Ziggy953's 72g Bow

[tbittner]

Excellent! Maybe you can buy this 150 I'm going to have empty soon for her!

[Ziggy953]

We talked about it on the way home last night...depending on how much you want for it I may be very interested in having it!!!

[Ziggy953]

So for some updated pics of the tank with out the Giant Teal Acro colony.

 

 

The Teal Acro colony out of the water....ruler for scale

 

 

Oh yeah and the Frogspawn in the center of the tank is half what it used to be.... I have 18 heads on one frag and 6 on another that came from the monster I'm not sure how many are left on what is in the tank but I would say more then 30. All from a 2 head frag off ebay.

[st9z]

WOW very nice tank. I love the aquascaping!

[Ziggy953]

Thanks...The rockwork used to be continuous but we had to move the tank a few feet and my wife came up with the idea fo the two "islands". I'm really pleased with how it turned out as well.

[tbittner]

That Acro is HUGE!!! And your frogspawn actually doesn't look that much smaller. It was apparently VERY full.

[Ziggy953]

The frogspawn is only about half what it was before. It's still a nice large piece.

 

The Acro was larger then I thought it was. I was surprised when I had it out how large it really was.

[Ziggy953]

Here is a current pic of my RBTA taken yesterday. It has filled out so much and the tentacles stay "bulbed". I love this anemone. If I could just get my clowns to love it as much. LOL

 

Edited June 28, 2008 by Ziggy953

[tbittner]

You know, this thread is LONG overdue for some updated pics!!!

[Ziggy953]

You are right this thread is way overdue for some updates....

 

So here we go....

 

The updates are not all pleasant.

 

The 150: I got it drilled built and designed an awesome plumbing system and got the tank onto my stand and started filling it. We were able to get the rock work setup, the corals and the fish into the tank. It took a couple of days. Everything looked awesome!

 

 

This is where the happy part of this story ends. We got the top back on the tank and fired the lights up and it was time for me to head to work. At 4:45am my wife called me to tell me that there was water everywhere! I freaked and thought it was one of my bulkheads leaking, wrong....There was about 10" of water left in the tank when I got home at 5:30am. I got my 90g pond back out and started pumping what water was left out of the tank and into it. I got the rock and corals out of the tank and into the pond. The fish went into the 55g frag tank. I worked for about 3 hours getting all the water out and into the pond. Thankfully I had just finished making 64g of new SW the day before preparing for a PWC over the weekend. I used that to finish filling the pond and replacing the water I lost in my sumps to get the pumps running on the frag tank again.

 

At this point I had been up for over 24 hours and I had to get some sleep. So I took a nap. When I got up I started scooping the sand out of the tank and that is when I found the cause of my issues. A crack that as it turns out ran from one side of the tank to the other (on the bottom). Totally my fault. My stand coupled with some foam = bad experience with the tank. I was to the point of getting rid of everything. My wife talked me into going out and getting a tank to replace the 150. We decided that since we were going to upgrade we might as well upgrade. I went to Centreville Aquarium and picked up a 120g (48x24x24) same foot print as the 150 just shorter. I modified my stand with a 1/2 piece of Hardibacker board (used in tile work) to get things nice and flat. Shim here shim there and things were good to go.

 

I test filled the 120 3 times before putting the first bit of SW in it. I wanted to make sure that history was not going to repeat it's self. So after a couple days having my reef in a 90g pond on the floor with no skimmer and minimal flow I lost a few things. Thankfully I have frags of everything I lost.

 

So her we go with the pics....

 

The new 120

 

The 120 painted

 

Being filled with SW (sand in)

 

Some of the rock work in the tank

 

The rock work complete

 

After the canopy was back on and the water cleared

 

With some of the corals in place.

[tbittner]

OMG!!! What happened to it? Patti and I feel HORRIBLE!!! :(

[Ziggy953]

OMG!!! What happened to it? Patti and I feel HORRIBLE!!! :(

 

It was totally my fault. The way I built my stand the surface was not a flat piece of plywood. I created an oak hardwood floor look to it. So being a dork I thought well foam worked for the 72 so it will work for the 150. Well I found out that it did not work. Completely my fault.

 

It made me sick I was debating all the way home that morning if I was even going to worry with it at all and just get out of the hobby. My wife was more upset then I was, she did some crying...she also convinced me to go out that evening and buy the 120. I reconfigured the top of the stand, removing all the oak and putting down a piece of 1/2" hardibacker board on top of the 3/4" plywood. I test filled the tank several times before adding the sand and SW. I even went to the lengths of calling the manufacturer of the tank (the 120) to get their take on proper stands and the lot. I talked to a ton of different people on how they have similar tanks setup the stand and what it was sitting on.

 

I still haven't gotten to the point of enjoying my upgrade..I'm too worried that it may happen again. I'm getting there though. I'm going to The Aquarium Company tomorrow to check things out and maybe pick up a few "feel better" corals for the tank.

 

I lost a few colonies in the adventure...

 

When the world knocks you down you have to get back up...

[Jon Lazar]

Sorry to hear about your catastrophe and I hope everyone recovers soon...especially you and your wife.

 

Jon

[Ziggy953]

Thanks Jon,

 

We are getting there. A trip to BRK and a few other LFSs has me feeling better about things.

 

The 120 is looking good. I really like the dimensions of this tank. IT gave us lots of room to work and still lots of open room for the fish to swim.

Edited August 1, 2008 by Ziggy953

[tygger]

Sorry to hear... glad you decided to stay in the hobby. Good luck and looking forward to new pics.

[Ziggy953]

I should be posting some new pics tomorrow or Sunday...I picked up 8 new corals that are camera hogs....hehe....

 

Thanks for the kind words! I don't think I could get out of this hobby now if I had to. I've got my wife hooked!! :D

[Neilan]

And now he's got me hooked. Someone had to get that 72 he wasn't using anymore out of his house!

[johnnybv]

I should be posting some new pics tomorrow or Sunday...I picked up 8 new corals that are camera hogs....hehe....

 

Thanks for the kind words! I don't think I could get out of this hobby now if I had to. I've got my wife hooked!! :D

Allen, let me know when you are going to be coming to BRK next, I will get you a few more "feel good" clippings from my tank.

john

[Ziggy953]

Thanks John!!!

 

Feel good clippings from your system are worth a special trip to see you!!!

[Ziggy953]

Whew it has been an ordeal getting this thing back up and running. I finally have all the fish....well all the fish I'm putting back in the tank...in there and most of the corals. I still have several in my frag system that I 'm not sure where to place just yet.

 

Everything is doing great. I have no complaints about the health of my corals or fish at this point. They have been through a lot and have done really well. The only thing that bugs the heck out of me is I had such amazing colonies and now I'm back to just frags. Oh well.

 

I've made a couple of pick ups from BRK over the last couple of weeks and soon it will be time for me to start adding some new equipment. I'm trying to find a kalk stirrer (used at a good price) and I would also like to add a CA reactor to the system. I have so many SPS corals in the system now that I can justify adding those two components.

 

I'm rebuilding my canopy this fall. I'm going with 2 lumenbrite minis to direct the light into the tank. I haven't decided if I will eliminate the VHOs and go with just the T5s for actinic supplement or not.

 

My ricordeas that I picked up from BRK have gone nuts and 2 of them have already split.

 

Here is a current FTS of the 120.

 

[Ziggy953]

Just a quick update and a few pics....

 

Things are improving every day. I'm seeing more growth from the acros and other SPS in the tank. Colors are getting back to normal and I'm pleased to say that coraline is starting on the back glass and the overflow boxes.

 

Here are a few pics I took this week...

 

[zoozilla]

Looking good.

[jason the filter freak]

LOOKING GOOD, your BTA looks like mine the way it outstretches out

Edited October 27, 2008 by jason the filter freak

[tbittner]

Everything is looking great!

[Ziggy953]

Thanks everyone! It has been a process. I'm just starting to actually enjoy the upgrade.

 

The RBTA didn't used to do that. If you look at the previous pics of it, it usually stayed bulbed up. Either way I'm pleased with how well it has colored up. I was starting to worry. It bleached a quite a bit during the tank disaster.

 

Now I have to stop procrastinating and take the canopy off the tank and get the rest of the corals put in place. I have so many to put in the tank yet. On the far right of the tank the rock that has the AOG zoas on it, I'm going to do a Zoa garden. A few polyps of every zoa I have on that one rock and let them do their thing. I'm kind of doing something similar on the other side of the tank with Ricordeas. So in short I have a lot of work to do still. I just hate taking the canopy down. It's a pain.

 

Anyway Thanks for the comments. I'll make sure to keep this thread updated.