Re-Doing 4YR 55 Gallon (BEWARE PICS)

tell em your checkin out TCU its 3 blocks from my house, lol. I'm really likeing the selection and lower minimum order off of etropiclas over the keys though. Once the ammonia spike goes down in my nano...
 
My last crew was from Mac&Sons it was great till my heater incident.

Travis
 
Ok guys, A little update.

The tank has gotten cloudy on me all of a sudden :? . Guess its the new sand bed still setting in. There is over 75 pounds of fresh sand in the entire system so i hope thats what it is. Ive also found a new skimmer im trying to get money for. Its AllMarines' PM Bullet 2 (previously tesfelds) and tesfeld informed me it would do just fine on my sized tank. Still have no corals in there and my clowns have finally forgave me for moving them around and have came out of the rockwork. I would post pictures but its cloudy so its not really worth looking at a cloudy empty tank lol.

Heres somthing else ive been pondering on. I have 2x24 inch VHO and 2x150 MH which equals to about 400-450 watts of light. To replace all the bulbs i think its shy of $200. Well should i ditch all the lighting and go with a single 400watt MH and a Nice reflector or keep the current set-up (for cost reasons). Any feedback on using primary MH for lighting or any other opinions would be great.

Im still planning out my inhabitants list. I dont really want any more fish right now because ive heard Maroon Clowns, especially a mated pair, can bully other tank mates. But i do have my eye out for Bali Xenia or other types of Pom Pom :D, Ive also decided ricordia are a must for this tank lol.

Thats it for now
Travis
 
check this out, these icecap setups overdrive the bulbs and they claim with their setup they bulbs last TWO YEARS! heres the retro! http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104430.html also, if you want i've a ric frag but TCU is pretty far from where you are, I've also got some clove polyps
 
I never considered T-5 lighting. I need to read up on them a little bit. Do corals grow under then as well as MH?
 
Very close to the same, my LPS and Softies grow like CRAZY!!! I'm not sure about SPS or clams, as my calcuium and nitrates need a little work...
 
Do T-5s put out the shimmer lines in the water like MH? haha sry my friend, but im stubborn when it coems to lighting. Like everyone i want performance and looks at a low cost :lol: !

Travis
 
not as dramaticly as halides, but they've got a little shimmer goin on. For tanks like ours they're awesome, did you evr see RJ wilsons tank? Its a 55 like yours...
 
Actually Robert's pictures are very color-exagerated unfortunately. I wish all of our corals were that vivid in person. When you see his videos instead, you see the true colors of those corals and it is more muted & less stunning.

Apparently it is something to do with his camera settings or the way he processes them. I've never said anything to him about the colors, but in light (lol) of this discussion we need to keep the information as accurate as possible.
 
Marc, i was wondering how such an overstocked tank could be so much better than my exact one. I've always seen his stunning pictures and now I have a reason. I'm going to go find one of his vids to watch. I really appreciate the knowledge
 
That tank does look very nice in the pics and since Marc is the president (and has the power to make us go "poof") I will listen to what he says lol :lol:. So anyways I havnt really had time to research T-5s because ive been out of town.

Small Update

The tank is cloudy agian, everytime my clowns decide to "dig" it starts a sandstorm. Today was the first Real waterchange as a result of the sandstorm. I want to try and do them once every 2 weeks so i was 2 days early lol.
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I havnt finished getting all the supplies for the phyto culture yet, im lacking 2 bottles still. I found some of this laying around still in packages and maybe spent 3$ on the rest.
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I also got some trees from Garden Ridge since they are on sale. 2 of them cost me $20. I put these around the tank to draw away from some of the negative looks in the area. Im still lacking some plants for the area so it doesnt look right so heres a teaser lol.
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Still havnt gotten my CA reactor out but i did buy the Weld On to repair it. I also had 200 for a skimemr i wanted , a PM Bullet 2 from AllMarine, but when i was out of town i blew out one of my tires which is about 100 a peice. So im still in a hurry to get money to buy it before he decides to sell it to someone else! Thats it for now i guess. Still alot of work to do but im taking my time, I take that back, THERE IS TONS of work to do...

Travis
 
Ok, so today the tank is pretty clear. The cleaned the power heads out so there is some floating debris. I got bored and decided to pull out the ol' MH ballast to see what it looks like. I like it but i still need $$$ to replace bulbs and also to buy the Skimmer. Heres a few shots.

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You can see my red mushroom on the very top center of the tank. It has doubled its size in about a week and when i turned on the MH it really opened up :lol: . Just a quick update for yall. Let me know what you think.

Travis
 
I promise not to make anyone go "poof". :lol:
 
Hey Travis,

Nice tank you have going, thats a shame your tires blew out because that PM bullet 2 is a wonderful skimmer. You could also look into ASM skimmers, they are great skimmers almost exactly like a euro-reef but price is much better. Its nice to see young reefers like myself (16) on the dfwmas boards.
A group buy from Key Critters might be going on, so check the open forums because they have very good prices.

Good Luck
 
@Marc wrote:
I promise not to make anyone go "poof". :lol: said:
haha Marc, I was only kidding. I know your a nice guy beneath all that reefing knowledge :D .


@RedComet89 wrote:
Hey Travis said:
Im still trying to get ahold of that skimmer, Maybe the parents will be nice and loan me 105.00 dollars till I can pay it back. Thanks for the compliments too and i agree it is nice to see young reefers but Ill be 18 soon, does that still qualify for young lol? Hopefully Champion Lighting has a credit card :lol: J/K. I didnt know there was a group buy on the critters, I def need to get some because im getting Detritus buildup. Still cant decide on sandbed critters though. I like hermits because they are so neat to watch and they also do a great job on rock but im worried about the snails also. OK OK ill stop talking, im getting bad about that haha.

Travis
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hey Travis,

For snails you should get astreas and ceriths
Here is a good rule of thumb-
For every 2 ceriths have 1 astrea

Also over 100 snails and hermits could safetly fit in your tank.

Happy Reefing
 
First off, Thanks Commet! Your helping alot.

So 30 astrea and about 50-60 ceriths and maybe 20 hermits would cover most of my cleaning? Do i need more? I dont want anything to starve! I hope ill be in time to catch the GB from KeysCritters.

-EDIT-

I forgot to ask some opinions about the refugium. I have not yet stocked it with anything, just a few small blue legs and an astrea snail cruisin' around in there. What should go in? Ive heard of POD starter kits with a few hundred pods to start the life in there but i dont know where to get them. I also am aware i need to have the phyto culture growing and doing well before i plan on keeping mass pods. Aside from a pod starter kit what else should go in? Well thats all for now. Guess i should head to bed, Got more work to do on the t ank before the new school semester starts back up. Ill followup with some pics.

Travis
 
Time for an Update. Ive been knocking things out 1 by 1 latly. Everything is coming together very well. One thing id like to say is Thank you to everyone that has been helping me and sending me PMs concerning my questions, yall are great! So anyways lets get to business.

*Canopy Completed
*Plants added around tank
*Ca Reactor Fixed
*Co2 system Fixed
*Added a Mag3 to Ca. Reactor over stock Mag2
*Reworked Pump placements


Pic Time!

My work station Redneck Style 2 coolers and a amp to hold down wood and a jig saw :lol:
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The stain I used, Mixwax Golden Oak
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The comparison between the unstained and stained wood.
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Added some Trees.
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Added Misc Plants, Canopy front and took Ca Reactor out.
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Dis-Assembled ReefTek Ca Reactor for cleaning & Maintenance
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AHHH The Problem! The Mag 2 Melted and seized up.
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After reinstalling the New Mag3 and Cleaning the reactor I put everything back in the stand and cranked it up. You can tell it leaked.... ALOT at first but I finally got everything tight.
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Thats all for now. Ill still have to dial in the reactor. Im also alittle sketchy on my cleanup crew needs still so im trying to get that figured out for the group buy 8) .

Compliments and Suggestions are welcome (As always :D )

Thanks for Viewing
Travis
 
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