Please show pics of your 180 tanks

[cediss]

Thanks Jay24K. Keep it up, cause it looks great!

 

[cediss]

Cap growth

Cap growth

Ok I goofed. I also posted a new post when I meant to post in here. In any case here is my cap when I first bought it this summer at a frag swap.

Here it is tonight after about 5 months of growth. Most edges have grown 2- 3 inches.

 

[jay24k]

Nice pink. I love caps.

I have 2 oranges, 1 green, 1 green with purple rim, and a bright bright green. And I also have a purple cap.

 

[thrlride]

Very nice tank thrlride! I love your aquascaping, coral selection, and fish. Its a shame you can't just leave it alone and set up a seperate 180. But I know how that goes. My wife says one tank only! She's smart, cause if I had my way we would be swimming around the house!
Thrlride, what lights do you use? How often and how much water do you change? What supplements if any? And do you use carbon or phosphate removers? Sorry for so many questions, but I'm missing something and am trying to fugure out what it is. You clearly This new tank has been stubborn to reach a stable point!

Thanks cediss!

My wife is a little more forgiving with the hobby, I have a 29 with a pair of maroon clowns as well as a softie reef in a 5 gallon hex at work.

I am using a pair of Phoenix 14k DE HQI 250 watt halides ran by M80 HQI ballasts. The actinics are URI Super Actinic R's and I have a pair of them. I don't use any supplements in the tank since I have a calcium reactor and dose with kalk. I do run 1 cup of carbon passively in the sump as well as 1 cup of phosban in the sump.

You can click my red house to check out more pictures if you'd like.

 

[thrlride]

Thrlide,

I love the lighting. Have you had good growth with your bulbs? I really like my lights but wish it had a b it more blue. My blue tort has grown really fast and it's amazing how fast it spreads. I'll have to post some growth pics.

One suggestion. When you move over, I would move over as much water as you can. I've seen it in two tanks now (1 was mine) when switching to the 180, alot of color loss, bleaching, and soft/lps just not doing well. I don't know why but if you could, run both tanks and when the 180 is stable, then switch.

I have a feeling maybe it's with the new saltwater being a big difference in make up(metals, chemicals, etc) since it's basically like doing a 100% water change. Perhaps it is like running phosphate remover. You remove the phosphate so fast, corals just go nuts.

Thanks Jay, I really love this lighting too. I had a pair of 250 watt XM10k's in moguls on the tank and was never happy with them. I went to a friends house and he had this light setup. I liked it so much I had to change mine over. His were a little more blue though so I don't know why that is. We are running the same ballasts, bulbs, reflectors etc. He did say when he changed his halides to new phoenix's that they were whiter.

My growth has varied depending on the coral. I've got 2 birdsnest's that have exploded with growth whereas other corals are going slow to none. I have a blue tort that hasn't grown any at all but a hydnophora that won't stop growing.

When I upgraded from the 29 to the 90 I was able to do it slowly, this time I won't have that luxury since the tanks will be going in the exact same spot in my house.

I plan on removing a lot of water from the tank and putting it in rubbermaid bins or trash cans and placing the corals and rock in those bins. The fish will go in a separate bin with old saltwater. I will keep several cups of my existing sand to seed the new bed as I want to switch to a finer grain sand.

The 90 will be removed at that point and the 180 will be setup. I plan on having the plumbing and all that done well before I put the 180 up so I can leak test prior to ruining my hardwood floors.

I am changing over from Oceanic salt to Instant Ocean and am almost done with that now. That being said, I already have 140 gallons of Instant Ocean water made in the garage waiting for the change. I'm thinking my total system volume will be near 240 gallons so I should only have to make like 50 gallons more water to fill the new tank and have some for a water change.

 

[cediss]

Thrlride, very nice tanks and web page. Thanks for all the info!

 

[thrlride]

Thanks Cediss!

I may have missed where you asked about water changes...

I change out 20 gallons every 2 weeks on my 90.

 

[April540]

What beautiful shots, Great close ups.

thrlride, I agree that it is a pity to have t tear down such a beautiful tank. But I know how valuable space can be and also the importance of the spouses approval!!!!!! LOL
On the IO are you going with the Reef Crystals? I have always used the IO, but switched to the Reef Crystals when I switched to the 180. I really like it alot...

 

[thrlride]

I'm using regular IO right now since it is cheap and easy to get. I'm able to get 200 gallons for $38. I don't think I could do reef crystals that way. I will supplement the calcium and magnesium to get them to the right levels.

 

[April540]

Wow $38.00? Shoot I paid $55 for the reg. IO and pay $60 for the Reef Crystals. What a deal! You all seem to find some of the greatest deals. If normal price on something was $5 , I'm sure I Would think I got it at a deal for $10. cediss got a whopping deal on the Pink Cap, I KNOW I would have thought it a deal, and took it, at $100. You guys crack me up.

 

[thrlride]

If you have a local reef club they may be in with some LFS's, that's how I got it. Or, you could simply print off the Petsmart add that says how much the price of salt is online and have them price match it at your local petsmart store.

 

[April540]

Our Petsmart doesn't have it salt in the tubs. And the last ime I checked, they didn't have the Reef salt at all. The Reef Salt disolves faster. I can add it a little quicker. And our LFS here does not EVER have sales on anything. I guess I could find it On Line cheaper, but shipping would be a killer. I usually buy all my drygood at Petsolutions, they are just about the cheapest I have found on almost everything, Especially the large bottles of the Kent Supplements, At the LFS I paid almost the same price for the 16oz bottle of the Stronium & Molybdenum, Liquid Calcium, and the Iodine as what I got the 64oz bottles for from PS. Thats as far as my money saving usually goes, I'm waiting for the new ligts to come out on the Current USA with the 250 MH. And PS is the cheapest I have found on that too. They didn't carry the ASM's .

 

[thrlride]

asmskimmer.com is the best place to get an ASM skimmer for prices.

 

[April540]

Mine is comming in this week from ReefGeek, It was $259, no tax and no shipping. I did check around pretty well on that one, I have been trying to get one now for almost a year. Next is my lighting. I just have a hard time getting the hubby to understand that the Reef is alot different than when we had the FO tanks set up. We had those tanks for 10 years, and he has heart failure on what I have in this one and still need to upgrade the lights.

 

[jay24k]

Does your hubby like doing wood work? Lighting roughly will cost you about 800 tops for MH. Talk to premium aquatics and they should give you a decent deal if you buy 3. I bought the icecap ballasts with XM bulbs. IF you want to do DE, it will be a bit more expensive.

I pay about 80 dollars for 300 gallons of tropic marin in a big rice bag. I don't like using IO anymore and Oceanic gave me too many problems.

 

[April540]

Jason, you guys totally throw me off with all of the lighting lingo. I can tell you that I love your lighting, but when I try to figure out what you really have, I'm lost, thats why I thought about the Current USA, its all there and done, I dont have to figure out any ballast stuff or anything, You have to draw me a picture,LOL, I do love it when you all steer me to sites where I can see what you are talking about. But lord, when you start in with the tech. stuff on the lights, I'm lost.

 

[April540]

Oh, as far as the woodworking goes, He does a little here and there, but no anything I would want in the house, He doesn't have the tools,my dad does, but lives in Ind., and he has to have everything drawn to perfection before he starts anything. And I am clueless as to what to give him. It is a really good thought though.

Well I was a bit harsh on the hubbies skills and putting it in the house, He does things like molding, and builds things outsid that dont reqire such acurate measurements, and he thinks the tank looks great, I try to explain that when things are growing, then things are great. They were growing before I switched over to the 180. now they arent, so I know it is the lighting. and when I see how all of your corals are changing monthly, I KNOW that .that is my prob, I have a MH light that my son in law has been telling me he will put up for me and he constantly forgets to bring some kind of special toggle bolts to hang it with, I think I've nagged him enough this weekend, that maybe he will get to it this week. I've only had it now for about 3 or 4 months. I can put it up myself, but he claims I need this special toggle bolt.

 

[April540]

If I did do this lighting thing like you are talking about, do you think you could talk me through it, when you get the chance?Without getting totally frustrated? Maybe that would be the better way to go. I dont have a canopy top on it now. So Im taking it, that the woodworking you are talking about ,is to build that canopy top. Right?

 

[jjackson]

I pay 30 bucks for 150 gallons crystal seas bio essay lab grade, could pay 75 for 450 gallons but really havent felt the need to get that much salt at once yet.

 

[April540]

Hello again Jjackson, How is the tank comming along, 450 gallon bucket is good if you have to do massive water changes, I like to keep the smaller buckets to make sure salt is nice and fresh. No need to worry about contamination. BUT it would be nice when you have to do those massive changes, or have multiple tanks to change.

Do you have pics to share?