150 Gallon Build Thread

[goochesfish]

That is a beautiful fish. Does your chiller run all the time with it set at 72 degrees?

 

[inktomi]

awsome tank so far. you keep your temp at 72 degrees? that seems pretty cold to me. good luck with those butterflys, i thought they eat anemones? love the t5s on my next tank im thinking of going just t5. how do they do with the sps for you?

It's on the cooler side, but I've noticed no down side to having it cooler. In fact, my montipora seem to have more polyp extension than ever before after a couple weeks in cooler water.

I'm going to be slowly adding more SPS to the tank, so we'll see - but nothing seems negatively affected by the temperature. I plan on dropping down to 70/71 once the Tinkeri are here and in the tank.

That is a beautiful fish. Does your chiller run all the time with it set at 72 degrees?

My chiller runs about 3 times a day according to my temperature chart off my controller. I currently have it set to come on at 73.5 and go off at 72.5.

I'm thinking of changing that to have it come on at 71 and go off at 70.

I keep the room that the tank is in at 74 during the weekends and 72 during the day when I'm at work.

 

[goochesfish]

What are you doing about your pH? Have your fish come in yet? Those are pricey fish I wish you well.

 

[inktomi]

I noticed that my tank is low on Alkalinity, so I've been dosing a bit. That's helped my pH remain a bit higher. Right now at night it bottoms out around 8, and gets up to 8.2 or so during the day.

I also got a Korallin calcium reactor as a gift, so that will eliminate my dosing

The Tinkeri pair get here Tuesday. I just put my QT filter supplies into my sump today to get them seeded with bacteria for use in the 20 long I use for QT.

I expect that these fish will be healthy from the get go - so I hope to only need to have them in QT for a few days.

 

[BryanS]

Subscribed!

 

[inktomi]

So, quick update!

I didn't get my Tinker pair this week. On Monday, when they would have shipped, I got a call from the folks over at Live Aquaria asking me if I wanted them shipped or held due to a small sore that was on one of the fish.

I figured.. there's no way I can care for them better than the folks over at the Divers Den, so they're going to be held and babied there until they're 100%. They said that the sore was nothing major, so I'm sure it'll only take a week or two to have them healthy.

They offered to ship them out to me anyway.. but.. why not have around the clock care instead of my half day care?

In other news, I hooked up the Korallin C1502 calcium reactor I got for christmas. My calcium levels have historically been a bit on the low side (350ish), so this will help with that - and I won't need to does alk anymore either.

(with that said.. it's time for some sps!)

 

[muttley000]

Wow, Great build of a quality set up. Do you have a fuge area in your sump to complete with that algea in your display (if you said I missed it) If not you could move some of it into the sump on a reverse light cycle and temper those PH swings. It seems you really got a great batch of rock with a lot of diversity, I hope I am so lucky when I order mine in a few months!

 

[inktomi]

I do have a small area in my sump to grow chaeto, though it's not as big as I'd like. If I had infinite space I'd want a 40g all to itself just to grow algae in =\

I remove a big handful of chaeto from my sump every week it seems.

 

[goochesfish]

When you finally get the fish, keep an eye on ammonia. I don't think you started seeding your filter sponge early enough

 

[inktomi]

I'll be keeping a close eye. They've still not shipped, so the QT tank has just been chugging along seeding for the past couple weeks waiting for them now. I'm on my way to work, but I'd like to get some new full tank shots up tonight - new year and all =p

 

[Ev's Reef]

Great looking tank! I really like your Coral Beauty, I had to give up my Tridacna Clam yesterday because my Flame Angel was getting too Curious.

 

[inktomi]

Yea, I've had that fish for a while, and it was fun putting it into my 150. In my old 40g, it hid a lot of the time - but it's out and about swimming around the rocks all the time in my 150.

 

[Lyfey]

Subscribed! beautiful setup. Ive read through the whole thread sofar and I have been planning on the same build myself. Where did you get your stand built from? Can I ask you how much the tank ran you? I am debating on getting my 150 built custom or buying a non reef ready Oceanic ultimate 156 60x24x25 and doing my own drilling/overflow. I am also going to buy the same light, I am running a 75 gallon tank right now and I will have the light within the next few months.. Im not sure if I am going to go with the ATI PM 48" 8 bulb or 60".. either way the 48 looks nice on the 5 foot tanks too, if I went with the 48" i could wait a while and work on growing my SPS in my 75. Anyways.. beautiful and if I where you, I would put those algae rocks in your fuge section

 

[inktomi]

Thank you! I promise to get photos up tonight! Promise!

The stand came from a local cabinetry maker here in Las Vegas. I just explained what I needed, and they built it for me. They've built several stands for people here, so I trusted their craftsmanship. It came out very nice in my opinion!

I think that the 48 would work with SPS, so long as they were right under the light. I thought about getting that model for my tank as well - but in the end I wanted the additional coverage provided by the 60" unit.

I've been manually battling the algae. Every weekend during my water change I've been removing it as best I can, and it seems to be working pretty well so far. It's certainly not spreading, at least - and I've been able to keep it on the run.

I do wish that I had a larger sump though, so that I could run a much larger refugium. If I had a fish room, I'd have a 40g tank devoted to chaeto and along with my sump. I think that would be more effective than the smaller area I have for cheato in my current sump (only maybe 10 gallons or so).

 

[goochesfish]

what kind of room is behind the tank?

 

[inktomi]

A bathroom.. I've considered making it not a bathroom many times though =p

 

[inktomi]

Photos!

Photos!

Still waiting on the Tinkeri pair to ship. Maybe this week

Here's some updated photos in the meantime...

Full tank shot..
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258859836/" title="DSC_0060.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4258859836_8b43d36e1f.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0060.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258858836/" title="DSC_0073.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4258858836_c09085a020.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0073.jpg" /></a>

The "hallway" side of the tank..
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258101643/" title="DSC_0069.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2786/4258101643_5633e66a26.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0069.jpg" /></a>

Here's bruiser - the largest of my hermit crabs. He/she's been with me a couple years now.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258860428/" title="DSC_0043.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4258860428_73e0e8bef5.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0043.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258856708/" title="DSC_0127.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/4258856708_dcf7a2c789.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0127.jpg" /></a>

I took this worm out since it was huge - I'm sure there are more...
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258858102/" title="DSC_0109.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/4258858102_e2a74b15ef.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="DSC_0109.jpg" /></a>

And some new acros that I've just put in this week..
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258099637/" title="DSC_0126.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4258099637_4fd272dd8a.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0126.jpg" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/30998766@N03/4258100081/" title="DSC_0117.jpg by inktomi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2793/4258100081_ef7dd0854a.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="DSC_0117.jpg" /></a>

 

[goochesfish]

Bathroom is perfect. Just think, you can have your RODI in there, mix salt, do water changes, without ever having to lift a bucket. You can pump out right into the toilet and pump in new salt water. How much were those acros? They are big colonies. I only ever by little sticks. Looking good too, I don't see much algae anymore.

 

[inktomi]

Don't encourage me!

The mili was about $100 and the other one was around $40. I got both off the divers den.

 

[Lyfey]

nice additions! Thanks for the PM. Im trying to pay off all my credit cards (2x) before I invest any real money into the hobby (new light/tank/stand/sump/skimmer).. I figure Ill just grow my little tiny twigs until the time comes when they are paid off!

Awesome setup though.. Ive been looking at DD and I think I might try to get my next fish/coral from them.