Swoop's 300g Deep Dimension Build

[Swoop]

So came home after watching Avatar in 3d for the second time and the circle of life was in full effect in my tank.

One of the Hermit Crabs didn't make the trip. $3.00 snail chow now. Man did they go crazy, was fun to watch them jockey for position at the shell opening. Sucked that hermit right out.

 

[Swoop]

Some new additions.

 

[SMOOTHIE]

Love the aquascaping

 

[Nova101]

Swoop,

Can you give me a 20/20 review of your canopy and icecaps? I am particularly interested in what you might do differently or where you would mount the ballasts.

How big of a pain is it to remove the canopy? Do you have to remove the canopy in order to clean the glass and do other simple maintenance?

I am considering the marineland 150 DD with the stand and canopy so I would appreciate any comments.

 

[Bax]

Looking good swoop!

... little brass snail balls! ... hehehe

 

[crvz]

looks like a great start. I'm seriously considering this tank myself, so I'll tag along for the ride. keep the updates coming!

 

[Swoop]

New addition and FTS.

Between my Blenny and the 4 Emerald Crabs I can't keep the water crystal clear of bits of sand, oh well. Doesn't seem to be affecting anything. I think eventually it will settle out. Blenny loves dropping into holes and pulling a mouthfull of sand out and spitting it into the water column. Emerald crabs just randomly spit a pile of sand up.

So far so good on the tank. All parameters in check. 0 Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Calcium a tad low at 350 but I'm working it up with a 2 part dosing.

My two Watchman Gobbies found eachother and hang out regularly on the sand bed. Almost seem like they are courting but if they are male and female then it is pure luck and I have no clue how to tell.

Had a bit of a GHA outbreak but 40 Astrea Turbos knocked almost all of it out except for some areas on the sand bed. They are starting to work it now. Back glass and overflows had a bunch of it on it, but they worked it good. Have had 0 phosphates since day 1. Usually feed every other day, but have also fed back to back days a few times, they just seem hungry and I feel bad. But I always feed just enough to fill their bellies, little to no left over when they are done.

 

[Swoop]

Swoop,

Can you give me a 20/20 review of your canopy and icecaps? I am particularly interested in what you might do differently or where you would mount the ballasts.

How big of a pain is it to remove the canopy? Do you have to remove the canopy in order to clean the glass and do other simple maintenance?

I am considering the marineland 150 DD with the stand and canopy so I would appreciate any comments.

Canopy is okay, overpriced just like the stand. If you have the tools and some time you could build both and they would be better and cheaper. I didn't have the time so I bought the factory option .

I love the IceCaps, the ballasts themselves are very very cool as in almost no heat and even the bulbs aren't very hot after a full light cycle. Initially I had the ballasts inside the hood but after a fuse blew and I realized I couldn't get to it I moved them up top. I'll leave them there, I don't even notice them and neither have any guests who have come over.

You can pretty much do any tank maintenance with the canopy on and yes it is a pain in the arse to take off. It's a 2 person job for mine. My plan is to replace bulbs every 6 months and that is when I will remove the canopy to swap bulbs and do some maintenance that can't be done with the canopy on, like clean the inside of the overflows, certain parts of the back glass. etc.

If I had anything to do over it would be, set the time aside to build my own stand and canopy.

 

[NONNA58]

Nice tank setup Swoop. I just set up my 300g dd two weeks ago. Where in Live Oak are you? My two brother in-laws live there and never thought there was a lfs anywhere near there.

 

[OwNeD162]

You're doing a seriously good job dude
The tank looks great, so much better than my algae filled one

 

[Swoop]

Nice tank setup Swoop. I just set up my 300g dd two weeks ago. Where in Live Oak are you? My two brother in-laws live there and never thought there was a lfs anywhere near there.

Last time I checked Live Oak wasen't big enough to be from anywhere but Live Oak.

There is no saltwater LFS in Live Oak. I go to Aquatropics in Gainesville, about 50 min drive south on 75. I've also mail ordered some stuff through various vendors. If I lived in Gainesville I'd probably be in there every day. Great staff there.

If either of your brother-in-laws want to get in the hobby let em know there is a reefer in their neck of the woods.

Little tank update:

I have now had to execute 3 Emerald Crabs in the last 3 days. I gave them multiple warnings and opportunities to stop picking at my softie corals. They refused to comply so they were found guilty and promptly dealt with. :uzi:

I did try to be humane to two of them, smashing their bodies with a stick, but the 3rd one ****ed me off so bad I threw him in the yard to suffer in the cold night air :uzi::uzi:

The last 2 Emerald Crabs have been warned to stay away from corals or else. :uzi:

 

[copeland118]

pic of sump set up :hmm4:

 

[Nova101]

Swoop,

Thanks again for your feedback. My wife just gave me the green light to get the tank...but she is insisting on the stand and canopy. They are overpriced, but at least they look decent.

Are you still using the glass covers on your tank? How often do you have to clean them? I might try to shove a 175watt MH in the canopy to get some shimmer and then run a bunch of T5s. Since the MH would be close to the surface, I am wondering if the glass would help deflect some of the heat. Any random thoughts on this?

Thanks again for your feedback,
-Mike

 

[Swoop]

Nova,

I still use some of the glass covers. Early on I seperated all the panes from the plastic hinges to make moving and cleaning them easier. As of now I am using 3 large peices to cover the center part of the tank. 3 of the smaller pieces to cover the back of the tank. There are 3 pieces left I can use to cover the front part of the tank but I threw them away and don't use them. So in essence I have the first 6 inches of tank with no cover, makes feeding and testing things easier. Then the rest of the tank still has covers on it.

So far I've cleaned the 3 pieces every 3 weeks. Seems to work okay.

Yes the glass would deflect some of the heat in a MH setup. Just remember the canopy is only 10 inches tall so MHs with those giant reflectors is out of the question. You have to go with one of those prebuilt units that have the MH's built in.

Honestly though you should really consider the T5s. Less heat. Way less heat. If you really love the shimmer you could do a T5 retro kit and incorporate some of those LED strips into the canopy for the shimmer. Something like the Current USA Powerbright strips. I was gonna try to fit some in but I was already at the end of my budget and shimmer wasen't that important to me.

Also if your gonna go ahead and go with MHs you might want to take a look at the Marineland Pro Lighting Fixture. I had considered it before I went T5. It has a single power cord and integrated 24 hour timer. Built in LEDs, T5s and MHs. Something to consider anyway.

 

[Swoop]

Not much to update. No new livestock additions atm. Planning to add more corals later this month.

Everything is alive and doing well. My only complaint is that I should have never added some fine oolite sand into the tank. That stuff still gets blown around and stirred up. Not enough to bother anything though. I imagine it will settle out over time.

 

[Swoop]

One pic for today. One of my two Watchman Gobies. Doing what they do best, Watching

 

[PSU REEFER]

Looking good and can't wait for my 300 to come in.

 

[prop-frags]

The scaping is great, Swoop. Funny how it changes once you've got water and the lights in there and things are starting to gel.

Keep it up! :beer:

 

[Swoop]

Long overdue update, sorry for lack of pics, I'll work on getting some up in the next day or two.

Anyway, things continue to progress very well. My various SPS and LPS and Softie corals are all growing nicely.

I added 2 clams about a month ago and they are still alive and appear to be doing well. Just a few hours ago I got done adding a couple SPS I picked up this morning from my LFS.

The tank still looks pretty sparse though but between slowly adding corals and the growth I am seeing hopefully one day it will look something like some of the tanks I see on reefcentral.

The coolest thing though happening at the moment is that apparently I lucked up and ended up with a male and a female Yellow watchman goby or is it gobies Anyway these two were purchased about a month apart with no special effort by me or my LFS to get a male and a female. It ended up that way though and since then they have paired up and live together.

But the best thing is that so far they have had 3 seperate egg laying and fertilizing sessions over the last few months and I now have multiple baby Watchman gobies of various ages living in amongst the live rock. I'm not sure if the babies will make it, but if even 1 made it that would be pretty cool in my book.

I'm not doing anything extra to try to help the babies along just letting nature take its course. They are still too small and stay well to hidden to take a picture of. I tried to take a picture of the last sack of eggs but they lay them way down in a hole and you can't see anything unless you shine a flash light in there. Anyway the pictures didn't come out.

Also I have spotted about 10 baby turbo snails in the last few days and I must have 1,000 baby feather dusters on the rock and for some reason in my overflows. When I pull my hood to change my bulbs next month I'll scrape the overflows and get rid of them.

Getting good coraline algae growth in some areas, but not so good in other areas. Not sure why that is. Perhaps too many feather dusters using up the trace elements and my calcium. I dose two part every day and still have trouble maintaining 400ppm, I'm convinced it's all those feather dusters growing their tubes.

Anyway I'll get some pics up tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Swoop]

Okay as promised some pics. Not the best pics, was rushing and my tank certainly has a long way to go but I'll get there.