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Matt's 20 Gallon


matth6761

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TheNordCelt

Wow man, with your documentation and photo's you've TOTM in the bag man.

I like your mixed reef look, its similar to what I'm trying to accomplish.

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smorrismi
Wow man, with your documentation and photo's you've TOTM in the bag man.

I like your mixed reef look, its similar to what I'm trying to accomplish.

 

Agreed... beautiful tank.

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matth6761
Nominating this for TOTM. Gotta represent Redding.. :)

 

Showing some love for the dirty five-thirty!

 

Thanks everyone! Y'all are too kind. :D

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WOW!!!! looking good maybe one day my tank will look like that B)

 

One of my favorite tanks on here now. I think I have come back to your thread 3 times to look at pictures

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Disaster was narrowly avoided today. :wacko:

 

When I woke up this morning and checked the reef, the temp was 78.6. Pretty normal. I left home and ran some errands around town with my girlfriend for a couple of hours, the original plan being to head back to her house and spend the rest of the day there. On a random whim, I decided to swing by my house to pick some things up. As I was was heading towards the door, I caught a glance of my reef and quickly noticed something was quite off. Almost all the corals had closed up and the fish looked very unhappy. I felt the tank glass and noticed it was incredibly warm. I checked the thermometer and the temperature was at 89 and climbing. :scarry: I immediately killed the lights and unplugged the heater and removed it from the tank. In an effort to get the temp back down, I pointed two large fans at the tank and at that point all I could do was stand back and wait. After several tense minutes, the temp slowly started to creep back down. As I was waiting, I did some furious Googling (Is that a word?) and quickly figured out the probable cause...

 

Long story short; apparently I'm the only person who hasn't heard about the Marineland Stealth heater recall. :angry:

 

As far as I can tell, I haven't lost anything so far. Once the temp got back down to the low 80's, most of the corals started opening back up and the fish seem to be doing fine as well. I contacted the Petsmart where I purchased the heater and when I inquired about the recall, they offered a free replacement on the spot. After reading up on some of the horror stories posted around the web about the Stealth heaters, I can't even begin to imagine what may have happened had I not come home when I did. I very well could have lost everything so I consider my reef to be damn lucky.

Edited by matth6761
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naturalwonders

Wow, incredible.

Glad things worked out. Man, trust me, we all have the sixth sense.

Edited by naturalwonders
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urkinduhdorky

Hey matt this is an awesome 20 gallon ! You have inspired me yet again! I am currently running a biocube 29g, I should make a thread here soon once I get a decent camera, just a couple questions, overall how much would you say you spent on all in your 20 gallon as far as lights, filter, etc. ?

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Hey matt this is an awesome 20 gallon ! You have inspired me yet again! I am currently running a biocube 29g, I should make a thread here soon once I get a decent camera, just a couple questions, overall how much would you say you spent on all in your 20 gallon as far as lights, filter, etc. ?

 

Thanks for the compliment! :) I've never really kept track, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd estimate I put probably around $800-$900 into getting the tank to where it is. The T5 light, MP10 and skimmer make up the bulk of that. I feel they were all worth the money though. I'd hate to see how much I spend on coral, however. :P

Edited by matth6761
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nor_cal_nano
Long story short; apparently I'm the only person who hasn't heard about the Marineland Stealth heater recall. :angry:

 

'Cuz you don't post here enough damn it. For awhile there, I couldn't log on to any forum without a thread re:Marineland heaters showing on the first page. Glad to hear the tank is doing good.

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urkinduhdorky

Thanks!

 

Well my plan was just to get the thing up and running I figured with an aquaclear 70 with the refuge mod 40$ , t5 Ho lighting (100+), and a couple power head (60$), say 250$ to get it running no live stock do you think its doable? How much was the t5 u got?

Edited by urkinduhdorky
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Thanks!

 

Well my plan was just to get the thing up and running I figured with an aquaclear 70 with the refuge mod 40$ , t5 Ho lighting (100+), and a couple power head (60$), say 250$ to get it running no live stock do you think its doable? How much was the t5 u got?

 

Don't forget to budget in a good heater. :rolleyes:

 

I got my Wavepoint through Foster and Smith for 169 on sale. You can pick one up through Amazon for $179 shipped. Excellent quality light and no fan, so it's absolutely silent. My only gripe is that you can't do a sunrise/sunset as all the lights are on one circuit. Still a wise purchase, however.

Edited by matth6761
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urkinduhdorky

Ahh i c, well I never actually owned T5's , only metal halides, I like the fact the fixture has 4 bulbs that I can mix and match, I'll try your set up I love the blue tint it gives the tank, and it makes the colors of the corals pop a lot, is that how it looks like in real life? from what the picture depicts?

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Damn, don't know how I missed this thread for so long. Absolutely brilliant tank man. Much better looking than a lot of the TOTMs so far and definitely worth of the honor.

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I just discovered your thread and I'm gonna subscribe to it. You have a gorgeous tank, and good thing you got home in time before any real damage happened.

 

Recall aside, your next investment should be a tank controller. A controller would have shutdown the heater long before the temps got high.

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