The Reef Central Corner Club Thread

[McLovit]

Originally posted by boret
Updated picture:
Still playing around with different apertures to find the proper DOF for my tank but slowly improving the quality of the pics.

Boret nice tank, did that monti grow on the back of your tank on the left or did you 'glue' it there?

[boret]

Thanks McLovit!

I used an Aqua-Mag to attach a small piece that broke off the main Orange Cap that I have (these corals grow like crazy).

Aqua-mag



The piece was maybe 1" by 2". I placed it in the glass on the left side and in about 4 month it grew 4 times its original size. I made the mistake of putting it a bit to high (almost halfway up in that glass) and it started to shade everything underneath so I decided to lower it. When I tried to move it I found out that it was actually attached to the glass.I put a bit of pressure and it broke off leaving about a 1/2" fringe of the coral on the glass. It has now grown into about an inch and it is starting to fold up out of the glass towards the light.

I am sure that if I try to glue a piece there it will die!! But when they do it on their own they just grow.

here is a close up of it:



BTW, with the new DSLR pictures I get huge images that I am making smaller to post but I am not reducing them that much. Please let me know if the larger pictures are TOO big and they make it browsing this thread a pain. I can easily reduce its size. I have high speed internet and it doesn't take more than a split second to download them, but maybe people in other countries are having trouble loading them due to latency, or maybe there are some out there still using Dial Up. What do you guys think should be the max size of a picture to post in the thread? 800x800, 1200x1200?

The picture above is 900x900 and the full tank picture is 1600 × 1065px. Is that TOO MUCH??

[Misled]

For posting pics I usually go with 800x600. It allows most monitors to show the whole pic at once on the screen without scrolling.

[boret]

There we go, I reduced them to 800px!
You lose some of the finer detail but it might make browsing easier.

[reefscape15]

Ok guys here's the best I could get. I had the tank sparkling clean, but then I caught my son with his hands in there, and I had to re-wipe down the glass and everything! These pics are only on my phone, but I'll get the nice camera back from my parents and get some better pics on here soon!

FTS:


Right side:


Left side:


Some SPS frags (about 2" each):


My BIG Branching Hammer!:


Little Shroomish area:

[boret]

Looking great!! I see some algae on the back glass. I used to have that until I increased the number of snails. I keep a fairly large cleaning crew. They keep the tank spotless. I only clean the front glass every other day. I got the special "reef tune-up" they have at www.reeftopia.com for $109.00 shipped. It has worked great. I already recommended it to a few reefer friends and they are all extremely happy. Very worthy investment. BTW, I like the rock work much much better now.

[reefscape15]

Thanks boret! I am so much happier with the rockwork myself. I know there is some algae issues, and also I have Aptasia and Flatworms that I have to work on. New DIY overflow/sump and canopy are in the works already, so hopefully it won't be too long before my tank gets all cleaned up. I have to thank you again for being persistant on my changing the rocks around. The flow is so much better, now that i've moved the rocks off the wall and could finally squeeze another powerhead behind them.

[boret]

He he he, I am persistent man! lol Now I need to hammer you about the cleaning crew!

Hey guys yesterday I won a Vertex 400w Electronic Ballast just for posting a comment on a www.glassbox-design.com thread. You can see the thread HERE. Cool website with cool articles and nice giveaways! Worth a visit.

[reefscape15]

Yes I'll try to upsize the cleaning crew. First off is the sump/skimming issue. And awesome giveaway!!!!

[nomorenames]

reefscape15 did you remove your overflow or did it come without one.....looks great though also what do you use for flow trying to find the right amount for mine

[reefscape15]

I bought one that wasn't a Reef Read tank. Right now I'm using just a Korallia 1 and 3. I have a Mini Jet (160gph) moving water behind the right side of the rocks. I'm going to be adding another 1500gph of flow soon though, with a CoralVue Dual Prop powerhead. Thanks for the comments!

[boret]

There is a new ATB HOB Cone skimmer that seems to work pretty well. I will see if I can find a link for it. Just in case you don't want to add a overflow box.

I personally drilled mine!

[LV74-04]

The new tank is home. We will set it far enough from the wall on the right to have a large sump with the skimmer and refugium.

Still studying the forum for ideas i can steal

[Hookup]

Hey, i've seen one of those tanks before! Only the cool kids have those!

[Misled]

Originally posted by Hookup
Hey, i've seen one of those tanks before! Only the cool kids have those!

Yep!!!!!

LV, go to the beginning of this thread and click the link for the first 40 pages. There's alot of info here!!!!

And Welcome to the Corner Club!!!!!

[LV74-04]

I have spent a few hours looking through those first 40.

Lot of great ideas and lot of great tanks.

Thanks fo the welcome

Later
Larry

[boret]

Looking good LV74-04!!!
Are you going to put the sump underneath? Do you have the possibility to use an adjacent room as your wet room? Are you building a canopy?

[reefscape15]

Boret - I was looking at HOB skimmers, and if I got any it would be the new SWC HOB. I believe the ATB is around $600, whereas the SWC is only just over $300. And after seeing it compared to some common items, the thing is HUGE!!!! It's taller than a 5gal water jug like the one's that they use for a water cooler, thicker and wider than a large tissue box! Monster skimmer as far as HOB goes!

[boret]

You really don't want to add a sump to your system?

[Husky_1]

I'm with Borat, I had a HOB skimmer once on a different tank..When the thing started to go nuts, water started flowing out of the skimmer and on to the floor....Never again will I run an HOB or external...I am an internal skimmer type of person all the way, it reduces the risk of major disaster.

[LV74-04]

Originally posted by boret
Looking good LV74-04!!!
Are you going to put the sump underneath? Do you have the possibility to use an adjacent room as your wet room? Are you building a canopy?

The sump will go on the right side on the floor next to the wall and possibly extend the cabinet to hide it. Will have a make up tank underneath.

Not planning on a canopy. Gonna try it with MH hanging above.

Everything subject to change ... We are still changing things on our 2 yo 90 that we are happy with

Thanks
Larry

[boret]

You mean BorEt right Husky_1? LOL

LV74-04 I like that, I would definitely hide it. For many reasons:
Avoid things that are airborne from falling on the sump; keep it out the reach of kids, pets and drunk buddies; etc...

[boret]

LV74-04 one piece of advice.... provide a solid platform underneath the stand to raise the whole thing about 8-10 inches.
Standing up you don't get a great view of the tank and you need a really low chair to appreciate it. If you are not looking straight at it you get a bit of distortion because you are looking in an angle, you also loose the depth effect. Now that it is empty raising it won't be difficult.
You can get fancy and build a platform that matches the round front, but anything will do. Think about it.

[McLovit]

Originally posted by boret
LV74-04 one piece of advice.... provide a solid platform underneath the stand to raise the whole thing about 8-10 inches.
Standing up you don't get a great view of the tank and you need a really low chair to appreciate it. If you are not looking straight at it you get a bit of distortion because you are looking in an angle, you also loose the depth effect. Now that it is empty raising it won't be difficult.
You can get fancy and build a platform that matches the round front, but anything will do. Think about it.

Boret, i am building my stand tomorrow, do you recommend putting the middle of the tank at eye level? It is a 80 gallon Pentagon acrylic and we will custom build the stand. I have found 4" metal adjustable legs that are load rated at 600 lbs/each and plan to use 5 of them to get it off my floor. My tank is 30"x30"x30". I also don't plan to have a hood and have a MH mogul setup with 3x39 t5 unit i am hanging from the ceiling.

McL

[boret]

Well, it all depends on your height and where the tank is located.
If you have a sofa in front of the tank then your typical 30" off the ground is enough.

I am 6ft tall so for me it would be ideal to have the base of the tank about 40" off the ground. This will allow me to see the whole tank standing, getting a much better view.

But there are a couple of things to consider.

1. How would I get my hands inside of the tank... if I want to reach the bottom?

2. How high is the ceiling?

The first one will force you to have a small step ladder handy so you can get inside of the tank. The least amount of time your body parts spend inside of the tank the better, but at the beginning I had my hands in almost daily rearranging corals, turning over snails and moving things around.

The second one could be critical if you have a canopy. My canopy is fairly tall at 20", and it opens through the front and upwards. The max height available was 82" because an a/c duct just runs above the tank, so I measured everything according to that. In my case I would have to modify the front door if I want to raise the tank.

One advantage is that it will give you more room in the stand to place taller equipment, as long as the platform you build is hollow in the center. For you, building the stand from scratch is not even a concern, but for LV74-04 it could be.

I think Misled's stand is taller than the average corner tank stand, maybe he can chime in.

Another thing to consider is top view. I have a closed canopy, so I never look at my tank from the top down.... would love too though, to really appreciate the colors in my clams. If you are looking into an open top design you might actually want to tank to be at the regular height or even lower.