Blackthunda77's 80Gal Shallow Reef Build

[nivram]

Also picked up this guy but could not get a good pic last night. Not sure if I should throw it in my sump where I won't see much of it. Or take a chance with it in my main display.

Just make sure it stays out of your MP40. I'm talking from experience

 

[canesfan44]

Also picked up this guy but could not get a good pic last night. Not sure if I should throw it in my sump where I won't see much of it. Or take a chance with it in my main display.

About 10 years ago I had a pair and they ate some of my red bugs that I had at the time. They are cool fish.

 

[blackthunda77]

Just make sure it stays out of your MP40. I'm talking from experience

Hmm, good point. Didn't think about that. Might have to find some foam guards.

 

[nivram]

Hmm, good point. Didn't think about that. Might have to find some foam guards.

I had a par of the alligator pipefish I think. And they'd swim up and down the sides. I know they get much bigger than the one you have. Believe it or not. It survived that.

 

[blackthunda77]

Did some spring cleaning after doing some mountain biking today. Basically cleaned out my sump. Sucked oit all 4 sections with my wet dry. Removed the cheato i had in there. It definitely grew but i feel it harbored a good amount of detritus as well. I might keep a small part of it but dont know. I have a skimmer and run phosban. I also removed my skimmer and both reactors and cleaned them out. They are soaking in vinegar till tomorrow to get the stubborn stuff off. I also chucked out about 20lbs of rock i had in the skimmer section. There was probably a 1/4 in of detritus under all that. I wanted a benthic section with live rock but i don't have much flow in there so i think it was being counter productive.

Heres a pic post vacuum pre corraline scrape.

Heres a pic after i scraped most of the corraline and vacuumed it out. I also swapped out the shop light and replaced it with my marineland led which was on my nano. Im thinking to start up my frag section again.

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[reeksreef]

I thought of doing this to my tank but don't want to get rid of my pods that I recently brought from reefs2go

 

[blackthunda77]

I used to have the same reasoning. However i figured most of the pods from the sump are not making it tothe display nor are any of the micro brittle stars. I kept the cheato mainly for nutrient export. But with the skimmer and the reactors i dont think i need it. Im ok with keeping it strictly a skimmer section and a frag / fish acclimation area.

 

[blackthunda77]

Ok, so after doing the sump clean up last weekend and running with out carbon and GFO reactors for over a week, all my corals, especially the sps seem to have darkened in color. Not browned out, just deeper purples and greens in my tri color, deeper greens in my green cap frag and deeper greens and reds and noticeable growth in my seasons greetings monti.

I have also started dosing the amino acids by brightwell and adding a drop of the brightwells lugols iodine solution to the tank as well. I think i will keep things like this for a while and see how it goes. I will monitor Phos. and Nitrates more frequently to make sure they are not creeping up.

 

[AquamanE]

Ok, so after doing the sump clean up last weekend and running with out carbon and GFO reactors for over a week, all my corals, especially the sps seem to have darkened in color. Not browned out, just deeper purples and greens in my tri color, deeper greens in my green cap frag and deeper greens and reds and noticeable growth in my seasons greetings monti.

I have also started dosing the amino acids by brightwell and adding a drop of the brightwells lugols iodine solution to the tank as well. I think i will keep things like this for a while and see how it goes. I will monitor Phos. and Nitrates more frequently to make sure they are not creeping up.

Good choice!!

 

[blackthunda77]

Small little picture update

About 2 months ago

And now

Close up of the seasons greetings

God of war

...Now sprouting two new polyps

 

[blackthunda77]

Jedi mind trick getting its Jedi colors back

Purple deaths liking it in the shade from my 250 Watt radiums

Some yellow brick roads and punk rockers (I think)

Duncans

 

[blackthunda77]

Acro subulata

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[Nwest]

just spent about 2 hrs reading this thread... I am about to downsize from a 180 to this exact tank.. Will put biggest sump under as possible to get the water volume up. Plan on running 2 mp10's on it. Just cant decide t-5 or leds? I have MH's on my 180 and want something different different. anything you would do different??

 

[AquamanE]

Good Show John. Proud of you. Keep it up!!!

 

[blackthunda77]

just spent about 2 hrs reading this thread... I am about to downsize from a 180 to this exact tank.. Will put biggest sump under as possible to get the water volume up. Plan on running 2 mp10's on it. Just cant decide t-5 or leds? I have MH's on my 180 and want something different different. anything you would do different??

Aside from not being able to afford another mp40 or more corals, lol, not sure I would have done anything different at the moment. If you read the whole thread you read about the issue with the sand which I corrected. You can probably get away with 2 mp40s if you wanted to. Always better to have to throttle down than not have enough juice. Then again I don't have experience with mp10s so 2 might work for you, ESP if you have a mixed reef and not 100% sps.

One thing I considered is trying t5s. I think a 8 or 10 bulb fixture would fit the bill perfectly and look pretty slick if its one of those thin units. I'm not sold on leds just yet unless its supplemental like reefbrites or on a smaller nano type tank. But thats just my opinion.

Eddie, thanks for the compliments. I'm finally starting to see some visible growth. Believe it or not, even the frag of your xfactor is FINALLY getting its green base color back. Polyps are starting to turn blue again.

 

[rovster]

Nice stuff. Why doubt the LEDs? They definitely work. If had an bigger budget (mine is crazy as it is) I would have gone with one of the LED/T5 combos like the PS Pandora or that new Sfig Genesis with T5. Those things are SICK! But, they were another grand over what I paid for my Radions, so I'll stick with those. Nice pics John. Definitely a well put together tank. As far as MP10s on a tank like this, I think you would need more than 2 or supplement with a couple of other powerheads. MP10s move a lot of water, but this tank is 2ft wide, so not sure you'd get enough flow in the corners. That's just me.

 

[blackthunda77]

I just feel like there are still a lot of mixed reviews when it comes to LEDs, esp LEDs and SPS. I know there are alot of people that have had success, but there are just as many people that have tried them and went back to T5s or MH. Im not knocking it though, eventually i do see myself most likely making the switch. Just not yet. One thing that is killer about the LEDs though is of course the controllability and efficiency. Changing colors on the spot and not having to change bulbs, thats awesome. Ramping the colors and intensity up and down with a controller and throw in a storm simulation linked with your apex and vortech pumps, are you kidding me? :bounce1: I think that the higher end units like the radions and AI and so on do the job, but theres still the cost factor for me. To light up a tank larger than say a 40 gal or so, for me the cost is still too much. But thats for me, and theres alot of things in this hobby i want which i cant afford right now.

As for the comment on the MP10, i agree with you. I personally think a couple mp40s would be better but i never witnessed 2 mp10s in a tank like this so thats why i put the disclaimer in. I would think even an mp40 and and mp 10 would be better than 2 mp10s. Im actually considering getting a used mp10 and putting it on my front pane but im not sure yet. I dont want to ruin the aesthetics of the tank and im think im geting along fine with just the one mp40 believe it or not.

PS, ill be home tonight and most of the day saturday if you have time to stop by. Saturday evening im planning on visiting the boat show.

 

[Joshporksandwic]

Your tank and pics are looking awesome!

 

[blackthunda77]

LOL, thanks Josh.

 

[rovster]

Thanks John, but I'm leaving for Orlando for the weekend in 1hr. One day, LOL!