MrGone's 150g mixed reef

[MrGone]

I started this hobby in August 2008 with a 10 gallon tank in my dorm room in Pullman, WA which became to difficult to maintain over breaks and risky so I moved my tank (at that time a 29g) to my Dads house. Then I added a 40g breeder my friend gave me to the system and had the 29g/40g on a shared sump. Well corals kept growing, the rose anemones wanted more space and siphon boxes got old so I bought Thang's old 150g setup. It sat in my Dad's garage until Thanksgiving break when I transferred everything over which was quite a project. Now I'm home for Christmas break and I have been able to add some finishing touches (well for now, there is always more to do )

This morning I bought a 10 gallon acrylic tank from Harrison to use as refugium (Dang gave me some plants from his refugium last week so it's nice to finally have a place for chaeto and the nice mix of macro from Dang other than a soap dish in the display tank).

I just wanted to say thank you to all the great members on this site, I really appreciate all the knowledge and help, it has really expanded this hobby for me.

12/24/2009

Under the hood

The container to the left of the sump is my freshwater container for the auto top off.

Refugium (is also home to my clowns from my 55g tank I had at school) Eventually I'm going to paint the pipes black.

Full Tank Shot

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z28/TehShawns/Fishtank/150 gallon/december24th/_MG_9184-crop.jpg

 

[luisse25]

nice refugium set up and nice tank

 

[MrGone]

Thank you!

 

[MrGone]

My Dad went to the Barrier reef sale last night and picked up a sailfin tang and sixline wrasse for me,

The green star polyps have started encrusting on the overflow

 

[Ilovereef]

Hey,
Glad to see that tank is up and running again. Corals will grow out before you realize that. Let me know if you want to hook up with some SPS like sunset milli, pink milli, red selago table... Thanks.

 

[reef18ster]

Great setup and great buy! Thang takes care of his things. I might be a little concerned though with the MH light fixture you have in the middle. They're not meant to be confined in a hood. You might want to add fans and make sure you watch your temp.

 

[MrGone]

Hey,
Glad to see that tank is up and running again. Corals will grow out before you realize that. Let me know if you want to hook up with some SPS like sunset milli, pink milli, red selago table... Thanks.

I will certainly do that! I'll be home for spring break in mid March, perhaps I can meet up then. I still have a lot to do as far as researching SPS corals. I know a little bit but not as much as I feel I should. Thank you again for being so flexible with me/my dad when I was buying the tank, it was hard with me having to head back to school and I couldn't wait to come home and set it up. It is sooo nice having space for things to grow out! Now I'm saving up for a larger skimmer (I think mine is a little undersized for this setup), more flow, more live rock, and corals!! And then one day a calcium reactor

I can't wait until they grow out, I remember your tank and think some day!

 

[MrGone]

Great setup and great buy! Thang takes care of his things. I might be a little concerned though with the MH light fixture you have in the middle. They're not meant to be confined in a hood. You might want to add fans and make sure you watch your temp.

Thank you! Actually I removed the SunPod a couple weeks later, I wasn't really using it and I wanted to make room for some actinic lighting. Plus as you cautioned I wasn't really comfortable with the heat (I had the fan in the back and such but still). It's no longer up there.

I'd like to get three Lumenarc or Lumenbrite reflectors under there (I think the lumenarcs would be more efficient with this hood, it seems the lumenbrites like to be higher off the tank). I don't have the budget for it yet Slowly but surely.

 

[MrGone]

I found an updated picture of the hood, before I wired it all

My friend gave me the 36" Coralife 96watt PC when he moved last summer, he had it on his planted tank. I ordered a 420nm actinic bulb for it and installed it in the hood. Then I put in eight 24" CurrentUSA 14watt T5's , six with 460nm bulbs and two 10,000k bulbs I had laying around.

I am thinking like to get some 48" (or 60" if they will fit, I don't think they will) T5HO bulbs, but I also think if I run some nicer 14k or a 20k MH bulbs I really won't notice the difference, kind of like right now (I notice a difference but the metal halides overpower it). It is really low on the list of things I'd like to do.

 

[MrGone]

Before I came back for the spring semester my dad was worried about the sump overflowing so we plumbed this emergency drain. Right now it dumps into a bucket under the house but this summer I'm planning on running the drain pipe and a return line over to the closet under the stairs and putting a remote sump over there, along with the refugium and possibly a frag tank for the future (long way out but planning now). Also the garbage cans we use for mixing water and water changes, and I'd plumb the RO outlet over there too.

It is a straight shot coming from the tank to the closet, plus I was thinking about it and it might reduce the workload on the chiller.

 

[MrGone]

Over spring break I replaced my Euro-Reef RS-100 with a CNC 300A protein skimmer. I also took out all the powerheads and installed two Koralia K-4's and installed the sure flow kit on my Maxijet 1200.

It is not a very good picture but I was impressed with the coral growth. I am eager to get better reflectors over it

and I have a new addition from Barrier

 

[Sarah@Tacoma]

I dont know if i could do all that plumbing on my own..

 

[MrGone]

It's not too bad

Grabbed a second flame angel and some chromis from Barrier today, I'm hoping it is a female. A quarter of the time they swim around together, half the time they are in completely opposite areas, and an eight of the time they are chasing each other so I'm not entirely sure what to make of it yet. If it turns out I have to males and it is a problem then I will put one in my Dad's tank.

 

[MrGone]

Turns out the flame was a male so my Dad has a new flame angel. He also caught my bi-color angel so I told him he could have it too because I wanted to start keeping clams.

The Reeflux 20k 250w SE bulbs came in today and my Dad picked them up for me along with two purple tangs

I can't wait to get home to see it again, if the pictures are any indicator I think I'll be very happy with the color of the Reeflux 20k's.

My signature pic is from December 2009, I'll be taking a new fts with my camera when I get home. I also ordered 100lbs of dry rock today to seed in this tank and transfer to the AGA 125g RR aquarium I'm going to setup this summer and also into my Dad's 255g.

 

[fishoutofwater]

nice pics and tank.

 

[MrGone]

Thank you!

I was worried the two purples might fight but it appears they are quite happy with each other, pretty exciting

 

[MrGone]

 

[iroll253]

Sweet mix i like the softies too

 

[MrGone]

Thanks! I'm hoping the Emperor doesn't develop a sweet tooth for them

Finally got a pic of the Regal, he's been shy

 

[MrGone]