Cobraden's 150 build

[cobraden]

about a week after you suggested it. See the comments from 7/27. I did get the Korilla pumps for more circulation.

[rage]

When did you add more water movement, especially at the surface?

[Darbex]

Finally.

[cobraden]

Thought I'd post a quick video of the tank as it sits today. I'm having good luck with coral growth.

My 150 gal reef - YouTube

[cobraden]

cyno pops up every once and a while. I don't worry about it. I goes away on it's own.

[nano reef heaven]

Re: Cobraden's 150 build

I see a little bit of cyano. :( Corals looking good though

*Sent from my little corner of the reef. Nano nano!*

[cobraden]

couple more shots

[cobraden]

Time for a build update. This time its mainly pictures. I snapped a couple pics not that I've added a few frags. We will see what the future holds on their progress. Please pardon the bad pics. I have a great camera but I haven't put any effort into mastering aquarium photography.

full tank


Random shots

[cobraden]

I finally got around to modifying my plumbing to run the GFO/Carbon reactor and the calcium reactor. I didn't want to add pumps (heat) to the system so I am running them off my pan world circulation pump. Below are some pictures of the manifold I built and the gfo/carbon reactor in place. Will set up the calcium reactor sometime this week I hope.





Also looks like I'm going to be building a fish trap this week to try to catch my clown tang. That sucker is mean and I don't think I want to add anything else to the tank before he's out.

[nano reef heaven]

Re: Cobraden's 150 build

Looks great

*Sent from my little corner of the reef. Nano nano!*

[Airjammer]

Nice! Wish I had the time and the patience for SW!

[cobraden]

Been a while so I guess it's time for a little bit of an update.
Picked up a used BRS double reactor from a fellow Marsh member and will be running GFO and Carbon. I had planned to remove the metal top bracket and replace it with a plastic one since it will be sitting in my sump. Once the metal bracket was off, the unit was sturdy enough that I didn't see a need for any additional brackets.



Just a little sign of progress in the tank, my red monti frag that I picked up in July has shown quite a bit of growth in the 2 months it's been in the tank as are all my monti frags but this one is the most dramatic.

This pics were taken 7/26/12




These pics were taken 10/6/12




And this is what the tank looks like so far



Currently housing

2 - true percs
1 - Fox face...that thinks it's a perc
1 - lineatus tang...mean as all get out
40+ heads of frogs paw
5 - Bubble tip anemones.... started with 4
1 - button pollyp colony with over 100 heads
1 - tiny leather frag
2 - Orangeish monti frags
1 - Red monti frag
2 - Green monti frags
3 - Purple monti frags
aprox 150 red and blue legged hermits
5 - Astrea snails

[cobraden]

I would agree that I really do need more flow in the tank but I'm still not sold on surface movement. Of course more flow just may result in more surface movement so I may get it either way. At this point I have tons of water going though the sump with lots of surface movement. Clearly not as much surface area as the tank but it is a pretty big sump. I'm evaporating about 2 gal a day. A little less that that 1/2 the evaporation that my 300 had but I was running 3 400w MH lights on that one. The fans have been going on the sump and canopy since about 4 and have brought down the temps significantly so I think I'm going to be ok without the chiller. I will see how things go tomorrow.

Will add more flow soon but deciding on how. Leaning toward Korillas since I can mount them on the back wall and angle them. Just haven't figured out what size to go with and they have to be able to be used with a wave maker so I have to make sure i get the right model.

[rage]

I said it before. You need more surface water movement. It helps with heat transfer and water evaporation.

[cobraden]

Just a little update. So far things are going well with the tank. Water parameters have been great and so a few days ago it was move in day for some LPS and softies that I have had in a holding tank since I moved. I added over 40 heads of "frogs paw" coral, 2 tiny buds of leather that popped up after a leather I had died in the move, some "button polyps" and i picked up a monti frag.




I like to give my new tanks a week or so before I start skimming...no real reason, just me and some ideas I have about removing trace elements but I won't bore you with that stuff. So I go to fire up the skimmer that worked great during the freshwater test and when I plugged it in, nothing. did not work at all. Now I have a skimmer full of water that I have to deal with. After draining the skimmer and jacking with the pump i got it to work and I must say I'm impressed with my first needle wheel skimmer.


Issuse for today is that the tank is running hot. I noticed that the frogs paw wasn't out to it's normal extension and when I checked the temp it was above 80. I haven't been using the fans in the canopy as one doesn't work so I will be fixing that today and adding a fan to the sump. I keep my house at 78 during the day so the fans may not be able to control the temp. I want to avoid using a chiller if I can but we will just have to see how the fans work.