lgreen's 58g SPS Reef Project

[Reefer Addict]

everybody clap, he got something right

Now plumb your sump into this work of art and post a pic.

 

Or are you still embarrassed by your lack of knowledge.

 

lgreen, follow your own advice. You could do it! Type plumbing in the search field and press go. You'd be surprised on how much information will come up... You'll be up and running in no time.

[lgreen]

cool. you mean it's that easy?

 

now can you teach me how to use the edit button?

[Reefer Addict]

No sweat.

 

Click the edit buttom. Click either "Full Edit" or "Quick Edit". Make your change. Then click "Submit Modified Post".

 

Any ETA to when you will modify this tank?

 

I'm looking to learn from your experience and knowledge.

 

Opps! My mistake.

 

I meant this tank.

 

 

Man am I a newbie!!!

[supernip]

Have you ever read Ender's game?

 

"The only way to gain respect is to be so good at what you do that noone can ignore you."-Hyrum Graff

[lgreen]

well with that quote perhaps you all can respect why school comes before finishing my tank.

 

and if it ok with everyone, perhaps we can just leave it at that.

[supernip]

I suppose thats one way of looking at it. But if it finishes this fight, please shift your attention over to my thread. my 500 views is diminutive compared to your 20k. I'm rather green with envy

[Reefer Addict]

I never consider this a fight. It's always been about learning from the experiences of others...

[supernip]

hahaha that little emoticon at the end just sharpens the blade razor sharp doesn't it?

[Reefer Addict]

hahaha that little emoticon at the end just sharpens the blade razor sharp doesn't it?

Is this better?

 

I never consider this a fight. It's always been about learning from the experiences of others...

[lgreen]

my theory is that perhaps RA is just a really good social psychologist and his is trying to tick me off as a method of modivation for me to get my tank done. it's working a little bit.

 

i've read caldiani, deci, aronson, etc though, so i'm on to you.

[supernip]

USC students are usually business majors

[Reefer Addict]

USC students are usually business majors

Nip hit it on the head. MBA

 

I'm a hard core Republican (though I think Bush is a fool) Self Made Capitalistic Pig!

[supernip]

[jmt]

I think he's just getting at the fact that some members on this board slang out "expert" advice, but their tanks look like doo-doo.

 

Which means that either: (A) They don't follow their own advice, or (2) Their advice was crap to begin with.

 

It's usually the latter.

 

 

jmt

[adinsxq]

no but seriously... you have way too much rock.

[lgreen]

thanks adin.

 

you got keep up.

 

stop by and say hi more often.

[scarf_ace1981]

lgreen i'm rooting for you man. i really want to see how this bad boy turns out.

 

by the way could you tell me if your 'quiet one' is just that, quiet?

[lgreen]

i ended up not getting the quiet one.

 

heard to many flaky stories. sometimes they are really quiet, but some have said the newer ones are not as good.

[Maeda]

oddly, my quietone was pretty noisey at first, but after i moved all my stuff to the tank its SILENT!

 

I noticed that once in a while an air bubble caught in the pump will cause a horrendous rattling. If the pump is touching the sumpwall or the pipes are touching the sump wall it rattles like crazy too.

 

This thread is hilarious btw.

[lgreen]

This thread is hilarious btw.

 

heck yah it is.

 

last final was today.

 

now i must hibernate.

[Maeda]

lucky bastard. I have about 15 hours to go....

[lgreen]

Update:

 

After 6 months of researching advanced filtration and sandbed techniques I have finally decided how I want this tank setup and so now the remodeling and re-setup begins.

 

The entire system will be taken down this week to allow for drilling of the display tank and drilling of the sump to accomodate an external return pump.

 

The fish (my male hutchii anthias, and 2 green chromis) and corals (several zoanthid colonies, several mushroom colonies, and a yellow toadstool leather) will be taking a vacation to a rubbermaid container for 3-4 weeks while remodeling of their home takes place.

 

The new setup once remodeled will be a mixed reef featuring mushrooms, ricordias, zoanthids, leathers, LPS, and SPS corals. Additionally it will be stocked with a varity of small reef fish.

 

The basic setup will focus around a hybrid of GARF's Bullet Proof Reef, Julian Sprungs Interpretation of the Jaubert System, Dr. Bob Goemans, Ph.D.'s live sand/plenum techniques, some components of the Berlin system such as aggressive protein skimming, and some more modern/natural techniques such as propogation of chaeto and red gracillaria.

 

The display will be more traditional w/ medium to high flow and a mixed shallow sand bed consisting of fiji pink sand and special grade reef sand. The display will also feature 70 lbs of awesome marshall island live rock which has been cooking in a trash can in my room for about a month.

 

The sump will by the heart of the hybrid system featuring a plenum, 3-6 inch course grain sand bed (special grade reef sand), a refugium w/ chaeto and red gracillaria, and a Euro-Reef 6-2+ protein skimmer. The algae will be grown on a reverse photo period.

 

The new system will also be setup for the possible future addition of a macro algae propgation system, xenia/anthellia scrubber, and coral propogation system. (Note: Prop systems will not include me getting into any sort of business. Just for fun and to trade my cuttings w/ other reefers)

 

I will probably start up a new thread for it as I would like to spend a good amount of time detailing the correct way to setup a plenum system. I will cover in detail the ideas behind a plenum system, how they work, and how to design and install one using my tank as an example.

 

The only other thing I can think to say is HOLY CRAP, IT'S ABOUT TIME!

 

So the adventure begins this week with me going back to school on monday, how convienent, and quickly building my fish and coral's new luxary vacation home. Then I must take down my tank, take it to be drilled, plumb the tank and sump, buy the supplys for the plenum, install it (with lots of pics and explanations of course) and set everything back up again.

 

I am guessing it will probably take 2-4 weeks for this whole thing to be finished before I can finally start adding all my corals that have been sitting in other peoples tanks waiting for me to finish this.

[lgreen]

Update:

 

1/16/06

 

Drained Tank

Took Ugly fiji rock back to LFS

Drained Sump

Bought 40 lbs Fiji Pink Arag-Alive for Display

Bought 40 lbs Special Grade Arag-Alive for plenum (will mix with another 40 lbs taken from Special Grade currently in Display)

 

1/17/05

 

Ordered new Bulkheads

Ordered Eheim 1262 for return pump

Removing sand today and washing tank (raining, and need hose outside, so this might have to be delayed until weather is better)

 

 

i had a plenum set up, it sucked. then again i used the wrong grain size... haha. right now my 58 has 4.5 inches of oolitic sand, no plenum, live rock, and macro out the arse. i took off the skimmer tho.

 

whats the idea/methodology of skimming heavily with all that other NNR? (natural nitrate reduction) i understand a skimmer is a chemical filter and thus different that all that bio filtration, but i dunno... what brand skimmer are you going to use? like a euroreef? or a modified Lee's? lol. aggressive skimming, in my book, means using a good skimmer and skimming wet.

 

 

Six,

 

Yah if you do the grain size wrong it wont work. To small, falls through, to big, provides habitat for burrowing bugs which will dig into the plenum and mess it up.

 

Ideal grain size is 2-4 mm. GARF and everyone in my area uses Caribesea Special Grade Reef Sand which is 2 mm and works perfect.

 

I don't have a good answer for the skimmer. Same question could be asked about using macro too I guess. Ideally with a NNR system you could go with out both. I think it could be a "best of both worlds" approach or something. Sprung says that with a plenum you get much less skimate. Also he says w/ skimmer macro aglae growth is reduced.

 

I have a Euro-Reef 6-2+. I usually dry skim.

 

 

Read this article if you get a chance, it's a really good read: (This was published word for word pretty much as the "Jaubert System" chapter in The Reef Aquarium Vol. 3 by Delbeck and Sprung.

 

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/feature.htm

[Six]

dude, this thread is 21 pages long! i cant read all that! LOL.

 

In my 58 i did a hanging reef (off the overflow box) and installed a closed loop.

 

from page one, which is the only page i read before seeing the thread was 21 freakin pages, id have to disagree with the stocking. first of all, hippo tangs are boring as pooh. plus i tried keeping a mimic in my 58 and it did not like the space. i hope, if you choose the hippo, you have better luck. anything that craps that much is not worth keeping, IMO. plus at our local zoo they have them at 12" long. makes me adverse to keeping them in anything i would ever want to set up, tank wise. tho... they are exceedingly slow growers.....

 

the only other fish choice i dont think will work is the twinspots. maybe you have better luck in your area of the US, but we get them ina nd they always die. always. even in a dirty tank with lots of natural food, they croak. hope you have better luck. i honestly wouldnt keep them with anything if i was going to try them.

 

i'm sucha prude with stocking tho. my 58 is for my centropyge aurantia. that's it. there's a pair of clowns in there until i find them a home (want a misbar pair of true wild breeding percs?) and ayellow watchman goby. ive kept them all for 5 years and believe its from my prudish stocking habits

 

awww.. arent they cute?

[lgreen]

dude, this thread is 21 pages long! i cant read all that! LOL.

 

In my 58 i did a hanging reef (off the overflow box) and installed a closed loop.

 

from page one, which is the only page i read before seeing the thread was 21 freakin pages, id have to disagree with the stocking. first of all, hippo tangs are boring as pooh. plus i tried keeping a mimic in my 58 and it did not like the space. i hope, if you choose the hippo, you have better luck. anything that craps that much is not worth keeping, IMO. plus at our local zoo they have them at 12" long. makes me adverse to keeping them in anything i would ever want to set up, tank wise. tho... they are exceedingly slow growers.....

 

the only other fish choice i dont think will work is the twinspots. maybe you have better luck in your area of the US, but we get them ina nd they always die. always. even in a dirty tank with lots of natural food, they croak. hope you have better luck. i honestly wouldnt keep them with anything if i was going to try them.

 

i'm sucha prude with stocking tho. my 58 is for my centropyge aurantia. that's it. there's a pair of clowns in there until i find them a home (want a misbar pair of true wild breeding percs?) and ayellow watchman goby. ive kept them all for 5 years and believe its from my prudish stocking habits

 

awww.. arent they cute?

 

 

Ha Ha.

 

Six you got to keep up to date lol.

 

This thread started almost a year ago. Pretty much everything has changed like 10 times since that 1st page. (including my stocking list).

 

Heck, the tank has been up for 6 months, I just hadn't done enough research when I set it up, so now i am sort of remodeling it with what I have learned after 8 months of aggressive research (reading through Dr. shimek's papers, Sprung's papers, etc).

 

No blue tang. No twinspots. I promiss.

 

That is cool, I didn't know you had a 58g.