Khemul's 120 Gallon Tank

[Khemul]

Well, technically it isn't fully set up yet. But we are a couple bulkheads and 10-15 gallons away from "fully running". For now it is mostly running. Anyways...



Before.








About 4 hours later...this.




A little organizing to the rocks...


A little bit more organizing to the rocks...


And there we go.




The new LTA refuses to accept anywhere but that spot. If I try to move it more out in the open (like the fiancee wants) it tumbles in the current and starts to float. After the experience with the Condies...I'll let it live wherever prevents it from getting into the water column.

Most of the fish made it through the upgrade. We lost the Lawnmower Blenny and Rusty Angel unfortunately. I think the upgrade just took too long and stressed them too much. We were shooting for a couple hours and ended up with double that before we went with the "screw waiting for it to clear up, just dump em in" approach. Probably saved at least the Eibli and the Sharpnose Puffer since they were looking very bad in the holding buckets. The Puffer sulked for the rest of the night. The Eibli recovered very quickly.



Refugium is currently half up. It has it's rock and sand but only half of it's water. We have the pump and everything ready but two of the bulkheads insist on a slow-drip leak. The store replaced one for us today but didn't have the other. They offered some advice on hopefully fixing it ourselves. If that doesn't work then the tanks will remain separate systems until the weekend.


I don't think this is a Micro-Brittle Star. A smaller version got thrown in the main tank but I think I'll have this one stay in the refugium.





I currently have a small powerhead in there to keep everything alive. Looks like most of Micro Stars, bristleworms, snails and ghost shrimp made it through the transfer.



Hopefully tonight we'll have the whole system up and running. Will be doing the bulkhead test again and if it passes then that is the last step and the remaining water gets poured in.




Stocking so far;

Corals - Display
Green Florida Ricordea
Orange Florida Ricordea
Green Umbrella Mushroom
Zoanthis
Kenya Tree
Branching Frogspawn
Octopus Frogspawn
Unknown Frogspawn (still new to the tank)
Duncan
Finger Leather

Corals - Refugium
Green Star Polyps
Xenia (if they survived the transfer...rock sort of got lost in the muck)


Livestock - Display
Eibli Dwarf Angel
Valentini Puffer
Sharpnose Puffer
3 Whitebelly Damsels
2 Golden Damsels
Starry Blenny
Eyelash Blenny (I think this is the same as a Lawnmower but it is so small it is hard to tell right now)
2 Engineer Gobies
2 Frillfin Gobies
2 Crested Gobies
3 Zebra Dartfish
Golden-Head Goby
2 Sergeant-Major Damsels (1/2" in size right now)
Green Long-Tentacle Anemone
Sea Hare
Crown Conch
3 Pincushion Urchins (Purple, Green, Pink)

[Khemul]

edit: Forgot in the stocking above. 2 Percula Clownfish (1 orange and 1 black)



Flow in the tank looks like it'll remain as the previous tank; two MJ 600's and the return line. I tried plugging in the MJ 1200 last night and everything in the tank freaked. Fish went into hiding, corals started getting knocked around and the LTA lifted off the sand. Not sure why but that thing just kicks up too much. On paper it should be equal to the two MJ 600's so not sure why they work with the tank but it doesn't.

But everyone seems happy so far with the 600's so guess I'll keep it at that. Not like this is an SPS tank so I don't need to blast everything.



Oh and on an odd note, my Crown Conch layed eggs. The odd part being there isn't another Crown in the tank and I caught the thing back in fall.
If they are fertilized they should be hatching soon. Not sure if they'll have much chance of survival but if they do I may just be overrun by whelk's.

[Benson]

Nie tank!!!!

[RNeiswander]

Looking good! Do you have issues with all the bottom dwellers?

[Khemul]

Looking good! Do you have issues with all the bottom dwellers?

I did have some chasing between the old Lawnmower and the Starry Blenny. Those actually started to look like games after a while though. The gobies would sometimes push each other around in the old tank.

But it is interesting. It looks like a lot of bottom dwellers but a lot of them inhabit different levels still.
The dartfish and engineers live under the sand/rocks. The gobies live in caves over the sand but under the rocks. The blennies live in the middle level rocks.
Even on the upper levels, the damsels and clowns live in the upper level rocks at varying levels. The puffers swim around the top. Its like everyone found plenty of room to fill a niche.

Strangely enough, in this tank everyone seem at peace. Even the Starry and the new baby Lawnmower/Eyelash live right next door to each other (about 4 inches away).

[tolawdjk]

overrun by whelks. I think I have seen that episode.

[greech]

Look at all that room!!! Thank you so much for getting me my 120 and for going through all the trouble with the leak testing ! You can send it up to Tallahassee whenever you get a chance .

Sorry about the fish losses but congrats on getting everthing moved over! Hopefully you got the bulkhead issue resolved (or will soon). Look forward to seeing pics of it all cleared up.

[smitty]

Everything takes time but you are on your way.

[Khemul]

Got the bulkheads worked out. Now dialing in the drain lines, although with the massive backup lines the Herbie system is easy. Now I just need to add to the backup lines so they don't drop water from so much height.

Was starting to hate bulkheads there for a little bit.
The smaller one refused to stop leaking. The bigger one finely stopped but I figured "why not replace both since the bigger one isn't fitting perfectly". The store replaced the bigger one but couldn't do the smaller one. They suggested using a single gasket, even though Deep Blue supplies two. That worked for the smaller one. The bigger one they gave me as a replacement ended up being broken. :banghead: Finally went back this morning and got my original big bulkhead back. Tried it with a single gasket and had it 99% fit. There was moisture seeping through but no drip. Was about to give up when it allowed one more quarter turn and now all is good. No moisture or dripping.


Will upload pictures when I get to work and get my laptop set up and running.

[Khemul]

Whole setup. One thing I absolutely hate about Deep Blue...their tank labels. They don't come off easily.


Display


Refugium


Refugium (left)


Refugium (right)


Still have to find a home for the heaters. Was originally thinking in the overflows but the water doesn't really circulate in those much. Think they may end up in the refugium. Hell, might not even need them really since even during the coldest time this year the previous tank only hit 69 or 70 (granted that was with a 150W heater) at night. Normal range is 73-74 without lights and 74-75 with lights (the house is usually a little colder at night so that is probably the real reason, rather then the lights themselves).