Brian's 120 Mixed Reef, 120 Aggressive

[Brian Ward]

OK everyone, time for an update. This is on the 120 SPS Reef - I've snapped a few photos to share. I have added sand and transferred the contents of my BC29 into this tank. I reaquascaped and I think things are starting to look pretty good. Let me know what you think!

 

FTS:

 

Left Side:

 

Center:

 

Right Side:

 

FTS From Right:

 

FTS From Left:

 

Left End:

 

Left Side Closer:

 

Left from Center:

 

Center from Left:

 

Right Closer:

 

Right again:

[jason the filter freak]

Looking good. Ever think of gluing some tiny pieces of LR to those returns to hide them? The clams look great, and the chromis school is classic.

[blaze98]

The tank looks good dude, I like the sand.

[Brian Ward]

Looking good. Ever think of gluing some tiny pieces of LR to those returns to hide them? The clams look great, and the chromis school is classic.

 

haven't really thought about doing anything different with the returns. they actually don't really bother me. the mag float just barely slips behind them (at least the middle 2) so i'm not sure i want to take up any of that space.

[MisterTang]

Did you place the clams there, or did they move to their respective positions?

[Brian Ward]

Did you place the clams there, or did they move to their respective positions?

 

I placed them. They are already attaced to pieces - the blue one is attached to a giant conch shell, and the golden is attached to a small frag plug. They haven't tried to move and seem to be happy where they are. Both get good flow due to the closed loop and plenty of light due to the 800W of light hanging over the tank.

[Sugar Magnolia]

I like the aquascaping!

[Brian Ward]

I swiped a camera from work that no one was using to take a few new pictures - Canon Rebel XT. Lens is the crappy 18-55 that comes with the camera, but it certainly works better than my point-and-shoot for tank shots.

I picked up a couple new fish from the social yesterday so I have some pics of them as well as a shot of my lawnmower blenny that likes to hang out in my closed loop pipes when its not on These are all in the SPS Reef:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2008 by Brian Ward

[jamesbuf]

Looking good man. Love the blenny shot.

[Lunker]

Brian,

 

I'm always very excited when I see a tank with florishing corals. Looking forward to the day that my corals reach that maturity. Great tank.

[Brian Ward]

Here are some new pics of the FOWLR, including the new porcupine puffer I got at the social. I'm battling hair algae and microbubbles in this tank.

 

FTS:

 

Puffer:

 

 

Gold-Spot Rabbitfish (sold as orange-spot as many seem to be):

 

Majestic Angel:

 

 

Community Shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2008 by Brian Ward

[Jon Lazar]

Brian,

 

Since the hair algae problem is in the FOWLR tank, can you cut your lights way back? I don't know whether you're using typical reef lighting or just normal output lighting, but even cutting back NO lighting will help you fight the algae.

 

You might also consider adding a grazing fish like a foxface or yellow tang.

 

Jon

 

 

Here are some new pics of the FOWLR, including the new porcupine puffer I got at the social. I'm battling hair algae and microbubbles in this tank.

[Brian Ward]

Brian,

 

Since the hair algae problem is in the FOWLR tank, can you cut your lights way back? I don't know whether you're using typical reef lighting or just normal output lighting, but even cutting back NO lighting will help you fight the algae.

 

You might also consider adding a grazing fish like a foxface or yellow tang.

 

Jon

 

 

 

 

The lighting is VHO. The inital cause of the outbreak was a nitrate spike coupled with old light bulbs. I've since replaced the bulbs, but I the root cause of the hair algae is still nitrates - even after a 35 gal water change, they're still reading 10 (I think it's in mg/l ?). I've got to step up my water changes and I'll do another one on Wed - shooting for 2 ~35 gal water changes/wk. That's about 25% twice a week. I also need to adjust my skimmer to skim a bit wetter than I have been, unfortunatey it's an RS180 so dialing in the skimmer is a bit harder than on the recirculating skimmers or those that have the gate valve mod. I have an algae blenny and I've added 7 mexican turbo snails (hopefully I can keep the puffer from eating them). The flame angel, blue hippo tang, purple tang, majestic angel and rabbitfish should all be grazing on the algae but none of them touch it. The flame angel and blue hippo both did when I first added them but I guess they've developed a taste for other things. I'm also dosing vodka to reduce the nitrates. I'm up to 5 ml/day. I should probably reduce the photoperiod as well - it's at 7.5 hrs right now and I can probably take it down to 5 hrs without too much trouble.

[Sugar Magnolia]

You have some really beautiful fish Brian.

[BrendanG]

have you tried upping your mag levels to 1500? Most swear by Kent Tech M. When you raise your mag levels, Hair Algae turns yellow, then brown, and just receeds to the point that it just dies off. Remove any excess with your siphon, and you'll be hair algae free. You have a beautiful tank, Keep us posted, it should look great when that Hair Algae is gone

There are multiple threads on RC concerning increasing your mag levels with out harmful effects. Good Luck

 

 

 

Thats a huge Rabbitfish!

Edited November 5, 2008 by BrendanG

[Brian Ward]

have you tried upping your mag levels to 1500? when you raise your mag levels, Hair Algae turns yellow, then brown, and just dies off. Remove any excess with your siphon, and you'll be hair algae free. There are multiple threads on RC concerning increasing your mag levels with out harmful effects. Good Luck

 

I just added a UV Sterilizer. I'll also try raising magnesium levels. Right now I'm keeping them around 1350, but I'll look for the articles about going higher. Anyone else heard of this?

[Sugar Magnolia]

I read a few articles over at RC. One guy was making a paste out of the TechM and applying it directly to the HA and it was dying at a pretty fast rate. You could also try adding a fwe sea hares to the tank, they chow down on the HA.

[jamesbuf]

I read a few articles over at RC. One guy was making a paste out of the TechM and applying it directly to the HA and it was dying at a pretty fast rate. You could also try adding a fwe sea hares to the tank, they chow down on the HA.

 

 

Yeah, but those FOWLR fish would have a field day with a sea hare. I especially wouldn't trust that porcupine not to attach one of those.

[Brian Ward]

I'm working on setting up a frag tank to connect to my main system. I acquired a 40L from another member and built a simple stand. I'll eventually add cabinetry to this as well. The bracing on the tank was broken, so I decided to turn it into a rimless tank. I pulled all the trip off and cleaned off the excess silicone. I'm going to redo all the silicone seals and I'm working on a eurobrace for the top.

 

Here are some pics of where I am so far, complete with the template for my eurobrace:

 

 

 

I'm going to use this template to cut and route out a piece of acrylic to silicone into place. Anyone see any problems so far? I think I'm going to open up the center area a little more, cutting 3/8" to 1/2" all the way around. Anyone think that would be a problem? They're 1 1/2" wide now.

[CHUBAKAH]

Only potential problem I see so far is finding a bonding system that will adequately hold the acrylic to the glass that will hold up. Unless there is something out I have yet to hear about [available to the consumer] adhering glass to acrylic is still in the early stages.

[Brian Ward]

Only potential problem I see so far is finding a bonding system that will adequately hold the acrylic to the glass that will hold up. Unless there is something out I have yet to hear about [available to the consumer] adhering glass to acrylic is still in the early stages.

 

I was actually under the impression that silicone - the same as what you would use to bond glass to glass would be sufficient. It sounds like this isn't the case? If so, I can build an additional piece to hook over the top of the tank - that just makes it much more complicated.

 

Anyone else confirm that a silicone bond is insufficient?

[amay121]

Silicone would work. It's the same theory with baffles. On a side note, darn, I feel bad now. :( When my tank comes up, I'll offer you some things. Need some small fiji rocks (base)? I have some.

[Brian Ward]

Silicone would work. It's the same theory with baffles. On a side note, darn, I feel bad now. :( When my tank comes up, I'll offer you some things. Need some small fiji rocks (base)? I have some.

 

Don't worry about it ... price was right. A 40L retails for about $150. Besides, I think it gives a much cleaner look and it'll be in the open, so looks are actually important for this frag tank.

[Brian Ward]

Silicone would work. It's the same theory with baffles. On a side note, darn, I feel bad now. :( When my tank comes up, I'll offer you some things. Need some small fiji rocks (base)? I have some.

 

The only think I was worried about with the silicone is its tensile strength. I'm thinking it's sufficient since the edge seams use it, and I'm going to add some more silicone to all the edges just to be sure. But it does place a fair amount of stress on the silicone bond (though not great, it's only a 12" or 14" deep tank) to keep the sides from bowing out.

[CHUBAKAH]

I would send Jeff [ NAGA ] a PM and ask him. People have wanted acrylic tanks with a glass fronts for a long time, and last I spoke to Jeff there was a product just hitting the streets to bond glass and acrylic which would make this possible.