1500 gal. Reef from Start to Finish...

[chasekwe]

I'm sorry if this question was answered and I missed it.


Anyways, what height does the 5ft tall tank stand at? Further, when you look at it do you feel, given the current height, that it is bothersome looking up so high or down so low as the case may be? Or can you take it in as nicely in person as the pictures present it?


Also, did you check par levels at the sand by chance?

 

[bmwardo]

chasekwe-

The stand is 34" tall I believe. So most of the full tank shots you see are at roughly my eye level which would probably be around 5'8"

It is possible that we are all so used to the tank and the dimensions that we don't feel bothered by looking up very high. If there is anything up high, it is just a fish at this point. So, viewing the top of the sandbed is roughly 3' or more off the ground. Hope that helps.

Cris may know par values, I can't recall if we tested it or not, I know we have tested some of our other accounts.

 

[wegotcrabs]

My question is how do you keep the tanks so clean!!! my reef is over two old and the coraline is everywhere. I clean the glass but its hard to get not the corners, and i have a small tank at only 90 gallons.

 

[xXReefXx]

nice tank!!

 

[maxxII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13857316#post13857316 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xXReefXx
Very Nice!!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13869393#post13869393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xXReefXx
nice tank!!

Once a page is usually enough...



But it is a nice system...

Nick

 

[bmwardo]

Yea, good to see his post count was reset back to zero, I guess people will do anything to be able to sell that one item here on RC.

wegotcrabs - The system is still quite new, not that we don't put a lot of work in to keep the display clean (see the first page), but we are wishing we had more of a corraline "problem" at this point the calcium and everything else just gets sucked up so quickly.

 

[maxxII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13870824#post13870824 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bmwardo
Yea, good to see his post count was reset back to zero, I guess people will do anything to be able to sell that one item here on RC.

Great.....guess I'll be getting another 100 posts on EVERY thread I'm subscribed to saying "Great tank!/Nice Fish!/Tagging Along!"
Reminds me of HereFishy....

Sorry, I realize its nice to hear compliments on a system that alot of work and effort went towards, but try and contribute something to the thread. It literally seemed like he was running down my list of subscribed threads.....

Regardless, this is a nice system.

I cant remember, but are both tanks part of the same system? If so are you seeing any benefits to sharing the two? Also, since both of these tanks are so tall, what do you see as an advantage to having tanks this tall, and what do you see as a disadvantage to tanks this tall? (Obviously, aquascaping and working in the tank are two big ones.)

Thanks and sorry for the minor derail...

Nick

 

[bmwardo]

Nick -
Both tanks are not linked in any way, both are so heavy on bioload as it is.

The big advantage to having tanks this tall would simply be watching the fish swim in the water column and above the rock, if something freaks them every fish darts down from above, which is cool to watch. I suppose it just seems more natural than some of our 30" accounts. I would say you hit the disadvantages, there are only so many things you can do, and so much weight you can hold with a long set of grabbers. It is also basically impossible to get rid of any pests. With a newly added copperband our aiptasia problem seems to be slowly going away which is great. I can't really think of non-obvious disadvantages (other than flow maybe).

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

the fake corals in that FO tank look better then my real ones...if i ever get rich i am having you all set me up a tank like that 5 foot reef...love tall tanks and that one is prefect....all those hippos and yellow tangs is SWEEEEEET

 

[bmwardo]

And... you will move to the Denver area flying out to VA to service it just wouldn't be cost effective.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

i can maintain it when in between there flights out here....plus i love to snow board!!! i would need a new house to put it in though lol...maybe in a few years!!

 

[Elliott]

I'm interested to know your experiences so far with the 60" depth

any comments regarding specific livestock viability with light penetration near the bottom, what has done well and not so well? light, flow, both?

 

[bmwardo]

Elliott- I would say any of the corals/inverts that have not done well near the bottom are either due to being picked at by a fish, or some sort of bacteria that is just starting to pass, or by simply being knocked over and we didn't see it soon enough. So to my knowledge we have not lost anything towards the bottom half of the tank that we knew was due to light or flow.
Cris is so experienced with coral placement and each animals needs when it comes to flow and light that I think we really minimize our risk of animals being lost.

 

[ReefRescue]

Woww! I wish someone around Gardena CA would order one on these so I could biuld one for them. It must be a blast to work on a system like that when you don't have to worry about your personal budget so much.

 

[Oldude]

Great tank.

 

[bmwardo]

Okay, an updated interactive picture using zoomify, the tank is doing really well creeping up on a year.

http://www.aquaticartinc.com/zoom1.html

Thanks for looking!

 

[Elliott]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14354351#post14354351 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bmwardo
Okay, an updated interactive picture using zoomify, the tank is doing really well creeping up on a year.

http://www.aquaticartinc.com/zoom1.html

Thanks for looking!

wow, I am so impressed and encouraged with your success at that depth, I'm definitely going with a deep tank next, how do you manage placing corals (cementing, gluing, etc.) that require more dexterity towards the bottom, still using the long reach prongs? also, how did you set up that interactive picture? very cool!

 

[Dudester]

Beautiful system! Looks like the coralline is just getting started on that rear glass. Are you adding any Mg granules to your Ca reactor?

Have you been pleased with your video cameras? Are they easy to control?

 

[bmwardo]

Hello again Elliot, we have been pretty lucky with our types of rocks as well as the rockwork as far as placing the corals. We actually have not used glue or anything like that. There is the occasional fallen coral or two every couple of weeks but for the most part everything is in pretty solid or has encrusted in place. (So yes, we are still using the long prongs quite a bit)

I used zoomify: http://www.zoomify.com/ and if you have something like Adobe Photoshop CS3 or 4 I know you can export images in this form. I think you can download zoomify express on their website for free and drop in jpgs to build a zoomify image, not sure though.

Dudester- You are correct, we are FINALLY seeing coralline spread a bit, it has been nice to get rid of bright white rock as I am sure you all can relate. I believe my boss Cris has either just ordered in Mg media for the Ca reactor, it is one of the things on our to-do lists this week. The cameras are pretty easy to control, at least the one in our fish room is controllable, but the one fixed on the tank is mounted too high without WB control or some sort of polarized filter so essentially all you can see is a massive bright white blob when the MHs are on.

 

[Dudester]

Thanks for the reply. I am looking into an add-on video camera for my upcoming system so I was interested in hearing about your satisfaction with the image quality as well as the ease of the computer interface. If you would give your sytem a 'thumbs up' could you post some details about what you are using? Thanks again.