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ace's 240 reef


hobogato

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specs:

240 long from glasscages with overflows in the ends since it is a room divider

6.5' long sump/fuge i made with 4 compartments - LR rubble, skimmer compartment, fuge with deep sand bed and mangroves, and return pump area

mag12 and mag18 for return pumps

single beckett skimmer that i made supplied by a mag12

dual chamber calcium reactor and a kalk reactor that i built

3 SE 250 watt MH with luminarc copies that i made

2 DE 250 watt MH with upgraded reflectors in pendants

8 @ 65 watt PC true actinic

75 blue LED moonlights

four seio 2600's on two controllers and a tunze powerhead on single controller.

October of 2005

framed out stand after removing back half of the wall

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skinned with pecan and cherry wood

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tank sitting in place the day we brought it home

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unfinished canopy on dining room side

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woodwork on living room side

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painting, staining and sealing done

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here it is around new year's day - after beginning treatment of all acros for AEFW. :)

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here is the redisigned aquascaping

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and here it is currently - two weeks after finishing AEFW treatment and placement of corals back in the tank - they are really starting to color back up :D

full front

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left end

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center

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right end

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here is the last change i made to the tank - i have upgraded just about everything possible in the last few months, so now it is time to watch it grow :D

well, i have been holding on to my pc actinics for long enough, and finally decided to switch over to T5 for actinic suppliment instead. i was running eight 65 watt actinic retro kits on my tank, and decided to switch over to eight 24" and four 36" high output T5 bulbs. i went to workhorse 7 ballasts for this - three of em. the bulbs i chose are the URI super actinic that supposedly put out 40 watts on a 24" and 65 watts on a 36" if you have the ballast power to do it. so if that is true, i am now running 580 watts of T5 lights. here are a few pics.

i used solartube material to make the reflectors.

tank with PC actinics

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acrylic shells i built to house the T5s

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the two configurations i used

2 X 24"

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a 24" with a 36"

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one side installed (looks the same on the other side of the tank) they BARELY fit! :)

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cruddy full tank shot with the T5s - with the PC lights, my camera wouldnt go faster than 1/6 of a second exposure, where with the T5s, it was set at 1/30 of a second - translation, the T5s are WAY brighter :)

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  • 1 month later...

ok, so now that i have treated for redbugs and done the whole flatworm treatment, i decided to go after the other little pests left in my tank. i got a copperband butterfly a week ago, and he has made a dent in my aptasia issue, but i decided to help him out a bit :o took all the acros out of the tank yesterday and rearranged rocks - cutting off rock with aptasia, mejanos, and bryopsis. quit putting things back together around midnight, and finished the last 40 or so small corals this morning. dramatic change :)

yesterday at 1pm

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clam tank stuffed full of acros :angry:

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today

front

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  • 2 months later...

my tank has looked a little off for a couple of weeks, with less PE, color and even some recession at the bottom of some corals. i could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong - even ran the full battery of test - nothing unusual. well, in two days, everything has returned to normal, and even better on some corals. cant believe the PE on some of these....

blue bottlebrush (this is the acro that is the hair of my avatar)

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closer

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and some other hairy acros

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PDRM3294.jpg

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