180 Gallon SPS Tank

[BILLYO382]

Just thought id post a picture of my sps tank(4ft x 3ft x2ft tall). Recently i've been battling phosphates from 0.02-0.08 and was tired of burning through GFO so I added an ATO to the system which has took about a month to start working and was tired of my 2 year old sugar sand bed that was possibly leaching phosphates. So I said to heck with it and underwent a day long transformation by removing all fish, rocks, & corals. What a pain it was but I love the results thus far. Anyhow lmk what you think, enjoy pict's below.

before


all empty


added carib sea reef grade sand


after :dance:






Phospahtes as of today

 

[Chris Lakies]

Looks great! More specs of your setup please

 

[BILLYO382]

Looks great! More specs of your setup please

Thanks.

My system specs:
2- reef breeder photon32 on outsides
2- 250 hqi 14k metal halides in middle
2- tunze 6105's
2-jeabo wp40's
reef angel tank controller
sro 3000 int skimmer with neck cleaner
mag 24 return pump
hydra aquatics bio pellet reactor
pm calcium reactor
2-two little fishes reactors (carbon & gfo)
diy algae turf scrubber

tank params:
alk 7.5
cal 380-400
mag 1300
phos 0.02
nit 0

:bounce1:

 

[mylittlejade]

To be honest the tank looked like it was doing fine with your phosphates being at .08. I do like the new rock work though you did a great job making more room and spreading everything out. Were you having negetive effects with the phosphates being at .08??

Bryan

 

[BILLYO382]

To be honest the tank looked like it was doing fine with your phosphates being at .08. I do like the new rock work though you did a great job making more room and spreading everything out. Were you having negetive effects with the phosphates being at .08??

Bryan

It was overall doing great but would have misplaced & erratic stn at base of some acros. Im all about getting ahead of the game with anything that will help. Some areas of the sand bed I wasnt able to access so detridus and such built up and welted away in these areas. We'll see how new sand does for me, so far so good. :uzi:

 

[trueblackpercula]

I have been toying around with this idea for months now, who did it affect your biological filtration by doing this? any issues with your sps? Aslo what sand did you use?

 

[zenom]

Looks great. Love the new rock layout.

 

[BILLYO382]

I have been toying around with this idea for months now, who did it affect your biological filtration by doing this? any issues with your sps? Aslo what sand did you use?

Yeah it took me a while to mustard up the courage to do it, but all is fine and well. I will update in a week or so to confirm. I used carib sea reef grade sand 1mm-2mm thickness.

Looks great. Love the new rock layout.

Thanks I appreciate that I do as well :beer:

 

[afernandez]

Excellent! Love the minimal rock work and space between the corals I bet flow is much better.

 

[sbreefer]

nice tank man. good colors.

 

[JacobB89]

How do you like that new sand that you have now I can not decide on what substrate I want. Also very nice tank love how deep it is.

 

[plyle02]

Nice tank and beautiful colors, great work!
Regards,

 

[trueblackpercula]

I used carib sea reef grade sand 1mm-2mm thickness

Can please sahre a link I want to get the same one

 

[BILLYO382]

Excellent! Love the minimal rock work and space between the corals I bet flow is much better.

Thanks, yes deff. Ive utlitzed my flow patters better, so flow is moving to bottom back of tank now better.

nice tank man. good colors.

Appreciate it.

How do you like that new sand that you have now I can not decide on what substrate I want. Also very nice tank love how deep it is.

I love the new sand I think its the perfect mix between small sugar size and big crushed coral size. You can still run your fingers thru it real easy but solid enough to still shape and look good. As well as blast with flow as I do with alot of water movement. Oh yeah now that ive gone wide Ill never go back to anything skinny in depth.

Nice tank and beautiful colors, great work!
Regards,

Thankyou sir

Can please share a link I want to get the same one

sure thing glad i've inspired you.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753226&lmdn=Type&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No

 

[BILLYO382]

As far as doing what I did and not worrying about a miny cycle, One thing to note is I do run bio pellets so I still have alot of bacteria in the system and I left my refugium sand alone, so I think that helps keep things stable too.