smellslikeTUNA
New member
Great build Porkyboy, do you mind me asking how many pounds of sand you have in the tank? Also, did you go live or dry on the sand? If you did go live sand, is that how you seeded your rock? Thanks
New 57g build
- Thread starter Porkyboy177
- Start date
Porkyboy177
New member
I went with 2, 15lb bags of Carib Fiji pink live sand, it covered entire surface about 3/4 to an inch high. Also seeded my rock with 2 small pieces of live rock from my nano tank.
smellslikeTUNA
New member
Thanks for the quick reply, I also have a 57 illuminata
Currently in the process of ordering my rock/sand and really like your set up, especially since I don't think I can afford a DSB right now. Have you had any problems with nitrates having such a shallow sand bed? Also, do you have any sand in your fuge or only rock (Did you put the pieces of live rock in the fuge to seed the dry? that is kinda what it looks like judging by your pics)?
Porkyboy177
New member
I havent had any problems with the sand bed, I believe a shallow sand bed has less problems than a deep sand bed from with I've read. The fuge has little to no sand, the pieces of rock are down their because I can't find a home for them in my main display, will probably get rid of them. I basically have a large ball of Chaeto growing with a few pods down their, nothing special. It does the job.
smellslikeTUNA
New member
Thanks for the info, I think I will be doing something similar.
What bulbs did you end up going with in that fixture?
What bulbs did you end up going with in that fixture?
Porkyboy177
New member
I went with 4 ati blue+, 1 ati purple plus and 1 uvl super Actinic. I had an ati aqua blue special but replaced it with a blue+. The aqua blue special looked too white to me, kinda washed out the blue look. Fav bulb is the uvl super actinic, corals really pop under it.
Porkyboy177
New member
New goodies from ORA. Sneak peak. Just picked em up from my LFS.
tri-color-valid, turQuoise stag, Joe the coral, rose milli, Red planet, purple plasma
Cell pic. Will post pics after acclimation, color is awesome.
tri-color-valid, turQuoise stag, Joe the coral, rose milli, Red planet, purple plasma
Cell pic. Will post pics after acclimation, color is awesome.
Porkyboy177
New member
Tank nightmare
Tank nightmare
Well my tank was thriving up until all off massachusetts lost power from that nasty snow storm, after 2 days without power the tank temp dropped down to 65, most of my fish and corals looked like crap, the electric co, said we wouldn't have power for about a week, so I decided to go to home depot and get some 5 gallon jugs and a huge bin so that I could transfer my tank to my mother in laws about 2 hours away,
Small pump, heater and crappy light. Water quality is terrible and my corals are lacking light.
Everything is still holding on, lost a couple sps corals and my rbta.
Power was back on sat night, Came home to an empty tank,
had to clean out all my equipment and make new ro water all night, Spent the rest of the day aaclimating my fish and corals, everything is iffy right now.
Hopefully my corals bounce back over time.
Tank nightmare
Well my tank was thriving up until all off massachusetts lost power from that nasty snow storm, after 2 days without power the tank temp dropped down to 65, most of my fish and corals looked like crap, the electric co, said we wouldn't have power for about a week, so I decided to go to home depot and get some 5 gallon jugs and a huge bin so that I could transfer my tank to my mother in laws about 2 hours away,
Small pump, heater and crappy light. Water quality is terrible and my corals are lacking light.
Everything is still holding on, lost a couple sps corals and my rbta.
Power was back on sat night, Came home to an empty tank,
had to clean out all my equipment and make new ro water all night, Spent the rest of the day aaclimating my fish and corals, everything is iffy right now.
Hopefully my corals bounce back over time.
kellerexpress
New member
wow what a pain! hopefully it works out alright!
Felix T Cat
Member
Tank looked beautiful, hopefully you can get it back up and running quickly. On a completely side note those Stealth heaters were recalled earlier this year. If you contact Marineland they will send you a Visitherm replacement or refund your purchase money. I had 6 total and they were very easy to work with.
Porkyboy177
New member
Sure I'll send some pics and dimensions of the stand on my day off tomm.
Porkyboy177
New member
Back up and running,
Back up and running,
Tank is doing good now, it's been a couple weeks since that nasty power outage, I lost a couple frags and some snails. Decided to change the right island when setting tank back up so I could have more flat spots for my sps frags. Also decided to swap out 1 blue+ bulb for GE 65k bulb for better growth, color is still their.
Pics are a little crappy, from cell phone. I should have my macro lens back in about a week for better pics
Fts from after the set up
Moving some stuff around
Also purchased about 8 more Ora frags, iv got the hook up from my LFS
And the frags after acclimation
Will post pics of each Ora frag when I get my lens back, I've got about 15 of them now. My red planet is growing like weeds,
Back up and running,
Tank is doing good now, it's been a couple weeks since that nasty power outage, I lost a couple frags and some snails. Decided to change the right island when setting tank back up so I could have more flat spots for my sps frags. Also decided to swap out 1 blue+ bulb for GE 65k bulb for better growth, color is still their.
Pics are a little crappy, from cell phone. I should have my macro lens back in about a week for better pics
Fts from after the set up
Moving some stuff around
Also purchased about 8 more Ora frags, iv got the hook up from my LFS
And the frags after acclimation
Will post pics of each Ora frag when I get my lens back, I've got about 15 of them now. My red planet is growing like weeds,
Porkyboy177
New member
Hey thanks, I'll have some nice coral and fts pics soon.
Porkyboy177
New member
Small update
Small update
Tank is doing very well, water quality is good and my corals are starting to take off. Over the last couple weeks I've lost 3 fish, 2 chromis and 1 yellow watchman, all 3 went carpet surfing, I wake up in the morning and find them nice and crusty on the floor, I think they are getting spooked at night when we turn the lights on, so I decided to make a slide-on canopy, and some diy moon lights.
Fish in tank, 1 blue chromis, pair of true Percs, blue tang, newer fish, mystery wrasse, and A helfrichi Firefish.
Canopy pics, just needs some paint, slides right on without touching light.
added some trim
Led moonlights, made custom bracket that mounts to existing screw holes on the power modules sides.
Couple tank pics, bluezoos and green sponge. Hippo. Dartfish, duncans, trupercs, etc
First couple are cell pics, rest are nikonD5000 55mm lens, I should have macro shots of all my corals this week.
Small update
Tank is doing very well, water quality is good and my corals are starting to take off. Over the last couple weeks I've lost 3 fish, 2 chromis and 1 yellow watchman, all 3 went carpet surfing, I wake up in the morning and find them nice and crusty on the floor, I think they are getting spooked at night when we turn the lights on, so I decided to make a slide-on canopy, and some diy moon lights.
Fish in tank, 1 blue chromis, pair of true Percs, blue tang, newer fish, mystery wrasse, and A helfrichi Firefish.
Canopy pics, just needs some paint, slides right on without touching light.
added some trim
Led moonlights, made custom bracket that mounts to existing screw holes on the power modules sides.
Couple tank pics, bluezoos and green sponge. Hippo. Dartfish, duncans, trupercs, etc
First couple are cell pics, rest are nikonD5000 55mm lens, I should have macro shots of all my corals this week.
