Not too nano anymore.

[BibleSue]

Nice lookin tank. One thing about Florida, ALLWAYS keep a generator on hand. usually when any storm hits were I live, this tree knocks out power...I'm about to knock out that tree!

 

Just make sure you don't turn on the generator IN the house or garage. Allways keep it outside when it's on, nomatter what. No one is going to complain.

 

Nice tank. Keep it up.

 

Also take the wheels off when using it outside. Makes it harder for people to walk off with it. My old pastor in Hollywood learned the hard way.

[FLcracker94]

That sucks.

 

You could chain it to a fence or something too.

[Hinecken]

I know your very thorough, but I got to ask. Did you put stabil in your gas?

 

I'm not a fan of the arches in your live rock, but I think when you start adding coral and the rocks turn purple it's going to look really cool.

 

BTW - nice dolphin in your av. 50 pounder?

 

I have Stabil on hand if I need it, but the gas is always fresh, and they're not all full all the time. What you didn't see in the garage pics were the four wheeler and dirtbike that get pretty thirsty. I also take the jugs and make a few trips back and forth to the boat when I go fishing so I don't have to deal with gas dock prices. I'll always have somewhere between 100-200 gallons of fuel at my disposal if a storm threatens thanks to our boat, which we never let go below a half tank. All I do is disconnect the fuel lines from the outboards and let the fuel pump fill my jugs. So I never really have to worry about keeping them full in my garage. One or two at most.

 

With regards to the arches... some love em, some hate em. I like em because non-photosynthetic corals look great back there, and it really allows the entire water volume to flow through and around everything. No dead spots anywhere in the tank. You're right about the coraline growth though, it's really going to bring everything together.

 

That bull in my av. unfortunately didn't hit the 50 mark, but all 40lb's of him put me through a work out that day. He hit the spinning outfit in the pic and made that reel scream for the better part of 25 minutes.

 

 

Also take the wheels off when using it outside. Makes it harder for people to walk off with it.

 

I find it easier to chain to the nearest tree and leave my dogs in the yard. One of three things will happen if someone tries to jack my generator. They'll either be stopped by the big chain, my dogs, or my .357

Stealin a man's generator is some serious fightin words.

[Ryan_H]

where'd all the pics go it sounds so cool yet the thread is so disappointing without pics!

 

i've got a 65 sitting in my garage that i'm trying to actually save up for and set up and i was looking for some cool ideas. there aren't many 65's out there!

[Hinecken]

where'd all the pics go it sounds so cool yet the thread is so disappointing without pics!

 

i've got a 65 sitting in my garage that i'm trying to actually save up for and set up and i was looking for some cool ideas. there aren't many 65's out there!

 

 

Sorry man, I've been busy for a couple weeks with physical therapy and have been getting back on my bicycle for some cardio. Not too much to speak of with regards to the tank, I'm just letting it do it's thing until I get my lights. I'll snap a pic of my fuge later so you all can see how quickly the algae grows. I purposely haven't trimmed it since the last shot.

 

Why is that 65 just sitting in your garage if you're saving up? It would be much better off in the house filled with water and sand and cycling. What's the worst that can happen? You take 6 months to save up and start stocking a tank with a mature sandbed? Take it from me man, find a home for it inside your house and fill'r up with sand and water. Throw in a powerhead or HOB filter if you can't swing the main circ. pumps yet.

[Ryan_H]

Sorry man, I've been busy for a couple weeks with physical therapy and have been getting back on my bicycle for some cardio. Not too much to speak of with regards to the tank, I'm just letting it do it's thing until I get my lights. I'll snap a pic of my fuge later so you all can see how quickly the algae grows. I purposely haven't trimmed it since the last shot.

 

Why is that 65 just sitting in your garage if you're saving up? It would be much better off in the house filled with water and sand and cycling. What's the worst that can happen? You take 6 months to save up and start stocking a tank with a mature sandbed? Take it from me man, find a home for it inside your house and fill'r up with sand and water. Throw in a powerhead or HOB filter if you can't swing the main circ. pumps yet.

 

trust me i would (i've already got about 150lbs of aragonite that my boss was going to toss when my store moved), but i've got to spend $100 and a few days building a decent stand and canopy for it to sit on. right now i have neither time nor money . i've got christmas with a large family, new years, and my girlfriend's birthday coming up in december/january, so i'm trying to save up some money to take care of all that (plus i'll be getting christmas money from relatives and hopefully another bonus) and will start the tank after valentine's day (just thought about that one, lol). right now i'm just weighing my options (probably gonna go dsb with a 30 gallon refugium and skimmer) and am looking at how other's have gone about setting their's up. still stuck on lighting too... let me know how much those halides impact your electric bill. dual 250w hqi's are on the top of my list for lighting options, but i'm not the one who pays the electricity bill...

[MDHatter22]

Nice tank man. And nice Mahi!

 

Caught a few myself on my honeymoon trip last week.

 

m

[Hinecken]

Thanks MDH! and congrats on the new wifey.

 

If my neck would stop killing me for a few minutes, I'm dying to shoot a pic of my fuge right now, it looks ridiculous. I'm going to go eat some vicoden so I can snap off a pic or two.

[Hinecken]

UPDATE October 8th, 2007

 

Here's a little fuge update for ya'll. Normally it gets a bi-weekly trim, but I wanted to give everyone an idea of how fast my chaeto grows. If any of my fellow NR members are located in South FL, I'm happy to give out some free chaeto. It's better than throwing 5lbs of it out every couple of weeks.

 

So here it is on Sept. 17th,

 

 

And here it is today, 10/08/07 Got Chaeto?

 

Top view

 

Close up

[121a]

that is scary

i think something is lurking in there

[Hinecken]

I've seen bristle worms in there that could eat my cat. The best part about it, I'm getting all that sick growth and there's nothing in the display yet. Not even light. It'll truly be scary when there's more nutes for it to feed on. Right now it's eating worm and pod poo.

[sammy113]

Nice Setup. OMG! that chaeto gone crazy! all that growth in less than a month, thats crazy and I can't never even double the size of mine!

[Hinecken]

Thanks Sammy! Normally I trim about weekly(ish), but I purposely let it go so I could show you guys how crazy it grows. What type of light are you using over yours? Could be the reason it's not exploding like mine does.

 

 

So today I found out that my Reactor was made by a pedophile. Andy from MRC was arrested and is pending charges for being a filthy pervert. I haven't had a smidge of issues with the reactor yet *knocks on wood,* but I'm pretty much screwed in the customer service department if I do. I hope bad karma isn't attached to my tank now thanks to that douche.

[sammy113]

Thanks Sammy! Normally I trim about weekly, but I purposely let it go so I could show you guys how crazy it grows. What type of light are you using over yours? Could be the reason it's not exploding like mine does.

 

I have a 24W PC over in a reverse photo period. I also have som caulerpa that grows as crazy as your chaeto but the chaeto grows very slowww if theres any growth at all. Actually i don't notice any.

[Hinecken]

I've used caulerpa in the past and don't particularly like it. It went sexual on me twice and turn my 20 into pea soup. It was shear luck that I happened to be home to do massive water changes both times. I'm using a 6700k bulb over my fuge that helps a lot, what is the spectrum of yours? I bet if you yank the caulerpa your chaeto would take off.

[MrAnderson]

curious - why dry rock and not live? does it have something to do with getting the deep sandbed slowly established?

[Hinecken]

curious - why dry rock and not live? does it have something to do with getting the deep sandbed slowly established?

 

Nothing to do with the DSB actually, I had all that rock from previous aquariums, and I've got some really neat shapes that I know I won't be able to find again. It made it much easier to glue all the rock-work in place because it was dry, I did the entire aquascape before there was a drop of water in the tank.

 

I did use live in the fuge, you can't see it because of the chaeto, but underneath the pump shelf is packed with live rock from several different stores that I know will give me all the bio-diversity I need. I also wanted to minimize the possibility of aptasia (sp) in the display. I did seed the display with a couple of small pieces of live, but I'd say 99% was dry.

[Hinecken]

UPDATE: 1-14-2008

 

So it's been a few months since my last update, but yesterday my tanked reached a major milestone. It's ready to kick a$$ and take names. My family and in-laws all chipped in and got me the money I needed for my lights to help complete the set-up.

 

Lighting:

 

2 x 250w ARO Electronic Ballasts ( thanks Hellolights.com)

2 x 14,000k Hamilton mogul ended MH's. " "

2 x bat-wing reflectors. " "

 

Taaaa Daaaaa!!!!!

 

Straight On

Standing

Left

Right

[Nick's Reef]

Woot! Now your ready for corals, kick ass lighting set up vey nice color. Love the rockwork looks like a lot of ledges/overhangs/caves for fish when you get them. Nice to see another reefer here in s.florida!

[Gerber77]

That looks awesome good work.

[Hinecken]

Woot! Now your ready for corals, kick ass lighting set up vey nice color. Love the rockwork looks like a lot of ledges/overhangs/caves for fish when you get them. Nice to see another reefer here in s.florida!

 

Thanks man! Hey, lemme know if you ever need any Chaeto, I throw piles away bi-weekly. I'd be happy to deliver some for some nice Jupiter snook holes. Do you fish?

 

That looks awesome good work.

 

Much appreciated.

 

 

Since I can finally photograph the aquascape decently, here's a grand tour. What do you guys think?

 

 

 

A quick note about my clam shelves. I started purposefully building shelves in my tanks for the past 7 years or so and highly recommend them. My clams always seem to love them and you can get them to settle at just the right height. If you don't have the good fortune of attaching them with the rocks dry, you can always use super-glue gel to put one in an established tank.

 

 

[Hinecken]

Questions? Comments?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buehler?

[Nick's Reef]

Thanks man! Hey, lemme know if you ever need any Chaeto, I throw piles away bi-weekly. I'd be happy to deliver some for some nice Jupiter snook holes. Do you fish?

Yeah I'm addicted to snook fishing! I go about every weekend, most of the time late at night fly-fishing the lights or Munyon Island early in the morning.

[Hinecken]

Yeah I'm addicted to snook fishing! I go about every weekend, most of the time late at night fly-fishing the lights or Munyon Island early in the morning.

 

Hell yeah, snook fishing is as addictive as reef-keeping. If you're ever in S. Palm Beach and want to head offshore, just hit me up!

[klarion]

Questions? Comments?

 

Buehler?

 

Well, I like the idea of caves and shelves. And that's what I've done in my tank using Tonga branch even before I saw your tank Here. Though, I didn't go so high tech this time, but previously I even did a closed loop return with PVC just like you. It's all very strange......