Sebea and I are back from the past with a new tank. Will post more pics at the end of the week but these are from the beginning of the cycle a few weeks ago. Will write up a full description of equipment and such tomorrow also.





Click the set for more pics vvv

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pili4444/sets...57605697248783/

Nice avatar, and your tank looks pretty good too.

Your tank's back is so clean and dark that the rock itself looks like some modern sculpture.

nice...i just sold that tank that I had. Never saw a drop of water =(

nice tank and stand.

Heres a list of some equipment. more pics tomorrow with some new additions.

Oceanic Ultimate Something 60x24x24
Custom stand and canopy
Sfiligoi 10x54w T5 fixture 48"
Aquatic LifeSystems Berlin Sump 36'x like 18 x 20 maybe
Aquacontroller III newest model
Reefflo Snapper for the sump return
Reefflo Orca 200 skimmer (been waiting on missing gaskets for the unions for a while now...HOPEFULLY coming tomorrow )
2 x Tunze 6101 turbelles with controller coming tomorrow
Tunze osmolator
Eventually a Korallin Calcium Reactor once we start adding some hardcore sps
2x Azoo 4 fan things mounted on the back of the canopy for airflow controlled by tank temp via the aquacontroller.

I think thats pretty much it for equipment. We started moving over some small frags from the nano a few days ago and now have everything transferred. Everything seems to be doing very well.

this is gonna be nice! how much was the tank? starphire? I like those dimensions, been looking into a 60" myself.

orca skimmer. wow.



where are my snowflakes? I've been on your waitlist forever now

Hey Uhuru, the tank is an Oceanic 156 ultimate (60x24x24) with just the front pane starphire. The dimensions are perfect i think, its just a foot longer than a 120 but the extra foot add ALOT of real estate. You can pm me about the price but I can say i got a good deal through my employee discount.

Supernip! I dont know man. I hear they are just almost impossible to get in. Call Marcye?

Pili and I got our first fish for the tank last night. A pair of picasso clowns! They are awesome. Pics soon.

i love the tank and stand.. did you have the stand and canopy built???

Yes, the stand and canopy were built by some local guy that does it through the lfs that sebea works at. Its some quality work for sure.

I lvoe the backgound!

XD

You two are back eh.

Good to see it.

did you paint the background, or did it come like that??

The back is painted but it was painted by oceanic. Still waiting for ups/fedex to come

i love that tank.. how much did it run you if you dont mind me asking??? did you have to request the Paint on back?? it is 156gallon?? solid tank right, no seperate chambers in the back?? and pre drilled holes for sump?? thanks Mike

nice tank. i like the open rock structure. you got great equipment too!

Were planning on having a good amount of schooling fish (anthias and chromis mainly) along with a lot of big branching sps colonies so we wanted to keep the rock structure fairly open for free swimmers and coral growth. There is also plenty of sandbed space for clams and various lps which is a nice plus.

Your tank will be just like Richard Harker's 2000 gallon reef. His tank article in Marine Fish and Reef USA was one of the first reef setups I read about, and it has affected how much live rock I put in my tanks.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug...03/aquarium.htm

Bored waiting...preview picture of the picassos.

Hey. The tank itself is part of oceanic's ultimate series. They come standard with the starphire front panel, painted back (black), black silicon, and drilled for overflow/returns. Overall great tank if you dont want to spend huge amounts of money on a custom job. Still expensive though hah

yea i bet.. i like the fact that it is predrilled though... what exactly is Starphire frong panel??? how big is your sump ??

you know how old those are? i just got my picassos. not third bar yet, but irregular patterns on middle bar. The one on top looks NICE. an orca skimmer? why not an ATB cone skimmer?

http://www.atbskimmers.com/product.php?id=55

i hear its the best on the market, only outdone by BK and KZ

Digg, starphire means it is low iron glass. Basically no ugly green tint from normal glass, and its alot clearer. Sump is 40" long 15" wide and 20" tall.

Hey thanks Abe. Both are just about 8 months old. Basically chose the orca skimmer mostly because it fits perfectly (but tight) in the sump. I have heard good things about the ATB skimmers, but the orca is alot of bang for the buck. Its basically a powerhouse, although I am not so happy about the customer service.

Plus, the skimmer is oversized for the water volume anyways so I know it will kick ass.

as long as the skimmer kicks ass its good. i see that picassos take longer to develop? mine are only four months old and look like this:




protein skimmers oversized scare me. i was servicing my PM XL2 bullet today, and nearly overflowed the sump (returns were off). i am planning on changing protein skimmers (nothing with the precision marine skimmer it skims great) to either the biggest Warner Marine skimmer or the ATB large.

Yeah man they do take longer to develop in general. As they get older they will have more black fill. Yours looks nice.

Woah, I thought you guys were gone for good!
Good come back! Very nice tank choice!

I saw so many on other retailers. I just dont get a chance to check those sites as often as I'd like =(

Hey thanks FF

We just got the tunze 6101s hooked up. They are awesome! Lots of random flow, and there are no dead spots even with the pumps turned on 30-40%. Also should have the skimmer hooked up tonight and rocking.

I paid 250 for mine, but that was after a $200 credit and after the tank was 40% during Christmas from the wholesaler. I think in KC it retails for around 900ish....I so regret selling this tank now


Your tank setup looks great. Do you have the Orca in the stand?

Just got the orca in the stand and rockin despite having to silicon all of the unions together (After 2 weeks of calling and waiting, they still sent the wrong parts so we said screw it). On the plus side though its already making some dark stuff within the first hour!

PM'ing you about price now.

^^ responded.

Yeah so skimmer has now been churning for an hour and already have 1/2" of coffee like skimmate in a gatorade bottle. whoa

Pics







Click link in sig for bigger pics

skimmer looks great man. are you planning on fine-tuning it for smaller bubbles after a break-in period, or are you happy with large bubbles in the foam column?

Oh yeah it has to be tuned a lot more, but it needs to break in for more then 2 hours first . The bubbles in the body are at least as fine as they were in my H&S which was a beast on my 40g.

why did you sell? that was an awesome deal

cause I couldn't find a decent 5' fixture, I should have done what Phil did and stick with a good 4' fixture.

I hate myself right now, don't even mention it further

How was it dealing with Reeflo with the skimmer, good customer service?

Meh is all i have to say

my original plan was for a 4' tank, but the main reason I want to go with 5' is so I can get away with 4' lighting and still have more swimming space for the fishies, plus the open aquascape look is where it's at

sorry to rub it in further haha

could you give us the descriptive low down on how your Skimmer,Sump and tank are all tied in together... how many pumps..etc.???
thanks

by the way.. is your 156g the Regular Ultimate. or the Reef Ready Ultimate with the built in Overflow box...?

I'm assuming the reef ready model, it had the overflows built in. I'll have sebea tell you for sure later.

Digg, its really fairly simple. There are 2 overflows, the left overflow goes directly to the left side of the sump and the right overflow is split with a tee and 2 ball valves. One part goes directly to the sump and the other part goes to the skimmer as it is a recirculating type skimmer. How much flow goes to the sump and how much goes to the skimmer is controlled through the ball valves. Overflow from the skimmer goes back to the sump and then sump water is pumped back up to the tank through the 2 returns in the overflows with the reeflo snapper.

how do you like the reeflo snapper pump? I just ordered one for my return pump for the custom tank I ordered.

Lots of flow and not too loud. No real complaints so far.

Nice.. i like the strait forward design of your sump setup... i also saw onthe Oceanic site that you can get the Stand and Canopy with the tank , all as a package deal.. probably pretty Pricey though...
i also like the Long Narrow version of the 156g...

are you going to be installing any Calc Reactors,, Phos reactors and such?? Chiller??

We are expecting to install a korallin calcium reactor once we get more calcium demanding corals in there (and more money ). Just dosing for now. Also have room for a phosban reactor, and we will probably put one on but not for the time being.

As far as a chiller, I am dead set on not getting one. Through the t5s, the fans we installed, we shouldnt need one. The temp is fairly manageable right now, although the tunzes we just put in are definitely adding some heat.

chillers are horrible things that make rooms hotter and fish more comfortable.

update!

sorry were in the keys on vacation, will be back on saturday and post updates either sat or sunday. Big updates though as long as the tank isnt too messy when we get back.