72 Oceanic Reef Ready Bow Front Evolution...

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nanoangel

New Member
Woow

Hi There
Wow that tank is beautiful!! :loveface I wish we could put up a bigger tank, but you know no room around this place anymore.

It's look like now you can put tangs and many or bigger fishes in that tank.

Also hard work does pay off.

P.S your dog looks cute in that one pics.
:eclap
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
After much pondering, about what type of moonlight to get, I went with the coralife one watt moonlight.

It was between the R-2 solutions moonlight and the coralife. Because I wanted to penetrate deeper into the tank I went with the coralife. Also it benefits me because it can be slide into my existing coralife fixture.

The R-2 moonlight would have had to be clued on to the fixture which I wanted to avoid. The R-2 would've given me a larger spread but I wanted more depth. I have greatest flexiblity with the coralife since I can place on the front or back track of the fixture and arm has complete mobility.

So I went with two, one on each side. I took several pics for you guys and gals to enjoy. To control the two moonlights, I pulled out two digital timers by timex and put them on a surge protector.

Mike











 
Phischy

Phischy

New Member
Mike, with my 40 I'm running a Very low maintence tank. I'm still having issues with keeping LPS. So I've got a big variety of shrooms, zoas and other softies. Three fish and that's about it. I do a 5 gallon water change once a week and I probably go through 5 or so gallons a week in top off water. But my place has no ac and no heat, so in the summer my temps rise as my place gets into the high 80's. This is another reason I have to go with very tolerant and hardy species as my temps flux too much. I try to keep the tank in the 78 to 82 range and when it's hot, I go through alot more topoff water.

So I don't dose or add any sort of suppliments other than the occasional reef builder that I got from a friend. Everything in my tank is pretty healthy, but growth is still fairly slow.

I'm not a nut about the hobby, my tank is where I want it and I'd like to figure out my LPS problem to get some candy canes and other species in there. When I move I"ll have a lot of cash flow freed up so I can start working on my tank again to make it 'better'.
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Thanks for your scenerio, going into a larger tank I had a lot of reservations. So borrowing from everyones big reefs gave me a lot of input on the do's and don'ts.

I hope to add a calcium reactor and a phosphate reactor and maybe another MH in the middle. Then just add corals unitl it's full.

Mike

P.S
The LPS secret is usually good water and not too much flow. My frogspawn has been one hell of a trooper through the move and the wide temp flucts. My yumas bit the dust because of heat when I owned the two cubes.
 
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incysor

New Member
mikeguerrero said:
I'm trying to find two fans that will allow air to be pulled in and out of the canopy in the back, because I'd like to place the two plastic lids back on the canopy.

As of now I have to remove them during light operation and then I place them back when the lights go out. No big deal just that light spills a little on the ceiling without the plastic lids.

Is your canopy completely enclosed? What fans do you run? Have you had a problem with heat in your tank? And how often do you do your water changes and how much? Do you dose and how often.

Sorry for all the questions but ever since I got a large tank I'm still on nano cube mentality. With the cube the water changes did everything.

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...
Mike,

With a larger tank you shouldn't need to do weekly water changes. Most folks running larger tanks do a 10-15% water change every couple weeks, or once a month. I've gone as long as two months without a water change before when everything was particularly stable. I'd spend a couple months dosing additives by hand before spending money on the reactors. It'll give you a better understanding of things. Reactors are great when they're working well, but they can really suck when things start to get out of balance, since they continue to add to the system whether you check your parameters or not. I'm not against them at all. I just think that getting the practice of checking/maintaining additives is a good idea before trying to automate it.

I'd think a couple good sized computer case fans would work fine in your canopy. You can wire them together and just plug them into the same outlet/timer as your lights so they come run when your lights are on. This is what I did, and I think I spent less than $60 for six fans and two 12v adapters to run all of them. Or you can spend quite a bit more money and get a couple of these. Then they'll only cut on when the canopy gets to a certain temp.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem. ... uct=IC5113

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
B,

Thanks for the heads up on dosing. I wasn't going to purchase a calcium reactor anytime yet. In fact, I've been dosing manually since I placed my corals and critters.

Remember, I won several prize additives here on nanotank, and I'm finally taking advantage of them, Reef Calcium additive etc.

I told my wife that in the future when my tank is fully up and running I would consider the calcium reactor, just gave her an idea that I might get it. That way when I come home with the setup and she sees a scuba tank for the CO2, she won't think I'm crazy. :)

I will invest in the phosphate reactor because it's an easy setup and I hate phosphate in my water column. It's plug and walk away, and change the rowaphos when it's exhausted.

Regarding the fans, thanks, I've been looking for two fans to place in the back of my canopy. I cannot drill vents on the side of the plastic. In fact, it's too thin for that, but the opening in the back is perfect; all I have to do is just sit the fans on top of the glass lid, one blowing in and on the other side one sucking out.

The cooling fans on my fixture are on top, so when I remove the plastic lids the hot air rises and leaves, no problem. But because I'd like to leave the plastic lids on top, I need something to at least start pushing the hot air out as it will accumulate fast.

The back has two large openings, much larger than the fans, so I hope it would work. I'm looking into these two fans by coralife, tell me what you think?

http://www.hellolights.com/noname16.html

Thanks,

Mike
 
Phischy

Phischy

New Member
Only a 10% H2O change 1x per month? I let my H2O lapse and maybe that's why my c canes and open green brain died, but they seemed to wilt away. I'm running 220PC over my tank and I thought that would be enough to keep LPS, and it should but I haven't forayed back into it.

My rics seem to love warmer temps, around 82/83 more so than upper 70's.

I've got 1 icecap fan on my hood and I like the fact it has a thermostat, I never have to worry about it. Although if you are building a canopy, I'd look into ways to have it vent air out the top, that way it acts like a chimney and is much more effective than pulling and pushing air from the sides.

e
 
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incysor

New Member
Phischy said:
Only a 10% H2O change 1x per month? I let my H2O lapse and maybe that's why my c canes and open green brain died, but they seemed to wilt away. I'm running 220PC over my tank and I thought that would be enough to keep LPS, and it should but I haven't forayed back into it.

My rics seem to love warmer temps, around 82/83 more so than upper 70's.

I've got 1 icecap fan on my hood and I like the fact it has a thermostat, I never have to worry about it. Although if you are building a canopy, I'd look into ways to have it vent air out the top, that way it acts like a chimney and is much more effective than pulling and pushing air from the sides.

e
Click to expand...
I routinely go a month or six weeks without a water change. A lot depends on your setup though. How much it's skimmed, what your bioload is like, how mature the system is, etc...

When my Father and I made the canopies for the tanks we put fans on one end, and the top. The fans on the end fresh air into the canopy and the ones in the top blow air out the top.



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incysor

New Member
AFAIK they're standard Coralife endcaps, and bulb holders. I'll try to remember to check them tonight when I get home. The endcaps came with the icecap ballast when I bought it. (used)
I bought the holders from citypets.

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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Incysor,

Thanks for showing me the pic, your setup looks so immaculate. I'm impressed on how clean and well ventilated the canopy is.

I'll have to find a way to get my fans to blow in and out the air.

Mike
 
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mikeguerrero

Active Member
Hi Erik,

I haven't forgotten your macro red algae, I promise to send it out. I've been really busy with work that I had to halt my activity on the tanks for two straight weekends.

I'm also in the process of connecting my two new items from Deltec, a calcium reactor and a phosphate reactor. They came in over the weekend but just haven't been able to post or do nothing.

Just hang in, more fun stuff to come. Also I'm growing out my red macro algae so I can send you a nice branch.

Mike
 
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drty811

New Member
totally forgot about the red algae...thanks

sounds liek you got your hands full....with some new toys. will wait for pics patiently.

thanks again mike
 
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reefman23

New Member
mike, your tanks are always amazing..but this one is insane. I love the 72 gal bow and you are really doin it right. keep up the pics, i love it. good work.
 
djconn

djconn

New Member
I know its a little late but I would like a branch as well if possible. That stuff is awesome looking and I haven't seen it at any LFS around Texas. Let me know...
 
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