[ycrazyy]

So I have finally decided to get off my lazy bum and start a thread for my tank. It's a long story, but I built a starphire 30g tank last August and finally got it setup sometime around March / April of this year. Everything was moved from my 24g NC into this new tank. Anyway, specs are as follows:
Tank: 24"W x 18"D x 16"H using 1/4" starphire glass, rimless
Sump: same as above (including the starphire, another long story)
Lighting: Coralife Aqualight Pro 150w MH + 2x65 PC Actinic
Flow: EcoTech Vortech MP40 (main), MJ1200 (return pump)
Skimmer: Coralife CSS65

I had my stand custom made to suit my girlfriends tastes. It has an antique finish and the tank is sunken into the stand about 2" to try and avoid people seeing the ugliness of the lower layers of sand.

My occupants are a clown and a royal gramma (they don't like other fish and over the past 3 years I've had them, they have killed every other tank mate I have put in there... even those much bigger then them). I keep mostly softies and LPS with just a couple of SPS.


Now on to the pictures!






















And of course my favorite little aquarium helper...


Any thoughts / suggestions are appreciated!

	MH Metal Halide Lighting, typically used for high intensity light demanding corals such as SPS. Bulbs come in varieties of spectrums (7k, 10k,20k), and intensity (175W, 250W, 400W).

	PC Power Compact Lighting, typically used in lower light aquariums supporting soft corals, LPS, and fish. Their low cost and cooler operating temperatures are an excellent choice for beginner aquariums and smaller tanks.

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[Deanos]

I suggest you post pictures of the tank/sump build itself! Looking good

[masterswimmer]

Very nice clean setup. Congrats on finally making it to a thread of your own.

The biggest issue I see (not that I see many ), is the use of a MJ1200 as a return. They are not pressure rated pumps. They are intended for circulation only. Are you getting any flow from that powerhead? It seems like a lot of head pressure.

Also, I don't see the Vortech. Is it hidden somewhere?

Looks great otherwise.

BTW, another one with square plugs

Russ

[ycrazyy]

Can't post pics of the build itself because my shop foreman did it for me (I work at a glass company)... I simply "supervised"

The VorTech is pretty hidden, if you look in the 2nd and 3rd pics in the middle of tank you can just see the top of it kind of blended into the top of the rockwork. The whole point was to make it disappear into the black background.

As for the MJ, I do get flow out of it. It does a pretty decent job actually and that is not the pump meant for flow obviously, the VorTech is. It certainly does its job of getting water to and from the sump.

[jhale]

congrats that looks like a great tank.

I love the stand, that's a great idea, I thought it was an old piece you used.

A vortech in a 30G tank is pretty crazy, do you have plans to upgrade to the wireless controller? That would give the tank some amazing flow.

nice also

[yiliyang]

Wow, your tank stock is beautiful already, the starphire just give it such a polished look.

[marki24]

Beautiful tank, corals and fish. Happy reefkeeping.

[crox99]

Nice job on the tank. Congrats.

[Timbo]

Nice looking tank. Super clear and clean. When are you going to start the big one??? You can't just have one.

[grisha]

i had maxy for return long time ago and it was not fun.. the sump looks awesome