Forums / General Forums / Member's Tanks

My new Tank (The BIG one)

Goodwin9 — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 03:23:49 GMT

I thought that I would post pictures of the progress of a new tank I am getting ready to set up in my home. It's going to be a BIG one, approximately 600 gallons with a 160 gallon sump/refugium below the tank. I thought that I would share a couple of pictures of the tank being built. The tank dimensions are 120L X 48W X 25H. It's an acrylic tank and is supposed to be delivered in 10 days. I hope to be able to post pictures as things progress on my new project.

temperate tank

tunafish — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:44:12 GMT

:temperate tank

)

45 Gal. Hex

Fettigoat — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:49:20 GMT

45 gal.Hex,Skilter 350,Fluval 204,Hydor 2 fan.Pretty happy after only 8 weeks!

my 37 gallon

slaltyfish808 — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:30:21 GMT

Just a few pictures so you guys can give me your thoughts!

700 gallon tank build with 4x8 natural light skylight over tank

Reefski — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:37:38 GMT

700 gallon tank build.

First and foremost I want to thank my wife of twenty four years, Pam, for allowing my obsession to become a reality.

I have had a reef aquarium for a few years, ever since I went to a koi club member’s home and saw the magnificent reef tank that his wife had. My wife and I missed most of the koi club meeting mesmerized by the 260 gallon SPS reef tank. My wife said we have to have one. I said NO WAY, ABSOLUTLY NOT! Too much work, impossible to keep salt water fish and corals, oh my gawd corals, blah, blah, blah. I was basing my opinion on forty year old info from my childhood when I kept fresh water tanks as a teen. I have seen many tanks since then and Tankgirls is still among the best I have seen. TOTM quality. She has become a wonderful friend and mentor.

Needless to say we soon found a 120 gallon tank for sale in the local recycler newspaper. It had LR, LS, PC lighting, a few fish, and a couple soft corals. After a while we moved up to a 260 gallon tank that we still have today. It has halides, and lots of well established live rock full of life, worms, fan worms, sponges, tunicates, etc, DSB, and LPS, SPS and soft corals, a mature RBTA, and a few fish.

I now have several tanks for various corals, display tank, frag tank, soft coral tank, 400 gallon barrel outside in the sun with several hundred pounds of live rock waiting for the new tank to be set up.

I have some other folks I want to thank for all their expertise and knowledge they have shared through their writings on the forums and books they have written without which I would not have had the courage to attempt a new tank.

Tankgirl for her amazing tank that inspired us to get our first tank.

I highly recommend all the following authors for their work. Anyone setting up a tank or wanting to learn would do well to have read these books.

I have read and reread all of them several times over.

Invaluable sources of information I have learned much from-

Eric Borneman “Aquarium Corals” thank you for answering my questions on your forum.

Ron Shimek “Marine Invertebrates” and for answering my forum questions.

Scott Michael “Reef Fishes” series.

Julian Sprung and Charles J Delbeek for their series “The Reef Aquarium” vols I, II, and III, especially Vol III which is the most complete book I have seen on the science and art of setting up a reef tank. Charles Delbeek is the head of the Waikiki Aquarium. There they have a 5,000 gallon reef tank. Simply awe inspiring. It has a large skylight over the tank providing natural light supplemented with several 1,000 watt halides and a 10hp chiller outside the building.

This tank has two giant Tridacna clams that are about 25 years in captivity, the oldest clams in the world in captivity. They are HUGE.

Mr. Delbeek, thank you for the behind the scenes tour to see the tank from above and the giant surge devices and other equipment for the most magnificent tank.

Thank you to all the reefcentral.com TOTM’s tanks. I have read all your threads and drooled over the pictures in awe. Also thank you to all the others on the forums who have willingly shared their ideas and expertise freely.

Finally, thank you Anthony Calfo for being a sounding board for everything reef on the forums. No question to stupid to be answered respectfully.

Anthony Calfo-“Reef Invertebrates” when I bought this book I thought it was about corals, after all they are invertebrates, I was disappointed, and then I started to read it. Wow, a cornucopia of info on all the other stuff in our tanks. I have read it so many times the pages are falling out. Not disappointed any more.

“Coral Propagation” volume I- can’t wait for volume II with more pictures.

“The Conscientious Marine Aquarist” cowritten with Bob Fenner who is also a very entertaining speaker. This was my first book i got along with the first tank.

“C…The Journal”-very entertaining and educational magazine.

The system-
The tank is 96”X48”X36” Approximately 700 gallons.
Acrylic-built by SoCalCreations.com
It is viewable on three sides. The two long and one short side. It will be in the living room and entryway hall.
There is and external 3’ overflow on one end that will be in the closet adjacent to the tank and also there is an island overflow in the middle of the tank. Five 2” overflows total.

Two closed loops all with OceansMotions.com 4 ways with each powered by a Sequence Hammerhead, 5800 GPH. Closed loops have all openings through the bottom of the tank with 1.5” bulkheads.

Return pumps from sump in garage under tank. One Sequence Dart, 2,800 gph, and another Sequence Hammerhead, each on separate 20 amp circuit for redundancy. Returns are to be Calfo style closed loops around the top of the tank so as to give equal flow over the whole top of the tank.

Lighting-I have a 4X8 foot skylight over the tank. I have lined the skylight with highly polished aluminum 4x8 sheets from http://anomet.com/cgi-bin/online/storepro.php. this particular sheet is 87% reflective. They have other sheets that are more reflective for visible light BUT reflect very low in the UV portion of the spectrum.

The skylight itself is single glazed acrylic opening type. Said to transmit 94% light and 44% UV.

I have an Apogee light meter and will be monitoring the light coming into the tank for many months before adding and fish or corals. Then I can decide what supplemental lighting I may need.

To accommodate the tank in the house we had to do a bit of reinforcing. After all, the tank fully loaded will weight somewhere around 8,000 pounds.

The tank is going to be primarily Stony Corals with fairly high light requirements and some LPS, and one large RBTA that is my wifes favorite. And of course fish. I hope to keep out the soft corals, we love them too but due to many of their fast growth rates and chemical warfare we will try to limit them.

I also plan to run carbon and ozone 24/7.

I still can’t decide what to do about a skimmer. I have read Anthony’s discussions about skimming and on the other hand I have read Eric’s writings about the skimmerless tanks with no water changes.

I have a small skimmer, the Aqua C EV-400 that I think I will run so I can add ozone, a 200 mg per hour Red Sea unit. So not quite skimmerless.

I have access to Free NSW at UCSB that I will be taking advantage of. I have a 1,200 gallon cistern in the front yard to hold the NSW.

The old house that my father build in 1952 that I grew up in.

Getting ready for the new tank.

we had to make room for the new tank.

the support for the new tank.

bringing in the tank.

a few hundred pounds of live rock is in here.

the water storage tank, 1200 gallons, will be plumbed to pump into the tanks as needed.

i can only set up the tank now. i must wait until the rest of the house is finished to take over the garage for the sump and the rest of the equipment.

i will get the live rock in soon and the 6" sugar fine DSB seeded from my existing tanks. this will just run on the closed loops for months, 6-8 months while the house is finished.

this way the infauna in the sand be will have a chance to really mature and the LR will prosper. no additional light other than from the skylight.

i have the stand and we hope to start plumbing next week.

PLEASE DON'T POST ASKING FOR UPDATES. there won't be much activity for many months after the initial rush of phase I set up. i will take periodic light readings and post on the thread along with periodic pictures.

My 400lt Tank

proangel2 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:01:47 GMT

Just taut id share some pictures of my tank as iam setting it up

It a 400lt Juwel tank iam using tunze power heads a 6100 and a 6101 with a controller for circulation 50kg of live rock no sump

34 gallon tank

TULLYBIRD — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:15:45 GMT

I have had my tank up and running for about two months this week. I have four marine plants, 30# LR, 20# LS, 20# argonite, five hermit crabs, and four snails. The tank is a Red Sea Max set-up with cabinet, 110w T5 Compact, blue LED moonlight, 300gph turbo protein skimmer, full mechanical/biological/chemical filtration, and 2 x 145 gph pumps.

I will be adding two pepper mint shrimp and a lawnmower blenny this week. My levels are 1.023 SG, 0 nitrite, 20 ppm nitrate, and 0 ammonia.

As you can see, the tank is a work in progress.

My Zoa Nano

msturgis — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:31:46 GMT

12 gallon Nanocustoms 4.24

Trying this out......

SFAquaAddict — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:02:52 GMT

Hi all!

I have just figured out that this forum is here after ordering from Marine depot for a couple years now. Guess I am a bit slow.

I thought I was a pretty good saltwater enthusiest until I started checking out all of your tanks. Jeez, some amazing stuff on here. I am embarrassed to say I don't even know what you are all talking about a lot of the time. LOL! Although I am intrigued and thought I would try to learn from you all. I thought I would start by showing you some of what I have been doing for the past few years.

Been keeping, and learning about Reef keeping for about 10 years now. I think the tank I am showing here is my 6th aquarium. Some I still have, and others have come and gone for various reasons. This particular one has been up for about 2.5 years and has been a real learning experience for me. Unfortunately not a good one at first.

This is my 110 gallon Fish only system. All my other tanks are Reefs and I hope to show you those later on. It's really a beautiful tank, and the absolute largest that I could fit in my 300 sq. ft. apartment here in San Francisco. LOL! It is 48" L x 18" D x 29" H. I love having the hight tank because it really makes it showy! I have about a 25-35 gallon sump with a small Refugium. I use an Aqua C protein skimmer (I forget which size), A Fluval 405 Canister Filter, about 110 lbs of live rock and about 80 lbs of live sand topped off with 20 lbs of GARF Grundge (Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation..... awesome website if you haven't been). The Grundge is basically Live sand taken from the tops of some of GARF's tanks that have been running for MANY years. Full of life and some great varieties of Coraline Algae. I use it on all my tanks.

I recently had my primary pump go out on me. It was a Reeflo Dart pump. Loved it, and it ran for about 1.5 years, but the saltcreep had managed to move directly up the drive shaft and into the motor. After it burned up I pulled it apart to see what had happened. I had to take a hammer and chisel to get the salt off the shaft. Guess I was just unlucky. I replaced it last week with an Iwaki pump. Seems about as quiet as the Dart, and runs amazingly cooler. My tank has dropped and stayed 2-3' cooler than it was. I even put the glass tops back on and am using much less top off water. Yay!

I light the tank with one 36" 96 watt Power Compact. I have two of them, but only run one as it seems to be plenty and before I used to have heating issues. I may start using two again. We'll see.

My stock ranges from 2.5 years old to my newest edition that I got about 4 months ago. Although It was in another aquarium for a year before I bought it.

Here it is:
Snowflake Moray Eel - My oldest fish in this tank
Purple Tang
Tomato Clown - A friend of mine's house burnt down, so I took it for him (2
years ago! LOL)
"Map" Angel - growing way too fast and BEAUTIFUL! Will be getting a bigger tank
Scribbled Rabbit Fish - the newest addition and wonderful.
Lemon Peel Angel
Two large green Brittle stars
Several varieties of snails......including the ones the dive into the sand??
Decorator Crab that is sweet and that I NEVER see! LOL!

That's it. You have NO IDEA how hard it is to not buy more, but I really try hard not to overstock as to keep a healthy system. Although my angel was a bad choice.....I love it, but will have to get a bigger tank for it soon. AHHHHHH Darn. I HAVE to get a bigger tank! LOL!

Ok, so here are some pics. Thanks for checking em out. /Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_0005.JPG
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1041.JPG
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_0914.JPG
All the kids together.
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_0967.JPG
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1032.JPG
I had to start using a flash cause they wouldn't hold still and it was making them blurr. But look at how great it shows of my Angels colors! WOO HOO!

/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1037.JPG
The rabbit fish is such a fun fish. Very cool.
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1019.JPG
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_0984.JPG
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1017.JPG
My Sump n stuff!
/Users/kristophermoore/Desktop/IMG_1043.JPG

Thats about it. Thanks for checking it out. Love this site, hope to get to know some of you and learn from the amazing amount of experience here. Thanks.

Kris.

my24 gallon nanocube

titanzmom — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:33:28 GMT

Hi, just wanted to post what my tank looks like. This is the one that I keep asking questions about. I am getting some coral in a few weeks and update. The pics are from when I 1st started to now. Not much...

My 50g FOWLR

DRRT — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:14:03 GMT

I've been with this forum for a while, but never showed off my tank except when I had questions. I've been wanting to convert to reef, but money and time constraints have prevented me from doing so.

So here is my tank. It is 50g with a Rena x3 canister filter and a 30 or 40 watt light. That will be the first thing I upgrade when I get my next paycheck.

Stocking list:
Achilles Tang
Regal Tang
Valentini Toby
Bluespotted Toby
Coral Banded Shrimp
7 Hermit Crabs

Thanks for looking at my tank.

Mr. Tangs 150 euro-braced custom reef tank

Mr. Tang — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:09:43 GMT

After my 120 was up and running successfully and the fish were growing and the corals were encrusting, my oldest son decided to help his Daddy clean the glass.....He's only seven, so,,,I could only get so mad,,,,,He picked up sand with the magnetic scrapper and scratched up the whole front and sides of the tank Now, I didn't get mad at him because he was showing an interest in the same thing that has brought some much happiness to me. So after explaining to him how to properly clean the glass, I started to think,,,how nice it would be to have scratch free glass!!! Than the idea arose of expanding the tank by 110 gallons. The tank would have been a 5' by 3' by 2'. Really nice size!!! Well,,,the wife said,,,,,and,,,,,,and##$$%^,,,,@##@%$.

So, now the new tank size is going to be 150 gallons and it's 5' by 2' by 2'. I know, you guys are thinking this guy just gave into his wife. No way!! This was a war that wasn't worth fighting. She has let me get away with so much already that it wasn't worth the fight

So here's the plan as of right now

Ok so here are my thoughts so far..... The tank is 5'long by 2' tall by 2' deep. I have used powerheads in the past but I think I may use a CL on this one. My problem is that I want to have a feeding type mode and a sleeping mode. That is when the current dies down enough to give the livestock(mainly fish) a just to rest. Corlas don't need rest. So how would one do this with a CL???? And I really don't want a ton of pipes under the tank. I also am scared of using a 4 way. Too much piping!!! I haven't seen one done yet that looks planned out. Pipes going everywhere!!!! Not clean looking. So what do you guys think???? I wonder if I could put the pump on a timer and have it timed to come on when the actinic's come on. Kinda like daybreak or like when the tide comes in(out)??? I might be overthinking this Here's a good question,,,,,Would the flow just from the returns be enough during lights out to keep the corals happy??? My return pump is moving 750 gph. And would that be enough flow to feed the corals with food in the column????
OM's are iffy at best. I have heard way too many people telling me of stories about sand getting into it, so how about this
So in the true spirit of DIY, I have come up with this idea!!! What if I used a reeflow pump pushing out around 4000 gph. And I used two irrigation valves wired to a irrigation controller. I own a landscape installation company and I have hundreds of 1" valves laying around. I also have controllers sitting around as well. These controllers have up to 16 start times aviable and can run up to 32 valves. I of course would only need 2 or 3 valves at the most. I would use two outlets (1") to feed the pump with each valve having three returns. So actually, I would have 6 returns feeding flow to the tank. This can also be programed and timed to start down when the lights go off. So what happens is when the lights come on, the pump comes on and the program on the controller starts.
So what do you think????????????

1st fish in my tank

Nstig8tr — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:37:49 GMT

Technically he was the first one in but I also added some green chromis. They're a little tougher to photograph.

My 300g tank.

Georgina — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:49:15 GMT

Hi, i am from Costa Rica, so i speak spanish... Sorry if i write something bad.

This is my tank, only have 3 months old... Its really hard for me to find corals, so i don't have anything extravagant...

Equipment:
Skimmer: ASM G4X
MH 250 W 20.000K
Sump: 50g
Refuge: 70g with chaetomorpha / caulerpa.

Some pictures of my reef.

Snappy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:43:21 GMT

My 130 gal has been running for about 3.5 years now.

Here's a FTS

RH side view

LH side view

Thanks for looking.

22 gallon oceanic cube

cutegecko3 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:09:10 GMT

Superman millepora started out as a bright green maricultured colony(WOW!).

My 44 gal corner tank

koletrain — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:55:13 GMT

Nothing major, just another tank to play around with.

my tank

tjone752000 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:25:40 GMT

48 gal. tall

Corner small reef tank

54GalBow — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:42:14 GMT

Hello all,

It's been about a year since I put in the live rock. Stocked with 5 fish, many snails and crabs, a skunk and pistol shrimp, 1 SPS, 8 LPS and various mushrooms. This is my first forray into a salt water tank and wanted to keep it low maintence. I do a 5 gallon water change every two weeks add a two part supplement every week and clean the skimmer weekly. One Vortech pump, mag 5 return, megaflow 1 sump, and skimmer. I use carbon in the sump and add buffer to the top off water. Water parameters always solid except I have a hard time keeping the Kh up.

I guess I'll post my tank

koletrain — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:52:53 GMT

I moved 8 months ago so its was tore down and still recovering from the move, but here it is. My 150 with 55g sump in basement below, mag 12 return split with SQWD for added motion, asm g-2 skimmer, external overflow, 4 hydor koralia#3s, korallin c1502 calcium reactor, turbo twist uv, lighting 2-175w on 10 hrs/d, 2-250w 14k on 9hrs/d, 4-65w pc actinics 12 hrs/d. Fish, 2 percs, 1 kole, 1 sailfin, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 bicolor angel, 1 yellow watchman with tyger pistol. Inverts, 10000000000 peppermint shrimp, not really but close, couple fire shrimp, skunk cleaners, monkey shrimp, hawain green shrimp, long tent anemone. Corals, yes. Parameters constant, ph 8.1 early morning, 8.3 late day, calc 450ish, 12dkh, ammonia nitrite nitrate phosphate silicates undetectable, temp constant 78f. I know, enough talk, lets see pics

the sump

the tank

clowning around

Ok. I'm having technical problems. I'll come back to this in a bit

John & Kate's 220 Reef

K8eydid — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:47:38 GMT

220 set up
Lighting: 3 175W MH two 14K and one 10K, 4 65W PC actinic 420-460 with cooling fan in hood

Filtration: two overflows (rear corners) into the 30 gallon Sump containing sections for mechanical (sponge), protein skimmer, biological (bio balls), fuge (CC & LF)

Flow: Two quite one 4000HH 980 gph pumps through the sump, one directly back to the tank. The other through the Pentair 40W UV sterilizer and back to the tank, both with split directionals (upper back to front flow). One quiet one 9000 2328 GPH pump CLS powering 2 SCWDs split to 4 directional outputs (lower front to back flow)

The entire set up (including drilling the tank) was designed and built by my husband and I. We started in August '07

Livestock:

Large Sebea anemone and Clarkii clown

Purple tip Haitian anemone

Sanky's dottyback

4 green chromis

1 harlequin sweetlips

1 16” snowflake Eel

1 6-line wrasse

1 Naso Tang

4 lawnmower blenny

Purple lobster

10 BL hermits

1 Sally lightfoot

5" tridacnid clam

Coral:

12 head Euphyllia

5 inch Lobophyllia

6 inch purple gorgonia

4 inch yellow gorgonia

6" sarcophyton

8" cladiella

2" Capnella frag

8" young soft (not sure of the genus)

10 polyp yellow protopalythoa frag

10 polyp brown/green protopalythoa

9 polyp Favia frag

10 polyp Acanthastria frag

15 Discosoma

12 various Zoanthus frags

More pics to follow

My 30 gal reef tank

VictoriaR — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:29:16 GMT

Hello all here is a picture of my tank.

Lighting 150wMH 10k + 2 65wPC

HOB fuge/ DIY skimmer

2 in tank Powerheads

heater

Fuval 303 filter with carbon and phosphate remover

Tank has been up and running 19months

My New 90 Gallon Tank

DJGEXETER — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 20:36:46 GMT

Hi Everybody,

Today I finished the transfer of LR and about 1/2 of my LS from my 40 gallow FOWLR. I am still looking for snails in the sand bed before totally breaking down the old tank. All of the fish have been moved to the new tank and seem to be doing fine.

I am going to test the water daily and plan on 10-20 percent water changes while the tank completes its cycle. I am expecting a fairly light cycle b/c I moved all of the LR/LS from my established tank along with about 20 gallons of water.

Here are the details on the new tank setup:

90 gallon oceanic reef-ready (with ocenic stand) oceanic II 30 gallon sump, coralife turbo-sea 1270 (see plumbing pictures-not bad for a newbie), Seio Super Flow Pump Model 820, Coralife Super Skimmer, Current USA Nova Extreme 4x54W T5HO, Coralife Purflo RO filter.

I have about 65-70lbs of LR (still need to add more) and once finished with the LS transfer, will have about 4 inches of substrate.

Current Livestock - 2 clown fish (percula and skunk) 1 hawkfish, 1 (large) engineer goby, 1 hippo tang, cleaner shrimp, 2 crabs, a few shrimp and featherdusters.

Questions:

As you can see in the pictures, I still need to add more LR and a backing to the tank. Is there a functional difference between blue and black?

Also, I am not exactly sure on the flow rate (or how to even measure it) all I know is that I have reduced the flow on my my return line b/c it seemed too strong. (?) I added the SEIO powerhead today and have pointed it in the opposite direction of the return flow, you can probably see from the pictures...is there a better way to do this? I noticed that one of my Clowns was having trouble on that side of the tank b/c of the strong flow/current.

What corals are good to start off with, taking into consideration my setup ie lighting, filtration etc. I understand that certain species of fish are not reef friendly. I am beginning my research on this now, but would like to pick something up this week and not sure where to start.

Any other suggestions or ideas based would be great! I love this hobby -- thanks everyone!

-Dan

my 42 gal hex

eastcoastpat — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:29:50 GMT

This is my 1 1/2 year old 42gal hex with approx 100lbs live rock with crushed coral for substrate. It has 2 false percula clowns, 1 fathead anthias, 1 bluetail damsel, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 green mandarinfish, 1 royal gramma, 1 pajama cardinal and 1 lawnmower goby. 3 different types of zoanthids, 2 acroporas, 1 montipora, pulsing xenia and a small patch of star polyps. lighting is a coralife aqualight pro with 1 250w hqi mh, 2 60w actinic blue pc, and 2 led lights moon lights. In the sump refugium there is a danner mag 12 and in main tank there is a hydor koralia 3. Filtration consists of a skimmerless 30gal refugium. Main tank is in the living room upstairs and the refugium is in the basement. There is a 20gal water change tank that sits above the refugium with a heater and a small maxi jet pump. So all I have to do is add salt and open one valve from the drilled hole in the bottom. No moving buckets and spilling water. It is also wraped in a black plastic bag so no light gets in to keep out algae. Water top off is achieved by a float valve drilled in side of refugium. Water change tank also has a float valve. Both run off of the RO/DI unit. I feed one block of vitamin enriched brine shrimp soaked in selcon for 1 hour once a day. Water is changed approx once every 2 months just to maintain alk, ph and calcium. Also add liquid calcium when needed. This tank is almost maintenance free.

MY NANO TANK

shs1451 — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:47:49 GMT

This is my cat (fish) guarding the tank so nobody gets away.

New 150 gallon tank

jfox3874 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:09:46 GMT

It's a 150 gallon tank, set up for 8-9 months now. What a great hobby!

www.bluefrags.com brought to you by MarineDepot. Thanks guys!

2Sunny — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:10:07 GMT

I have had a reef and a website for some time, but recently I set about changing everything from the bottom up. I could never have done it without the help and product pricing from MarineDepot. Even when I screwed up and ordered the wrong size lights, they were kind enough to take back the custom items and give me a full credit towards a properly sized set of light hoods. They rock!

Anyways here's my website and tank; hope y'all like it! Joe

BlueFrags

My relandscaped carribean reef

bermuda reefer — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:09:41 GMT

Here is a pic of the newly landscaped tank, it wont stay this way for long as i found a great
amount of beautiful live rock last night that is to die for, so its cureing right now, i think i will give it a week cause i cant wait much longer.

Jasonanatal's 60 gallon Custom Low Iron Glass Rimless Aquarium.

Jasonanatal — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:11:23 GMT

Hello everyone, I have ran into some limitation with my current Nano Aquarium and have pondered back and forth with the idea of construction my own personal Low Iron Glass Rimless Aquarium. However, there is one hurdle which must be overcome first and that is locating a "Aquarium Safe" Silicone. I have been searching online and getting information that is either conflicting or vague at best as to what Silicone is "Aquarium Safe" and can it be purchased in larger size to reduce overall cost. I have come across the AGA "Aquarium Safe" Silicone but the largest tube it come in is 10.3 ounces for an average of $10.00. I peronsally believe that I'm going to require a large amount of "Aquarium Safe" Silicone since I'm planning on constructing a Cube Aquarium with the dimensions of 24" Height x 24" Width x 24" Depth. I'll also be using 0.25" Thick Low Iron aka Starphire Glass. Allowing me to create a nearly 60 gallon Cube Rimless Aquarium. I'm going to be taking a trip to some local Aquariums and Home Improvement store so that I can compare the ingrediants of the AGA "Aquarium Safe" Silicone to that of what Home Depot stocks. Something that I should look out for are Silicone with Any anti-mildew chemicals. Any suggestions or information on this would be greatly appreciated. Personally I'm hoping to located the Black Silicone for asthestics.

Jasonanatal's JBJ 28 gallon Nano Cube HQI Nano Reef Aquarium.

Jasonanatal — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:09:42 GMT

Hello everyone, it has been quite some time since I have had the chance to sit down and share the joys of recreating a beautiful piece of the reef right within my own home. I have focused on the preservation of a Nano Reef Aquarium within my home so that I can share the experience with my now 1 month 6 day old son Jayson Michael Natal.

my 190lt tank

proangel2 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:22:58 GMT

My 190lt tank set up 6 weeks ago

the start of my reef tank

mark429 — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 13:15:47 GMT

thanks to all the help of marine depot this is the start of my 75 gallon reef.

My 54 corner tank

argi — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:44:21 GMT

Due to many different factors I needed to downsize my 220 gallon tank and went with just a single 54 corner bowfront tank. I have had the tank for about 2 years now and recently moved it and re-aquascaped it and added a few new items (hardgoods and livegoods).

Quick rundown:

Tank: 54 bowfront corner tank with built in overflow

Filtration: Sump custom made by AquaC to fit under the stand (not much room under these tanks).

AquaC Urchin skimmer

Carbon is also used (phosban reactor or sometimes just bagged carbon dropped in the sump).

Lighting: CurrentUSA OuterOrbit (150 watt MH + two 65 watt PC's). I am using a 14K Phoenix bulb for the MH and one 50/50 bulb (10K/True Actinic) and one True Actinic for the PC's.

Water Movement: Mag 5 return pump plus two VorTech pumps (turned all the way down, too much flow for my LPS's if turned up). One of the vortech's runs 24/7, the other turn on and off every 20 minutes (on 20, off 20, etc..). I will be upgrading the Vortechs to their wireless controllers once they are available (can't wait!!!).

Misc: I am using an AquaController Jr. to run the lights, one pump and heater along with monitoring the pH.

I also have an AquaC Calcium reactor (not yet out on the market, pictures to come shortly) that will be up and running soon. Currently I am just using a two part supplement for calcium and alkalinity.

Fish: One pair pink skunk clowns, one pair bangaii cardinals and one C. argi (my namesake ).

Corals: Yes (I can't name them all).

I think that covers most of the tank, let me know if you have any questions. Sorry for the bad pictures...I will someday learn to take better pictures.

Tone's New Reef

Tone — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:21:28 GMT

Currently under construction, about 1800L (about 500 gals):

The entire left side of the tank is the weir which will also double up as primary RDSB.

Currently awaiting an OM 8-way for the closed loop and it will be suplpemented with a TS-24 kit and a wavebox. Return water will be re-distributed through 8 flexible nozzles mounted underneath the braces around the perimeter of the tank.

The lighting support frame slides out of the way to provide access from both the front and back of the tank for maintenance. Framework is kept lightweight and open for mounting of cooling fans.

First water should be around mid-May 2007.

Tone

My new 60g Cube

JediReefer — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 11:52:17 GMT

I plan on doing mostly SPS, maybe the occasional micro or ricordia.

Here is the hardware right now, I dont have the skimmer for SPS right now, but I plan on getting a new one in a few weeks.

60 Gallon Cube
SS Lumen Max 2 SE
SS Galaxy 400w Ballast
XM 400w 20k
18 Gallon Sump
Aqua-Euro USA Skimmer ( I know I know )
QuietOne 3000 for the return, I figure it is putting about 300gph out the return which is what I wanted.

I had a single K4 in my 60g long and I decided to change that out for 2 K3's. I only have one on at the moment, makes the LPS mad.

As fast as livestock, it is pretty slim at the moment, a pair of mated clowns (they are about 5 years old now), a small 6 line wrasse, a lemonpeel angel, and a royal gamma.

Inverts include a marshall island electric blue hermit, a few nassarius snails, and about 12-15 turbo snails, as well as a sand sifting star I have had about a year now.

Currently 90lbs of LR in the tank, I wanted some vertical space to allow the SPS to grow up.

There is an open brain I plan on keeping, and the hammers I am trying to get rid of right now actually.

On with the pics?

Here is the tank shortly after it was setup.

And here it is a few days later.

Here is the male clown, I couldnt get any decent pics of the other fish...lol

Here is the brain.

Here is one of the hammers...might as well.

Here is one of the marshall crab.

And that is it so far, the tank keeps a temp of 80 during the day. It is winter here and I anticipate the need for a chiller when the summer comes. I have started Prodibio as of yesterday, soon after the brain opened up significantly more which was a suprise as I was not expecting any visual changes for at least 3 months. Next up is a Korallin Ca Reactor and pH controller. SPS will soon follow.

I will get some better pics up soon!

Enjoy...

My 375 Reef

Marinelife — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:23:11 GMT

Tank Specs: Acrylic 375 Reef Ready 96x30x30 - Set-up on February 25, 2007 after upgrading from a 180

Lighting: 3 400W 240V 14000K MH

Circulation: I have two 6100 Tunze Stream Pumps, one on each side of the overflow connected to a controller. A Tunze WaveBox was purchased 12-25-2005. Iwaki 40RLXT as my return pushed 1200gph back into the tank for added circulation. A second wavebox was added to the tank on June 25 2007 to help with water movement.

Filtration: The overflows go to a 55 gallon container that is 50% full of water with macro algae in it. I have 80watts of light over the top of it and this tank has 2 500w heaters in it controlled by a PinPoint Temp Controller. I have about over 1000LBS of Live Rock and 2" of Live Sand in the 375. The LS and LR have been in different tanks since 1995 so they are well matured. I have mixed sand, Some live and some not, all fine grain sand. I also used Nature's Ocean Bio-Activ Live Reef Sand from Advance Aqua Tanks, This stuff works great. It makes up 50% or more of the sand in my tanks. It is cheaper than most Live Sand. My Live Rock is a mix of Premium Fiji, Pohnpei, Marshall Island, Caribbean, and Kaelini Tonga Ultra.

Extras: PRECISION MARINE 6 X 24 CALCIUM REACTOR W/EHIM PUMP. This is used to keep my CA and ALK up. In May 2007 I purchased a JBJ Arctica 1/3 HP Inline Chiller that I run off the return

Additives: I use a CA Reactor for Calcium and Alkalinity (started using 12/2001). I use Formula One, Formula Two, and Angel Formula from Ocean Nutrition and Frozen Spirulina Enriched Brine Shrimp by San Francisco Bay Brand. I feed one cube once a day. I also have Cyclop-eeze that I feed a few times a week along with Nori Seaweed. I soak all the food in Selcon by American Marine Inc and Vita-Chem by Boyd Enterprise Inc. I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystel for my mix.

Critters: Hippo Tang (donated to me by a friend in 2005), Hippo Tang (purchased 1995), 3 Green Chromis (1/2001) 1 Green Chromis (May 2007), Orange Shoulder Tang (April 27, 2007), 6-line Wrasse (1/2006), Chocolate Tang (May 2007), Red Sea Emperor Angel (June 14 2007), Sailfin Tang (May 2007), Flame Fin Tomini Tang (May 2007), Coral Beauty (May 2007), several Serpent Stars, few Hermit Crabs, few snails, Variety of mushrooms, Acroporas, Montiporas, Button Polyps, Turbinaria, Montipora foliosa, Fire Coral, Derasa Clam( 5/2001), Crocea Clam (3/2006), Tear Drop Maxima (5/2006) some Macroalgae, other SPS Corals and more. There is also a few other crabs and items growing on the rocks.

Maintenance: Clean the front and side panel every week. Water change on the 15th of the month and on the last day of the month. Clean the outside of the panels with Novus 1 Plastic Clean & Shine

The Stand and Canopy are still a work in progress, I had a dream to finish them in 2008

90 Gallon

agostos — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:53:32 GMT

my 90 gallon at 4 years old with metal headlights 250's attic 160 wet dry filter red sea skimmer, uv sterilizer

Starting point for Reef system

EasyNow — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:30:34 GMT

Hi all,

One of the guys at the LFS asked me to provide some info/pics of my setup so here it is. Original construction of this system took place in 2003.

Image 1 is the main display...
MAIN DISPLAY HARDWARE:
The stand is home made from oak, I went a little bit crazy on it and am sure you could park a 3/4 ton pickup on it.
The water box is an All Glass 180 with home made stand pipes for outflow and 2 SQWD units for alternating inflow
Inside of the aquarium itself are 3 Seio 820 pumps for water movement and a 1000gph pump i had laying around (forget which maker)
Lighting system uses 3 250W HQI ushio 10k bulbs with 3 96W pc actinic. Moon light is provided by 3 LED arrays.
MAIN DISPLAY LIVESTOCK ETC.
There are 200 lbs of live rock in the main display and 150lbs of sand.
Assorted funky creatures hitchhiked their way into the system via the live rock and sand
5 yellow tang (avg 4")
2 regal tang (avg 6")
1 Koran angel (7") (sometimes I would like to spear fish this angel out of here cause he is a chronic nibbler)
6 blue damsel with yellow tail (itty bitty)
1 Yellow eye Kole tang (4" or so)
1 couple of other damsel fish that were meant to be eaten by previous inhabitants
2 Clown fish
15 assorted anemones
emerald and sally light foot crabs, banded and peppermint shrimps, some snails and a sea cucumber (donkey dung type).
DISCLAIMER: I am sure i missed a few things here and hope that the affected fish/invertebrates aren't too offended.
I haven't really added a whole lot of coral into this system YET since I have been convinced that the system has gone through a pretty large swing from original curing to various bacterial colonies establishing etc... I originally added some mushrooms and they were not happy so I backed off and waited a while (fast is only good if you dont have to start over).
At this point the system is stable (water parameters in nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia are all undetectable with a PH of 8.2 and sg of 1.024). The parameters have been just like this for maybe 2 and a half years.
Cooling is accomplished through the use of a 1 HP chiller (image 3)

The pump pictured there is the Barracuda by Reeflo (rated for 4800gph i think)
Now to the mess that is the filter room.....

It is a bit difficult to tell what is going on from this photo. The main display is plumbed through the wall to an under stairs closet where filtration takes place (with the exception of the rock and sand in the main display).
Water returns from the tank and is skimmed by an Aqua C EV240 with mag drive 18.
Then the water flows through bubble baffles into an algae bed.
Once through the algae bed the water runs through a sponge and another set of baffles.
The water is drawn off by the chiller pump in the sixth of seven chambers for the sump and returned to the system from the chiller in the seventh.
Water is drawn from the seventh chamber into the main system pump (Dolphin Ampmaster 4700) where it runs back into the main display and is also partially diverted to a Fluidized Bed Filter.
Water that has been diverted through the FB filter is upwelled again through the center chamber of the sump past live rock rubble and through the algae bed again.
Hopefully this is a clearer view of what is going on in the sump.

I think that covers most of it without any glaring omissions.
PLANNED CHANGES:
Ushio 10K bulbs will be replaced with 20K bulbs (wife wants the deep blue sea look)
Slow introduction of coral species will begin soon (am partial to the LPS)

My 210G FOWLR

djoliver7 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 12:58:45 GMT

Hello to all,

I am new to this site and I wanted to share some pictures of my 210 gallon FOWLR setup. This tank has been running for almost 5 years now. Most of the fish have been with me since the beginning including a Moorish Idol (there is hope for Z. Carnutus lovers) and a Regal Angel. My other friends include;

Black Tang
Naso Tang
Yellow Tang
Sailfin Tang
Scribble Angel
Queen Angel
Blueface Angel
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Mated pair of Pajama Cardinals
Green Mandarinfish
Ocelleris Clownfish
Flasher Wrasse
Pencil Wrasse
Chromis
Midas Blennies
Copperband Butterfly (Originally for Aiptasia control, but has been thriving for 3 years)

My Tank Setup could not be more basic;

210 Gallon All-Glass
25 Gallon Wet / Dry w/ Bio-balls (calm down reefers, Nitrates 0 for 4+ years)
Coralife Aqua-Pro 72” Lights w/ 3-250W MH
Coralife 220 Needlewheel Super Skimmer (Excellent results for the price)
1740 GpH Turbo Sea External Pump

I have attempted to make this ‘project’ as low maintenance as possible, my routine includes;

Two Weekly 15% water changes (Sunday & Wednesday)
Feeding 3X daily (NLS Pellets, Cyclop-eeze, Nori, and PE Mysis)
Feeding 1-2X weekly of Planktonic food (Liquid Life)

That is it for maintenance. I use no other additives whatsoever. My water quality is normally in the range of;

pH – 8.1 to 8.3
Alk – 8dKH
Calcium – 380 – 400
SG – 1.025
Nitrates <5ppm

What I have learned since taking on this endeavor;

Gather as much information as you possibly can, then draw your own conclusions. Opinions often vary widely in this hobby.

Quarantine, Quarantine, Quarantine…Need I say more?

A FOWLR tank should be treated like a Reef tank in order for it to thrive, especially if you keep benthic feeders like Copperbanded Butterflies or mandarinfish. (maintain water quality, calcium levels, alk, nitrates, additions of planktonic food for the pods)

Leave cleaning the skimmer cup to my wife

Most important of all and can’t be overstated …BE PATIENT!

Regards to all,

Dean

My Pico Tank...

@ntony !eonardo — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:04:36 GMT

Hi...Im a new member. This is one of my tanks. Very tiny hehehe.....
Size: 45cm x 30cm x 30cm
Parameter: Temperature: 27-30 Celcius
Nitrate: 10ppm
Calcium 360ppm
pH: 8,0-8,2
Equipments: Skimmer: Dymax Xp-70 (Internal Skimmer with sander air wood)
t5 dymax daylight 12000K 20watt
t8 dymax actinic blue 20w

Supplements and Test Kits:

Some pics:
Fungia at his lunch break :wink:

Green and Orange fungias

Pagoda:

Zoanthids

Green Polyps (Under Actinic Blue)

With and without anemone:

Please give any comment or suggests. Thank you,

Best regards,
Leo