The Long-Awaited Upgrade to 65 Gallons

[dylanjs]

Hi Reefers,
Here are the first set of pics of my upgrade. I went from a very messy 55 gallon tank to a much cleaner and prettier 65 gallons. It's taken a while to get it all together, but it's looking pretty good now.

I have pay special thanks to House of Fish (Jim and Russ) for their amazing advice, great customer service, and outstanding prices (unbeatable, really!). And thanks to all of the MR family for sharing stories and advice along the way, too. :grouphug:

Here are some pics of the sump...

The first pic is an overview... Bermuda Aquatics 3C skimmer (amazing!) on the left with a filter sock, baby fuge in the middle, and 2 reactors on the left with carbon and Phosban on the left. I also have a top-off sensor in the last chamber and the return on the reactors feeds into a bag of Purigen (not sure what it's doing, tho).

The second pic is a detail. There's a close-up of some nice coffee-colored skimmate after 3 days of work from BPS 3C. There's also a close-up of the fuge, which is just rock and one lone stem of macro caulerpa from the display. I'm going to get some worms and maybe cleaner clams for the fuge. Any suggestions? (BTW, does anyone have any feeling about IPSF.com?)

 

[deelucky]

looking good where is the pics of the display?everything looks good (sump) and thats some serious skim.good luck.pics of display please.

 

[dylanjs]

Pics of the display tomorrow....

 

[dylanjs]

Here are some pics of the display tank...

The first one is the overview.

2nd - Two red sponges with encrusting zoanthids and a yellow sea whip I got from SeaLife Inc.

3rd - Purple sea rod and plume gorgonian also from SeaLife and the three gorgeous clams I got from House of Fish

4th - Sea pansies and an random gorgonian

5th - Short-spine urchin

6th - Long view down the side

And of course my grammas who never hide...they love to be photographed.
​

 

[deelucky]

nice natural look,where you got your rocks?tbs?

 

[dylanjs]

Yeah, got my rocks from TBS and from SeaLife.

 

[deelucky]

looks like tbs,they have that natural thing going.do you plan on keeping it like that?did you get any cool hitchikers?watch out for gorilla crabs and mantis.looks good though.

 

[House of Laughter]

Dylan,

Great job fitting all that into that 20 high and the skimmate - man-o-man, great job dialing it in so quickly.

Enjoy it and great job.

House

 

[vanceny]

Looks good! I actually like the macro algea in the display. I noticed that you have 3 clams in there. What type of light are you running?

 

[dylanjs]

Deelucky, I had a ton of gorilla crabs when I first got the rocks from TBS. No joke, a ton! I have one left that I've been trying to catch for a while.

Vanceny, they're croceas and I'm running 6 bulb Tek5 (T5).

 

[dylanjs]

BTW, I'm going to try to maintain this look. Probably add some ricordias and zoas, maybe scallops. I'm having this all-Caribbean brainwave, so I might swap those gorgeous croceas for flame scallops.

 

[SIReefer]

NICE LOOK. WHAT TYPE OF MACRO? - CAULERPA?? :thrash:

 

[SIReefer]

WHOOPS!! I REREAD- ITS CAULERPA.:banghead:

 

[dylanjs]

Yeah, it's feather caulerpa (C. mexicana). There's also some halimeda, sea pansy and another kind of caulerpa whose common name I don't know (C. racemosa).