More pics of existing and word on the project

[zuzecawi]

Well, here's some more pics. the 58 is doing great, I had to get rid of most of my hairy mushrooms, they killed a beautiful montipora and seriously damaged some of my ricordeas. I can't wait until the big project is finished, but in the meantime, I'm fragging like crazy. I'm thinking of getting rid of my zoos and mushrooms (Except for the ricordeas) all together... but not until the big tank is ready. Decided not to sell the 58, (although I'm sure someday I'll change my mind) and I might just keep it for the mean softies.
So... the big project... Decided not to sump my 75 show tank, because it is polishing out so nice, and I'm thinking of making a lagoon tank out of it instead. I picked up a used 75 gallon sump from a acro guy at OSU who was breaking down his set up (moved to an upstairs apartment) and it is going to work with a little bit of mods. Mostly plumbed, Set up for two return pumps, which is okay for me, I'll adapt my two closed loops and the return I had planned to maybe opening one of those closed loops for a small mag drive on that second smaller return. And I'll keep the big one for its own closed loop. Altogether, with the new plans, I think I'll have somewhat like 10 returns, 8 of which will be alternating current. I'm planning on cycling the big tank for six months or so in the garage with just sand and rock and the vho's, and then I'll break down the 58 and move the 135 to the front room. 210 gallons system capacity!!! Nothing to Brian but man oh man, it's a lot for me! I'm building a internal phyto and rotifer farm, based on Anthony Calfo's three tiered plankton set up, but minus the brine shrimp included on his. This is to supply my gorgonians. The plumbing is less of a nightmare than I thought, now that I've given up on the internal reef rack idea. Now that I finally have the aquarium stand and canopy, the rest of this is going to set up pretty quick (famous last words). So... on to the pics.

 

[Brenden]

Looks great.

 

[DeathWarp]

wow, ever blue.. I absolutely love it!

 

[melosu58]

Beautiful corals

 

[zuzecawi]

Well... here's some kinda idea of what I'm doing with the new tank. I'm settled on the rockwork, it's really built for the gorgonians. This is kind of a topographic map, the lines are the plumbed returns, each side of the tank is going to be plumbed the same for alternating... example, front to back, than side to side. Not necessarily in that order, I'm running both circuits independantly with a couple oceansmotion devices. The plumbing will be in through the top and sides, not the bottom. I want the bottom of the tank to be slower in current, for the deeper water species, but the top is going to have a real heck of a run going through it. The gorgonians necessarily have to live in a strong current, and they're pretty forgiving of laminar flow, but I'm hoping that the alternating current will induce them to grow more. The internal plumbing will be under the sand, I'll be building pvc racks to put the rockwork on, which will rest on the floor of the tank, probably on acrylic plates to distribute the weight. This will actually elevate the rockwork a bit above the sand, not enough to look funny, but enough for cave loving critters (peppermint shrimps! Engineer gobies!) to live there, and it'll provide plenty of flow through of water under the rock. That is my biggest problem in my 58, not enough water flow through the rock. This will also protect the plumbing going under the rock. And yes, I'm ziptying the rocks together to stabilize this structure. Like I said before, I intend to let the tank stay in my garage for at least six months with just rock and sand before I move it to the house. Maybe longer. I figure I might be able to survive longer, but if I plan on six and last longer than that, it'll be a bonus. Ideally, I'd like to let it be fallow for a year, so that it would get seriously established microfauna, but fat chance of me having THAT much patience. At least I have the 58 to keep me occupied. Although I'm really hitting that point of having to decide... do I liquidate the soft corals or do I give up on the montiporas? The hairy mushroom incident really was a reality check. To elaborate... I got a frag of a purple rimmed brown montipora... within weeks it had changed to an irridescent green with hot magenta rim, and pretty emerald polyps, and noticeably grown. Then a hairy mushroom draped over it while I was at work. Came home, it was half dead. Removed the mushroom. Two days later the whole frag (three inches) was dead. I've left it up near the top on the hopes that maybe it just bleached, but it looks pretty dead to me. So I removed most of the hairies, but the 58 is just awfully crowded.