tbittner

Don't add any water? (sorry, couldn't resist )

Ahhh man, I'm sorry to hear about that. :( You said in your stocking list that you have copperband tangs. I don't think I've ever heard of those. I've heard of and seen Cobberband butterflies but not tangs. Was it your copperband that passed?

Thanks for the offer, Boret. Maybe next weekend, everyone can come out and we'll go fishing and catch and move everything from the 120 down to the 450. Dave, Marine Scene has an earlier generation of the solaris and it really is dull/dim compared to the I4. If anyone is interested in seeing them, and is up for a nice drive out into the country, come on out and check it out.

WOW! That looks awesome! Excellent job! I prefer the locline flare nozzles. They generate a wider flow pattern. With those, I doubt if you'll need to drill any holes in the pipe. I've seen pics of tanks where they used that foam. It really gives it a nice, natural look.

Hi Dave, Which Solaris does he have? These are the I4's and they are equivelant to the 400w MH's. The bottom of the tank IS very brightly lit but I also don't really have any corals yet. When I move everything down from the 120g, then I'll find out whether corals like them or not. That will be a few weeks from now though. Patti (my wife) has been a HUGE help with the remodeling of the room. Our boys (15, 17) have been a HUGE help with getting the plumbing done. Our little girl (6) makes an awesome cheerleader. Now to get the room cleaned up. It would be nice to have room for some chairs to sit in to watch the tank.

You'd better get some more fish! My wife and I about cleaned you out today.

We made our very first trip to BRK today. WOW!!! They have a LOT of stuff! Our daughter had to feed those MONSTERS in the ouside pond too. We ended up getting five female and a male anthias. We also got a powder brown and a coral beauty. They seem to LOVE this big tank. The powder brown and coral beauty are all over the tank. We also picked up a nice frag of pulsing xenia, a really nice zoa frag, and a really nice Florida Recordia. Everything is in the tank and looking great! We got the flow running through the sump now by using the water change pump. It's only around 1,500 gph but at least all of the water in my entire system, including the 450, will be the same. That will help to reduce stress when we move everything out of the 120 and put them into the 450.

Thanks Boret! NRehman, Thats a really good idea! I bought the smallish plastic storage containers, the ones with lots of holes in them, and then drilled some holes in the top so they don't trap air under them. I sit those in the bottom of the skimmer tub and then sit the skimmer on top of those to get them at the water depth they need to be at. Your way would work even better though because then I could cut the pipe exactly the height I need to get the skimmer at it's optimal depth in the water.

That is the coolest aquascaping I've ever seen! What are you doing tomorrow? Care to come out and redo mine for me? Good choice for waiting and letting it mature more before adding anything else. Patience really pays off in this hobby.

We got the 2nd Solaris hung this evening. Please excuse the dirty glass. I wanted to get a pic before the lights turned off. You can see that the light on the left is dimmer. It had already entered simulated sunset mode. I was FINALLY in time to buy an Achilles Tang from Divers Den (Live Aquaria). We added a small yellow tail damsel to the 450 on Wednesday. But the Achilles will also get added next. In a few weeks I'll start moving everything out of the 120 into the 450.

120g reef 150g predator 330g sump/fuge/skimmer tub 450g reef - starting the flow through the sump this weekend. order a 360g predator How about mixing barrels??? 125g mixed/mixing at all times.

Great! I look forward to seeing the pics! It's great to hear that the bleaching has stopped. And now would definitely be a good time to get the air circulation running. I'm afraid it's about to get VERY warm and STAY very warm for a while. I understand how the fish and corals feel, I can't stand the heat either.

Hey Dave! Is everything ok?

I've started water changes with RO/DI mixed water. It's time to get the tap water out of the tank. I figure I can do a 40g WC each morning and evening. In 10 days I'll have changed out 800g of water. That should do it.

I honestly can't imagine having that much rock in this tank. I only have 450 lbs in it so far and I'll be moving around 200 lbs down from the 120g reef when I migrate everything. That will pretty much fill it up. I DO have around 640 lbs of sand in it though. That really increases the surface area for the nitrifying bacteria. I'm really surprised that 250w MH's would reach the bottom. It's really good to know, actually. I'm putting two Solaris' over it, the 400w equivilant version. Virtually no heat, low energy consumption, and an awesome controller built into it. And the one I have really lights up the bottom so I'm pretty confident that it's plenty of light. It's amazing that he had this tank in a townhouse! Was it on the basement level?

Cool! I was wondering how the original owner had it all plumbed up. I'm hoping that my current plumbing job will provide adaquate circulation. It seems to be pretty good so far. I don't suppose you have any pictures of what it looked like. I'd love to see what the original owner did with it and how he had it set up. We feel VERY fortunate to have it now. Even though it took a TON of work to get it back into shape and back to this point.

Awesome looking specimans! Your RBTA really looks great too!

Ammonia - 0 NitrItes - <.1 I moved 5 turbo snails from the 120 reef into the 450 so they can start working on the dinos. Darn new sand.... I also bought the Euro-reef RS-250 from gioNVA today. Now, if anyone wants to see an absolutely incredible tank, check out gioNVA's!!! It's literally breath taking!!! I haven't put the new skimmer into action yet. I need to buy a small plastic box to sit it on in my skimmer tub because the water is too deep for it. I forgot about needing that little accessory.

Congrats!!! hmmmm..... I still don't see any pics though.

Awesome job in getting your tank cleaned back up! Do you have any turbo snails? Look for some Mexican Turbo snails tomorrow and add a couple of them to your tank. I swear, if I could figure out how to keep them alive in the yard, I'd never have to mow it again. They are like really efficient mowers for algae and will keep it munched down for you.

WHOA! That's serious! What happened?

I concur, I have had one for a year and it's never failed, ever... And we had a couple multiple hour power outage. With the silencer option, you can't hear it running. With that being said though, I would also much prefer to have the tank drilled. I'm not willing to take that risk with thousands of dollars of livestock that is all doing great though. So my next best option was the LifeReef overflow box. I also have two of the EShopps boxes (DFS sells them now) and they too have never failed.

Beautiful tank!!! Geez, that's after six months? I can't wait to see what another six months brings.

That really does look a carnation, doesn't it.