Yo, Mike!

[Ford DNA]

You got your very own thread. So you doing any fish tanks right now? Got my ro/di hooked up and running and started cycling my 37g with live rock from Stephen (boydx6)'s system. Hoping for a quick cycle. Those are some badass rocks he got from you!! Where did you get them? I've never seen any that big and unique at any LFS.

BTW, I finally made it over to FAOIS. What a haul..holy shit..but I got the salt mix I wanted for $10 cheaper than everywhere else. Small shop, but real nice. Felt cramped on a Saturday. *anxiety attack*

[864I'DCaprI]

Stephan (boyd6) is a GREAT guy Amanda. We have hung out with him and bought and sold ALOT of stuff. Tell him me and the famz say HI. I gotta call him one day. Na no fish tanks yet, but I do plan on getting one really soon.

Make sure you post some pics up when ya can.... Pretty much everyone or close to it you talk to or meet on that place will tell you theve met me or something!!! Ive gotten around in a non whorish kinda way :nerd:

[864I'DCaprI]

And FAOIS is a great pace, John is a VERY smart man when it comes to the SW stuff, just dont expect cookies and a hand shake when ya see him :lol: .... Long story on that one ;) Those BIG rocks were dead when I got them, I made them into live rock and added some Zoas on them to make them nice looking!!

[Ford DNA]

You told me the cookie story before. That's okay...I'm not at the fish store to make friends. LOL

Here's pics. I'm NOT happy at all with the 'scape, but it's hard working with these dimensions..30x12x22tall. THAT'S TWELVE INCHES wide. And TWENTY-TWO inches tall. It's awkward! None of the rocks i got are easy to stack with. grr

This is gonna be my QT tank when I get a bigger tank, but I figured I'd tinker with it and learn a bit with it in the meantime. Newest pics are last.

forddna/Fishies/120 Gallon Freshwater Tank/37g Eclipse - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v704/forddna/Fishies/120%20Gallon%20Freshwater%20Tank/37g%20Eclipse/)

[Badlatitude]

What do you have for lighting? You're gonna need halides or HQIs for the reef if you want to grow nice sick purple coraline on your rock. For the lighting you WILL need a chiller! and you wount need that heater. Most people put them in their sump and use a reef safe titanium heater thoose glass one break and kill reef tanks. Also It looks like you need more power heads imho you should put an ocilating one on either back top corner and a comple lil baby ones in or behind the rock .

Dont forget your living matience crew .. alot of people over look the importance of their clean up crew and fail at reef keeping. No only do your blue legs and a large blenny clean up funk and poop but they also keep your agregate on the bottom in shape . Some turbo grazer or astria snails are needed also.

DONT cycle your tank with anything you dont want in the tank later. catching a fish out of a reef is a nightmare! Damsils get VERY nasty and pick at other fish as they age. avoid them! Use Blue Chromis to cycle your tank they can remain later and are nice fish they school well and are hearty and cheap too. Anthias are another great choice for a beginner imho because they eat well and school up with each other very well and have nice color. I would personally avoid tangs and angels for a while untill you get thru your struggling phase

How many gallons is your sump? In a reef you willnot need a "FIlter" per say once its a running system. You will however need a UV sterializer , protine skimmer and a micron (u can get the tube clusters that have micron , UV togather)

btw we found that Instant Ocean is a superior salt.

We used to have a filtration room here with a 400 gallon sump with quads , 3 chillers a 6ft skimmer and all awaki pumps. for our reef side of the system which consisted of a 150 mixed soft reef, 110 sps reef 58 sps reef and a 65hex seahorse tank along with a few frag/ grow out tanks. Then we had 3 isolation /med tanks. A seperate 150 with a octopus and a big eel in it. Our electric bill WITHOUT AC in the summer was 400 and change a month haha

My step brother and 2 friends still do reef tanks for a living and him and I have been talking about doing another reef here but im kinda over it. It was hours a work every night and a solid half day on a weekend every week =(

[Ford DNA]

Like I said, this is just going to be torn down in the next 3-6 months to be my quarantine tank, so I'm not pouring much money into it. I'm just going to keep zoas and mushrooms. Low tech, low budget setup. No sump, no skimmer, no MH's. I wouldn't put a tang in a 37g!

[Badlatitude]

I thought u were doing a small reef. and yes u can do a single tang in a 37gallon. BUT only if you have a large sump!! thats the secret to some of theese killer small reefs and Nano's u see pictures of. For example if u dont have room for a big tank in your house but can work with several smaller ones and you have a basement. you plumb a sump in the basement with all your filtration and then to the tanks ect. Thats why i asked what size sump you have. For example a 40 gallon tank with a 100 gallon sump and killer lights , filtration system would blow away a 75 gallon tank with no sump. Just because you have more water volume which means more dilution and a healthier system.

Get yourself some medical syringes and a bottle of kalkwasser which is calcium hydroxide .. your gonna need to to kill aptasia its the most effective thing going. you stab the little bastards and inject them with it

It sucks everything seems to always be in the wrong state. If i had my reef stuff in FL id hook you up with what I have left.

[$hawn]

What do you have for lighting? You're gonna need halides or HQIs for the reef if you want to grow nice sick purple coraline on your rock. For the lighting you WILL need a chiller! and you wount need that heater. Most people put them in their sump and use a reef safe titanium heater thoose glass one break and kill reef tanks. Also It looks like you need more power heads imho you should put an ocilating one on either back top corner and a comple lil baby ones in or behind the rock .

Dont forget your living matience crew .. alot of people over look the importance of their clean up crew and fail at reef keeping. No only do your blue legs and a large blenny clean up funk and poop but they also keep your agregate on the bottom in shape . Some turbo grazer or astria snails are needed also.

DONT cycle your tank with anything you dont want in the tank later. catching a fish out of a reef is a nightmare! Damsils get VERY nasty and pick at other fish as they age. avoid them! Use Blue Chromis to cycle your tank they can remain later and are nice fish they school well and are hearty and cheap too. Anthias are another great choice for a beginner imho because they eat well and school up with each other very well and have nice color. I would personally avoid tangs and angels for a while untill you get thru your struggling phase

How many gallons is your sump? In a reef you willnot need a "FIlter" per say once its a running system. You will however need a UV sterializer , protine skimmer and a micron (u can get the tube clusters that have micron , UV togather)

btw we found that Instant Ocean is a superior salt.

We used to have a filtration room here with a 400 gallon sump with quads , 3 chillers a 6ft skimmer and all awaki pumps. for our reef side of the system which consisted of a 150 mixed soft reef, 110 sps reef 58 sps reef and a 65hex seahorse tank along with a few frag/ grow out tanks. Then we had 3 isolation /med tanks. A seperate 150 with a octopus and a big eel in it. Our electric bill WITHOUT AC in the summer was 400 and change a month haha

My step brother and 2 friends still do reef tanks for a living and him and I have been talking about doing another reef here but im kinda over it. It was hours a work every night and a solid half day on a weekend every week =(


all SO true.

plus diving helps fund the live rock :cool:

funny story, for a few weeks every time i came home i thought i could smell something burning....couldnt figure it out. one day as i was adding water to the sump i noticed the (guess you could call it a transformer) on the end of the power cord for the UV was melted...lol I went to unplug it and it burnt the hell outta my hand. lucky it didn't burn the house down

[Badlatitude]

yeah we wound up buying the metal commercial power strips because the cheaper home ones used to cook and stink like burning. never had the transformer thingy on a UV cook.. maybe it got wet?

[BAMF]

Like I said, this is just going to be torn down in the next 3-6 months to be my quarantine tank, so I'm not pouring much money into it. I'm just going to keep zoas and mushrooms. Low tech, low budget setup. No sump, no skimmer, no MH's. I wouldn't put a tang in a 37g!

You got mushrooms brewin', hun? :yumyum:

[864I'DCaprI]

T-5s is all I gotta say......Ive seen MANY successful tanks growing clams and shit like that with just T5s. Ive had them with awsome results. Put a fan or 2 or 3 over the top of the water on the display tank and if its got a canopy put a fan in there and vent that bitch. If you got a sump get a low heat transfer return pump and put a fan over the sump also. I had OVER 1600 watts of lighting on my 180 and NEVER needed a chiller....

[Badlatitude]

U must keep your AC on 55 degrees LOL we had three 400s with fans on a 110 with a 75 gal sump and the tank was a constant 85 degrees. Im a firm believer in over kill is better. then again im an SPS ADDICT so when NY had its black out a few yrs back i lost 14K in acros If i do another tank im gonna wait a few yrs and do a 400 with a 150 sump all sps and just sit infront of it and sip a beer smiling. I just want to finish the remodeling (3rd time haha) here 1st