BB, marinaboard, Starphire 120 - New Reef in NYC.

[jthnhale]

[color=royal blue]February 16, 2005[/color] [color=royal blue]Two weeks old[/color]



[color=royal blue] My reef is finally set up and running, and I have to give the people of RC a big thank you. I spent a good amount of time doing research on this site before I ordered the tank. I intend to use this thread as a diary to record the growth of the tank. I'm planning on growing all the coral from frags, so this could be a long process. Though if I find some nice larger coral in need of a new home from local hobbists, I may be tempted to take them in . I took photos of all the design and build stages, but since I didn't make anything new, I don't want to make everyone look at the construction of another durso pipe. If there is something you want to see a close up of, let me know and I'll post it for you.[/color]

[color=royal blue] Tank Info:[/color]
[color= blue]

• the tank was ordered in october '04 from glass cages It's 60x24x20 with bracing at the top and bottom.
• there is one overflow in the center with two 1.25" Durso drains. The drains open to 1.5"
• the front pane of glass is low iron, it's very clear.
• the bottom of tank has 1/2" black marina board from the cutting board factory
• one side of the tank and the back are covered with oceanvisions black vinyl.
• return pump: quiet one 6000 in the sump
• closed loop pump: blueline 40x with two 3/4" returns.
• the protein skimmer is a ETSS reef devil. I'll see how this does, if I need to upgrade it I will.
• the 55 gallon sump is divided into two chambers, the return section houses the skimmer, and three bubble traps lead to one large section with the return pump.
• evaporation is handled by an autotopoff system with two solenoids.
• this is fed by a powerhead in a ten gallon container with ro/di water.
• there is also a 250 watt heater in the chamber with the protein skimmer.
• lighting is provided by two 175 10K MH single ended bulbs, and a coralfe fixture with four 64-watt PC's.
  the lighting may be upgraded in the future as well.
• the hood is vented by icecap fans, two at the ends blowing air in, and one on top pulling the air out.
  so far this has kept the tank at 78 degrees. I will be getting a 1/3 hp chiller just to be safe.
• I'm not sure how much rock is in the tank, about 130 pounds maybe.
• the rock is sitting on three racks I made out of black eggcrate, black pvc fittings and black zip ties. the fish LOVE this. there are some huge caves for them to swim in. one important thing I did was to sand down all the sharp edges and corners of the eggcrate. if it could cut my hands imagine what it would do to a fish. if I could do it again I would have made the racks with fittings other than just 90 degree elbows, this made the racks square and harder to stack rocks in a natural looking form. what little pvc you see will eventually be covered by coral.

[/color]

[color=royal blue] The Stand[/color]
[color=royal blue] I designed and built the stand. the part the tank sits on is all double thick 3/4" furniture grade maple plywood. the back of the stand is a solid 3/4" piece of ply as well. this design allows the inside of the stand to be open. the stand is finished with a oil based lacquer paint applied in three steps. first it was given a sealer coat, then sanded. then a primer coat was sprayed on, and sanded. the final paint coat was then sprayed on. the finish is smooth and can be compared to a car finish in appearance. since this is my business I plan on adding the stand to my portfolio and contacting companies that set up tanks in the NY area. I thought it would be fun to build some cabinetry for fellow reef enthusiasts.[/color]

[color=royal blue] one other note, if you want to know why I did not go with a longer tank, I live in a four story walk-up. I wanted to get a bigger tank but my girlfriend convinced me (okay insisted) that I get the size I did. in retrospect I'm glad she did. that tank was the worst thing I ever had to carry up the stairs, and I've brought up some heavy stuff. it took three of us to push the tank up the stairs. so if I want a bigger tank I'll probably have to move, or hire a crane the next time.[/color]

The fish
I can't forget our little friends. so far we have,

• a seven year old large blue damsel
• one scopas tang
• one kole eye tang , the tangs swim together and graze on the rocks in the same place all the time. they are very happy in the new tank.
• two algae blennies, they seem to really like the marina board.
  I plan on adding more fish in the future, I'm not sure what kind yet.

that's about it for the set-up. I'll add some other photos below so you can see what's in the tank so far. this is most of it.

the whole tank and cabinet


I was going to make a fancy electrical panel, the strips will do for now, but what a mess of wires back there.


I siliconed the sump in place so water could not get behind the tank


steve tyree stylophora & horrida


brownish zoo's


happy frogspawn


pink montipora digitata

[joefish]

Dude , Great start . I can't wait to see how it turns out .

If you come out to medford out on the Island , I think I can hook you up with a few frags ....

[Stasher]

I really like your stand and how it flows into the adjacent countertop. Your tank area has a very contemporary feel and I imagine looks wonderful at night with the spot lighting in the area. Looks great! Keep up the ambition so that we see more in the future.

[jthnhale]

thanks guys. one thing I forgot to mention, I'm planning on putting some cool looking marble on the counter next to the tank. that will have to wait a bit, after setting up the tank the budget is tight. maybe next month.

[nilo]

hi jon. the tank looks great. i already miss mine. hehe.

[jackson6745]

The tank looks great. I love the stand and canopy. You should save yourself the headache and upgrade the skimmer ASAP

[CPT. MURPHY]

wow looks great !

[jthnhale]

hey Nilo thanks, I think your next tank is going to have to be much bigger! you need room to grow.

the skimmer will have to wait a bit, unless I win the lottery.
right now though it is pulling a whole lot of junk out. so it's not doing that bad of a job.
when I do upgrade I'll need some suggestions though. I don't want to break the bank, but I will want to get something that will do the job.

[jthnhale]

this was one shot I forgot to put up. It shows the door on the left side of the tank open. this is where the return line comes up, and where the pump for the closed loop is kept. because the tank is almost flat to the wall to save space, I had to plumb the tank on the side. the closed loop intake is on the left side, and the return runs along the top of the tank and down the right side. it has two 3/4" tee fittings as the outlets. one on the top and one at the bottom, the bottom tee is capped so only one branch is used as a return.

[harsaphes]

nice apt. where do you live in the city?
Im putting water in my tank this week(i know). cant wait to get started.
Financial district here.

[jthnhale]

Here's something interesting.
I was going to post some new shots of coral I added last week.
However I did not quarantine this coral and it introduced ich to my tank.
fun. so I now have a 29gallon set up next to the main tank, and all the fish
will get to spend 6-8 weeks in the banish the ich spa. I hope this works because I do not want to tear the tank apart again. this is painful enough as it is.
fortunately a friend is coming over to help me take the coral and rock out, and help catch the fish. the plan is to try and get the fish all on one side of the tank and then place a eggcrate barrier in the tank. this way only one side of the tank will need to be dismantled.

H: I'm in greenwich village, just above soho. sent pm.

[gbr]

Looks great Jonathan. I really like the stand....especially the finish. I am interested in how you painted it...equipment used. I am a casual woodworker myself and do some pretty nice stuff but painting has always kicked my butt so I always use hardwoods and lacquer or tongue oil. Anyway...have you torn the tank apart yet. One piece of advice if you haven't. If the tangs, which out of all the fish are probably worst affected by the ich, are not doing too badly, let them fight it. I have seen many tangs get ich and fight it off within days. Just stopped a fellow reefer here from tearing apart his whole tank and his ich is now mostly gone after 3 days. Ich won't usually kill healthy fish quickly so you do have some time...hopefully. If you do QT I would recommend hypo-salinity to any chemicals.

Skimmers...I am partial to MRC (myreefcreations.com) but one of the main reasons is the personalized service you get from a small company where the owner answers your email. I use the MR2 and it is oversized for my 180 but I think it is well worth it...I drive it with a Blueline 55HD. For the money a friend of mine uses an ASM (EuroReef made of extruded acrylic) and it does a fine job but not much better than an ETSS so for now save your money and check out MRC.

What do you put over the suction on your closed loop so snails/fish/etc. don't get sucked in?

Looking great so far...once my Acro's start to get to fragging size I be sure to send you a couple if you want...might be a while though.

[jthnhale]

gbr:
thanks, I took the tank apart today, I'm going to talk more about that in another post
the stand was painted in a professional spray both with conversion spray guns hooked up to a 60 gallon compressor. it was a three coat process with a whole lot of sanding. I paid the shop a whole lot of money to spray it for me. there is no other way to get the fine finish with paint other than spraying it on. there are some great new companies making water bourne spray finish that will give you same look and durability as the lacquer's. you still need the same spray equipment, but you don't have to worry about outfitting a spray both with explosion proof fans, you still need to wear a respirator. if your interested let me know I'll send you the info.
thanks for the advice on the skimmer, I may get a new one soon, but the reef devil is taking out a whole bunch of stuff now.
the overflow for the CL is a 15" long pipe that is capped at the end. I cut slots in it the entire length with a jigsaw. I don't know how many, I spaced the slots about 1/4" apart.
I figure the surface area of the slots is greater than the diameter of the pipe, so that's good. you just have to keep the slots clear of debris.
Thanks for the offer on the acro, I hope I may have something to trade by then

[jthnhale]

Well my battle with ich has begun.
I took the fish out of their new home today.
They must be confused, only three weeks in the new tank and they are all in
a 29 gallon hospital tank. After reading many threads and articles on ich,
and conferring with Steven Pro ( thanks Steven!), and the Seachem board (thanks Seachem dude!), I've come up with my plan. Due to a schedule that will not allow me to be home for a two week period, I've come up with a modified ich treatment.
First I have to say getting the fish out of the tank was no small task. I used plastic egg-crate to divide the tank, then took out half the rock and put it in a large tub. When I divided the tank I tried to get as many fish into the side of the tank I was emptying. This turned out to be two. It took awhile to get all the fish but that part is over.
The treatment I've decided on is to feed the fish first with seachems medicated food mix. this treatment should last about thirty days. After this time I should be able to monitor the next phase the hyposaltinity treatment. This should kill all the ich in the hospital tank. This should also give the main tank time to clear of all the ich as well. So far it was just the tangs that showed signs of the ich. the damsel and blennies have not shown any ich spots. I believe with the medication followed by the hypo treatment the ich should
be eradicated. if for some reason this does not work and the ich shows itself in the hospital tank, I will treat with cupramine, the last resort. by this time the fish should have recovered from the hypo treatment and be strong enough for the cupramine treatment. I have always fed my fish well, but for the time they spend in the hospital tank they will be eating better than I will be. I'll be preparing the medicated food mixed with frozen foods, along with other fresh goodies they will love.
This was not the posting I thought I would be recording now, but I'll keep updating the ich report along with the treatment's.

[jthnhale]

Intensive Care

This is the hospital tank, not much to look at, I hope the
fish are not too cramped. The water temp. is being held at 80 degrees
by a heater hooked up to a medusa controller. I'm going to add an airstone
to make sure their is enough oxygen.


I used 4" pvc and cut it into shapes with a jigsaw. I then painted the purple on with
pvc primer. I let the primer cure overnight then boiled them in water to get any residue off. The boiling also softened the tubes so i could mold them into different shapes.


So far the fish seem to be okay in their new home. They each have places to hide and have not fought at all. I fed them their regular food and they all ate this morning.
I'm waiting for UPS and FEDEX to get here with the Seachem medications for the food.


The ich has dropped off the tangs, so I hope with the medicated food they are able to fight off the next wave that appears.

[jthnhale]

a new photo of the tank, and the view that the fish have

[jthnhale]

these are the most recent additions, I should have quarantined


Green pocillopora, this is my favorite piece yet.


Purple gorgonian, this refers to the piece in the back. I have it placed in a high flow area and it seems to love the current and light that it gets. all the gorgonian frags I have look like they are doing well, the polyps are always out. there are several smaller pieces in the tank.


These are two separate colored monti digitata's that I glued to the same rock. In the light they looked like they were the same color. It should turn into an interesting piece as they grow.


It's hard to tell but under the yellow polyps there is an old shell. there are also some small mushrooms, some button polyps, and some macro algae. probably everything you would not want to spread in your tank is on this one shell, I'm going to keep my eye on it.


It's hard to tell from the dark photo but this is a frag of a green monti digitata


The last piece is a frag from an orange monti digitata, it's brown now, but I'm hoping it will change color soon.

[gbr]

Man that pocilipora is nice and fuzzy. Another nice thing for the QT if you don't have it is one of the $8 Seachem Ammonia alerts. Works great for me and lets me know when to change the water which I would recommend every two days or so (30-50%) until the bacteria takes over. To help that out I used Seachem stability (? think that's it)...basically bacteria in a bottle. Seemed to work well for me as I only had to do 3 changes before ammonia went to zero...of course you have a lot higher load with that many fish at once.

btw, I would be paying you back with the acro for the worms which btw have probably doubled since I got them

[jthnhale]

you must be feeding those worms well
I actually ordered one of the ammonia alert badges,
and some other stuff for the QT, it should get here today.
I did not have much time to set up the QT but I did place a
polypad in the QT filter that had been in the main tank. I don't
know how much bacteria can grow on one of those, but it's got to be
something. I also have a large bag of seachem carbon in the QT filter.
Your right about the water changes, it also helps to remove the free swimming
ich and the ich eggs. From now on I'm going to keep some kind of foam filter,
or filter material in my sump all the time to set up a QT quickly. I'd like to have one running full time. I just don't know where to keep it. There's not much room left in the apartment for another tank. Maybe I can build a T.V / Q.T stand

[ctxmonitor]

hey jthnhale, update us with all your new coral and tank!! Love it when I was there this last Sat. How did you get your rocks so green anyway?? Awesome!!

[jthnhale]

haha, that's called too much phosphate over the years, plus the lights make it look worse than it is. I just photographed all the new coral. I had to go old school and shoot film. I used my 645 pentax and some studio strobes, I hope it comes out. We'll see tomorrow.
I'm going to have the film scanned so I can post all the photos.

I need to do a proper ich update, but so far i have not seen any ich on the fish since they went in the hospital tank.

[joshsaul]

Lookin good!

[andynyc]

Wow look at that apartment... I can't imagine what the rent is on a place like that.

Oh and BTW, great looking tank.

[jthnhale]

thanks guy's,
compared to other citys the rent may be high, but for downtown new york it's market value. I try not to think about it, but for the price I could have a lot of sweet tanks set up, but they would have to be somewhere else.

[ToddG.]

I have a question about your main return pump the quiet one
6000 I have one on a closed loop and its the loudest piece of sh@! I own was wondering if yours made much noise. Thanks