My 150 Gallon Build

[texdoc77]

I didn't realize you had the white set up like mine. Looks good. I like your lighting set up.

[Blink2824]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

I charge for my ideas.... LOL.



Looking good. Put the reef brite on the hinged door so it can get out of your way when you want to swap bulbs.

LOL yea I also realized after dry fitting the fixture that I needed to leave at least a one inch gap on the one side for ventilation. Took the canopy back off and corrected it to make sure it vents properly and then installed a muffin fan to the side of the canopy to help exhaust any heat.






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[soulpatch]

Why not put the fans on the inside of the canopy? Cleaner look. Then just put a face plate on the exterior so as to not have a hole glaring at you. You can reverse the fan in the housing if that is your concern.

[Blink2824]

I thought about that and also how it would bother you and your OCD personality haha. But the fan is too big to fit inside the canopy and too thick to recess it. I went the fast and lazy route. Doesn't bother me and it's on the side I rarely look at


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[soulpatch]

No my OCD was fine with the fan.

What bothers my OCD is that the wood that the brackets are on for the light is not perfectly parallel with the other piece.


And looking it over more you are going to have heat exchange issues with your setup unless it is designed different then it looks. I appears you have the entire left side resting on a long piece of angled steel. If this is the case then the unit is exhausting from the slot at the splash guard right into that wall you have formed. This is not good for the unit.

It was this issue that drove me to run the side channels of the angled steel and have the left end only have corner brackets it is sitting on so that the light can exhale impediment free.

[Blink2824]

There are holes through both mounting plates that the slider is attached to. Provides a path for the heat to exhaust through the side as well as upward - and I've been monitoring it since I finished the install and so far it seems ok. The sag bothered me aesthetically and could have been prevented with some more thought in the mounting design but the light isn't going anywhere, I over secured the bracket and slider. It'll do for now!


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[Blink2824]

I went ahead and purchased the eheim feeding tray to supplement the automatic feeder I use when away from the house traveling. I found that a lot of my NLS pellets were ending up in the sump, since adding the feeding tray and having a chance to test it out- no more NLS pellets are going to waste and the feeding tray ensures they all sink and are eaten. Pleased with it's function and figured i'd share if anyone else out there finds uneaten pellet food in their sump.

[Blink2824]

January 2017 Update:

I finally caught my Flame Angelfish with the Aquamedic trap after about a week of attempts. No more nipping at my SPS and since I have removed him I am already seeing a bit more polyp extension (PE). I notice many other tanks on this forum that have great PE with their acropora species both through the lighting period and at night. I have amazing PE at night but not so much during the T5 lighting period... is this common?

I decided to replace the Flame Angelfish with a Starcki Damsel (chrysiptera starcki). He is a good looking specimen and eating. We'll see if he works out with the other tank mates in due time. Along with this divers den purchase I received an ultra maxima 2" clam in which I woke up to a clean shell on day two... not sure if it was a shipment/stress issue or if something in my tank had a nice meal. I can't really think of what species would eat the clam but given how happy/healthy it looked after acclimation I find it hard to believe it just died on me. Regardless, the clam is now dead and I will probably wait for a bit before attempting again.

I ended up buying a small oregon tort frag, ORA Hawkins Echinata and stawberry shortcake to replace some other frags that previously RTN on me due to unstable Alk levels. Now my CaRX is dialed in, my parameters have been reading steady, and I am performing a 30 gallon water change every 10-14 days. I was able to frag and sell a few zoanthids locally here in Kansas City and am using that cash to most likely purchase a reefbrite blue XHO strip to supplement the T5. The baby is getting bigger (just passed 4 months) and money is getting tighter but the timing is good and I am happy sitting back and watching all of the life in the display tank start to settle in and grow.

Oh... I also decided to do away with the "filter cylinders" that I purchased with my lifereef sump. I did not like the design or performance of the filter canisters and am replacing with the BRS GFO/Carbon reactor.

Hope to take some time this weekend to put some updated pictures up. Thanks for checking in ReefCentral!

[soulpatch]

My reefbrite XHO is one of the better purchases I have made for my tank. Some other brands out there to look into as well if you search for strip leds but I've been happy witht he reefbrite.

I still need to get my calrx unit going. I have to get some more media and my canister filled. I meant to do it last week but never got around to it...

[Blink2824]

Nice. Good to hear your happy with the performance of the reefbrite strip, solidifies my purchase.

For those interested here is a picture of the Starcki Damsel



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[SirToadie]

speechless.... I have a 150 that I'm getting ready to build. If you don't mind, I would like to reach out and pick your brain to make sure I do it right.

[Blink2824]

Originally Posted by SirToadie

speechless.... I have a 150 that I'm getting ready to build. If you don't mind, I would like to reach out and pick your brain to make sure I do it right.

Sure thing you can private message me anytime. I learn more about reefing every single day.


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[soulpatch]

Toadie if you make a build thread and PM some of us to watch it you will get more responses... Though I will warn you if I give you help it will involve spending more money then you had budgeted..... lol

[Blink2824]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Toadie if you make a build thread and PM some of us to watch it you will get more responses... Though I will warn you if I give you help it will involve spending more money then you had budgeted..... lol

This is so true. Watch out- Soulpatch has saved me money as well as helped me spend more than I thought haha! His thread is one of the better one's to read through if you decide on the same 150 gallon footprint tank. I have learned a lot from his build and applied it to mine

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by Blink2824

His thread is one of the better one's to read through if you decide on the same 150 gallon footprint tank. I have learned a lot from his build and applied it to mine

Thanks. Glad I can help and more importantly can spend the money of someone else.

Though I anticipate some fish, cuc, and a few other things coming my way here shortly once I recover from the holiday so I will be once again spending my own money.

[Blink2824]

Update: 48" Reefbrite Blue XHO strip has been mounted to the hinged door of the canopy (thanks Soulpatch for the suggestion) and I am LOVING it. The spread and output of this little strip is awesome! Makes me feel just a little bit better about the high price tag that comes with it but now I want to buy a second one... AHH. Things in the tank are looking happy and continuing to show promising signs of growth since the implementation of the ATI T5 fixture/lights. Alk/Ca consumption has gone up a bit as well so I have slightly tweaked the calcium reactor to keep these parameters stable.

I pulled the lifereef filter cylinders out of the sump and installed the BRS dual reactor. My GFO is visually tumbling again the way it should be and I am very happy with the performance of the new reactor vs. the basic "pass through" filter cylinders.

I also traded a local reefer some zoa frags for a cornbred Flaming Oompa frag...I love this zoa. On another note, I was turkey basting some rocks and doing some light maintenance over the weekend and noticed two dime sized babies under my momma Poletti lineage Jawbreaker Discomosa. I'm going to enjoy watching them mature!

Cheers-

[soulpatch]

for the calcium reactor you might want to look into the new spectrapure ultra precise ato pump. I will be grabbing one for my tank to run my calc reactor

[Blink2824]

Some iPhone pictures of the coral under reefbrites














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[soulpatch]

You need an orange filter now t9 get the pics like you see them in person

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[Blink2824]

yuuuuup, first I need a new camera

[Blink2824]

So I spent quite a bit of time reading up on variable speed programming with the Apex and my Tunze powerheads. I plan to ditch the Tunze multicontroller and use the Apex to control the flow patterns I decide to program.

Just playing around with the powerheads over the past 6 months I have moved them (two PH) from being on each side of the tank pointed straight at each other, to being on the back glass on either side of the tank pointed at an angle toward the front/middle of the tank. I like the look of having the sides of the tank free and clear from any obstruction/PH but I have gone back and forth trying to see what the best PH placement is for this 60x24x24 footprint tank. I get some good flow no doubt, with very few dead spots... but I am having a hard time creating a "pulsing" type of flow pattern that allows the coral to "dance" back and forth.

Any suggestions out there?

[soulpatch]

I have my WAVs on the sides and then have PP4s on the back glass angled intowards the middle. I run them on lower power to create disturbance with the WAV flow. I only really have one side panel I look through as the other one is a bit obstructed with my storage unit so the WAVs on the sides arent an issue for me. I also have them up upper part of glass so when I would look through side I can still see what I want...

[Drblakjak55]

Great tank. Can't wait to see what it looks like in six months. ?Your angel doesn't touch th corals? What is your lighting?


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[Blink2824]

Flame angel has been given up for adoption and is no longer in the tank after snacking on my SPS. I'm done getting fish, now it's just coral time. I acquired this blue bottlebrush today! Pumped.



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[Blink2824]

I couldn't resist jumping on this Kryptonite JB. Must. Buy. More. Coral...