Tank Build - 120 Starphire Rimless

[Noober]

Hello Everyone,
This is my first documented tank build and I hope to do it right the first time. Hopefully this will go fairly fast compared to most as I already have purchased most of the needed equipment. My hopes for this thread are mainly to document what was done so that it will help others in the hobby if they are starting out, to get help and share ideas with all you seasoned reefers considering I am VERY new to the hobby, and to hopefully get a few nice's, wows, and maybe even a good job (ha ha).

I have been in the saltwater hobby for approximately 9 months, although I have loved the ocean all my life. It has been one of the most healthy, interesting, addicting, and expensive hobbies I have ever invested in. In the introduction I know I said it will hopefully go fairly fast, knowing that nothing good comes quick in this hobby. That being said the inital tank build will go fast, and hopefully the rest will patiently come along without too much trouble. Thank you all in the past for teaching me what I have learned so far. I look forward to learning a lot more as time moves on. A special thanks to my cousin AdamInAustin who got me interested in saltwater reef keeping and has helped me a lot in the past with information and starter equipment. He will be helping me cut acrylic for my sump and overflow as well as help hooking up the other equipment.

Here is a list of the hardware that the system will consist of:

120 gallon starphire rimless tank custom made with glass overflow by Glasscages.com

50 gallon breeder tank used for a sump with custom baffles installed.

Reef Crystals salt

Overall system control is achieved with the Neptune Aqua Controller 3

Nova Extreme T5 light fixture with 4 lunar lights (8-48" T5 High Output bulbs) putting out 432 watts total

Circulation from sump to display tank and reservoir to sump powered by Mag Drive pumps.

2 Tunze Turbelle 6105 powerheads for internal circulation in the display tank controlled with the Neptune Aquasurf module

50 gallon per day 4 stage RODI unit for purifying my tap water

Sailfert and API testing supplies

A GEO 6-18 Calcium reactor using Gen-X calcium media

Aquamedic Kalkstirrer 1000 with Kalk + 2 (contains mag and strot)

Dolomite is used in calcium reactor for magnesium supplement

2 Phosban reactors are going to be used for Phosban and Chemi Pure for extra filtration

Maxijet pumps are used for feeding reactors.

120 lbs of sand, and I have 200+ Approx lbs of live rock at my disposal to aqua scape. Both have been in my system for 8 months, and the rock has been in systems for unknown years. Thanks to Captexas, and brewercm on the killer live rock deals!

A 15-20 gallon refugium will be installed in the sump with the baffles

JBJ Auto Top Off controller with float valves which I've had for a long time will be used for feeding the kalkreactor (unless my plumbing plans change)

Octopus Hurricone CAT 2 Skimmer

That is about all of it. I will take pictures of tools and items that are used to get the job done as they are done, as well of the build at each finished stage. I hope you all enjoy the upcoming thread and have constructive ideas along the way. I'd love to hear what you have to say! All I'm waiting on now is for the skimmer, the aqua controller, and the tunze's to make it in the mail and all is good to go!

Thanks! - Matt

[camaroracer214]

let us know how that skimmer works out for yah. they look promising.

[Noober]

I wish I would have had an extra 300 dollars to buy the royal exclusive bubble cone skimmer, which is in a way a bubble king under a different brand, its a full cone instead of a semi cone which the CAT 2 is. Also it has a 10 year guarantee on parts being available. If a skimmer of this caliber breaks down, a lot of people wont be able to afford to replace it in time to stop the crash. Which would be bad. The CAT2 says its rated for a little higher tank volume but I bet they both run neck and neck as far as skimming goes. We'll see how good it works and I really hope the new pump works flawlessly for years. I know some of the octopus's skimmer pumps have died in the past but the specific model they are pushing has the same motor as the octo 300 i believe, which is said to be much better than the pumps on the lesser models. With the new pump mod they are going with I really hope it outperforms the old ones with no problem. All in all, for what you can get this skimmer for (the cat 2) if you look around, I don't see how you can beat the price to performance ratio as long as its built well and will last a reasonable lifetime (hopefully 5-10 years ha ha).

[Noober]

Here is pics of most of my equipment. I did order a 400 watt heater and a 1/4 hp chiller made by pacific coast that will be here in 2 days approx. Soon after that the tunze's should come in quickly as well as the hurricone cat 2 skimmer in hopefully no more than a month. I hate to wait but the price to performance ratio looks good to me. Also my 4 stage RODI unit is not in yet. Now, on to the pics!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/ACIII.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/Kalkstirrer.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/floatswitch.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/Refractometer.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/aquasurf.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/autotopoff.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/chemipure.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/dolomite.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/kalk.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/kalk2.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/liverockdarkcycle.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/newworkbench.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/phosban.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/pump1.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/quarentinetank.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/reactors.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/tank.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/tankandreg.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/calcreactor.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/NewOverflow.jpg

I put the workbench together from the cabinets at home depot, for some reason I'm thinking the ones at Lowes are a bit stronger but more expensive. I cant remember though. All we have here is a home depot anyway. It will house all of my equipment along with my sump because all of it will not fit under my tank stand. I still have to install baffles in my sump. I think for the moment it will have a refuge running along one side of it. It is planned out for the most part but I like to think a lot before I make the sump so I'll document that later. I still have to stain my aquarium stand the same color as my workbench and put thompsons water seal inside of both of them. My quarintine tank is holding good water parameters so far, hopefully it will continue to do so until all this is complete. The rock in the ice chest has been under a dark cycle with plenty of cleanup crew in it for several weeks now. Hopefully all that wierd algae will be gone by the time its time to reaquascape. I think I'm going for an open scape with several islands so I can access all sides of the glass with my magnet scraper. Then again I have a lot of live rock for this size of tank, I might have to sacrifice the back panel and put some rock up against it and just point my intake heads at the back of the rocks to keep flow going good down/back there. I know I'm forgetting several things but this is all I can think of discussing at the moment. Happy reefing!

[Mr Cob]

Looks great, you have some nice equipment there and are obviously on to a great start!!!

[QuickSilver525]

ditto with mr cob, cant wait to see it all hooked up and going :)

[Firstman]

I want to see the effects of that system cool stuff dude.

[Firstman]

I like the two little fishies

[Noober]

Thanks a lot guys! I can't wait either.....

I got a lot of work done today. Most of the alage problem on the rocks are gone. Thank you Jesus! haha, anyway I've got the tank stand stained, I got it all cleaned up, which was mortal heck, it all ripped apart, most of the rock aquascaped, everything moved into place. I will plumb it probably the day after tomorrow, leaving it open ended until I can get the baffles into the sump. Until then I will just keep the main part of the tank running with the rock in it and a couple maxijets going to make sure all the sand and the live rock gets a chance to cure out a bit, the move probably killed a lotta the live off. Anyway I hope you guys are enjoying it, so far I know I am!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/aquascape.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/cleaned.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/saltandro35galbuckets-1.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/sand.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/stain.jpghttp://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/tankmoved.jpg:thumbs_up:

[Noober]

Well, Good Morning!

I got my rock aquascaped yesterday and now that the water is finally clear, I dont like it as much looks wise as I did before I tore it all down. The upside is, there is at least twice as many caves for fish to hide in and share tank space with. Everything is down lower in the tank giving more sps coral growth possibilities. I have some good plates for coral with high light requirements to sit on. There is a lot of sand bed surface that is not being covered with rock (at least 50%). I got almost all of the rock in there, which was probably 180 lbs at least. Anything more and it was getting too crowded. There are a couple lagoons surrounded by rocks that will get direct light for low flow species. I wanted to landscape the sand with rocks and such but I went against that, the tunzes would probably uncover them anyway. I hope it all works, after i get off the job then I'll take some pics and post em! Good day~ Matt

[DSAfanatic]

Man, 120 starfire and its rimless!!! I'm jealous. Keep us updated on the build. Can't wait to see it when its done.

[Noober]

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/Tempcontrol.jpg
Here's my temp control system, it just came in. I really wont need it much for now, but going with sps I would like to keep a very steady tempature, so I went with a 400 watt visitherm heater, which it dosnt get real cold here in the winter, and a 1/4 horse chiller incase I ever decided to toss my two 400 watt hailades on there, i just have to make a hood for them. But I'll stick with the t5 setup for now, sleeker and they run cooler. The chiller has a bouncy springy feel to it, is that normal. It feels like something inside shifts around gently. I wont be plumbing it in for a bit because I have to make the baffles for the sump but I'll let yall know how it works as soon as i get it done! And thanks dsa and everyone else for the kind words~ I'm looking forward to sharing it with all of you! Happy Reefing~ Matt

[Noober]

Heres the new aquascape, I hate to use the back wall but I really need a bigger tank if im gonna make an island style scape. I've got the pump outlets pointing right at it so there will be plenty circulation behind the rocks. I plumbed the bottom of the tank with unions for easy disconnect, I hooked it up temporarliy to my old sump, which my new skimmer wont fit in, just to take out dissolved solids incase the rocks had some die off with my old skimmer. Also I wanted to check for leaks just to be safe. Soon after my other sump gets finished and I get the new skimmer in I will plumb it into another cabinet with the majority of my equipment. I also put a pic of my skimmer with a ball valve attached to it because the cheapie eshopps skimmer I bought a while back isnt made to run in that high of water. Thanks for looking!
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/newtankshot.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/plumbing.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/skim.jpg

[Noober]

Can anyone see anything I'm doing wrong? Here is a little better tank shot now that the water isnt so cloudy. Filled it up with ro water and a little bit of the old tank's water that was mixed in with the sand when i cleaned it and transfered it from the old tank. Like I said before, the only wall i cant get the magnet to is the back wall. If there is any thoughts you guys have about the setup please let me know before it is to late to change things without too much trouble... Thanks again! and PS sorry if I'm posting too much, I just might be a little too excited about the build lol. G'day!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/OriginalTankShot.jpg
:shades:

[chark]

Looks good! ! !

What are you going to put in it?

[Noober]

I'm going to go mainly SPS. But I will get a nice colored Favia, or some Brain coral that is really colorful. Also I was thinking of a redish goniopora. I like the look of chalice coral too. Mostly Acropora though, mabe some cap montipora and some birdsnest. I like some of the forest and plating acroporas mainly though. Other than that I like really colorful zooanthids and some ricordia, and regular mushrooms too. It's probably going to be a SPS dominant mixed reef lol. Sorry things come out of my brain in random spurts. As for fish I think I'm gonna do a pair of clowns with a host anenome, a flame angel, a few tangs, a small school of anthias, probably some blue or green chromis, a psudochromis, a manderian dragonette, mabe a goby, and that will probably cover everything. I'm going for greens, yellows, blues, purples, and reds mostly in the tank. What would you keep? :)

PS forgot to mention some cool shrimp, crabs, and starfish. -Matt

[Noober]

Well the octopus skimmer was taking way to long and the company wouldnt give any eta's, I waited patiently but in the meantime the Royal Exclusive Alpha Cone skimmers opend up several new models, these all come with 10 year guarantee on parts for the skimmer and pumps. It runs the Red Dragon pump and is a true machine made cone. I think it will be better built than the Octopus CAT series, not to mention it is a full cone instead of a semi cone. I switched to the Alpha 200 model for approx the same price. This is basically a bubbleking but it is a cone skimmer. I hope it all works out well and I'm pretty sure it will be coming in in 2-3 weeks to my door.

As far as fish live stock goes, I currently have a 2 spot bristletooth tang and a purple striped psudochromis. I am also currently acclimating a powder blue tang, a 6 line wrasse, a blue manderian dragonet, and a flame angelfish. Tomorrow I will recieve my copperband butterfly. All fish made it in alive and I am acclimating them with the drip method. As far as invertebrae's go, I just purchased a sand sifting sea star because a lot of my nassiserius snails didnt make the tank move. I have over a dozen still alive though. I have scarlet reef hermits, blue leg hermits, 2 emrald crabs, a sally light foot crab, and a couple of other unidentified hermits. I have cerith snails, turbo snails, collinista snails, and nerite snails as well. I have two serphant stars and a sea cucumber. The tank is thriving with copods and anthropods, bristleworms, speghittie worms, fan/tube worms, and other critters that I don't have a proper ID on. Hopefully the un ID'd ones are benificial. Anyway thats about all whats going on today. Until next time.... ;)

[DSAfanatic]

Looks good. As long as you are happy with your rock work then it really doesn't matter

[vman181]

I agree, if you like it then that's what matters. If you don't then change it before you get to much stuff in there or you'll have a heck of a time changing it later.

[Noober]

It's definatly been growing on me. I think I like it more actually then I did before. What do you guys think. I like to say its selfless to say that I'd rather other people that see it like it... but then again its my tank so thats sorta selfish haha. Anyway really, what do you guys think about the aquascape? G'day - Matt

[Noober]

Here is a couple new full tank shots, and some individual livestock shots....

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/tankshot2.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/tankshot.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/powderbluetang.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/copperbandbutterfly.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/tank%20build/SLFC-Jose.jpg

Hope you Enjoy!

[chark]

Nice. I like the rimless look.

[fishypets]

I really like the looks of your tank. I would recommend though trying to hide the cord to your maxijet. And flow would be something to think about upgrading down the road. I' would add a few Tunze streams or a Vortec. Both options are pricey but you're going to need it once the tank starts to fill in. Your aquascape is awesome by the way!

Clint

[Noober]

the tunze turbelle streams were on back order and they will be here tomorrow :) thx for the nice comments! :bigsmile:

[Noober]

Well I decided to hook up my auto top off unit today so my roomate wont have to top off for the next week when I'm gone snorkeling in the keys.. I also hooked up my tunze 6105's (two of them) and MAAAN they are a pain in the *** to aim in a 120 gallon without blowing everything to smitherienes, or how ever you spell it lol. Any way in a week when I get back I'll hook up my aquasurf module to the AC3 and get a good wave simulation going that wont launch water out of my tank. The 6105's are cool cause I can turn them off and on as much as I want as fast as I want with the aquasurf. I can also adjust the flow rate on them. Only downside is I wish I could ramp the speed up and down with the aquasurf but I think you have to have the tunze 7011 controller or something like that, Im not sure if thats the right model number heheh. Anyway you guys take care and wish my tank luck while I'm gone! L8r!

[DSAfanatic]

Looking good.

[sharkboy]

the tunze 7095 would be able to control flow rate...nice tank!

[Noober]

It has been a while since my last post so I thought I should inform anyone who is interested whats currently going on with my tank.

I have had a lot of problems lol.... (now i can laugh thank god)

Anyway everything was going according to plan, I hadn't yet needed to hook up my kalk or calcium reactor though.
I had all the new fish that you guys saw in thoes last pictures but all but a few of them died. I wanted to make my water changes easy and non shocking to the system, so I hooked up a 55 gallon drum that this guy at work could get for free. (thoes plastic drums are expensive new so I jumped on it)
I took a stupid chance, knowing that It was used to store roundup weed killer (which is horrible for aquatic life by the way) and I took it home, I washed it well over 10-15 times.
Using pressure sprayers, dish soap, scrubbers, just letting it set out in the sun to dry after every time. I bleached it a few times for a day, then I would drain it out and let fresh water sit in it for 2 days or so and then let it dry back out. I went through and through these processes thinking it would work. He after all had used the same barrells from the same place for horse troughs and just cleaned them with bleach. Well not thinking it through, being a widely sold chemical solution for killing weeds, roundup is sort of eco safe, its not gonna kill a rabbit or something evidently if it comes by and eats the grass that was sprayed with it a week ago (if its still alive), anyway that is my new train of thought on that particular issue. So I got this barrell, thinking it was clean, and two new bulk heads, hooked the output of my chiller to the bottom hole i drilled with a ball valve inbetween, then had an overflow at the top of it that drained back into my sump. It was going to work wonders for me. I could shut off the ball valve, pump the water out of the barrell, fill it with ro water and mix my salt in to the exact salinity in my tank, or actually mix over or under depending on how salty I was wanting to run my tank, and then barly crack the ball valve so that the fresh salt water slowly enters my tank at a rate that gives everything time to acclimate to the new fifty gallons of water that has been swapped out in the system. Then I would go ahead and open it up fully and let it run for another two weeks to a month.

Best idea ever turned into the worst lol. First my wrasse, then my favorite 2 spot bristletooth tang, then my angel fish, and I dont even know what went next, the copperband butterfly, mabe the powder blue tang, couldnt tell you. I had like 1 damsel and my pair of percula clowns. (which are doing fine by the way :) 250 dollars of fish at least down the drain, and even worse their attatchment to me wasnt one that I could just cut with a knife. :( So I took that off, broke down the tank completely, Put in 100 lbs of new oolite sand, recured all my live rock in another tank, changing the saltwater frequently. I also cured about 40 more lbs of my old sand, keeping it well stirred with a hang on back filter to remove nitrates and other chemicals via carbon, and then let it dry in the sun killing anything and everything in it. I had some good rock in another tank that had speghetti worms, copopods, mini brittle stars, collinista snails, and other benifical life and bacteria on it that i used to reseed that sand. It is now in use in my refungium. I only put about half of my rock back into the tank, going for a more open look with more heighth for my new sps frags that I got 1 week before I hooked up the poisen barrel, the corals amazingly didnt show any sign of depression from the round up and all the rest of my inverts like shrimp and starfish all survivied fine (snails and crabs too). I put the three fish into the tank after it was totally filled with new saltwater, with all the good live rock the bio system matured pretty quickly, I had a small algae bloom, then I added all the fish I have now (on the execption of a beautiful small clown tang that died, poor guy wouldnt eat anything I tossed him) Anyway I got a decent algae bloom...

I am actually amazed though, nitrogen gas was present in the sand 1 week after putting it in there, then the algae bloomed, then it died off and like I said I added the new fish, lyrietail anthias (3), flame angel, green manderin, purple psudochromi, blue damsel (he was another soldier that made it through the holicost) chevron goby (i think that is what he is, he's red with bright blue stripes on him) and I think thats about it. Anyway I saw the nitrogen bubbles in my mangrove/chato garden start popping up in the sand and watched it come alive after the new fish were introduced. I was happy as my alage bloom died off and I only have to use an algae scrubber on the glass mabe once a week. I guess the refuge and the live rock and sand and the chemipure reactor along with a seachem carbon filled reactor is taking care of everything because on my api master test kit, ammonia nitrate and nitrite are all at undetectable levels. I believe any phosphates, but i cant test for them at the moment, are doing well because with all the mangroves that just took root, along with the chato, should be kept well at bay. Only thing I never upgraded was my skimmer, I have a cheap eshopps skimmer that i got for 150 bucks when they first came out, and its made of white pvc and dosnt have half the stuff the newer eshopps skimmers sold online for the same price have. But it does bubble and it pulls skimmate so until I see fit im not going to spend 300-999 dollars on a new skimmer. I was on the waiting list for the octopus hurricone 2 for 2-3 months and gave up on it, then i got on the waiting list for the royal exclusive cone skimmer, model alpha 200. That still hasnt came in and I spent too much on the credit card buying coral and live stock that I didnt wanna see it go that much higher so I said heck with it. I will get it later once the tank is fully stable.

Right now I have two colors of birdsnest, one tri color acro, one blue acro, one green stag, one dark green monti or milli, Im not sure what it is. I have a hammer coral, some orange montipora from a long time ago that evidently left a little clone of itself on the rock and started growing, but I think my angel or something has been picking on it because it has ceased to open its polyps much and looks as if it is dieing. I have some ricordia mushrooms that are pink and blue, I have many zoanthids, there are galexia, purple goniopora, green and pink star polyps, a flame scallop, a flower anenome, and recently I orderd a awsome rose anenome along with a red marble starfish and both of them died in transit because a thunderstorm kept the plane on the ground and the boxes had to be shuttled out to the delivery trucks, putting more handleing stress and heating them up too much. The icepacks were melted, the boxes were at ninety five degree's f. It was horrible I have wanted a "rose" red bubbletip aneneome for so long for my perculas but the online retailer is a fantastic one and is going to get me back for what I lost. Thank god, i was so sad I wanted to cry.

Anyway sorry for the rant, just a lot has happend and I probably forgot to tell you half of it but none the less, I am going to take some good pictures of the new tank and give you some current tank parameters. They are all in good shape, at the moment i turned off the co2 to the calcium reactor and I just run the kalk stirrer sometimes at night if I see my calcium levels drop. Once i get a clam and some more sps and they start growing out I will put them on in full swing.

Water temp 78.5 -79.4 F constant
Salinity 1.026 SG Constant due to auto top off
Ph: 7.8-8.1 (am still working on letting this get right without raising alk too much, hopefully wit will continue to buffer out)
Calcium @ 390
Alk at 11.5 (still a little higher than I want it)
Mag @ 1200
(salifert used to test all three of thoes)
and like i said, Nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia all at undetectable levels with
the api master test kit.
Thats all I can think of, as soon as my camera battery charges I will be back with some pics. Enjoy!

[demodiki]

Whoa....ENTER is your friend.

[Noober]

Some of the coral dosnt look the greatest at the moment, My hammer hasnt opend fully since the move, early today before I fed my purple flowerpot was nice and open but it closed afterwords, its only been in here 1 day anyway. Some of the sps dosnt look as great as it should, Through all the quarintineing and different lights and acclimations that should have gone better they have yet to set into their new home as well as I hope they will now that everything is appearing to have a good/decent start.

I lost a double ricorda somewhere in the tank due to it not being secure to the rock... Some of my star polyps are closed at the moment, and some of the galexia polyps arnt opening fully, it might have been the trouble at the airport to blame, I dont know, they were all open the day i got it but now some of the skeleton is showing, and I cant find my horseshoe crab.

I guess thats all thats worth mentioning because it is all that comes to mind... haha Thanks for looking.... heres some pics, I will take more later on better camera settings. (I sure need to get a better combination of t5 bulbs and everything would look much better)



http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/1tankshot2.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/1tankshot.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/19hamer.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/18acro.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/17bn.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/16stag.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/15cap.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/14zoas2.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/13pbn.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/12polyps.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/11zoas.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h254/mpthreer/Aquarium/10galexia.jpg





Well I just noticed I forgot one of my favorite acros and the dark green sps... ooh well their all small, when they grow a bit I'll take more. Hope you guys and girls enjoy!

[Big_Pun]

wow great tank glad it worked out, i want a rimless tank when i finally move on from my biocube stage lol

[Kristy]

Ok, I read that whole post, but please realize that most people won't read a post that long, so you will miss out on a lot of valuable input.

I am sure that it was a painful lesson for you to save a little money on that barrel, then end up losing so much money and heartache in all that livestock. I hope that lesson has taken root, because it symbolizes so much in this hobby. Most attempts to cut corners end up biting you tenfold in the end.

I have a couple of concerns about your current setup. It is very new for a mandarin. If this fish is not eating frozen food, it will probably only last a few weeks to a few months until it has depleted your entire copepod population and will starve to death. Please keep a close eye on the fish's eating and its belly. It might be better to offer this fish to someone else. The VERY least you can be doing is ordering a couple of bottles of copepods a month to supplement and give it a fighting chance.

Also, your flame scallop and flower pot coral will probably not live. Very few do. I hope that you are doing a lot of reading and planning before you purchase livestock. It will save you from making other painful and expensive mistakes.

You have a beautiful tank and I really wish you all the best with it. Hope my post has not sounded discouraging, just trying to help you out. Best of luck and let us know if you have any questions or future concerns. If you had posted your plans about that toxic barrel, I'm pretty sure some of the veterans on here would have steered you away from it.

[Noober]

Thanks a lot kristy, Your input is very much appricated as your nice comments are. You are right, my tank used to be booming with hundreds to thousands of copopods... the last manderian cleaned up almost all of them. I do have a 12 gallon nano tank that is loaded with them and occasionally I toss a rock from there into my refuge to get the population going again. I watch him eat very small things off the rocks and I hope he's getting enough. But I think I will invest in buying a bunch of them just to make sure. The flame scallop I had no Idea about, it was very cheap at the store and I impulse bought it. In one of my first tanks I bought a goniopora and it lasted about 9 months before the polyps wouldnt extend, it was a green one, I dont know its full name. I learned then about how hard they are to keep, and bought this one at the pet shop for pretty cheap... I figured since I have a new tank with much more stable conditions then it might make it with some feeding. I also have hurd that they survive better in a skimmerless tank and a bunch of other stuff, which is wierd because i think my original one did better when I didnt have a skimmer and was using some dimmer lighting off a 250 watt MH xm20k bulb with less flow. I dont know I'd hate to lose it but I guess all I can do is try. Once again thanks a lot for the comments and advice!