Good going. I have always believed that every now and then we should give the skimmer a rest
Thanks Nikki and Sunny. Its nice to see some of my coral flourish instead of perish for a change LOL.
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My 280g build....
- Thread starter spotter
- Start date
Thanks Nikki and Sunny. Its nice to see some of my coral flourish instead of perish for a change LOL.
You know I'm very tempted to just order the 8x80!
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So a lot of changes over the last few weeks.....
ROCKS
I threw the towel in on the rocks and ordered 250lbs of live rock thru a friend of mine that has a "connection" and got a great price on it. I got the rock in and started to cure them immediately. They cycled pretty quickly after two weeks in my rock bins and moved them into my tank. I put about 150lbs in the dt and then turned the 80g frag tank I had plumbed into the system into a rock tank for the other 100lbs of rock. I have a slow flow going thru there now and I have been reading up on Steve Tryree's cryptic zone.
New scape...
It was a really tough decision to make but I am very happy with the new rocks and how everything turned out. There are so many caves and tunnels for the fish to swim thru and hide in now.
FRAG TANK
Since I love the Deep Blue 80g Professional Frag Tank, I decided to get another one and set that up as a completely separate system. I never got rid of my old sump and pump so I had just about everything I needed. My plan now is every time I get a new SPS, I will frage a piece off of it and let it grow out in the frag tank as a back up incase something goes wrong in the dt. I had some extra acrylic laying around from a project I was going to do 2 yrs ago but decided against so I decided to build some frag stands and get rid of the egg crate racks I made that were just looking totally ugly at this point.
LIGHTING
This has been a big struggle for me because I have been saying that my lights were just too strong. My light is the Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion LED/T5. It has 4x150w led banks and 4x80w t5's. The manufacturer says that each LED bank is equivalent to 1 250-350w hqi mh bulb and IMO on a 6ft tank thats just too much. So, I borrowed back the par meter that I had sold and started doing some tests. I finally came up with intensity levels that I hope will be succesful. My light is hung about 14" AWL and 42" from the bottom of my tank. With the t5's on, white LED's set at 20% and all other colors at 45% I get par readings of 125 on the bed in the center and a little drop off to 115 in the front and back. Once I get out to the end and corners of the tank I am still getting readings in the 95-105 range. I have thought about replacing it with an ATI 8x80w unit or even their new t5/led unit. But hopefully this will do the trick and solve my light issues.
MISC PICTURES
I have moved a few pieces of my more resiliant corals into the tank to see how things go.
ROCKS
I threw the towel in on the rocks and ordered 250lbs of live rock thru a friend of mine that has a "connection" and got a great price on it. I got the rock in and started to cure them immediately. They cycled pretty quickly after two weeks in my rock bins and moved them into my tank. I put about 150lbs in the dt and then turned the 80g frag tank I had plumbed into the system into a rock tank for the other 100lbs of rock. I have a slow flow going thru there now and I have been reading up on Steve Tryree's cryptic zone.
New scape...
FRAG TANK
Since I love the Deep Blue 80g Professional Frag Tank, I decided to get another one and set that up as a completely separate system. I never got rid of my old sump and pump so I had just about everything I needed. My plan now is every time I get a new SPS, I will frage a piece off of it and let it grow out in the frag tank as a back up incase something goes wrong in the dt. I had some extra acrylic laying around from a project I was going to do 2 yrs ago but decided against so I decided to build some frag stands and get rid of the egg crate racks I made that were just looking totally ugly at this point.
LIGHTING
This has been a big struggle for me because I have been saying that my lights were just too strong. My light is the Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion LED/T5. It has 4x150w led banks and 4x80w t5's. The manufacturer says that each LED bank is equivalent to 1 250-350w hqi mh bulb and IMO on a 6ft tank thats just too much. So, I borrowed back the par meter that I had sold and started doing some tests. I finally came up with intensity levels that I hope will be succesful. My light is hung about 14" AWL and 42" from the bottom of my tank. With the t5's on, white LED's set at 20% and all other colors at 45% I get par readings of 125 on the bed in the center and a little drop off to 115 in the front and back. Once I get out to the end and corners of the tank I am still getting readings in the 95-105 range. I have thought about replacing it with an ATI 8x80w unit or even their new t5/led unit. But hopefully this will do the trick and solve my light issues.
MISC PICTURES
I have moved a few pieces of my more resiliant corals into the tank to see how things go.
Time for an update.....
A big change since my last update and possibly a big change could take place in the near future.....
First the change that I made.....I gave up on my LED/T5 fixture and went with an ATI SunPower fixture. I just couldnt get the light dialed in with the right intensity and t5 bulb combination so sold it and moved on. I originally ordered a 6x80 and 4x80 fixture because they were out of the 8x80w fixtures. Looking back I should have just ordered 2 of the 4x80 fixtures but I was concerned about the width of my tank and having enough coverage. It didnt take long for me to realize that having both lights over the tank was way too much light so I took the 4x80w down and started playing with the 6x80w. I borrowed back the par meter I sold to a friend of mine in Va and started taking some readings. With the light about 14" awl I am getting par readings at the bottom, center of the tank at 115-125, at the front and back panels 100-115 and in the corners 90-105. I have been slowly moving corals over from the frag tank to the display tank and everything is doing really well. I am very happy with my decision to change lights and go old school.
Now for the potentially big change in the near future.....There's a very good chance I will be breaking down the tank because my wife and I have decided that we would like to move to the Charleston, SC area. I have some family down there and have decided that the cost of living in NJ is just getting out of control. So, if we do move I will sell off the tank, stand and sump and move the rest of the equipment with me. My wife has given consent to another tank down there and the best part is she asked two very important questions..."Can we use a tank as a room divider?" and "How much bigger of a tank could we get?" I almost shed a tear when I heard that. We have been doing a lot of discovery and at this point I am just waiting on my employer to give me the ok to move to the local office in Charleston. Its bitter/sweet because I have worked so hard and made so many changes on this system to get it back to where it is today but I will just take all of those changes with me to SC and apply them to the new system I will set up down there.
A big change since my last update and possibly a big change could take place in the near future.....
First the change that I made.....I gave up on my LED/T5 fixture and went with an ATI SunPower fixture. I just couldnt get the light dialed in with the right intensity and t5 bulb combination so sold it and moved on. I originally ordered a 6x80 and 4x80 fixture because they were out of the 8x80w fixtures. Looking back I should have just ordered 2 of the 4x80 fixtures but I was concerned about the width of my tank and having enough coverage. It didnt take long for me to realize that having both lights over the tank was way too much light so I took the 4x80w down and started playing with the 6x80w. I borrowed back the par meter I sold to a friend of mine in Va and started taking some readings. With the light about 14" awl I am getting par readings at the bottom, center of the tank at 115-125, at the front and back panels 100-115 and in the corners 90-105. I have been slowly moving corals over from the frag tank to the display tank and everything is doing really well. I am very happy with my decision to change lights and go old school.
Now for the potentially big change in the near future.....There's a very good chance I will be breaking down the tank because my wife and I have decided that we would like to move to the Charleston, SC area. I have some family down there and have decided that the cost of living in NJ is just getting out of control. So, if we do move I will sell off the tank, stand and sump and move the rest of the equipment with me. My wife has given consent to another tank down there and the best part is she asked two very important questions..."Can we use a tank as a room divider?" and "How much bigger of a tank could we get?" I almost shed a tear when I heard that
. We have been doing a lot of discovery and at this point I am just waiting on my employer to give me the ok to move to the local office in Charleston. Its bitter/sweet because I have worked so hard and made so many changes on this system to get it back to where it is today but I will just take all of those changes with me to SC and apply them to the new system I will set up down there.
Breaking down to build it up again in sc
So in some rapid turn of events we officially decided to make the move to SC and put our house on the market last Sunday. By Tuesday we had our first offer that we accepted on Thursday and by Friday we received a 2nd offer and now there is a possibility we will get a 3rd offer today. So its safe to say that my house has sold!!!! Now the hard part of breaking things down and selling off my livestock. I have already started moving some things around and will start a thread in the deals and steals section for corals, fish and rock. Tank, stand and sump have been spoken for already. I will keep most of the rest of my equipment for the next build which I have already started planning out....lol. I plan on remaining a member here just so I can keep in touch with my NJ roots and see whats going on up here. Unfortunately the reef club in the Charleston area is not very active and there is only 1 LFS in the area so a lot of my purchasing will be online or road trips to NJ for a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich and some fish/corals.
Thank you to everyone that has followed my adventure here and provided me with feedback.
So in some rapid turn of events we officially decided to make the move to SC and put our house on the market last Sunday. By Tuesday we had our first offer that we accepted on Thursday and by Friday we received a 2nd offer and now there is a possibility we will get a 3rd offer today. So its safe to say that my house has sold!!!! Now the hard part of breaking things down and selling off my livestock. I have already started moving some things around and will start a thread in the deals and steals section for corals, fish and rock. Tank, stand and sump have been spoken for already. I will keep most of the rest of my equipment for the next build which I have already started planning out....lol. I plan on remaining a member here just so I can keep in touch with my NJ roots and see whats going on up here. Unfortunately the reef club in the Charleston area is not very active and there is only 1 LFS in the area so a lot of my purchasing will be online or road trips to NJ for a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich and some fish/corals.
Thank you to everyone that has followed my adventure here and provided me with feedback.
Good luck. .
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Thank you! The sell off has started already and since I am keeping a lot of my equipment most stuff has sold already.
Good luck.
Thanks Chris!
Thanks John. My 5 yr old son is as much into the hobby as I am now and the first thing he asked me when we said we were moving was "will we have another fish tank?" and before I could answer my said yes which surprised me. Then my son asked, "Can we get a bigger tank?" and before my wife could answer I said "Yes!!!!!" So I have actually started looking around for tank builders in the area and playing around with different foot prints. Initially I was thinking 96x36x30 but then was thinking maybe only go 24" high to make it easier getting in and out of the tank. Then I saw some pictures of a 60x48x24 over the weekend and thought that looked awesome. So I dont know and if anyone on here has some input on what the next tank should be....please feel free to chime in. I will definitely continue to be active on this site.
Nice power move enlisting your son's support! Its a tough call whether to go for that extra depth or length. I could see 48 inches opening up some great aquascape opportunities but being tricky to reach to the back unless it is open on the front and back. Are you planning on building a home there and doing another in wall like your current system? The 24 inch hight should allow you to reach the bottom and be easier to light. My current tank is 25 inches high. I can reach the bottom anywhere in the tank although I'm always coming upstairs with wet sleeves. That reminds me I better pick up a pair of tongs.
I read back through your build thread to start planning how I want to plumb it and get together a list of what I'll need. The overflow uses 1.5 inch bulk heads correct? How about the returns? I found a guy by me that can modify the stand so it will fit into my basement. Can 2 or 3 guys move it without to much problem? Since the stand won't be ready when the movers deliver the tank to my basement I'll need to solicit some muscle to help move the tank onto the stand anyway. I was leaning hard towards just building a wood stand ahead of time so i wouldn't have to worry about it but with a tank of this size I just would prefer having the piece of mind of the steel stand.
I read back through your build thread to start planning how I want to plumb it and get together a list of what I'll need. The overflow uses 1.5 inch bulk heads correct? How about the returns? I found a guy by me that can modify the stand so it will fit into my basement. Can 2 or 3 guys move it without to much problem? Since the stand won't be ready when the movers deliver the tank to my basement I'll need to solicit some muscle to help move the tank onto the stand anyway. I was leaning hard towards just building a wood stand ahead of time so i wouldn't have to worry about it but with a tank of this size I just would prefer having the piece of mind of the steel stand.