Ross B Reef'n 170 Gallon & Fishroom Megabuild

Ross B Reef'n · Jul 10, 2020

I'm really wishing I would have gone with a finer sand. Not all the way to oolite, but closer to sugar than rock.

Ross B Reef'n · Jul 11, 2020

Blutspitze · Jul 13, 2020

Looking beautiful with everything added in! I personally think the sand looks pretty nice - why are you now thinking something finer would be better?

Ross B Reef'n · Jul 13, 2020

Blutspitze said:
Looking beautiful with everything added in! I personally think the sand looks pretty nice - why are you now thinking something finer would be better?

Thank you! Finally starting to feel like a reef tank. Guess its official with some corals.

The original though was in line with the hyped super 100x blow the walls down flow. To have that and sand you need the course 5mm grain sizes.

I'm doing mixed reef (LPS/SPS) so I naturally need higher flow at the top for the sticks, and lower flow at the bottom for the flowies.

What's happening is the super course sand is acting more like rock than sand.

I actually want the sand to move. The 4 MP40's I have are all on independent reef crest mode, so a constant mound at one place shouldn't ever be an issue.

So I guess the point I'm hypothesizing is that the smaller grain sizes would look cleaner with the ebbs and flows of the currents.

Maybe there's opportunity for vortech here too... instead of completely randomized... a programmed flow pattern to move finer sand from a point, to a point, and back. Talk about next gen, closer to natural reefing!

Blutspitze · Jul 16, 2020

Ross B Reef'n said:
Thank you! Finally starting to feel like a reef tank. Guess its official with some corals.

The original though was in line with the hyped super 100x blow the walls down flow. To have that and sand you need the course 5mm grain sizes.

I'm doing mixed reef (LPS/SPS) so I naturally need higher flow at the top for the sticks, and lower flow at the bottom for the flowies.

What's happening is the super course sand is acting more like rock than sand.

I actually want the sand to move. The 4 MP40's I have are all on independent reef crest mode, so a constant mound at one place shouldn't ever be an issue.

So I guess the point I'm hypothesizing is that the smaller grain sizes would look cleaner with the ebbs and flows of the currents.

Maybe there's opportunity for vortech here too... instead of completely randomized... a programmed flow pattern to move finer sand from a point, to a point, and back. Talk about next gen, closer to natural reefing!

I see what you mean! It's really nice to have the true ebb and flow within the tank, seeing a shift similar to that of tide piles on the beach. I would think that the MP40s would be plenty to allow that to happen, basically do one up one down on either side of the tank or the like. Biggest issue I'd personally worry about on the lighter grain would be it getting stuck in the filtration system and/or clouding up the tank in general. But that's just me. Either way, hopefully you'll be able to make it all awesome

Ross B Reef'n · Aug 6, 2020

Balance.

Wrangy · Aug 9, 2020

Looking good man!! That scape is still awesome!! haha

Ross B Reef'n · Aug 19, 2020

I've never won anything in my life until I won the 13th annual live sale grand prize from @WWC ! Going to re-rack my lights for better spread on this big square tank with the XR30 in the center. Thank you @WWC!!!!!

Can't wait to see even bigger polyph extension on the beautiful WWC corals

WWC · Aug 20, 2020

Ross B Reef'n said:
I've never won anything in my life until I won the 13th annual live sale grand prize from @WWC ! Going to re-rack my lights for better spread on this big square tank with the XR30 in the center. Thank you @WWC!!!!!

Can't wait to see even bigger polyph extension on the beautiful WWC corals

No, thank you for participating in our live sale!! Enjoy your new lights

Blutspitze · Aug 21, 2020

So amazing! Congrats on the prize! It's gonna be a great upgrade for you!

Ross B Reef'n · Oct 5, 2020

Just popping by to leave a message like I maintenance my tank (not very often) . i mix salt once a week in a 55 gallon drum and that's really about it. I use the two head standalone doser from ghl and it does amazing. I water change about 6gal from 1pm to 7pm. I don't know if the words obsessive compulsive diligence explain how careful I am when mixing water, but it is key. Water top off is at 8am. My 7 month daughter takes all my time, and I wouldnt trade it for the world. This mixed reef pretty much takes care of itself. I started lighting by measuring 350 PAR to the highest SPS, and have dialed it back significantly on a non measured scale. I would guess about 70-80% of the original setting. I've based the dial back on the SPS polyph extension. Man. I've never seen anything like it.

There's a little more going on in the tank like the all snail cleanup crew, 3 tangs, GHA fuge, and a tool I built dubbed posidens fork to stir the sand... I have to say this is the easiest and potentially the most beautiful tank I've ever owned. Easy mode SPS, who'da'thunk.

itselenababe · Oct 5, 2020

This is insane!! I’ve been debating not going through with a tank in the wall (once we get our new house) after struggling with my smaller tanks lately and this has completely given me hope again. Congrats to you both for your baby girl and an amazing tank!

Ross B Reef'n · Oct 5, 2020

itselenababe said:
This is insane!! I’ve been debating not going through with a tank in the wall (once we get our new house) after struggling with my smaller tanks lately and this has completely given me hope again. Congrats to you both for your baby girl and an amazing tank!

Happy to hear I could inspire you

, and thank you very much for the kind remarks. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.