Rich's shallow reef "Size reduction".

[VanGogh121]

Background, Moved from Michigan to NC about 7 months ago and carried this huge 240 cube down with me (48x48x24)

The thing eats up the living room, I SOLD the Idea to my wife on size reduction and more living space, didn't take her long to say yes.

I started to build the stand a copuple weeks ago and commenced on ordering the glass.

 

[VanGogh121]

It took a little while but the new light came in....




10x 48w ATI Power Module

7 Blue +
3 Blue spec.

 

[VanGogh121]

All the glass needed to build a 60x30x18 starfire!

Boooyeah. Yeah and it has polished beveled edges.



While waiting for Grainger to get their supply of RTV 103 un-screwed I worked on the stand. (All their silicone expired between 2004 and 2007. I guess no one in Raleigh wants black silicone.)

 

[VanGogh121]

Last night we did this!

This is a buddy of mine, making some clean lines that would put glasscages to shame!

 

[VanGogh121]

here we go.....





Thursday nigh ne carry it out to the porch and do a fresh water test. If all goes well, I shoudl be able to move live stock over in 2 weeks.

 

[VanGogh121]

Equipment list

Lighting
ATI POwerModule 10x 54

Watermovement

2 Vortech MP40w on the back wall pushing forward, using reefcrest mode.

Skimming
OCTO Extreme 300, with Bubble Blaster 5000k upgrades

Calcium Supplementation
GEO 618
GEO Kalk Stirrer

 

[VanGogh121]

Stock list
True mixed reef with corals, moving only the brightest corals over.

Fish
Dussumieri tang
Purple tang
Redsea sailin
Mysterywrasse
Purple fire fish
5 Chromis
red coris wrasse

Fish yet to be obtained
6 Bartlett Anthias
Redsea Regal angel
Moorish Idol

 

[EliteReefs]

looking GREAT. one little gripe but its just a personal opinion.

you spent the money on a great lights, great equipment ,got nice glass, spent the time to make it look perfect, built what looks to be a solid stand. all a GREAT start.

BUT

your killing me with the raw PVC lighting bars.
a polished aluminum or stainless steal would be SO much nicer and cost very close to the same. most metal shops will have scrapes hanging around that will work great and its never hard to find a guy in the shop that will bend it up for VERY little

please dont take that as an insult. i'm just saying that its kinda like if you were looking at WWC in orlando display tank and found a brown polyp. that would never happen but if it did. it just seems out of place lol

 

[VanGogh121]

your killing me with the raw PVC lighting bars.
a polished aluminum or stainless steal would be SO much nicer and cost very close to the same. most metal shops will have scrapes hanging around that will work great and its never hard to find a guy in the shop that will bend it up for VERY little

please dont take that as an insult. i'm just saying that its kinda like if you were looking at WWC in orlando display tank and found a brown polyp. that would never happen but if it did. it just seems out of place lol

Your right, I've been struggling with the light bar, I am going to purchase some black paint this weekend to paint the back of the tank, I might hit it then. I also might go with Metal conduit, It think I might be able to polish it nicely. (I still need to polish the aluminum wrap that I put on the stand)

As for the metal shops, I moved from Flint Michigan where there is equal amounts of strip clubs to metal shops (thousands), to Raleigh NC where there is equal amount of strip clubs to metal shops (one)LOL.

The great news is the polls are right on a stud, I have been looking for tastefull shelving brackets that will extend 18 inches.

 

[bkss709]

Looking good can't wait to see it done.

 

[CHALICEKEEPER]

Wow nice start!!!!

 

[stunreefer]

Looks awesome Rich!

Old tank looked great too, I'm sure this will come out very nice...

 

[roscoe]

Very nice build! Do you mind doing a step by step tank buliding thread?

 

[cbort]

sweet build! This tank is awesome! Keep the pics coming!

 

[BayCorals]

Great tank. Can't wait to see more.

 

[Mr. Tang]

I've seen this tank in person and it is nice!! So nice that I decided to copy the tank size for my next display tank!!!

Beautiful tank!

 

[VanGogh121]

Latest pic, I just pulled the sand out and now I'm waiting for the coraline...

 

[Yerboy]

dang we missed allot. I have the same fixture but over a 48x36x24 and im wondering what bulbs combo your using and how high off of water is your powermodule? Im at about 8" and im cooking everything lol.

 

[skinz78]

That looks awesome! Can we get some more pic's of the corals in there?