Oceanic 215 with Solaris Build

[solitude127]

Hello, Just a question about your lights. I know your tank is 30" tall, do you think (in your opinion) that the light spread will good enough for a 30" wide tank? BTW nice tank and cabinet work.
Mike

 

[Me No Nemo]

Thanks, Mike. Well, this tank is 24" wide and we have great coverage front to back. I did try them on a 36 inch wide tank and we had to have them 21 inches above the tank to get the spread from front to back and that just didn't work out as that was one of the older 250 watt model. I would imagine you could do it with the 400 watt model, but you would probably want to contact PFO as they can tell you how high up you'll need to place the lights for the spread. They were dead on with mine. Also, the lights are VERY bright at full white and full blue, so if you did have to hang them up a bit higher, I think you'd probably be fine.

 

[Me No Nemo]

 

[melev]

That just seems like the right avatar for you. You had it for a very long time, if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[Me No Nemo]

Yeah, I did. I'll keep it on your advice. Thanks again for the kind words about the tank and setup.

 

[melev]

What will you do once it is finally done? If you can't tinker with it, what's the point? :fun4: Being a LFS owner does have its perks, as you get to pick the best pieces as they come in for your own tank. This tank is going to be amazing, I'm sure.

How often do you do water changes normally?

 

[Me No Nemo]

We do 5% a week and then once a month a 20% usually. We use only Tropic Marin salt. Currently our parameters read as follows:

1.025 Salinity
460 Calcium (Salifert)
10.4 Alk (Salifert + Colorimeter)
1450 Magnesium (Salifert)
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
0 Nitrate
0 Phosphate (Colorimeter)
8.35 PH
319 ORP
78.2 Temp

 

[Me No Nemo]

Once it's done? Is a tank ever really done? Besides, if I need to tinker there's always the store and the farm. Even after 30+ years in this hobby, my favorite part is still just sitting back and taking it all in

 

[bbehring]

I'm sure I missed it somewhere in your thread, but what depth is your sand bed in the display and the fuge?

 

[Me No Nemo]

The tank is about 4 inches and the fuge 2 inches, but I'll be adding more to that to bring it up to 4 inches as well. I'm adding sand in the fuge from my various store tanks to get lots of diversity in the sand critters.

 

[bbehring]

I have 4" in my 54 display and 5 in fuge. Was thinking for my 210 build that I would only go with 1" in the display, 5" in my fuge and do a 5 gal DSB slow flow bucket similar to Anthony Calfo's concept. Although I have never had issues with my DSB in my current tank. Thoughts?

 

[Me No Nemo]

I'm personally a fan of DSB. I find that my tanks stay healthier when there is adequate aerobic and anaerobic levels. I know others will disagree, but I've tried the shallow sand bed but never felt I had the health I get with the deeper sand. Also, I always have a jawfish of some type as well as goby/shrimp combos and they seem to do better with the deeper sand bed.

 

[bbehring]

After further consideration, that's my thought too. I have a buddy that has a large reef with partial shallow sand and BB. The health of his tank is good, but not solid IMO. While his tank is ok, I wouldn't consider it thriving. I'm not sure why I was contemplating moving to the shallower sand bed?

 

[ReefArtist]

Things are coming along very nicely Marcye. The woodwork is A+ absolutely fantastic job. The area is flowing very nicely with your window above, can't wait to see it finished.

Regarding the sand bed. This is my first shallow sand bed in my display tank - it's about 3 to 4 inches. I'm trying this because I'm hoping with a grasses tank, RDSB, refuge and a sump the other tanks will compensate. I wanted lots of flow and with two Tunze 6200's and using Barracuda pumps I was concerned about the sand - which is a little problem at this time but not to bad. I keep changing the flow to get it just right - but then some of the corals aren't happy.

Again - looking great!

 

[bbehring]

Hey Marcye, I know I've asked a couple questions before about your sump and fuge. What pump/ph are you using to feed your fuge and what flow rate?

 

[Me No Nemo]

No problem Ask away! The fuge is basically gravity fed. We have a "T" with a ball valve coming off the pump line that feeds the fuge then a PVC line from the fuge to the sump with a gradual decline. This way you don't have to add another pump, extra heat or more expense. HTH.

Thanks Carol! Well I added a few new pieces of coral today and two more wrasses...one a filamented fairy. I also added some dragonface pipefish. The lights went out 5 minutes after I got them all in so will see how everyone is doing in the morning. One of the SPS pieces I put in appears to be a pink abertenoids with bright blue tips. It's a bit washed out from an Interceptor bath and shipping, but am anxious to see how it colors up!

 

[Me No Nemo]

Opps, double post

 

[Me No Nemo]

Some updated pics:

 

[Me No Nemo]

Everything is doing well except the vase which got knocked down into the sand and has some die off. I've dipped it and it seems to be holding its own for the time being. I still need to find one more piece of rock for the left side above the anemone. I'll be able to choose from some new rock this week, so I should have that finished then. Reef Artist is working on some fused glass panels to fill in the openings on the front of the canopy. I'm very excited about these as we've been corresponding back and forth and she's come up with some awesome ideas. She sent me some glass to choose colors and I'm expecting those probably tomorrow. The doors are due in this week and once they're on the staining will be done and then sealed. Getting close!

 

[Dansin]

Looking good. I hope mine turns out that nice.