Mike's 300 Double-D

[dave.m]

I would be amazed if someone doesn't pick this one up for a book on reef aquariums.

Dave.M

[Mark...]

Originally Posted by dave.m

I would be amazed if someone doesn't pick this one up for a book on reef aquariums.

Dave.M

It does look like a book cover shot...

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by ca1ore

Sorry, you are using the calcium hydroxide on the air suction of the skimmer, right? To remove CO2 from the air that the skimmer pulls? I am also having a low pH problem (7.7 at night) but alk is OK. Too much A/C and sealed house. Tried pulling in air from outside, and that helped, but not enough. Was toying with using your approach.

Correct. We were having the same issue, and yes, our first solution was to pull fresh air from outside, but only saw marginal improvement, same as you. The scrubber works better.

Originally Posted by shroomer2

loved this build

Originally Posted by iwishtofish

Revisiting - enjoying the stunning pictures!

Originally Posted by aquaenthusiast

pictures took my breath away, stunning , keep posting that eye candy

Thanks for the kind words!!

Originally Posted by dave.m

I would be amazed if someone doesn't pick this one up for a book on reef aquariums.

Dave.M

Originally Posted by Mark...

It does look like a book cover shot...

Hah, you guys are making us blush. We love those end-on shots. We're going to pull out the submersible camera and see if we can get some videos and still pics with that. The glass creates some distortion that we'd like to get rid of from the pics. Terry's getting better with the camera box, though. I did some mods to it to reduce light and reflections down inside the box, but it still needs work. What are you guys using to seal up the top of your camera box?

In the interim, here's a little tease:

[clugo]

Mike, love this thread. Amazing labor of love.

Re: your CO2 scrubber; was wondering if you just poured the media into the tlf reactor and connected to your skimmer? I was reading on the brs website and they say to add water in their reactor then the media into the canister. I know you're using the tls reactor so that may not be necessary. Just wondering how you installed your scrubber.

Thx.

[Mark...]

I started reading back from the beginning and learning a ton of stuff. I see you got another flame angel. Felt bad when you lost the one you had for 8 years. Looking back would you do anything different? Especially the 4 way closed loop etc?

[Newbie Aquarist]

Teaser pics are always welcomed. They are inspirational.

[Taqpol]

Originally Posted by prop-frags

I always knew you guys took the best photos on all of reef central, but these two just really hit me as raising the bar even higher! I am specifically compelled to ask with the coral shot, how do you get such perfect clarity over such a large area of the entire coral? Specifically, what lens, what aperture, flash or not, tripod, underwater or not, with flow or without flow?

[padova335i]

amazing tank and livestock

[Bcamp]

That time of year for low ph!
Do you mind me asking were you found the buckets of granular soda lime?

[clugo]

brs currently sells them.

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by clugo

Mike, love this thread. Amazing labor of love.

Re: your CO2 scrubber; was wondering if you just poured the media into the tlf reactor and connected to your skimmer? I was reading on the brs website and they say to add water in their reactor then the media into the canister. I know you're using the tls reactor so that may not be necessary. Just wondering how you installed your scrubber.

Thx.

Thanks clugo - we appreciate you checking us out. We use the media dry in our reactors (yes the TLF ones), since the air is fairly humid in our sump room. Its pretty straight forward hookup: air into reactor, through dry media, into skimmer intake. Everything is connected with vinyl hose and sealed off with fancy seal materials (duct tape).

Originally Posted by Mark...

I started reading back from the beginning and learning a ton of stuff. I see you got another flame angel. Felt bad when you lost the one you had for 8 years. Looking back would you do anything different? Especially the 4 way closed loop etc?

Hi Mark - glad you can pick up a few things along the way. Yeah, we went without a flame for a while and I just couldn't stand it anymore and we picked up a pair from LA/DD. After a long QT, the smaller of the pair (they weren't really a mated pair) died without symptoms really. But the other is doing just fine - he's a nipper for sure, but we'll put up with a lot for a hot-looker

As far as what we'd do different, there's a long list. Let me see if I can think of a few of the top ones:

• Leave more room on the sides of the tank for corals to grow and for maintenace. We put the rock in too close to the sides, and it is going to be a huge chore to fix that.
• Build out a separate refugium that has some size to it and allows for easy maintenance
• Plumb in a drain line so that water from the main system can be easily drained out either to the sewer, or into buckets for transfer to other tanks
• Paint the display tank canopy with industrial strength expoxy. Paint just cannot hold up to the kinds of daily abuse the canopy gets.
• Design some sort of cable organizer system for submerged pumps and airstones in the display. The way we have them run now is a messy pain.
• Design a humidity extraction system for the sump room that actually works and is dependable. The garage gets very humid and it's costly to run a stand-alone A/C unit out there.

Originally Posted by Newbie Aquarist

Teaser pics are always welcomed. They are inspirational.

Thanks Wayne. We'll keep teasing.

Originally Posted by Taqpol

I always knew you guys took the best photos on all of reef central, but these two just really hit me as raising the bar even higher! I am specifically compelled to ask with the coral shot, how do you get such perfect clarity over such a large area of the entire coral? Specifically, what lens, what aperture, flash or not, tripod, underwater or not, with flow or without flow?

Alex! So good to hear from you old friend - we figured you had decided to give it up, but glad to see you're contemplating keeping a smaller setup - you will be glad you keep something going. Hope you get a good price for your 220. As far as the pics go, thanks for the wonderful compliment. That shot of the kimibensis was done top down with the camera box, hand held, no flash, pumps were left running. Terry will have to check the metadata on the lens and stop and what not, but from memory we think it was Nikkor 40mm micro lens. Probably a 9 on the stop.

Originally Posted by padova335i

amazing tank and livestock

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Bcamp

That time of year for low ph!
Do you mind me asking were you found the buckets of granular soda lime?

Originally Posted by clugo

brs currently sells them.

We've gotten the buckets from a couple of places, but where we found a good price on 40lb buckets from a medical supply place. I'll have to dig out the invoice...

Thanks for the support everyone. We do appreciate it.

[Bcamp]

Thanks! the small brs containers of soda lime don't last long with a big skimmer pulling air through.

[Mark...]

Originally Posted by prop-frags

Hi Mark - glad you can pick up a few things along the way. Yeah, we went without a flame for a while and I just couldn't stand it anymore and we picked up a pair from LA/DD. After a long QT, the smaller of the pair (they weren't really a mated pair) died without symptoms really. But the other is doing just fine - he's a nipper for sure, but we'll put up with a lot for a hot-looker

As far as what we'd do different, there's a long list. Let me see if I can think of a few of the top ones:

• Leave more room on the sides of the tank for corals to grow and for maintenace. We put the rock in too close to the sides, and it is going to be a huge chore to fix that.
• Build out a separate refugium that has some size to it and allows for easy maintenance
• Plumb in a drain line so that water from the main system can be easily drained out either to the sewer, or into buckets for transfer to other tanks
• Paint the display tank canopy with industrial strength expoxy. Paint just cannot hold up to the kinds of daily abuse the canopy gets.
• Design some sort of cable organizer system for submerged pumps and airstones in the display. The way we have them run now is a messy pain.
• Design a humidity extraction system for the sump room that actually works and is dependable. The garage gets very humid and it's costly to run a stand-alone A/C unit out there.

Some great insight...thanks so much for sharing. Just the drain idea alone is golden...

Mark...

[ptreef]

Long time follower...great beauty.
Can you refresh me on current lighting and thoughts compared to the Radiums and whatnot you have ran in the past.

Beautiful all around work of art!!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by ptreef

Long time follower...great beauty.
Can you refresh me on current lighting and thoughts compared to the Radiums and whatnot you have ran in the past.

Beautiful all around work of art!!

Thanks, PT.
Ah yes, the lighting. The lighting schedule is shown back on post #625 , and remains accurate. As for the bulbs, we are currently running URI VHO actinics and the MH bulbs are Ushio 14,000K. We get many questions about the 14K vs Radium (or other 20K bulbs), and our experience is that there are advantages and disadvantages, and as you would expect, it comes down to preference. The 20K bulbs highlight some colors (particularly greens) and have more of a ultraviolet "pop" to colors that fluoresce. That said, we observe better overall coral growth and color balance with the Ushio 14K bulbs. The lower spectrum bulbs highlight lighter colors (especially red). So while many seem to prefer the "deep water" look of high spectrum bulbs, the 20K is just too blue for our preference. That coupled with the marked difference in coral growth, leads us to use the 14K bulbs.

We recently tried the Ushio 20K bulb. It was nice; a bit brighter than Radiums (seems like more PAR, but that was not a quantified observation, strictly judging by eye), but still too blue for our tastes. We did a side-by-side comparison with the Ushio 14K bulb, and still prefer the 14K. Again, overall it's about trade-offs. Some of the impressive Japanese SPS tanks we've seen have invested in spot lighting; putting high-spectrum spot bulbs on green/blue corals, and using lower-spectrum spots on yellow/reds. That is probably the ultimate solution to the problem. A way to have cake and eat it, too.

[ptreef]

Thanks for the elaborate explanation. Pictures and colors look excellent! Do you know what T-5's would be close to the VHO 454's?

Also when are you changing bulbs out? 9mos? 1yr?

Have you ever measured PAR?

[agcneves]

Your reef is wonderful. A true inspiration and have read your post a while ago. I decided to write and show my admiration.
The quality of your photos are professionals.
Cheers!!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by ptreef

Thanks for the elaborate explanation. Pictures and colors look excellent! Do you know what T-5's would be close to the VHO 454's?

Also when are you changing bulbs out? 9mos? 1yr?

Have you ever measured PAR?

ATI makes a "purple plus" as well as "true actinic" which seem close in spectrum to the 454s. We change out VHOs about 10-12 months, and the MH bulbs a bit more frequently than that, perhaps 9 months? It is more based on when we see color shift.

Originally Posted by agcneves

Your reef is wonderful. A true inspiration and have read your post a while ago. I decided to write and show my admiration.
The quality of your photos are professionals.
Cheers!!

Thank you for the complement, and really appreciate you taking the time to post in our thread. Stop by anytime!

[Adamc1303]

I must say that this tank is overdue for a TOTM!

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by Adamc1303

I must say that this tank is overdue for a TOTM!

Thanks. Que Sera Sera. We'll just keep plugging away.

How about a little teaser.
We are doing some work out in the garage:

Top and bottom frames:


A few pocket holes with the Kreg jig:


The legs come together:


A little dry-fit:


Glued and screwed:

[Drae]

What's the new stand for?

[prop-frags]

Originally Posted by Drae

What's the new stand for?

We're replacing our dysfunctional frag tank with a custom acrylic tank. The dimensions of the new tank are 48"Lx24"Wx12"H.

The tank will be delivered and installed next Friday (10/4) which is the weekend before our annual Reef Party - WOOT!

In the meantime, the stand has been primed and painted:


We also setup temporary housing (50g stock vat) for our frag tank livestock and have moved most of the corals/frags over:

[Newbie Aquarist]

Looks good Mike. What is the square thing in the vat. A skimmer?

[prop-frags]

Thanks Wayne! And yes, that black box is a skimmer (Tunze DOC 9004).

[LoJack]

Absolutely Stunning Tank!!

The 300 DD is my dream tank, and you've done a phenomenal job on your build. This makes me want my upgrade even more!!

Do you find it difficult to work in the tank being 36" wide. My current tank is only 24" wide and I can't reach the bottom back of the tank without going for a swim ... just wondering if you've had any issues if corals fall etc.