Urbanek's 250

[urbaneks]

February 7th 2016, Photo Update


It's been about a week sine I've updated so I thought I would add a few photos to the journal.


This first shot is of one of my two euphylia which is a Torch Coral I added for the clown fish. No such luck on the hosting but still a nice coral. I really like the movement in this shot along with the yellow background which is coming from stray sunlight coming in through our sliding glass doors.


Torch Coral with Sunlit Back Drop




This next shot is macro I shot of my Copperband. Love this fish!


Copperbanded Butterfly Macro




Here is shot of my undata, I love the white polyps on this coral. The contrast against the green is stellar.


Montipora Undata Macro




Here is a macro of my ORA Hawkins. The detail captured amazes me and is a testament to a good macro lens. You can see detail in this coral that is not visible with the naked eye. If you are looking at this on a phone, I recommend zooming in on the photo. One of my favorite corals for sure!


ORA Hawkins Macro

[kmcochran0010]

Beautiful tank!!

[solitude127]

Amazing tank you have there.

[markalot]

Love the new pics, the Hawkins is a favorite.

[fishresponse]

Those pics are insane!

[urbaneks]

February 9th, 2016 - Response to Feedback

Originally Posted by kmcochran0010

Beautiful tank!!

kmcochran0010 - Thank you.

Originally Posted by solitude127

Amazing tank you have there.

solitude127 - Much appreciated.

Originally Posted by markalot

Love the new pics, the Hawkins is a favorite.

markalot - Thanks for the kind words. Hawkins is awesome!

Originally Posted by fishresponse

Those pics are insane!

fishresonse - Appreciate the compliment on my photos.

[urbaneks]

February 9th, 2016 - Photo Update

Just wanted to add a few new photos to the journal.


Sailfin Tang


Target Mandarin


Unknown Zoas


Small slice of my reef


Unknown Chalice


Clove Polyps

[deaclauderdale]

Your photo skills are amazing!

[biecacka]

Tank looks awesome sir!!! Love the setup. Very clean and sophisticated looking. How many fish are in the tank? I ask because you mentioned earlier you were upgrading to another BK. The supermarin 250. I have a 240 with 25+ fish and I run the double cone 200. These things are wi the DC pump are very modestly sized.

Corey

[urbaneks]

Originally Posted by deaclauderdale

Your photo skills are amazing!

Deaclauderdale - thanks for the continued views and comments.

Originally Posted by biecacka

Tank looks awesome sir!!! Love the setup. Very clean and sophisticated looking. How many fish are in the tank? I ask because you mentioned earlier you were upgrading to another BK. The supermarin 250. I have a 240 with 25+ fish and I run the double cone 200. These things are wi the DC pump are very modestly sized.

Corey

Corey,
Thanks for the compliment. I ended up ordering the BK SM200 based on Slief's recommendation. He said the 250 was too large and would not skim consistently for me. I have 30 fish, 6 of those are tangs, 3-4 more are larger butterfly/wrasses. The rest are all pretty small fish. I think the DC or SM 200s would have been great, I just decided to go SM for the small extra cost in relation to the overall price.

[biecacka]

Yeah me too. Mine works solid! My largest fish is only about 7inches but I have 5-6 that are 5+inches and growing. I plan on adding a few more fish at some point as well. I'm really pleased with the DC200. I almost ordered the SM200 but I don't think you can wrong with either one!

Corey

[bmullikin1]

WOW, incredible tank, couldnt find what your lighting schedule is led vs t5, what ever it is its working well for you.

[Settings]

I really enjoyed the pictures of your stand and tank. One of my all time favorites. Thank you for sharing.

[urbaneks]

February 10th, 2016 - Response to Feedback

Originally Posted by biecacka

Yeah me too. Mine works solid! My largest fish is only about 7inches but I have 5-6 that are 5+inches and growing. I plan on adding a few more fish at some point as well. I'm really pleased with the DC200. I almost ordered the SM200 but I don't think you can wrong with either one!

Corey

Agree 100%. My SM arrives tomorrow. I'm very excited.

Originally Posted by bmullikin1

WOW, incredible tank, couldnt find what your lighting schedule is led vs t5, what ever it is its working well for you.

bmulliki1 - Thanks for the kind words. My basic lighting schedule is as follows:

8am to 10am - LEDs ramp from 0 to 80%
10am - 1st 4 T5s come on
11am - Last 4 T5s come on
4pm - Last 4 T5s go off
5pm - 1st 5 T5's go off
5pm to 10pm - LEDs ramp down from 80% to 0%

Originally Posted by Settings

I really enjoyed the pictures of your stand and tank. One of my all time favorites. Thank you for sharing.

Settings - Thank You! Really appreciate that.

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by urbaneks

December FTS with Barn Beam

Just a quick question here. Your attention to detail is amazing but was wondering why the vortech powerline on the dry side is looping? Would it look cleaner if you rotated the dry side 180 degrees?

[urbaneks]

Originally Posted by solitude127

Just a quick question here. Your attention to detail is amazing but was wondering why the vortech powerline on the dry side is looping? Would it look cleaner if you rotated the dry side 180 degrees?

solitude127 - The MP60s have a small notch that hangs on a hook mounted to the glass. This prevents the MPP60 dry side from falling. Unfortunately, this orients the MP60 with the cord coming up vs. down.

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by urbaneks

solitude127 - The MP60s have a small notch that hangs on a hook mounted to the glass. This prevents the MPP60 dry side from falling. Unfortunately, this orients the MP60 with the cord coming up vs. down.

Ahhh, gotcha. have to protect that investment. Thank you. Again, amazing tank you have. Definitely would love to see this tank as TOTM.

[urbaneks]

February 11th, 2016 - Photo Update

Here are a few new photos. Thanks for looking.

This is a coral I got in a trade with the LFS. It's a Red Gonipora from World Wide Corals. This is my first attempt at Gonipora. So far so good, I'm about 3 months in and it's doubled in size. I'm looking forward to shooting some more photos of this coral with the pumps off.



WWC Red Gonipora


Here is a shot of my latest addition. One of the fellow reefers from our local reef club was breaking down his 400+ gallong tank and needed to find homes for all his fish. I was fortunate enough to adopt this beautiful Powder Blue Tang. It's hard to tell from the photo but he's ~8" long which makes him the biggest fish in the tank.


Powder Blue Tang


Here is a shot of one acans. Over the years, I have not had much luck with Acans but recently, I've had some new found success.


Rainbow Acan

[maxxII]

Gorgeous photo's. What's your feeding regimen for the Goniopera?

[reefmutt]

Beautiful shot as always.
I love the Hawkins.
There is an absolute crispness and clarity that comes from a macro lens that just can't be achieved with other lenses, I find.
Love checking in on your thread!

[d2mini]

I love that blue Hawkins shot!
Always awesome when you download your pics and see not only did you nail what you were trying to capture, but then you get the bonus of those complimentary colors in the background. Nice job!

[choss]

Incredible shots and incredible tank. I appreciate the detail and beauty of the stand. For me building a custom stand with great design makes the build so much more rewarding. Simply stunning setup and amazing photos! The powder blue tang is my personal favorite but I'll need to wait until the fall to get one (post upgrade of my 40 gallon nano tank).

I'd love to see a few more tank shots to appreciate the scape and also I'd love to see the tank in a full room shot. But in any case this is one, if not the most amazing tanks I've seen.

[biecacka]

Amazing photos my friend.

Corey

[urbaneks]

February 14th, 2016 - Response to Feedback

Originally Posted by maxxII

Gorgeous photo's. What's your feeding regimen for the Goniopera?

Maxxll - thank you for the kind words. Nothing special for feeding the Goni. I feed a frozen mix 2x a day for the fish. I broadcast feed the tank reef pears or reef roids 2x a week.

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Beautiful shot as always.
I love the Hawkins.
There is an absolute crispness and clarity that comes from a macro lens that just can't be achieved with other lenses, I find.
Love checking in on your thread!

Reefmutt - thanks for view and comment. I wish my eyes could see what the macro lens sees.

Originally Posted by d2mini

I love that blue Hawkins shot!
Always awesome when you download your pics and see not only did you nail what you were trying to capture, but then you get the bonus of those complimentary colors in the background. Nice job!

D2mini - thanks! That yellow background on the Hawkins shot was a nice bonus. Thanks for looking.

Originally Posted by choss

Incredible shots and incredible tank. I appreciate the detail and beauty of the stand. For me building a custom stand with great design makes the build so much more rewarding. Simply stunning setup and amazing photos! The powder blue tang is my personal favorite but I'll need to wait until the fall to get one (post upgrade of my 40 gallon nano tank).

I'd love to see a few more tank shots to appreciate the scape and also I'd love to see the tank in a full room shot. But in any case this is one, if not the most amazing tanks I've seen.

Choss - thanks for taking the time to view the journal and leave a comment. I think that nice cabinetry is sorely missing from the hobby. Sure lots of people design and build great cabinets but tank manufacturers kick out the cheapest and plain cabinets possible.

I'll work on getting some nice FTS and FRS of the tank.

Originally Posted by biecacka

Amazing photos my friend.

Corey

Corey,
Thanks for the compliment. You may be interested to hear that my BK SuperMarin arrived broken. Of course they are out of stock now so I'm waiting for more to come from Germany.

[urbaneks]

February 14th, 2016 - Photo Update

I wanted to share a photograph of our living room. This room was quite a challenge to pull together for many reasons. First was the overall sales job I had to do with my wife. Where the tank is sitting was originally our formal dining room. You can imagine how that conversation went, "Honey, I'm thinking about putting a reef where your dining room table is." After getting over that hurdle, the room is huge so the scale of the tank needed to be appropriately sized. It's difficult to tell from the photo but from the wall to where the cabinet ends is 9 feet. To help fill the vertical space and scale, I added the barn beam to help pull it all together. The project table in the foreground with the task lighting above it, really helped to pull the whole room together. What we ended up with was a room that is a focal point of the house rather than a dining room that was used 2-3 times a year.

Thanks for looking


Full Room Shot