Our 450g reef, 360g predator tanks
- Thread starter tbittner
- Start date
Thanks Bax! It's MUCH cooler in person though. 
Stocking list!
Predator tank:
7" clown trigger
5" picasso trigger
4" undulated trigger
18" snowflake eel
9" cherry louti grouper
5" porcupine puffer
16" ghost eel
Reef:
4" achilles tang
7" hippo tang
6" purple tang
5" yellow tang
4" powder blue tang
4" powder brown tang
6 - lyretail anthias
2 - true percula clownfish
1 - three stripe damsel
1 - velvet damsel
1 - bluefin damsel
2 - yellow tail damsels
1 - flame angel
1 - coral beauty
3 - green chromis
2 - mandarins
4 - royal grammas
I offered a trade for the now empty 150g tank for some frags from a fellow member of our club. You will NOT believe the SIZE of the teal acro he brought over. Along with a beautiful rock with armor of God Zoas, a frag of birdsnest, a frag of green cap, and a couple of other frags that I don't remember the name of now. I TRIED to tell him that it's WAY to much for the tank! He insisted, I'm extremely grateful for all the pieces. I'll get some pics tomorrow evening. Lights are out now.
The teal acro is EASILY 12" x 12". It's HUGE!!! And he said that it was only about 1/5th of what he had in his tank. :lol:
Stocking list!
Predator tank:
7" clown trigger
5" picasso trigger
4" undulated trigger
18" snowflake eel
9" cherry louti grouper
5" porcupine puffer
16" ghost eel
Reef:
4" achilles tang
7" hippo tang
6" purple tang
5" yellow tang
4" powder blue tang
4" powder brown tang
6 - lyretail anthias
2 - true percula clownfish
1 - three stripe damsel
1 - velvet damsel
1 - bluefin damsel
2 - yellow tail damsels
1 - flame angel
1 - coral beauty
3 - green chromis
2 - mandarins
4 - royal grammas
I offered a trade for the now empty 150g tank for some frags from a fellow member of our club. You will NOT believe the SIZE of the teal acro he brought over. Along with a beautiful rock with armor of God Zoas, a frag of birdsnest, a frag of green cap, and a couple of other frags that I don't remember the name of now. I TRIED to tell him that it's WAY to much for the tank! He insisted, I'm extremely grateful for all the pieces. I'll get some pics tomorrow evening. Lights are out now.
The teal acro is EASILY 12" x 12". It's HUGE!!! And he said that it was only about 1/5th of what he had in his tank. :lol:
Ziggy953
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12847550#post12847550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tbittner
Thanks Bax! It's MUCH cooler in person though.
I offered a trade for the now empty 150g tank for some frags from a fellow member of our club. You will NOT believe the SIZE of the teal acro he brought over. Along with a beautiful rock with armor of God Zoas, a frag of birdsnest, a frag of green cap, and a couple of other frags that I don't remember the name of now. I TRIED to tell him that it's WAY to much for the tank! He insisted, I'm extremely grateful for all the pieces. I'll get some pics tomorrow evening. Lights are out now.
The teal acro is EASILY 12" x 12". It's HUGE!!! And he said that it was only about 1/5th of what he had in his tank. :lol:
You are so right! The tank is much cooler in person!!! Oh by the way, I think I got the better end of the deal. I did a little cleaning on the tank after I got it in the house but I decided it was time for a cold 12oz. I'm going to spend the week cleaning it and getting things ready for the move over...Jessy, Zack and I had a great time! I'm looking forward to seeing some pics and how you fit that monster in the tank.
Ziggy, we're still moving things around trying to find spots that everyone is happy with. Seriously, you gave us way too much for that tank. Don't get me wrong, we're really grateful! We're even MORE grateful that you guys came over and spent the afternoon. We had a great time too!
I wish I could have cleaned out the tank before you picked it up. With both of my sons gone for a few weeks, I just couldn't carry it by myself.
You'll have to come back out later this summer when our kids are back with us. Zack will have a BLAST! It would give us parents a chance to sit and chill and relax too. I like having built in baby sitters. :lol:
A question about the acro though. We had talked about it and you thought it would be ok towards the bottom. I don't have it glued into place but I do have it sitting on the large rock in the middle of the tank, at the bottom. So it's probably a good 30" to the lights. It's also in front of one of the CL returns so it's getting great flow. The color of it really shines so I think it's getting enough light. Do you think that is too deep in the water for it though? All the polyps on it were out yesterday so it seems to be happy.
I wish I could have cleaned out the tank before you picked it up. With both of my sons gone for a few weeks, I just couldn't carry it by myself.
You'll have to come back out later this summer when our kids are back with us. Zack will have a BLAST! It would give us parents a chance to sit and chill and relax too. I like having built in baby sitters. :lol:
A question about the acro though. We had talked about it and you thought it would be ok towards the bottom. I don't have it glued into place but I do have it sitting on the large rock in the middle of the tank, at the bottom. So it's probably a good 30" to the lights. It's also in front of one of the CL returns so it's getting great flow. The color of it really shines so I think it's getting enough light. Do you think that is too deep in the water for it though? All the polyps on it were out yesterday so it seems to be happy.
Ziggy953
New member
If the polyps are out and it is colored up I think it is happy with the location. I would just keep an eye on it. It things change and it isn't happy there you may want to move it up. I think with the lighting system you have it will do just fine.
Built in baby sitters sound good to me! We look forward to coming back out!
Built in baby sitters sound good to me! We look forward to coming back out!
:lol:
I know, I know! Patti did take some tonight after the lights went out, and they look great. We'll take more in the morning and show off all our new additions. I have two corals that are giving me fits with trying to find a place they like so I'll probably try moving them to another spot first.
I know, I know! Patti did take some tonight after the lights went out, and they look great. We'll take more in the morning and show off all our new additions. I have two corals that are giving me fits with trying to find a place they like so I'll probably try moving them to another spot first.
It's been a while since I've updated this thread.
Right side:
Middle:
Left side:
Past couple of days we've been running new wires and installing new breakers for all the tank related equipment. Everything tank related is now on GFCI breakers. I installed a bank of switches so water changes are so easy that our 6 year old girl can do it. My wife did a 125g WC this evening so she now knows how to do it. It takes about 5 minutes, including refilling the mixing tub and adding salt. We even put the mixing pumps on a switch.
This is our new RO/DI collection tub and the new saltwater mixing tub:
The drain from the RO/DI tub is a 2" pipe with two ball valves on it. For top offs, open the top valve. During WC's, the pump refills the sump. There is another in-sump pump that pumps the old water out through the basement wall and into the rain spout drain so it doesn't kill our septic. You can see the piping involved with the WC and top offs in this pic.
Right side:
Middle:
Left side:
Past couple of days we've been running new wires and installing new breakers for all the tank related equipment. Everything tank related is now on GFCI breakers. I installed a bank of switches so water changes are so easy that our 6 year old girl can do it. My wife did a 125g WC this evening so she now knows how to do it. It takes about 5 minutes, including refilling the mixing tub and adding salt. We even put the mixing pumps on a switch.
This is our new RO/DI collection tub and the new saltwater mixing tub:
The drain from the RO/DI tub is a 2" pipe with two ball valves on it. For top offs, open the top valve. During WC's, the pump refills the sump. There is another in-sump pump that pumps the old water out through the basement wall and into the rain spout drain so it doesn't kill our septic. You can see the piping involved with the WC and top offs in this pic.
Thanks everyone.
Jonathan, I'm not basing that on anything that I read or anything. I'm speculating that the bacteria that lives in the septic tank wouldn't survive if I started dumping in a hundred gallons every couple of days. I'm hoping to get to the point that I'll only be doing a WC once a month but the system hasn't matured that much yet.
Our septic tank is also made out of steel. I'm sure saltwater wouldn't do it much good either. We have 4 acres of yard and the rain spout drain runs out into the yard about 75 yards so I figure the safest thing to do is let the old water be dispersed across a wide area. The ground at the top never gets wet so it's apparently working the way I hoped it would.
We've also converted a 29g tank into a saltwater tank. We have a pair of Reidi seahorses coming tomorrow.
Jonathan, I'm not basing that on anything that I read or anything. I'm speculating that the bacteria that lives in the septic tank wouldn't survive if I started dumping in a hundred gallons every couple of days. I'm hoping to get to the point that I'll only be doing a WC once a month but the system hasn't matured that much yet.
Our septic tank is also made out of steel. I'm sure saltwater wouldn't do it much good either. We have 4 acres of yard and the rain spout drain runs out into the yard about 75 yards so I figure the safest thing to do is let the old water be dispersed across a wide area. The ground at the top never gets wet so it's apparently working the way I hoped it would.
We've also converted a 29g tank into a saltwater tank. We have a pair of Reidi seahorses coming tomorrow.
Here is the procedure for a WC.
Turn switches 1 and 2 off. That turns off the return pumps.
Turn switch 3 on to pump the sump dry. Turn it off when it's dry.
Turn switch 4 on to refill the sump. Turn switches 1 and 2 back on when the water level in the sump reaches 1/4 full. This fills up the aquariums and gets everything running full again. Turn switch 4 off once the sump level reaches the normal running level.
Open the valve to refill the mixing tub.
Dump in 3/4 of a bucket of salt.
Turn on switch 5 to start the mixing pumps (two Rio 36 HF pumps). Measure the salinity 12 hours later and adjust. After a salinity of between 1.026 and 1.0265 is obtained, turn off switch 5 to turn off the mixing pumps.
It's really not complicated. You can see my wifes notes written on the wall. I guess she is hoping that I don't dry wall the junction boxes into the wall. :lol:
A 125g WC takes a little less than 5 minutes.
And yeah, I know, I'm missing a face plate. I was two short.
Beside/behind the reef are these:
The switch turns off the return pump for feeding time. The outlet supplies power to the CL pump and the lights.
Everything is now on GFCI circuits.
Turn switches 1 and 2 off. That turns off the return pumps.
Turn switch 3 on to pump the sump dry. Turn it off when it's dry.
Turn switch 4 on to refill the sump. Turn switches 1 and 2 back on when the water level in the sump reaches 1/4 full. This fills up the aquariums and gets everything running full again. Turn switch 4 off once the sump level reaches the normal running level.
Open the valve to refill the mixing tub.
Dump in 3/4 of a bucket of salt.
Turn on switch 5 to start the mixing pumps (two Rio 36 HF pumps). Measure the salinity 12 hours later and adjust. After a salinity of between 1.026 and 1.0265 is obtained, turn off switch 5 to turn off the mixing pumps.
It's really not complicated. You can see my wifes notes written on the wall. I guess she is hoping that I don't dry wall the junction boxes into the wall. :lol:
A 125g WC takes a little less than 5 minutes.
And yeah, I know, I'm missing a face plate. I was two short.
Beside/behind the reef are these:
The switch turns off the return pump for feeding time. The outlet supplies power to the CL pump and the lights.
Everything is now on GFCI circuits.
jnarowe
New member
See, now here is where I have the problem...so what I have done is made mine gravity feed from a container twice as tall as my sumps. That way, even when I mess up and forget to turn off the valve (33% of the time), it will not overflow. No possible way, and once I discover the problem, I just pump out the excess.
Mine is the same way except I pump in the new SW. The sump is plenty big enough to hold the entire mixing tub. I can just pump out the excess if I forget to turn off the refill pump (a snapper). The refill part only takes about 30 seconds though so I'm usually patient enough to stand there and watch it fill. :lol:
It's the drain part that takes so long. I used a 1,200 gph at 12 feet in-sump pump but it's downsized to a 3/4" pvc pipe to go through the basement wall. I'm not going to add another hole anytime soon, that's a LOT like work! :lol:
It's the drain part that takes so long. I used a 1,200 gph at 12 feet in-sump pump but it's downsized to a 3/4" pvc pipe to go through the basement wall. I'm not going to add another hole anytime soon, that's a LOT like work! :lol:
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