Nikon Guy's 150-Gallon Reef

[Nikon_Guy]

Tank at 11 months.

Tank at 6 months

Tank at 2 months

 

[JeffReef]

Nice! What type of lighting are you using?

 

[MarvinsReef]

wow.. nice and clean..

 

[JGoslee]

Nice tank! What kind of lighting do you have? Can you list your tank specs?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Tank Specs: (As it sits today)

Nothing really fancy yet but it gets the job done.

150-Gallon – Freshwater show tank converted to marine.
30 – Gallon Sump w/fuge
50 lbs base rock
120 live Lbs Rock Fiji and Tonga mix
Deep sand bed (six inches in back to four inches in front)
Double Overflow Box with a Mag 12 return.
Eheim Pro 2028 canister filter (For flow, carbon and phosphate removal)
1 Seio M-620 and 1 Seio M-820
3 Aquaclear power-heads strategically placed.
In sump skimmer and heaters

Lights

72” Coralife Lunar Aqualight (384 watts) Ten hours per day
2 – 250 watt MH Retros - 4.5 hours per day

Currently dosing two part with manual water top offs daily.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

wow.. nice and clean..

Wife won't let me have it any other way!:hammer:

 

[JeffReef]

Tank Specs: (As it sits today)

Lights

72†Coralife Lunar Aqualight (384 watts)
2 – 250 watt MH Retros

Currently dosing two part with manual water top offs daily.

Your canopy does not seem tall enough for MH. I'm assuming that your bulbs are really close to the water line. Could you post some inside pics of the canopy?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Your canopy does not seem tall enough for MH. I'm assuming that your bulbs are really close to the water line. Could you post some inside pics of the canopy?

If you take a look at the second picture you will see the top of the canopy open. This was prior to installing the Metal Halides. I used a retro fit and attached the MH’s directly to the underside of the canopy cover. The light itself is about eight inches from the water line. Being as the tank is 30 + inches deep and the rockwork only comes about two thirds of the way up it has worked out well so far.

Well….except for that time I brushed the back of my hand against the MH’s
:****:

 

[divecj5]

Awesome looking tank. I really like all of the open spaces that you left with the aquascaping. Although I do like the tanks that are nice and full of rock, I really like the ones that have a couple of nice "islands" here and there with some open areas for the fish. Reminds me of some medium/high reef dives that I've been on.

Love the copperband you have.

 

[JGoslee]

Have you noticed you copper banded butterfly nipping at any of your corals? I'm thinking of getting one of these guys in the next couple weeks.

 

[revhtree]

First I'll nice tank!

Second, I had the same stand and canopy on my 125g. I ran 3 250w MH in there about 5 inches off the water without any problems.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Have you noticed you copper banded butterfly nipping at any of your corals? I'm thinking of getting one of these guys in the next couple weeks.

I think the bad rap that copperbands get is due to the fact that they constantly search out tube worms. As you know, those little buggers grow everywhere and if there are some located within a coral colony it could appear that they are nipping on the coral itself.

Although it has only been in the reef for a little over a month, I have not seen it bother any of the coral in the tank.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

First I'll nice tank!

Second, I had the same stand and canopy on my 125g. I ran 3 250w MH in there about 5 inches off the water without any problems.

Did you run retros attached directly to the cover?

 

[revhtree]

Actually I made a frame that the retros attached to that fit inside the cover.

The only issue I did have was that I would leave the top lid of the canopy open during some hot summer days to help with heating since I didnt have fans installed. With the lights attached to a frame, I could open the canopy without having to flip the lights up and turn them off if that makes sense.

I made the frame out of 1x1 and it sat on top of the tank just perfect.