Pete's 280 log

[psteeleb]

Okay â€"œ I figured after a year of lurking, it's about time I got a little active on Reefcentral
I will admit I'm an addicted reef-o-holic.

I have had salt tanks on and off since the mid 70’s but started my first mixed reef in Sep 06. It’s come a long way but I still have several projects that I want to get done on it. I was fortunate enough to get 270lbs of live rock from an existing six-year-old system so other then a couple algae cycles it has been fairly stable. In addition to the live rock I have about 140lbs of lace lava rock and some DIY Portland cement rock that is used as foundations for the lace lava rock pieces.

The reef tank is 84 x 24 x 36 and visible from both sides as a room divider. Yes that’s 24” deep and 36” tall, so some of you probably already know what some of my challenges are. Add to that the tank is not accessible from the front so everything I do on that side is with a mirror and long tongs.

I wanted to post a picture but it looks like i'll have to set up a photo gallery. So that's it for now and I'll work on the pics. I'm looking forward to sharing the passion of reef keeping here on reefcentral.

I’ll get more into the mechanics later in this thread or you can go look at a couple of my threads over at DFWMAS.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=36695&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=41590

 

[kartracertj]

Must see some pics! dont just tease us lol

 

[psteeleb]

I'm trying

 

[Kannin]

Really... very nice.

 

[rollnheavy]

wow !,that is a nice tank!

 

[psteeleb]

Thanks

I am working on improving my ability to keep sps. Currently I can only keep them in the center section of the tank as you can see between the green slimer on the left and blue tort on the right

I am building up the rock shelf work on either end of tank - actually the picture above shows the piece of lace lava rock on the left I just added. The frag rack on the far right has been removed and I'll be working on that side in the near future. I'm looking for a nice piece of rock that I can cut to fit around the overflow.

In addition to the rockwork I'm changing my lighting to get better coverage on the ends of the tank and more water penetration

I currently run 2 250w 12k Mh in the center area with 2 400w 10ks on the outer areas. these are supplemented with 2 72" VHO actinic. These are all mounted to a hood with a single flat reflector

The new set up will run 2 250s; one center and one at each end, with 2 400s in between them. I'll also be keeping the VHO's

I plan on running the VHOs for 12 hours, the 3 250w MH's for 8-10 hrs and the 400s about 4 hrs each but staggered by an hour. The 400's are intended to replicate intense lighting at midday

With the new reflectors and additional light, I suspect I will have mount these high at first and lower them over a few weeks. I may even need to not run the 400s for a few days then for an hour and work up to the 4 hours over a period of time.

old light set up

new light set up almost ready to install

 

[gaspasser1]

Awesom lighting plan.

 

[psteeleb]

the new lights are installed, I'm going to start off running jsut the three 350s for the next two weeks. Then I'll start kicking in the 400's for a bout an hour to start and work them up to about 4 or 5 hours

 

[psteeleb]

here is a shot from the front (not a full tank shot)

 

[BLKTANG]

Nice,are those Lumeric reflectors?

 

[psteeleb]

can anyone Id this?

there is a small growth on one of my plate corals. It doesn't move so I'm thinking some sort of sponge. It doesn't appear to bother the coral but I'm wondering if I should scrape it off.

 

[BLKTANG]

I would scrape that growth off.JMO.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11882513#post11882513 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BLKTANG
Nice,are those Lumeric reflectors?

they are the Lumen Brights, with my deep but narrow tank they seemed a better fit for my needs, Thanks

 

[MR PALM BEACH]

Thats one big tank you got there! I love the lighting rack you built, real clean looking. Got one ? for ya, I was going through build on DFW and noticed on your specs your were useing K4's on a wave maker. How are they working out? any Issues?

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11883099#post11883099 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MR PALM BEACH
Thats one big tank you got there! I love the lighting rack you built, real clean looking. Got one ? for ya, I was going through build on DFW and noticed on your specs your were useing K4's on a wave maker. How are they working out? any Issues?

I do have 4 Koralia #4s on my reefkeeper 2 set up as a wave maker. They are running on 4 minute intervals and other then the occasional clatter they have been working out fine. I suspect the reefkeeper soft start has something to do with them working, but not sure.

One did lock up once due to some coralline growth but a little vinegar soak took care of that.

 

[MR PALM BEACH]

Gotcha thanks.

 

[psteeleb]

I picked up a photobox from Melev tonight, so I had to turn on the lights and try it out

The white spots on the plate are from kalc paste (I was killing majano's today)

 

[psteeleb]

here is an end tank shot and video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgmNQfueC9g

 

[ReefEnabler]

thats a truly inspiring reef tank. i love the congregated group of sps in the center!! I was planning on the same kind of zoning scheme for my tank, only using the very tops of a few rock pillars.


what do you feed for the corals? the polyp extention on the sps is great.

 

[psteeleb]

Thank you Randy

I am working on expanding my SPS zones to include the ends of the tank and deeper areas - it's the main reason for my lighting upgrade. I am thinking about weeding out some of the softies that are currently in the mid and lower zones to just the lower zones

I don't specifically feed my corals but here is what the tank gets

Twice daily â€"œ dosed with DIY 2 part (Ca and Alk)
Daily â€"œ Feed a mixture of 2 cubes mysis shrimp, 1 cube cyclopeze, and some formula 1 & 2 soaked in garlic

Weekly â€"œ dose of DIY Mg

Weekly filter/coral feed (pumps down for 3 hours)
DT’s, MarineSnow, Coralvite and reefchilli (but I want to move to a fresh frozen blend of coral feed)