110 SPS BB tank build - would LOVE help and suggestions!

[trueblackpercula]

I love the tank and everyting you have done. I to have a tank like yours. But is 30x30x31 deep. The only problem that i see with this tank is you better chose what goes on the bottom stays on the bottom. I have been having a hard time with the dept of my tank becuase it is very hard to reach the bottom. Even just simple maintenance to pick up the detritus is a problem for me. Other than that i just love a deep tank. I used a single 400 watt Se bulb and 150vho actincs on mine and it seems to be working very well. My tank is SPS only so if that helps any and have ???????? let me know. As for the micro bubbles they suck make sure you make every attempt to contaoin them now becuase later down the road its hard to start over. As for the filter bag i had one they work great but you need to clean this out almost every day or there will be build up and thats not good. Remember going BareBottom has rules that some forget including myself when i first started out. If you do not remove the detritus in the filter bag in can turn out to be nitrate or phospates in the long run. BareBottom tanks need high flow as someone called it once a pooploop
it must go down and out of the tank.
Michael

[naterealbig]

tbpercula: Thank you for the words. I'm 6'4" and have stretch arms, so reaching the bottom of the tank is not a problem for me right now - as none of what I have is grown out. I use a 1/2 in peice of pvc connected to a rubber hose to siphon detritus out of the tank which makes things easier. I have since siphoned out the bottom of the tank and it looks better. I plumbed the sump so that when I siphon, everything goes into the filter sock, which is switched out every one or two days. I really need to get in the habit of siphoning out crap on the bottom though, because I only did it on water change days with my last tank(every 2-3 weeks). I hear what your saying about flow. I have 4 koralia4's in there right now, and I'm waiting for the lfs that I work at to get 3 more in. The wholesalers are always out of stock. As for the micobubbles, I have had no problems with them at all - the filter sock handles bubbles from the drain, and my 2 baffles handle the ones from my G3. Thankyou for your insight and I hope you have more advice for me later. If I have any ?'s, I shoot you a pm if you don't mind.

I have since added a Sohal tang and a midas blennie to the tank, as well as all of my sps frags (still on an ugly shelf). Everything seems to be doing well so far, and I'll post a few pics of the tank and fish soon.

[Leonardo's Reef]

I think with the extra koralia's the detritus will not collect on the bottom anymore.
Personally, I think it's important to keep the detritus suspended in the water column (before it has been taken out by filter-sock/skimmer) because it provides some food for the SPS.
I noticed when I placed 2 extra nanostreams in the back to keep all the detritus suspended, my corals were much happier.

I love your rockwork but I have a suggestion maybe. If you take one rock on the left out, you have more space to place staghorns etc. and let them grow out nice before they reach the watersurface. But that's just me :P

Good luck!

btw, what bulb are you using?

Leonardo

[naterealbig]

Leo's Reef: I'm with you on the extra Koralias, and I am waiting to get 3 more. I also see what your saying about the rock on the left, although I'm going to have to think that one through. There are only 9 rocks total in the tank, so if I remove one, that will leave a lot of open space. As for the bulbs I'm using; I switched to reeflux 12,000k mh's from the current 10k's that came with the fixture, and to be honest, I am disappointed. On my 65 I had a single 250w Phoenix 14k and didn't realize how happy I was until I switched.

Here are a couple update pictures for you guys to enjoy. I'm not good with my S3IS yet, so this will have to do. Let me know what you think, and oh - can anyone guess what kind of angel that is?

[naterealbig]

[DarthOcellaris]

LOVE the work you've done!!!

I didn't fully read all the posts so this might be asked already....how's the external pump working for you? I had leaks galore when I tried that with my mag5 once.

Love the frag stand you made

keep it up!!!

[naterealbig]

Thanks so much darth! The external mag 9.5 is working out fine for now. I have hooked a couple of mags up externally and never had leaking. I never broke the seal on the pumps manifold however. I'm crossing my fingers still, as I have heard of this problem before. The frag stand is actually the one I had in my 65 with the back 2 legs removed. I also have what I call my "fragging station". Here's a pic, and again, thanks for the kind words.

[Leonardo's Reef]

Very nice, I really like the look of the tank. Now wait for the frags to grow out!

Leonardo

[DarthOcellaris]

Very clever little 'station' you made

[naterealbig]

DOcellaris: Thanks, I just hated trying to glue frags on a table or something. I spent too much time walking back and forth and I tried to figure out a way to keep the sps out of the water less. I came up with the idea, and what better way to build something than with pvc!?

Leo'sReef: Thanks for the kind words!

[reefermike1]

with your sump design it looks like the waterlevel would be hard to keep constant in the skimmer chamber? or do u run it as shallow as the lowest baffle before the return bulkhead? if youre running the waterline higher than that the water level will change with the whole sump(due to skimming and evap.) not just the return section. can be fixed by making the last baffle as tall as the waterline u want. other than that the tank looks great! what kind of skimmer do u have or are u getting? an mr2 would be awesome IMO

[naterealbig]

reefermike: your absolutely right about the sump design. I am planning on adding a float valve to the sump for a constant makeup source shortly. I designed the baffles the way I did in order to minimize micro bubbles getting into the return. I have built several sumps out of fish tanks and was constantly battling microbubbles in my return. I did the last baffle low so that there would be a minimum amount of splashing next to the return pump. Of course I traded this for a rather unstable sump level which I know affects the production of skimmate. Until the auto top-off is added, anyway. Right now I'm running an ASM G3 on the tank and it seems to be doing a pretty decent job - an MR2 would be nice though . Thank you for your compliments and suggestions!

Newest addition: Sorry the pics are not the best........

[Leonardo's Reef]

woow, awesome addition. Beautiful fish!

Leonardo

[naterealbig]

Beautiful fish for now...... This beauty has been in the tank for 3 days now and is not eating yet. I have tried almost everything you can think of to no avail so far. He has picked at almost everything that I put in, except for the live oysters, but not actually ingesting anything. He is large and fat, so hopefully he will pull through.

[PowerManJ316]

Hey man,
I've been following this thread for quite a while, without piping in. But I got a ? for you. I am in the process of building a 240gal BB tank with primarily SPS and aggressive reef fishes. Right now I have a miniatus grouper (awesome awesome fish), a purple tang, and a foxface in my 75gal. I noticed before that you have a Niger Trigger in with your Tridacnid clams. Did you ever have any trouble with him nipping at them? Do you always feed him consistantly? I have a 10" Gigas now that I've had for nearly 1.5 years, and I really want a Trigger, but am too scared he'll turn on my clam one day. What are your feelings on the situation???