120 Reef Office Build (75 upgrade)

[Bax]

An FTS from this week

[chris wright]

Looking real good Bax

Love your clams, can't wait to find 1 myself

cheers

Chris

[Bax]

Thanks chris wright

I have to learn how to stich pics together one of these days to make better FTS pics.

The derasa is huge! Easily 9" or more now!

I am off to a local club frag swap today. Wish me luck!

[chris wright]

Good way to get some good frags. I hope you find some new good additions to show off to us

Cheers

Chris

[Bax]

Well, the NJ Reefers Club really put on a fantastic Frag Swap, good speakers, great vendors and amazing frags by the dozens!

I picked up 50 pounds of Marco Rock that is just beautiful! As well as some choice frags from Dr Mac, at Pacific East, and smcooler, a local fragger, who had a really profesional looking diplay set up. My frags finds include a poker star monti, a teal stag, a Limeaid all nice frags and Lucky Jade that is more of a mini colony!

... pics will follow as soon as I get a chance

[chris wright]

Looking forward to the updates. I'm glad to hear you got some nice additions

Cheers

Chris

[Rickyrooz1]

What kind of lighting do you have on your 120? It looks like you have Lumenarc III reflectors but what bulbs, 250 or 400 watt?

[Bax]

Rickyrooz1

The reflectors are actually the Lumenarc minis. Same design as the III's just smaller, they are great for a tank of this size IMO the LA III's would be too big. I can say this with certainty as I have a pair of LA III's for another project and they would be really a PITA to stuff into the canopy with any supplemental lighting.

I am currently running 400 watt 10 K Ushios with 3 x 54 watt T-5 actinic supplement.

But I am evaluating going to 14 K XM bulbs on my next change. While 10 K reportedly promotes good growth I have it on good advice, especially given my apreciation of actinic lighting, that the colors should really improve under the 14K.

[Rickyrooz1]

How high above the tank are the reflectors? The 400w bulbs aren't overkill on the corals near the top or does the reflector spread the light out enough to prevent this?

[Bax]

The minis offer plenty of cover for my 2' x 4' tank. The reflectors are 14.5" x 14.5". Currently they are at 12" over the tank. I lifted them to the top of the adjustment when I switched from 175 to 400 watters and just haven't lowered them yet. I've been meaning to do that. I plan to lower them over time to about 8".

[Bax]

Here's a really bad pic of some of my frag finds in my fuge



The larger piece in the center is the Lucky Jade
At five o'clock is the Limeaid
At three o'cklock is the poker star
and at one is the teal stag

I hope to move them to the display tomorrow.

[Bax]

Here's the hand picked Marco Rock base rock I got at our club frag swap last week. I have it stacked in an arch, I will be constructing a pegged arch like this, then seeding and curing it with some live rock for a few months for the 220g.



I also got a few large pieces of ledge that I want to attached to a black acrylic sheet for a backdrop.

[Bax]

Nothing written in stone here, just putting a road map out there to follow. This is a schematic for my wet room upgrade in support of my impending 220 display addition. My hope is to get the wet room completely redone and running so any mini cycle is over, then set up the 220 and cycle it independently before slowly cracking open the return valve to the new display tieing the system together as one complete system. Not shown, are QT and water change vessels that will not be included in day to day flow.




Remember there no valves shown here, just a VERY basic process flow diagram.

[tcmfish]

Wow I wanna see that done.

[Bax]

tcmfish

ME TOO!

[GSMguy]

looks like i found this thread at the right time.
that 2 display office should make sure you cant concentrate on work

[Dudester]

Actually I just read a recently published article that confirmed the average worker is less productive when they do not work. Bax will clearly be another shining example of this once tank #2 is up and running.

[Bax]

GSMguy

Who can concetrate on work anyway!

Dudster

Productivity at work is highly overrated.

[Bax]

Dude

That "article" is a riot.

[Bax]

I am thinkimg about changing over tp XM 15 Ks for my MH.

Here's some top downs under the actinics just for fun







Here's the left side with the 10 k and actinics on



Here's the left side with the 15 k and actinics on



Pretty big difference huh?

Here's an end under the XM 15 k

[Bax]

Found my third , and previously missing, anem clone this morning at 6:30 AM wrapped around the cover of my VorTech.

Gotta run too so I can't change my carbon until later today

[BRISK495]

tagging along...looks great!

[Bax]

Brisk495

Thanks for visiting, glad you like it!

[Mappelbaum37]

awesome tank! how did you get the live rock to be like 2 islands? Thats what Im trying to do with my tank right now... I have a 75 gal.

[Bax]

Matt

Thanks for the compliments!

If you look back in the first two pages or so, I used egg crate across the bottom of the tank first. This gives the rock something to hold onto. The I hand picked rocks to use as the base. Using only ones that would sit steady on the egg crate. Once you have a solid base just carefully build from there. The sand went in last so it would not move and undermine the rock. There's been some shifting, but not too much.

I wanted it to look like on large piece of reef broke off and fell to the bottom breaking in two as it landed. I was lucky to have lots of rock to choose from, I have this much rock again in my fuge, about 325-350 pounds total. The piece on top to the right is one huge piece that was like 40 pounds with just a few smaller pieces on top. That gives a nice appearance.