100 Gallon Cube Tank Build

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13311405#post13311405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chelsey
A bunch :D

Why do you ask?


I was thinking that you had a couple hundred:D I've been watching you buy multiple high-end corals for a couple years now. Did you sell them off or lose them along the way?
 
I've still got them! A few I've sold, one or two I've lost, but the rest are still with me :)
 
Dave, you have inspired me to take inventory ;)

SPS: ORA blue mille, ORA pink mille, Aquarium city red mille, Palmer's Blue mille, multicolor mille, blue formosa of some kind, oregon tort, purple acro of some kind, yellow with purple polyp nasuta, light blue random acro, crayola table, green slimer, blue stag, Clint's red stag, Hawkins echinata, Phil's granulosa, ORA German green with blue polyps acro, icefire echinata, ocean blue polyped stylo, random bluish/green acro, Undata, Superman danae and digitata, setosa, orenji danae, rainbow danae, sunset danae, sanddollar danae, idaho grape cap, pink polyped cap, Tyree flower petal cap, strawberry patch cap, chocolate chip cap (similar to ORA supernatural cap), green digi, purple digi, Tyree aquatuberlata (spelling?) - 36 sps frags

LPS - Tyree red watermelon, Tyree pink watermelon

Softies - green/purple star polyps (not the usual ones, these are kind of weird), pink star polyps, bam bams, dragon eyes, purple deaths, nuclear greens, pink elephants, PPEs, PPRPEs, electric strawberry, strawberry wines, red wines, blue kisses, happy samhains, RPEs, tiny green zoas, mohawks, random PE, rainbows, baby got backs, blue eyed dragons, jokers, rastas, pooky reds, rose nebulas - 25 softies (names are off of zoaid and are for identification purposes)

I never in a million years thought I'd have more sps than zoas/palys! I doubt I'll ever go strictly colored sticks, I like zoas too much. When I first got into the hobby I said I'd never have any sps...shows how far downhill I've gone! :lol:
 
Chelsey how may strawberry wines you got I need a frag sometime.

Do these have a name? You gave me 2 polyps a while ago
coralpics3541.jpg
 
The strawberry wines are being stupid and not growing for me at the moment. To be honest I am lucky I'm not losing them. Those red ones don't have a name that I know of, but I like them. I have a frag of them in this tank but they're not doing well either. Some of my zoas have never been better and are growing constantly, others are basically dormant and I'm worried they'll melt. When the strawberry wines are happy and growing again I'll frag them for you.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13305318#post13305318 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chelsey
I'm waiting for RCT to start producing captive raised interruptus. According to their site they should be back in business in February, but my sources say they haven't broken ground on their new facility yet, so it'll be quite a bit longer. This will be a test of patience for me but hopefully it will be well worth the wait to have a captive bred baby :)
Good idea - me too!

Last time I heard from Copps he said Frank had moved from planning to plan the new facility onto planning the new facility, soooo....we're getting closer. Im guessing 2010 before we see anything available from RCT though, and that would be moving right along IMO, but well worth the wait!

Im planning a tank similar size to yours and am curious as to why you went with the LB larges over the LB minis? Dont you have some overhang from them? The large reflectors are 20" across (per Reef Specialty website) while the minis are 16". Perhaps you wanted to go with SE bulbs over DE?

Anyways, tank is looking great, thanks for the updates!
 
Yep, I wanted to go with single ended bulbs. To be honest with you I do not like these reflectors at all. At the time that I ordered them I was told that lumenarcs were no longer being made. After the lumenbrights arrived I found out that I could've still gotten lumenarcs. These reflectors have very focused light, too much so IMO. As I said, I do not like them. If I knew for sure the lumenarcs would fit into my suspended canopy I'd swap them out in a heartbeat.
 
Hmmmmm, interesting. I know that the LA minis can be ran with SE bubs (SE is my first choice too), so maybe thats the way to go. My tank will be no more than 36" long, which was the reasoning behind me thinking LBs over LAs to prevent unnecessary light spillage, however I think its better to run the LBs up higher off the tank, which would ease in "top-down" viewing.

In terms of very focused light...is it visible to the eye? Are you seeing shadows? Or is it more a means of bleching everything on the top of your reef?

Your aquascape is more spread out (very sweet BTW!), rather than a couple islands directly below the reflectors, so perhaps LAs would be better. Im thinking of doing a couple islands, more centered under the reflectors, so maybe the LBs would be better in my case........decisions, decisions.
 
It's obvious that the light is very focused, visible to the eye without a doubt. Nothing is bleaching so far, but the back corners of my tank get much less light than the rest of the tank does. You can't really see it in any of the FTS that I've posted but believe me, the back portion of my tank is definitely more shaded than any other part.
 
Thats cool chelsey alot of my zoas arent doing to good also the reds in the picture used to grow but since my tank crash they stopped.
 
Here are a few pics from tonight. I decided to move my picasso pair over to the cube tank, but knowing that my leopard wrasse is aggressive at first I put them in a critter keeper until my wrasse gives up.

This is the only leopard wrasse that I know of that's aggressive.
leopardwrasse.jpg


pickids1.jpg


The white thing is PVC so that if they get tired of the leopard wrasse they've got somewhere to hide.
pickids2.jpg
 
This piece:
johnsfrag.jpg


Is all that's left of this coral:
johnscoral.jpg


Remember me taking that half dead piece home John? It's growing nicely now :) Once it gets big enough to frag you're welcome to a piece.

Clint's Red Stag:
clintsredstag.jpg

The way the frags are positioned the colorful side is away from the camera. My guess is that the piece that got fragged was growing horizontally and this side was away from the light.

A really bad picture of my beloved icefire frag:
icefire.jpg

It's a small piece, but it is already working on encrusting to the frag plug and it's healthy :)

One of my favorite corals in the tank, sanddollar monti. I cannot seem to catch the light blue base color on my camera.
sanddollar2.jpg


One of today's arrivals, x-men/lunar eclipse palys:
xmen.jpg

The lunar eclipses are one of the frags that I had die on me in the past.
 
I got the leopard wrasse almost two years ago from MS. When I got her she was only 1 1/2"

Thanks for the compliment :)
 
Thats a wonderfull shot of your wrasse eyeing the clowns in the critter keeper!

FWIW, The only leopard wrasse I've ever kept was pretty aggressive as well. Until one day he was apparently inspired by the Seal song "I believe I can Fly," and took a leap of faith.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13319929#post13319929 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chelsey
If I knew for sure the lumenarcs would fit into my suspended canopy I'd swap them out in a heartbeat.

I have an older full size lumenarc (SE) if you want to borrow it for a bit and see how it fits. Only thing different about this one and the new ones are the way the socket attaches to the reflector.
 
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