introducing my 870gal tank (pics ahead)

I can't believe I haven't seen this thread till now! Took me a few hours to go through it from inception till today. You are truly a green thumb as they say. I love your new sump, best peice of equipment next to your skimmer which I like as well. I see your looking to conserve energy like us all and your going the led route. May I make a suggestion, IMHO the radions with the new lenses would be a nice match. I think you would love the feature of programming your kelvin, intensity, colors, timing, ect. I have a 787 gallon display tank 8 months old. I'm an sps fanatic but unable to keep them so far no matter what I try. Im in the process of switching my 8 400 watt MH's and my 8 4ft HO T5's and my supplemental red T5's for 8 radions. I was burning 4000 watts in lights alone in comparison to just around 1,200 with the radions. I'm hoping I will be able to keep sps after the change. My lighting was just too strong for sps and burnt them even when under caves or it could be my system is just too new. Anyway, don't want to hijack your thread but I'm in awe of your progress and hope one day I can show you what you gave me in inspiration and goals. Btw, I like that you now are keeping it simple as opposed to in the beginning having all the dosing and other things going on. I'm of the belief of skimmer, carbon reactor, gfo or bio pellets and a calcium reactor. I've been keeping my water changes to a minimum to get the system established so I don't have that new system syndrome, but I believe in more water changes and less dosing and mechanical equipment. Keep up the excellent work, you are truly humble and you seem like a great guy to know. If your ever in NYC, we can grab a beer and let the time pass discussing methods and details.
 
Thank you so much, nycreef!

Your LED conversion thoughts and doings :-) are a great input for my thoughts.
Personally, I think I will resist buying "progammable Kelvin / power" LEDs.
I am already switching my different kelvin lamps in 5 different groups, think I will stick to that, introducing LED only step by step, lamp by lamp to see how my coral are doing.
Programmable options would add another complexity, fitting in conversion and final concept.

I am also burning slightly more than 3000 watts light at high noon. If that changes to say 1500 one day, not having to change all the T5 bulbs after 6 months, this will cut costs a lot.

If I take a newly traded frag and place that directly into full tank light (400 watts MH) it dies in a few days. Have to move it up in the tank step by step to adapt.

I guess, it is more likely, that I'll visit NY some day, than you visiting Hamburg.
But ... this or that way, beer sounds good ;-), read about more and more small micro breweries with great beer coming up in NY.
My own brewings are bubbling in the garage, this time it's a brown english ale, but that's got to age 4-6 weeks after the end of fermentation. Can't wait ;-).


Again, thank you very much and good luck with your system!
Ralf
 
Daaaaaamn Ralph!!! Great set up, did you do all the work yourself or have it professionally installed? Either way whoever set it up I have to say they have some skills. From the show tank to the sump aka "bathtub" lots of love went into getting it done. Great job!
 
RalfP said:
Hi,
I took some pics again and ... well ...
I started this longtime-tread some years ago, so I should post at least some pics from time to time.
I changed my sump-setup last month, I bought a "Dreambox" from Royal Exclusive with 200x75x50 cm and installed it. Still the same pumps and skimmer, but a cascaded sock-filter with different mesh sizes (800/400/150 micrometer), more volume and a better defined water flow.
Still no LED lights above, still thinking.
I think I'll have to cut back some coral heavily the next weeks, the fragtanks are already set-up in the cellar, ready for Green Slimer mass production ;-).

reef_20120720-8.jpg


reef_20120720-10.jpg


reef_20120720-1.jpg


Thanks for viewing,
Ralf
Click to expand...

Wow that thing is a beast what it that called?
 
I just discovered this thread.... incredible build! I think it's almost time for Ralph's 6 month update, no?

Truly inspiring Ralph. I am drooling all over myself. :)
 
This is one of my absolutely favorite tank of all time. Looks very natural. We need to see more updates, can't have enough :)
 
Ralf. Hope all is well with you, as well as your World class reef system ...

Have you experienced any more spawning events, with the Tridacna or otherwise ? I'd love to hear your thoughts/notes on the spawning event(s), if any have occurred since, it's a subject/aspect in which Im doing a great deal of research work on at the moment. As you know, once you experience that in person, within your own reef system, it becomes the ultimate phenomenon ... Once again, congratulations on joining the club a few years back !

Give these guys their fix every now and then, feed the beast with updates :)
 
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