gflats new frag tank

gflat65 · Jul 19, 2009

I have some before pictures somewhere, so I need to hunt them down and resize...

This is my new frag tank from Ocea. It's 72x30x14. (2)-40B's and a 50 gallon Rubbermaid Livestock tub was all crammed into this (and removed from the sunroom). Aside from the stand not being reef ready, I've been very happy with it.

The lighting will be suspended from the ceiling eventually. I already had to go ghetto becuasethe 4 bulb ballast in my tek lighting died on me. The 2 bulb (with reflectors for a 48") with Geismann midday bulbs are probably putting out more than the other four bulbs, anyway. I hope to have this fixed soon...

About half of it is filled with things I'm keeping, but won't fit in other tanks. The other half is my frag swap fodder.

Left

Middle Left

Middle

Middle Right

Right

gflat65 · Jul 19, 2009

The new frag tank is in the sun room, but connected tot he 120. This is the sight when you come in the door (130 behind the 120).

Paul_N · Jul 19, 2009

Holy Reef Tanks Batman! Love the system!

H@rry · Jul 19, 2009

Wow, that thing if full! What's wrong with the stand?

Fishcrazy06 · Jul 19, 2009

Nice looking acan and zoa garden you have going on in there!

Eric

gflat65 · Jul 19, 2009

Thanks everyone. It took forever for me to get it all mvoed and consolidated.

Where the drain pipes would go through the stand, there were screws holding the top edge of the stand together. I had to remove the screws and drill out holes for the piping. Before I realized there were screws in that portion of the stand, I tried hole sawing it out to no avail. Then I didn't have any square drive bits, so it pushed it out a little. Once I got the screws pulled (hope they had no real value in the design of the stand), I was able to easily drill the holes out, but I got a little frustrated for a while.

H@rry · Jul 19, 2009

I'm surprised that they sent a stand that would not allow a drain pipe for the tank. I think the number of screws were a bit of overkill anyway. I'm not sure if they used glue or not but if they did then the screws only would be needed until the glue dried (I think

ps

. One good thing about the way they build stands; they ain't gonna fall down!

Anyway, you have an amazing collection of corals/frags. I'd hate to have the responsibility of keeping all those tanks going. With 5 tanks I'm constantly busy (even though 3 are in one system). I'm thinking about keeping a log for a week of the stop-watch time I spend on our tanks.

Good luck and keep the pics coming.

TritonsGarden · Jul 19, 2009

Looking good Gary. I think I see a couple of empty spots where you put some more frags :wink: You're gonna need more tanks. How's the humidity?

Jack

revhtree · Jul 19, 2009

Wow Gary thats awesome! So now you need a bigger one! LOL!

gflat65 · Jul 19, 2009

Ty kept sending around that double 180 with stand and I kept eyeballing it. Jenn just gave me dirty looks. I need to get the tank room powered, then I'll move most of the stuff I want to keep out of site and free up half of the tank. I'm going through 37 gallons of top off water every two and a half days...

Tomoko Schum · Jul 20, 2009

Wow, that's quite a setup, gflat!! Do you sell frags online?

Tomoko

gflat65 · Jul 22, 2009

Not in months... Aside from frag swaps, I haven't sold a thing. I have a site set up, but haven't really done much with it.

Tomoko Schum · Jul 22, 2009

That sounds a lot like what I heard from others who are trying to sell online.

How are the corals doing in general after you transfered them to your new tank?
I have a few SPS's that are not happy in my new tank at the moment.

I am also wondering about my lighting. As you know, Lumen Bright reflectors are supposed to help a lot in terms of brightness of metal halide lamps. However, my SPS's look browned up and dull. My corals are lit by three 250W XM20K on Icecap electronic ballast 18 inches above water surface instead of two 250W Phoenix 14K on HQI (M80) ballast 4 inches above the water surface. I am thinking about bringing down my reflector by an inch or so to see if this makes any difference.

I thought I like the color of XM 20K, but after having Phoenix 14K for a few years, I am not so sure....

gflat65 · Jul 25, 2009

The corals hit a dull streak for a week or so, then rebounded. I used pretty much the same lighting, just had them laid across the tank for weeks thinking I'd hang them eventually (then finally made the PVC support to tide me over). Having them sitting directly on the tank burned a few things. MOst have done okay since, though.

I'm sold on my Phoenix's, too. I've played with the idea of trying a 20K, but am afraid I won't end up liking it. I run supplements with everything, though.

I'd drop those 20K's down, if possible. You'll be getting a lot less par from them than the Phoenix's anyway, so being higher up than the Phoenix's, they may be looking for more light.

Tomoko Schum · Jul 26, 2009

I may drop the fixtures down some when my tank settles down.

When I moved my rocks and corals around to their permanent places (if there is such things), I lowered one of my pendants. Up until then my huge rose milli (a foot across in a table shape) was doing really well, but it started losing tissues from a small place after the move. Then within a couple of days, the tissue loss spread and on the third day, the whole thing was practically lost despite the fragging I did to save some pieces.

When the mille went, the water turned cloudy (bacterial bloom?). Since then, all my milliporas are having problems all over the tank. I moved the ligth back up although I don't think it was related to the event, but who knows. I've lost a number of large milles. Other acros seem to be stressed due to the declining water quality. Softies and LPS's are still all right. No problem with fishes or a clam.

Another thing is that my Sedra pump on ASM G2 went out while I was moving my rocks and corals. I got shocked suddenly by a leaky current when I was almost done with aquascaping. I turned off everything and started hunting down the cause. I could not really locate the problem, but when I started up my G2, G2 won't start. Its motor was seized up badly.

So I got a Octopus 200. It took a few days to arrive with all these mess going on

.

It's been quite a stressful week to say the least....

gflat65 · Jul 26, 2009

Sorry to hear all of that, Tomoko. The worst I'm chasing is algae I can't seem to beat. Plans include replacing all rock in all tanks (already did one system) to try to get it out. I keep losing acans and micros (the not cheap ones, of course) because of a stupid Caribbean pistol shrimp that needs to find a new home (maybe with the mantis

) and the powerhead that helps cover them all up (recently upgraded from an acrylic GC 22 gallon to a 24 x 24 x 12 Ocea). Hopefully, your issues will straighten out soon.

Tomoko Schum · Jul 26, 2009

Thank you. I really hope things will improve soon. I hate to lose all my SPS's, but I'm afraid that I am seeing a nasty chain reaction. I feel helpless. All I can do is toss out the iffy ones and wait till things settle.

On the flip side, if I lose all my SPS's, that gives me an excuse to collect a bunch of new pretty frags to fill up the empty places, haha.

Pistol shrimp can be a pain in the neck. It seems like my 15 gallon gets relanscaped every few days. It's a softies tank and no one there seem to mind it except for me. My shrimp is a very cute candy striped Randal's pistol shrimp. It's paired up with a yellow watchman goby. The watch man goby is always in the front of the tank because the shrimp has his entrances in the front where the food falls from the sky. It's really fun to wath them.

How do you catch a pistol shrimp? I finally caught both of mine out of 120 as I was emptying the sand bed.

gflat65 · Jul 27, 2009

I caught Jenn's to trasnfer it pretty easily, but it made it easy on me. It only lives in the front corner of her tank (in every tank we've had it in). I hollowed out a little area in the front right corner and put in some large shell pieces, etc. I made a small hole to under one of the shells and dropped the shrimp in. He went straight to the shells and never left. Luck more than anything. When I upgraded, I put a piece of plexi through the sand (a good distance from his known cave) and moved everything. Then I knew the shrimp was isolated to a certain area, so I slowly and carefully felt around/siphoned water and sand, etc., until I found him. THen by accident, I dropped it into my 120. Luckily, it was stunned so I could reach back in and grab it before it disappeared for good.

Tomoko Schum · Jul 27, 2009

This morning I found my 180 looking rather cloudy. All my equipment is working well. No dropped powerhead. No auto top off accident (with kalk spiked water).

There are two possible causes - my clownfish digging (I saw them doing that a week or so ago) and my Alpheus randali's tunneling around. Their digging was never a problem in my 120 but I had mature sand bed before they came to live in it. In my new 180, they can really create a sand storm with brand new Southdown sand

. Needless to say my corals are not enthused.

gflat65 · Jul 28, 2009

Yeah, sand Southdown take s awhile to settle for good, anyway (9 months to a year for me). After that point, it nearly never got stirred (unless by a maroon). Do you have some courser shells you can drop over it for a little while? I used a mix of shells and crushed coral on top, I think.