Joe's Wet Dream, A 550 Gallon Work In Progress

[veralteaquatics]

Hide the cords...

Hi Joe,

I love your tank. Just read most of the thread for the first time today. Anyway, I wanted to say, Congrats on a fantastic project. And....nice joke on the 48 powerheads; I was trying to imagine what technique Eric could possibly use to hide 48 electrical cords coming out of your rockwork! :lol:

dont doubt for a minute that I could make it happen if he really wanted to do such a crazy thing...? I'd find a way..

 

[Jobiwan]

And Now for Something Completely Different

Now that the system has been up for nearly 6 months I'm ready to complete the last phase of this project, which is setting up the third fuge, which I have referred to as my "RBTA Fuge", which Jason Gregory at Clear Fabrications will be custom building for me as soon as his busy schedule allows. To recap, at the time my tank was installed Jason and Eric put in all necessary plumbing to remote a fuge in our dining room. My original plan was to set up a 120, 2' x 2' x 4', I've modified that a bit. I have a 3 x 250w HQI Giessemann hood I want to use, so the fuge will be built to accomodate that, It's gonna measure 72"l x 20"w x 24"tall, a 150 gallon tank. The front pane will be 3/4" plexi, as will the top, everything else will be 1/2". Jason will build it with 3 portholes, so each light will be directly over water, not plex. Using a 3/4" top allows for larger portholes without compromising structural integrity. Jason is building a 36" tall steel stand which will be line-x'd, I'm hooked on that stuff. The overflow box will be located in the middle 2 feet of the tank. Aquascaping wise I'm just planning a big mound of rock in the middle for all the bubble tips to inhabit, there will be a foot or so of beach on either end, I'm planning on putting a few derasas there. I'm going with a 4 to 5 inch DSB, it will be a mix of several types of Arag in the .5 to 2.0 mm range so I can clean out my garage. Plumbing will be very simple, flex hose is already in place and plumbed to the sump under the 600, and there is an Iwaki 40 already installed for the return. Additional CL circulation will be provided by 2 Sequence Reeflo Snapper pumps, each one to power one WavySea Plus located in the back corners, Eric of Veralte Aquatics has a line on these, they handle a lot more flow than Sea Swirls and are programmable to boot, you should check them out. The Snappers will be on timers to allow a little "calm" time when the lights are out.

 

[tat2z_21]

I have read every bit of this thread and can't get my jaw off of the desk. It is amazing what you have created. Good husbandry and a little engineering goes along way. Would absolutely love to see this thing in person.

 

[Scooterman]

Something completely different, your RBTA fuge is larger than my 125, you *******!

 

[Jobiwan]

:badgrin: That's cuz I don't gots no life :lol: I'm leaving for about 10 days, once I get back I welcome anyone who would like to come by by and check out my tank anytime, PM me sometime Tat2z and we'll get together.

 

[Jobiwan]

YouTube Video of My Fish

Just posted this on YouTube, it shows my fish feeding on clams, not the greatest quality of video, but kind of a nice change from still photos.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcvULXVxx0

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

Nice. You think you never feed your fish with the way they are going at the clam. I love the size of the CBB.

Kirk

 

[spongebob lover]

very kewl video dood .

 

[edwing206]

Great video! Those fish look really healthy. Does the golden angel ever go up to eat the clams? I'd love to see a video of him.

 

[Jobiwan]

The Golden Angel rarely takes a stab at the clams, I don't think he likes crowds. I'll try to get some footage of him, he is one of my favorites...

 

[veralteaquatics]

Gotta love some phat fishes....

 

[demandrid]

awesome video and an awesome reef

 

[brady816]

Yes the video was great your tank is WOW!!!!

 

[roscoe]

That is just awsome!!!!! Only that you get too watch this feeding frenzy everyday!!! I'm envious of you Joe!!!

 

[Krish]

Great video Joe!!!!

 

[tat2z_21]

Awesome video, better in person though. you can actually hear the frenzy.

 

[mmkeeper]

How about some updated pictures?

 

[tat2z_21]

I would also like to see how much your tank has grown. I know that the frags you gave me have grown absolutely wonderful and are doing very well in my tank, so I could only imagine what the mother colonies are doing..

 

[Jobiwan]

Hello All, sorry about the long hiatus, I've been waiting to have something worth posting. Over all the system is doing great, fish and ricordea are thriving. Most of the SPS is doing well, but I did lose a few due to a temperature spike and some resulting RTN. Stupid rookie mistake, after 6 + months of stable temps I was running the tank without the chiller, the one warm day we had in May drove the temp up to 89 degrees F, I caught it that night, It took the chiller 14 hours to gradually pull the temp down to 80 degrees, since then it has run between 78.5 and 80.5. No fish or ricordea mortality, didn't seem to faze them. Certain species of SPS were more affected than others. I had about 5 or 6 green slimer frags going, every one of them died. I had a 6"+ Poker Star monti, I raised it from a 1" frag I got from Barrier Reef, I thought it was history, but it has a few small areas that did survive. I expected to lose my California and Oregon Blue Torts, I associated their slow growth rate with greater sensitivety to extreme conditions, but the temp spike didn't seem to bother them in the least, no tissue loss at all and they continue to thrive.

I have added a few more fish, just couldn't help myself. I have a school of green chromis, they are cool to watch as they travel around the tank together. I also added a Goldflake Angel and a Navarchus Angel, a tiny Clown Trigger, a Majestic/Metallic Foxface, and 7 (that's right 7, I'm insane) more Flame Angels for a total of 9 Flames and 6 other assorted Centropyges, 15 pygmies all together. Trying for a harem of Flames, the new additions are tiny, in the 1" range, I'll keep you posted on this blatent violation of conventional wisdom, my SPS tank may become an LPS/Softie/Ricordea tank, and the SPS may end up in the 150, we shall see. Interesting to see how the pygmies interact, with the amount of space and 800+ pounds of live rock they have to ability to stake out their own territories as desired. When I first set up this system the only Centropyges I had were my Coral Beauty and my Golden, in spite of all the room the Coral Beauty was constantly hammering the Golden. Once I added a few more pygmies this behavior went away. My theory was that a sufficient number of Centropyges along with a lot of available habitat would lead to a "diffused agression" situation, similar to the practice used to keep African Cichlids crowded together. Before I took the Flame plunge I ran 8 assorted pygmies together for 8 months with virtually no agression observed (2 Flames, 2 Lemon Peels, 2 Potters, 1 Golden, 1 Coral Beauty), they have all thrived.

The 150 I referred to is a separate fuge piggybacked on to the main system, Jason is just finishing it up and it will be installed shortly, it is remoted to the dining room about 30 feet from the main tank, the remote plumbing is all in place. Sump return is a 40 Iwaki, circulation will be provided by 2 Sequence Snapper Golds, each one dedicated to it's own Wavy Sea Plus, the Wavy's are located in the 2 back corners. Sea Swirls were not an option, they can't handle this volume of flow and would have been torn apart in short order. I've never used Wavy's, nor do I know anyone who has, I'll let you know what I think of them. The fuge will be lit by a 3 x 250w HQI Giesseman fixture. It will primarily house RBTA's and assorted softies, no fish at all, so it will be a true functioning fuge in theory.

Following are a few photos of the 600, the multiplication of the ricordea has been fantastic, each group you see was an individual polyp less than a year ago, I started with around 60 polyps, I have well over 200 now. The first 2 photos show are a rare Yuma I just bought, it is green and orange. I won't tell what it cost, I can't risk having my wife find out what I paid. Here are the pics, the first one has a glimpse of the clown Trigger:
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Here's my Navarchus, sorry about the coralline in the photo...
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And my new favorite fish, my Goldflake Angel...
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[NC2WA]

nice pics...on the last pic, I love the yellow leather..