Ya I thought about that last night its something I am planing on doing today
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Doc's Moveing on Up to the big time (sorta)
- Thread starter Jeremy Brito
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- 72 gallon bow new tank upgrade
The flood and the victory.
So great news the move to the 72 gallon bow was a big wet success. Starting last night the plumbing was assembled the sand bed was laid and the water I needed to make was made and put in the tank, this morning I moved the rock the coral and the fish plus the rest of the water, all with ease. When I finished I turned it all on and wal lah it works. There are some slight tune ups to be done to the sump chambers and the protien skimmer but over all its all in place. Tomorrow once the tanks settled some ill work on the rock scape, it was cloudy from all the movement today to see a good lay out.
So great news the move to the 72 gallon bow was a big wet success. Starting last night the plumbing was assembled the sand bed was laid and the water I needed to make was made and put in the tank, this morning I moved the rock the coral and the fish plus the rest of the water, all with ease. When I finished I turned it all on and wal lah it works. There are some slight tune ups to be done to the sump chambers and the protien skimmer but over all its all in place. Tomorrow once the tanks settled some ill work on the rock scape, it was cloudy from all the movement today to see a good lay out.
Thank you its been a long,time in the works
Hey guys been awhile since I posted in my tale of the tank section mainly cause a lot of things happened since the last time I posted here.
To start the tank in this thread the 72 gallon bow busted about 6 days after it was set up... YUP flood your house cracked and dumped its contents. The reason was physics and a engineering over site, I drilled the tank dead center of the over flow (mistake one) the center support (the cross beam in the top rim) was missing prior to me getting the tank but I didn't think much of it at the time, after filling the tank and testing the bulk heads moving the rock and letting it run a few days "CRACK" the glass busted right down the center of rear panel threw the bulk head hole.
what happened? well if you notice in most tanks that come reef ready (stock jobs) the overflow is never center but somewhat off set especially in bow fronts the reason for this turns out to be because the center of the rear panel in a bow front is the place in which the glass takes on the most force from the weight of the water, I weakened it by putting a hole in it. Secondly the center support was put there to stop the glass from flexing out wards under pressure, mine wasn't there so the combination of the weaken glass due to the hole and it being directly in the center of the area in which the glass takes the force plus the missing support allowed the glass to flex and crack. LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY
So what happened next? well I searched far and wide for a replacement and came across a listing for a 90 gallon Oceanic Bow front reef ready with stand and canopy for a great price. The tank took up the same foot print as the 72 gallon give or take a inch or so, this was acceptable for the wife so I broke the piggy bank and purchased it few days later I carried that beast of a tank like a ant carrying a water melon probably giving my self a hernia in the process into my house and began the set up. (ill post the pictures soon)
That tank is up and running now 6 months seems to be doing good the system is a huge change from my 40 there were lots of learning curves and trial and error but things are holding steady at the moment.. that is except for the fact that I am not happy.
I am just not happy with it, I cant pin point why but I believe something just isn't right. A few months ago I was fussing with the tank when @ecambero told me to just stop messing with it and let the tank find its balance, so I took his advice and left its alone and he was right things would find there balance and for the most part I guess they sorta did. But still I wasn't happy so the other day I was looking at some video of my 40 breeder a month before I took it apart the coral in the tank was drastically different looking then the coral in my current tank. Polyp extension was the biggest difference but really the coral just looked fuller and better in the 40 and its only kinda sealed my opinion that I need to fix something.
My water chemistry is spot on I have even taken it for a second opinion and it was confirmed that water chemistry is not the problem if anything the water in this tank is better then in the 40. My guess is the lighting but if its that It may be something I can fix if I can figure out the best way to set the lights settings and timer, if not I gotta try and find something better. It could be circulation but I don't think so, it could be filtration but then Id expect bad chemistry, the one current issue I know of is a fluctuation in salinity every couple of days due to evaporation but ive been on top of the top offs and have a ATO coming soon so that should be corrected.
I am at the point now were I am considering hosting a get together of people to help me figure out what I can do to improve my tank cause I am plum out of idea this may be something that's just above my current skill level or something simple I just keep over looking but right now I am pulling my hair out stressing about something I cant figure out
To start the tank in this thread the 72 gallon bow busted about 6 days after it was set up... YUP flood your house cracked and dumped its contents. The reason was physics and a engineering over site, I drilled the tank dead center of the over flow (mistake one) the center support (the cross beam in the top rim) was missing prior to me getting the tank but I didn't think much of it at the time, after filling the tank and testing the bulk heads moving the rock and letting it run a few days "CRACK" the glass busted right down the center of rear panel threw the bulk head hole.
what happened? well if you notice in most tanks that come reef ready (stock jobs) the overflow is never center but somewhat off set especially in bow fronts the reason for this turns out to be because the center of the rear panel in a bow front is the place in which the glass takes on the most force from the weight of the water, I weakened it by putting a hole in it. Secondly the center support was put there to stop the glass from flexing out wards under pressure, mine wasn't there so the combination of the weaken glass due to the hole and it being directly in the center of the area in which the glass takes the force plus the missing support allowed the glass to flex and crack. LESSON LEARNED THE HARD WAY
So what happened next? well I searched far and wide for a replacement and came across a listing for a 90 gallon Oceanic Bow front reef ready with stand and canopy for a great price. The tank took up the same foot print as the 72 gallon give or take a inch or so, this was acceptable for the wife so I broke the piggy bank and purchased it few days later I carried that beast of a tank like a ant carrying a water melon probably giving my self a hernia in the process into my house and began the set up. (ill post the pictures soon)
That tank is up and running now 6 months seems to be doing good the system is a huge change from my 40 there were lots of learning curves and trial and error but things are holding steady at the moment.. that is except for the fact that I am not happy.
I am just not happy with it, I cant pin point why but I believe something just isn't right. A few months ago I was fussing with the tank when @ecambero told me to just stop messing with it and let the tank find its balance, so I took his advice and left its alone and he was right things would find there balance and for the most part I guess they sorta did. But still I wasn't happy so the other day I was looking at some video of my 40 breeder a month before I took it apart the coral in the tank was drastically different looking then the coral in my current tank. Polyp extension was the biggest difference but really the coral just looked fuller and better in the 40 and its only kinda sealed my opinion that I need to fix something.
My water chemistry is spot on I have even taken it for a second opinion and it was confirmed that water chemistry is not the problem if anything the water in this tank is better then in the 40. My guess is the lighting but if its that It may be something I can fix if I can figure out the best way to set the lights settings and timer, if not I gotta try and find something better. It could be circulation but I don't think so, it could be filtration but then Id expect bad chemistry, the one current issue I know of is a fluctuation in salinity every couple of days due to evaporation but ive been on top of the top offs and have a ATO coming soon so that should be corrected.
I am at the point now were I am considering hosting a get together of people to help me figure out what I can do to improve my tank cause I am plum out of idea this may be something that's just above my current skill level or something simple I just keep over looking but right now I am pulling my hair out stressing about something I cant figure out
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I would pick up a ICP test to give you a better look at your water to see if there's any contaminants. But a ato will help alot with keeping the tank stable. Flow is just as important as lighting you should see the polyps whipping around in a random directions throughout the whole tank.
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Ive thought about doing a send in test I just cant afford it right now with other important things coming up, my flow is ok but I probably should increase it. I have some areas in the tank that are not standing still but just have light current, I think I new power head or wave maker could help the tank a lot. The lighting ive been thinking about adjusting but I am not sure just yet of the finialized plan as far as light mixture and intensity over a 24 hour period day and night cycle. That'll take some thinking ive watched a few youtube videos were a guy talks about how he set his up and his tank in,the video looks good but he has mostly softies and that ia not my plans for my tanks coral.
I guess ill keep looking. Sorry about the issue with spacing in the previous post I had it spaced when I wrote it but the forum cut out the space when it submitted
Ya @diana a i think another set of eyes going over my tank with me would be very helpful, I know there are plenty of others more experienced with coral that can probably look at the system and say change this or that and this right here needs to be different ECT its just fusterating the heck out of me to know I have a tank and system capable of growing advanced corals but when I add a frag or two of some of the easier ones I watch them struggle and then slowly die and yet I cant figure out what I am doing wrong.
@Mrx7899x I think ill look into the lux meter I realy want to tune in my lighting system to its optimum settings. I know the lights are capable of hosting a good environment for my corals its just a matter of getting the right balance of each of the 4 channels over the 24 hour period, like a good example was I bought a nice bright red zoa at rap when I put it in my tank my wife asked why I bought such a ugly frag.. It was the lighting I thought I had it set nicely turned out that alot of my corals didnt look like they should because the lighting wasnt balanced right. The lighting is a chinese black box special its not the easiest to program but ive become pretty good and tweaking and adjusting it I really just got find the balance
@Mrx7899x I think ill look into the lux meter I realy want to tune in my lighting system to its optimum settings. I know the lights are capable of hosting a good environment for my corals its just a matter of getting the right balance of each of the 4 channels over the 24 hour period, like a good example was I bought a nice bright red zoa at rap when I put it in my tank my wife asked why I bought such a ugly frag.. It was the lighting I thought I had it set nicely turned out that alot of my corals didnt look like they should because the lighting wasnt balanced right. The lighting is a chinese black box special its not the easiest to program but ive become pretty good and tweaking and adjusting it I really just got find the balance
Usually if you want more coral pop you run more blues. When I had my 50 gallon cube set up and had my rapid LED Corona Light on the tank which is a 6-channel adjustable light. I had blues at 50%, whites at 25%, violet 50% and red and green at 23%. And that produced nices colors and growth. If you haven't already you should read Ecotech Coral lab article about Spectrum and par it's a good read.
Ya I read up on that article it was very good. The lights I have are pretty high powered for being Chinese knock offs the problem I have which hopefully a lux meter will help is that the boxes are broken up into 4 channels Channel 1 being the 12K cool white with blue blended channel 2 being ultra violet and purple channel 3 being blue, royal blue, red and channel 4 being 18k white and royal blue. You can adjust them by percentage over a ramp timer but percentage doesn't tell you much about there out put as far as intensity and par so I do small tweaks as to not fry the coral.
UPDATE- so the Kessils @njtiger24 aquariums has lent me have been up for roughly a week now and all seems to be doing well, the other day i decided to finally roll up my sleeves and do some much needed aqua scape work. for the longest time i had been kinda bummed about my rock work being to plain and not to exciting but with the narrow deep tank fitting large amounts of rock really only left me 2 options either a long wall like structure or a towering type structure, but with the fear of a rock coming down and breaking the tank i went with the wall... it was blah so with the new lights in play it gave me the push needed to move some rocks and coral to better positions, i decided that most of the well established corals will cluster in the majority of the center this give a much fuller and colorful area of the tank and draws the eyes to something exciting verse the bland empty rock work with a few corals scattered about.
Over all the move went well not to much issues and the idea for coral placement came out great (ill post pictures shortly) how ever i under estimated the fragil hammer corals, one of my 2 colonys took a tumble during the move i replaced it but when doing so i felt a soft crunch on the edge of the skeleton with in a few days the 1 head returned to normal size but the other remained small and closed im really hopeing it recovers but at this point i am expecting the head to come off in a few days
Over all the move went well not to much issues and the idea for coral placement came out great (ill post pictures shortly) how ever i under estimated the fragil hammer corals, one of my 2 colonys took a tumble during the move i replaced it but when doing so i felt a soft crunch on the edge of the skeleton with in a few days the 1 head returned to normal size but the other remained small and closed im really hopeing it recovers but at this point i am expecting the head to come off in a few days
As promised a few pictures of the new layout sorry for the blue the photo is drowning in
That's cause its not a 40 breeder lol its a 92 bow frontis this a full tank shot? tank looks bigger than a 40b
