Saturday, 16 July 2011

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

Well over a year now since the tank was started. Had a few deaths and incidents, but over all hopefully everything has settled down now. Just uploaded a HD You Tube video of the tank I record in the week.

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

25-04-2010
Everything seems to be going ok, have done a water change today, Nitrate's are beginning to creep up a bit. Two new tank inhabitants:

This is "Custard" a Yellow Tang. Obvious name really.



After the unfortunately short life of my sea anemone, thought I'd try something similar looking but completely different. This is a torch coral, not sure if the Clown Fish will go anywhere near it, but it took them about 3 months before suddenly discovering the sea anemone.

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

19-04-2010
Noticed a Red Legged hermit crab eyeing up the former home of a Blue Legged crab today. Old bluey moved out when it found a turbo snail stupid enough to fall off a rock and get itself stuck upside down. Bluey had already eaten most if it when I noticed, so left it to it. Few days later I saw him sporting his new home. Put the shell in when I swapped over from the Nano tank, looks like someone will be moving in again soon.

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

05-04-2010
More water tests and things are looking good. A couple of red legged crabs have been put in a few days before, time to transfer last of the rock and the first fishy, Yellow Tailed Damsel. Whilst I know this can be a bit territorial, the tank is so big compared to the old one, I'm sure it will take a while for it to claim a spot!


Possibly moving a bit too fast, but I'm worried about leaving corals and fish in the old tank with no live rock. Once it's been in the tank a while, leather seems to be opening up.



Transfered Shimpy in the afternoon too. He was surprisingly fast when he wanted to be, having several sets of legs probably helped.


Peak-a-Boo was next to go in. After floating around in the plastic bag for 30 odd minutes, he was straight out and in to a hole.


Finally at the end of the day, it was the turn of Nemo and Titan to be transfered. Straight away they swam to the same right hand corner of the tank and kept swimming around each other, just like they did in the Nano tank.

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

30-03-2010
Things are moving a bit quicker now, had several attempts at re-arranging the rock and had "design assistance" from a friend who obviously thought he was creating some master peice from the way he kept saying "move that bit to the left, no the other left, up a bit, make it balance on that bit" (gravity kept spoiling his efforts though!). Cleaned up some of the rock from the nano tank (looks very empty now and the fish are trying to swim around one small piece that's been left).



The water is so cloudy as the sand, even though washed, has just been added and it's going to take 24 hours for that to settle a bit. You can also see rather a lot of putty on one of the pieces of rock, this was to assisist with the gravity defying rock arrangement requested by friend who had obviously been watching way too many home improvement programs and thought he was creating an episode of "Changing Rooms" for fish. Look it's even purple, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen would be so proud.



Water tests show that Nitite and Ammonia levels are dropping rapidly to zero, so looks like tank has nearly cycled. Been adding a tiny amount of food too, just to float around and sink to the bottom. I've been told this helps with building up the bacteria too. Also been adding in extra Nutrafin "Cycle".

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

28-03-2010
Wide view of the tank, I'm going to have a main "pile" of rock at the left hand end, some kind of connecting structure in the middle then another small pile on the right hand side. I've also added a little bit of sand/gravel because I wanted to get a feel of how it would look.

Aqua Medic Percula 120 (440ltr)

20-03-2010
Making the platform for the cave and where the return water will come out from the filter at the back. I've put a T piece on so half comes out here and the other half at the other end of the tank behind some more rock. Just normal waste pipe with lots of holes drilled through it and some plastic cable ties to hold the legs on to the egg crate.


First attempt at arranging the rock. You can see the little plastic stand at the moment, still not happy with the rock, I hate doing this bit as water gets everywhere as I put my arms in, then have to step back to look. Loads of water dribbles down the front too which have dried and left streaks.  Also added a load of "Cycle" liquid to help boast the bacteria in the tank.