ordered a 13 inch extension to see if it can produce even more.

I cleaned my cup and emptied my skimmate collector two nights ago. My 1.5 gallon collector is 1/3 full…and it’s not that weak tea!

 

[rc8t6353]

Following from NWI !! That is a beautiful tank!

 

[sawdonkey]

12 more inches of skimming power today. Here’s a before and after. You can see how black the gunk is in the before pic. Hoping for grosser yet with the extension.

 

[jp_75]

You run cheato ? I remember you had some nutrition issues before.

 

[mfollen]

Nicely done, turned out great! The triggers look happy in their new spot. Scape and light setup look great!

 

[sawdonkey]

You run cheato ? I remember you had some nutrition issues before.

I don’t use chaeto right now, but I’ll likely get some. I’ve always run biopellets in the past to keep nitrates down, and even then it was tough. I’m going to try to avoid that going forward. Hoping the bigger skimmer almond with chaeto keeps things in check. Plus, I got rid of my eel, which should help.

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Lookin' good sawdonkey! How big of a UV is that?

 

[sawdonkey]

Lookin' good sawdonkey! How big of a UV is that?

It’s a TMC Vecton V2 25 watt

 

[Mjl714]

So what do you think of the Coral Care Gen 2’s?

 

[sawdonkey]

It’s been really slow getting this thing where I want it. Still have not skinned the stand or light rack. Tonight I redid my scape and I like it a lot better. Still need to secure it a bit. And finally, I added gravel. What a nice change. I don’t know how you bare bottom guys do it?!

 

[sawdonkey]

Not much to report. I’m getting a pretty bad diatom bloom right now. I’m not sure if it’s due to my di resin being spent in both canisters (whoops), my high phosphate and low nitrate, or from the silicates in the new substrate I added….or all of the above? I ran chemiclean last week because I just couldn’t get cyano to go away.

I haven’t had a cleanup crew for ages because my old pinkface wrasse picked everyone off except a Mexican turbo. Today I added 50 crabs and about 300 snails (200 of which are mini ceriths).

I’m getting a few new fish next weekend and hope to start trading some torches for acros to fill the scape out. Some acros are still looking good….

 

[JCOLE]

Not much to report. I’m getting a pretty bad diatom bloom right now. I’m not sure if it’s due to my di resin being spent in both canisters (whoops), my high phosphate and low nitrate, or from the silicates in the new substrate I added….or all of the above? I ran chemiclean last week because I just couldn’t get cyano to go away.

I haven’t had a cleanup crew for ages because my old pinkface wrasse picked everyone off except a Mexican turbo. Today I added 50 crabs and about 300 snails (200 of which are mini ceriths).

I’m getting a few new fish next weekend and hope to start trading some torches for acros to fill the scape out. Some acros are still looking good….

Have you ever dosed Bakers Yeast before? I am going to start dosing it to my system and one of the things I have read is it is very good at eliminating Diatoms.

 

[c_healy]

Tank looks really good. Following along.

 

[sawdonkey]

Have you ever dosed Bakers Yeast before? I am going to start dosing it to my system and one of the things I have read is it is very good at eliminating Diatoms.

No, I’ve not, but I’ll read up on it. My diatom issue has mostly subsided.

Here’s a few update photos. I have a disjardini and bristletooth in my sump almost ready to go in the DT. My scape is dialed in and corals are placed. I need to buy about 20-30 acro frags soon. Still need to skin the stand and light rack…I just can’t find the time to do it.

 

[lubeck]

Looking good! How’s the skimmer extension doing. Can you tell a difference.

 

[sawdonkey]

Looking good! How’s the ski,mer extension doing. Can you tell a difference.

Hard to tell how much it’s improved, but it really produces the black sludge. My nitrate has still crept up to 18 and my PO4 is at .23. I’m trying to get both down. I put on some fresh GFO last night and my chaeto ball is getting pretty sizable. Hoping this helps.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks like it is doing really great!!!

 

[sawdonkey]

I got a new macro lens for my camera, but I’m not really good at using it yet. I still haven’t gotten any new coral for almost a year, so everything in my tank is from before my move almost a year ago. I lost quite a bit of stuff from that whole process. Her are some shots from playing around with my new lens. I still need to figure this thing out.