El Guappo's 72G Bowfront Reef......Many pics Jan 4
 

Well i picked this tank up off of james (who went above and beyond to make the pick quick and easy). I am currently ripping out the the lighting and changing to a herbie overflow. I am told the glass is tempered so returns will be going thru the back of the canopy.

Equipment

2 x250W Luminex Elite HQI Reflectors.
2 Phoenix "Hexarc" 14k Bulbs
Galaxy 2x250W balast.
euroreef skimmer not sure the model i think its 130.
sedra ksp7000 return pump.

Live stock

2 Hawaiian Flame Wrasse (Pair)
1 leopard wrasse
2 true perk clowns
1 potters angel
1 Orange Fin Tomini Tang
1 african flame back angel
1 purple firefish
1 pink streaked wrasse
1 Yellow Assessor
1 Tailspot blenny
2 cleaner shrimp
and of course various hermits and snails

First reply!......see you in a few to plumb that thing up!

Well not much for pics yet but heres what the lighting is going to look like.

i am goung to cut out some of the wood at the front of the tank. it was where the t5's sat. you can vaguely see the lines from the hole where i am going to cut.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...ntLighting.jpg

got the fan situation sorted out. havent bought it yet but it will consist of 4 12 cm fans,4 temp sensors, controler and a power supply. the controler is digital dispay with fan speed of all 4 fans and temp from all sensors. this for around $200

well thanks to a little help from my friendly neighbourhood fish guru i got tank all plumbed up today so as of now just waiting on some RODI water and then its cycle time. ended up going with an OR 6500 for the return. all thats left is to mount the lights and fans them i am well on my way.

is it dumb that one of the things i look forward to the most is the aquascaping?? some people consider this work where as i love it. yes its time consuming, but man the possiblilities....

Pics to come soon.

Cool, can't wait to see the final 'scaping. :)

me either. just unloaded al the rock into the tank and the scape will happen over the next few days. :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Note to self
 

If i ever buy another used tank with LR knowing full well that i cant set it up for a while, due to tank mods, ENSURE that i put a PH and HEATER in ALL buckets containing LR.

Its been what about 3-4 weeks since i bought this tank and HOLY CRAP what a stink.....

well the tank has been in full swing for about 18 hours now and i can safely say i will never go "sumpless" again..

Now that i have my first "all growed up " tank and have seen my euro reef in action i would never ever consider another hangon skimmer. there is NO comparison.

Still have to finish mounting the lights and fans, and make a small coutout on the canopy and then i am done.......WOO HOO.

I will try to get a pick of my rock scape but i am unsure how it will turn out as theree is no light over it. it took me a small amount of time 13 hours to finally get the rockscape done. finished at 10 this morning. i had the tank with a simular scape many times but when i look in and see a rock that could be better utilized i start shuffling rocks around to better use 1 individule rock .


AND NOW THE WAITING GAME......:twised:

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...entertake1.jpg


http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...tsidetake1.jpg

so no leaks???:redface:

nope.... (knock knock)

Das is guut....and so is the das scape:biggrin:

looks better in person. it actually has quite a few tiers and loads of great places for SPS.. No depth to the pic.

gotta put the background on now...

Nice tank.
72 bows make one of the nicest reefs IMO.

Looks like your rock should purple up in no time, I assume by it's appearance that the rock is already pretty established....when's the first addition planned for?

One thing you might consider just to clean things up a little is painting the return black to match everything else so that it blends in more...

Some krylon fusion spray paint would do the trick.

The rock was estabished but i basically kiled it as it sat unheated and no ph for a little over a month. first edition hopefully the second week of june.

There is no need to paint the return as it will be covered by a canopy and all that will be visable is whats under the water. i also wil be putting a backing on the tank when i get the motivation.

Ah...
canopy huh?

All my tanks are open top and so like a jackass, I just assumed by the pic yours was too.

Just working on mounting the lights and fans. Going far slower than planned, but the tanks still cycling so there is no hurry.

My first canopy.... not to sure yet how i feel about them as i am starting to think heat is going to be a major issue. Mostly due to the lights i have..

Dont say no to the canopy!
The canopy was the nicest part of James tank. It pulls the whole clean steel front look together.

tis not going anywhere yet. as you said it looks too nice to get rid off. i am just hoping its not a heat trap with the lights. but i am hoping my cooling system should due the trick. fully automated with temp probs and four 12cm fans.

Lights are in, fans soon as the holes are cut but i forgot to mount them as i was too excited to see thank that i have had running for weeks in the dark under new light.....

Pics to come..

Pic of the fan system.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...ncontroler.jpg

First pic with the lights on....

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...ontMay2010.jpg

I cant believe how dim it looks in the picture....way brighter in person.....did you put shades on the camera too?:mrgreen:

Crappy point and shoot camera.... i didnt play with the white balance too much... have to work it out.. as yes that is far bluer than it is in person.

Tank looks AMAZING with the lights finally.
The aquascaping looks very natural.
Cant wait to see some live stock in their :mrgreen:

Just started adding a few pieces of coral to this tank and hoping to get my first fish in this weekend. most likely it will be my pair of clowns....thus it begins..... still need to get the fans on aswell.

Well after a few more stops at memory express than planned i have managed to find a "usb 2.0 to IDE" adapter kit that will power my fan controller.this means only one power cord to the wall and cuts down the wires to the controller down to 1 aswell..... all said and done for the 4 fans, controler and power the cost was just under $200... when its up and running i will add pics with a better description of what the components are... will have 2 in and 2 out fans all of which are 12 cm diameter with a running speed of 1200 rpm per fan...

The controler is temp sensitive and will control each fan independantly, to its temp sensor...


As for those of you that said it couldn't be with a computer setup......KmyA its done and for less than what 2 tunze "aquarium" fans would cost. READ A BOOK before you shoot down someone elses idea....

OK fans in and running. First up is a pic, of the equiptment aside form the fans. the controler, temp probs and power supply (which also bypasses the need for the unit to interface with the motherboard).

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P6121121.jpg

Second is a pick of two of the fans from the inside of the canopy.. (nevermind the small fan in the middle as its just there).

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P6121125.jpg

Third is the back of the canopy and the wires to show excatlly where the fans are..... the bottom 2 fans blow in and the top 2 are exhaust.

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P6121122.jpg

And last but not least the controler itself... the temp probes are just hanging now as i want to slice the cable and make it longer, so they all read the same thing. you can also read the RPM's for each fan (fan four tops out at 1200 and the other three at 1600 rpm)......each fan can be independantly controled from one of the 4 probes (air temp only). in less than an hour i noticed a 3 degree drop in air temp, then the lights went out...

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P6121129.jpg

so?.....whats the verdict?.....it was a hot day today?.....did you run the lights?

yeah the lights ran and were cooler than they have been in the past.... just added a 6" clip on to the sump so i think i may finally be good.

Well with all the fans i now have temp under control, but now i am getting mad evap. 5 gallons every 2.5 days.... anyone have a 24 long tank with a 25g volume or above i can buy for a top off tank??????

okay got some more frags moved and i am currentl acclimatizing my clowns and once they are in i will add pics.....



On a side note i have noticed that it looks like one of my female flame wrasse has changed sex on me... i started out with one male and 2 female and now i appear to have 2 males and a female.... males seen to be getting along as the "change"has only happened in the last couple of weeks...ANY THOUGHTS???????

Current pic.... some sps may get moved yet..

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...8/P6301145.jpg

well i moved the last of my sps today and mounted them "Permanently" so it shoulld be the last aquascape change for these pieces....pics soon

Still just the clowns in there as i am trying to take this slow...... at some point i wil be adding my 3 flame wrasse so i want to make sure the tank can handle this (chemistry wise) as they are getting quite large...

Forgot to add that i dropped my Snappy's Multi colored bird and ended up with some small frags... 5 total... drop me aline if interested.

Just alot f random pics from today... i finay put my water proof camera in my tank and here is what i got...

Removed this pic as it wasnt current..

This was a freebie skinflap frag i got on a order from snappy.. has done quite well AcroporaTenuis
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...oraTenuis1.jpg

Not sure what this is but its all i have left from acoony i lost about a year ago. this frag was smaller than a dime when i saved it from rtn.. thinking tort of somekind???
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...polypTort1.jpg

my Pokerstar monti
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...starmonte1.jpg

Snappy's Multi colored bird
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...loredBird1.jpg

Tri colored nana
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...ColorNana1.jpg

Not sure what this is called
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...eencolony1.jpg

Sam as above
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...eencolony2.jpg

More..


Edit found a FTS

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...TSJuly1010.jpg

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...terclowns2.jpg

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...terClowns3.jpg

Blue tip a prolifera
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...Prolifera1.jpg

nother tri color pic
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...dacroNana2.jpg


http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...loredNana1.jpg

Yellow purple polyp acro austera
I know it looks sickly but thats because it spent some time ontop of zoas when it fell of my frag rack...
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...aAustera02.jpg

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...aAustera-1.jpg

Fisheytimes Icicle mille
http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/q...icleMilli1.jpg

Unlike quite a few people around here your bird of many colors has many colors. I'm jealous as hell that it such a bangin' piece. Tank's off to a great start.

Little hardcore with the Zalman huh? love it.

zeah but it looks pretty cool and really wasnt that much when compared to a chiller..... between the zalman and its fans (under $200) and a 6" over the sump my heater runs on a hot day as the tank is well cooled.

Thanks man... i also have 4 small frags of that bird as i dropped it when moving to into this tank...

Looks good. My first tank was a 70g FOWLR... yours looks way better.

I am sure its only because you were limited due to the fact it was a FOWLR...

Thanks for the compliment.. i cant wait til i get i full of fish..