# Getting a 90



## cablemike

Im getting a new tank to replace my 55 Display tank.. My wife is buying it for my birthday.. im soooooooo excited.. We pick it up tomorrow night.. Guess what i'll be doing all weekend. Im so happy as my tank is so crowded and the extra space is gonna be awsome.. plus i will weed out what I dont want in there and put them in the new 28bow i started.


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## Sunstar

Wicked! I can't wait to see what you have in your new tank.


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## Katalyst

Did you get it yet? 



How about now? 



Okay, how about now?  


Kidding!

Can't wait to see some tank shots! Hurry up tomorrow!


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## cablemike

Katalyst said:


> Did you get it yet?
> 
> How about now?
> 
> Okay, how about now?
> 
> Kidding!
> 
> Can't wait to see some tank shots! Hurry up tomorrow!


Here's a pic of it waiting for me by the guys front door..


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## hojimoe

nice!!! are you going to drill it for a sump or run sumpless again?


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## cablemike

what do i need a sump for.. i dont care if you can see the filters in the tank.. and i certainly dont need more water volume.. my canister is 5,gallons of chemical filtration. live rock is bio filter.. skimmer is mechanical filter. why do i need a sump again?
my turtles tank is under my display anyways.


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## hojimoe

cablemike said:


> what do i need a sump for.. i dont care if you can see the filters in the tank.. and i certainly dont need more water volume.. my canister is 5,gallons of chemical filtration. live rock is bio filter.. skimmer is mechanical filter. why do i need a sump again?
> my turtles tank is under my display anyways.


what about a larger skimmer?


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## cablemike

too poor for one of them.. have to stick to the hang on back style.


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## cablemike

driving home with it now.. woohooo.


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## Ciddian

Yay! GRats!!!


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## cablemike

Got it home and called on my neighbourgh who said he would help me bring it in when i got home.. well he wasnt home.. I started to panic as this is my work van and i had to take all my tools out to make space for the tank.. i started to think i was gonna have to go to work with my tank and all my tools bouncing around in the back.. i could just imagine it getting smashed.. thankfully my fatherinlaw got out of bed and came over to help me bring it in.. Its brand new, the guy bought it from Big Als at boxing day and his wife said no way.. he already has two 120 gallon tanks.. so its been sitting in his front hallway since then.. it was listed on craigs list for 2 months and no one called him which is unbelievable because he was asking only $80.00.. yup thats correct.. only 80.00 for a brand new 90. less then a buck a gallon.


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## cablemike

what a day.. started at 10am and finished at 7:30pm.. got it all transfered out to the new tank.. but everything is just everwhere as it was so cloudy i couldnt see anything.. tomorow i have alot of work ahead of me.. the tank has a center brace and it right in the middle of my halides hotspot so i wont be able to have corals in the middle area that require alot of light. also my skimmers didnt fit on the tank as the lip is too think so i had to go get a new skimmer. im sooo tired but stressed out as its gonna take me days to get it back to looking decent.. its so freaking tall i need to use a two step ladder to reach the bottom.
i think i would have liked a 75 better but too late now.. atleast my corals have alot of space to grow. I think im gonna have to find another used 175w metal halide unit as i dont think the one will do.. if i turn off the t5's i dont see it to be too bright as the center brace is blocking the main light beam.


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## xr8dride

I have a 90 as well and couldn't help but laugh when you said you needed a step ladder to reach the bottom...I too do the same thing as the top of my tank sits at 5" with a canopy on it. It's will be well worth it once you have it all up and running, the fish in it, etc...I have hardly turned on the tv since getting mine, too fascinated by the fish and all the room they have to swim around in. 
As for the skimmer you have, could you not make a DIY bracket to fit the lip?


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## cablemike

xr8dride said:


> As for the skimmer you have, could you not make a DIY bracket to fit the lip?


no i couldnt because it wouldnt sit low enough in the tank to get primed.. stupid design.


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## cablemike

ok so its time for an update.. I ended up buying a Prizm Pro skimmer and am very impressed with it.. it pulls out so much more then my old skimmers.. and the stuff stinks soooo bad too which i never experienced with the old skimmers.. i took a few of my corals and put them in my 28 gal so i could sell it for a decent price as i needed money for a new 175w ballast which has been ordered from Chris at Under The C. The single 175 i have just cant cover this tank so the two will be enought plus the 100 watts of T5ho i have and optional 130watts of pc's.. i doubt i will use the pc's though.. i just cant stand the yellow of 10k's anymore. so my tank looks a little bare compared to before but 95 precent of the corals are there just spread out over all the space i now have.. compare the green brain in the 55 to the 90.. look how puny it looks now. plus the corals havent fully expanded yet either.

Old 55 Gallon.









New 90 Gallon.


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## Brian

Lovely.

What's that green thing on the bottom right hand corner?


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## cablemike

Brian said:


> Lovely.
> 
> What's that green thing on the bottom right hand corner?


thats my open brain coral.. see how small it looks in the new tank compared to before in my old tank.


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## Brian

Ohhh, awesome.

Yeah, the new tank looks good though, the old one looks amazing too but a little cramped.

At least now you have an excuse to buy more corals 

Would open brain corals be hard to keep in a nano?


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## cablemike

Brian said:


> Ohhh, awesome.
> 
> Yeah, the new tank looks good though, the old one looks amazing too but a little cramped.
> 
> At least now you have an excuse to buy more corals
> 
> Would open brain corals be hard to keep in a nano?


not at all.. its one of the easiest lps corals you can keep.. but they can get large.. mine is about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide now.. and there only like 30 dollars..


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## Brian

Awesome... I like the sound of that, haha.

What are your plans now for the 90?

I need to get rid of some of my corals to make space for new stuff now. If I put anything near GSP, would it take over the other corals and kill them?


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## cablemike

Brian said:


> Awesome... I like the sound of that, haha.
> 
> What are your plans now for the 90?
> 
> I need to get rid of some of my corals to make space for new stuff now. If I put anything near GSP, would it take over the other corals and kill them?


Green star polyps have a bad habit of overgrowingother corals so i wouldnt place anyting next to it. and send me pics of corals you want to get rid of.


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## Brian

Okay, thanks.

You already have the corals I want to get rid of 

Just want to move out a few colonies of candy cane corals and some monti caps and a giant frogspawn.


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## cablemike

Brian said:


> Awesome... I like the sound of that, haha.
> 
> What are your plans now for the 90?


I havent even thought about it yet, im so worried about the lighting and i have a new unit on order but see a few sps showing browning and tissue recession. Just hope they make it until the new light comes in. I wont be adding to much more as there is tons in there and now my plan is to watch them grow and fill in..

i actually got about 30 frags over the last few weeks but there so small you cant even see them in the pics.. but they will grow and it will be so loaded and crowded. I may get some corals for the bottom as i got rid of my tongue coral and now i have so much floor space then my 55. Ive always wanted a long tentacle plate coral.. also want to try a bubble coral again.. ive spent the last three days messing with my powerheads to get the right flow in the right places.. i think i finally got it right.

I have about 1800gph of total flow in there now so that like 20x turnover per hour. Ever since i did the tank upgrade ive had a scum on the surface and with all the pumps blasting at the surface its still there.. and i have a surface skimmer on my protein skimmer and it still wont go away.. I think im gonna have to try paper towels.


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## cablemike

I finally got my lighting and thank God too. as you can see in my pics my acros are all turning brown but they should recover to there original colour shortly I hope, but my tank sure doesnt look as packed as when all this was in my 55.. but now there is lots of room for it to all grow.


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## UnderTheSea

Nice colors in your tank, nice lighting  

I think you need a bigger tank


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## cablemike

UnderTheSea said:


> Nice colors in your tank, nice lighting
> 
> I think you need a bigger tank


Well the colours are all due too the awsome reefoptics metal halide bulbs im running which i got from this great guy Chris, he has this company called Under The C.. Awsome prices too.. And I think I will wait a year before the next tank.. This is only my third upgrade in the last year. I think i will actually give the corals time to grow out of this tank. well, atleats a couple inches more growth..


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## ScubaTurtle

How much live rock do you have in there and chemical filtration do you have in your filter?


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## Brian

Nice shots, Mike.

Are the yellow polyp things Sun Corals?


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## cablemike

ScubaTurtle said:


> How much live rock do you have in there and chemical filtration do you have in your filter?


not sure how much lr i have. upgraded 3 times and keep buying more. i use just carbon in my canister filte


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## cablemike

Brian said:


> Nice shots, Mike.
> 
> Are the yellow polyp things Sun Corals?


yes that my suncoral.


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## tropicalfishlover1220

^ wow how do you get them to open during the day? Mine won't open even after lights out unless I shove food in front of their faces...


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## cablemike

tropicalfishlover1220 said:


> ^ wow how do you get them to open during the day? Mine won't open even after lights out unless I shove food in front of their faces...


i told it i was taking its picture, heh.. no i feed it in the evening so around 7pm it opens up for food.


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## cablemike

My tank in its ugliest state ever with a major diatom bloom. But I finally got my corals placed how i want them and there doing awesome.


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## conix67

Looks awesome. You move up to 90G and there's still not enough room for corals!


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## cablemike

trust me theres lots of room.. if you can see rock then there's space.. and dont forget about all that realestate on that sand bed.. I can see and elegance coral, bubble coral, torch coral, and bubbletip anemone there cant you? and lets not forget the acans.


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## Sunstar

Lets see....what do I want?


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## cablemike

its funny looking at my original tank.. i was so proud of it too.. but i used to dream about having a tank like i do now.. like the ones i used to drool over on reefcentral.. once my corals grow up it will be like those as long as disaster doesnt strike first (knocking on wood) ..

When I first started getting serious, i upgraded from a 20g to this 33..

33 gallon Dec 2007 









33 gallon June 2008 









33 gallon Nov 2008 









upgraded to 55 gallon nov 2008 









55 gal jan 15 2009 - added more rock and some sps









55 gallon feb 4 2009 - added suncoral and coral growth is out of control. 









Sold big leather, took tank in a different directions.

Feb 23 2009









Mar 11 2009









Upgraded to 90gallon

Apr 8 2009










finally have corals arranged as i like, growth has taken off and so has the diatom bloom.

April 24 2009


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## cablemike

I havent posted any pics in a while so here's some eye candy for ya.


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## Tropicana

wow lol Nice pictures of the progress looks amazing .


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## cablemike




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## Brian

Very nice, Mike. You must be very happy


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## cablemike

hehe, sad as it sounds im never happy with my tank.. i always want more..


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## Brian

Its like that for all of us. I'm neither happy with my tank or my bike... so many modifications... so little money


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## Ciddian

wonderful stuff there mike..


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## Doctor T

Very nice!


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## cablemike

Been a while since i posted any updates.. the upgrade to the 90 has not been as smooth as I had hoped.. ive had algae blooms and red slime issues. Ive added 50 more pounds of live rock and 40 pounds more sand.. growth has been ok but seems to be picking up lately as i have increased water changes to twice a week.. I finally stopped buying corals and decided i need to focus on maintaining it as i think i have enough and as they grow its gonna become packed.


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## KnaveTO

Looking good. As an FYI take a look at the October 09 Issue of TFH, there are some good articles in there. If you want to see awesome take a look at the Show off Your Tank forum over at Aquariumfans.ca, gives us all something to aspire to!


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## cablemike

KnaveTO said:


> Looking good. As an FYI take a look at the October 09 Issue of TFH,


TFH? i don't know the abbreviation..


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## KnaveTO

cablemike said:


> TFH? i don't know the abbreviation..


Tropical Fish Hobbiest Magazine


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## conix67

cablemike said:


> Been a while since i posted any updates.. the upgrade to the 90 has not been as smooth as I had hoped.. ive had algae blooms and red slime issues. Ive added 50 more pounds of live rock and 40 pounds more sand.. growth has been ok but seems to be picking up lately as i have increased water changes to twice a week.. I finally stopped buying corals and decided i need to focus on maintaining it as i think i have enough and as they grow its gonna become packed.


Looks good as always! I'm sure those little problems you have will just disappear soon.


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## cablemike

water seems to be maturing and new coral growth is visible daily. I still have algae blooms. some new pics , you can see the growth. Pics= T5's only , halides off. Less shadows.


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## ameekplec.

Looking good there Mike.

Those are some huge mushrooms.


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## conix67

Yeah, nice as always... thanks for the cool pics!

Very cool background too! I'm so tempted too...


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## Sunstar

that backgrtound really adds depth.


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## cablemike

ameekplec. said:


> Looking good there Mike.
> 
> Those are some huge mushrooms.


the big green hairy mushroom is about 8 inches across.. the guy i got it from said his was the size of a dinner plate.


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## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Yeah, nice as always... thanks for the cool pics!
> 
> Very cool background too! I'm so tempted too...


yeah i seen the background in some other tanks pics and fell in love with it. but it only comes a maximum of 20 inches and the tank in 26 inches tall so my old blue background is behind it to cover the bottom but all the live rock hides it anyways.. but you have a 75 and it would be a perfect fit.


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## cablemike

Sunstar said:


> that backgrtound really adds depth.


yeah i love it.. had to get it.. more life like then just blue and the metal halide shimmer makes it look like its moving from a distance.


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## cablemike

i still got to sea u marine atleast once a week but i never buy anything, ive come to realize there simply is no more space.. but now i get to watch them grow and just enjoy it.. i need to get more cleaning crew though to help keep it clean.. i have like 6 hermits and 9 snails which is no where near enough for a 90 but everytime i would go to a fish store i would add up the price of crabs/snails and just buy a coral instead.. greedy.. but since i cant add more corals i can get all kinds of cool creep crawlies now.


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## KnaveTO

Those creepy crawlies are just as much fun as everything else in the tank.


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## cablemike

This is where my tank has come from in 6 months.

April 2009










September 2009


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## cablemike

Sump coming soon.. I built myself an overflow box a couple of weekends back and finally got around to testing/tweaking it.. I'm currently using 2 small tanks to test it out and it seems to be working great.. Tonight i'm gonna add the baffles to the 37 gallon which will become my sump.. After a couple of days to cure i will have pictures of the complete setup running.


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## ameekplec.

Nice!! You're finally sumping it 

Do you have an automatic top off? If you don't that'll surely be next on your list of items to get


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## cablemike

yeah an ATO is on the list.. I have it at the point where I want it to take care of it self.. I will be adding about 25 extra gallon with the sump.. It is a 37 gallon but i want plenty of space in the sump for disasters to be avoided.. the return chamber will only hold about two gallons just in case the power goes out and the overflow uses prime, the most that will be added is two gallons.. only thing im wondering is how i will be able to tell how much is evaporating in the sump? How do you determin? which chamber will show the lower water level? Water in or return chamber? or fuge?


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## cablemike

this is the experimental setup running.. i made the overflow out of 1/4 inch acrylic.


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## Doctor T

Looks good! Looking forward to see how it all turns out.



cablemike said:


> yeah an ATO is on the list.. I have it at the point where I want it to take care of it self.. I will be adding about 25 extra gallon with the sump.. It is a 37 gallon but i want plenty of space in the sump for disasters to be avoided.. the return chamber will only hold about two gallons just in case the power goes out and the overflow uses prime, the most that will be added is two gallons.. only thing im wondering is how i will be able to tell how much is evaporating in the sump? How do you determin? which chamber will show the lower water level? Water in or return chamber? or fuge?


In my sump, I see the evaporation lower the level in my return chamber.


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## ameekplec.

Evaporation always shows up in the return chamber as every other chamber always has the same height as they flow into the next chamber, so they have to be filled to the same height regardless of the volume of the whole system.


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## cablemike

so i guess i will have to mark a line on the return section to indicate the full mark so i can see the evaporation


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## conix67

Good going! Nice DIY on overflow!

These are my comments -

1. if you're going to have refugium section in the sump, make sure you divded up the sump into 3 distinctive sections - drain/skimmer, return, refugium. You want the return pump be sitting in its own compartment. This is where you'll see the evaporation as well, so your ATO sensors need to be mounted in the return pump compartment.

2. Your drain line looks like same size as return, I suggest using larger hose/pipe for drain.

3. The intake to the overflow box should be guarded with something, like you see in many commercial designs (plate with decent size teeth cut).

4. You want to make sure when power goes out, the sump does not overflow (return line should have anti-siphon hole cut close to the nozzle), and when the power comes back, the DT does not overflow (continuous siphon overflow restarts properly)


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## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Good going! Nice DIY on overflow!
> 
> These are my comments -
> 
> 1. if you're going to have refugium section in the sump, make sure you divded up the sump into 3 distinctive sections - drain/skimmer, return, refugium. You want the return pump be sitting in its own compartment. This is where you'll see the evaporation as well, so your ATO sensors need to be mounted in the return pump compartment.
> The plan is the drain section will be 12x12, refuge 18x12 , and return 6x12.
> 
> 2. Your drain line looks like same size as return, I suggest using larger hose/pipe for drain.
> actually the drain is one inch and return is 3/4 inch.
> 
> 3. The intake to the overflow box should be guarded with something, like you see in many commercial designs (plate with decent size teeth cut).
> i still have to take the saw to it to cut the teeth.
> 
> 4. You want to make sure when power goes out, the sump does not overflow (return line should have anti-siphon hole cut close to the nozzle), and when the power comes back, the DT does not overflow (continuous siphon overflow restarts properly)


there is a hole right below the waters surface so only about a gallon bacl flows before air enters and it looses vachume.. the overflow should always maintain prime as the is a aIr line in the top of the u running to a powerhead venturi to remove air buildup but i still dont trust these things hehe..
$$$¢¢¢


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## conix67

Yeah, I met many people who have used the continuous siphon overflow without incidents for many years, but I'm still not very comfortable with it. 

You don't have much choice anyway, unless you're willing to take apart your 90G setup to drill a hole (maybe you can drill a hole on the side, with enough water in the 90G to let things run normally for few days).

Besides, even if disaster occurs somehow, it won't destroy the flooring as your tank is sitting in the basement.


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## Doctor T

cablemike said:


> actually the drain is one inch and return is 3/4 inch.


I'd suggest a 1.5" drain as it would be less likely to clog (spell: disaster) than 1". 1" drain is usually only recommended for nanos.


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## cablemike

Doctor T said:


> I'd suggest a 1.5" drain as it would be less likely to clog (spell: disaster) than 1". 1" drain is usually only recommended for nanos.


only one problem with that , my return pump is only rated for 450gph .. its from my pond.. and im planning on putting a screen over the intake as i know my chromis's will end up in there.. i found two of them dried up behind my stand tonight. So i'm counting on that preventing anything from clogging it.. the u in the overflow is only half inch so nothing bigger can make it through anyways.


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## Doctor T

cablemike said:


> only one problem with that , my return pump is only rated for 450gph .. its from my pond.. and im planning on putting a screen over the intake as i know my chromis's will end up in there.. i found two of them dried up behind my stand tonight. So i'm counting on that preventing anything from clogging it.. the u in the overflow is only half inch so nothing bigger can make it through anyways.


I see. The 1/2" u in the concerns me a bit for the same clogging issue, (even with the screen) but then I don't have any experience with such. Sorry for your losses.


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## cablemike

Well Ive had the sump running for 3 days and its working great.. The gurgling sound is something to be desired.. ive made a silencer but its still noticable. I didnt realize that the flake food would all go down the drain so now i have to shut off the sump at feeding time.. gonna have to wire a switch so i dont have to go behind the stand to unplug it every time.. I will be posting pics soon..


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## ameekplec.

Mike, are you running a Durso or Stockman standpipe in your drain? That should stop the gurgling sound up there.


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## conix67

cablemike said:


> Well Ive had the sump running for 3 days and its working great.. The gurgling sound is something to be desired.. ive made a silencer but its still noticable. I didnt realize that the flake food would all go down the drain so now i have to shut off the sump at feeding time.. gonna have to wire a switch so i dont have to go behind the stand to unplug it every time.. I will be posting pics soon..


Normally you want to stop the return pump for few minutes during the feeding anyway, so that food stays in the display tank for fishes/inverts to consume them. Once they go down the drain, they could be filtered (if you have mechanical filters), trapped or extracted (skimmer).

You'd definitely want to bring out a separate switch for the return pump.

I use Reek Keeper Lite's standby function. It's great. You might want to consider getting one in the future, it's relatively affordable too (I got level 1)

Anyway, one thing you can do with flake food is, if you don't mind getting your hand wet, is to submerge them with your hand. Once they are submerged, they don't float back up to surface.


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## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Normally you want to stop the return pump for few minutes during the feeding anyway, so that food stays in the display tank for fishes/inverts to consume them. Once they go down the drain, they could be filtered (if you have mechanical filters), trapped or extracted (skimmer).
> 
> You'd definitely want to bring out a separate switch for the return pump.
> 
> I use Reek Keeper Lite's standby function. It's great. You might want to consider getting one in the future, it's relatively affordable too (I got level 1)
> 
> Anyway, one thing you can do with flake food is, if you don't mind getting your hand wet, is to submerge them with your hand. Once they are submerged, they don't float back up to surface.


Yeah im just unplugging it for now during feeding. I did actually presoak the food in a container of water but i have so much current from my powerheads that it goes up and down and my overflow has so much suction it draws is in.. And when it gets into the sump im screwed because one it hits the fuge it just stops and settles to the bottom.. i need to grab some of my hermits and throw em down there still. Only thin in the fuge is a ball of cheato.


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## cablemike

ameekplec. said:


> Mike, are you running a Durso or Stockman standpipe in your drain? That should stop the gurgling sound up there.


i made a Durso style unit and its fairly quiet but not silent.


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## cablemike

Pics...

ok here its the sump i made from the 37 gallon which used to be home to our turtle.










Funny thing is this was my old reef tank three tanks ago ..










This is the DIY overflow box I made with lid from an aquaclear filter and running a Tom Aqualifter to remove air from the U tube assuring it will always stay primed.










My sorta durso silencer.










Shot of Tank with Sump.










Some shot of my acros that are starting to show growth and colour changes though you really cant see it in the pictures..




























And this little guy who i picked up from Big Als a couple weeks ago. man has he ever done a great job of cleaning up the substrate..










as you can see its almost clean but the clown who live in the open brain in the right corner wont let him near there home to clean the gravel..


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## cablemike

I find this very interesting, I went from loosing 2 gallons a day to evaporation to 2 gallons over a three day period.. i figured it would be more as there is way more surface motion now.. and my tank temp is at a steady 78.8 now where it used to go up to 84 and drop to 78 at night.


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## conix67

I lose about 5 gallons in 4 days. With more surface area and water movement, you'd probably lose more water, but it will also depend on current humidity level in the room. Sounds too good to be true, but if it stays that way, that would be awesome!

Good to hear the temp is more stable now!

By the way, everything looks good in the tank. The growth on those acros are nice too.


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## hojimoe

looking great mike, I used to go through about 6 gallons a week, now I just added 30g more to my system in form of another refugium...... I plan that I will go upto almost 10g a week...but I'll see..only been 3 days


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## cablemike

conix67 said:


> I lose about 5 gallons in 4 days. With more surface area and water movement, you'd probably lose more water, but it will also depend on current humidity level in the room. Sounds too good to be true, but if it stays that way, that would be awesome!
> 
> Good to hear the temp is more stable now!
> 
> By the way, everything looks good in the tank. The growth on those acros are nice too.


yeah i know its strange, but the furnace is on so maybe the house is drying up reducing the humidity..


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## Doctor T

Looks great and glad to hear the sump is working out well for you.


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## cablemike

I put some corals up for sell in the buy and sell section.. trades are also welcome..


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## cablemike

added another large collection of corals in the buy and sell section..


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## cablemike

well i sold all the corals i had for sale and the right side of the tank looks a little bare but i needed a skimmer and didnt have the cash so something had to go. the sad part is after i sold the corals i had an offer of frags for a berlin skimmer.. i made the trade and it works great.. and i used the cash from the corals sold to buy stuff for my new truck. so it all worked out in the end. i will post pics soon. the growth on my sps is nuts since i got rid of most of my softies.. and there all coloring up nicely.


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## bjthebuilder

Glad to hear the skimmer is working well for you mike.....

The frags are looking good.


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## cablemike

stupid pump on my skimmer died and i was laid off a couple weeks back so were strapped for cash and i dont know what im gonna do.. if anyone has a spare pump lying around that pumps 700gph or more please help a fellow reefer out who has so much to loose and sell it to me for a good price please.. im having a breakdown here. or if someone could lend me one for a few weeks until i find a new job it would be great.. i would also trade for frags from my tank.


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## ameekplec.

Mike, I have a Mag 9.5 lying around here, but I haven't set up the tank to run it on yet (2 -3 months in the future still...). If you want to use it for a while, you're welcome to it.

One catch though is you have to come get it.


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## conix67

I got a Mag 5, haven't tested for a while, but if it works and suits your need, I can lend it to you for a while.


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## cablemike

as requested and updated full tank shot.


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## Doctor T

Looks good Mike. Sorry to hear about your troubles. I have a Red Sea Berlin X2 Turbo skimmer, the pumps needs to be primed manually, but you're certainly free to borrow it if you need to.


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## cablemike

well i got a pump today from a guy for 50.00 and its the actual berlin x2 pump which is worth 190.00 so im happy.. within 2 hours i already have 2 inches of crap in my collection cup.


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## ameekplec.

Good to hear Mike


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## Big Ray

cablemike said:


> as requested and updated full tank shot.


Wow nice tank. either u have a very good camera or that tank is extra clean


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## cablemike

actually its both.. i have a old nikon 2.1 megapixel camera but its a digital slr so as old as it is it takes incredible shots.. the use of the tripod makes all the difference also.. and i actually cleaned it before i took the picture.. who wants to see a dirty tank.


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## UnderTheSea

Tank is looking great Mike !!!


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## Big Ray

cablemike said:


> actually its both.. i have a old nikon 2.1 megapixel camera but its a digital slr so as old as it is it takes incredible shots.. the use of the tripod makes all the difference also.. and i actually cleaned it before i took the picture.. who wants to see a dirty tank.


hmm good point, the tripod, I keep taking pics and it looks nothing like what the tank looks like, guess my hands shake too much, thanks


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## cablemike

Well one of my lights blew and as my luck has it i was laid off a few weeks back and were struggling as it is. If anyone has a spare bulb they could part with for cheap or even a used bulb that still has some life left in it I would be most gracious. color spectrum is not too important to me at this point.


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## cablemike

Well ive returned to work, and replaced my bulb and my tank is recovering but my acros are still quite brown but colour is returning to their tips. So i decided to take a whack of pics to show my tanks progress. Hope you enjoy.

I hope you can make out my spotted puffer, its a brackish fish but i got it from big als, someone traded him in after they converted him to full salt,, he is doing great and he is so damn cute.

And the yellow wrasse is is nightmare to photograph as he wont stand still but i tried my best.


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## ameekplec.

Tank's looking pretty great Mike! Great to hear you're back to work


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## cablemike

thanks dude.. some of them corals are from you eh like that huge monti behind the blue tang, you gave me a quarter sized frag and now its eight inches across... check this out .. one year ago and now..


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## UnderTheSea

Really nice tank Mike


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## dl88dl

Beautiful setup...what a different a year make...thanks for sharing
BTW, how big is that spotted puffer?


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## cablemike

dl88dl said:


> Beautiful setup...what a different a year make...thanks for sharing
> BTW, how big is that spotted puffer?


he is still pretty small, about 2 inches.. but damn is he ever cute.. and what a pig, when i feed the tank he eats so much he doubles in width..


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## Windowlicka

Really nice tank. Great pics too!

(I'll be keeping an eye out for your "frags for sale" posts, Mike!)


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## cablemike

Windowlicka said:


> Really nice tank. Great pics too!
> 
> (I'll be keeping an eye out for your "frags for sale" posts, Mike!)


i would sell frags but i would prefer to trade frags for other corals i dont already have.
anyone interested? anything catch your eye?


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## ryno1974

Your tank is awsome. Great work in laying it out and maintaining it. I have been thinking about doing a salt tank for awile, and if I could get a guarantee that I could get mine looking like that I would be starting it today!

Keep the pics coming.


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## cablemike

ryno1974 said:


> Your tank is awsome. Great work in laying it out and maintaining it. I have been thinking about doing a salt tank for awile, and if I could get a guarantee that I could get mine looking like that I would be starting it today!
> 
> Keep the pics coming.


Well my wife can tell you about the time ive put into this tank , she has endured many a lonely night to this tank.. but now its gone from obsession to enjoyment.. i cant add anything else as its already crowded and the corals keep growing as well as my fish so now its just maintenance. I love it very much, and the hydro company loves me too.


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## cablemike

posted a bunch of frags in the buy and sell if anyone is interested, thought i would just let ya know here as i my self never check here for salt water stuff.


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## cablemike

im having a big problem and need advice.. my dkh in my tank keeps dropping to 5.. i use buffers and it hits 7 then back down to five by the following day.. my substrate is clumping up causing bacterial death and a nitrate rise.. i have done two 20 gallon changes over the weekend and my nitrate went from 40 to 20 ppm and dkh went from 5 to 7 but i know its going to be back to 5 when i get home tonight. calcium is steady at 440. any idea as to why this is happening?


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## ameekplec.

What's your Mg?


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## cablemike

i dont have a mag test.


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## ameekplec.

take a sample into the LFS and see if they'll do a Mg test for you. I can't remember 100%, but I'm pretty sure an imbalanced Mg/Ca can cause chunking of substrate - which will deplete your Alk as well.


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## cablemike

thanks for the quick response.. only thing ive changed about my system is i got a ro unit a couple weeks ago.. cant see that causing a problem.. and all the water i changed should have replenished the magnesium right? i cahnged 40 gallons over two days.. i believe my actual total water volume is 80 + gallons so i basically changed half..


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## conix67

cablemike said:


> thanks for the quick response.. only thing ive changed about my system is i got a ro unit a couple weeks ago.. cant see that causing a problem.. and all the water i changed should have replenished the magnesium right? i cahnged 40 gallons over two days.. i believe my actual total water volume is 80 + gallons so i basically changed half..


That's not guaranteed, and is largely affected by your salt mix. If what Ameek says is possibility, I'd check Mg level right away, both your tank water and your new salt mix water.


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## cablemike

went to BigAls on lunch break, no mag test in stock.. will check the one in whitby tonight when i get home.. can this lead to a tank crash? why after all these years is this starting now?


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## ameekplec.

Tap water has some Mg and Ca in it already - so maybe before RO, you were boosting your levels just enough with the Mg/Ca already in the tap water. Now with RO, you're missing that extra bit (along with all the undesireable phosphates and silicates), so it might need to be supplemented.


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## cablemike

well i know there is alot of stuff missing as ive only made about 100 gallons of water on the ro unit so far and the one micron cartrige has already gone from pure white to a caramel color.. my wife dont want to drink the tap water anymore after seeing that. i use instant ocean salt as i always have.. i know its not the best but i cant afford the good stuff.


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## conix67

I was about to say what Ameek said. It could be something that has been happening gradually but with switch over it accelerated.

Hmm.. If your tap water is just about right, topping off with tap water may actually have some positive effect. One possibility for a low budget reef tank 

Anyway, I think all the red stuff is iron, and I think your body needs it.

The long term effect of drinking only RO water couldn't be a good one. It always makes me think twice about using only RO water for drinking and cooking.

I think IO salt is just as good as any others...


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## ameekplec.

The white to caramel colour is the Deionization resin changing from charged to uncharged as it takes up more and more of what's left over from the RO membrane. If you've only made a bit of RO and your DI is already mostly exhausted, then I'd check with a TDS meter if your RO membrane is still good. 

There's great debate about RO/not for drinking, but long term, it's probably not great to drink. Besides, it tastes nasty.

IO is probably almost as good as anything else. Before I was using a relatively expensive salt, and then I've switched over to Reef Crystals. No change there (although I do have a bit more cyano, but I'm sure that's a separate issue).


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## cablemike

no my di resin is still green, im talking about the first prefilter.. the micron filter.. its the first thing that filters the water.. its turning a caramel color already.. if it was iron i would think it would be reddish.. maybe its not enough yet.. in a few weeks ill let ya know what color it has turned.


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## cablemike

ok i got the red sea magnesium test, tested it twice to make sure.. 1280 ppm magnesium..


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## cablemike

the other issue ive been having is my nitrates wont go away.. they were at 40ppm and after the 40 gallon change it went down to 20 ppm.. so i decided to try something.. i took my turkey baster and kept firing it in between my live rock and my tank turned into a cloud of waste.. but i would not go into the overflow and just settled back down.. so tonight while getting the test kit i grabbed a waterpolisher for my hagen 70 powerhead which was running my pond ( i put it back on after i was done) and i used the poweread to blow all the crap up and it slowly but surely got sucked in the one micron water polishing attachment.. i did this over and over for an hour until i could not get any clouds of waste to appear.. the amount of waste was crazy.. i hope this brings the nitrate level down.


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## ameekplec.

Well, good to hear that your nitrate issue might be worked out - crap in the tank does do that though, so it's good to have really good flow and to get the turkey baster out here and there.

Ah, the prefilter. Ew. Drink filtered water


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## cablemike

i think im going to get a couple of small internal filters to help with flow and to collect the waste as very little goes into the overflow. i may need more critters.. i have about 12 hermits in my 90 and 4 in the fuge but im hesitant because they can be destructive. is there any snails that eat waste? i have 15 turbos for algae and i bought 6 nasarius snails which multiplied to about 20 so far. and i have a gazillion of those tiny starfish. oh and lets not forget the 2000 bristleworms.. think all these critters are making the waste? i have 13 fish in my tank which i dont think is too much for the water volume. hope to have things running smoothly again.. and want all my acros to colorup .. everytime they start to something happens and the start to turn brown.. mind you its only a few of them.. others thrive regardless.. and regarding the ro prefilter being so gross after only 100 gallons, makes me wonder if prime really does work since up until two weeks ago it was tap water and prime or maybe corals are hardier then were led to believe. i know this much, my skimmer is working much better since i switched to ro water.. my cup is full every few days as before its would take two weeks to fill the cup. damn my fingers are tired now, stupid blackjack keyboard is so tiny , heh


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## ameekplec.

13 fish is a lot of fish, especially since they're not all nano-size fish.


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## cablemike

you really think thats alot of fish for a 90? only 4 of them ever exceed two inches. i have 3 yellowtail damsels, 1 four stripe damsel, 2 green chromis, 2 osc clowns, 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 copperband, 1 truncate anthia, 1 sand sifting goby and one spotted puffer. oops thats 14 fish.. i used to have over 30 but the 12 chromis jumped out one at a time.. found them all dried up behind my tank.. and one anthia took a jump also.. how many fish would you keep in a tank this size.. it needs fish or it will look lifeless.


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## ameekplec.

Perhaps cut back on feedings or skim wetter?


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## cablemike

i only feed once a day, but its usually frozen food as the copperband wont eat flake.. is it normal for a skimmer to stop producing foam when you feed and it sucks up food.. everytime i feed the skimmer takes like 6 hours to recover.. thats why people run ozone isnt it? to break down the large particles so the skimmer can remove them right. i think i need to upgrade my berlin to a turbo also.. still using old venturi and impeller.


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## conix67

I think the venturi is fine. Feeding will make skimmer to stop, not sure if it extends up to 6 hours though.


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## cablemike

its not always six hours but sometimes yes.. it seems to break down flake food fast which makes sense but the frozen takes along time.. i was checking the collection cup last night and noticed about an ince of waste in the bottom of my skimmer.. its a tripple pass skimmer and the last chamber is where the crap is.. im going to have to take it out this weekend and try to clean it.. its real hard to clean that section as the only way in is through the return spouts.. figure i will connect a powerhead with a hose and pump hot water in to melt it into a liquid ..


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## cablemike

came home tonight and decided to put the hydor rotating deflector back on my mj1200.. i took it off a few months ago as i didnt like how big it was and looked ugly.. but as soon as i put it on detritus started commingout of all the rockwork.. so it obviously did a good job of mixing up the currents of the other 4 pumps sending wavein all directions.. i think taking this out is what made my tank start going downhill.. i think im gonna get another for my other mj1200. and i also put the flow directors on my hydors, i never installed them as i didnt like the direct flow but i see now how much stronger it makes them.. flow is stron again in the tank so lets see what happens over the next couple of weeks.. growth is insane in my tank but colours are not where i want them to be..


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## Ciddian

Nice to hear mike  I hope it starts getting better soon!


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## Flazky

damn your tank is looking great. haha I made my transfer to 90 recently and my lights/skimmer still havnt come yet. Is your tank right infront of a wall? or is it like 2 feet away from it? I wanted to chain my background as well but I was stupid and put my tank like a foot away from the wall.


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## cablemike

Flazky said:


> damn your tank is looking great. haha I made my transfer to 90 recently and my lights/skimmer still havnt come yet. Is your tank right infront of a wall? or is it like 2 feet away from it? I wanted to chain my background as well but I was stupid and put my tank like a foot away from the wall.


mine is like 2 inches from the wall, i should have put it further away also.. my overflow in on the side because there is no space behind the tank.. and it affects how i place my lights on my tank.. wish i could move it but thats never happening.


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## Flazky

o realy? so how did you get ur wallpaper on? o>O. My tank came with a blue one and when I take it off, it leaves a film of nasty cheap glue crap.


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## cablemike

oh yours is probably the blue film which is glued on.. mine is just from bigals and its taped in the sides.. yours can only be removed with a heat gun..


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## Flazky

oh gawd...heat gun....is gunna be suuchhh a painn in 6 inchs of space


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## cablemike

i wouldnt even try it.. how bad is it damaged? can you live with it?
even after its removed you will probably need to use googone to remove the excess glue. and the heat gun against a full tank probably isnt a good idea.. is your tank loaded or is it still pretty empty.. how much work to empty it?


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## conix67

Why bother? I have a black background but I can hardly see it now, all covered with stuff like coraline algae, and I do not clean that side of my tank. I don't really think the background is that important.


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## cablemike

tested my tanks water last night, everything is finally reading zero.. the acros that browned out are starting to colour up again. monti caps are getting so big there stealing all the light from other corals below. im gonna have to do some rearanging.. will post updated pics soon.


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## cablemike

Im starting to notice a pattern here, my poor toadstool is never happy in my pictures, its polyps always retracted.. five minutes after taking this pic the polyps are extended, could he be camera shy? I dont even want it anymore but my wife loves it, and if you remember my old tank we had that monster of a toadstool and that when she fell in love with it.. Do you remember this beast?

old 55 gallon - monster toadstool









here is my 90 as of today.


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## Flazky

haha yes my background is really ugly. Its all blue with some..uh.."black holes" in it...lol


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## cablemike

since its not comming off easy, why not take a sample of the background to home depot and get a colour matched paint and paint the spots where its missing.


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## Flazky

Wahhaa it may have took me.. 3 ~ 4 hours but I managed to get most of that evil glue crap off. And man, is it satisfying...


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## cablemike

did you use a heat gun? and did you get the glue off?


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## Abner

Hey mikey seems we are gonna be talking soon my man i got my first pretty stick thanx to conix...lets see how that one goes. soon my tank is gonna look stunning like yours.


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## cablemike

I was a little bored tonight so i decided to see how many different corals I had in my tank, i didnt include clones of eact coral but did include different varieties of the same family, ie different color colonies of zoos and different coloured Euphyllia.. I counted 47 different corals, and im not sure as my eyes kept getting confused .. so now i must be happy and realize i have a ton of stuff in there.. why do i always feel i need more.. btw i bought a new frogspawn yesterday, it is stunning.. almost reansperrent with neon yellow polyps. I think my favorite family of corals is the Euphyllia family. the colours are stunning and the add so much motion to the tank. I currently have 3 frogspawn, 3 hammers , and one grape coral. Only problem is anything near by that gets touched dies.. but heh, i just let nature take it coarse.


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## Abner

come mike pictures don't say new stuff and no pictures.


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## Flazky

Dang There are so little backgrounds available. I might hafta steal yours!.


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## cablemike

Flazky said:


> Dang There are so little backgrounds available. I might hafta steal yours!.


i got mine from big als.. i got the idea of that specific background after i saw it on a few other tanks.. so your not stealing my idea at all..


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## cablemike

Abner said:


> come mike pictures don't say new stuff and no pictures.


soon enough, its still adjusting to my tank so it has not fully opened up yet.. when its in full bloom i will take a pic and post it.. its very different though as ive never seen one with yellow polyps, their usually green, pink, or blue..


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## conix67

cablemike said:


> I was a little bored tonight so i decided to see how many different corals I had in my tank, i didnt include clones of eact coral but did include different varieties of the same family, ie different color colonies of zoos and different coloured Euphyllia.. I counted 47 different corals, and im not sure as my eyes kept getting confused .. so now i must be happy and realize i have a ton of stuff in there.. why do i always feel i need more.. btw i bought a new frogspawn yesterday, it is stunning.. almost reansperrent with neon yellow polyps. I think my favorite family of corals is the Euphyllia family. the colours are stunning and the add so much motion to the tank. I currently have 3 frogspawn, 3 hammers , and one grape coral. Only problem is anything near by that gets touched dies.. but heh, i just let nature take it coarse.


Same here, I love Euphyllia just as much as SPS!

I counted ~70 species but some are still quite small (frags). Yes, I still would like to have more...


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## cablemike

70 species, damn your gonna need a bigger tank.


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## cablemike

Went to see you marine yesterday and picked two of the Sfiligoi 24" Super actinics on sale for 9.99.. all i can say is wow.. they are super bright and my corals are glowing like never before.. And now my lighting all flows.. the t5's now look the same as the halides so it looks balanced.. Im very happy and should have bought four bulbs.


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## cablemike

Well in finally charged my camera so i took a pic of that new frogspawn i got last week.. ive never seen one with these colours b4. also look at how much of a difference the new super actinics make on my corals.

Frogspawn with yellow tips.










look at the colour of the polyps and turburnia









look at them now


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## explor3r

Great colors, makes a big difference


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## Abner

freaking awesome!! great colours..i knew those were corals missing from my tank some hammers and frogspawn..maybe next week


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## teemee

*Cablemike's tank*

I love this tank. Great colours!


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## cablemike

Well im not sure of the new lighting.. tell me which looks better.

before new bulbs.










with new bulbs.










you can see a big difference in intensity though, see the powerhead in the left cornew.. you can hardly see it in the first pic.. but the colours look washed out to me now but the polyp extension is much better.


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## cablemike

Eye candy Alert.

was bored tonight, so decided to play with my other camera.. its not the greatest but its waterproof.. so here goes some top shots, a different angle then you used to..













































































































Enjoy..


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## conix67

Nice shots! I wish I had a waterproof camera. 

I do like the FTS with new bulbs.. it looks more like you added new bulbs, not replaced old ones.


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## cablemike

conix67 said:


> Nice shots! I wish I had a waterproof camera.
> 
> I do like the FTS with new bulbs.. it looks more like you added new bulbs, not replaced old ones.


The funny thing is they were only ten dollars a bulb and the bulbs they replaced were only two months old but these are much better then the geisman actinic+ bulbs. Can you see my acros starting to get colour? The guys at reef central have really helped me out.. My kh is the issue with my tank.. the sps is consuming it very rapidly.. its drops by 1dkh a day.


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## conix67

cablemike said:


> The funny thing is they were only ten dollars a bulb and the bulbs they replaced were only two months old but these are much better then the geisman actinic+ bulbs. Can you see my acros starting to get colour? The guys at reef central have really helped me out.. My kh is the issue with my tank.. the sps is consuming it very rapidly.. its drops by 1dkh a day.


I should check my Kh level .. I think mine was on the low side last I checked. With frags all growing rapidly, I probably need to adjust dosing rate. Thanks for sharing the info, I guess your problems are all resolved now?


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## cablemike

i hope so, now i just have to wait and watch my acros color up.


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## teemee

*new bulbs*

I think I prefer the old bulbs, but your tank looks great!
its time you fragged your green monti! 
Let me know when you do!


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## cablemike

the bright green one? i have a frag available for a couple of months.. i have frags of most corals in the pics. 10 each or prefer trade for other frags.


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## teemee

That's the one!
I have some zoos I could trade, but I found another zoo-eating nudibranch today in the tank (unless the first one I saw made it out of the fuge, somehow) and they aren't all as nice as they were before! otherwise, all my corals are still little frags... But trades in the future, for sure. I'd like to buy this one... will pm you next week  thanks!


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## Abner

+1 on the previous bulbs colours definitely look better but corals look very happy.....next week i think we are gonna talk about frags too..


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