Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[mikeo1210]

Melev-Have I seen you on TV before? Oh yea.. Extreme Makeover, right...

So.. when do the home owners get back? They're gonna love that new reef tank!

[melev]

mikeo1210, Good one!

So here's a picture of the tank from the front. As you can see, it is a tad bright in here:

[melev]

I know you guys like pictures, so here are some more.

Here is how I feed the Suncoral now. With the amount of fish in the tank, I can't do it any other way. It is funny, late at night if I feed the coral in darkness, the one guy that stands by waiting for a morsel is a Bangaii Cardinal of all things. He will stand guard and wait for however long it takes for me to lift the dome.



The Alveopora looks really nice in its new spot, but I've been told by others that they don't do so well in captivity. Time will tell.



The (new to me) Lawnmower Blenny is a real character. He swims right into the thick of it when the tangs are feeding, fighting to get his rightful share.



This was an easy macro shot of some Orange Zoanthids near the front of the glass.



The frag of Montipora hispida continues to hang in there, although the Mean Greens have laid siege to its territory.



This (possibly milleopora) frag is the only piece showing signs of bleaching since the move. It is completely bleached at the base, and working its way up the branches. I need to cut off some healthy tips and mount them to a new chunk of rock to see if it may survive.

[melev]

This is my Acropora Yongei (or Bali Slimer). I've had this coral for almost exactly one year. On 8/24/03 it looked like this:



Here it is today, 349 days later.



This is my Montipora foliosa. It is leaning a tad in this shot, but I adjusted it later to be level again.



This is the central peak. I'm looking forward to the new sump so that I'll be able to turn off the circulation pumps and have crystal clear water for some of these pictures. Keep in mind that I'd fed the tank an hour earlier, so the water tension was all out of whack and particulates were abundant. That's Tucker, by the way. He's going to make a full recovery.



This is a reef shot on the left. Not that exciting, but you can see the clams and a Cardinal



And a reefshot on the right side.

[Casie]

Look'n great, Melev!

[AnemicOak]

Very nice Marc, truly an inspiration.


~Brian

[melev]

Thank you both.

[spleen93]

Nice color and growth on that acro and monti, Marc!

Spleen

[hail_sniper]

wow, i take my previous statements back, you are a god!

personally i think it looks great as is and may not need more LR, but it is your tank, and your right the fish's give your tank alot of life do you plan to add a school of some sort (i think you can fit one in)

great tank! your an inspiration to noobies like me, showing us that with some hard work great things can be done in no time!

now you should get some rest and catch up on your sleep

[melev]

I'm going to have to update my website soon, with the new 280g as well as some comments about the former 29g & 55g.

[melev]

I do have a school of tangs. But I know what you mean. I could probably pull off some green or blue chromis, or perhaps those high dollar anthias I love so much. But they do tend to jump...

[hail_sniper]

still cant beleive after all the work you've been doing you have the energy to stay up this late... well i cant wait till you update but i didnt expect you to for some while with all the sumos you need to build....

[Kc189]

Marc your tank looks great I have been following this thread for awhile now (just after you moved the tank I tuned it sorry I wasnt there to help!! I just wanted to let you know I have been using the same APC for over a year and just two weeks ago it overloaded and will not restart! I looked it up on their website and heres what I found.


"APC's Back-UPS line is designed for use with Computer-type loads only. They are not designed to be used with motor loads such as fish filters, air conditioning units, space heaters, vacuum cleaners or any other machinery.

One potential issue is the inrush current draw for a motor. It can easily overload a Back-Ups UPS model. Secondly, these models of UPSs output a Stepped-Approximated sine wave when on battery. This waveshape, while ideal for computer-type equipment, is not particularly compatible with most motor loads. The result may be that motor runs very slowly, erratically, or not at all when the UPS is on battery.

To protect this type of equipment, APC recommends first determining the appropriate size UPS for the motor load in question. Ensure that the Volt Amp rating of the UPS is sufficient to handle the start-up inrush current draw of the motor. Secondly, select a UPS which outputs a Pure Sine Wave when on battery, such as a Smart-UPS (minimum of a SU700), Matrix-UPS, or Symmetra Power Array."

If there is anything I can do to help you with your tank let me know I am not all that far from you! Maybe I will even see you at the next meeting.

Keith C

[quiksilver]

Originally posted by melev
I do have a school of tangs. But I know what you mean. I could probably pull off some green or blue chromis, or perhaps those high dollar anthias I love so much. But they do tend to jump...

Marc the anthias could jump almost 7 feet across and still land in water!!! lol

[electric130]

Originally posted by quiksilver
Marc the anthias could jump almost 7 feet across and still land in water!!! lol

just better hope they don't jump forwards or backwards though

[quiksilver]

bah thats still like 3 feet or more lol

[hopkinkm]

nice work, I did a similar build for my 55 in wall, but the level or your craftsmanship drags my stand out into the street and taunts it.

gotta love those lawnmower blennies, mine is a character too. A face only a reefer could love and attitude to match.

kory

[johnnye]

Originally posted by melev

Skipper, good advice. I guess I'll need to make the change in the near future. Hey, I forgot to mention this last night... when I finally got the Ca Reactor working with the new regulator, I cleaned up the room of all the sundries of the projects. I picked up the 'frozen' regulator (that would not allow CO2 to pass), plugged it in, and "CLICK" - the darn thing finally worked! Oh well, I'll keep it as a back up now, but I won't reinstall it. That was very aggravating last night. Does anyone know what makes a solenoid stick? Vapor-lock?

Hey Marc, I saw your post on the newsgroups and spent the last 4 hours reading this thread

Solenoids use a coil wrapped around a cylindrical magnet thats housed in a metal jacket so it doesnt rub against the coil and so that no fluid leaks out. Sometimes grit gets caught behind or on the sides of the magnet causing it not to move. I used to work on huge Milnor washing machines that would have arrays of these things. These machines were some 20 years old so I got used to stuck solenoids. Its also possible that the spring (usually always made of steel, I havent taken apart any solenoids in the marine world yet though) has rusted and that is causing the grit. Take it apart and rinse with WD40, rub it with one of those steel pipe brushes if there is grit that doesnt come out.

[melev]

Kc189, our next meeting is at PetOrama in Hurst, where the former Planet Pet was. It is on Wednesday at 7pm and I'll be there. Thanks for the research on the battery backup, because Dolphin Pumps hasn't responded to my email so far. Too bad, I really would have liked the return pump on a battery backup. I'll have to shop around for the type you described to see if I can find a decent deal on one.

I can still use the current APC 1500 UPS for my Tunze Streams to keep current in the tank in the event that power does go out for a while. I should be able to run one Stream pump for 6 hours with it.

Evan, you need to be here to make sure the Anthias know which way to jump so they don't misjudge and hit the concrete.

hopkinkm, If you'll go to my site, check out my 55g. That is a better comparison and I promise to avoid taunting your set up in the future.

johnnye, thanks for checking out the thread. It's nice to read these straight through because you don't have to wait on the reefer to get around to the next step. It's already posted and ready for the reader. I'll see about what I can do to clean up the older regulator, and then keep it as a backup. I don't see the need to switch back since I have a brand new one, but it never hurts to have spare parts.


Speaking of spare parts...

Roger of Tunze gave me a call today to let me know the bad news about the Tunze Stream pumps that came with the tank. Originally, they worked great, but 8 months later, only 1 was limping along. After a lot of cleaning and testing, I finally got one to run using the "driver" that used to run the Tunze Turbelle on my 55g for the past 1.5 years. I shipped both of the drivers that came with the Stream pumps as well as one dead Stream pump, and Roger officially pronounced it dead.

The instructions clearly state to keep the driver in a dry location, and these were lying on the floor under the tank. I know that tank drained about 100 gallons at least one time due to the way it was originally plumbed. So that probably did the biggest damage, in that the driver was ruined and it created an arc that wiped out the pump as well. Roger's advice was to buy a new Stream and driver, costing at least $300 or more. On top of that, I'd have to find a vendor with any in stock.

As our conversation continued, I explained to him that I still had a working Turbelle, but it needed a driver to run it. It turns out I can take the power supply (19w) from the broken Stream, the cover grill, impellar and bracket and all of those will fit onto the Turbelle pump. So he's shipping me a new driver and my broken pump, and I'm going to covert my Turbelle into a Stream. The new driver will run a little less than $100, but that will get me back in action. Plus this driver is the updated one that will rotate the impellar one roatation every 20 seconds when the food button is pressed to keep fish out of the danger zone.

I also got a reply from Curt about my AquaController II. It was shipped out to him today, and should arrive on Friday of this week. He told me typical turn around time is 1 to 2 days, so maybe by the end of next week I'll be able to get that running on my tank.

It is unfortunate that these components were ruined, but that is why it is so important to keep your electronics off the floor and in a water-resistant to water-proof spot.

[rjwilson37]

Those are some great shots, I hope the Milleopora come through this.

[IBASSFSH]

http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/HARD...up_system.html

Here is a link to a site I have stored in my favorites, someday I will invest in one.

[melev]

Ibassfsh, I've seen those before. You are right, they are expensive. I do like how it is auto-switching, but it is only 500w and I'm still not sure how much the Ampmaster 4700 draws in wattage. When I look at the label on the pump, it has what appears to be an amperage rating, and if I look at the pump impellar section, that label is marked differently. I may have to take a couple of pictures, although as you can guess, they are not in a very photogenic location.

rjwilson, that frag RTN'd and 70% of it was bleached this morning. Within a few more hours, it was done. It is a shame, but I had to expect some of these corals would not handle the move. I had a fantastic acropora that grew double or maybe triple its size in my 29g in one year, but when I moved it 4" down and 5" to the right, within a week it was dead. Here's the link to that story:

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0903/loss.html

[nbd13]

hey first post in this thread, but if you want anthias just use some egg crate and cover the back of your canopy or you top! i just did it on my 180 i covered the back since i will be getting some wrasses which love to jump too! (maybe add a fairy wrasse to your tank!) it would look great in there,

but anywasy juts use egg crate works great easy to use! and will allow for air flow and light to go through! if ou have a closed canopy use it in the back if not you could lay it along the top! it should keep those anthias ( or wrasses if you go with one) in there!

hope this helps some!

Nick

[melev]

Thanks Nick!

[jun41]

What if a fish jumps out and gets burned on your Metal Halides? I don't think that you could really do anything about that unless you wanted to eggcrate or cover up your lights with something.

Just something that I've been thinking about.