72 Oceanic Reef Ready Bow Front Evolution...

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Attention all reefers,

The day has come to sell my 72 gallon Oceanic reef ready bowfront. I'm selling just the glass tank with mega flow kit; $100 dollars...

The tank is in excellent condition as I have taken great care of it...

MG





 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Thanks for all that inquired on my legendary tank; it's been sold to a reefer in San Francisco...

I ordered my 90 gallon bowfront today from Aquarium Concepts in Dublin, I had some gift certificates from them so it paid for itself...

I go to pick it up Friday after work; and then I do the move Saturday, leaving Sunday a farewell to my 72 gallon friend...
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
reefman23 said:
Are you concerned about the 150 watt MHs on such a tall tank?

Jesse
Click to expand...
If I only went by what others hear, I'd say yes Jesse, I'm very concerned and should dump in more money on two 250 watt MH.

But the fact is I've run this tank since August of 2005 and have learned a lot with this particular set of lights.

Remember Jesse, I have two 150 watt bulbs that are HQI at 20,000k. These in themselves penetrate very deep.

From experience, my corals the ones on the deep sandbed, elegance coral and bubble coral are opening up just as much as when they were under the 72.

My button polyps and mushrooms are fuller with this deeper tank so the 300 watts on my 72 was a little overkill in depth, but now I'm about right.

If I do add any extra light it would be to get the dusk to dawn affect only, not the photosysthesis of higher lighting.

Also any thing towards the top of the tank gets a blast of MH; I finally have a tank that I can litterally place corals on 5 different levels of height; SPS on top, LPS in the middle and shrooms, blastos on the bottom and then their is a lot of sandbed real estate.

Pics are ready to roll in just a coupld more days...

MG
 
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reefman23

New Member
I hate to disagree but even the best performing 20,000k lamp, the radium on an HQI ballast, has very low PPFD. They do not penetrate very deep at all. Add to that that I believe you have a glass lid which will cut down on the overall PAR that is entering your tank I you arent left with much. Also, you arent working with the most effective reflectors either with the Coralife fixture. Now with the Oceanic bowfront youare at 30" tall right? Even with a 6" sand bed, you still have 24" inches of light. Now I have seen examples of people with good quality 250 watters and refletors that got a fair amount of PAR down to the sandbed of a 24" tank, but that was with 250 watt lamps in a warmer spectrum without the glass lid and high quality reflectors.

I'm all for "pushing the encelope" and not letting others stand in your way when it comes to certain areas, but you are treading on an area where it is pretty straigh-forward. Now, just because the corals are as, or more, open than usual also doesnt mean they are received enough light. Many of my corals are fully extended when the actinics are on, but when the daylights come on, they dont need to extend as much to receive adequate lighing. I would honestly say that I dont think SPS would receive nearly enough light anywhere in the tank that directly under either of the MH within just a couple inches from the surface. On a side note, I also have to disagree that the 300 watts was "overkill" for the 72g.

All this aside, I'm sure this tank will look great just like the 72g did. If you ever get rid of one of those reefkeepers, be sure to send it my way! ;-)

Jesse
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Here is to all to my devoted fans; I hope you like the first set of pictures to evolve on my thread... A 90 gallon bowfront is born....









P.S
Jesse,

Thanks for the feedback on your view on lighting, I will take all that was said objectively. Please keep in mind that these pictures are not retouched in any manner, they are in fact how bright my 300 watts of HQI hit my corals; my hope is that my corals will thrive under these conditions.

Remember Jesse it's not just light that keeps and makes a reef successful, it's all the dimensions we put into them that makes them thrive; Ozone, UV, Calcium Reactor, just to name a few.

MG
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Jesse,

After reading your post closer, I realized a comment you made, that I have to clearly disagree with.

Quoted "I would honestly say that I dont think SPS would receive nearly enough light anywhere in the tank that directly under either of the MH within just a couple inches from the surface. On a side note, I also have to disagree that the 300 watts was "overkill" for the 72g."

My birdsnest SPS thrived and grew 6 times it's size nearly at the bottom of my tank; as did many of my acros before they died during transport into my new home.

So for you to make a statement about my SPS not growing under any level of my 90 gallon tank, brings you across as extremely subjective in your opinion as well as generalizing yourself.

I recently made a purchase of about 10 extra pounds of cured live rock to fill the top of my 90 gallon bowfront. I now intend to make the top section of my tank a breeding ground for some unique SPS corals that I will choose.

I will purchase some excellent frags of which I have experience in growing and see if PAR lighting is critical as you eloquently elaborate in my thread.

I'm up for a good challange and I do have the experience and equipment to run such a task; I hope to document this on this website failure or success.

Remember, I've been playing with SPS corals since I owned my 12 gallon cube, I hope to come across successful.

MG
 
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reefman23

New Member
Let me correct that quote... What it should have read was... "I would honestly say that I dont think SPS would receive nearly enough light anywhere in the tank except directly under either of the MH within just a couple inches from the surface. On a side note, I also have to disagree that the 300 watts was "overkill" for the 72g."

Other than that, there is indeed more to coral growth and health than just lighting. Like you said, you have "the best of the best" when it comes to equipment... chillers, reactors, skimmers, moniters, probes, UV, Ozone, and on and on. When one area is lacking, perfection in others areas can help to fill in. Also, the heavy bioload of fish in your tank is also providing food and nutrients to the corals. I will never agree that you are going to be able to get a substantial amount of energy down to the bottom of a 30" tall 90g tank using only 150 watt metal halides though. But the only way for me to prove that is a light meter on your sand bed. Put an A. Tortuosa ont he sand bed and see how it does.

I think your tank is one-of-a-kind... cant deny that. There are things that take place in your tank that are just not possible in other tanks due to your attention to equipment and whatever. My point is to keep first-timers and newbies from coming into your thread and automatically assuming that they only need "X" amount of light in thier 24" or 30" tank. So we can agree that there is much more to keeping healthy, colorful, growing corals than just lighting... it seems that I just put more emphasis on the lighting portion and go from there.


The tanks does look great by the way!

Jesse
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Jesse,

Your statement now is much more easy for me to understand and accept. I thank you for correcting your statement and making it clear for all reefers the significance of PAR...

Thanks,

MG
 
EDGRAY

EDGRAY

New Member
NICE UPGRADE MIKE... THIS TANK DOES LOOKS BETTER!! than the last one even the aquascape looks better is a similar aquascape but looks better even i see more color did you get new corals???... anyways nice work love it and nice coral placement.

ED
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
About one month ago my friend came over and noticed a small crab in my 72 gallon tank. I couldn't ID it because it ran away and I never saw it again.

Now, during my move to my 90 gallon tank, I found the crab and placed him in a small container with some live rubble.

I wanted to get him ID because I recall purchasing one emerald crab about 2 months ago; anyway this critter in his attempt to escape the container crawled out and died on my carpet.

I have photographed him in hopes that someone can ID him; is this a good crab or a bad crab?

Thanks,

MG



 
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reefman23

New Member
It looks like some sort of gorilla crab. The hair and black claws are usually a dead-giveaway that it is EVIL! :evil: Although I have seen some Mithrax sculptus that age and seem to take on that appearance. hmmm... see what others have to say.


Jesse
 
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