225 gal walk-around starphire from Miracles

[summer6]

Sorry I haven't posted in so long!I know I was going to post some pic's but time got away from me.
I've been in the middle of changing-out/rotating my mushroom encrusted rocks ( 6weeks in a wrapped in newspaper in the basement) over the last 4 mos or so. I want to concentrate on more sps and continue with more lps corals, and the soft mushrooms were taking over and stinging everyone.
I also have some very heavy base rock that needs to go. I'm curing about 30 lbs of very light, porous rock from BRS, and look forward to getting it into the tank.
Am going to do a total overhaul of the tank in a couple of weeks - after 2 yrs, it needs it.
This is also a great opportunity to introduce some new fish into the tank.
Don't have time at this moment, but I will give an update on how my new skimmer's been working, and I may have a shot of the tank before I began de-assembling it.
Thanks for your patience.

 

[summer6]

Where did you get your overflows? Did you silicone two together to make one or get them in rectangles?

I'm not sure if you mean the overflow covers or the overflows? I think you mean the covers - if so they're made with a thinner black acrylic and are not holding up too well with the heat from the halides.
The overflows were made my Miracles - they're glass on the inside, and the outside of the boxes are covered in a high quality black acrylic.

 

[mcrist]

I just came across your tank today while I was doing some searches on Reef Central. I must say you have an absolutely beautiful setup that looks great in your house. I can't wait to see some updates.

 

[RUGDOG]

yep. just read the thread and waitin on the promised updates. Beautiful!

 

[summer6]

4/2011 update

4/2011 update

Hello,
I've finally gotten my updated pictures onto photobucket and I haven't uploaded in so long that I'm not sure if this photo will "come through" as desired!
So here goes....first picture is my 10 mos old SRO-XP 3000 internal skimmer before I got it into the basement sump.

and the bubble blaster pump

It's late....so tomorrow I will definitely be posting numerous pic's and let you know how everything's been going....thanks :spin3:

 

[summer6]

4/2011 update - con't

4/2011 update - con't

I am happy with the production from my newer skimmer vs. my old ATI 250 bubble master. The ATI was frustrating due to the finicky sicce pumps. When they were "on" they worked great, but they were not reliable with the smallest of electrical "blips." I'm not one who wants to constantly be tinkering with my fishroom equipment.

Here's a pic of the new skimmer in the sump:Installed 5/2010

Over time, I couldn't ignore the salt creep that was crawling up the wall of the sump room. It was encrusting the power cords daily! So, I put my thinking cap on, and devised a home made splash guard and pipe extender to keep the splashing to a minimum. The trick was not to create back pressure on the bubble blaster pump....and the pictures below will show what I came up with. It's not pretty, but it works.

The splash guard is the bottom of a plastic pail. It fits loosely on the pipe (not a great job cutting) has a few air holes, and most importantly - isn't fully submerged - so it doesn't put any back pressure on the skimmer pump.

I went from bad salt creep ... to hardly any now, and it makes life so much easier!

After 2 yrs. with this new tank (previous tank before moving was a
200g. traditional "wall" set-up) I felt it was time to do a major tank overhaul.

A few reasons why:
The rock work was too "dense" and some pieces were much too heavy and non-porous.
Even with the two sets of 4-ways, there wasn't enough flow for the sand bed.
Mushroom corals were taking over, and affect some LPS corals.
The sandbed was really compacted by all of the rocks, and it was impossible to "get at" the hidden detris.

Here's the "before" pictures:

A couple of other events - before the tank breakdown. My spectrapure waste line went directly into the basement slop sink. Unfortunately, the pump failed (during water making) and we had a mini-disaster. :rolleye1: The workout room (carpeted) next the sumproom had about a 12"x6" soggy-zone. Luckily, it wasn't any worse, and we got it cleaned-up in a night's worth of effort -but we could not count on the sink pump.

We had the plumber in and since the pump was still under warranty, we got a new one installed.

My husband came up with the bright idea to divert the spectrapure waste line directly into the sewer line in the basement. There's just enough angle for the line to "catch" the septic/sewer line, and now, there's no worry about unexpected flooding.

 

[padova335i]

nice, looks great, i have a similar tank setup.. Im making a screen top to place on the tank for fear of jumping fish! looks great!

 

[summer6]

nice, looks great, i have a similar tank setup.. Im making a screen top to place on the tank for fear of jumping fish! looks great!

Thanks. I'm curious about your set-up, do you have a link?

 

[polywise]

Question:
How did you connect the RODI wast line to the sewer line?
Jim C.

 

[summer6]

Question:
How did you connect the RODI wast line to the sewer line?
Jim C.

Drilled a small hole into the pvc/sewer line, and inserted the RODI waste line directly in - added some pvc glue to hold. No issues at all.

 

[summer6]

tank overhaul Jan 2011

tank overhaul Jan 2011

It took a full day to tear down and set up the tank. I had my trusted fish guy, Ed, doing the heavy work with the rocks and sand. Took the opportunity to introduce a number of new fish - which made acclimation easy with no turf wars due to the new territories.

Tank emptied

Used saran wrap around the glass all the way around the maple skirting. This kept all of the drips out of the small space between the stand and tank.

The tank's noticeably "lighter" than it was. I'll have room for lps and sps (when I am able to buy more) to grow. Flow is noticeably improved. Fish are happy.

Took a good 8 hrs or so from start to finish so we kept the fish warm in rubbermaid cans with heaters and put the fireplace on - it was a cold winter day!

Added 30 lbs of new rock (cured in the basement rubbermaid, and every two weeks with the water change, transfered the tank water to the curing bin) that was light and porous, from bulk reef supply. Went through all my rock, and left out the heavier, dense rock.

New livestock added:
3 Bartlett Anthias
Chevron Tang
Yellow Tang
Purple Star

Existing Livestock:
Pair Percula Clowns
Powder Blue Tang
Scarlet Hawkfish
3 Wimple fish
Coral Beauty
Clown Goby
Yellow Goby
2 Sand Stars
Blue Star
Serpent Star
Scarlet Shrimp
LPS
few SPS frags

I gave my 5yr. hippo tang to my fish-guy (for his home tank) because the fish splashed after feedings - to no end - It was so bad that i made "splash guards" on the top of the tank, and I'd had enough of dragging them out for feedings!

 

[summer6]

updated pic's Jan - March '11

updated pic's Jan - March '11

 

[aquaenthusiast]

So beautiful, so simple, I love it!

 

[summer6]

So beautiful, so simple, I love it!

Thank-you much! :fish1:

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

Wow, great looking tank. It's so nice and clean. The walk around is really cool.

 

[padova335i]

Thanks. I'm curious about your set-up, do you have a link?

heres the link
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1930420&page=4

 

[4tangs]

Any problems with the butterflies nipping corals?

 

[zreefs]

what kind of lights are you running.

 

[summer6]

heres the link
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1930420&page=4

Thanks. I'm looking forward to checking it out!

 

[summer6]

Any problems with the butterflies nipping corals?

I have one LPS that they work on every so often - and it has stressed it out. I'm feeding the fish pretty heartily. 2 of the 3 butterflies are great eaters, and the 3rd one is more finicky - the one who will nip at a coral. I did not "do my homework" as well as I should have with the wimple fish, but I they add a lot of color, and personality to the tank - so I'm ok with them.