Alve's tank today, thanks to BAR!

[alve]

In January I upgraded my 100g that I have had since 2001 to a 156g Oceanic Reef Ready. Together with my upgrade I planned on going mostly SPS so I got rid of pretty much everything except my live rock and 2 LPS.

About 2 months ago all I had in there for coral was my hammer and frogspawn. Then I found out about BAR and posted a tread looking for people that sold frags in the bay area. A couple days later I joined BAR and since then I already got to meet some great people that donated and/or sold me some very nice frags. I will be attending my first BAR meeting in April.

I thought I will post some pictures to share because I have gotten this far thanks to BAR! With this I also would like to thank Seminolecpa, drdoolittle, Xinumaster, Tonggao and Corals b4 bills for helping me get this far already and Qwiv, reefer_addickt, LordHelmet and LeviTillie for bringing a frag to the next meeting!

Here is my setup and pictures taken today:
- 156g Oceanic Reef Ready
- 55g + 10g sump (10g sump filled with live rock, 55g has fuge with
chaeto, return section and skimmer section)
- Euroreef RS250 skimmer
- Mag18 return pump
- Phosban Reactor
- 2 Tunze 6101 powerheads on 7095 Multicontroller
- 1 Maxijet 1200 powerhead
- Outer Orbitz light fixture with 2 x 250W MH and 4 T5's, 9 white and
9 blue LED moonlights

Parameters:
- SG: 1.025 (refractometer)
- Temp: 79-81
- PH: 8.15 - 8.29 (Pinpoint digital PH meter)
- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrites: 0
- Nitrates: 0
- Alkalinity: 8 dkh
- Calcium: 480
- Magnesium: 1300

Water used: RO/DI

 

[alve]

Oops, my intention was to put it in the Members Tank Journals. Guess I didn't pay attention...

 

[patchin]

Nice looking tank!

 

[bareefers]

nice rockwork

 

[gimmito]

I like the "open look," can't wait to see the tank mature.

 

[tuberider]

schweet!!!

 

[alve]

Thanks guys! So far all the frags that have been added are doing great. The pink bird nest seems to be the fastest grower, so fast that every day you can see a difference, tips that start branching and/or becoming longer.
As you can see in the pictures I am having a bare spot at the front glass in the middle where I don't have sand. I have been having a hard time positioning my Tunzes without them blowing sand all over the place. I finaly got them so that now it is not too bad anymore but I still have to move the sand back in the center of the tank towards the front glass about every 3 days. Both Tunzes are running at 80% and I have tried moving them all over the side glass to get them to 100% flow but it is just impossible with a sand bed. Any of you have any luck with this?

 

[Gomer]

[quote author=Tuberider]I've found this coral to be the new xenia, un frickin believable growth, that is if it's in medium light. High light and it bleaches and dies, medium light and it's very pale but the growth rate is astonishing, low light (and I mean shaded low light) and it grows slow, but gets real nice color.[/quote]

Mine grows REALLY slow, but I have really nice color. I have it 4" away from a bright PC source. Maybe it isn't that bright Glad yours is growing fast!

For the sand issue, I had to deal with it with my hydor in my biocube. I strategically placed rocks near the "bare" spot and it nicely diverted the sand blowing.

 

[Elite]

Very nice..

Is that a custom build stand to support the tank?

 

[alve]

Gomer, I might try that with placing rocks near the bare spot. I will be adding some zoos and will try to keep them on smaller rocks on the sand bed. Thanks for the idea!

Elite, thanks! It is a custom stand, I build it myself last winter. I wanted to have all the electrical separate, not underneath the tank so I decided to build a cabinet next to it. Here are some pictures:

And here is my sump:

 

[Elite]

Where is the thumbup icon when you need it ;D ..

Great looking stand!!

 

[xinumaster]

I'm impressed with you wiring skill.

Did you built the cabinet youself?

 

[beaupierce]

Looking great!!!!! Keep it up! I like the sump look too!! Super clean!

 

[alve]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

Perry, I built the cabinet. Everything from woodwork to electrical to plumbing, putting baffles in the 55g sump, drilling the 10g glass sump I did myself.

 

[Ibn]

Impressive work. The electrical, plumbing, and woodwork looks great.

 

[bigdeeezy]

everything looks great...very organized and clean looking from plumbing to electrical outlets to stand...

 

[alve]

Alright, time for an update and some pictures. What annoys me very much is that I can not seem to get pictures showing the real colors. Everything looks very dull and faded in the pictures. Guess I will have to keep practicing

Here is a FTS as of today June 2nd:

And some growth pictures:

Yellow/Green Stag March 15th:

And today June 2nd (again, excuse the horrible picture quality):

Stylophora on March 15th:

And on June 2nd:

Mr Ugly's Prostrata April 12th:

June 2nd (color in real is much nicer, encrusted pretty much the whole frag plug):

 

[alve]

Also added to my equipment list in the last month and a half:

Geo 618 Calcium Reactor
Teco 1/3 HP Chiller
Neptune Aquacontroller III
ATO Top Off

 

[iani]

Nice progression shots. Looks like your tank is doing well.

 

[alve]

This Monti Sedosa frag pretty much doubled in size in 6 weeks, forgot to take a picture when I first got it: