April 2012 Tank of the Month!

[bdare]

WOW! GO DFWMAS!!! Great job Pete!!

 

[Hangman187]

Gratz Peter, very nice tank!

 

[Tang Thang]

Beautiful tank! Congrats!

 

[Up2nogood]

Very beautiful..........Congratulations!!:celeb3:

 

[woganaga]

awesome tank! can a link to the videos be posted?

 

[SushiGirl]

Congrats, Pete!
You know, if your tank hadn't been the first one Donzi saw in someone's house, he probably wouldn't have been so excited about getting into this hobby :lmao:

For everyone else, as good as the pics & vids are, this tank is awesome in person!

 

[rigleautomotive]

Awesome brotha.Congrats on your beautiful tank

 

[Browserz]

Beautiful tank. Sucks about the 300g leak. I want a tank like this someday

 

[psteeleb]

First off thanks to eveyone for the great support. I don't know who nominated me but thankyou, and a big thanks to Nathaniel and April for pulling it together and everything else they do for RC.

Much deserved. Congrats.

Thanks rl and feel free to ask me any detailed questions you want on my build log. Speaking of build logs you need to start one, I love the double overflow tank you bought, and what a great stand and canopy. It's going to look great.

Congrats on the tank! Remember reading the build thread a couple of months ago. Currently inspiring my 135

thanks - you need to get some pictures going on your 125

congrats nice tank

thanks Toby - I cant wait to see your build come along. I always considered a shallow build like the one your setting up.

Many congrats Pete.

Tahir

thanks Tahir and thanks for your feedback on my build thread. I also see you following SJ's. Can't wait to see your bonsai build come together.

excellent choice! Pete is the man

thanks - I just checked out your build - it's beautiful

Hi,

very beatiful this tank.

thanks Theodoro

nicely done! congrats!

thanks - I see you have a 215 FOWLR, that's a nice size tank for a reef

Very beautiful. Congrats!!!!

Thanks Jesse, hang around we'll get you pointed in the right direction :lolspin:

Love this tank, very inspiring color and growth. Congratulations on TOTM..

thanks Bob, and thats one sweet looking build you got started on.

 

[psteeleb]

Congrats! Well deserved

thanks - wow 2 400w MH's on a 110 I bet thtat does get warm

Nice Job

Thanks - I see you say your from the old Skool. How long have you been in the hobby? I use to live out your way and wondering if we may have crossed paths.

Congrats on an astounding tank!

thanks

Nice. Congrats!

thanks oz

Pete!!!!! This is awesome, you're an amazing contributor to this site as a whole I know you've helped me a lot and I greatly appreciate it. I've loved watching your tank grow and couldn't think of a more deserving tank and member to receive this award. I'd also like to add that your photography skills are BMFA.

thanks - and thanks for stopping by my build thread on occasion.

Congrats on the TOTM! :thumbsup:

I just watched your Stawberry Tabling Acro vid over in the SPS forum today, awesome tank. Well deserved.

Thanks Rob, and man you got some great looking corals in your tank. I see your encrusting rainbow monte is as aggressive as my sunset

Congrats Psteeleb, Beautiful tank!

thanks and can't wait to see your 125 come along

Amazing tank. Well deserving of totm. Congrats!

thanks - did you get that 10g started?

Very nice, great lighting combo

thanks, I like the LEDs a lot, but even if I add more I think I'll keep at least 2 t5's.

Great tank...and this guy shoots some amazing HD video of his corals...its like a virtual macro lens underwater. Got to check them out in some of his posts.

Congrats!!! :beer:

thanks, and holy cow you got some nice looking corals in your tank. And with that I think I'll go have a beer :beer:and feed the fish :fish1:
and yes in that order

 

[austinm22]

Congratulations on TOTM! Your tank is beautiful!

 

[washingtond]

Congratulations Pete!

 

[feh]

Congrats again...

 

[jbonez]

congrats.. nice tank bro..

 

[AquatiCoug]

Bio Pellets

Bio Pellets

Great tank!

Would you mind providing details on this statement about bio pellets?

"I struggled with carbon dosing, but decided to try biopellets and as expected found them to be very detrimental to maintaining a diverse biological balance as part of the mini ecosystems we strive for...."

I added a reactor to my 120 "reef" in hopes of keeping nutrients down. The jury is out on whether they have helped or hurt. I am looking for educated opinions on how BPs have worked or not worked for others.

Thanks

 

[psteeleb]

Great tank!

Would you mind providing details on this statement about bio pellets?

"I struggled with carbon dosing, but decided to try biopellets and as expected found them to be very detrimental to maintaining a diverse biological balance as part of the mini ecosystems we strive for...."

I added a reactor to my 120 "reef" in hopes of keeping nutrients down. The jury is out on whether they have helped or hurt. I am looking for educated opinions on how BPs have worked or not worked for others.

Thanks

sure thing:

I struggled with carbon dosing

I hope some people don't interpret this wrong as I never did carbon dose in a liquid form, I just didn't want to as a means of reducing No3 or No4.

but decided to try biopellets

bio pellets are just another form of carbon dosing, reluctantly I decided to try them.

and as expected found them to be very detrimental to maintaining a diverse biological balance as part of the mini ecosystems we strive for

Carbon dosing, including bio pellets, basically super charge bacteria cultures that are other wise population constrained. I often refer to carbon dosing as bacteria on steroids.

In an established system super charging bacteria cultures will starve out other established nutrient consumers (sponges, bivalves, feather dusters, other bacteria etc). As expected I saw significant die off in my system of these beneficial filter feeder type critters that reside in well established bio diverse live rock.

In new systems this die-off of established consumers should not be an issue as the system hasn’t had a chance to fully establish themselves to a system balance . Consider the cycles we see as a system matures; bacteria ---> algae ---> worms ---> snails etc). The systems we build will try to reach a biological balance, if we chose to offset the balance in favor of bacteria, other things suffer.

My other concern is for the health of corals that grew up in a non bio pellet environment. It would appear that for some corals if they grew up and or acclimated themselves to a non bio pellet environment, the introduction of them can take away from what they are use to consuming. There is also some speculation growing that bio pellets give off some sort of by product that may create issues to an established system (be it polymers or dead bacteria) and is why many people discharge the reactor to their skimmer for export of these by products.

 

[tripdad]

Very nice tank, well done.

 

[Scffvariable]

Congrats , nice job!

 

[torvall]

Super cool!

 

[fetta]

congrats..............great looking tank