Mike's 300 Double-D

[biodegraded]

Saw your system in TOTM, saw the references about resilience and came to read your thread from the start. Wow - I don't know whether you two are Timex - takes a licking and keeps on ticking, or the Energizer Bunny - keeps on going and going and going. Maybe both. Congratulations on your tank and what can only be described as an inspiring build thread.

 

[Mark...]

Congrats on TOTM, I remember your hard work when you had the flood. Great patience!

Love to hear more about the frag tank.

 

[prop-frags]

Saw your system in TOTM, saw the references about resilience and came to read your thread from the start. Wow - I don't know whether you two are Timex - takes a licking and keeps on ticking, or the Energizer Bunny - keeps on going and going and going. Maybe both. Congratulations on your tank and what can only be described as an inspiring build thread.

Thanks - we don't feel like what we do is all that special - it is more like the timex thing now that you mention it; just having the discipline to keep up the things we learn and that we know are the right things to do seems to be the key to success.

Congrats on TOTM, I remember your hard work when you had the flood. Great patience!

Love to hear more about the frag tank.

Thank you, Mark! We'll work on getting some additional info and pics of the frag tank in the next few days.

:fish2:

For an update, we thought we would share a few pics Terry took yesterday:

A. horrida:


A. hoeksemai


A. nasuta:


and here's a shot that we particularly like of two of the most likeable characters in the 300... desjardini and regal:

 

[Drae]

That red sea sailfin and that regal look healthy! Nice pics.

 

[pookstreet]

Beautiful as always and congrats to you both! :thumbsup:

 

[maroun.c]

Congrats on a well deserved TOTM!!!
How long have you been running dual skimmers on the system and do you find it more difficult to tune both skimmers so one isn't overskimming and shutting the other down or do they both produce similar amount and quality of skimmate?

 

[prop-frags]

That red sea sailfin and that regal look healthy! Nice pics.

Thanks Drae. Appreciate the kind words from an expert such as yourself.

Beautiful as always and congrats to you both! :thumbsup:

Thank you Kenny...where you been lately? MIA!! Missing your pics friend!

Congrats on a well deserved TOTM!!!
How long have you been running dual skimmers on the system and do you find it more difficult to tune both skimmers so one isn't overskimming and shutting the other down or do they both produce similar amount and quality of skimmate?

Thank you. We've been running both skimmers on this setup since March 2011. Getting them both to run well hasn't been difficult at all really. The SRO pulls more skimmate generally speaking, but it's the bigger skimmer and it sits in the shallow sump which comes right off the drain line. The Deltec sits in the vat, and yes it is obvious that there isn't as much work for it to do - the SRO could probably handle the whole system. What we typically do is run the SRO a bit wetter and the Deltec more on the dry side and both skimmers are effective in that setup. We like having two skimmers for redundancy, as well as the additional aeration, too.

 

[Dbondaruk]

Congrats ,,, you have an amazing tank.

 

[jlafou1]

Hands down one of the best TOTM articles I've read in a while! Great job! I'm also building a 300DD and have closely followed you guys for a while now. The patience and planning you guys do is something we can all take a lesson from!

 

[prop-frags]

Congrats ,,, you have an amazing tank.

Ahhh, a fellow Virginian... And thank you for the compliment!

Hands down one of the best TOTM articles I've read in a while! Great job! I'm also building a 300DD and have closely followed you guys for a while now. The patience and planning you guys do is something we can all take a lesson from!

Thank you so much for the compliments and best of luck to you on your new 300!

 

[Pife]

Your picture taking skills are amazing. I am always blown away buy how good they all look.

 

[prop-frags]

Your picture taking skills are amazing. I am always blown away buy how good they all look.

Thank you so much for the compliment!

-Terry

 

[prop-frags]

A few new fish have been in QT for quite some time now, and earlier this week we promoted them up to the display tank into the acclimation box. So far, so good, the three new additions seem to be ready to join the community and there doesn't seem to be much aggression of the established fish to the newcomers. The three that are getting promoted are the Tinker's Butterfly, the attenuatus flasher wrasse (looks to be more like a hybrid actually), and a Pintail fairy wrasse. The Attenuatus was hanging out in the pvc tube and didn't want his picture taken, but here's pics of the other two:





We also have been experimenting with our first LED fixtures for the display tank. We've been working with two Kessil pendants (A150 and A350), as well as an AI Hydra 52. It's interesting playing with the three different fixtures and comparing them to the 400w MH bulbs and the other lighting in our current setup. We'll post some pics and more info in the next few days, but so far the results are very encouraging!

 

[mattskims]

We also have been experimenting with our first LED fixtures for the display tank. We've been working with two Kessil pendants (A150 and A350), as well as an AI Hydra 52. It's interesting playing with the three different fixtures and comparing them to the 400w MH bulbs and the other lighting in our current setup. We'll post some pics and more info in the next few days, but so far the results are very encouraging!

Very interested to see which way ya'll decide to go for DT LED lighting.

 

[jt48]

Very nice. Hows the regal? I would really like one but hear of very low success rate.

 

[dave.m]

Do you have a PAR meter? I wouldn't just rely on my eyes to judge an LED over MH.

Dave.M

 

[prop-frags]

Very interested to see which way ya'll decide to go for DT LED lighting.

We have been waiting for quite a long time for the technology to get to where it will do a decent job without breaking the bank. It will likely still be a very costly project to replace the MH fixtures. We had a conversation with Dana Riddle last summer and he basically said not to "change a thing", but we're still interested in doing some evaluations. The ability to programmatically control the LED fixtures with respect to both intensity and spectrum is very compelling!

Very nice. Hows the regal? I would really like one but hear of very low success rate.

The Regal is doing great; she's definitely one of our favorite fish. We were very lucky to get her as a juvenile, eating well, and had been at a LFS for several months.
It is like we were meant to be together. :love2:
Don't be discouraged by what you read. We wrote an article with some tips on what to look for and how best to care for them.

Do you have a PAR meter? I wouldn't just rely on my eyes to judge an LED over MH.

Nope, no par meter. It's been hard to justify the cost for a decent one, when unlike a test kit, we feel that we wouldn't get much use out of it. But we certainly agree with you, that just going by eye alone isn't the best approach either. We've been running some cheap LED fixtures over our frag tank for a couple of years now without any issues. If we were doing a blanket swap of our MH's for LED's, then we would definitely invest in a PAR meter. As for now, we are doing a lot of reading of Dana's excellent articles over at AA, and eagerly awaiting his writeups of his current work related to effectiveness of LED lighting on coral growth.

Errata: A clarification on the Kessil lighting - We're testing with the A150 15000k Special Blend and the A360WE (not the A350).

How about a couple of pics from this evening?

Here's one of our A. austera colonies:

Rhomboid:

Chromis looking flashy!

Bristletooth:

This was the best pic Terry could get of the P. attenuatus for now:


And a place for the cheshire cat to sit :lolspin:

 

[stonecold]

Beautiful tank and congrats on being TOTM!!

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Thanks for the pics M&T, That wrasse is beautiful and that chalice is sick.

 

[canyousee]

Much deserved TOTM,I have loved reading this thread for years,just full of good stuff. Thanks ever so much for keeping us all in the loop... MIke