Wish I had a web site.... 180g has rock

[dragon0121]

I wish I could put a picture up like Larry did :( . We got the live rock distributed between my 180g and my friends 55g. If anybody is putting in a tank with a large front glass to back glass footprint you might thing about getting Figi Show rock. I got an 88 lbs box of this, came with 3 rocks that each top over 20+lbs. With these three pieces alone I was able to build up in front of one of the overflows to within 4" of the surface, and better yet the top rock is flat and slopes from about 4" deep to 10" deep, directly under the 400W MH. Great place for that SPS I'll eventually be getting :) .

I followed James Wiseman's setup and put in a spur and groove arrangement with the rock. I was able to use the big pieces to build an archway thats about 6" wide and 8" tall, absolutely incredible :D .

[Larry M]

Way to go Dragon!! Glad to hear you got it running. I'm still working on the aquascaping, and severely lack in the creativity department. Send me some pics if you can get them and I'll post them for you.



------------------
Larry M

See my tanks at Northern Reef (http://www.reefcentral.com/northernreef/index.htm)

[RWD]

Dragon,
Hope to see some pics too.BTW does james have a web page to see what you are talking about? I want to arrange a spur and groove also and want some ideas.Thanks,Bob

------------------
Visit my new web page: http://bobsreefermadness.homestead.com/index.html

[Jester]

I Can't wait till I can get a huge 120+ reef setup. Right now I have a 25 gallon minireef and I am in the process of custom building a small nanoreef like Larry M's LT1. Dragon, I'd also like to see pics of your tank when you get the chance. All these different styles of aquascaping give me ideas of how I can setup my tanks, but in a smaller version of course. :)

Good Luck,
Jester

[dragon0121]

To any who are interested here is James' site with a killer spur and groove theme :) Many thanks to James for sharing this type of setup with all of us :) . I believe that the first picture was all it took for me to decide I wanted to go this route as opposed to a wall of rock look.
http://216.90.10.65/

Larry,
all of the pictures I have are 1024 x 768 and are of my 29g. The sump was dumping HUGE amounts of micro bubbles into the tank all weekend. It was bad enough that I couldn't see the sea swirls due to all of the micro bubbles. This morning the tank is clear and about ready to take pictures of. If I could, I would like to email you some pictures and have you post them. Please... (in that really annoying, whiney voice my kids use :D )

As a side note when we were putting some of the new rock in my friends tank, the rock was being pulled out of a trash can and placed on the upside down lid on the floor, to look at before aquascaping. Out comes a 1 1/2" to 2" mantis :eek: . This morning I twice heard a click from my tank :( . Bummer.

[ladyballplayer]

James' tank is awesome. I only have a 45 and have only been into reefs since August of '99 but I think it's time to move up!!!



------------------
LadyBallPlayer
http://www.geocities.com/ladybeachlover

[sharkdude]

a good place to post pics for us web challenged reefers is www.momentoffame.com (http://www.momentoffame.com)
a pic of my tank is at http://www.momentoffame.com/snapshot.html?id=3732
under the aquariums subdirectory of pets

check it out.

[dragon0121]

A big thanks to Larry :D :D :D ! Here are some pictures of my 180g tank. It only has 135 lbs of live rock in it at the time the pictures were taken.
The first picture is to show the size of the Show pieces that I recieved. The second picture is a shot directly into my open hood with all of the lights on, 3 5' VHO and 2 400W MH. The third picture shows my sump+refugium and the HD LOA security fixture I am lighting the refugium with. The fourth shows a picture of the entire tank (don't mind the two hams in front ;) ).
http://www.reefcentral.com/dragon_0121.htm

All pictures were taken in low resolution mode with high compression, on an Olympus C-2020 Zoom.

I'll try and get Larry to post some macro shots later :D.

Thanks again Larry!

[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 05-02-2000).]

[Bishop]

Dragon: I must say that is one nice setup.. the sump/refugium is very clean and well thought out.

Your entire setup looks very similar to mine, cept yours looks more like furniture than mine does..

Happy reefing.

[dragon0121]

Thanks Bishop :) .
I couldn't afford (now does that sound wrong) to buy the Oak stand, etc. So I had to settle for the pine stand, but I figured if I made a furniture grade hood, between it and the tank, who would look at the stand! And the truth is, when the lights are on I don't even notice the hood, the eyes are drawn right to the rock and sand. I can't describe how bright these lights are to somebody that hasn't seen 400W MH's in action, and the white sand and glitter lines are almost eery. A friend of my son said it made him want to go swimming :eek: .

I have to admit that I'm one of those people who reads the directions on the macaroni and cheese box, even though we've all made mac and cheese like 1000 times. I spent an easy 6 months planning this tank, BEFORE, I made any equipment purchase. I played out every scenario that I could think of and what effect it would have on the system. Anal retentive :rolleyes: .

[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 05-02-2000).]

[coralhound]

dragon being anal retentive pays off... :D

excellent setup I had though of the refugium a little differently but I really like the way you did it.

is that a LOA quad PC over it?

where is your skimmer?

where did you buy your LR?

CH

------------------
Please BUY captive bred marine life...
My website: Moon Tide Reefs (http://www.qis.net/~ckkuehn)

[dragon0121]

CH,
I spent so much time obsessing over the 180 that it was almost (I say almost :) ) anticlimactic to have to put rock in :rolleyes: .

Tis a LOA quad PC light from HD. It's not the 65W my HD doesn't carry that model, but the bulb is supposed to be around 5000K. I don't care as long as that sucker grows algea :D .

The skimmer is MIA or DOA or something like that. The guy that built my skimmer for me does business with a plastics supplier here in town, and when he order the acrylic pipes for the water inlet, outlet, and funnel, they sent him clear PVC instead of acrylic. Thus he used his acrylic "glue" (don't know squat about acrylic) and when I got the skimmer home it lasted about 24 hours before both pipes fall out. :( They were tight enough that I could use the skimmer on my curing vat, but as the cure cycled down, I took the skimmer back so he could put the pipes in with two part epoxy of some sort. Should have it back tonight.

Live rock is from Paragon. Mike was an absolute pleasure doing business with! My rock went MIA and got shipped to Chicago (look left to see how far off they were). Mike made numerous phone calls to LA and Chicago to find the rock and tell me when it would be in. Per his recommendation I got the raw plant rock, there are an amazing amount of polyps on these rocks. The rock spent a total of 4 days out of the water and I still managed to have a Blue Linkia starfish survive and make it to my friends tank. He's about 4" across from tip to tip. :)

[This message has been edited by dragon0121 (edited 05-02-2000).]