Wreck's Aquariums

[wreck]

I thought I would share some pictures and info on my two 55 gallon marine aquariums. I setup my first 55 saltwater tank in the spring of 2005 as a FOWLR with 80 watt normal output flouorescents and a canister filter. The first fish I added were my pair of Tomato Clownfish that my brother gave me from his tank breakdown. They are still in the tank and I have two batches of their babies, born in Aug/September 2007, growing out in another 55. I slowly added/upgraded equipment to how I have it setup today, which I am pretty happy with, but there's always something to upgrade, right?

 

So here is picture of my tank in October 2007, I had just added my first LPS. a green candy cane:

 

 

Here is a picture of my tank last week 5/12/08, I just added a second 175 MH on the left side of the tank and I have just started adding some SPS:

 

 

Thanks for looking, I appreciate any comments or suggestions to make my tank better. I'll add some pictures of my equipment and such later.

 

Wreck

[NRehman]

Wreck. Looking good.

 

Would you want to add antoher powerhead for more flow (I see two). I find dead spots to be a killer (sic).

 

[wreck]

Wreck. Looking good.

 

Would you want to add antoher powerhead for more flow (I see two). I find dead spots to be a killer (sic).

 

 

I actually removed the koralia and put a SeaFlo prop mod on the maxijet600 i think, you can see it in the second picture, the modded 1200 was blasting my sand down to the bottom. So currently I'm only running the one modded MJ plus the return. The left side of the tank, the MJ mod is on the right side, is the calm side and the hammer and fragspawn seem to like it and there is no buildup of detritus on the sand. I tried two Seaflo maxijets in the tank but sand was getting blown everywhere, but I may try to add a MJ400 with a Seaflo mod and see how that works.

Thanks,

Wreck

[wreck]

Some more pics of my 55 setup:

Here is a pic of my lighting, DIY canopy with two 175MH 14k and 4X65w PCs, 2 10k and 2 actinic, plus blue led moonlights:

 

Here is my GEO Kalkreactor, too big to fit under the tank:

 

Here is my sump/fuge, some PCs lighting with chaeto, Berlin Turbo skimmer slight mods, and a Fluval 104 that I run phosphate remover in:

 

Thanks for looking!!

[JMsAquarium]

Very nice. I like your rock work. What type of ballast are you using tor your MH, and what brand are the bulbs? I will be using 175 watters my self, and I like the color in your 2nd pic.

 

Thanks

 

JM

[wreck]

Very nice. I like your rock work. What type of ballast are you using tor your MH, and what brand are the bulbs? I will be using 175 watters my self, and I like the color in your 2nd pic.

 

Thanks

 

JM

 

Thanks, I have two seperate ballasts not sure of the make of either, I bought one from an electrician who made it himself with one 175MH and the 4 CFs, the other I bought off of wamas, but I think they are both m57 ballasts. One of the bulbs is a Chinese Aquamedic 14k i got off ebay for $10 the other on the left side of the tank is a Plusrite 14k.

Wreck

 

 

 

 

Also I think the first pic is when I was only running a single 175MH with a 10k bulb and 4CFs. Second pic is with dual 14k MHs and 4 CFs.

[JMsAquarium]

Thanks, I have two seperate ballasts not sure of the make of either, I bought one from an electrician who made it himself with one 175MH and the 4 CFs, the other I bought off of wamas, but I think they are both m57 ballasts. One of the bulbs is a Chinese Aquamedic 14k i got off ebay for $10 the other on the left side of the tank is a Plusrite 14k.

Wreck

Also I think the first pic is when I was only running a single 175MH with a 10k bulb and 4CFs. Second pic is with dual 14k MHs and 4 CFs.

 

 

Thanks , I have the same ballasts (M57s). I like the dual 14Ks. Did you get a chance on measuring the PAR output of these bulbs?

[wreck]

Thanks , I have the same ballasts (M57s). I like the dual 14Ks. Did you get a chance on measuring the PAR output of these bulbs?

 

I was going to get a PAR measurement but the WAMAS PAR meter was a little inconvenient to borrow for me.

[reefmontalvo]

Very nice tank. Do you run a canister with the refugium?

[wreck]

Very nice tank. Do you run a canister with the refugium?

 

Thanks, I run the Fluval 104 canister filter(from an old FW tank) with phosphate remover, you can see it in the picture of the sump. I'm going to either build a new phosban reactor or buy one because the 104 is a pain to prime after maintenance or power outage.

Wreck

[reefmontalvo]

Really, so...just to pic your brain a bit. I have a canister filter a penn plax 700. I could use to make a phos reactor and a carbon reactor. Since that is what a reactor is just water flowing thru media. So would it be best to run the water in and out of the sump.

Edited June 3, 2008 by reefmontalvo

[wreck]

Really, so...just to pic your brain a bit. I have a canister filter a penn plax 700. I could use to make a phos reactor and a carbon reactor. Since that is what a reactor is just water flowing thru media. So would it be best to run the water in and out of the sump.

 

That's what I do, canister pulling water out and output back into sump. The only issue is the flow through the canister should be around 80-100 gph for efficient phosphate removal. I'm not familiar with the penn plax 700, but if it's a small canister it should be fine.

Wreck

[reefmontalvo]

Great, I know it is with in those parameters. It will sure help me save money on buying a pump and reactor. I guess you can say I'm doing my part to recylce some good equipment.

[wreck]

Great, I know it is with in those parameters. It will sure help me save money on buying a pump and reactor. I guess you can say I'm doing my part to recylce some good equipment.

 

I'm all for recycling and repurposing everything.

[reefmontalvo]

Dude H-E-double hocky sticks yeah. These days it just cost way to much to try and get every thing your going to need. I'm the firm believer in DIY and not tryn to skimp on DIY. But in some cases you have to have the right tol for the job, but in the case of a canister filter it is in fact a reactor, but with extra filter media.

[wreck]

I got tired of priming the fluval 104 that i use to run phosphate remover and carbon. The impeller would get stuck and not start up sometimes if the power went out and then I would have to remove the filter and try to get it going again, big pain in the neck. After the recent power outages, I had to pull the filter out and decided to try something. I fitted a Maxijet 600 to the input line and removed the impeller to unrestrict any flow. I reinstalled it , plugged it in and got just the right flow, guess I won't have to buy that phosphate reactor after all.

Wreck