Cobraden's 150 build

[rage]

That depends on what reef environment you are creating. SPS yes but LpS no they are generally in turbid lagoons where there is little flow.

While it is true that SPS needs more flow, I don't think LPS wants little flow either. They need at least medium flow.
Of course there are many more sources, this is just an example.

http://www.vividaquariums.com/rarecorals.asp#What_are_the_tank_requirements_for_LPS

[Darbex]

Again it depends a lot of sites will tell you moderate but depending on the corals that's to much. I can tell you from experience after loosing two wall hammers to moderate flow.

[Darbex]

And according to the site LPS flow should be 10-15x which is a lot from my experience. I ran 10x and up it to 13x and killed the hammers. A hammer tucked in a corner with very little movement is doing the best of them all. Also I would be skeptical of a site the says lighting of 5 - 10w per gallon. That's seriously misleading and not true it's par that matters no one I know says to be at so many watts but I do recommend testing par levels. I run 750w on a 300G and get good growth. It's all about placement. LPS don't need tons of light and what everyone tells you about SPS and it's light intensity I have proven to be untrue in my system.

[cobraden]

Just like everything in this hobby, there are a billion ways to do the same thing and still be successful. I had my first reef tank in '88 no high tech stuff just good light and some nice flow. It was all LPS and softies and it was great. I've never done SPS but one of the best SPS tanks I've ever seen personally was up in Kingwood a little over a year ago and he seemed to be breaking many of the "Rules". I think that's the great thing about the hobby. Find the way that works for you and go with it. I think the only real rule is that we have to have water. Other than that, for everyone that says you can't have good results doing x there is someone having great results doing just that (within reason of course). Having said that, having a nice set of repeatable guidelines makes success a little easier but trying different ways is how we learn.

[rage]

And according to the site LPS flow should be 10-15x which is a lot from my experience. I ran 10x and up it to 13x and killed the hammers. A hammer tucked in a corner with very little movement is doing the best of them all. Also I would be skeptical of a site the says lighting of 5 - 10w per gallon. That's seriously misleading and not true it's par that matters no one I know says to be at so many watts but I do recommend testing par levels. I run 750w on a 300G and get good growth. It's all about placement. LPS don't need tons of light and what everyone tells you about SPS and it's light intensity I have proven to be untrue in my system.

I agree that you can do different things and can still be successful.
I also think there are good reasons the experts suggest the things they suggest.
Flow 10, 15 times volume size means different thing to different tank.

My tank is 6' long but it's a 125G.
I have 1 Quiet One 3000, 1 Rio 2500 and 2 Koralia 4, rated close to 4,000 G total. The 2 return pumps have to overcome the head pressure so I think their real output are not quite that high but I should still have 20-25x volume. 2 pumps point at the surface and the flow there is adequate but the other 2 hardly move water in the middle or at the bottom. I think I can use another 1,000G pump easily.

Darbex, I believe your tank is 6' long but much taller and you have close to 300G in volume?
If you have flow of 15x volume and you only have a few very strong pumps, I am sure it's very strong close to the outlet and some corals might not like them but the flow is slow elsewhere. If you spread it out, 15x volume wouldn't be much. I think you can use more water movement to help with surface gunk and red slime on your sand too.

[Darbex]

Got neither in my tank

[rage]

Did you get rid of them recently?
I guess the GFO reactor got rid of your red slime? What did you do to the surface gunk?

[cobraden]

If I knew who the moderator was I would ask him....Did I get hijacked? LOL.

New tank update coming soon.

[Darbex]

Sorry just using topics brought up in threads to discuss various view points. We will get back to the regularly scheduled program.

[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.

[rage]

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

[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.

[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

[Airjammer]

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

[nano reef heaven]

Re: Cobraden's 150 build

Looks great

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