Gofor's 60"L X 30"W X 24"T Upgrade

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#41
Everything looks good Chad ! I have upgraded my tank too about 2 months ago. I also have some of that brown diatoms on my rocks. You may want to try some Dwarf Ceriths, they are good at getting into little crevices...
 
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#42
Everything looks good Chad ! I have upgraded my tank too about 2 months ago. I also have some of that brown diatoms on my rocks. You may want to try some Dwarf Ceriths, they are good at getting into little crevices...
Yeah, thanks bro'!

I've got some Ceriths too and increased my flow by installing some MP40's on each side. Hopefully the algae will be a goner sooner rather than later :D

Thanks,

Chad
 
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#43
Alright... made some progress this weekend!

First things first... got an update on the stand/canopy.

A problem I encountered though (rookie mistake) was when I was applying a two-part epoxy to the inner part of the stand late last week, I let it dry face down, which led to some of the epoxy puddling and drying on the face of the stand/canopy (which looked horrible)!!! So, Saturday, after the stand and canopy were already stained, I decided the only way I could be truly happy with the finished product was to re-sand and re-stain the face of the stand/canopy.

So here's the progress made...

Got started on the Stand and Canopy after finishing up all of the doors...




Then stained the trim I'll be using on the doors...


Hopefully sometime this week Jeff and I will be installing the hardware and putting on the trim so that I can put a final coat of polyurethane on the stand so we can install this thing.

-Chad
 
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#44
Also picked up some frags from Steve Garrett...

Here's my favorite... the Blue Sapphire Milli.


Then there's Garrett's Blue-tipped Subulata...


The GARF Bonsai...


And Garrett's Carduus...


iPhone pics don't really do them justice, but within minutes of going in, they were showing great PE and as you can see are pretty good sized frags.

I also got this Rainbow Stylo from him several weeks back and it's looking great...


A kind of strange side-story... when I got to Steve's (in Costa Mesa), I heard some loud popping noises, and thought to myself, "That kind of sounds like gunfire", then when I met up with Steve I asked him if some kids were setting off fireworks or something, and he said that for some reason there was a "Civil War re-enactment" in the park by his house... pretty strange but whatever.

Also got a chance to check out his system... it is REALLY awesome. For those that haven't stopped by his place it's definitely a must-see.

-Chad
 
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#45
As you can see in the frag pics, I still have that algae/cyano/whatever it is, BUT it doesn't seem to be doing any worse AND all of the corals seem to be doing great (great color/PE/noticeable growth).

So this last weekend I decided to do some more things to combat it and hopefully get rid of it sooner rather than later...

> Scrubbed the rock with a brush, then siphoned out a lot of the algae floating around in the water column
> Attached a filter sock to the output of my overflow so that when I turned the pumps back on, most of the loose algae crap would get caught in the sock
> Changed out my Carbon and GFO and continue to run GFO at roughly double the dose

The one slight set-back I had was when I cleaned my skimmer pump and skimmer body, I may have cleaned a little too well because my skimmer is overflowing. So I'll just keep it running and see if it gets better in a couple of days.

Here are a few pics of the tank after cleaning it up a bit...




I plan on continuing the scrub/siphon/sock routine the next couple of weeks, so we'll see how it goes. So far it's looking good, but I'd be interested to see if the stuff comes back. Also, I've noticed my Potter's seems more interested in picking at the rocks now that the longer growth isn't everywhere. So hopefully the Potter and the Blenny will help this along.

I guess we'll see...

-Chad
 
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#46
Oh, and I almost forgot to post a really good score... got this browned out Strawberry Shortcake (another coral that I lost in the tank transfer) for only $10.



You can't really see it in the pic, but I can already see pink at the tips of the corallites and a green base coming back after only a week in my tank.

Thanks for looking!

-Chad
 
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#48
hey chad,
what are you dosing? and what method?
Hey,

I'm dosing ESV B-Ionic Calcium/Alkalinity/Mg, using the LiterMeterIII to dose the Cal/Alk, and manually add the Magnesium with water changes that I do weekly.

Other than that, I keep it pretty simple...

Thanks,

Chad
 
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#49
So just wanted to post with probably the best pic I've taken so far of my Potter's (albeit with my iPhone and with my Flame Wrasse trying to get a cameo)... he actually stood still long enough for me to get a pretty clear picture showing the details of his crazy color patterns.



Enjoy!

-Chad
 
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#50
Alright... I was able to take some updated pics of the tank last night.





It's definitely coming along and the algae is slowly but surely going away. Although, now it seems there is some brown film algae in spots, but I'd much rather deal with that, and I think that is in part because my skimmer was going nuts each time I scrubbed the rock and I was basically unable to keep the collection cup on because it would overflow in a matter of seconds.

Now the skimmer is somewhat back to normal (although still overproducing even with it being wide open- I think this will correct itself after a few more days), so I'm able to get some of the crap out of the water, and hopefully combat any excess nutrients/particulate matter. I'll also continue to scrub as long as there are signs of the stringy stuff, so we'll see how long it takes, but it seems like its on the road to recovery.

Thanks for looking!

-Chad
 
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#51
Also, if you looked closely at the pics above, you may have spotted some new additions to the tank...

In all, I added 3 fish from the QT- a Yellow Longnose Butterfly (trying to fatten this guy up a little more), what I believe is a juvenile Melanurus Wrasse (although it has a third eye-spot towards the front of its dorsal fin, so not sure), and a Neon Blue Goby.

Here's the Longnose...




And here's the wrasse...



The goby is a difficult little bugger to get a pic of, but he's doing good and I've already noticed him cleaning some of the fish in the tank... or at least trying.

With the QT empty, I actually took advantage of a little business trip out to Pasadena yesterday, and stopped by some LFS's that I haven't been to (Vivid and Age of Aquariums) which were both really nice. The bummer is neither had any fish I was looking for... but one LFS that I'm pretty familiar with did (a Blue Jaw Trigger). For now, he's pretty shy (although I just put him in yesterday afternoon), so we'll see how he's doing tonight when I get home. I still might add one or two other fish in there with him, but that all depends on if any shipments come in that have what I'm looking for.

Thanks again for looking,

Chad
 
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#54
No real updates as of now. The Blue Jaw trigger is doing well in QT and I might be out on the hunt for more fish to put in the QT tonight or tomorrow.

But for the heck of it, here's some more pics of my Potter's Angel...




Hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Chad
 
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#56
Love your Melanurus, I also just purchased one. You know they are great at eating flatworms also....besides looking awesome.
Thanks! Still figuring out if it is a Melanurus, but they're definitely nice looking fish.

Hopefully I don't have to worry about flatworms though! Trying to be very strict in my dipping practices... we'll see :)

Thanks,

Chad
 

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