Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank)

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Greetings and happy holidays to all! I will not fill up your thread with too much of the same compliments and awe at the incredible journey you have set out on and so graciously included all of us in. This thread is one of the primary reasons I have decided to make the jump from my 28 gallon nano to a 275 gallon. . . nano I guess. (Seems so small compared to your reef.) Peter, your openness to others input and your ability to find true talent in the reef keeping realm and your tireless dedication to documenting everything for our benefit is second to none. Thank you for sharing your experiences and thank you Mr. Wilson and all of the rest of the team for sharing your seemingly boundless knowledge.

Brady

Brady, thank you very much for your sincere enthusiastic support of this community. You've obviously read enough to know that the prevailing philosophy in this thread is not how big you make it, but how you make it big! 275 gal is a very respectable size and certainly large enough to have a material benefit from following some of the best practices covered in this thread. Each build has is own unique properties and you really want to find yours and document it for the benefit of the rest of us. There's absolutely no reason you cannot one up this build, not because there is a competition going on but because this build has given you a head start in building a better ecosystem due to the knowledge you have gathered here. That is certainly one outcome this community will be very very proud of. You take this experience and make it better. The hobby will be better off for it!!!!


Peter
 
This is really important, as the holidays can be a major drag with everything being closed. We needs our entertainment, we does, and nothing could be better than to see your system finally falling into place. You've been held back unnecessarily for so many months I'm surprised you haven't hurt someone by now.

Anyway, best of success over the weekend. I'll be following closely.

Cheers,

Dave.M

OK tell you what Dave. If you take one more crack at the certificate and guild it up a wee bit I will prepare to release the rest of the stuff and we can make it a Christmas milestone along the way to the Four Masters news release. Think you can find your earlier work on the certificate?

Peter
 
Can do, Peter. I was waiting for your feedback. Also, I have some questions about the other designs, but we can take those off-line.

Dave.M
 
alright finally a sump, cant wait to see it. I hope the last guy who said your sump was being shipped 6 months ago doesn't show up with your sump on a donkeys back. I hope he takes returns
 
I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We all love these aquariums but at the end of the day family and health are number #1. So on the note raise a glass for health and the health of your families. May it be a wonderful day for all. In my house we say Zivjeli. Cheers.
 
Merry Christmas all...peter,any special treat for your fishes today...?
i have two thoughts of feeding my majestic angel and purple tang bits of cakes...in the end i decided against it...lol...:clown:
 
alright finally a sump, cant wait to see it. I hope the last guy who said your sump was being shipped 6 months ago doesn't show up with your sump on a donkeys back. I hope he takes returns

Peter had me throw some extra hay in the manger just in case an *** or two show up.
 
Thanks jestersix. I'm really happy with the plasma over the refugium. The chaetomorpha is growing like crazy. Our refugium is small, so we have to go with quality rather than quantity. Sure, you can grow algae with a compact fluorescent twist bulb, but nowhere near the full potential...

I lean toward white light, over blue. We just installed the new Aqualine 10,000/13,000K 250 watt HQI bulbs and the PAR on the substrate is 350 vs. the 150 we get with Phoenix 14,000K. The light looks more vivid, bright and alive. I'n sure the corals will grow faster...you get more bang for the buck with lower colour temperature bulbs like the Aqualine 13,000k or plasma, and supplement blue with T5 or LED.

I was disappointed with plasma when I set up the first fixture on the tank. Now that the other two fixtures appear to be more blue (higher colour temperature) I may look further into them. I haven't used a dimmer yet, so that may change everything. I am however concerned that the plasma may need to be dimmed below 70% to get the right colour temperature (12,000-14,000). LED doesn't work well near hot lights, as plasma are...

I think you will find that it doesn't take much dimming to get the plasmas down around 12K. IIRC, mine hit a defined blue shade around 90%. I would love to convert my refugium to plasma but the heat/space issue make it impossible. I am planning on moving one of my mangroves to a container outside the tank where it will bask in plasma lighting - hopefully grow big and strong since I like that better than a palm tree by my display.

Agreed about the Refugium lighting, had a fixture fail and I am currently running a compact twist - my chaeto is growing at less that half the rate I was getting from a T5 fixture.

I am running a Reefbrite strip just below my plasmas without problems, but I have open fixtures (no hood/canopy) and excellent airflow. The addition of the blue LEDs makes the viewing perfect for my taste.

FYI, here is a growth shot of one A. millipora frag in the system over the last six months. Sorry for the less tahn stellar photos!

Seashine150011millicropped.jpg


011millicropped02.jpg


207.jpg
 
I think you will find that it doesn't take much dimming to get the plasmas down around 12K. IIRC, mine hit a defined blue shade around 90%. I would love to convert my refugium to plasma but the heat/space issue make it impossible. I am planning on moving one of my mangroves to a container outside the tank where it will bask in plasma lighting - hopefully grow big and strong since I like that better than a palm tree by my display.

Agreed about the Refugium lighting, had a fixture fail and I am currently running a compact twist - my chaeto is growing at less that half the rate I was getting from a T5 fixture.

I am running a Reefbrite strip just below my plasmas without problems, but I have open fixtures (no hood/canopy) and excellent airflow. The addition of the blue LEDs makes the viewing perfect for my taste.

FYI, here is a growth shot of one A. millipora frag in the system over the last six months. Sorry for the less tahn stellar photos!

Seashine150011millicropped.jpg


011millicropped02.jpg


207.jpg



Excellent growth. Do you think the plasmas add as much heat as halides? I think plasma lighting is going to really step up in popularity this year. I think we will start to see a bunch of plasma fixtures released over the next year. I think a plasma & LED combo fixture would be the incredible.
 
Nine Ball Team Expansion......

Nine Ball Team Expansion......

About six months ago I began to look at what process I would invoke to honour the Four Grand Masters of Reef Aquaria. One of the members of this community came forward and back channeled an offer to help me prepare a 4 Masters LOGO that I could use for a limited edition commemorative T-Shirt. We have been collaborating ever since with what I believe is a great result thanks to his efforts and hard work.

We now have a limited set of T-Shirts and now an award certificate to give to the Honouree to autograph for the 4 Grand Masters Tank. The individual who has seen the tank in the flesh and been supportive to our whole community is now an official member of the Nine Ball Team and a member of the inner cabinet specializing in graphic arts. Please join me in welcoming Dave.M to our Team. Dave, thank you very much for all your help and support.

Peter, Mr. Wilson, Chago, Bros Grimm, Bros Shimoda
 
Tank of the Four Grand Masters

Tank of the Four Grand Masters

At the outset of this build I had set as a general design objective for this tank a humble attempt to recognize four outstanding aquarists by incorporating their 'style' into the overall aquascape. I must admit that I also discovered that the quality of work that went into each one of these aquarists build was exemplary and spoke very highly of the focus and discipline to achieve a result that was recognizable around the world.

The first recipient has had a profound influence on this build and from the feedback I have gathered in the last year and a half there are countless members of this hobby who would endorse this terrific achievement of our friend from Bangkok, Thailand, ChingChai Uekrongtham. This award comes from his peers who truly recognize how very much he has given to all of us who have had the privilege of following him on his aquatic journey.

This Certificate signed by Mr. Wilson and myself is being couriered to Chingchai with six T-Shirts with a request that he autograph one and send it back to us so we can hang it in the room with the Tank of the Four Masters. The limited edition T-Shirt is unique in that the image of the coral backdrop comes directly from Chingchai's tank and long term members of this community will recognize that. Each of the other winners will have their own unique backdrop taken from their own build.

I have created a special email address to make it very easy for folks who wish to send their comments and best wishes to ChingChai with the award. We will make sure that your comments are attached to the certificate. This is a sincere opportunity for all of us to say thank you for sharing your passion with our community.

The email is 4grandmasters (@) gmail (dot) com. I'm not sure what the etiquette is for posting email addresses so I hope that makes sense and is permissible.

ChingChai should get this package hopefully late next week. Congratulations ChingChai, you are an inspiration to all of us.


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Peter and Shawn on behalf of all your friends..........
 
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