txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 Hello All, I am setting up a 215g tank (72x24x29). I got the tank 2 weeks ago and have been setting it up since then. I plan to use this thread to show picture updates of the tank, as well as post information regarding its progress. For the first few posts, I will be doing a catch up until we are at the current position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 Sunday November 15, 2009 Current Equipment: Oceanic 215g Aquarium (72x24x29) Oceanic Black Oak stand Custom canopy with 4x175W metal halide and 4x39W T5. ASM G1-X Protein Skimmer 40g Sump 250W Heater 1L Carbon w/ MJ600 MJ1200 with mod Koralia 3 Rio 2500+ Return Pump Gamma UV Sterilizer 40W On Order Equipment: 4x175W Plusrite 14000K Metal Halide bulbs 4x39W 420nm T5-HO Eshopps PF-1200 Overflow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 (edited) Wednesday November 18, 2009 Here is a shot of the tank. This is prior to me cleaning it out. The tank will go up on the stand tonight. I will get some more pictures and upload them later. The lighting hood thingy is sitting on top of the tank in the picture. I am going to suspend that 6-8" above the tank once everything is in place. Later that day So, I put the tank up today. Here are some pictures. (the cat is massive....do not misinterpret the scale) I put my new bulbs in. I don't get the actinics until tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the 4x175W 14k MH bulbs. The canopy will be raised 6-8 inches off the tank. Edited December 1, 2009 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 Sunday November 22, 2009 Yesterday I went to hang the canopy and discovered that my joists and beams are not in the right place. The wires would be 7 inches from the left end and 15 from the right. I made a quick (still took me awhile) set of legs to hold the light above the tank. Today I am going to make a canopy to put over the tank. In other news, I have the water 3/4 full and I am not happy with the 14k bulbs. Part of the problem is the lack of a canopy spreads the light all over the room, thus diluting the effect of the fish tank. The other bit seems to be that it is just too yellow. I am ok with it if I run only 2x175, because then the actinics are of much more effect. I am thinking I will exchange the bulbs for 20k. I will exchange at least 2 of the bulbs. Then I would run the bulbs with the 20k on the outside and the 14ks in the middle so it would go 20k, 14k, 14k, 20k. Anyone have an opinion on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 (edited) Monday November 23, 2009 I should have pictures today or tomorrow. I ordered some powerheads and some 20k bulbs. Hopefully I will have them in soon. My powerhead configuration will be 2xMJ1200 w/ mod on each side and a koralia 3 somewhere, possibly the middle. That will give me 1600gph x 4 + 850. That will give me about 7250 gph of flow, which is about 33x. For lighting, I plan to do the following. 4x39W Actinics on 8 hours per day 2x175W 20000k on 5-6 hours per day (far left and far right bulbs) 2x175W 14000k on 3-4 hours per day (middle two bulbs) Correction: I didn't realize the MJ mod came with a 2100gph impeller as well as the 1600 gph one. It looks as though I will be doing 2100x4+850. My new flow is 9250 gph, or ~43x Later that day This shot is with the actinics and 2x175W. It becomes too white for my taste after adding in the other two 175W MH bulbs. I will be getting 20k bulbs on Wednesday at which I will be running 2x175W 14k and 2x175W 20k w/ 4x39W actinic. Edited December 1, 2009 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 Monday November 30, 2009 I had an outbreak of Ich. I have moved corals out and am in the process of dropping to hypo. I got the UV hooked up to help with the free floating ich. I havent seen spots in a few days, but I am sure they will pop up again any day now. I should be down to 1.010 by mid to end of the week. I have pictures of the tank, but have not uploaded them yet. Should come soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 (edited) Now up-to-date Sadly, signs of ich reappeared last night. Nothing major yet. Also, I now have my new 20k bulbs in. I am now going to running 2x175W 20K and 2x175W 14k + 4x39W actinics. I am very pleased with the color. I also got the MJ1200s w/mods in yesterday. I discovered that the magnet I had was the weaker version of the sureflow magenets. My new magnet is awesome, the old one, not so much. However, I took one magnet from each set and it seems to do the trick. I might have to buy another strong one in the future. I am holding 2 MJ1200 with each magnet. I promise...up to date pictures tonight or tomorrow. Edited December 1, 2009 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
extreme_tooth_decay December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 It looks nice in that room. Sunday November 15, 2009ASM G1-X Protein Skimmer Isn't that super undersized? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 thats not a cat its a freaking mountain lion, haha I really like the depth of the tank, what reflectors are you running, many of the nicer reflectors seem to not fill up the room as much, i know my spiders while cheap in in budget disburse alot of light. Sorry to hear bout the ich hope that get gone soon. is the tank drilled or is that an overflow i spy in the left corner? cant wait to see more pics, im very jealous of your tank, my 150 was too skinny for my tastes, the 90 even more so now but you gotta do what ya gotta do. hope that mountain lion doesn learn how to fish. It looks nice in that room. Isn't that super undersized? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 It looks nice in that room. Isn't that super undersized? Yes...although I will say that I feed less now because I have my puffer in a different tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 (edited) thats not a cat its a freaking mountain lion, haha I really like the depth of the tank, what reflectors are you running, many of the nicer reflectors seem to not fill up the room as much, i know my spiders while cheap in in budget disburse alot of light. Sorry to hear bout the ich hope that get gone soon. is the tank drilled or is that an overflow i spy in the left corner? cant wait to see more pics, im very jealous of your tank, my 150 was too skinny for my tastes, the 90 even more so now but you gotta do what ya gotta do. hope that mountain lion doesn learn how to fish. I honestly dont know which reflectors they are. They came with the tank I bought. I can take pictures of the canopy setup later today. I built an oak canopy around that black canopy that was provided with the tank. The tank is not drilled. In the corner you see the eshopps PF-1200. I have it connected now and it works great. I put a piece of black coroplast behind the tank, which hides the overflow, plumbing, and cords. Also, the Mountain Lions name is Pinecone. He is 17lbs...and according to the vet, not overweight....just really big. Edited December 1, 2009 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabrego December 2, 2009 Share December 2, 2009 Nice tank! Nice to see a fellow Texan and a fellow Aggie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak December 2, 2009 Share December 2, 2009 Dude looks awesome! Any thoughts on putting a background on that tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 2, 2009 Author Share December 2, 2009 Dude looks awesome! Any thoughts on putting a background on that tank? Already done....should be posting pictures tonight or tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 2, 2009 Author Share December 2, 2009 Nice tank! Nice to see a fellow Texan and a fellow Aggie! Gig 'em Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 2, 2009 Author Share December 2, 2009 (edited) New pictures These are all a little blue since I was only running the 2x175W 20K + actinics and had my 2x175W 14k off. 2x175W 20K + actinic Canopy Under the tank Side of Tank 2x175W 20k + 1x175W 14k + actinics (my other 14k spot was unplugged to run a filter on my hospital tank. Edited December 2, 2009 by txaggies07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 3, 2009 Author Share December 3, 2009 Looking into a MSX 250 or 300 Protein Skimmer for the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 4, 2009 Author Share December 4, 2009 I am getting the MSX/SWC 250. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 December 9, 2009 Author Share December 9, 2009 I lost a butterfly fish from the display tank and my Maroon Clown that was in my hospital tank. The butterfly had ich, along with the rest of the tank. I have the display in hypo. I took out the inverts and the coral. The Maroon had something weird wrong with her. I think it could have been Brooklynella, but I would have expected her to die faster. The small maroon clown is still alive in the hospital tank, although he looks pretty bad. The rest of the tank is looking a little better. The fish seem to be taking hypo pretty well. My powder brown tang and my emporer angel currently look the worst, although they don't look too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txaggies07 January 11, 2010 Author Share January 11, 2010 Well, it has been 5 or so weeks since my tank made it down to a sg of 1.009. The tank has been ich free for almost 4 weeks. I am going to raise the salinity starting this week. I did encounter one problem in that my refactometer broke and I am not sure exactly when. My tank is slightly out of hypo right now at 1.014. I am pretty sure the jump happened within the past week. I have lost a decent number of fish from ich. I lost my two clowns, although they seemed to have some secondary infections going on that I just wasn't able to heal. They improved for a few days in a hospital tank before going quickly downhill a week later. I lost my emperor angel. He was hit the worst by the ich. I also lost my powder brown tang, who got ich pretty badly. My sailfin tang and green bird wrasse both had ich badly, but have since been ich free for about a month. In other news, I re-did my plumbing a week ago. I added a 14g refugium next to the sump. It sits a bit higher than the sump and uses gravity to drain water into the sump to avoid overflowing (no pump). The drain line from the tank to the sump now has a tee to run over to the fuge. I do have one problem though, my fuge is leaking water and so I have closed the ball valve allowing water to drain to it and disconnected it from the system. I am planning to replace it with a 10g if I can drill it for a 3/4" bulkhead. Also, I am a proud new owner of the SWC 250 Protein Skimmer. I got it from my parents for christmas. It was working great, even in hypo. I did have to send one pump back due to a noise issue that I know shouldn't be there. I should have the pump back within a week. I should be posting pictures in the next week or so of the changes. The tank looks like crap right now because I haven't had time to mess with the powerheads, so they have been blowing the sand around. I currently only have two MJ-1200 with mods running. I am going to go back to the 1600 gph propeller and then run all four. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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