My upgrade to 180

[kkiel02]

Well my 65 became overstocked so I took the plunge.
Equipment is as follows:
lighting - 2x250 20k with 2-4 ft actinics. Gonna setup two islands under these.
Circulation- 2 k4 and a mp40 on the way, I also have a mag drive 9.5 for my return.
Filtration is a octopus extreme 200 and have a 30ish gallon fuge ace built.
Also have the tunze osmolator that will feed a kalk reactor if needed.

Learned alot of lessons today: tank is really heavy two people was a baaadddddd idea.
Tank also is stronger than my now purple middle finger.

Looking to have two islands as said before with a 3 inch sand bed for my wrasses. The fuge will house my dsb and macro. The whole system ought to be 260 gallons when said and done. More to come tomorrow including pics hopefully.

[Pennies2Cents]

whooo! Pics....... :)

[kkiel02]

The Old...

[kkiel02]

Anyone know what the pink coral is in the last pic? I got it in town but the lfs didnt know what it was. I tried to get better pictures but the camera was not allowing it.

[kkiel02]

The new...

Also bought 135 pounds of sand today along with 100ish pounds of dry rock. Also ordered my skimmer from reefs2u and got the tracking number for my mp40. My parents will adopt my 65 gallon.

[kkiel02]

If you have any advice or questions feel free to post up!

[kkiel02]

it's alive! Got the skimmer, ato and everything running! Will try and post pics tomorrow evening. Also have half my rockwork done. Got reaaaallllll lucky on the lighting, the studs were right where they needed to be. Tomorrow I need to cut the pipe in the sump so it doesn't sound like a continual toilet flush and do one last leak test but think I got it figured out. Also get my mp40 tomorrow!

[kkiel02]

Ok all rock and sand is in. Will try and get pics tomorrow as it is very cloudy right now. My skimmer is having a field day.

[ErikH]

AWESOME SETUP! You want your drainpipe in the water. Otherwise it makes that noise.

[kkiel02]

I added a diy durso to the sump today but it's still a little noisy. I'm hoping when I get the fuge running it will help as it is fed off that drain. I can't wait to get some livestock in there. This waiting part, although necessary, is the hardest part for sure.

Livestock list that I have and/or have is:
Purple, sailfin, blue hippo, and Achilles tangs
Two black and white clowns
Shrimp goby
Two kupang damsels( first fish I bought)
2 ornate leopard wrasses
Mccoskers wrasse
Coral beauty angelfish
And a pair of mandarins later on

Coral will be lps, along with a couple sps

[kkiel02]

added some nice corals from stoneroller today also got a nice looking red gorgonian. Got a fts before the lights went out...



P.S. not happy with the rock on the right but ought to get it sorted out tomorrow. Have been slowly moving the fish over tomorrow ought to be the last of them.

[Crazyeyes]

The pink coral looks like a favia, and the only thing that sucks about upgrading is that the old tank is heavily stocked and the new tank looks empty when ever you switch. That is the only thing that sucks about upgrading, but the positive is you can cram a lot more items in the new one. Looks like the tank is coming along good and keep us posted.

[kkiel02]

Here are some update pictures. Im battling brown algae at the moment so didnt really get my corals as they arent happy with me right now. But here are some shots, should be fts, left, middle and then right side.

PS my tangs love their pictures taken. Each of the rock mounds has alot of caves built in but I cant capture it on camera.

[kkiel02]

Well since the fish are in copper Ive focused alot on corals and inverts. My fish that made it are the three tangs(sailfin, purple and blue hippo), Leopard wrasse, flametail blenny and the damsels. My mccoskers made the copper but when I transferred it to my moms tank its been mia. I am planning on keeping the tank fishless for another month. Here are some updates: cleaner shrimp are spawning, sps is all growing well, anemone split but the clone got sucked through a mp40 and picked up alot of new stuff but refuse to use my pictures as the point and shoot just wont do it justice. Here are some bad pics to prove it. lol


Ps that pink coral turned out to be an acan echinata (spelled worng Im sure) it is now growing green mouths.

[clone]

looking good dude. post some more pics.

[kkiel02]

Man I would but I only have a canon sd750 and I can't seem to get any good pics outta it. That one above of the purple bonsai is about as good as it gets. I wanted to get a picture of the german blue but it doesn't come out good at all. Btw that whiteish colony that I dragged for you is turning a slight purple on the tips it looks nice.

[clone]

cool man. maybe ill drive up to your house and shoot some pics someday. Crazyeyes has the same colonie and his is dark blue with purple tips and white polyps.
Its a really nice peice, hes running 250w 14k phoenix, knidda making me want to switch back over to MH, but ever since i moved some bulbs around again im really fealling the whole t5 thing again.

[kkiel02]

Yeah man you are more than welcome anytime. I think my next pair of lights will be either 12 or 14 k.

[kkiel02]

First pic is three of my bta. One is hard to see it has white tips poking over the rock in the back just to the left of the green bta.

Second pic is my first leather. I picked it up from gabe to add some yellow to the tank.

Third is of an acan frag I have picked up semi recently. I will prolly frag it here pretty soon for the frag exchange.

Forth is of my red finger gorgonian.

Will post more this weekend.

[hobogato]

looking great, keep it up!

[Goofball310]

Your tank is coming along really well. Keep up the good work!

[kkiel02]

Switched my sump out for a sump/refugium combo like my old setup. So far so good but Im always worried when I put in new hardware like that the first couple days. Ill post up some pics tomorrow as I am exhausted right now...
Thanks Kristy and Mike for the Macro with all the brittle stars, etc. Also picked up some sweet coral from and after the frag swap including a rainbow monti!

Sorry for teasing I will post pics tom. as promised.

[kkiel02]

Here is a tank shot broken into two photos and the new sump that is now going. My skimmer squeezed in with another 1/4 inch to spare! And I added a pic of my new pup we got this week.

[roscozman]

Lookin' good. I like the new sump set-up...

[kkiel02]

Yeah I also like it alot more.The skimmer just fit in there with 1/4 inch to spare. The macro is growing like crazy being on the 24 hour light cycle. Also I have alot of baby snails making there way down there so hopefully I wont have to order a clean up crew.

My problem now is the splash from the bubbles when the water comes down into the refugium. Any ideas? I was thinking about covering it with plexi but then the salt creep would start blocking the light for the fuge right?

[Europhyllia]

Oh forget about the tank. That doggie is super CUTE! Boston Terrier or something like that?

[kkiel02]

Yep boston terrier. He's hilarious and has a great personality.

[kkiel02]

Some shots I took today... ps the colors just dont do justice!

[kkiel02]

Two more

[Mr Cob]

Looks great!

[Kristy]

Wow Kevin... looks amazing! I cannot believe how "young" your tank is by these photos. It looks much more established than just a few months.

[kkiel02]

Well alot of the rock came from my 65 gallon. When I upgrade again I will just buy another 100 lbsand let this rock seed it. Ace has me beaten bad on this front though, his tank looks so established. I remember his first photos when it started to become a reef and that blew me away. I really liked the side shots that go all the way through the tank. Alyssa still likes your tank more than mine. lol