Well I thought I would post up and let everyone know how the tank is doing since the relocation and upsize on the move to seattle. We have been in seattle now for almost 7 months and the tank has been up for about 2. The old setup was a 55gal with vhos, dsb and about 150lb LR, 15gal refugium and 10 gal sump. Mostly softies and a few LPS. All my attempts at SPS failed (even monties) - pretty sure this was due to low calcium levels.
Well I did the upsize slowly, and changed a lot. New tank is a custom 170 (60Lx22Wx30T), the 4 vho's now just run actinic, and I have 2 250watt de ROIIIs, with room in the center for a 3rd, my 55 is now my sump/fuge thanks to some glass dividers I inserted. I probably have 300lb of LR now, and went with a 2" sandbed over the 6"DSB I had before and like the look quite a bit more. I hard-plumbed everything with a very watchful eye on noise since the crashing water drove my wife crazy. Everything exits below water now and the custom stand/canopy shuts out pretty much everything else. My greatest addition (outside of the lights) has been the DIY calcium reactor following the design plan of DJ88 on the RC site. Love it.
After filling with water 2 months ago, I began taking amm/nit/nitrate levels every 3 days or so, after 6 weeks I never spiked, ammonia never got higher than 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate never higher than 5. Must say, I was quite surprised. Thought I would get some die-off from the rock/sand, but it didn't move hardly at all. Started moving livestock up from my packed QT tank, and everything is thriving.
Only losses so far were my coral beauty, some daisy polyps, green star polyps and unfortunately my neon-green polyp leather coral. The day I installed my halides I moved them up, and the next day the tank hit 90 degrees. Ouch. Fixed that with a couple of fans and a decrease in the photo period. That was about 3 wks ago.
Since then, things have gone great. Been moving a few pieces every couple of days. My SPS have great polyp extension, and look pretty happy. Thanks again to everyone for their help.
Mat
Well I did the upsize slowly, and changed a lot. New tank is a custom 170 (60Lx22Wx30T), the 4 vho's now just run actinic, and I have 2 250watt de ROIIIs, with room in the center for a 3rd, my 55 is now my sump/fuge thanks to some glass dividers I inserted. I probably have 300lb of LR now, and went with a 2" sandbed over the 6"DSB I had before and like the look quite a bit more. I hard-plumbed everything with a very watchful eye on noise since the crashing water drove my wife crazy. Everything exits below water now and the custom stand/canopy shuts out pretty much everything else. My greatest addition (outside of the lights) has been the DIY calcium reactor following the design plan of DJ88 on the RC site. Love it.
After filling with water 2 months ago, I began taking amm/nit/nitrate levels every 3 days or so, after 6 weeks I never spiked, ammonia never got higher than 0.25, nitrite 0, nitrate never higher than 5. Must say, I was quite surprised. Thought I would get some die-off from the rock/sand, but it didn't move hardly at all. Started moving livestock up from my packed QT tank, and everything is thriving.
Only losses so far were my coral beauty, some daisy polyps, green star polyps and unfortunately my neon-green polyp leather coral. The day I installed my halides I moved them up, and the next day the tank hit 90 degrees. Ouch. Fixed that with a couple of fans and a decrease in the photo period. That was about 3 wks ago.
Since then, things have gone great. Been moving a few pieces every couple of days. My SPS have great polyp extension, and look pretty happy. Thanks again to everyone for their help.
Mat
