fishytime

More pics...

I have made the decision to put in a sump. Been slowly getting all the parts together. Gonna use a cpr 102 overflow with aqualifter, a quietone 6000 return and a 33g tank for the sump. My family was good to me this xmas and gave me some cash to get some corals. Got a couple millis Green and pink, a robins egg blue stag, and a pocillipora damicoris all from Greg(snappy). Some monti cap "frags" from dannyz( thanks again). From golds I picked up a nice acan and superman monti frags.Also added one last fish to the mix...a copperband butterfly. So far it appears to be all good with him and the only thing in the tank I am worried about so far is the feather duster.It has had a couple "feathers" plucked and has spent the last couple days hiding.

Have both. HAD 7 tanks going at one point there, but found my weekends consumed with water changes. So ONLY two tanks now.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of people that have these all in one tanks end up modifying them. So much so that there is a whole website devoted to selling modification parts(nano tuners).The cubes are great for convenience and looks but you have to remember that they are very much a "basic" setup.And welcome to the dark side.

Its been almost a couple months since I swapped tanks and the corals finally seem to be REALLY settled now(polyps extending fully, etc, etc).I picked up a couple new fish to help fill things in a bit.So in the tank now are 1 ocellaris clown, 1 six line wrasse, 1 royal gramma, 1 flame angel, 1 bi-color angel, and a yellow tang ( I know but hes just wee now so I figure I have a year or two before I need to either move him or upgrade tanks). So heres a few random recent shots. Now Im gonna barracade myself in my safe room and wait for the tang police to come a knockin.

Nice shot of a wicked fish. Wish I cud get my salty fish to pose for 1, without rattling off a hundred crappy shots to get 1 good one.

Should talk her into a reef, :smokey: but thats just my opinion. From what I know...they dont need large amounts if light, or alot of flow.

sorry for the RG...but good to hear everything else went well. :thumbs:

Thanks Flip. Actually I dont have a ton of money into this tank. Its probably the bare minimum one could get away with spending to have a reef tank. I have seen alot more people spend ALOT more money to get just about the same results. For me , it was alot of $, but to most other reefers it is pretty ghetto. Most of the corals were bought as frags and were $15 on average,others were aquired by trading with local reefers.. The tank and the bulk of the live rock I got free by diligently watching usedcalgary.com, and the metal halide was given to be by a friend and super guy, and the other lighting on the tank I already had (so atm the tank isnt the prettiest to look at cause Im running the canopy I had on my 20g frag tank on one end and the HOT5 lighting from the 20g display on the other end). I simply cant afford to drop $1000 on lighting right now so the lighting I had will have to do. But really you can get great results without spending a small fortune. I have had arguments with guys saying that the cheaper HOT5 lighting that I have is no good. But the proof is in the pudding. I think that they are just pissed that they spent twice as much for thier lighting and I am getting just as good results. :smokey:

Thanks alot shark...now that Ive been looking at the tank for a couple weeks, I am really happy with the way it turned out. The moral of the story there is, take your time!!!

It shouldnt be a problem. Get yourself a couple coolers and fill with water from the two smaller tanks,the heaters and an airstone or small power head. Put the fish in the coolers and do the rest of the switch as quickly as possible. Drain the rest of the water from the two small tanks( keep as much of it as you can). If you can move the two small tanks with the gravel in them( I know your not suposed to, but I have done it many times with 20 and 27g tanks without any problems), or scoop all the gravel out into yet more containers. Get the new tank in place and level, put all the gravel from the two small tanks into it(and any new gravel) , and the water that you saved. fill 3/4 of the new tank with fresh declorinated water and start running the filtration (old filters from the small tanks and new filter for the big tank...if there is one). Let the dust settle for a bit and add the water and fish from the cooler(of course making sure you try and keep the temp of all water constant). Dont worry to much about it...just try and get er done as quickly as possible.Have fun :smokey:

Ok the contents of the 20g FINALLY made it into the 68g. Thought I'd have more room for new coral additions, but between what was in the 20g and what was is my frag tank, I didnt end up with much extra room at all.Have that new tank algae bloom happening in these pics , so you all will have to look past that. any questions, comments or critiques are welcomed. Tell me what you guys think.

Auto top off :smokey:

Option #4

Yup its called aquascape construction epoxy. Comes in purple, to simulate coraline algae and grey for fresh water applications.

I am running them on my sw tank and I like them. My corals seem to approve too. With the results Ive got with the coral, coupled with the price, you cant go wrong IMO.

I ve been quiet for the last little while cause Ive been slowly getting things ready for the switch to the 68g. Went back and forth on which stand to use, hummed and hahed about lighting( still up in the air on that one), and took the better part of two days working on the aquascaping. So the main part of the aquascaping is in and sand is in. The contents of the 20g will have to wait for any signs of a cycle. I'm still looking for a couple of perfect pieces of lr to fill in a couple of gaps. Should be able to fill in and hide most of the gear when I transfer everything over.

How about some kind of shell dweller?

Rainbows make great dither fish for cichlids. They are agile enough to avoid getting "hit" by a cichlid. They also seem to adapt well to most water conditions.

Well the current occupants of the 20 will stay for sure( ocellaris clown, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma). I picked up a wee small baby flame angel that should be fine in the 20 for the month or so it should take me to get the big tank ready.I am going to build a pvc structure to attach some of the live rock to. I have seem some pretty dramatic aquascaping using the pvc skeleton method so we will see what I come up with. Will add another o. clown and a blenny maybe(probably a lawnmower). I would like a tang of some sort but the tank is probably to small(from what Ive read/heard). Small school of green chromis? Small school of PJ cardinals? Not really sure yet. Any suggestions?

Ok wait a second here.... I dont want to flame you in any way but how many fish did you have in this 29g tank? Sounds to me like you may have had it overstocked. What are you running for filters?

Team Canada zoas. Not an official name but they are red and white, so...And yup I managed to squeeze them in. Not the best pic cause I had the cam under water and it through a shadow. The 20g's days are numbered cause I just scored a 48"lx20"tx16" fowlr tankwith all the fixins FREE off of used calgary. I dont quite understand why the guy didnt want anthing for the tank but.....lucky me I guess. So this thread will have to be retired soon in favor of fishy's 66g (according to the volume formula) reef pics. I'm excited as heck.

Heres a shot for you sloughshark. I know you like fishing as much as I do. I got this one trolling a blue and silver crank. My buddy got one that was probably pushing 20 pounds, that we lost at the side of the boat. I say "we" cause I was manning the net. It was my first time fishing at Lake Newell, lets just say it wont be my last.

Thanks guys. I have an agreement with one of our lfs. These hoods will be available at Elite aquatics here in Calgary. They will be fully customizable. Customer decides on lighting, and I build the canopy to fit. I am in the process of building a "store model" for the shop. So we will see if the general population likes the design.

Got the canopy finished. Its been running on my frag tank for almost a week and I dont think heat will be to big of an issue. The temperature in the tank goes from 78 to 83 during the day. The canopy itself feels warm to the touch but not at all hot.I still need to tidy up the wiring but want to wiat and see if I need to add fans.