Chips Reef Tank

[chipmaker]

chip What are you getting how big of a tank?
SJ
The tank is a 120 gal pre-drilled megaflow.....Gonna take a heap of live rock to make my reef......and I may never be able to afford to pack it full of corals etc but its something that I should not outgrow anytime soon.......Going to be mainly a reef tank with some fish and other critters.......I am going with 2, 250 watt MH and 6 x 96W (IIRC,been playing with too many numbers lately) VHO lights, and of course Lunar lights with the automatic tracker, that dims or brightens the lunar lights intensity and duration just like the actual phases of the lunar cycle does by using a computer chip thats programed.and also a wave maker...I should be able to keep most anything that can be kept in regards to needing lots of lighting in the setup, or so I am told.

I can't belive how much we have packed into that little 2 gal Pico tank in such a short timeframe. We just added a few more different colors of ployps, 2 small leathers, and a neat big old feather duster, IIRC which is really neat. Have lots of the small dusters, but this one is a huge pink/brown and white one. Threw in some tiny little blue legged hermits and three sexy shrimp.........The thing just glows at night with the moon lights on it......and new critters are still emerging from the thing all the time.....But now with the feather dusters and sexy shrimp i it, I have to start feeding it but its no big deal.......

I sure can't wait until I get the big tank in and setup or at least the rocks and sand and water in it and on its way to cycling.....which should not take too long as all of the rock and sand is fully cured and looks super in the fish shops holding tanks. Also have a RO/DI unit coming. The fish shop is owned by one fellow who is going to deliver the tank when it comes in and bring along rock etc and will setup the thing and go through its upkeep and operation with me. He says he provides his time free for his customers that buy complete setups, but we all know how true that is, but his overall price was not all that bad considering what it all consists of. What I like, is he is going to bring a heap of rock, that we can work with and make it how we want, and then take back what rock we do not use. He says he usually brings about 100 or more pounds than is typically needed, so there is lots of nice stuff to pick and work with.It will be all FIJI rock..Sure beats trying to picture what it will look like by holding up and stacking rocks in the store on the floor........so now I can get into aquascaping instead of landscaping:bannana:

The wife got addicted with the saltwater stuff and I have always wanted one. Now we do not have to bump heads all the time trying to look at that small 2 gal pico at the same time..

[simple_john]

thats awesome chip.. im jealous.. i miss my tank but dont miss the hassle...

the RO water is great idea.. how is your own water? (for water changes)

i used the metal halides and VHO florescents too.. the VHO's are nice but you need the hgalides for the 'shimmer' nothing looks better... especially with the wave machine...


good deal... they are a lot of fun.. i could spend (and did spend) hours just looking at the tank.. as you know.. there is always something new crawling/growing/popping up/moving or scurrying around.....


heres a few pics of mine...
the issue i have here is water quality.. i did not get an RO and our well water slowly killed the tank and anything new we put into it...

good luck and have fun... you sound like you are ready to do it.. GET SOME PHOTOS!!!!

[USN_ED]

What's an RO/DI unit?

[chipmaker]

USN_ED
An RO/DI unit is nothing more than a Reverse Osmosis and De-Ionization filtration unit to make your own water that will be free of all nutrients, and minerals etc......all of which pose a problem for tanks with algae and bacterial blooms or excessive minerals that precipitate out of the water column. I would imagine thats what they use for shipboard drinking water systems as well.


SJ...Was your tank an acrylic..I noticed the bend on the front corners instead of a seam......Your right, well water and all the other kinds is not too good for a tank.......RO/DI is the way to go. Years ago they were pretty darn proud of them as they cost a small fortune, now yu can get one with a membrane that is guaranteeded for something like 5 years and auto indicators to tel when filters need changing and will make 100 gal of water a day for under $150.00........
Here is two images of how it was this morning. Re,member this is only a 2 gal container which is approximately 11 inches OAL and about 8 inches high, and that rock inside is about 5 pounds worth. The pics do not do the critters justice as they are vibrant colors, but with a flash that color is lost, and without a flash it just a blue hue overall. In the one image in the middle up agasint the mushroom on the right is a critter, which is actually a bright pink and lavender color. Its a species of whats called Ricordea, and its only about the size of a half dollar. In the image its faded and looks bluish on the edges but its actually a flourecent lavender /pink, and that mushroom is a bright irridescent purple. The long fringed polys in the upper left are a flourescent yellow with a dark green center eye........

I have new growth on my pipe organ corals as well...and have numerous small red and orange sponges growing.

[simple_john]

yup acrylic tank, no seams.. which was nice.. and i was always told they scratch... but i had mine for about 7-8 years and there was just 1 little scratch on it...

Your tank looks so great.. thats nice too and only 5 lbs of live rock.. you'll be spending some money of live rock for the big tank... and the electricity will be fun too.. but your Pico tank looks AWESOME!!

mesmerizing huh?
PS: Im gonna move this part of the thread to the pets section so others notice it..

[chipmaker]

SJ..........OK the mystery of the missing posts I made is solved.........they were moved.........and probably not long right after I made them..........and here I thought I was loosing my mind, and decided to take a prozac and drink a few cold ones, oh well, at least the beers were not wasted.......Have to keep in practice you know..

I have heard acrylics scratch, but have since found out that there is all kinds of acrylics out there......The cheaper made tanks use extruded acrylic which is very prone to scratches, whereas the better tanks use cell cast, which is a tempered type of acrylic. The acrylic itself is not extruded in a sheet, but poured and compressed in a mold to form the sheet to a given size........where the extruded is one long continous sheet that is cut to length during manufacture. Heck even a glass tank will scratch, and a scratch in a glass tank is more of a disaster waiting to happen than a scratch in an acrylic would be....

Yep, LR is not cheap, neither is good live sand, but with a reef tank at least most of my beneficals will be from the rock so I can get by on less expensive live sand, but with the LR, I'm probably looking at atleast 1 1/2 to 2 pounds per gallon of tank size...so thats a pretty good stash of rock. But the rock is stil cheaper than buying corals and other stuff to finish it off....Thats whats gonna take some $$$ to have some neat inverts in there.......
I don't think I will notice much difference on my power bills, as we have 8 tanks running inside the house, 4 more outside in the gazeebo,4 in the barn, the 3 half barrel water garden setup the wife has plus 6 half barrels of my own, which has a ton of fish in them as well as submerged lights and pumps etc, and of course all the pumps and lights I have going at the big pond....you could say its kind of fishy around my place........I started to fool with tropical fish (mainly gouramis, paradise fish, platys, swordtails, coryadorus catfish, bettas and guppies) since about April, and have been keeping them outside mainly. I found I could keep more fish and have more color and ease of care by keeping the wifes half barrel garden and my tanks and half barrels full of assorted types of these tropicals than fooling with goldfish etc in them......GF and koi breed once or twice a season while the tropicals are always breeding..I also found a market locally at two local fish stores that will take all I can get them, not getting rich but its a source to sell my spawns to, and two breeds of fish in particular, Bettas and Paradise Fish I can't get enough of as they will buy everyone I can get. Tropicals kept outside do fabulous and grow quick and relatively little feed is necessary, and nothing special is done with removing parents from the young to keep them from eating the young, I let em all stay in the heavily planted aquariums and half barrels and they do great. The both pet stores have requested me to breed some ciclids, which also do fine outside......so if things go well I hope to expand the little operation to include some various ciclids as well in a couple of half barrels of small preform ponds. I really think it has to do with actually being in a naturally supplied water (I use my ponds water) and beiing outdoors with insects and real sunlight and lots of vegetation, instead of artifical sunlight, and man made foods and chemically treated water, which is typically found in an aquarium.

[USN_ED]

I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!

Hell of a thing to do to a guy. Moving stuff around and not telling him where ya put it.

chipmaker -

Thanks for the info on the RO/DI units.

I'm looking forward to pics of the new set-up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anybody decides to move this thread again before tomorrow morning, please send me a PM to let me know where ya move it to. I just bought a new bottle of Crown Royal today but if this keeps up, I'll have to get another one tomorrow.