Finnex 30G M-Tank build

[erickrm]

Where to start..... ok i set this tank up in September after breaking down my tank(75G SPS dominated) and decided that the system was much too large for me to care for at the moment. I decided i needed something easier to maintain yet appealing. So i ran into this system along with a few others, but i chose to go with this one for several reasons. the tank is BareBottom just like my 75G was, all the water in the tank was basically transfered over from that tank into this one so that i did not have to worry about another cycle. Although i am sure there was probably something but i did not notice it.

Stocking: I transfered over most of my SPS into this tank but found the tank was overwhelmed wth too much and most stopped growing bc there was nowhere to go. So i fragged pretty much all my colonies :(. I was trying to go with pipefish but i came to the conclusion that the only great pipe for a BB tank with only SPS was a bluestripe pipefish. all the others i had did not do very well, bc of the flow. So i now have a plan to stock on some chromis, as well as a pygmy hawkfish that is currently getting use to his new home :)

Equipment: Hmm i love gadgets lol :) and i dont like to skimp on anything, atleast it seems that way as the wife always yells at me! lol....... ok so for flow I have 2 Tunze 6055's with a controller, for skimmer i have an MCE300(ordered an AP600 but came in broke!!) but will probably end up with a MCE600 if i can get my money back for the broken AP600. For lighting i have an Aquactinics TX5 fixture. Along with a skimmer i run a bag of chemi-pure in a phosban reactor to keep all the nasty yellows out of the tank :) or to try to clean it out as much as possible. For control sake of the entire tank i have a Aqua Controller jr. looking forward to being able to afford an AquaSurf to control the Tunzes... or maybe i will just remove 1 tunze and keep it on a controller.... dont know yet, it seems like i have alot of flow in my tank already!! still wondering if i ran 1 6055 and the return pump if it would be enough waterflow for the SPS.... i guess i will have to experiment! I use a Finnex Ti. Heater that is controlled by the ACjr, and to cool the temps a little i use an Azoo dual fan that is also controlled by the ACjr.


Current stock: here are a few species of SPS in my tank currently...
-GARF Bonsai
-A. Plana
-A. Tenius
-A. Chesterfieldensis
-ORA Chips A.
-ORA Roscoes A.
-ORA Blue Tort
-ORA Aussie Delicate
-ORA Blue formosa
-ORA Valida Tri color
-Green digi with orange polyps
-Orange CAP
-Pink prastrata
-Yellow mille
-Red mille
-Blue mille
-Tricolor mille?(pink, green, blue)
-pokerstar wanabe? haha
couple of others.....

I also have about 30-40 Rics mostly Florida's and 1 Yuma(with babies)

Several Zoanthid species but i wont get into that as i dont know the names lol...

hmmm what else is there to say...... How about some pics ;)

[erickrm]

this is what i started with.....
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/DSC03388.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/DSC03395.jpg

the rest is yet to come.... i have pics of what the tank use to look like but the way i have now is basically like a new begining, so i want to capture the now(the pics my friend and wife came over and took for me!) and the later(maybe like 3month update). So stay tuned ;) as well as check out my buddies build, PL-reef (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1248528)(has the same tank i have :))

[InsaneClownFish]

That Tek fits over the M-Tank perfectly.
Great start! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

...and I certainly don't complain about you fraggin your SPS..:D

[erickrm]

lmao!! well pretty soon it will be Aquactinics TX5 fitting perfectly over my M-Tank perfectly! ;)

[erickrm]

Alright just as promised! first off i would like to thank my good friend and his wife for comming over and taking pictures of my tank! thanks Mrs. PL-Reef!!!!!

Most Recent FTS all the corals at the bottom of the tank are no longer there as they were on their way out the very next day so ignore them ;)
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/FTS111107.jpg
Roscoes Acro
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Roscoes.jpg
Green digi with orange polyps(recovering from being moved around so much!
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Greendigiwithorangepolyps2.jpg
Green Slimer
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/greenslimer.jpg
Orange CAP
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/orangecap-1.jpg
German GWBP
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/GermanGWBP.jpg
Chips Acro
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Chipsacro.jpg
Chesterfieldensis acro.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/chesterfieldensis.jpg
Blue Tort
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/BlueTorttopdown.jpg

[erickrm]

Ricordea Florida
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Riccloseup.jpg
Topdown of rics
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/RicTopdown3.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/RicTopdown4.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/RicTopdown.jpg

[PL-Reef]

i was waiting for you to post them up! these pics still do your tank no justice! it looks way better in person. i cant wait to see it grown in and matured.

[erickrm]

Thanks alot bro :) means a lot coming from you! cant wait for you to set your tank up!! hurry get back out to your workshop and finish the stand tonite!!! lmao! hahah

[PL-Reef]

i wish i could but my freaken back is all busted up! may be tomorrow when i get back from Catos!

[erickrm]

Damn lol cato is going to need some work himself soon if you keep going to see him!! hahah

[InsaneClownFish]

Awesome tank! Holy packed in there!! :D

[erickrm]

lmao you think that is packed you should have seen it like 2 weeks ago!!! that was def Holy Packed batman!!! lol.... most of the SPS in there are fragments of what was actually in there! I mean there was no room for freaking growth at all!! atleast now everyone has atleast 1-2" of horizontal growth and tons of vertical :) hopefully they start to sprout soon since most are actually epoxied onto the rock and will not move so to minimize stress for the corals.

[reefman13]

Sweet tank. And PL is right, it looks a whole lot better in person!

BTW: what did you do with all those rics? any SPS frags for sale?;)

[erickrm]

all the rics are in the left corner now, as i dont want to have a mishap and my GARF bonsai, or A. Plana Fall on them, this would be devastating to my pockets!!!! hahaah

I do actually check out my post on CTARS ;) go all the way down to the last post oh and i am going to fintastic this Thursday if you wanted me to meet you there.

Thanks for the comments :)

[InsaneClownFish]

nTOTM candidate already!

What do you attribute the rich coloration you've maintained in all your corals? Do you dose or feed any secret recipes?

[erickrm]

lol secret..... Thanks for comment :)

I dose 2 part, when ever my cal and alk gets too low lol..... and i feed phyto, and rotifers, did i mention i overfeeed!!!!!! the bottle ask for 1-2 teaspoons for like a 90G i use a good squeez of the bottle for my 30G ;) and let the skimmer take care of the rest ;)

[InsaneClownFish]

Very nice!

[erickrm]

here are the pictures of my fixture when i was putting it together :)
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Reflectors.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/Reflectors2.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/fixturedone.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/actinicson.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/daylightson.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h291/erickrm/alllightson.jpg

Sorry for the crappy pics yet again lol.... i was using my iphone and the camera sux :( so far so good!! it is def sitting higher than my old one but it is def a lot more intense! SLR's and 5 bulbs vs 4 bulbs and SLS is a big difference!!

[erickrm]

quick update, ok so even though i have been only runing the fixture for 3hrs a day and 1 day for 5, my SPS and Rics seem to still have been shocked with too much light! :( i guess now i know how much of a big diff there really is between Teklight 24 to Aquactinics TX5!!!!! hopefully everyone colors back up ASAP!

[InsaneClownFish]

hmmm he designs his fixtures to be right up on the waterline too. I'm guessing it's not light intensity but rater heat. SPS usually like a tank on the cooler side, and they HATE temp swings. Check there first. Can you get the fixture any higher with the legs provided..or prop it up some without it falling in the water?

Try adding a fan across the waterline if it's a heat issue. Let us know how it turns out.

[erickrm]

trust me i know it is the lights ;) i am very very very cautious of my all my water params ;)

there is a differance in lighting when it comes to T-5's my old teklight put out more heat than this new 5bulb vs 4 bulb.... the teklight had no shield and emitted more heat into the water, the new 5 bulb has fan, and a plexi shield. the old tek fixture had wanabe individual reflectors.... the SLR's make a big difference ;) trust me bud i know what i am talking about light intesity when comparing it with a single reflector to individual reflectors is ALOT! so if it is going to be anything it is the amount of PAR the new fixture is getting through the water :)

[InsaneClownFish]

LOL calm down! I believe you! I wasn't suggesting it's your reefing skills over there tiny..:p

My first hunch is always heat over light intensity...just a quick gut feeling. I've seen those SLRs up close and personal and they do make a huge difference compared with the Teks. My old reflectors were anemic at best.

I hope your SPS color back up soon. Any way you can raise the light? Or move the frags that are discoloring lower- oh wait you have no room..:p

Now..get your panties out of a bunch...:lol:

[erickrm]

lol....

na its fine, i just gotta keep doing wa i am doing, its not so much the SPS it is more the rics ;) the sps are just going through a holy crap!! a little warning next time please!! kind of phase lol... so i am keeping the photo period at about 3hrs... i am going to up it to 4hrs tomorrow. Pretty soon they will have more color than they did with the tek light ;)

[osprey77]

hey what bulb combo are you using on the TX5. I use the same fixture (just longer) on my 75 and your colors look great.

[zooloo]

tank looks awsome. what are you using for two part.

[racksteris]

kool tank.

[erickrm]

Thanks guys i appreciate the comments :)

Sorry for the late reply, for my fixture i use well in this pic the bulbs were on a Teklight so only 4 bulbs. and they were 1 UVL super actinic 1 ati actinics plus 2 aqua blue specials(12k?) it was perfect. I added a 10k to that combo and it now is more white with a hint of blue just like i like it :)

For two part i does with ESV b-ionic 2 part. I actually have some DIY stuff in my closet just waiting for this b-ionic to finish so i can start using that :) great stuff.

thanks :)