Corals:

"Garf Bonsai" Acropora sp.
"Pink Lemonade" Acropora sp.
Miscellaneous ORA Acropora sp.
"Tyree Birdsnest" Ponape Seriatopora
"War Coral" Favia sp.
"4th of July" Favia sp.
"Bubble Gum Chalice" Echinophyllia sp.
"Laserbeam Chalice" Echinophyllia sp.
"LE Miami Hurricane Chalice" Echinophyllia sp.
"ORA Blue Chalice" Echinophyllia sp.
"Miami Hurricane Acanthastrea echinata
Purple/Yellow Turbinaria sp.
Blue Tipped Acropora sp.
"Green Slimer" Acropora sp.
Orange Montipora digitata
Orange Montipora capricornis
"LE Idaho Grape" Montipora capricornis
Purple Polyped Montipora capricornis
Green Montipora capricornis
"Superhero" Montipora sp.
"FNF RedBug" Montipora sp.
True Montipora undata
"ORA Hawkins's Blue" Arcopora echinata
Purple Acropora valida
"Tri-color" Acropora valida
ORA Green Duncanopsammia axifuga
Australian Blastomussa wellsi
Orange/Green Australian Blastomussa wellsi
Purple/Green Australian Blastomussa wellsi
"Orange Crush" Acanthastrea lordhowensis
"Australian Rainbow" Acanthastrea lordhowensis
Miscellaneous Acanthastrea lordhowensis
White "Pipe Organ" Tubipora musica
Dendrophyllia sp.
Miscellaneous Florida Ricordea sp.
"Superman" Lobophyllia hemprichii
Pink/Blue Stylophora sp.
"Radioactive Dragon-eye" Zoanthid sp.
Green Zoanthid sp.
"Cat's Eye" Zoanthid sp.
"Devil's Armor" Zoanthid sp.
"African Blue Hornet" Zoanthid sp.
Turquoise Palythoa sp.
Palythoa grandis
Green Striped Palythoa sp.
Tridacna maxima Clam
Tridacna crocea Clam
Green Fuzzy Cactus Psamicora sp.

Fish:

2 neon gobies

Invertebrates:

A Few Emerald Crabs
2 Tiger Tail Cucumbers
Pencil Urchin
Nerite Snails
Dwarf Cerith Snails
Nassarius Snails
Scarlet leg Hermit's

Live Rock and Sand:

And as for live rock, we used 20lbs of aragonite in the sump, 5lbs of live rock rubble in the sump, 78lbs of live rock in the tank, 80lbs of live sand, and 20lbs of dry sand.

Equipment:

Under the Stand: Reef doser dosing B-Ionic 2 times daily, Korallin sulfur denitrator, Ozone dosed with Milwaukee redox controller, Aqua Euro skimmer (with ozone input), custom topoff with Aqualifter pump dosing kalkwasser, Magdrive return pump.

Pumps: One Koralia 3, one Koralia 2, one Koralia nano, one new 1400gph Koralia, Vortec MP10 (set for nutrient transport mode).

Lights: Outer orbit fixture with 2x150W 20K Radium's running on a galaxy ballast, 2 true actinic ATI T5's, 1 blue ATI T5, and 1 aquablue ATI T5.

You're going to want a lot more then just a few koralia nanos in a 60G or larger tank.

ha! I meant koralia's. I was thinking about how I like the koralia nano in our current tank and I must have just typed that because I was thinking about it. I figure a couple koralia 2's or maybe 3's.

Congratulations on your upgrade! I sent you a PM.

Thanks! And got your PM. We're super excited to get this thing set up, but I have to get rid of my 40 gallon planted tank first, its kinda in the way haha.

Alright so here's some overall pics of the tank and some of what I've done so far. I'll post more later.


Here is the overall tank.


Here is the overflow, and the return loc-line I put in.


The 20 gallon aquarium I will be using as a sump/refugium.


This is the stand.


Durso overflow pipe.


The plumbing for the overflow.


I put a disconnect for when I clean the tube, and there is a ball valve incase anything ever goes screwey.


This is what I've uploaded so far. I'll put more pics up later. I drilled the holes in the stand for the bulkheads, and I installed the bulkheads onto the tank with some silicone. All in all everything is starting to look good. Oh, and I sold the 40 gallon planted tank so now this one has a home

Lookin' good!

Thanks man! I'm super stoked to get this thing up and running. I need to finish building the sump, and paint the back of the tank before I can set it up. Someone told me Krylon Fusion works well for painting the back. Any thoughts?

Looking good indeed !
Yep, everyone I talk to says Krylon Fusion. I've never used it myself, but that is what I would buy if I was going to get something

lol sorry but i thought of john and kate + 8 when i saw the thread title!

I love 75's tho! Get a little powder blue!

Its looking good so far. Please keep us updated with pics so we can see your progress.


Bruce

Haha. Powder blue's are sick. I think my gf and I are going to do a breding pair of clowns and a couple other fish she has wanted that we couldn't do in our nano.



Most definitely!

Ok so I haven't updated in a few days because my internet wasn't working and photobucket wouldn't upload my pictures... I finally got a couple of them to upload.


Here are the bulkheads siliconed in place


Drillid holes in the stand for the bulkheads to fit through. The holes have since been cleaned up around the edges.


Completed sump, doing a test run. I need to add about an inch section to the middle baffle because I wasn't paying attention when I was glueing it and placed it level with the others.


Also I put a couple acrylic legs under the skimmer, instead of a plastic cup.

haha I like the makeshift skimmer stand, how unstable is it?

Pretty shoddy if you ask me haha. I just needed to find the right height and I was trying everything. That cup seemed to do it. Now the skimmer has two pieces of acrylic the same height as the cup tacked on as legs with a little weldon-16. I'm just waiting for my girlfriend to have a day off work so she can help me put the tank on the stand. Then I'll hook up the plumbing and filler up!

Looking good so far.

I just got pieces of acrylic in the mail yesterday from Tap-Plastics for making the lids for the tank. Acrylic bends a bit under the heat from a metal halide, but it has excellent light transmission and I don't notice any glare from it like you can get with a glass top. If there are any serious bending problems I will probably add an acrylic brace to keep them from warping.

And here's whats going to happen in the very near future:

60-80lbs of live rock depending on how porous it is
80lbs live sand
20lbs of aragonite in sump
~5lbs live rock rubble in sump
chaeto in same chamber as aragonite and live rock


I'm also going to set up an auto top off system with a float switch and an aqualifter pump. Everything is going to be in the stand, so this will look very sleek when completed.

The light we want is currently on back-order from drs foster and smith. Marine depot doesn't carry it anymore!

Within about a month of having this tank up and running we plan to transfer some of our less sensitive corals (probably zoas, palys, ric's, etc.) and our fish (purple firefish, algae blenny, scooter blenny) over from our nano cube. Once everything is transferred over I will probably be fragging some of our zoa's and palys and mushrooms for sale so keep an eye out if your interested (we have dragon eyes, radioactive dragon eyes, cats eye, misc orange zoas, devils armor, turquoise palys, a couple misc palys, green striped mushrooms, red mushrooms, purple mushrooms, and snowflake polyps.)

The new tank will not have any mushrooms, or snowflake polyps in it because they grow like weeds and are hard to keep in check.

That is one awesome tank youve got there! Everything is looking great.

yea I was being sarcastic about the little red cup lol

Ahh sarcasm... Thanks for the insight there spanky!


Hey you too! haha.

Today was exciting. Why might you ask? Because we got sand, live rock, our tank got aquascaped and filled with water!

Here's some pictures of the process and the results.














This is the whole thing tonight after all the dust has been filtered out of the water column.

ballllllllllllinnnnnnnn nice aquascape

Thanks! We got lucky and they had some really nice LR. Lots of holes, caves, etc. We still want a couple more pieces, but for now everything is nice. The fish will be really happy having lots of holes to swim through, thats for sure!

yeah most deffinetly thell be playin hide n seek lol what type of light are you putting on there?

48" Outer Orbit 2x150W/T5. Gonna throw a couple phoenix 14K bulbs in there. It's gonna look reeeeeal nice.

fo shooooooooooooo nice my dad wants to put together a 70 or 90g tank were are tv is now he wants to by a flat screen nd put it on the wall and put the tank in the living room where our tv is now it would look bad ass but gunna be a while lol

Looks awesome ! Love the scape!

Great tank! I want another sump shot

Tank looks really good. Lr looks great. Lots of color already.

Great choice on the mh blub. I also happen to run a 14k pheonix bulb. All of my softies love it.

If you get a chance I would invest in some led night lights. I have found that my corals stay open longer when I have the night lights on (versus off) it also keeps my fish calm. They don't bug out when the mh turns off anymore. But granted they all go to sleep 20 minutes after lights out anyway (such good fish).

Keep up the good work & post up more pichers

The outer orbit fixture comes with them.

oh well

i tried.

haha its coo.

So I'm running into some heat concerns already. I'm still going to have to put another pump in the tank, a light for chaeto in the sump, and the main light on top. The water temp in the sump is 80 degrees when the doors are closed.... And the humidity is high which worries me that over time the wood could absorb the moisture and become weakened. I'm thinking about installing a fan in each side of the stand to pull fresh air across the sump and then out of the stand. This should help immensely with the problems I am having down there.

Oh and I made the acrylic tops today, put hinges and handles on them. I'll post pics later cuz I don't have my camera on me. Everything else is going great though, I'm hoping to start seeing some pods by the end of this week. The rock was mostly cured so I'm thinking it won't be a very long cycle. Only time will tell i guess.

run the chateo light in reverse photosynth mode. If you dont want to cut the side panels add a exit fan in the cabinet area that pulls air out from the back. Keeping the top of the tank uncovered will help as well.

Ya. I already run my chaeto in my nano reverse to the daylight cycle to help with pH swings. Adding one fan to the cabinet doesn't help because it needs somewhere for air to enter and exit. I would have to drill two holes, which then why not put a fan on each. One pulling air in and one pushing air out. It would be a much better alternative. Oh, and the top on the tank is a must because the firefish jumps, and the cat is agile enough to sit on the corner of the tank and play with the fish... trust me I know.

So I called Dr. Foster Smith today and canceled my order of the outer orbit t5 fixture. They are having trouble getting it in (i'm sure because current discontinued them) and I am impatient and don't want to wait to see if they can get them in or not. I just ordered one, new in box, off of eBay so fingers crossed it works beautifully.

Ah sry meant leave open top and put some pond net, eggcrate, door screen over the top.

For the fans its much better to have more exhaust fans than intake, or stronger exhuast than intake. Esp. if you have an open back stand

Sweet setup....

I would make a small suggestion.

Scoot your scape in a little to have inch or inch 1/2 room all the way around and off the glass.

This way, you get better flow all around, you can get a Mag Float to all parts of the glass and you can get in behind if needed.

Just a suggestion.

Looking good.....

Ah gotcha. Well the problem is the stand isn't open back... so there is NO circulation currently Thats why I thought having fans on opposite sides to move the air across the sump from either left to right or vice versa.



Ya I had thought about that originally, but I like having the large sand bed in front, and I really like the aquascape the way it is. If we moved it forward it wouldn't sit right and we would have to change the way it looks. I'm not so worried about flow around the back of the LR, when I do water changes I blast everything off with a powerhead anyway so there isn't much detritus that collects back there. Our nano is the same way.

Mmk so the tank is coming along. It's cycling right now and I have a feeling its getting near the end. I chose to run the skimmer during cycling to clean out some of the DOC's in the water from any die off and it's taken out quite a bit. Beginning last night I started dosing Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter7, along with Prodibio Bioclean. I left the skimmer off overnight and plugged it back in when I woke up. I'm really trying to get this thing cycled quick because our light is coming via UPS on july 2nd and I want to be able to put a CUC in the tank before the 4th. We're going to go with some blue leg hermits, a couple scarlet leg hermits, some astrea snails, a couple turbos, a couple chestnut snails, and some nassarius. I also have a fighting conch in the nano's sump which I will transfer over to the new sump when needed.

As time goes on and we add corals and fish to the tank we might get a sea cucumber to stir the sand bed, and an emerald crab if we get any GHA.

Wow so where to begin... I've been super busy lately so I haven't posted in a while. Work was hectic for a while, my internet stopped working... When it finally started working again I wasn't able to post any pictures to photobucket because of an "error." Then I went on a week long vacation, and now that I'm back my zoa colonies in my other tank have zoa pox really bad. Its quite sad because they were large colonies which I was going to frag and try to sell. So now that I'm back I'm going to try to get up some new pics of the tank. It's fully cycled, almost completely done with its diatom bloom, and some of our more hardy corals have already been moved over. So far the CUC is a handful of blueleg and zebra hermits, a couple chestnut snails, and some banded tronchus. We also have a huge copepod bloom which our scooter blenny is going to love when we move him over. I'll TRY to get some pics up soon, but maybe not today cuz its my birthday.

oooohhhhhh........i reery rike yur rocks!

ranks raggy!

Happy belated Birfday! can;t wait for the pix!

YAY pictures!!!! So these pics are a little old. We have lots of new stuff in the tank, but I've been on vacation so I haven't gotten any new pics yet. Some sump shots for those who requested, my topoff, skimmer, and shots of the tank under just the T5's. I'll get some new pics up as soon as my birthday corals come in the mail.


left side tank view


devil's armor zoas


right side view


sump view. This is an old pic, now I have a light and chaeto growing down there


plumbing


outtake fan


intake fan


Wiring mess! Actually it's pretty organized. The cords are all labled now. The top strip is for tank circulation (koralia's) and now the refugium light.


Home made topoff


Other side of sump with skimmer and filter sock


mmm sludge!


my float switch


With the fans, the tank stays at a comfortable 79-80 degrees while the lights are on.


And thats all for now! Sorry its taken so long for picture updates guys. Photobucket wasn't working on my computer for the longest time, and my internet wasn't working either so its been very frustrating.

Alright! Brand new pics! I took them today. As you can see the tank is really coming along. We have nice coralline growth and everything is looking good. Almost all the corals are moved over from our other tank. It has been a tough job making sure no mushrooms or blue clove polyps get transferred over on accident. They are both like a plague in our other tank and we don't want them in this tank.


So to start things off, a FTS.



Yay FTS!!



Our hammer about 2 weeks after having moved him over. Its doing really well!


A frag of our aussie blasto! We have another frag with 5 or so heads on it... We're debating whether to sell it or not.


Our awesome Favia growing on a shell. The plan is to let it grow until it completely covers the shell. Would be quite a novelty piece to sell as a whole if it works out as planned.


neon green Caulastrea looking mighty happy!


Candy cane Caulastrea from other tank. It looks good too!


Our Acan Lord colony. It needs to be attached somewhere...


Green ricordea mushroom...


Not sure if this is a Acan or not..?


And now the grand finale..... my birthday half naked ocellaris!! They have regular markings on one side, but are half naked on the other. They are super happy and I can't wait for them to pair up!

And thats all folks!

Great pix! everything looks really healthy and happy

wow. everything looks awesome. i wish i had all those little frags around. LOL

thanks guys! That's really nice to hear. We have great hopes and plans for the future of this tank.

Well, for anyone thats tagging along. I just got my birthday corals today!!! Sorry for the crappy pics, I'm still having trouble figuring out this white balance thing. The corals aren't in their permanent homes yet either, we haven't decided where they are going to go yet. I'll get better pictures once they have a home.


This is the super high tech way to do a lugols dip


A pink stylopora


superman lobophyllia


Montipora Danae


Bubble gum chalice


Aussie chalice


miami hurricane enchita


Acan lord morph


And we moved our clam over from our other tank a couple days ago and he's doing great! hmm... need to move that zoa colony...