40 Gallon Glasscages Starphire anemone tank build

[orchidsnfish]

I have always wanted a tank with nothing but anemones and clown. Recently I had the opportunity to purchase 19 RBTA clones from a fellow reefer who is in the process of moving. He propagated them via cutting. I believe he started with one. Here are some pics of the anemones during acclimation to my 265 gallon (not the display, but shared water volume). These are the "Sherman RBTAS" which is a big thing in the DFW area. All came from 1 original which a guy in Sherman, Texas still has.

And here are a few pics of them in their temporary home. When I bought the anemones, I did not have a system ready to house them. I didn't see this as a huge dilemma because just as the temporary tank shares water volume with the 265, their permanent home would as well.

So onto the build of their permanent home..

I bought this tank from a fellow reefer.

 

[orchidsnfish]

I took it home and did this to it.

Here are some shots with misc equipment for the tank...

I was sort of in a hurry so I ordered a simple metal stand from F&S with plans to skin it later.

 

[orchidsnfish]

Here it is skinned. Unfortunately shortly after this picture I took the doors off for finishing and they were outside drying when it decided to rain. They are shot and I am getting another pair build. They will be plywood as the originals were MDF and that is the most useless material I have ever used.

I had Melev build and overflow box for me and here is the tank with that installed.

and how the returns are done

Finally what I accomplished today.

You may notice the parts of the stand that you can see are black. The finishing process was grueling and I was in no mood to take pics. I used filler for the holes where the wood screws into the metal. I then primered, sanded, primered, sanded...It got about 3 coats of gloss black in the end and was sanded between each. It looks pretty good considering. So no stand pics as remember it is missing the doors currently. All the good tanks run without doors for awhile right?

Anyway, I did get the SSB and a mix of live rock and ecorock in today. It looks pretty good so far. I'm not sure when the anemones will move in. Whenever I feel confident that the tank isn't going to do any tricks like leak, bust wide open, overflow, etc.

The drain is done with just a 1" drain with 1 1/2 pipe (capped)with about a million small holes drilled in it to prevent anemones from going down the drain. The return is 3/4" and then splits inside the overflow box to 1/2" bulkheads on each side. The flow accelerators are creating a major sandstorm currently, but do what they say although they put back pressure on the return pump (Mag 5) and the tank overflows a lot less with them in place. They pull water in from inside the tank to create the flow. Hard to explain if you have never seen one up close. I didn't even know they existed until I was shopping for plumbing for this tank.

I thought I would start a thread here. All advice or suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks
Angela

 

[tpdpercula]

Very NICE!!!! Make sure you post LOTS of pics please.


-Ian

 

[apayne]

Nice!!

I like you nems and I think your tank will look sweet!

 

[Slakker]

Looks awesome! Looks a bit green for starphire though...

 

[orchidsnfish]

Looks a bit green for starphire though...

Yeah when I bought it it looked green in the pics also and I was asking him if he was sure it was. It looks baby blue in person. The back pane is not starphire and you can tell a huge difference.

Thanks for the compliments. You will get tired of looking at it I promise. I take too many pics.

Angela

 

[Bluespot22]

This thread should be fun. Keep us updated!

 

[12gallonbaby]

yea i cant wait to see all those anemones in there! keep us posted. what kind of clowns are you going to keep?

 

[Slakker]

Is that a FishNeedIt T5 fixture?

 

[orchidsnfish]

Is that a FishNeedIt T5 fixture?

Good eye. Yes it is. I am pretty happy with it and would recommend it for the price. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the legs are plastic and kind of flimsy. I'm scared I'm going to break them, and of course it doesn't have individual reflectors. I think the bulbs are ok, but nonetheless I have aquamedic bulbs ordered for it. I got 4 10K Reef White bulbs and 2 Reef Blue Actinic bulbs. I am going to TRY to just run all 10K's but I will tell you ahead of time it will not last long more than likely as 10K's look so yellow to me since I am used to looking at 15K MH's with t5 actinic supplementation on top of it. Actually everything looks yellow after that combo!

what kind of clowns are you going to keep?

They will be ocellaris. I have a orange white/naked pair that will probably go in there.

 

[shivvy]

I am going to love this tank!!

how do you like those flow accelerators? do they make a big difference? what do they do? spread the flow?

 

[dalilgriffith]

thats like 2000 dollars worth of anemone ++++

 

[orchidsnfish]

how do you like those flow accelerators? do they make a big difference? what do they do? spread the flow

Well they make a lot more turbulance, but actually cut down the amount the tank overflows. It's hard to explain for me...They have gaps at the end where they actually suck water from the tank in. That's where the extra flow comes from. Without them I dont have a sandstorm, and with them I do. I like them pretty well, but they may not be anemone safe.

thats like 2000 dollars worth of anemone ++++

Yeah. I got them at a very fair price though.

Question:

I have an unused IceCap 660. I took the reflector out of the fishneedit light and there is no ballast? I was throwing around the idea of using the 660 to overdrive them, but I'm not sure what would happen. Of course, all the wiring would be redone like it is supposed to be, but still IT HAS NO BALLAST so I'm not just upgrading. Why no ballast? Anyone know? Weird to me! I'm going to try to retro fit it with individual reflectors also.

 

[Reefing102]

this build will be awesome. How do the flow accelerators work? Like how do they draw water from the main tank? stuff like that...


Are you going to put a background on the tank?

Those anemones look sweet.





edit - you just answered my first question

 

[orchidsnfish]

I was going to paint the back black, but that idea got vetoed by my better half. Have to appease him somehow. If I decide to add one later I will use adhesive vinyl on the back.

Here are two close ups of the flow accelerators that might explain them better than I can. They pull in a lot of water through the groove things on the side. Enough that it pulls air down from the surface occasionally .

Elusive ballasts have been located! IceCap 660 upgrade about to happen shortly when I can pry the playstation controller out of my sweetie's hands...actually it may take awhile...

See what I did to my new light fixture

The ballast

My work is done (dusts off hands). Now it's time for somebody to shut down Madden 09 and play my game for awhile. He's thrilled!

 

[orchidsnfish]

I don't think the fixture has a clue what just happened to it...

It is a lot more intense. Now I just need to figure out a way to do the individual reflectors. Wires are covered now and are black.

 

[Slakker]

Awesome! I've been thinking about picking up the 24" fixture for over my nano so that I can run it as a frag tank and/or quarantine tank for corals. Couple locals have picked up the fixtures and been reasonably pleased with everything but the bulbs it ships with.

Good to see you doing a bit of hacking on the fixture, I've always thought they were a good looking fixture as far as appearances go, but not quite sure i want to take a chance on them yet.

 

[spshead01]

Very nice rbta's

 

[TXChewy]

Very nice if I ever drive through Dallas I will have to bug you to unload one of the famous "sherman's". Oh and everyone here is picture hungry so snap away.

Lookin Good