Bad's 150 Reef

[Badatti2de]

As of this date the tank is 2 weeks old. It is a 150g tall tank. The rocks are all live rock. The one in the middle was over 60lbs and at 6 dollars a pound, was very exspensive, but has about 4 ledges built in.

I still need to rework the return and add a few more power heads for more water movement. My return has a hole in the 90 which is blowing air bubbles into the tank. I think I am going to plug it, and just make sure one of the returns are high enough to not siphon the whole tank.

The sand was live sand. After a week, the nitrites were always showing up, which is good, I think. There are about 25-30 snails in the tank that came with some of the rocks(have friend at LFS).

The lights have only been up and running for two days. They are 48" aquamedics MH with T5 54w actinics. The MH are 10kk 250w XM's. The lights so far are outstanding. And the mounts that came with them are very sturdy in the drywall ceiling. (trust me, I tried to pull them out with a lot of bodyweight, they are gonna hold.)

It took a couple of rock movements to get the "look" I was going for. I think I am happy now with the placement. Tons of movement for fish, and lots of places for corals. I dont think I will have any dead spots.

 

[joshsteph2004]

I like the set up of your rocks

 

[mr_X]

nice.
i am preparing a new build as well. what are the dimensions of your 150 tall?

 

[Badatti2de]

48widex30tallx24deep, its the same as the 120, just taller.

Also, I started with the rocks stacked like you Mr. X, drilled and everything, but it created to much shadow and not enough places for corals, so I came up with this setup.

Just today, the brown algae started on the sand. Gonna not leave the lights on so long for a couple of days. And I have a ton of little white bugs all over the tank and glass, i hear this is good. I do plan on putting a mandarin in eventually, so I think he will have plenty of food.

 

[mr_X]

i have a mandarin in a 30 gallon cube. i was concerned with his picky diet for a bit, but he's eating frozen misis, and frozen copepods. what a relief.
i'm going with a 195 wide----60 x 30 x 25 tall.

 

[Badatti2de]

Very cool, I thought 150 was going to be huge, but turns out its not that bad.

Can anyone suggest a good protien skimmer for a 150, I am willing to spend upwards to 400, if that is not enough, skimmers are just overpriced. Anyway, I tried to hook up my top phathom 100 today, but it is so old school, that the little micro bubbles were everywhere. I had no way to control them, plus the footprint with the plumbing was way too much. I have about 13"x13" of room to put one.

 

[mr_X]

i like the ASM skimmers. g3 maybe. i was using a g1x on my 125, it seemed to work fine.

 

[mr_X]

i like the ASM skimmers. g3 maybe. i was using a g1x on my 125, it seemed to work fine.

 

[Badatti2de]

Well I just ordered the G3, with shipping came to 270. Not bad, but it does have a big footprint 11x12x25h (WOW), thats cutting it close, guess I'll never have a refugium. My sump is huge though, its a store bought wet-dry. Maybe when I learn more, I can modify it. Hell, I built my first sump on my own out of acrylic.

 

[mr_X]

sweet! i now have the g4x. it's a real monster! i have a 75 gallon aga for my sump and between that and the refugium, i had a hard time fitting it!

i just purchased it in preparation for my new setup (300 gallons total volume)
good luck with the g3. you can also mod them ...change the needle wheel to a mesh wheel, and that is supposed to quadruple the efficiency. however, i don't think you'll need to.

 

[Badatti2de]

Here is the sump at 3 weeks. The skimmer was just put in. Its an ASM g-3.

 

[mr_X]

your live rock will be the place your denitrifying bacteria resides. you can, and most likely will need to, remove those bio-balls.
you can then move the skimmer to the left of the picture, then you will have a nice area for a refugium. just buy a cheap light from home depot with an energy saver bulb with a color temp of 5000-6500 or so. like this-

 

[Badatti2de]

I would like to make a fuge, BUT, the tank is 150g. The only access to get the sump out is to remove the tank and remove the support bar across the stand. The skimmer will not fit where the balls are curently, I would have to cut the acrylic and glue some new pieces in. Not really the project I want to do under the stand/tank.

There is actually room between the skimmer and the return pump. NOt sure if that would be a good place for a fuge.

 

[Badatti2de]

Well a quick update. The tank is about 5 weeks old. All test are good, bad stuff at 0, calcium a little high, but had nothing to use it up yet, PH is at 8.3.
We added a few corals over the last couple of days. The Bio-balls are gone, and I am waiting for my refugium to be built. It will sit on top of the sump that is in there now since there is no room for one in it without tearing things apart. The micro bubble problem from the skimmer has been fixed. I added some piping to the return form the skimmer and added a micro filter sock to trap the bubbles. All media filters will be cleaned once a week (I dont care, they are staying, I will just have to clean them.)

 

[Badatti2de]

More Pics

 

[Badatti2de]

Here is the birds nest.

 

[Badatti2de]

Some other stuff I forgot to mention. My brown Diatom algae was coming in pretty strong. So I would leave the lights off and it would diminish a little but come back when they were on. I know with good water they will eventually go away, but I got some small blue legged hermits. It was like an army marching across a field looking for mines. As they walked the diatoms were gone. So I added a few more since, and the tank is really clean. I did a 20g water change and things seem to be a little happier. All of the corals are wide open and colorful.


My hydor korelia pump should be in today. I will post pics of it, once it is in. I can not believe it has already been 5 weeks since i first put water in. And for those of you that are going to tell me to slow down, nothing else is going in for a few weeks to let everything settle. I am working with a guy from my LFS who is an expert in reef aquariums. He is into the scientific side and is writing a book on the health and nutrition of reef aquariums. You know when you find that smart guy, he actually tells me not to buy stuff yet and wait. I am really lucky to have the LFS I do. For anyone else in South Florida, Miami, look up Exotic Aquariums on bird road. You will not be disappointed.

Ok, I am done ranting about nothing

 

[Badatti2de]

msg

 

[Badatti2de]

Some cool pics

 

[Badatti2de]

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