Derek's Custom 180G SPS Reef Tank

[spyd]

That is a Majestic Angel. It has not nipped at anything in the tank, which I am very happy about!

 

[spyd]

Here are some additional pics of the tank, corals and livestock.

 

[unibob]

Awesome looking Spyd. Is that monster chalice shaded at all?

 

[spyd]

No shading. It is in full light. From my research, chalices can be very tough to acclimate to your lighting, but, once they have, they do just fine in higher light. At Reef Raft, it was in a tank w/ a 6 lamp T5 which is an identical setup as mine. More atinics in his fixture so I just backed off the length of time that my lights were on. It seems to be doing just fine and it is a very hardy chalice.

 

[Darryl_V]

Chalice which have been in captivity for a long time and especially captive raised chalices can take a decent amount of light but be very careful of wild chalices....ive bleached more than a few.

How does that angle do with your clams?  Haha sorry had to ask.  ;D

 

[Salty Cracker]

I've never seen rock and substrate so clean 

 

[spyd]

Chalice which have been in captivity for a long time and especially captive raised chalices can take a decent amount of light but be very careful of wild chalices....ive bleached more than a few.

How does that angle do with your clams?  Haha sorry had to ask.  ;D

Surprisingly, the angel has not nipped at my Ultra Maxima at all yet. It is still good and healthy at the moment! I still may take up your offer though of housing it for a while if need be. The Blue Squamosa, on the other hand, became a nice expensive treat for my Tuskfish the 3rd day he was in the tank.  :? Yup..... That meal cost me $150. Thanks for bringing up the bad memory! lol. I thought I supressed that one, but, I guess not.  ;D

 

[spyd]

I've never seen rock and substrate so clean 

It is extremely clean right now. I would say it is too clean. There is nothing for my Tangs to graze on whatsoever. I put  alot of nori in there to give them something to chew on. Also, I am trying some Macro feast just to keep them happy.

 

[Poseidon]

No shading. It is in full light. From my research, chalices can be very tough to acclimate to your lighting, but, once they have, they do just fine in higher light. At Reef Raft, it was in a tank w/ a 6 lamp T5 which is an identical setup as mine. More atinics in his fixture so I just backed off the length of time that my lights were on. It seems to be doing just fine and it is a very hardy chalice.

do u mind me asking how long your light is? 6ft  or 5ft?
thanks

 

[teebone110]

[quote author=Darryl_V link=topic=2295.msg26132#msg26132 date=1348189749]
Chalice which have been in captivity for a long time and especially captive raised chalices can take a decent amount of light but be very careful of wild chalices....ive bleached more than a few.

How does that angle do with your clams?  Haha sorry had to ask.  ;D

Surprisingly, the angel has not nipped at my Ultra Maxima at all yet. It is still good and healthy at the moment! I still may take up your offer though of housing it for a while if need be. The Blue Squamosa, on the other hand, became a nice expensive treat for my Tuskfish the 3rd day he was in the tank.  :? Yup..... That meal cost me $150. Thanks for bringing up the bad memory! lol. I thought I supressed that one, but, I guess not.  ;D
[/quote]

That tusk knows fine cuisine when he sees it! Sorry to hear about that. It didn't think Harlequin Tusks are known to eat clams?

 

[teebone110]

[quote author=teebone110 link=topic=2295.msg26079#msg26079 date=1348107067]
Also where did you get that Brute storage bin?
I need a new one. Have you tested it for phosphates?

I ordered the Brute containers online at U-Line. A little pricey, but they ship next day and you can select the colours. What size container are you looking for? I have 1 - 20G and 1 - 35G. I was going to keep one of them just to have on hand but willing to part with whichever one you would want. The 20G I used solely to mix SW for my old tank and the 35G was solely used as a RO resevoir. I never did test for phospahtes, however, I never had any real algae issues so I wouldn't imagine it was leaching anything really...
[/quote]

Thanks for the offer, I will keep you posted.

 

[spyd]

do u mind me asking how long your light is? 6ft  or 5ft?
thanks

It is a 5ft fixture. I like the fact that it does not cover the entire tank. It allows for some better placements for some of my LPS. 8 lamps x 80w ATI Sunpower fixture. Running all ATI lamps. 5 x AquaBlue Plus, 1 x Coral Plus, 1 x AquaBlue Special, 1 x Purple Plus.

 

[Poseidon]

where did you get it? ive been looking for something similar...

 

[spyd]

That tusk knows fine cuisine when he sees it! Sorry to hear about that. It didn't think Harlequin Tusks are known to eat clams?

Tell me about it!! I didn't think I would have an issue either. Darryl has one in his display with his clam. However, his clam is also 10 x the size mine was. When he was trying to get his Regal to eat, he was feeding live mussels that were roughly the same size of my clam. The Tuskfish strikes them hard I guess and cleans them right out. Mine was cleaned out completely. Not a trace was left behind.

 

[spyd]

where did you get it? ive been looking for something similar...

www.goreef.com

Mathieu is really good to deal with. They offer the units, complete with all the lamps. You can also talk to Bill at IA as he is an ATI distributor. All ways better to deal with someone local, if possible, in case of warranty issues.... Kind of hard to ship back a light fixture if something is wrong with it.... The only thing is Bill does not stock 80w bulbs as ATI does not provide him  replacements on that size if bulbs are damaged during shipping. Can't blame him for not stocking them with a deal like that.

 

[jroovers]

Wow, this is an awesome set-up.    I'm envious of the 180 tank size... if I had to do it again, I would have added an extra two square feet to my 120. 

 

[spyd]

I love the tank size. It is the max that I would go in all directions. Any deeper would be a nightmare to reach the substrate. Any longer, and I would not be able to clean the entire back side of the tank. Any wider and it would again, be hard to reach anything in the back, middle area of the tank. I keep bugging my wife that I want a bigger tank though... Solely for the purpose of driving her crazy...  ;D

 

[Duke]

This tank is looking amazing, whats that think sticking up out of the tank at the rear right side? a wavebox?

 

[robs fish]

Very nice tank and love the Bubble King TM.

 

[spyd]

Thanks guys. That is a Wavebox on the far right. Not sure if I am going to run it or not though. I wish I decided to move my one return line further away from the side of the tank so I could have put the wavebox in the back corner. Right now, I am stuck with it on middle of the side panel which is not the most asthetically pleasing....

I have been fighting off some phosphate issues recently as well. No problematic algae thankfully, but, my phosphates did reach .25ppm. So, I bumped up my bio-pellets and started running GFO / Carbon. My phosphates are now down to .06ppm so I hope to get rid of it completely within a weeks time. The phosphates caused some browning of some of my SPS but all the colours are starting to come back. Some have even come out better than I have ever seen them before. A few more weeks and everything should look 100% again.