180 The Simple Way

[Travis]

Thanks guys.

Maxx, I like spa-flex for some things, like the main return line. But anything that requires flexible tubing is best done with something else. Maybe it should be called "non-flex" tubing.

[VINA DEL MAR]

Travis thank you for giving me the little dose of your macro pics I asked you before.
Sorry about the fish death,but is not your fault Right?Hope to see more pics and keep the good work.

VINA

[Travis]

Update time.

Here's the full tank shot:



You'll notice the colors are different from left to right. One of my stinkin' 10K XM bulbs blew after about 2 weeks in service. I got a temporary replacement, a Hamilton 14K. Guess which is left and which is right? That should be easy. I'm actually enjoying the color of the Hamilton much better, but I have a replacement 10K XM on the way. My friends at the logical reef always take good care of me.

Some of the frags from the prop tank broke out with algae. Actually, I should back up- last week, I got my diatom bloom. Snails were doing a good job, and it seemed to be fading. Then the hair algae just took off on these frags and a couple pieces that had it in the 55. For some reason, what seemed like different types of algae took the form of bryopsis in the new tank...BLECH!

Well, I've dealt with bryopsis before. No fun. But I have a secret weapon...



This is my new Foxface. My third one. Hopefully I can keep this one happier in the 180, my two previous ones didn't do well in the 46, although they were smaller. He's already making a big dent in the bryopsis, as long as I keep my nutrients under control and keep the skimmer running well, I expect (hope) the hair algae issues to be gone in a few weeks. I have managed to keep it isolated and it doesn't seem to be spreading, so I just have to let the foxface do what he does best. Eat anything and everything algae.


Softie city on the left side is shaping up nicely... all the softies seem to appreciate the 14K more than the 10K bulb (or technically, the lower PAR probably). I'm seeing better extension from all of them and enjoying the nice glow effect from the bulb, especially on anything green






The rose has been an issue. The rock it came on was infested with aiptasia and had to go. The poor rose was enjoying the 14K more as well, when I so meanly took it out of the tank and busted its rock so the anemone was on a very small, aiptasia-free piece. It decided that would be a good time to move... to somewhere I can barely see it.


Note the sliver of life growing fast on this purple digitata.


I moved the pulsing sinularia, one of my most rare and favorite corals, over to softie city. It seems very happy.




On to mount LPS... everything is extending and happy looking under the 10K XM now. You can see some of the bryopsis on the right. Those are zoanthid frags buried in the stuff.





I'm thinking about fragging up one of my two large branching hammers...



Here's a side shot of Mount LPS


And a side shot of softie city



Equipment: I forgot to add a pic of how I rigged up my phosban reactor. It's supposed to be level, but there was no way to do that on the side of the rubbermaid sump. A bungee cord and a little ingenuity later, this was the result:




Finally, a couple of frags I'm bringing to the DFWMAS frag swap on Saturday, along with more anthelia frags than you can shake a stick at:


(The oranges ar recovering from a shaded spot in the 55, they'll be nice soon I promise)



That's it for now! Sorry for the pic quality, still fighting micro bubbles and didn't get too fancy trying to correct the white balance, so some of them have a color cast. Snapshots I suppose.

T

[Maxx]

Travis,
Looks good. Sorry to hear about your XM bulb troubles. I have been admiring the Hamilton 14K's for awhile now, but I bought four AB 10K DE's for my tank when In-Reef had them on sale for $50.00 a piece. I couldnt pass that up. But Hamilton's look good to my eye.

I had to laugh when I saw this pic. The astrea snail on the right side looked like a tiny moon setting over mount LPS.



Nick

[Travis]

Update:

Flatworms. Ugh.

Broken XM 10K. Ugh.

Oceanic salt- ugh. CA 550, Alk 2-2.5 meq/l at 1.025. Ugh.

Flatworm exit and a new bulb in the mail.

[Travis]

[Gina]

Ah...eye candy as always! Your 180 looks like it's coming along nicely! I especially like the LPS mountain! Sorry about your light cracking. We had problems with our bulbs also but, they were right on it to replace our bulbs. Looking forward to seeing how the new ones will look.

[Travis]

Just a little update... board has kep me busy the last couple of weeks and I've kept my grubby hands out of the tank. Which is a good thing!

No new additions, no new anything... nice...and...slow...

must...resist!

The hair algae is definitely waning. Foxface is working the bryopsis pretty good. Zos are EXTREMELY happy under the 14K hamilton's, but my hystrix isn't coloring up as quickly as I'd hoped.

That's it. Sorry, no pics this time.

edit: Oh, yeah. with the 14K hamilton's I switched the 2x110 VHO to 50-50's and the color is VERY nice. The VHO now add a bit of daylight to the almost-too-blue of the hamiltons.

[Travis]

New fish = eye candy!!!

[Gina]

Nice fish Travis! I really like the flames also. Very colorful fish. Great shots as always!

[Woodstock]

Beautiful!!... as always!

[mkpaulson]

your pitchers are absolutely stunning!

[wooddood]

aww anthias very very awesome looking fish i had 2 a while back and they became victims to the overflow, i need to put some screen on that overflow real fast. the tanks lookin sweet travis congrats buddy.




dave.

[Woodstock]

What were your camera settings Travis?? The fish look as though they were posing for you!

[Travis]

Camera settings- well, on these I used a flash technique to underexpose the backgrounds while properly exposing the fish (didn't work as well on the flame shots, as they're a bit underexposed). So the shutter was locked at 1/250, aperture around f/4-f/5.6, ISO 400 I believe.