120 sps reef

[jhale]

120 SPS Reef

here she is, my little reef,

LIGHTING
three 250 EVC 10k Bulbs one EVC electronic ballast, and two one IceCap electronic ballasts.
back 2 actinic white 48" VHO tubes run by a ice cap 430
front 2 blue actinic 60" VHO tubes run by a second ice cap 430
hood circulation provided by 2- 4" icecap variable speed fans and one continuous 4" fan.

FLOW
return pump sequence snapper, 100 watts / 2400gph

tunze 6060 left side
tunze 6080 right side

bottom, pair of MJ 1200's plugged into a tsunami wave maker, keeping the desirous off the cutting board.
oh, this is a bare bottom tank by the way, with 1/2" black marina board.

the tank is from glass cages it's 60" long, 24" wide, and 20" deep. It's made of 1/2" glass with bracing on the top and bottom. the front panel is low iron glass aka starphire. it weighs a ton and is built like a tank

SKIMMER
DAS EX-2 needle wheel skimmer with two aquabee pumps.

REACTOR
two little fishies phosphate reactor with phosban run by a MJ600.

MR-C 1 Calcium Reactor with a milwaukee controller and 5 lb. Co2 tank

Temperature control
250 watt won brothers heater
1/2 hp Red Sea inline chiller

Top Off
water top off via a double float switch connected directly to the RO/DI, passing through double solenoids as backup.

other threads

jose the mandarin

coral from 4/05

coral from 4/05 cont.

let's get ready to rumble!

arts and craft power heads

old school QT

biotopes

1994 Reef

my battle with red bugs

 

[jhale]

wow, that's a lot of flow, my new CL

stingnyc came over today and helped hook up my second closed loop.
It's running off a quiet one 6000, 140 watts rated for just over 1500 gph.

the pump is sitting on top of my overflow on eggcrate. I was originally going to burry the intake pipe in the overflow to hide it. this was good on paper, not so good in reality. the intake in the overflow worked like a charm, if you did not mind the bubble storm that obscured the entire tank
so after a bit of thinking we moved the intake over the side of the overflow, on the outside, it was not hidden any more, but it's in the corner and once I sharpie it black won't be seen at all. the other problem was keeping the pump from tipping over. the return pipe is about 2' long and was tipping the pump over. we solved this by zip tying the intake pipe to the eggcrate the pump is sitting on. so in effect the pump is using it's own weight to keep it in place, it works. right now all the flow is coming out one 90 degree elbow, and it's a lot of flow it's gentle enough so no corals are getting knocked over, and the clown fish are getting a workout staying in the scroll coral they have been hosting in. I don't have any pics right now, but I'll get some later on. total flow in the tank is now a blue line 40x rated at 1270, the quiet one at 1500, and the return putting out maybe 500 or so. I also have two mj 1200's on the bottom keeping the garbage off the cutting board, they are on a timer and alternate every 40 minutes. I'm also going to put the new closed loop on a timer, it will run during the daytime hours.

 

[ShaunW]

Wow!! Sounds like a lot of flow. Are you still going to add the DIY maxi-jets that Dave's making. Your flow is going to be off the wall!

Oh, I am sorry that you didn't make it yesterday (sat). I worked and didn't get home until right before Dave showed up. He lost my phone number with the site change so didn't contact me until too late. But we still met up!

Well next time.

 

[jackson6745]

Tank is looking sharp Jonathan! We need to get some better pics for you though.

 

[jhale]

yes I like the flow, i don't like all the watts that I'm using.
I'd like to run four of the DIY props, one in each corner. that would double the flow of my CL for only 100 watts max of power. I would run two at a time so it would only really be 50 watts at the most, now that rocks.
I'd take the CL off line or just run them a few hours a day for extra flow
the only downside is size of the power props, that's my new name for them , you heard it hear first, don't go stealing the name haha. I'm going to market Dave, Power Props by Spykes Inc.

I'll need you to come over soon. Steve looked in my tank and swore he saw some orange bugs on some of the acro. I looked but could not make out what he was pointing to. there were just a few he saw. if they are bugs, i will freak out :banghead: just one thing after the other in this hobby

 

[jhale]

photo update

full surface shot,

left side closed loop

intake, and the hole for the intake that is not being used now

 

[nanoreefer22]

Tank looks really good John. I still have to get you your dish back...hehe

-Kris

 

[jhale]

left side flow

surface level

 

[jhale]

right side closed loop, split to two returns,

 

[jhale]

Tank is looking sharp Jonathan! We need to get some better pics for you though.

I know, i want to get a 20D, I'm working with a power shot sd500 :sigh1:

anytime you want to visit kris just give me a call.

 

[ShaunW]

Jonathan, Red bugs are pretty obvious once you know what to look for. When I saw your tank last week I didn't see any, but I have to admit I didn't look as closely as I could have, i.e. the inspectors eye.

Let's work out a time sometime in the near future, however, the next 2 weekends I am going to be away.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Flow Flow Flow...loooking really good John, I'll pass by one day to check it out. I'll let you know.

 

[spykes]

man john, we need a jacuzzi that looks like that, whatcha gonna hook up to the tank next :p

 

[rickytsui]

thats alot of flow u got there

 

[jhale]

my guess Shaun is that it may have been detritus sticking to the coral that Steve saw, but i still want to make sure.

When we first turned on the new CL there was a 3/4" elbow pointed down the middle of the tank. the water pressure was restricted and it became an underwater fire-hose. it blasted some of the coral and they slimed up. at the same time a whole bunch of crap got stirred up in the tank. i think some of the particles may have stuck to the freshly slimmed coral. at least I hope that's what it was. steve said he saw something moving, I did not.
anytime you can make it let me know.

spykes, how about that dolphin pump you have? what's that rated for?

does any one know the flow rating of a ten foot high wave crashing over a reef? that's what I'm going for. maybe a few dart pumps? I'm not kidding.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

have you tried adjusting your white balance so it is less blue? i will be posting some pics in my thread where i did this, and it is great!!!

 

[jhale]

have you tried adjusting your white balance so it is less blue? i will be posting some pics in my thread where i did this, and it is great!!!

I like the blue, this was with just the blue actinics :knockedou

 

[ShaunW]

Red bugs are small, and require really close inspection to see them. They would also look yellow, like a small pod, and they move alot!

It sounds like what you saw is probably not redbugs. This week I may be able to get to your place during lunch time, would you be around?

 

[nanoreefer22]

John, that 10 ft wave probably creates a whole lotta flow. If thats what your aiming for you might have more water on the floor thank you have in the tank =X

That would be cool though to see what it looks like. When you get that done in your tank I'll come take a look...

hmmmm...wonder if you could actually create waves in the tank?? =0)

My minds running off sorry about that...its late...im sleepy hehe

 

[jhale]

Shaun I'll be around, if you actually have the time, let me know what day you could pop over and I'll be home for sure

Kris the idea is to scale the power of the wave to the amount of water in my tank. of course if you had the power of a ten foot wave in your tank it would last about one wave :tongue1: