270 Tank Pics

[DMBillies]

I figured I'd get hassled sooner or later about posting pics of the tank, so I'm heading that off with this post. I still have plenty of tinkering to do, but the main rock set-up is (hopefully) not going to change. I have quite a bit of experience with most of the corals in the tank having had them in different set-ups, so although a few placements might need to be moved I think I have them pretty well set.

I definitely need to move my aquablue pluses toward the front a little to get a bit more even coverage of white light in the tank. It is also mixed perhaps a little bit bluer than I'm used to, but the upside to that is that most of the greens and oranges are popping. It does seem to wash out reds/pinks. I'm hoping once I move the aquablue plus bulbs forward it evens everything out. Because of the blue and because my camera is less than stellar, the pictures look a bit rough, but I think you'll get the idea.

After a few weeks of adjusting to the new setting, getting some more of the kinks ironed out, and working to get the equipment stragglers hooked up, Moriah and I are considering having an unofficial MTRC gathering so that everyone can check it out.

I'll try to think of something fun we could DIY (or learn to DIY) while people are here... or some other kind of topic. I'm thinking I could show everyone how I made my DIY penductors that are running on the new tank, especially because I have to make another one anyway (I accidentally cut one farther than I meant to but thought I could get away with it... during install I tweaked it right off).


Full Tank

With Flash (shows off rock work a little better)

Left

Middle

Right

 

[DMBillies]

No Flash

Left

Middle

Right

Along Tank from Right Side

 

[teamreefers]

Wow! Love that rockwork. Is that some DIY foam rock in the back?
Jack

 

[NeveSSL]

Very nice, man! I cannot wait to get a tank that size!

Is what we see without flash pretty accurate of how blue it is? I know the digital cameras have a hard time with the blues. I have yet to master actinic shots.

I really like your aquascaping. Exactly how much of it is what? Is most of the rock/foam or just rock or... ???

Looking great, man!

Brandon

 

[c_stowers]

Looks great! So where is the giant Naso? All of the other fish look so small in that huge tank.

 

[NeveSSL]

Brian, you now need to get some orange shoulder and achilles tangs... then I can have the achilles I've always wanted vicariously through you.

And Chris is right, that tank does make those fish look small!

Did you guys pretty much set it up the same way Angela had it? Looks nice without a ton of powerheads!

Brandon

 

[gsusfreak]

looks great brian!!!...forget the tangs, that toilet paper looks small!!! and thats probably two-ply....lol

 

[DMBillies]

The Naso is still in Angela's care. I wanted to make sure that everything was squared away with the water quality before I try to dump a fish that size in there.

The piece that you can see in the middle of the tank with the 3 archways is the old overflow cover from my 90 that was the rock/foam that I brought to the meeting. Some of the fiberglass resin/sand mix cracked and flaked a bit during the transfer because of the way I had to lift it and twist it to get it in the tank. I think a little bit of time will grow some coralline on it and you'll not even notice. In fact, the average person might not even see the spots... but I do

Other than that, the rock is just gravity stacked. Most of the larger pieces (especially the whiter looking ones) are fiji from Marco Rocks. There's a bit of Marshall Island in there and a couple pieces of tonga branch. The rest is mostly fiji I bought as part of a tank buyout. I really like the look of the marco rock and it is VERY porous. If I were to set up a tank from scratch I would go with that... you can't beat the price especially because it is shipped bone dry so all of the water weight is gone (I think you could probably do a 90 gallon with a 50lb. box unless you like a really full tank). They also do a good job of getting you what you want (they take requests on general rock sizes and actually follow them).

The pictures are definitely bluer than it appears to the eye, but it is still pretty clearly a shade of blue. I'll just have to tinker with bulb combos a little bit, but I'm pretty confident that just rearranging their order from front to back will make a big difference (there's parts of the reef that are getting little/no light from the whiter bulbs, so the rocks look blue and therefore the water looks blue). I've had problems with all of my other tanks looking a little on the yellow side, so I wanted to avoid that... which I clearly did.

I did use the general set-up that Angela had in that I tried avoid powerheads as much as possible (I already had 9 holes in the bottom of the tank, so I didn't have much choice right?). She had the Dart on a 4-way OM with each of the 4 outputs split so that 4 returns were running at once and then it would switch to the other 4. She said she wasn't getting much punch from that set-up, so I just took the front 4 holes, hooked them to the OM/Dart alternating 2 back and forth (hoping to get some wave-like action, but I was a bonehead with the OM and got some sand jammed in it, so I get to take it back apart). I then installed a second closed loop pump (Gen-X PCX40) and used two of the old returns as intakes. The returns for that are in the corner (just about the only loc-line you can see since I wanted to get those up high and blowing across the tank).

I put DIY penductors on all of those outputs, so if I figure that they double the amount of circulated water (commercial ones supposedly do 3-4x) and add in the flow from the return pump, I'm moving quite a bit of water (my estimate would be slight over about 10,000gph or about a 37x turnover...but that's strictly a guess, especially because I don't know exactly how much the penductors are doing.). I was still planning on using some Koralias pointed straight down off of the overflows and back in order to keep water flowing behind the rockwork. I think I will be able to easily hide 2 of them in the middle back, so I might only have a powerhead or two visible once all is said and done.

Now back to work...

 

[crumbletop]

Awesome, Brian. I like the roll of toilet paper!

 

[Angela Short]

Those look like paper towels to me A must since his face gets wet probably! I LOVE the way it looks! I have those two big seios also you can throw on for added flow but they jack the temp a few degrees. It looks so clean without all the nasty sand everywhere.

I got the OM jammed 1 time eary on but after everything getts a good slime coat and not blowing around so easy it should not happen any more. Those true unions are gonna be handy getting that thing apart!

The naso will be SOoooo glad to get out of her black jail :lol: She looks silly in Waynes 100 gallon rubbermaid but seems to be doing fine. Just LMK when you want her. Looks great!!!
Oh, Dad just got a new wrecked motorcycle last week so he wants to tinker on it this summer . No cabinet but I have your color... minwax mahogony on oak I think he said. I will ask again to be 100% sure

 

[Reeftanks6]

Very nice.

 

[sandalscout]

Wow, looks good guys!

(Brian, thanks for the remarks of 50 pounds of Marco for a 90, I was debating whether to get 50 or 75 pounds for my 90, guess I'll start with 50!)

 

[DMBillies]

sandalscout - If it saves you on shipping, you might want to order 75 pounds (assuming you don't have any other rock to put in there). You can always get rid of a little extra rock or if you have space save it for an upgrade

If not, just stick with 50, see how you like it, and if it isn't enough maybe pick up a couple of chunks locally. Like I said, I think 50 lbs. will fill one pretty good, but that depends on what kind of pieces you get and how full you like your tank.