180G Office Reef Tank

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

I love the build, looks great so far. Dave has a very good idea with the baffles in the sump, one of the biggest cause for bubbles in my tank was the waterfall off my last baffle, this idea fixes that. One thing you could do to "failsafe" your ATO is to have your water enter the sump through a float valve AFTER your ATO setup. Since you won't be around for weekends, it could be very bad to have a switch stick on. Here's what i use for mine http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/ro...O+Filters.html Up to you really, most people run just the ATO without problems.

If I only had one float switch on the ATO system I would probably consider the float valve, but this ATO system comes with 2 float switches, the 2nd acts as a failsafe to shut the pump off in case the first one gets stuck in the "on" position. If they both get stuck on, well I'm SOL sorta, but at the same time, my reservoir will be not larger than 5-7G. That is only 2-3% of my total system volume which should never bring my tank out of the 1.022-1.026 range 'safe range'.

[JDigital]

I received the ATO kit from aquahub.com last week, finally got around to setting it up yesterday. Pretty simple system to setup.











Looks like I still have a few zipties/wires to clean up, but the system is working flawlessly.

[JDigital]

Slowly making progress with the initial cycle. Currently dosing 2mL of Zeostart3 daily and 8 drops of Zeobak 2x/week (originally started with 3x the dosage, have been easing off as the cycle climbs).

As of tonight, nitrates are getting up there,

[kien]

Oh my, you've been a busy bee! Love it! Coming together nicely.

[mr_alberta]

Hey that looks like Ken's tank. Isn't he the Mesh Pad guy? If so you should really put some Kenya Trees or Colt Corals in there. He loves those things.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

Hey that looks like Ken's tank. Isn't he the Mesh Pad guy? If so you should really put some Kenya Trees or Colt Corals in there. He loves those things.

Hmm.. How do you know Ken? Mesh Pads and more these days... And yes it is his tank (well, the companies now, )

I actually added a few tester things tonight to the tank after a 50G water change over the past 24 hours.

1 Orange Digi frag
2 Zoa frags
10 Snails
5 Hermits
3 Small Chromis.

[lastlight]

if ever there was a good reason to work overtime this is it lol. excited to see this unfold =)

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by lastlight

if ever there was a good reason to work overtime this is it lol. excited to see this unfold =)

It's not all glitz and glamour.. sometimes I actually have to work..

[JDigital]

Tank is doing well, Nitrates are well down from the previous post above. I've made some additions over the past little while.

Hollywood Stunner Chalice:


Can't remember the name of this piece. Alien something Chalice:


Ricordia Rock (Blues, Green, Purple/Orange):




Wall Hammer Colony:


SPS Colonies:




This is the remains of a colony I had to do some emergency fragging of today to save it from some RTN that I noticed last night before it went in. Hoping the rest of it holds on.


Got 2 of these guys today as well. They looked like a pair at the shop, but not 100% sure. Was only able to get a shot of this one though.

[JDigital]

Well it was definitely a bit early for SPS (I kind knew that to begin with) I lost 2 of the 3 colonies I picked up, but on the other hand the shop that I got them from lost eve more than that, so I'm not completely convinced it had a whole lot to do with my system. I still got one colony left, and while it has lost some color (probably to much light right now) it's still kicking.

All of my LPS/Softies are going great though, so I have been slowly adding a few pieces. 6head Torch Coral, 2 heads of Purple Tip Frogspawn (Thanks to lastlight)... And I keep eyeing up Acans, but have yet to pull the trigger.

I've also recently added a few fish over the past couple weeks...

I started off with 3 Chromis after the cycle, lost one for unknown reasons, the other 2 are still doing good (much to my disappointment )..and I've added in the rest in the following order.

- Female Leopard Wrasse (eating frozen like a champ! thanks Denny!)
- Mated pair of Diamond Spotted Gobies (burrowing caves under EVERY rock in the tank. Not regretting that eggcrate now! smile.gif )
- Pair of Clownfish (Thanks Lastlight)
- One Spot Foxface (just last night)
- Multi-Colored Pin-cushion urhcin (I don't know how my boss talked me into it, but fingers are crossed that I'm not to early with this addition, My parameters are staying pretty stable though so.... The temptation of new additions is difficult, even for a reefer who's been around the block )

The tank is really coming alive these days though. The Torch, Hammer and Frogspawn definitely add some motion to the system, and with the addition of the current fish stock, the office is at an all time low for productivity!

Also really starting to like the performance of this Skimz SM202 Skimmer as well.. I was actually starting to get very annoyed with it as I was having a heck of time trying to dial it in. It either wouldn't foam up at all or it would be overflowing the collection cup. In the last week I think I have finally found the sweet spot on the setting, and along with the current bio-load in the tank, it's finally pulling some seriously dark skimmate. Might need a bit of fine tuning to get it to maximum efficiency but glad to see it pulling out the gunk it should.

I'll try and get some pics to follow up this post.