When I last left off, all of the fish in my 240 had come down with a horrible case of ich after the death of my juvenile Queen Angel. Talk about adding insult to injury! I thought briefly about packing it in, but there was no way I was giving up after all the effort I had put into this tank. Call me stubborn ...
30 Days
Way before I had decided to switch from coral skeletons to
live rock, I had weighed all the options. Really, the only negative, other than the cost, was the possiblity of a disease outbreak with no way to treat the display tank. And so rather than sell off my old 46 bow front tank, I decided to hang onto it "just in case". Little did I know "just in case" would happen so quickly.
I tried lowering the
salinity. It had no effect. So on a Saturday morning, I took out all the
live rock, setting it on a tarp and covering it with wet towels. Trying to catch the fish with the rock in the tank would have been impossible. Trying to catch the fish w/o the
live rock in the tank was only slightly easier.
I need to tell you about my French Angel, the one that I purchased when he was but a wee little fish. He was more than a fish. He was more like a dog. He was also the most trusting fish I have ever owned. I try not to use nets to catch fish unless I have to. I usually use nets to direct the fish into plastic and glass pitchers. The biggest pitcher I own is only slightly larger than the French. But having been moved on serveral occassions, he understood what was going on. It's not that he would willingly swin into the pitcher. But he would let me gently catch him with the pitcher, and he would not freak out and start splashing around either. I wish I had taken photos of him in these situations. Just imagine a large French Angel, calmly hanging out in a pitcher only slightly larger than he was. Amazing.
Anyway, after several hours, I had transfered all the fish to the 46 bow front. Imagine this: an adult French Angel, a sub-adult Emperor Angel, a Potter's Angel, (2) Golden Butterfly Fish, a Falcula Butterfly, a Powder Blue Tang, a False Percula, a Royal Gramma, a Flame Hawk, and a Yellow Tail Damsel - all in a 46. Amazingly, they all got along perfectly. Though I needed to do daily 20 gallon water changes to keep the
ammonia and
nitrite levels down.
And so my dream tank, my 240 gallon dream tank, was allowed to run fallow over the next 30 days.
A Change of Plans ... Again
Prior to my ich problem, something else was happening. One day while visiting my
LFS, the owner gave me a shell covered with Green Star Polyps. I knew they would get eaten in the 240, so I put them into my wife's 75. Then a friend of mine gave me some Kenya Tree coral
frags. Into the 75 they went. A few zoanthids and a small Colt Coral later, I found I "kinda liked" these corals. Meanwhile, my wife wanted a Flagfin Angel and a Butterfly for her 75. And so my coral experiment was about to become fish food.
A few days later, as I sat staring at my 240 full of
live rock, I began imagining those small corals in the 240. I had been toying with the idea of trying a reef tank for a while. And so for the next few days I weighed the options: corals vs. my French, Emperor, Goldens, and Falcula. The Emperor and Falcula would be easy to trade in. The French and Goldens would not be. I spent many days in various
LFS, reading, and on the internet (including right here at TR!) trying to get help with my decision. One morning I woke with my mind made up - I was going reef. Or as my wife said - I was going to "the dark side!" My
LFS took the French, Emperor, and Falcula (they went into their 300 gallon
FOWLR display). My wife took the Goldens. And I officially took a dive off the deep end ... again.
Honey, I Need To Spend More Money
Have I ever mentioned how cool my wife is? Well, she is. She knew that changing the 240 over to a reef tank was not going to be as simple as purchasing some corals. And so I made my list of all the things I would need to purchase and all the changes I would have to make to the tank to help ensure my success.
#1 - Rearrange the
live rock to make it more appropriate for coral placement. Easy. And free!
#2 - More lights. Knowing that the tank was going to house soft and LPS corals, I decided to stick with the
PC lighting I currently had, only increase the wattage. Also easy. But did cost some money.
#3 - Increase water flow. I already had installed a closed loop system to help eliminate dead spots behind the
live rock. I could not imagine drilling more holes in the tank. And so - I did something I said that I would never do - I added powerheads. Yep - (4) Seio 820's. Big, grey (why not black?) and ugly. But it was easy, as I simply hung them from each left and right side of the two overflows. Cool - no suction cups to worry about. And to be fair, I've gotten used to them. And those things really do move the water!
#4 - Replumb the tank. Again. This time, I have both overflows going into the
sump. From there, a pump moves about 600
gph over to the
refugium. The
refugium and
sump are plumbed together with a piece of
pvc. Now I can control the water flow going into the
refugium separate from the
sump. It only took 4 attempts, but I am finally satisfied with how the tank is plumbed.
Now The Fun Begins!
After the 240 was allowed to run fallow, I began adding corals. I added about 1 or 2 a week. I tried to stick with fairly easy and inexpensive ones. Zooanthids. A Torch and Hammer Coral. A Finger Leather. Candy Cane and Trumpet Corals. Xenia. And lots of Mushrooms.
I also made a few mistakes. One was purchasing a Goniopra, trusting a
LFS that it was easy. Yeah, right. It was very hard to watch it slowly start to fade. So I moved it from the main tank (too much water flow, too hard to spot feed with all the fish) into it's very own 10 gallon. Guess what? It's doing great! Loves it! Eats like a pig! And I owe it ALL to the podcast Rob did on Goniopora. A big thanks to Rob and his guest!
Let There Be Fish
I wanted to give the corals a chance to settle into their new home before adding any of the fish from quarantine. So I waited a few more weeks. Finally, I could hold out no longer. So in went the fish.
There are a few things I like about Powder Blue Tangs. They are beautiful. And I love how they swim. There are a lot of things I don't like about Powder Blue Tangs. They are aggressive. Mine is very aggressive, just ask the Purple Tang I tried to introduce one week after putting in the Powder Blue. The other thing about Powder Blue Tangs - they are ich magnets. He was the first to get ich, and he got it the worst. And so he (or she) is the first fish I checked each morning for signs of ich. It has been 4 weeks, and all is well!
Did You Hear The One About The Guy Who Set Up His Dream Tank In His Garage?
So I am happy to report that all is doing well in my dream tank. There is no way I could have done it alone. My thanks go out to many of the
LFS in my area who offered helpful, yet often conflicting advice. I thank the many book I have turned to again and again. My four favorite:
The Conscientious Marine Aquarium by Robert Fenner
Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman
Natural Reef Aquariums by John Tullock
and my dream book -
Ultimate Marine Aquariums by Michael Paletta
I also need to thank a few web sites. Yes - RC. Also Wet Web Media. And, of course,
Talking Reef. My Friday commutes to and from work have been made very enjoyable with each Thursday evening podcast download. And, of course, the TR forums are simply the best.
So there you have it. Danamck and his tank lived happily ever after. Yeah, right! There is only one problem with having your dream tank in the garage. You guessed it - it's in the garage. Whenever my wife can't find me, she knows the first place to look. One night, as we sat watching the tank, my wife said something very scary:
"You know, it's a shame this tank is in the garage"
And I agree. Problem is - this tank is too large to fit anywhere in our house. But a 180 or 210 would fit perfectly in our Living Room. And I could keep the filtration equipment in the garage, so the tank would be very quiet. And I could upgrade to
Metal Halide lighting, so I could try SPS.
And so we arrive to today, as I am planning my next dream tank. I hope to document the entire process in this thread. That way, when my wife has me committed, you will all know why.
I just try to take advantage of opportunities to communicate that real people, even someone that you might know, get hurt by drinking and driving. The silver lining is that I don't think any of my son's close friends will ever drink and drive.
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i didnt know 
