Ok heres some new photos, the second picture is way out of focus and sucks but is kinda a side shot. I am still getting diatoms in the sand but have been overdue changing my DI resin and blame that. I was trying to clean the glass last night and like a klutz knocked my pearl berry off, my duncan, and a small acro frag. All need to get re-glued but heres a pic of the pearlberry in its temporary position till I get to the store to get some superglue. I left a few acans in there the angel isnt bothering which is working out well for now.
Ben's 160 Gallon Reef Tank
- Thread starter Ben1
- Start date
Thanks, hopefully in time it will really fill in more. The one purple slimer stag in the very back left corner is STNing from the base up and I think it's due to lack of lighting. Unfortuately the spread on this T5 fixture is a bit narrow for the tank even with twelve bulbs, I dont think most people have 36" wide tanks so it was engineered for a more common less wide tank. Still works nicely but the acros I have on the magnets I wanted on the back wall and it won't work. SO they are stuck on the right wall instead for now. I might move some off the frag mags right to the rockwork. I dunno we will see.
It's still not hung very evenly but what ever lol. I just took the pic so the actinics are all thats left on. Its actually two ATI blue plus and 2 sfiligoi actinics. I need to clean the glass len's too lol.
Now that I look at the pictures, I need to wipe that nasty dust off the fan intakes ewww. Off to wipe down with a sponge....
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Yeah the Powermodule is very nice, I think I should have gone that route as originally planned. I didn't want to wait on it and there was a wait list when I was buying. Then of course I bought this and it sat on my dresser for 2 months collecting dust waiting for AO to finish builing my tank lol.
Yeah when I was originally planning the tank ATI was the one I wnated with the top mount fans it looked awesome. WHen I ordered my tank from AO they offered me this with a discount. So I figured why not. The only other thing that bothers me about the light is the glass protecting the bulbs is thick and heavy and two pieces that slide out, there is no catch on the end of the fixture to hold it in. So in the unlikely event the fixture gets tilted at some point the glass sheet can just slide out and break. I am still very happy with it overall and love T5 still. I love not having to deal with the heat issues I always delt with when using halides.
Ben,
Great tank...
I have been in this hobby for a while but have never been able to achieve such great results as you and many others like hotrodders 180. Could you possibly give some of us less knowledgeable an insight to your tank maintenance? I believe what quality is the cornerstone of good reef building but I always struggle.
Thanks,
Bryan
Great tank...
I have been in this hobby for a while but have never been able to achieve such great results as you and many others like hotrodders 180. Could you possibly give some of us less knowledgeable an insight to your tank maintenance? I believe what quality is the cornerstone of good reef building but I always struggle.
Thanks,
Bryan
I do all the usual stuff. I only use RO/DI water for W/C and top off. My top off is automated. I have decided I am not going to do the full zeo thing becuase I am too darn busy to remember everything. They do have some additives I really like though. One is sponge power and I had my doubts but it works for certain at increasing sponge growth and IMO its worth the cost since you use so little. I also like the coral vitalizer, and use their amino acids when I remember to do it. I am already back on prodibio and use their Bioptim and bio digest. I like the individual bottles of bacteria and food so they stay fresh and sterile untill use.
Anyhow I try to do a 30gal water change every 2 weeks, clean the protein skimmer every two days since it is filling now every two days. Change the carbon (I use Rox 0.8) every month. If I feel like P04 might be an issue which it never is anymore with the bacterial system from zeo or prodibio then I would use a GFO like phosban. I feed the fish heavy and think this is good for everything in the tank, as long as I export enough to make up for it. There really is no trick or one way to make a nice tank just stability and time. I really feel any method can work if you know it's weak points and always stick to the limitations of your method and setup.
I like the system I use, bacterial (prodibio), W/C with RO/DI, constantly run carbon in reactor, stable correct CA, ALk, and Mg by 3 part dosing the tank, lots of water movement which I still need more of. The only thing I am still not sure on in the new tank is the sandbed, I just loved the clean BB look and am thinking of taking out the SB, we will see. My skimmer is a real nice one but I think slightly undersized for the tank (Bubble King Mini 200 gen2) and I might want to switch to an external so I can use the sump as a frag tank instead.
Anyhow I try to do a 30gal water change every 2 weeks, clean the protein skimmer every two days since it is filling now every two days. Change the carbon (I use Rox 0.8) every month. If I feel like P04 might be an issue which it never is anymore with the bacterial system from zeo or prodibio then I would use a GFO like phosban. I feed the fish heavy and think this is good for everything in the tank, as long as I export enough to make up for it. There really is no trick or one way to make a nice tank just stability and time. I really feel any method can work if you know it's weak points and always stick to the limitations of your method and setup.
I like the system I use, bacterial (prodibio), W/C with RO/DI, constantly run carbon in reactor, stable correct CA, ALk, and Mg by 3 part dosing the tank, lots of water movement which I still need more of. The only thing I am still not sure on in the new tank is the sandbed, I just loved the clean BB look and am thinking of taking out the SB, we will see. My skimmer is a real nice one but I think slightly undersized for the tank (Bubble King Mini 200 gen2) and I might want to switch to an external so I can use the sump as a frag tank instead.
I added a third vortech yesterday, along with a few more fish. I added a foxface that seems to be getting along fine. I added a lawnmower blenny its my first time owning one of these fish and they seem very cool for a fish with no color. I also added a male squarespot anthias which seems to be doing well and I have trio again.
Thanks Tom. I am going to try to get more photos up in the next few days. Helps me keep track of things as well. The Squarespot male I added finally started eatting today so thats good. The angel though I think got pricked by the foxface a few days ago and has been in some sort of daze like it was stunned. This thing was always a big swimmer and now its just hangin around the bottom. I handfed it today, I mean it would never let me anywhere near it before. I might pull the foxface out if I can catch him and see if he springs back to normal once he sees that fish is gone.
Thanks Waz, I love the T5's. I do think my growth matchs or is better then when I ran halides. I also feel the color is better under T5's or atleast appears better since you can get a bit wild with bulb combos. The heat issue is the main reason I switched to T5's to begin with, they spread the heat and with the lens and built in fans there is no issues. I am only running a 1/10hp chiller on this tank and its getting by no problems. The one thing I dont like about this fixture is there is little spread to the back and front few inchs. I think they made it that way on purpose since most tanks arnt 36" wide.
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