So, in my crazy busy life of buying a new house and starting my business I decided that its time to UPGRADE! I wanted to go bigger than a 110 but figured after sporting a nano for the last 5 yeas I better not lol. This thread will be mainly pics with brief descriptions, because lets face it who reads the threads before looking at pics

SCROLL down... I put the bulk of the thread on a post below so it doesnt appear on the top of every page... its LONG lol.

I decided to post this down so it doesnt show my whole first post on every page lol.

I bought this tank March 3rd of 2009 as a USED tank from Craigslist. The system was about 2 years old.
The tank was actually set up (in a customers home) by some very knowledgeable hobbyists that ran a LFS so I felt very comfortable that it was a solid system. The previous owner really had no clue on how to care for a tank IMO, by the looks of the mess when I bought it. It was covered in dust and salt creep was everywhere but I saw a diamond in the rough.

My wonderful boyfriend and I decided that this tank would be my combined Birthday, Valentines, and Christmas gifts for the year lol. The tank cost him $1000.00 (a smoking deal) and here is a list of what it came with.

She is a 110g Starphire Glass tank 5'x2'x18''
Has 1 main overflow in center with 2 drains and lock line returns for a CL.
Custom made black stand painted with automotive paint black (wait until you see the stand wrap)
Lighting is an Aqualight 2x150 with 2 96w PCs and 3 LEDs (One MH ballast was OUT so had to replace that)
Custom Acrylic Sump
Reef Octopus Skimmer
GenX PCX 55HP cor return
Iwaki WMD 30RLT for CL
Aquacontroller II with temp and PH probes
Artica 1/4hp Chiller
Custom ATO off unit (installed after purchase)
Approx 120 LBS of OK Live rock
2'' of Aragonite LS

____________________________________________________________________________

Location for the tank:


Here are the pictures of the tank BEFORE I brought it home. Pretty Bad
Oh how excited my BF looks LOL.. for the record he is making this face on purpose LOL



This was the dismal status of the stand contents. YEA it was BAD!


Fire Hazard Anyone??




And this is the top of the pump for the skimmer. They were dumping Kalk directly into the sump.



____________________________________________________________________________

Move Day went off pretty smoothly. Had an hour drive each way, loaded all the water, rock and sand into buckets. Had the tank on a flatbed with help from several local members of or reef club FRAG we drove it an hour to my home. After allot of vinegar and elbow grease it looked like I thought it would nice a clean. Here are the after pics on move day:




Then I tried to Aquascape:

I was not too hot on the layout so I tried again and no luck. I gave on on the scape until I had a bit more rock.

About 3 weeks went by, just staring at the tank, nothing in it. I decided that it was time for fish. After checking all the water, it seemed good enough. I had my grandma visiting from TX so off we went to the LFS. I saw a beautiful McCoskers flasher wrasse still in the bag trying to get at the food that was in the surrounding tank. I figured he must be pretty healthy since he was not stressed from shipping so I bought him. Grandma named him Buckie LOL He is a great little fish!!!



And a video of him flashing, its pretty cool and he does it every day after feeding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZH00SvydUk

____________________________________________________________________________

About a week or so later I was SICK of looking at this black stand and canopy!!! I almost didn't buy this system because of the stand and canopy but I figured I could do SOMETHING to make it look ok. I decided to use my large format Roland VersaCamm 5 foot printer and do a Vehicle Wrap.... but on my stand instead!!!
I took pictures of a TV armoire that I have in my bedroom that has a great wood pattern. Edited it in Photoshop and printed it out as large panels on vinyl. Applied it and here is how it came out. It looks far from perfect if you get up close but overall it looks GREAT and matches my home decor perfectly!! IMO a HUGE improvement and people don't even realize that its a basically a STICKER!



I also added an ATO at this time and plumbed the chiller through the wall into a closet that is directly behind the tank. Makes it SOO much nicer under the stand, lots of extra room now.

____________________________________________________________________________

Then it was time to get SERIUOS about my Aquascape. I am so damn picky about it lol. I found and bought about 100lbs of used rock that looked really nice since the pieces I had to work with just sucked.

I LOVE the bonsai look but after 3 failed attempts including trying to use acrylic rods I recruited a friend who works at one of the best LFS in Phx. He did a GREAT job on the base but a little too much rock for me so I selectively removed a couple pieces and ended up with this and I was happy. When its all grown in it will look great. I sold off the excess rock.


After the scape was complete I added the Springers Damsel from my 20g ADA. He is a NON aggressive species of damsel and a PROVEN flat worm eater.


I also added 3 Threadfin Cardinals. They are so weird lol.


____________________________________________________________________________

Last week someone was offering Southdown Sand in my local club so I bought a 50LB bag. For the last 2 nights I have syphoned out the sand (1/2 at a time) from the front of the tank out and replacing it with the southdown. Its BEAUTIFUL sand and I TOTALLY recommend it to anyone starting a tank.
This is the comparison between the Southdown and the old aragonite. I did leave all the sand that was in the back as it was.


____________________________________________________________________________

This entire time I had something wrong with the chiller. This is a $700 chiller and I find out its not under warranty anymore (naturally). So off it goes to JBJ. Im not really happy with their customer service at all, I sent multiple emails and several phone calls but FINALLY got in touch with someone. I ship off the chiller and they tell me ok $135.00 to fix it. FINE. I wasn't happy about it but not much I could do and I really prefer to have a chiller. Check my bank account yesterday and WOW $200 from JBJ! Yea, NOT good customer service, and I am thoroughly disappointed~! I will have to wait until tomorrow to get in touch with them on this.

Yesterday I received my new Vortech in the mail. I bought the big daddy, MP40W Gen 2. I read and read all the reviews on these and decided to bite the bullet and get one. I will eventually add another but that's a few months away. UNFORTUNATLY its broken!!!!! I know that EcoTech has great customer service on their products so I am not worried but I wish I didn't have to wait until Monday to hear from them Its something wrong with the power supply, not getting full contact at the wave box.
Here I was BEFORE I realized it didnt work. I am pretty bummed out.


____________________________________________________________________________

Plans for this tank will include new lighting:
2x250 Lumatek Ballasts and 2 Luminarc Reflectors... not sureo n what bulbs yet but they will be SE.

It will be mostly SPS with a few LPS and of course Rics

My Stock list as far as fish goes will be:
McCoskers
3 Threadfin Cardinals
My Picasso and Naked B/W clown
Springers Damsel
3 Bartletts Anthias
Midas Blenny
Melanarius Wrasse or Radient Wrasse
Purple Tang
2 Sharknose Gobies


Here are a couple pics from today. Its a little hazy still from putting in the new Southdown sand but its looking pretty good so far!!! Best part was that the rocks shifted when I did the sand change out and ended up better than before! SWEET lol. I hope to move all the contents from my 20 over to this tank within the next couple weeks. Still have a bit of nitrates going on and would like to wait until I get new lights as well.

Seriously, you can market and sell stickers like that for fugly tanks. You'd make a fortune. As for everything else... amazing job! Can't wait to see what you stock it with.

Mike

Very thoughtful of you to put the pics in the second post.

This looks like it'll be a promising setup! Nice job on the cleanup and the faux wood, too.

^THANKS!!! SO glad you re-posted LOL thought I pissed ya off!

Schwaz, I KNOW RIGHT! I do large format printing and graphic design and my friend actually came up with it. Standing in front of the tank trying to decide on building a new stand my friend says, why don't you wrap it??

GENIUS! Its not cheap but WAYYY easier than building a new one lol.

This is going to be amazing!!! BF looks pleased!

^^ THANK YOU!!!

Welcome.

Very nice Ade.

This is gorgeous! You did an amazing job of cleaning that up! I loved the video of the flasher wrasse- I had no idea that's where it gets its name from.

awesome job on the scape Miss... looking forward to seeing the tank mature...

Real quick Group Shot after lights off

Awesome job! The wrap is very cool.

Cool tank. I like the rock scape a lot! I like that cutout in the corner of your house... Almost looks like it was made to put a tank there!

very nice work!

can you tell me more about the damsel? how many of them have you seen?

all the searches I've done tell me they can still become very aggressive! is it possible you got lucky?

Well found it hard to believe too.... until I found 3 other people in my local club that had this species and found they are great reef fish. He was in with my aggressive clownfish but now he is in the 110. He Schools with my cardinals actually. I have not once seen him go after any other fish or show any remote signs of aggression. I had a mild case of flatworms and went into a LFS talking about the FWs. My friend says... OH here try this damsel. I was like UHH NO! He says its NON aggressive and it WILL eat FWs. What the heck so I tried him out, a whopping $8.00. He has been a model citizen and not a chance he would go into the 110 if I even thought he would be aggressive, I considers passing him around to the locals needing to get rid of FWs but I just like him too much!

Wow, I luv the way ur stand looks. Mind if I ask how much something like this would cost? I am in the middle of setting up a 90 gallon tank. I am sure my wife would be happy if I can get the stand to look like yours

TIA

Dennis

Well I print it them myself. I own a design and large format printing business. I would charge $7.99 per sq ft. Its done in panels, and its just a big sticker. I would need pictures of the tank and exact dimensions. You would either need to provide the wood grain image or you can use the one I did. The surface needs to be VERY smooth and this "Stand Wrap" WILL SCRATCH!! I have a couple places with minor scratches however a brown sharpie works miracles. The vinyl I used for mine is a very thin vinyl. There are much nicer and thicker vinyls however they cost more. If you're really interested I will send you a sample of the printed material just PM me with your address.

Application is not THAT hard but does require some finesse and PATIENCE!!! I would supply you with instructions for WET application. All you do is spray on a water and soap formula peel the backing off the decal and position it in place. Squeegee out the excess water and let it dry for about an hour.

Anyways let me know. I think I am going to start offering these to reefers. It doesn't even have to be a full wrap, it can be ANYTHING, even cut out vinyl fish, or a cool design.

Waves.... It doesnt look like a big wave but thats pretty damn good for 110 gallons of water! I WILL be getting another one of these for the other side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amAbci9JpkY

That's a pretty good wave for a single pump on a tank that big.

Well added a new fish last weekend. Have a nasty cold but snapped a few pics of my new guy... he is so cool looking. Radiant Wrasse

looks like its in attack mode >.>

nice choice of fish

winner

we need updates.

Ok updates.... hum... nothing really new. I have added a tailspot blenny and decided that the springers damsel needs to go. He was fine with larger fish but after adding the tailspot I decided to catch the springers. I caught him last night and he is off to his new home today. I think they would be best for a frag tank or a nano with clowns. No delicate fish. I have a bit of algae kicking up after adding the sand. Kinda weird HA looking stuff. Been working so much and a little neglect tank wise. Just re-plumbed my ro-di system today and added an additional inline TDS to help with my filters getting spent so fast. Thats another reason for the algae im sure.

Finally broke down the ADA last month and added to the 110 what I had left of corals. Not much just sofites.. a couple rics zoas and shrooms. Added some honkin big zebra turbos and they have been hard at work cleaning up. I am a pretty patient reefer, but I hope that it will be coral ready (sps) just after christmas. I have lots of good local frags to buy

Pics!! .