Mike and Terry's 300g Reef

FlowerhornNYC · Oct 12, 2011

BEAUTIFUL setup Mike & Terry
Your fishes collection are outstanding. I've been following your tank thread in RC for awhile now & learn alot from you. I'll be setting up a tank similar to your soon. Thanks for sharing with us

underwaterfirefighter · Oct 12, 2011

Awesome set up you have there. Love the stand with granite top. Everything looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Reef lvr · Oct 12, 2011

m and m said:
I wanna take a VA trip and see this and craig's in person one day, they truely are both amazing.

+++1 that i agree!!! Sweet setup!!! Would love to see it in person:bigsmile:

revsgirl · Oct 12, 2011

You have exceptional pics! Your fish and coral are beautiful! Way to hang in there!

Mike&Terry · Oct 13, 2011

skinz78 said:
Beautiful tank and an extremely clean install too! Kudos to you for keeping with it after all the fiasco!

Thank you skinz78! It really helps that we both share the same passion for this hobby.

FlowerhornNYC said:
BEAUTIFUL setup Mike & Terry
Your fishes collection are outstanding. I've been following your tank thread in RC for awhile now & learn alot from you. I'll be setting up a tank similar to your soon. Thanks for sharing with us

Thank you FlowerhornNYC... We've learned so much in this hobby from fellow reefers and if we are able to give something back by documenting our experiences, then all the better! Good luck with your new tank and looking forward to seeing a build thread from you!

underwaterfirefighter said:
Awesome set up you have there. Love the stand with granite top. Everything looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Dave!

Reef lvr said:
+++1 that i agree!!! Sweet setup!!! Would love to see it in person:bigsmile:

Thank you Reef lvr! and fellow reefers are always welcome. :bigsmile:

revsgirl said:
You have exceptional pics! Your fish and coral are beautiful! Way to hang in there!

Thank you Tonya!

Mike&Terry · Oct 14, 2011

Another Recent Back Office Project...

Our new water storage and salt mixing station:

As part of our sump room re-design, we decided to setup a new water storage and salt mixing station. Here are some pics of the work in progress:

The plan (Mike's version of Sketchup) :wink:

The 100g storage vats and the Panworld 150PS pump:

These vats come with a 1.25" threaded bulkhead. Kind of an odd size, and so it took some time at the box stores to figure out which parts would get the job done without some Frankenstein plumbing thing hanging off of them.

The idea is to be able to move water between the vats, recirculate in the salt mix vat, and pump water out to some other location with the turn of a few handles. We love Spa Flex and this seemed like a natural application for that - we wouldn't want minor movements or adjustments harming the plumbing, and being able to move things around a little to fine tune the fit always helps. Here's how the intake valves look:

Here are the outlet valves, positioned up on top of the vats, with a creative plywood platform to mount them on:

And this little beauty was installed just for ME! :bigsmile: Mike finally got tired of me freaking out about electricity and water every time I had to plug a pump in and installed a nice little waterproof switch to turn the pump on/off...

We are really pleased with the way it turned out.

Mike&Terry · Oct 14, 2011

A Recent Video

Recent under water video taken with our Panasonic camera:

[video=youtube;WIn-je_VUqk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIn-je_VUqk&hd=1[/video]

Mike&Terry · Oct 16, 2011

Annual Reef Party

We hosted our annual reef party last night and had an awesome turnout. In keeping with tradition, we asked our guests to bring canned goods to donate to our local food bank, but added a raffle into the mix. Our guests received 1 raffle ticket for every two canned items they brought.

We gave away quite a few items, including activated carbon, battery air pumps, algae sheet packs, Marine Depot promo items, Reef Geek t-shirts, a TLF VeggieMag and dip and pour containers. The two top items were a Hanna Phosphate Checker and a $50 gift certificate to Live Aquaria.

We are happy to report that we collected close to 150lbs of canned and dry goods. It was a lot of fun and a great way to give back to our community.

We also took some updated pics of the display and thought we'd share a few of them.

soccerbag · Oct 16, 2011

Looking good guys. Sorry I was unable to make it this weekend. I was out of town but heard it was a good time. Hope to see it in person soon though. And a great idea with the canned goods. Very cool!

M&M · Oct 16, 2011

Beautiful setup and great pictures.What camera and what settings are you using on FTS?

JF2381 · Oct 16, 2011

Gorgeous!!!
That is my dream tank...Too bad you had to go through so much to get it to where it is.

spspirate · Oct 16, 2011

Thanks for hosting a stunning get together Mike and Terry and YES the reef is gorgeous in person!

Aquaph8 · Oct 16, 2011

Hi Mike and Terry, your tank is looking more and more amazing with every pic. Congrats.

dtpollard · Oct 16, 2011

Thanks again Mike & Terry. I had a great time at the meet. Your tank is stunning; So much thought and planning really paid off.

Dave

Mike&Terry · Oct 17, 2011

soccerbag said:
Looking good guys. Sorry I was unable to make it this weekend. I was out of town but heard it was a good time. Hope to see it in person soon though. And a great idea with the canned goods. Very cool!

Thanks Craig. Maybe we'll see you at the November meet. :smile:

M&M said:
Beautiful setup and great pictures.What camera and what settings are you using on FTS?

Thank you! The camera is a d300s w/a NIKKOR 18-200mm lens. I set the color balance at 10,000k to offset the blue. The picture was taken w/out flash w/shutter speed 125 and F-stop 4. I do not possess any photography skills whatsoever, LOL. I just love this camera and spend a lot of time experimenting with it.