46g bowfront reef setup

[TimeConsumer]

It will evaporate too slow with a glass top, this will also affect your dissolved oxygen levels. You need to find another cover that isn't solid. A lot of people use eggcrate, which will reduce the total amount of light entering your tank. But, if what I remember about bengals is correct, your cat is probably close to 20lbs or more. I'm not sure that eggcrate can hold him. A canopy or a custom cover (steel eggcrate?) may be your only solutions.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

Grrr, bristle worms scared the **** outta me lol. i had all the shells from my crabs in a container and as i was pulling them out, there was about 10 of them on my fingers. As for my cat, he weights 22lbs and he's only 2 years old "still growing". I'll keep doing more research and see what i find. I got fed up with playing with the rockwork "pain in the a**", all my pieces are big, but i'm thinking it'll look good the way it is once i add some more small pieces to fill in the gaps. I'll post some pictures once it clears.

 

[TimeConsumer]

What rock formation are you trying to achieve? Arches? caves? islands? wall o' rock?

 

[RedTurboMr2]

I wanted to go with one island with caves, but it's so hard. I needed more rock, so I went to the lfs to buy more rock, but they didn't have much. I ended up buying two pieces. This is what my tank looks like atm.

edit:sorry for the bad quality pic, my buddy's borrowing my Rebel on his trip. Pic was taken with my iphone.

 

[TimeConsumer]

That looks great! There's a lot of real estate there for coral. The bottom left rock is itching for a bubble coral. I honestly wouldnt worry about adding too many more small rocks. A lot of the corals will fill up the space, and certain corals (mushrooms and zoanthids) often come on their own small rocks already.

You're making me want to go rescape my nano.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

meh, it's ok. The pic actually looks better than in person lol. There's still a few rocks that i'd like to move. I'm about to place my order for a fixture, but i'm running into a couple issues. I spoke with The Grimm Reefer about what bulbs to go with, and he mentioned, 2X ATI Blue Plus, 1X ATI Purple Plus, and 1X KZ New Gen 14k. I'd also like to get the tank bracket. I was placing an order with ReefGeef and they had everything i needed, but it doesn't look like they ship to Canada. I then tried BRS, they ship to Canada, but they don't have the KZ new gen or the tank brackets. I'm gonna e-mail both company's and see if they can help. I understand that i can purchase most from BRS then buy the bulb and brackets elsewhere, but then i'm just gonna be paying extra on shipping. I'd like to find a place that i can purchase it all. The price for everything I listed was just under 400$

 

[TimeConsumer]

You can go with the new ATI Coral Plus bulb instead of the KZ New Gen, they're fairly similar. This way you can place the order with BRS. Or you can do my current light combo and do 3x Blue Plus and 1 Purple Plus. This has great growth rates, but you better love the color blue.

I'm about to order new bulbs for my tank and I'm going to pick up a Coral Plus to try the same combo I mentioned above.

EDIT: You can also try Marine Depot, they have the brackets, the fixture, and the ATI bulbs, no KZ though.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

Shipping is expensive to canada, 130$
i'm gonna see what ReefGeek says, i read on their site that they do ship to canada. I also found a place in canada where i can buy the fixture and brackets, but they don't have any good bulbs

 

[TimeConsumer]

Brutal. You could always try one of the hanging mount kits if you feel like drilling into your ceiling. BRS should have those in stock.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

I think that might be worse, my cat would then have a swing lol.
I just placed an order thru a company in canada, no matter where i buy it, i'm pretty much paying the same. It's cheaper thru the states but the shipping kills me, and in canada, the shipping is free, but the taxes kill me lol. This site had a fixture with bulb combo for pretty much the same price as the other sites, but it would only let me pick the 20$+- bulbs. So i chose 3x ATI blue plus and 1X ATI purple plus, but then in the comments, i asked for them to upgrade one of the blues to a KZ new gen, and i'll pay the difference. Dunno if that'll work or not, but it's worth a try. If it doesn't work, i'll just have to buy another bulb which shouldn't be too much of a hassel.

edit: they only charged me 5$ extra to upgrade the bulb
is this product any good CORALIFE AQUALIGHT DELUXE POWER CENTER, i'm looking for a new power strip with timers.

 

[TimeConsumer]

From what I've read, no it is not. I've heard the timers are not accurate.

I'd recommend some basic hardware store light timers and a couple of beefy power strips.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

k, i'll do that. thx

 

[RedTurboMr2]

Its been an expensive week But it'll all be worth it in the end here's everything i purchased so far....

1X AquaClear 110
2X Koralia 750 powerheads
1X Tek T5 36" 4X39W Light fixture w/tank brackets
2X ATI Blue Plus T5
1X ATI Purple Plus T5
1X KZ NewGen
BRS 75 GPD RO/DI 5 Stage Plus System
Eggcrate to replace glass lid
Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro test kit

i should have everything this week, i can't wait to have everything set up.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

i have the lights installed and i ain't using the eggcrate, my cat doesn't seem to bother the tank. I also installed the AquaClear 110 filter, it seems to be creating quite a few bubbles on the lowest setting, but i think i might just have to add some more water. I notice the water evaporating a lot more without the lid. I get the RO/DI unit on thursday, and i'm hoping i get the powerheads this week "i ordered them before the AquaClear "

These lights are amazing, but i now have a problem. This ain't the thread for it, but i'm sure some of you have been in this situation. I have some kind of coral that spreads fast growing pretty fast and is getting close to other rocks, is it safe to just scrape it off the rock, or should i bring it to the lfs and exchange it? i've done some research but i'm getting mixed answers. The coral looks like pulsating xenia, just shorter and the ends don't pulsate. I also have some zoos that are multiplying like crazy. Is there maybe something that i can feed it?

I'm also noticing some purple/green stuff growing on my sand

Thx for the help so far. I see a huge improvement with my aquarium

 

[RedTurboMr2]

I got rid of the gsp"?" and polyps. i'm now just waiting till i get all my levels right. My mag seems low at 1050. I'm also noticing a lot of bubbles in my tank, i'm wondering what's causing this, can it be because i moved the sand bed? I know it isn't low water, because i have the tank very full, ain't room for any more water. Most of the bubbles are floating near the AquaClear 110, and there's lots stuck to the powerheads, rocks and back glass. There's also a lot floating in the tank, and i'm pretty sure it's bothering my clown, he keeps chasing them thinking it's food.
Hope someone knows the answer to this.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

The bubbles actually seem to be coming from the rocks, i wonder if its just trapped air from taking the rocks out. i used a turkey baster and blew all the rocks, and i still see some bubbles coming up

 

[RedTurboMr2]

I think this renovation spiked my tank. My tank is full of bubbles, well over 10 000 bubbles "everywhere". I'm also getting a lot of buildup on my glass, i'm cleaning it 3 times a day. also my sand won't stay clean, there's a purple/red/green film that covers it. I don't know what to do, all the threads i've looked at are very old, and not much info in them. And my local fish store won't come look at my tank I'm kinda getting over this hobby since i guess i'm too dumb for it. Nothing i do seems to work. Ever since i've switched to RO/DI water with new pumps, i've been having issues. I bought 6 snails and 4 scarlets last week, and i think there's only 2 scarlets and 3 snails left. Somehow my clown fish is still alive, he's strong like bull lol. I don't wanna give up on this hobby, but it sux just having a tank with just water and algae I'm not adding anything else to this tank for a very long time since i know things will just die. I really hope someone can chime in on this, maybe someone has went thru the same issue that i'm dealing with.

 

[RedTurboMr2]

UPDATE

All the bubbles are now gone I'm guessing it was just air that was trapped in my rocks from taking them out and putting them back in the tank.

Still fighting some algae. I currently only have it on two pieces of rock and on the back glass. The rocks that it's on, are the same rocks that had the gsp. Like i said in my previous post, i took a brush and got rid of it. But there's actually still some on the rocks, so i'm thinking of just returning them.

Since my last post, I bought a ReefKeeper Lite to control my tank. So far, it's only controlling my lights (2 blue+ from 12pm to 8:30pm and purple+/KZ from 1pm to 7:30pm), heater, fans, and temp. But i'm gonna be purchasing the SL2 to control the PH and Salinity.

I also added two Fire "Blood" Shrimp, a few more Red Scarlet crabs (7 total) and some snails (7 total)

Here's the new tests on my tank

Calcium = 440ppm
Alkalinity = 9.2dKH
Magnesium = 1300ppm
PH = 8.2
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm

 

[RedTurboMr2]

Two more additions to the tank. I bought an orange spotted blenny and an acanthastrea coral. Tank seems to be doing pretty good now. But i'm now starting another project. I'd like a sump but my stand is built in three small sections, with two of those sections being glass shelves. So i decided to build one. This is the plans for the stand. I'm still unsure on the exact dimensions of the sections in the sump, but i'm 95% sure that i'm gonna go with a 15g tank. Protein skimmer will be Reef Dynamics INS80.

Pictures are 1:1 scale 46g bowfront w/ 15g sump (12.5" x 24" x 12.75")
Blue = 2X4, Green = 2X6, Yellow = 2X2, Red = 1/2" plywood, Orange = 3/4" ?

 

[RedTurboMr2]

Hey guys, figured i'd update this page. Things are going great with my tank, everything's very stable. Since my last post, i bought a few pieces of coral and a purple fire goby. So now, for fish, i have 2 ocelaris clowns, orange spotted goby and a purple fire goby. I also have 2 blood shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, about 6 red scarlet hermits and about 10 snails. For coral, i have some frogspawn, anthelia, green star polyps, acanthastrea, green donut.

What do you guys recommend i can add. I'm hoping to be able to put atleast one more fish in this tank, maybe two, but i think that might be pushing it. Tank is a 46g bowfront. I'm unsure at what other fish i can add, i'd like something that looks very tropical. Also, can i add a banded coral shrimp? will he get along with my two blood shrimps?

I'd like to add some more coral too, looking for something to put on the top level of the aquarium. But i'm unsure at what to add. I want to stay away from the stuff that spreads, the anthelia is taking over the bottom of my tank.

Hope to hear some options, thanks in advance.