125 Gallon 8 Month Birthday

[GregM779]

Woo Hoo, 1 vote down, 94,411 to go.
It's cool that you guys think I'm worthy. Thank's for PMing him and letting him know also. I think I have quite a few postitive feedbacks on this thread and no complaints.
shealygg, I would give you the frags and fish but then it would look like a bribe and we don't want that.

 

[shealygg]

Who don't want that? All I did was nominate you....what some people call bribes, others refer to as rewards or finders fees!

 

[melev]

Who don't want that? All I did was nominate you....what some people call bribes, others refer to as rewards or finders fees!

:lol:

 

[GregM779]

I've had a few people PM and e-mail about the refugium so I thought I would post it. It's a standard 10g tank with a 34w retrofit PC light. The bulb is a 6700k/10k. I run the light 24/7 and suggest that anyone growing Caulerpa does to prevent it from going sexual.
The Substrate is half miracle mud and half Kent's Marine Refugium Biosediment. There is Caulerpa and Chaeto in there for macroalgae. You can't see the rock because of the algae but there is a large flat very porous piece covering almost the entire back wall for pods. That is a coral skeleton in there also for pods.
I believe that a refugium is a very important piece to complete a system it helps to keep things more stable, assist in nutrient export and also to farm pods.
The way that this one works is that water is pumped through the lear tube into the Refugium from the sump. The Drain is drilled higher so when water reaches a certain point it returns back into the sump directly next to the main return pump and into the display. Very simple. You never want to use 2 pumps because if one fail you will have a flood. The refugim also has to be elevated high enough so that the drin tube is higher than the sump for the gravity to get it.



Here's the refugium from the front.

Here's the side

And here's the pipes that run between the sump and refugium

 

[GregM779]

On a side note I borrowed my dad's camera today and was able to get a decent pic of my ORA Chip's Coral. It was one of my first SPSs and started as a tiny frag. The colors have changed so much, It is kind of greenish body with purple tips and very long polyps.

 

[hckycoz]

Do you un blue actencis (SP) on your fixture?

 

[GregM779]

I run my actinics for about 13hrs a day and my MHs about 6 hrs.


Here are some Purple People Eaters I came across tonight.

 

[rm41400]

very nice!

 

[shealygg]

Do you have any pics of the other end of your sump...where the water comes back in from the tank? I'm interested to see how yours is compared to mine as I believe we have the same type sump. Thanks!
Greg

 

[GregM779]

Ok, here's the sump, a little dirty but at least the skimmers clean
I'm going to start replacing the bioballs with LR soon, I have no reason to but the reasoning makes sense and I would rather avoid the problem than have to deal with it. I'm going to do that very slowly.
I have 4 pumps in the sump, a small rio that goes to the refugium, a mag 18 for my main return, a mag 7 for my skimmer, and a mag 5 to my UV.
I'm glad I have the Sealife Systems 200 model otherwise I don't know how it would all fit.
My UV is behind the stand where you can't see it.

 

[GregM779]

On a lighter note, I was able to get a few decent pics of the fish today and haven't posted many on this thread.


Here's my Blonde Naso Tang hanging out with my Foxface Rabbitfish, they love to hang out together a lot.

Here's my Chevron Tang and one of my True Percula Clownish.

Here's a pic of the Flame Angel

And my Niger Trigger, sorry the flash made him kind of bright.

 

[shealygg]

Whew....you've got it goin' on in that sump!! You could lose a small child in there amongst all that stuff! :lol:

What's the purpose of the small fan behind the skimmer? Just general cooling, or do you have it to cool something specific? And, BTW, thanks for the pic of the whole sump.

 

[GSerg2]

I didn't read the whole post so please excuse me if this has been asked. Have you had trouble with the trigger? I always thought they would eat corals.

 

[GregM779]

shealygg, Yeah, it's definitely packed, I could eliminate one pump for the UV and do it inline but I like being able to take it out if needed easily.
The small fan is my $7 "chiller" from walmart. It's a clip-on fan that is on a timer. I run it from about a half hour before the halides kick on until about an hour after they go off, just to help compensate for the little heat that they do put out. You'd be amazed how much a little fan blowing directly over your sump can help.

GSerg, Triggers are somewhat tricky Niger Triggers are about 50/50 in reef tanks about being really agressive or not. Mine is very laid back but does like to bite the hairs out of my arm when my hand is in the tank.
There are a few others that you will see in reefs like blue throats. I would never throw a clown trigger in a reef but I have seen a few picasso triggers in reefs, that's a little too daring for me.
If you do a search I know I've seen about 100 threads on this same subject.

 

[GSerg2]

Thanks for the info and by the way, that is a BEAUTIFUL tank!! I can only hope that my tank comes close to that someday.

 

[GregM779]

Thanks,

Since I started the thread I upgrade my RC account and can now post higher res photos so I thought I would post the big tank shots again. It's a great thing to upgrade you account, you get room for more picture, can post higher res pics, get the search tool always, and you get to support this grea site for $2 a month.


Full Tank

Left Side

Center

Right Side

Full Tank Angle

 

[shealygg]

Wow, Greg....the new pics you posted make your tank look even better than it did! Being a premium member is great! Plus, you'll need those higher res pictures when your tank gets TOM next month! :smokin: Plus, they can't hold that against you now! :lol:

I like your chiller idea, too. Did you notice a big increase to your power bill when you fired up your light system?

 

[GregM779]

Thanks, one can only hope. I forgot one other thing about the sponsoring is the spell checker, so much easier than having to read over your posts twice every time.

That fixture doesn't make a dramatic difference at all in electric, as said before the only real energy saving thing that they could have added would to have put in T5s rather than PCs but I'm sure there is a reason why they didn't

 

[FastUno]

Yes, as it was said. With your latest shots the tank looks even better.

How often & what do you feed exactly?

 

[GregM779]

FastUno, I'll respond to the PM later, haven't had time this weekend.
I feed quite a bit actually, I like fat, happy fish and since a couple aren't totally reef safe I like to keep them that way.
Usually every day I put in a cube of mysis, a cube of prime reef and a good chunk of frozen cyclopeeze. I also give about 1/5th of a sheet of sushi wrap every other day. Every once in a while I will give them some spectrum or fresh seafood from publix.
For the corals, I fee them about twice a week with mysis, daphnia, and cyclopeeze, I use a syringe to feed them with the pumps off.
I don't know if you would consider it feeding but I add DT's phytoplankton twice a week.