Clevers 220g Reef Upgrade!

10897 Views 127 Replies 21 Participants Last post by Cleverbs, May 12, 2015

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2013

I had been planning a large reef tank for months last year i started planning and talking to people on this site about ideas. for a long time i planned on doing a 150g Cube SPS reef after I moved into a house. about 2 months before I moved I came across a 210g 7ft tank and stand from a guy. Turns out that the tank was so badly scratched I couldnt use it. However I had a nice stand so I decided to buy a 220g Tank instead of going with a cube. Also went LPS instead of SPS because I found myself loving LPS corals so much more then SPS over time. So enough of the rambling lets get the pictures out (sorry for low quality Iphone pics)

Lets start from the begging.

Here is the stand when I got it, It had great structure but was in terrible shape so I stripped the thing and took off all the trim and added new trim to it and painted it.

Coated it all in Kilz

You will see if finished painted later

Bought my skimmer and rock for the tank about a month before moving in so I could get it cycling in a trashcan for a while. The skimmer is a Reef Octopus DCS250

Got the tank moved into the house it was a PAIN almost broke it one time and the stand was so long that we had to remove a light fixture to get it down the steps lol

The first time the tank was wet.

Heres with the Live rock in it that had been cycling. I let it run like this for about 3 weeks before I moved the rock and livestock from my 75g that was at my parents house into it.

Put up my lights after I moved everything over. I decided to go with AI Hydras because they looked nice and would give me all the lighting I needed.

heres the tank about a week after adding all the Live rock in

So I was going to keep it BareBottom but just didnt like it that much the tank seemed like it was loosing a lot of depth and color pop from the lack of sand so I did what I swore I would never do again and added sand to the tank. Honestly I love it looks so much better and really brings out the coral. This is the tank as of today. As you will see i have been collecting a lot of coral.

Tank Stock includes
Marine Betta
Yellow Tang
Tomato and Cinnamon Clown
4" Yellow Watchman
Coral Beauty

Equipment
3x AI Hydras
Reef Octopus DCS250
Fluval 300W heater
Dont Remember what the return pump is lol
ReefKeeper Light Plus
2x WP40s
Dual BRS Reactor with carbon and GFO
5g ATO with Kalk dosing in it

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21 - 40 of 128 Posts

TrishW

· #21 · Nov 15, 2013

My Melanurus Wrasse ate 9 peppermint shrimp one day and the 10th one the next day. Less than a week later I realized that both my cleaner shrimp were gone without a trace, too. The peppermints only cost me a total of $25 but those two cleaners were $30 a piece. I have since banished the wrasse to the settling tank.

mahmoud

· #22 · Nov 15, 2013

TrishW said:
My Melanurus Wrasse ate 9 peppermint shrimp one day and the 10th one the next day. Less than a week later I realized that both my cleaner shrimp were gone without a trace, too. The peppermints only cost me a total of $25 but those two cleaners were $30 a piece. I have since banished the wrasse to the settling tank.

Poor him

Blackar7s

· #23 · Nov 16, 2013

Very nice. What's a gSP

TrishW

· #24 · Nov 16, 2013

GSP = green star polyp

Japonicus

· #25 · Nov 17, 2013

Very nice tank Clever. 1st thing that stands out is an applaudable
low stand, and one that has taken such a turn for the better. 100% better :thumbup:

Nice Naso, that thing really is fattened up.
The anthias will utilize most of the tank in a school or harem.
Going to be a great tank.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #26 · Nov 17, 2013

Japonicus said:
Very nice tank Clever. 1st thing that stands out is an applaudable
low stand, and one that has taken such a turn for the better. 100% better :thumbup:

Nice Naso, that thing really is fattened up.
The anthias will utilize most of the tank in a school or harem.
Going to be a great tank.

Thank you. I am very proud of my stand. It was a lot of work. I super days working on it and it was worth every minuite. Just did the same thing to a biocube stand last night. Thank god that was a three hour project.

Japonicus

· #27 · Nov 17, 2013

Haha I hate refinishing to the point I'd rather build new, but that stand
looks pretty well made. Good call on the scratched up 7' 210.
What are the dimensions of your 220 and floor to rim?

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #28 · Nov 17, 2013

Standard 220 72x24x30

From floor to rim it's 58.5" the stand was very well made. It's an old oceanic stand. It just needed new trim and to be sanded down and repainted.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #29 · Jan 21, 2014 (Edited)

Tanks doing very well. Corals are growing well and looking good. Tanks full o coralgasam and now have place to put anything new. I have a few spots left to add to my hammer and frog spawn collection. I am trying to find as many different color verities as I can.

Fish are doing well. I won't be adding much more other then a few more wrasses and a shoal of chromis maybe

Fish stock now. (I lost a lot to black Ick but the tank is now over it)

Full grown coral beauty
Blue side fairy wrasse male
Blue head fairy wrasse huge male 6"
Blue head wrasse
Green Coris wrasse
Spotted mandarin
Hippo tang 4"
Yellow tang 4"
Blond naso male 6" getting his streamers now
Pair of cinnamon clowns
Marine bettA

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Japonicus

· #30 · Jan 21, 2014

Sounds like it's all working well. Sorry about the ich.
Would love to see a pic of the Naso now

Alderwald

· #31 · Jan 21, 2014

Very nice tank! I also like the room its in......the fish watching room........

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #32 · Jan 24, 2014

Japonicus said:
Sounds like it's all working well. Sorry about the ich.
Would love to see a pic of the Naso now

I'll post a video soon of the tank. The naso has gotten so fat. Added my blue hippo he is getting along very well and all the tangs swim in a school together 90% of the time.

Japonicus

· #33 · Jan 25, 2014

Cleverbs said:
I'll post a video soon of the tank. The naso has gotten so fat. Added my blue hippo he is getting along very well and all the tangs swim in a school together 90% of the time.

Now that's awesome news. The guy I bought my reef from had 6 tangs in his 150, and they all got along just great.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #34 · Jan 30, 2014

Tank is happy I'm thinking I'm going to sell some of my Lps so that I can cover the top rocks in sps. I did some test runs with some sps frags and they are doing amazing. Growing well and having great extention. Going to get 4-5 nice size colonies let them grow an frag them over time to cover rock more. Trying to find a nice size red sps but it's not easy. Probably do a green, red, blue, purple, so I have a nice mix.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #35 · Feb 19, 2014

I had a bit of issue due to a fish that I QT'd and yet still bombed my tank with ich...so I am done with fish, I have the three tangs I like and honestly thats all i really care about for fish. I am a bigger fan of coral.

So fish stock is as follows:
Target Mandarin
BlueHead fairy Wrasse
Two Tomato Clowns
Marine Betta
Coral Beauty Angel
Blond Naso Male
Yellow Tang
Sailfin tang

I have been looking for a really large fish to put in the tank and today I found him. A 9.25" sailfin hes huge and looks great and really fills the tank out for fish and honestly thats all i really need.

heres updated pictures.

Some close ups of my favorite corals.

Heres a few acans I have about 10 different kinds

Bi Color Frog spawn with 16 heads

Picture doesnt do thise chalice justice - Red with Blue going through eyes and Gold growth Rim

Thats about it for new stuff.

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Shane the Reef Geek

· #36 · Feb 19, 2014

Nice pics clever. Things look well coral wise, sorry to hear about the ich situation.

And I gotta say, nice meat coral! :drool: Not many people are into them, but I'm a fan. :thumbup:

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #37 · Feb 19, 2014

I love them. They are so cool to watch eat and they are great looking IMO. Huge fan. Took me months to find a larger one. A guy actually got it for me from a supplier he has in Florida. The guy who got it for me has one that's probably 10" wide it's nuts.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #38 · Feb 25, 2014

tangs are all doing well and getting along. Im glad to see it worked out I thought It may beings the tang that was being introduced was so large compared to the others. its still always a gamble adding a new tang.

Japonicus

· #39 · Feb 25, 2014

should be spot on time for a pic of the Sailfin
Glad they're getting along. I really hate adding anything
most of all, fish.

Cleverbs

Discussion Starter · #40 · Feb 25, 2014

I hate adding fish. Coral in my tank always does amazing. I am the only person I know in person at least to keep a plate coral for more then a month. Iv never done anything special for them. I don't feed my corals. They all just seem to do well. Fish always cause issues however. Glad this one didn't.

I decided I'm going to get a pair of blue jaw triggers. Very excited for them to come in. Should be a nice addition to my reef. Still looking for some larger fish that arnt tangs.

21 - 40 of 128 Posts

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