I thought I had a tank thread, but no.

[Leishman]

Here I will document the rise and fall of my 250, followed by the resurection.

So I set this thing up a while back and have had varying degrees of success over the years. This ~250 replaced an Oceanic 110g (60"x18"x24") that was ½ overflow boxes and ½ center brace.

This system has had AEFW, red bugs, monti eating nudis, 95 deg temps, no power for 3 ½ days; the list could go on…. So after the ' no power for 3 ½ days' thing (where I lost some sweet corals and fish) I decided to gather some things, recruit a team of 'expert' reefers, and rebuild the display.

It started w/1 Lumenarc and 2 RO IIIs and a pile of rocks

then it was 3 Lumenarcs and 2 piles of rock

At this point things started to look OK, then good and finally awesome

 

[Leishman]

and my colors started to pop

 

[Leishman]

Then I had back to back AEFW and an overnight alk spike (~8 to 16) and lost the below:

 

[Leishman]

Then came the power outage in June of '08 were I lost this

and ½ of this

Both together from below

And next will be the rebuild:

 

[Leishman]

Before (complete w/dead red table as frag shelf)

and the 'expert' reefers at work this past Saturday

Out with corals and rock

In with the rock (that was just taken out)

 

[Leishman]

And now the new look of my ~250 (wish I could work out the white balance)

 

[Leishman]

This is the rock that came out and did not go back in.

HUGE thanks go out to the 'experts'

Justin: Substrate specialist
Robie: Artistic Design
Chris: General Contractor/Photographer
Scott711 (he came to watch)

 

[Leishman]

Last night (11/13/08)

Things still need to be added, moved around or removed, plus a little growth will make this glass box look much better. Since the last update I have added 2x140w Actinic VHOs to go with the 2x80w T-5 Actinics that supplement the 3x400w 20k Radiums. I still can't seem to be able to take decent pics under this lighting combo, I'll get 143Gadgets to swing by with his million dollar camera set up and see what he can do.
Here are some new tank shots:
FTS

Left

Right

Right (at an angle)

Some coral shots:

 

[Leishman]

More:

PM frags from when the colony started to RTN

Now R2R is upto date on my 250g

 

[oceanparadise1]

awsome awsome tank man! cant wait to this this puppy in a year!

 

[Leishman]

Here's a pice I just found of Chris (143Gadgets) tying to steal my PM colony

 

[SaraB]

I really like the new look! The aquascaping is nice!

 

[JGoslee]

Everything looks great! I really like the new rockwork.

 

[bamachamp92]

Nice aquascaping Rick, I really like the more open look. I am in the process of redoing my 320 gallon tank to open it up some too. We have already taken out a 75 gallon tank full of rock out of it and still more to go. Good luck with it maybe the hard times are behind you for the tank.

 

[Leishman]

A quick video from tonight...

 

[jimmybling31]

like the tank

 

[Dace]

thank looks awesome

 

[Mallard]

Sweet tank!

 

[rebelprettyboy]

Awesome vid and tank!

 

[ss7]

I admire your dedication and patience with the hobby. With such setbacks I surely would have thrown in the towel for at least 3 months.

Corals look great.. eager to follow your progress!

How is the PM?

SS