Bignose's 95G reef

bignose · #1 01-19-2009, 06:19 AM

I thought about using foam under the tank but I never did. What is the advantages of foam? I'm planning a mixed reef. Most likely will be softies and lps but I hope I can have some sps near the top of the tank. I'm going to transfer my fish from my nano tank but I haven't done much research on fish yet. I want some tangs for sure.
The stand is ok if you look at the top of the pic it looks like the tank is bowing up. Maybe my camera?

BlueAbyss · #2 01-19-2009, 10:12 AM

The assumed 'bowing' in the picture is the fish-eye effect from your camera's lens. No biggie, but the lack of some sort of cushion under the tank is a little scary... foam is generally used to cushion the bottom of the tank against any sort of imperfections in the surface that the tank is sitting on, so that there is no localized stress on any one part of the bottom panel of the tank. This reduces the risk of cracking over the long term.

That said, you seem to be off to a good start!

bignose · #3 01-20-2009, 01:33 AM

I added 100 pnds of sand into the tank. I used 60pnds of sugar sand on top of 40pnds of crushed coral.

In goes the sand

Time to drink some beer and wait

The skimmer started doing its magic right away.

The cup filled about 3 times with cloudy water.

Hours later the tank started to clear up

I'm not sure if this is too much sand but I like the look of it

bignose · #4 01-21-2009, 02:18 AM

I added a couple more rocks to the tank to make a nice looking cave on the left side. I still have about 5-6pnds of rock left to transfer when I shut down my nano. I think it's enough rock but it could use some more to cover the overflow.

Here is the most recent picture I took of the tank.

The light is temporary for now. Looks dull with only the center lit up.

Here is the cave from the left side.

Rbacchiega · #5 01-21-2009, 02:55 AM

looking good!

Dig the over hang...that's a great ledge for an sps colony LOL

michika · #6 01-21-2009, 03:08 AM

I like the head on shot, its nice!

BlueAbyss is right on about the foam.

bignose · #7 01-21-2009, 04:11 AM

Thanks for the compliments. The tank is 20" deep so there should be good par. I'm going to experiment with a small frag of sps down the road.

I wish I knew what the foam was for when I set the tank up. I thought it was for noise reduction in the tank. Guess I should have started this journal before I set everything up lol.

There are diatoms in the sand so I think the cycle has started.