150g RS upgrade

[Daimyo68]

Figured I would post this here. I posted it locally on the pbmas forums, to get opinions on the rockwork, and while its a great club, it not as active as here in the fmas forums.

Started a tank thread there, and I'll just copy it to here.

Got this tank/stand combo from Tooshay a few months ago. Slow going... One day I had the drive, the next day eh!

150g RS, 48x30x24, 3/4" glass, 3 sides Low Iron.
Mag12 Return Pump supplying reactors via a manifold.
50g Breeder Sump
Reef Octopus SRO3000INT
DIY Led Fixture
2 x MP40W

Removed the original overflow/return box, and installed an internal/external Overflow with the BeanAnimal Drain system. (Don't think I'll ever do another tank without it. Been using this drain system for years and love it!).

24" x 1.25" x 4.75" Smoked Black Glass internal overflow
24" x 4.25" x 9" External Drain/Box

The external box normally wouldn't be this deep, but the return bulkhead hole was below the 2" drain holes. I didn't want to use a check valve, and also didn't want the possibility of the bulkhead plug leaking, so instead I encompassed all 3 holes in the external box and plugged off the return. If it leaks, there won't be any water on the floor

BeanAnimal is 1" pvc, hard plumbed top to bottom.
Returns are 2 - 1" over the top with 3 sections of loc-line on each.

All freshly cooked live rock

Couple pics (lighting is temporary until next week when I take the 75g down, and move the DIY LED's to this tank):

http://i1244.photobucket.com/albums/gg578/68Daimyo/DSC04579_zps25b3e764.jpg

 

[Daimyo68]

Mysis shrimp (Lots!) in the water last Wednesday (right after adding water and cooked LR)... Thursday, a live dirty azz bait shrimp in the tank... died 2 days later, also threw in misc dry foods... Pulled the dead shrimp out yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon (The pieces I could get since it was deteriorating) Man what a stench that was, I threw it outside fast and ran to the bathroom gagging...

Cooking rock has proven to be the way to go. I've never done it before and wanted to see the results. I didn't expect to see a cycle and after questioning plenty of people was told the same (although I would have liked to see ammonia... It would have made me feel better ).

All levels (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, phos) tested out at 0 on a regular basis. I should have had a reading of something after everything I added to the tank, and especially after the shrimp died and deteriorated.

I've used shrimp in the past:
1 - When setting up using dead rock with 1 LR, dry sand and a cup of live sand from an established tank, I would always get a cycle as expected.
2 - When setting up with a couple pieces of LR, dry sand and a cup of live sand, I've seen a light/short cycle.
3 - When setting up with established rock, dry sand and a cup of live sand, I've never seen a cycle.

This time I setup with a shrimp, cooked/live rock, live sand (fresh dated bags), dead mysis shrimp, and various dry foods - Never seen a cycle. This will be the way I go for all future systems.

This is the first time I've used cooked rock. A buddy of mine was nice enough to give me some space in one of his LR tanks. He replenishes that tank with new/fresh rock every week. My dry rock was put in about 3-4 months ago. Since it was dry, obviously there was no life and the good possibility of phosphates and organics (some of the rock was dry for years, while other pieces came out of a tank with an algae issue and remnants of soft coral pieces on it). I would go by weekly to clean it off, and scrub it. The dead life worked it's way out, and the weekly restocking of new LR helped to keep a steady level of bacteria thriving.

On another note, while the rock did look cool from the front, it was waaaaay to symmetrical for me from the side. It looked like a letter L. One of the reasons I wanted this tank was because of the depth front to back, and that roskscape just wasn't taking advantage of the room I have in that perspective.

So I stayed up until 2am the Tuesday evening/Wed morning, playing around, got ****ed off because I was tired and I couldn't get a look I liked, so I just dropped all the rock on the bottom and went to bed... Next morning at 9am, I was at it again. After about 3 hours, I finally got it to an acceptable look.

I'm sure it will still go through some changes over the next few weeks. It's still missing something on the left side in the back... Maybe another frogspawn is in the future. The one I had would have fit perfect in that hole on the left.

Also spent countless hours matching parameters to my 75g.

Front, then side, and a short video

<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l_w_1R-3gc8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[jonnyu]

Great looking tank love the rock work. Looks like it's going to be a great setup.

 

[Diesel3443]

Like I said on pbmas I love the rock work. But generally I am huge on the open space in general as my tank is primarily setup "bonsai" like.

Subd.

 

[knukles55]

Gorgeous tank can you show us some pics of your lighting

 

[Daimyo68]

Like I said on pbmas I love the rock work. But generally I am huge on the open space in general as my tank is primarily setup "bonsai" like.

Definitely like having the open space on the left. In the images, it does look somewhat crowded, but in person, there's lots of open space. The first attempt at the rocks had more open space, but lacked the depth. Guess it time to have ya's over for beers again.

Gorgeous tank can you show us some pics of your lighting

Lights will be above the tank this weekend when I take down the 75g.

Couple quick images of the fixture:

 

[Diesel3443]

Def. Randy.

 

[Lacy]

I really like the rock work. Looks so much better in a deep tank. Wished I had a deep tank.

 

[Tecdiverfl]

Randy I heard you were going to load it up with Xenia, GSP and some colts....

Looks great man. That was one of the fastest tank moves I ever did

 

[Daimyo68]

Randy I heard you were going to load it up with Xenia, GSP and some colts....

Looks great man. That was one of the fastest tank moves I ever did

That's what I'm planning... It's really not a bad idea. None of the hassle of making sure things are perfect like with the colored sticks. I'm only moving maybe 40-50% (maybe even less) of the corals from my 75g.

My opinion with sps: at one time, it was the pinnacle of reef keeping, the ultimate goal. Now, having been there several times successfully and not so successfully, it really does make sense to go back to keeping easier corals. The SPS are really non flowing, and while a system can look great when it's all colored up, I can have a painting, with a 1" thick glass pane in front of it for a fraction of the cost that does the same thing.

This 150g is going to be a mixed reef (yet again with another mixed reef), with much more movement from corals in it. There's a few larger colonies that I will keep (Blue Dragon, Rose Millipora, Wolverine, and a few others), but not all of the sps that I have now. (I lost my 6 year old Cali tort last week, sigh).

That was a fast move with this tank. It helps when I ride everyone about being ready on both ends. Having you, Rob and Keith there made it an expedited event. I think it was a total of 40 mins from arrival to pickup the tank, travel, and back on the stand at my place, and would have been even faster if we weren't BS'n up in Jupiter, lol.

Even that move when we got my 57g was fast and that was a total tear down, few hours door to door.

 

[stevejrnc]

that i very nice display love the dimensions and that its rimless

 

[Daimyo68]

Update on this. My previous 75g tank was an upgrade from a 50g Oceanic, that was full of color. when I moved everything to the 75g, I went back to Halides, and eventually lost all color. Narrowed it down to lighting by fragging some corals and putting them under T5's and their color came back. Upgraded to Full LED and still no color

Since upgrading to the 150g, all color is coming back. Same LED Fixture from the 75g. SO... I am left with the question of "what the h3ll caused the color loss"???? Nothing had changed going to the 75g except for the lighting. Same chemicals for dosing, same WC schedule, same everything. Even added some fish thinking that my "poo" load was too little for the 75g. My only thought now is that it may have been the rock? better than 75%of the rock was over 10yrs old, so possibly leaching something back into the system?

Any thoughts?

Anyways, here's a coral that had no color to it for almost 2 years after the move, and then now after 4 weeks.

 

[Adam13]

What are the specs on your DIY LEDs?

 

[Daimyo68]

What are the specs on your DIY LEDs?

Cree XTE Cool Whites @ 1.4A
Luxeon Rebels, Blue and RB @ .980mA
Eglin UV (390-395nm) @ 700mA

I have a rough total of 231w

 

[KnownStrangeR]

looking great man!