smokythemattman@gmail.com December 24, 2023 Share December 24, 2023 I have had a WB 230.6 or 220.6 (180G) one for the last 4 and a half years. Wife and I building a new house so I decided for an upgrade, the original tank was ehhh much larger than the current one but I was told "we are not putting that in our basement". (She is not on here) but maybe one day..... So we compromised on a 8.5x3x33 inch tank that would go in the wall with 2 sides visible. The tank was made by Planet Aquarium and was installed by Armco Aquatics. Steel stand, rubbermaid stock tank as the sump. In the next 2-3 weeks the tank will be getting filled up and await the livestock transfer from my current tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds December 24, 2023 Share December 24, 2023 That looks amazing man. Can’t wait to see it full Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com December 25, 2023 Author Share December 25, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 December 25, 2023 Share December 25, 2023 That’s freaking amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com February 4 Author Share February 4 Tanks trim is done, moving stuff into it within the next two weeks was hoping.to have had it done mid January but the snow bamboozled some building final touches. All my current livestock are in a 150g stock tank. For equipment for this thing I'm doing 3 mp40s from my 6 foot tank, those things on like 2/3 reef crest mode grew a tank stuffed with SPS for years, 2 on the right side looking at the picture (the left is open for viewing) one on the back wall and Ill likely add a maxpect gyre to the back wall for some more random flow. That and the return should be pretty solid for a good fairly strong random flow. Lighting I have 2 Oprhek Amazonas 960s. Those lights are absolutely insane, highly recommend giving them a look, they are beefy but really strong. I have 1 lighting the 150 stock tank to light acclimate a little bit. Its currently 6+ feet from some corals and at less than half strength and they are happy and open. I went with two of those for 2200$ instead of multiple smaller lights. Sorting through some ideas for return nozzles from the return pipes now. I had trouble with my 180 being to clean with ~20 fish. So I will start with just a fuge and see how it goes before adding any more filtration. Next up is the part I suck at... rockscaping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquastudent February 10 Share February 10 That looks very clean! I'm excited to see this come together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nburg February 10 Share February 10 Wow, looks sweet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RW09903 March 3 Share March 3 This is going to look amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 7 Author Share March 7 Tank is filling up, has sand and about half full of water so far. Rocks going in tomorrow and setting up the lighting. Livestock being moved from their stock tank in hopefully this weekend pending no mini cycle in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 9 Author Share March 9 Rocks starting to go in. Added all of my very much dead rock and some of what I hope is still alive ish rock. Added some salt to keep salinity in normal ish ranges. Going to check for any ammonia/mini cycles and other levels in the next couple days to week or so before adding my livestock in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortailale March 10 Share March 10 Beautiful build start. Looking forward to progress. I liked using Dr. Tim’s on recent seahorse tank i started end Nov 23. Also used water from my main system and few established rocks, & main rock is Marco dead & real reef branch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 13 Author Share March 13 @Gatortailale thanks I can't wait to have it stocked. Trying to be slow, I've had some moving curveballs and kept mostly everything alive. I have about half my rocks from my 180 in a big stock tank with my corals and fish, I've added a few small ones from that into the main to seed it. I was only slightly concerned with some of the die off from some of my extra rocks but once the very much alive ones go in it would be enough. Kept them wet and at around 70 degrees and the ammonia tests don't really show anything in there. Hopefully have enough of a bacteria base alive when I add those rocks in it can do the job. I've done it this way before same as yourself did you run into any issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 24 Author Share March 24 (edited) Version 1 of get the rocks and existing angry corals into the tank. Everythings been ok for about a week now. Still have to fix the leaking bulkhead. Have learned of a LFS to never use again. Beginning to look for more corals to start to fill the tank in and let it grow. Edited March 24 by smokythemattman@gmail.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 24 Author Share March 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJT March 25 Share March 25 Nice trim work! Tangs look healthy. Why does the water look low? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cris March 25 Share March 25 very exciting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortailale March 25 Share March 25 Smoky recently posted had a bulkhead leaking and still trying to solve the problem; so I think he is not using overflows right now until he resolves the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 26 Author Share March 26 Correct, I've had some back and forth with the LFS about it, they want me to pay to have them come back out and fix what I paid them to do the first time which I shouldn't even have to explain to them why I won't accept that offer. I've ordered new pieces so I await their arrival and will attempt myself. For now I am going to setup a funnel to catch the drops (right on the side of the sump of course) and hookup the returns so I can get it all going and see what the flow situation is. I had everything in a stock tank and decided it was time so moved em over. So far these Orphek Amazonas lights are insanely powerful. I have managed to have some bleaching on a couple leathers that were probably higher up than they should have been so have moved them and reduced the lighting a teensie bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 26 Author Share March 26 So far the setup is 3 MP 40s on reef crest ramping between like 60-100%. 2 Amazonas 960s on about 60% most light colors except for orange/red. Probably to high still Couple Finnex heaters and the return pump is a chunker on from Dolphin I think. Fish Vlamingi Tang Hippo Tang Chocolate Tang Desjardini sailfing tang Niger trigger Female blue throat trigger Marine betta Royal gramma Flamr hawkfish Starry blenny Mystery wrasse Clownfish pair Splendid dottyback Potters angelfish Corals Toadstool leathers like 3 different kinds Cabbage leather Green slimer Some assorted zoas Couple big gorgonians (still mad from being in a stock tank I think) Sinularia Different mushrooms. Have a few rocks covered in them, I mostly got rid of the green hairy ones that were a plague Kenya trees (down from probably 50) Xenia on a rock by itself Other softies Im forgetting Upcoming stocklist Corals SPS of the easier ish fast growing varieties. I miss having SPS can't wait to watch it grow out in this tank. Fish to buy Melanarus pair or single Talbots damsels pair Sapphire damsel pair Dusky jawfish Yellow watchman goby Coral beauty A Genicanthus angel pair TBD by what I can find in that genus Moorish Idol (survival rate sucks but Ill give it a try in a tank this size) Yellow coris wrasse pair or trio Anthias trio either lyretails or dispars Probably others as time goes on but those are most of my current targets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpeguero March 26 Share March 26 How has your experience been with the marine betta? Been contemplating adding one eventually, but worried about it with inverts and smaller fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokythemattman@gmail.com March 26 Author Share March 26 @cpeguero he is super chill. I don't have any inverts, most I had when I set my last tank up 5-6 years ago so they died off. I never added more yet because of the trigger. The betta hasn't eaten anything in a few years. They are more slow/lurky. Just my take but unless it was a really tiny goby that just sat in front of the betta I don't think its much of a threat even then I still doubt it, they are more of a sit in a cave and wait for something to swim by variety, not really active predators from my experience. Mine could easily eat the dottyback and others and it shares caves with some. I'd pull the trigger, mine is quite shy during the day but will swim around here and there and at dusk/night he's out alot. I'd pull the trigger, super cool fish. Ill take picture of it for sure once I get a chance here soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpeguero March 26 Share March 26 Cool. Thanks for the info. I do want to add some other small fish and cleaner shrimp, but since the tank is pretty well fed, I may go ahead with it. I also have a couple of biota mandarins (which I haven’t seen for a while, though not that surprised) that are tiny. I expect I’ll see them more when they’ve grown a bit, so perhaps I’ll wait until they’re a bit bigger before adding the betta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nburg April 3 Share April 3 (edited) On 3/25/2024 at 10:54 PM, cpeguero said: How has your experience been with the marine betta? Been contemplating adding one eventually, but worried about it with inverts and smaller fish. I have a captive bred one and the only thing he aggressively flashes is me, which I am cool with. It was very cryptic when it was small but comes out more and more as it has grown. Slower eater at first and now eats readily out of the water column, but still not a huge eater since it doesn't actively swim a lot. I don't have shrimp, but doesn't bother snails or hermits, doesn't bother fish and is super cool. I always stop to watch when it comes out. Usually just pokes his head out of the cave all day. EDIT: I've also read mandarins have a toxic and bad tasting slime coat so many fish spit them out if they try to eat them. Edited April 3 by nburg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime April 4 Share April 4 I dunno, looks like you did a pretty good job at aquascaping for claiming to suck at it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now