My new 600 gallon reef

JohnL · #1 08/25/2007, 05:57 AM

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...6#post10630396

Goodwin9 · #2 08/25/2007, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by kaledrina
Wow! I read this whole thread in one day... My eyes are so sore... That is a wonderful tank! Really something for me to look at during those tank-lulls when I consider selling it all and buying a ton of worthless crap. I must say that your tank gives me the ambition to keep chugging through and one day I'll have a beautiful tank just like yours!

What plans do you have in the long term for corals? Just see it, want it, buy it? Or do you have things in particular you are looking for? The possibilities with a tank like that are endless!

Too bad those nay-sayers had to make an appearance. Oh well, it happens. Just like those people who come into the gym, choose the treadmill next to you, are downhill, and naturally have to be flatulant.

Thank you! My original plans for the tank and corals was to have it predominately an SPS tank.

But plans have changed some what. My lack of experience and success with those particular corals has changed my thinking.

First, I don't really have the patience to wait for a 1" frag to grow into a nice 6" coral. I like the variety of fish that I have in my tank which probably contributes to the less than perfect water parameters I have at the present time. These parameters are tough for SPS to live and grow. I turned to adding some of the easier corals which have been doing very well in the tank.

I think that this tank will be a constant work in progress. In my case, I happen to have several tanks that I can move things around in so if I don't like something, I can move it to one of the other tanks to get the look I am looking for.

My first two reefs, I haven't been able to keep clams for some reason. ( I assume I have something going after them), but in this tank, they are doing very well and now have 14. It's still going to be trials and errors with this tank and hope that I year from now I have a tank full of happy fish and corals........

Bax · #3 08/25/2007, 06:08 AM

Congrats on the split.

Keep in mind that this tank is very young and still going through lots of system balancing. As you continue to improve your water quality ( and I know you will

) and the tank matures, I think you'll find that you can start reconsidering "easy" SPS.

I am only four years into my reef journey, and just about to start my forth tank, but I can't imagine every feeling that a reef tank wasn't "still" a work in progress. This is an amazing collection of tangs you have assembled! Congrats again and thanks for sharing.

Goodwin9 · #4 08/25/2007, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bax
Congrats on the split.

Keep in mind that this tank is very young and still going through lots of system balancing. As you continue to improve your water quality ( and I know you will ) and the tank matures, I think you'll find that you can start reconsidering "easy" SPS.

I am only four years into my reef journey, and just about to start my forth tank, but I can't imagine every feeling that a reef tank wasn't "still" a work in progress. This is an amazing collection of tangs you have assembled! Congrats again and thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I haven't given up on SPS as there are some in the tank that are gowing. I also realize that it does take a while for everything to come into balance. My original thought was that a bigger tank and volume would come around a little more quickly than it has. It is probably just the opposite and will take a little longer than a smaller system. Live and learn...that's what this hobby is about.

cbui2 · #5 08/25/2007, 05:48 PM

congrats on the split Chuck

rogergolf66 · #6 08/25/2007, 06:36 PM

14 clams increadable!!! I am jelious now. can you get some pictures of the clams posted? I love to look at clams.

Roger

Lunchbucket · #7 08/26/2007, 08:50 PM

14 clams!!! Dang when I was there I only saw a couple clams...guess you added a few since then. If you EVER want to get rid of a few my 4 in my 58gal need some buddies

Lunchbucket

UrbanSage · #8 08/26/2007, 08:55 PM

Congrats on the split Chuck

Goodwin9 · #9 08/26/2007, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
14 clams!!! Dang when I was there I only saw a couple clams...guess you added a few since then. If you EVER want to get rid of a few my 4 in my 58gal need some buddies

Lunchbucket

I'm worse than a women when it comes to sales, always trying to buy up good deals. I may have over done it a little on the clams, but I am happy to say that they all seem to be doing very well in the tank.

Goodwin9 · #10 08/26/2007, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rogergolf66
14 clams increadable!!! I am jelious now. can you get some pictures of the clams posted? I love to look at clams.

Roger

I'll try and get some posted. You would think taking a picture of a clam would be easier than fish, but I am having a heck of a time getting some good shots. I've tried top down and have managed to burn my forhead twice on the MH's. You would think a guy would learn after the first time....

jnarowe · #11 08/26/2007, 10:35 PM

nope. we never learn. if we did, we would all be in 5th wheels.

jnarowe · #12 08/26/2007, 10:45 PM

Hey Chuck, thanks for the tip...your mailbox is full again. Don't forget to delete the sent folder as well.

Goodwin9 · #13 08/26/2007, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnarowe
Hey Chuck, thanks for the tip...your mailbox is full again. Don't forget to delete the sent folder as well.

I didn't know that you had to do that one too...all ceaned up!

erics3000 · #14 08/27/2007, 10:26 AM

Come on Chuck.. I thought you were IT. ITS funny in the IT field how everyone expects you to know everything about every software. You can be a security expert and people would still ask you. hahahahh..LOL..

jnarowe · #15 08/27/2007, 10:49 AM

Chuck's not IT, he's using those servers to heat his house!

bbehring · #16 08/27/2007, 11:54 AM

14 clams geeez! I have 2 in mine I seem to be having issues with my Potter's angel and lawnmower picking at them from time to time. Of course my tank is only 55 gal. They never really open their mantles up fully. I'm a little frustrated with this aspect. Did you experience the same with your earlier tanks Goodwin?

erics3000 · #17 08/27/2007, 12:08 PM

I had a little clam and my angel was pecking at it too. he is not going in the new tank. My wife bought him for me a while ago before she new about reef safe fish.

Cougarman · #18 08/27/2007, 02:44 PM

my 2 gigas clams have responded favourably to my coral feedings. I've found though that they're very temperature sensitive, more so than what is generally thought. My wife turned off the A/C in the spring, and the temp rose to around 85 degrees. One died, and I turned on a fan to cool the water. So far the other 2 are fine now that the temp is back to 78.

LEPRECAUN · #19 08/27/2007, 02:45 PM

GREAT TANK

LEPRECAUN · #20 08/27/2007, 03:55 PM

Well I wasn't going to say anything, but here goes.

First I grew up working in pet shops and now one of my friends owns a LFS and I have seen many things tried over the years. We even propagated frags and sold them for years at the store.

Now I'm the first to admit, people like Jnarowe have proberly forgotten more about reef keeping than I know. But I have tried a few things over the years that the experts told me couldn't be done!

To prove it could be done, I built a 90 gallon Amazon Rainbow tank and kept over 150 fish in it for almost 5 years until I decide to give some of them to my son and to stock the 55 gallon aquarium at church. Those of you familiar with rainbows know they average 2-4 each. These are very peaceful fish (may chase each other but that's about it) but 150 of them in a 90 gallon tank is insane!!!!

I never had a crash or a major loss. I'm going to try and find some of the old pictures of the tank. We kept them at the store to show people what could be done with proper filtration pushed to the max.

The water entered an over flow and went through a layer of blue filter pads (that were rinsed twice a week) then thru 6" of filter floss (floss was thrown out each week) thru another layer of blue pads, thru two layers of dick boyds chemi-pure and into a huge trickle filter that had polishing pads on top of it.

Then the water was picked up by two large canister filters (for further removal of particle had filter floss in them changed once a month).

The water left the canister filters and went thru approx 6 of the cell pore bio blocks. (the large 4" thick ones that would support billions of bacteria) Then half the water was picked up with pumps and went through more bio cubes. The other half went through 4 denitrifiaction filters.

As you know with bio cubes there is plenty of denitrifiaction going on in the middle of them anyway.

Then the water went into another sump where the mag 12 picked the water up and returned it to the aquarium.

The return water lines connected to undergravel filter plates that forced the water under the gravel and through it. This kept the gravel clean and kept food and crap from getting into the gravel.

Now that the tank only has about 50 fish in it
Don't let other people discourage you. I hope this helps you. I will talk about my current project a little late tonight.

Ken

jnarowe · #21 08/27/2007, 04:22 PM

And you probably didn't need heaters with all those pumps!

I have not forgotten more than most people here on RC and in fact my 1000g display reef is my first SW tank.

The learning curve is steep to be sure, and that is one reason why I went with a high volume of water, low bio-load, and built the system components the way I did. I also had NOTHING else to do while I built my system as I was using it as a therapeudic process following my brain dent incident. I have been fortunate that I have not crashed my system, but I owe that to many I have met here on RC:

Marc (melev)
Sherman (sherm71tank)
Steve (Steve Weast)
Weatherson (of course)
Hahnmeister (formerly Herbert T. Kornfeld)
Hop
Scott (spazz)
wooglin
Dale (tniygiants)
H20ENG
Energy...the list goes on and on to the people who helped me with design questions and those who continue to mentor and help troubleshoot when the need arises.

So while I started strong and continue to get good results, it's not so much because of my own experience, but the experience of others that I have distilled into a reef-keeping philosophy. And my personal experience continues to adapt my philosophy to my system and its quirks.

I have been very lucky in that I have only lost very few fish to accidents, and still I am bummed about losing two naso tangs for no apparent reason. They were fine, and then within a week dropped dead. These are the only fish I have lost that I hold myself to blame, except perhaps that my LMB starved after the snails ate all the algal matter in my tank. Unfortunately for it, my system was just too low in nutrients for enough algae to grow and sustain it.

Sorry to rant, but I cannot take full credit for my success.

Goodwin9 · #22 08/27/2007, 05:05 PM

I took some more pictures of the clams in the tank. This time I managed to miss the MH's, but knocked myself goofy on the steel beam above the tank. This first picture is one of the original clams I started with in the tank. I got it from Tangdiver . The second clam I got from him took a journey from the front of the tank all the way back to the rear and is currently sitting happy under the cliffs. I wasn't able to get a good shot of it.

Goodwin9 · #23 08/27/2007, 05:08 PM

Here are some photos of some of the other clams in the tank. Sorry about the quality and clarity..

jnarowe · #24 08/27/2007, 05:11 PM

They look good. I had one that kept jumping off the rocks and falling into crevaces so I finally just put it on the sand. Then it proceeded to slowly move around the bottom in about a 3 square foot area. I recently moved it into another area up in the rockwork but still close to the bottom, and it has a wicked grip on the rocks. So maybe it has a final home now.

I love those tear drops and have 3 myself. Why is there so much sand in it? I have never seen sand liek that in my clams.

Goodwin9 · #25 08/27/2007, 05:11 PM

Some more...