Our 125 Pics

[Steph1643]

I thought I would post some pictures of our reef tank. Any ideas or suggestions on things to improve are welcome. Hopefully we will be a stop for the CR area tour, but until then here is what we have.

It is a 125 with a 55 gallon sump, ASM G-1 skimmer, 400 watt and dual 175 MH, 3 MJ1200 mods. We recently started dripping Kalk in hopes of keeping SPS.


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The right side is where we make the water, that filter is a CPR CY192 that we are thinking about also putting on the tank. It has just been sitting around since we moved.
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This is the sump for our system, not real exciting. Wish the tank were drilled, next one will be for sure!
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The leather in this picture we got last weekend from got2lb, it doesn't seem to be quite right yet. I hope it just needs more time.
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Some of our zoas, I love these. Always looking for frags of fun colored zoas for the tank.
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This is the LPS area of the tank.
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These are our clowns and their very large home.
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This is the whole tank shot. We thought we would go with less live rock so we had more swimming room, but it looks kind of empty. You can also see on the left side where we have our fancy kalk drip set up.
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[leeweber85]

Nice carpet. I think it could use some more rock and maybe scrape the glass with a razor blade.

 

[acidlittle]

Watch that carpet, they are eaters!!! Mine ate my cleaner shrimp!

 

[Steph1643]

yea i know it, about a month ago it took down our yellow tang. we dont even buy peppermints anymore, last time the clown grabbed the shrimp and delivered it for the carpet

 

[waverz]

I think your livestock looks pretty good, if it were me, i would try and hide the plumbing behind the tank and get a black back round to make the colors "pop". Also, get more rock and like lee said, get a razor blade or a algae magnet, they work pretty good and you dont have to get your hands wet.




I'm willing to bet with a new back round and a little tucking of some hoses and glass cleaning that tank would look HOT.

HTH

 

[slovan]

What's your current water parameters? Do you have any issues that you're dealing with now that you're trying to solve? What kind of bulbs are you using?

 

[tibbs2]

I prefer your the less-rock look. I suppose you could always add some sps to fill out some of the tank if you wanted to.

 

[Steph1643]

Nitrates are high, other than that water is good. We would love to have more sps, we are doing ok with the one type we have in there, but i want to get the nitrates under control before introducing more. The reason we didnt paint this tank is we have it so you can walk behind and view/work in the tank, otherwise I agree I like how the black makes the colors pop.

The next house we buy we will make an in-wall so it is a cleaner looking tank, for now I think it is going to have the rough around the edges look. We are using 20000K bulbs.

We have razors and algae magnets, we just have neglected the tank these last few months. I got in there tonight and cleaned it up, looks better!

We are having an aptasia problem, something we have dealt with before by buying a copperband butterfly. I am hesitant to go that route again, because it never took to any type of food, once the aptasias were gone the fish didn't eat and eventually died. We have tried heavily concentrated kalk mixture on the aptasia, with some luck but it does not always work. Any ideas?

 

[got2lb]

That leather will get big it just needs time to attach to the rock. Also it always seemed to close up more when the nitrates started creeping up. Kind of like a canary in the coal mine. Make sure you keep up on your water changes.

I've seen some very nice looking tanks without much rock in them. Just keep all your params. in check and everything will grow and fill in most of it anyway!

 

[slovan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10502988#post10502988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Steph1643
The reason we didnt paint this tank is we have it so you can walk behind and view/work in the tank, otherwise I agree I like how the black makes the colors pop.

According to the picture below, how do you get back there to work on the tank anyway? Your tank isn't that deep, you should be able to reach everything from the front just as easily if you were standing behind the tank.

I think it would be worth it to paint it or put a removable black background on it but that's JMO.

 

[Steph1643]

Here is how we get in on the other side of the tank

I know it just makes finding things that fall a lot easier. We had a 75 before we moved where it was against a wall and painted, and I hated working in it. That was one thing I really wanted when we moved was it set up away from the wall.

Here is our old 75 before we moved and went to the 125.

 

[slovan]

I gotcha now...one of the overflows is on the side. By looking at that picture, I thought it was the back. My bad. If anything, tidy up the plumbing and hide all your cords. That should help out a bunch.

Btw, nice looking 75!

 

[glaspie69]

i think it looks fine.....when you go sps shopping give me a jingle, and on the aptasias, make your kalk water mix thick, then use just the seringe without the needle, shut all the pumps off and go to town (if you have alot dont over do it so your ph dosent go crazy) make sure to cover the aptasia completely, coat it two or three times if needed. This "smothers" them inside the rock and blocks any tissue from getting out. I've done it like this for years and it seems to work the best, that I've found anyway

 

[Steph1643]

Thanks, I miss that tank, it was so full!

Yea I agree, I keep the inside of the tank clean and the outside is Nick's job,I'm not good at all that stuff. I think it could look better, though he doesn't care much about how it looks as long as it works.

 

[waverz]

Another thing i just noticed is the power strips on the floor. Just so ya know, if these things get water on them they will catch on fire. Trust me, there are still burn marks in my 75 gallon stand where one had water dripping on it and actually started on fire. This was was 3 a.m. and all my smoke detectors went off. I don't want to freak you out but i would get them securely fastened to something so if there is a leak or a flood they don't get wet.

Actually everyone who reads this might want to consider looking at their wiring and making sure it is safe and will not get wet in case of a flood or leak.

 

[tibbs2]

We are having an aptasia problem, something we have dealt with before by buying a copperband butterfly. I am hesitant to go that route again, because it never took to any type of food, once the aptasias were gone the fish didn't eat and eventually died. We have tried heavily concentrated kalk mixture on the aptasia, with some luck but it does not always work. Any ideas?

I feel your pain. I have fought aptasia for quite awhile. Like yourself I use a kalk mixture and it doesn't always work well. I've heard peppermints work but the ones I've bought in the past didn't touch it.

I think the closest thing to a magic bullet are the berghia nudibranchs. I tried those too but I believe either my shrimp or mandarins ate them before they could make much progress.

Chris