UrbanSage's 270 Gallon in Wall Reef Adventure.

[UrbanSage]

If it is alive then how can I gauge that?
I think as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and say you have a healthy aquarium environment. An urchin shouldn't be too difficult to keep. As long as there is algae to graze on and no predators, and rock to hide in during the daytime.

[Snowboarda42]

I just went through all the pages you have so far! Great setup! Looks like you really got to design the room you wanted around your tank and not the other way around! Looks great, keep us updated with pics!

[UrbanSage]

Thanks alot

The room is moving forward and I like to take my time pondering what road to take later. Next on the horizon is a skimmer, calcium reactor, more Vortechs? and I want to add a 20 gallon I have. I would like to place this tank in the stand of the refugium. This tank will be kept in the dark or lighted by a single floodlight for a few hours a day.
I like the life that happens in the dark

Today I picked up two new clams, anther but smaller teardrop maxima and a nice crocea.

And here are some fresh pictures.

My good old happy (now it is in the rocks) crocea.


A blue millepora.


A teal? millepora.


Scripps pink millepora. (finaly regaining some color. Been a slow battle.


Acropora nana. This one is looking amazingly more healthy after the added flow recently.


The new teardrop maxima.


Poor shot of the new crocea.


And finaly I think I found a spot for my pinkish Pocillopora.

[melev]

Excellent pictures!

[Cprowler]

Yes...very nice!

[zach0660]

Awesome Pics!!

[kau_cinta_ku]

you get those clams from Grant? they are sweet looking

[UrbanSage]

Yup, I thought they looked like they needed a new home

[kau_cinta_ku]

I thought the same thing just didn't have the cash ATM. but glad to see they went to a good home.

[tangdiver]

Big clams came home with me since store is looking to be changed...

Grant

[kau_cinta_ku]

come on Grant when you gonna start your thread and post pics?

but looks like all the clams went to great homes. whish I had the extra money for some other diff. zoas. don't even have 1% of the diff. kind of zoas Grant had but glad I at least got the PPE's.

also how are you like the Vortech after having it a little while?

[UrbanSage]

I really like the Vortech. Still need more though

[UrbanSage]

Gotta have a picture !

[melev]

Very nice. FYI, when shooting something like that, try to zoom in a bit more or raise the lens upward to avoid the sand's glare. It's a little tricky because you want to focus on the subject and you also want the camera to measure the amount of light going into the camera. If you can find a balance of the two, you'll get a better picture.

[Dakota Reef]

Nick,

Gorgeous photo of the Porcelain Crab. You always get such great macro shots. Looks like your Bubble Tipped Anemone split already, it must be happy with your Vortech or the Tunze.

Good luck attaching the extra plate of acrylic on your overflow. I did the same thing on the internal overflow of my old 125 tank and it worked like a charm. I attached it with some plastic clips to the tankside of the overflow and within a couple of months the coraline had "cemented" it in place and I took off the clips.

I know you said the Vortech isn't affecting the wave made by the Waveboxes but do you think maybe the opposite is happening? That the back and forth from the Tunze's are not allowing the Vortech to build up laminar water momentum.

Keep up the great work!!

[melev]

Egads, I forgot all about that again! By now you could have bought your own acrylic and made it. I'll try to convert those millimeter measurements to US standard and get that piece bent and boxed up tomorrow, Nick.

[UrbanSage]

I will play with aiming the camera away from the sand. Thanks for the tip! No hurry about the acrylic

Phil, I can imagine the flow being altered by the wave makers like you say. Have nothing to compare to though


I have been playing with Sketchup today, a free tool from Google that lets you draw 3D models.
I saw it in Hop's thread :



And here is my so far work to recreate the room. Fun stuff! Give it a try.

[Lunchbucket]

Sweet what you think of sketchup? It is sort of easy sort of hard sometimes, at least for me

Lunchbucket

[melev]

Your stand looks exactly like that! Watch out Transformers, I think we've got a new artist for T II!

[UrbanSage]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
Sweet what you think of sketchup? It is sort of easy sort of hard sometimes, at least for me

Lunchbucket

I really enjoyed working with it, it did take me like two hours to get what you see done, but fun to get there.
I just think it would have been great to know about earlier, so much easier to sketch out ahead of time what everything CAN look like.

And yeah, definitely tricky at times

Originally posted by melev
Your stand looks exactly like that! Watch out Transformers, I think we've got a new artist for T II!

As long as nothing has to move once in place, sign me up!!!

I actually wanted to post the same picture of the real stand just for comparison.

[UrbanSage]

Duplicate post. Wow these servers sure are bogged down lately.
Must be popularity

[UrbanSage]

Is there a way to avoid this? Seems the foam hardly liquifies at all...

[Lunchbucket]

Originally posted by UrbanSage
Is there a way to avoid this? Seems the foam hardly liquifies at all...

Yeah get a bigger skimmer

Lunchbucket

[UrbanSage]

Coming..... Eventually

But even with a bigger skimmer..... Why doesn't the foam "pop"?

[UrbanSage]

By the way,
can people recommend some good skimmers for total water volume of about 400 gallons?
I don't feel like I need top of the line equipment, but I would like something robust, reliable and adequate (Even if the only way to get that is to go with the pricier ones).