Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Hey reefers, I've decided to start a diary of my bow front and share with you all, it's evolution, enjoy..... It arrived Monday August 15th 2005.... Mike Quote Link to comment
DarkMazda Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 I see that you have an excellent start as always What are your stocking plans if i ask? ~maZda Quote Link to comment
g0tfish Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 such a sweeeeeet tank man. lighting plans? Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Thanks guys, I appreciate the nice comments and you know me, I'll give it my best. But to all that don't know me, I'm mikeguerrero the owner of the legendary tank at nanocustoms.com I'm the guy that pushed power compacts to it's limit with SPS corals and clams. I hope to produce a really tight reef tank that deserves my name. That means I'll document everything for your learning and enjoyment and have lots of fun in between.... Because I will not go with hanging pendants I've choosen the Advanced series Aqualight from coral life. It's 48 inches across and comes with two 150 watt MH 20,000K. I will join it with two T-5 47 inch High Output 03 actinics on highly polished reflectors from commodity axis, they carry each 54 watts of power. As a personal preference I like to conceal any light from hitting anywhere other than the main tank, I was spoiled by my cubes... That gives me the dawn to dusk look that I like and the shimy look that Rbaby loves on her MH. Total of 408 watts of power. Being that I don't have too much more room, I hope to be able to squeeze in a moonlight. All this will be powered by Digital Aquatics reef keeper.... With the skimmer I've decided to go with a Deltec AP-600 external protein skimmer. I was going with the Turbo 1250 but I have room in the cabinet for an external, I heard RC reefers prefer outside skimmer rather than sump only.... I will be adding about 60 pounds of Marshall islands premium live rock, one of my LFS has it in his display tank and I love the colors; intense purples and oranges.... I'm on the hunt for a good size chiller for this bad boy and some type of way of adding in concealment extra powerheads, kind of like how Tigah has designed Rbaby's tank.... But since I don't have acrylic I need to some how get black tubbing in the main display split with maybe a SQUID and one powerful pump powering it. Since this will be behind my live rock it should look tight. Any ideas here would be greatly appreciated.... In terms of live sand, I'm recycling my sand from my two previous cubes that I sold and then adding two more fresh bags. I also have about 20 pounds of cured live rock from my cubes.... Well, that's all for now.... Mike Quote Link to comment
shao-lin nano Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Keep it coming! How big is that sump? Quote Link to comment
afiser Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 you better get that thing running fast lol Quote Link to comment
Doriftu Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 wow......going to be sick, keep us updated Quote Link to comment
DarkMazda Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Damn nice skimmer selection! That beast has about the same value as my whole set-up Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Yeah, The reason I'm going with a nice skimmer is I want something of value skimming my reef. I figure you go through a really nice setup only to cut yourself short with a cheap underated skimmer would be a bad call... The clearer the water the nicer my reef will look, and I believe a good skimmer will greatly enhance your water clarity... Mike Quote Link to comment
DarkMazda Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Mike, whats your reason for going with 20k bulbs? What type of corals you going for? Are you going for coloration? Quote Link to comment
Nanomaniac Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Nice tank Mike. What fish and inverts do you plan to stock the tank with? Quote Link to comment
proraptor Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Nice tank but I hate how oceanic puts the o-flows off center... Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Darkmazda, No particular reason for the 20k bulbs but I've heard they give off a blue hue and I like that in my reef. I'll have to wait and see if I like the effect, I can always change them when I exhaust them. And regarding the size of the sump, I believe it's a 10 or 20 gallon size. I measured it last night and it's 24 inches long and 12.5 wide and a height of about 17 inches. Mike Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 21, 2005 Author Share Posted August 21, 2005 Hey Reefers, The saga continues, I start to clean out my old live sand with my HOT magnum filter in my old 3.5 gallon truvu. Then I add it to my 72 bowfront and an additional 2 bags of live sand. I see that it's not enough so I go and buy two more bags. I still don't get close to 3 inches of live sand so I purchase two more bags and finally reach my desired sand bed. Thats a total of eight 20 lbs bags of live sand. I then take the mighty AP-600 Deltec skimmer and begin the process of plumbing bear in mind this is my first attempt and I ended up spilling some of the PVC cement on the carpet; damn I spent nearly 2 hours trying to get it out. Place plastic all around when working with this stuff it's potent. All the plumbing went well, and I documented it's process. You will see the Mag drive 250 gph to run this Deltec and you will see that I decided to purchase the sump lid because I want to hang my coralife 18 watt fixture over it for some cheato. I had to change out one of the bulbs from it's actinic to 10,000k daylight, that was easy. Well there's a lot of pictures because I was really busy this weekend but I wanted you guys, gals to have fun seeing my progress. Mike Quote Link to comment
NeonDottyback Posted August 21, 2005 Share Posted August 21, 2005 That is going to be one awesome tank!!!! Walk us through the process. How can I see the threads for your Nano Cubes!!! Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 21, 2005 Author Share Posted August 21, 2005 Here is the seconds set of pics on my evolution: Quote Link to comment
lgoins Posted August 21, 2005 Share Posted August 21, 2005 looks awesome, keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 21, 2005 Author Share Posted August 21, 2005 Hey guys, I finally decided to pull out the 70 watt ICE Cap that I was awarded. My corals have been in a 20 gallon holding tank for over a week with bad lighting. I was only giving them 18 watt 50/50, 13 watt 7,500K and 10 watt O3 actinic. My clams started losing their color on the mantel and I couldn't let that happen having the MH still in it's box, so I pulled it out and did some quick DIY work and here are the results. I'm being delayed on my 72 bowfront because I want to save money on the live rock and then I have to cure it, so I need my corals to be happy and safe so thanks to the ICE Cap, things are looking better. It's my first time playing with MH and I love it, now I see why Rbaby was juiced when she started her new tank and talked about the shimmy effect of MH... Mike Quote Link to comment
afiser Posted August 21, 2005 Share Posted August 21, 2005 cant wait to see this tank when it is all done looking good Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 I decided to go with premium live rock from my LFS. The chance of ordering live rock online and then not knowing what your getting, got to me. I got about 40 lbs of live live rock and will take it slowly. I made a mistake when I rushed to buy so much when I started the cubes. I ran out of real estate before I ever hit the market for corals. Getting to see what you want is fun, because you only pick the best pieces. I tried to get a macro of the rocks so you can see how much coraline is already on the rocks. Here is an idea of how it's comming along. Mike Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 I also decided to go with a different theme in reefing. I don't see too many reef tanks with a lot of sand bed to play with. Usually you see a reef tank just packed with live rock everywhere, that's okay but it's too common. So off I go with an attempt on something new; wish me luck. Here are some top down pictures for you to see how it's coming along. I've always liked when I'd walk past an LFS and see a tank just full of live sand and many corals placed side by side. This theme will have a little of both but give the reefer a chance to play with the abundance of sand real estate. I started on the left side of the tank and worked my way over to the right where I don't have as much rock. I took a picture with a measuring tape to give you a point of reference; I have about 8 inches of play on the sandbed from back of tank to front. Mike Quote Link to comment
TheCoralReef731 Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Do you have water in there yet? Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 No, not yet... I'm still adding live rock... Almost done... mike Quote Link to comment
Micro-Reefs Aquariums Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 I'm finally done with my live rock aquascaping. I got the last 20 lbs of live rock from a different LFS, wanted to mix it up just a little. Then I added my 25 lbs of live rock from my holding tank. I'm running rubble rock in my holding tank just in case I get a spike of ammonia, removing all my big pieces. They should be okay. Then I connected the Reef Keeper and organized the cabinet to have a clean appearance, I like my reefs to look awesome on the inside and outside. Now all I need is Catalina salt water, wow I'm going to be tired lugging up the 5 gallon containers up my stairs,, ugghhhh. In the mean time here is the pics, enjoy... Mike Quote Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 nice equipment. coral placemet is going to be a pain in the butt with that rock wall though, i understand you are goin for that look though. so are you going to keep tons of sandbed species? like tons of clams and lps? Quote Link to comment
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