Tank Progress

I'm going to do this page in reverse chronological order so a quick glance can see what it currently looks like. Some of the tank dates are clickable which leads to more detailed photos, so click on either the date or tank to get to details section. Most of the work I'm doing myself, hence the unfinished look of the lighting hood, but this project isn't finished yet so its ok to be unfinished

July 21, 2004
Finally removed the Rio 1700, while powerful, I could get a Seio 620 and push about the same volume for 1/3rd the electricity cost, plus it doesn't shoot a powerful jet but more of a dispersed flow. Got a few more corals from the frag swap, and there's a Fox Face right in the center of the picture (yellow body w/ black&white face). The other anemone crawled under a rock to die I think, he's currently underneath the a rock right near where the two clownfish are, and has made himself completely inaccessable to force feedings of fish, when he dies I hope my clean up crews will be all over it to finish him off because there is no way I can remove him from the tank now. Also got a few more *junk* corals added as well, and who can miss the toadstool (aka Fred) on the left!

June 18,2004
Removed the powerhead on the right side replaced it with a new Seio 620 which moves twice as much water but only uses one-third of the power, I plan on getting a few more of these badboys to try and stop PG&E from taking so much of my money. Some minor rock rearranging as it has that wall look which I really don't care for, but close up you see that there are more caves and ledges than a 'wall' look have to see if this'll grow on me or I might need to remove some ledges just to put a break skyline. More stuff added to the tank, some mushrooms, GSP, a couple more freebe corals. Also finished the overflow to my refugium and sump, so the skimmer is no longer hanging on the back, haven't gotten around to moving the heaters below yet, I might just do that when I get the new pumps though

April 4, 2004
Here's the tank looking a lot better. Some minor rock rearrangements, skimmer is on the back (but because my hood isn't hinged I can't slide it back so some rearrangement will need to be done). Other Becket pump is gone (too much power), but other one is back as I use that to power the skimmer and then use a seperate airpump to make it bubble since the current design had too much gurgling noise from sucking in air straight into the pump, 802 still there (400GPH-20W) and the pump that came with the skimmer(350GPH-23W). Fish have been added, a Blue Devil damsel & Tomato clownfish from my original 10gallon tank, plus 4-6 Blue-Green chromis (2 died, and I dont know how many were in the tank at te time this picture was taken), also a brown bubble tip anenome that my clown really took too, along with that my cleaners which numbered at about 50 hermit crabs (half red half blue), 30 Cerith snails, 20 Margaritta Snails, 9 Turbo snails, 10 Peppermint shrimp and 2 Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp, and they did a fantastic job at keeping the digs clean.

March 20,2004
This is after I put 90 pounds of Tonga Kaelini live rock from Dr Mac & Son's(I highly recommend them if you need good live rock at a cheap price, tonga is about $3.25/pound AFTER shipping), at this point the ammonia and nitrites have come down from over 10ppm (highest reading on test kit) to zero. And I finished aquascaping the tank. Took about 20 or so pounds of the baserock out and sold it off really cheap to someone else who's getting started. Smaller of the Beckett pumps has been removed, as I'm using it to mix salt water for a big waterchange, 802 powerhead is now suction cupped to look nice. Skimmer just got put on so hasn't sucked any nasties out yet. Heaters are still flopping about. The total time it took to cure and cycle the tank was about 12 days, now I did add some Stress Zyme2 which supposedly has nitrifying bacteria in it, but I'm thinking that because I had those 25 pounds of fiji w/ 120 pounds of baserock in for almost a month prior that, even though there was still a massive ammonia spike, there still was some nitrifying bacteria in place ready to do its job. Didn't have one big picture of the whole tank by this point so split it into a left and right side with a little overlap in the center.
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January 30,2004(approx)
This is with 25 pounds of Fiji live rock & 120 pounds of hawaiian baserock. Equipment:2 Beckett pumps, unsure of the models, one users 96watts, the other uses about 35w, and a aquaclear 802 powerhead, 200w heater(green), 250w heater(black), at this point used to keep some flow in the area hopefully get some curing/cycling done with what I got