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 Post subject: My 155 Bow Front Build Pic Heavy
PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:34 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 1:01 pm
Posts: 88
I started trying to keep a reef approximately 11 yrs. ago with a 120 gallon 5' X 1.5' X 2'.2" AGA tank with external overflow, and a custom built silly sump with 3 compartments, and no baffles just 2 dividers.LOL I was running this tank with a Turboflotor Multi 1000, no power heads, just the Iwaki WRLT 40 through a SWID, VHO, and best of all TAP WATER.
Sorry this is the only pic I have of it. I actually manage to salvage it from Reef Central prior to them deleting all my pix.
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I was barely able to keep leathers, and some anemone. I couldn't even keep shrooms, they would just disappear.
My fowlr always did well.

February 15, 2006 we moved to the home we are currently in. I hired some guy from Bob's Tropical in Ridgewood, Queens to move my tanks. They did a horrible job: broke my stands, and killed all my animals except for my cabbage leather & snowflake eel.
Then I had to go through chemo, and the tanks just got totally neglected for well over 6 months. Once I was done with chemo, radiation treatments, and recovered some of my energy I began to clean them up slowly. Still using tap water.
In September my BGF past away (also from cancer) leaving me her 155 gallon bow front tank along with her fish, and some anemones. I had a friend bring the tank to my place where it sat on the porch until I could get it together to switch out the tanks.

By October I realized that I had no one that I could depend on to help me with this huge task. I shyly, and embarrased asked for help at my local forum MR. Although I'd been a member since 2003 I really didn't participate much on the board. I just lurked, and read. To my amazement Slamajama/Michael responded so sweetly to my post, and next thing I knew Slamajama/Michael & Loismustdie/Chris were at my house removing a window bringing in my bgf's tank & stand in, placing it in place, and taking out the old 120 to the porch.
I remember this day so very vividly!! These two wonderful reefers not only came to my rescue, but absolutely refused any compensation for their time trouble, gas, and hard labor! They were genuinely insulted by my many offers, including to at least allow me to cover their expenses for the trip to my place.
Oh, and how I remember the look of perplexity on their faces realizing how I was attempting to run a reef.LOL But again, being the gentle men (not a typo I know how to spell gentlemen) that they are they did not let on that they thought I was crazy.LOL
Here's a pic of that one:
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Chris asked where were my corals. I told him I had none, and the next thing I knew he turned up at my door a couple of days later with his wife, and a bunch of baggies with goodies for my tank. That was a new beginning in my reefing experience.

My reef did ok for a while like that, but my bgf's tank had so many scratches on the bottom 6" of the tank that I couldn't deal with. I wanted to change out the tank so badly, that once again I went to the community for help in switching out the tank for a new RR ready one. Again the family came to the rescue.
Remarkably Slama took on my cause on again. He got people involved, and the switch was made February 25, 2007.
This time the build was much better planned out with the MR family full involved in one way, or another. Some gave advice, other's sold me much needed equipment at great prices, and a bunch came to put in the physical labor.:HUG:
Thank you Michael, Chris, Jon, Pedro, Kat, JP, and who can forget Wingo!
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The new tanks was setup with RO/DI water, ESV fine grain sand, and approximately 200 to 300 lbs. of lr from my old tank, and my gf's tanks.

AGA RR 155 Gallon Bow Front
AGA Black Pine Stand
Custom Built Canopy with 2 - 4" fans (1 blowing across, 1 pulling air out) by Omega
Odessa lighting fixture 3 - 250 watt Helios 20k DE & 4 - 24 watt 50/50 PC
30 Gallon Acrylic sump purchased from Slamajama
Return pumps:
Iwaki 40 WRLT purchased used from Deepwaters Extreme
Eheim 1260 purchased new from Premium Aquatics
2 - 300 watt Titanium heaters
10 gallon ATO controlled
AquaMedic twin doser purchased used from loismustdie
2 - Two Little Fishies reactors for carbon & phoz
Turboflotor Multi

The dismantling of the old 155 BF!
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Had to clean & cook my lr for a month or so to get rid of all the algae.
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On to the new tank
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Level on this tank was always off.
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Getting started

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This was 5 months after the rebuild.
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December 2, 2009, I made a couple of improvements by adding

AquaMedic twin doser purchased used from loismustdie
Euro Reef RS80 skimmer a gift from a friend.;) I had broken my old Tuboflotor by accident.
4 #4 Koralia purchased new from WWOF (Nl longer in existence)
Old Tunze 6060 purchased used from another reefer.
Reef Keeper 2
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February, 2010;
My reef turned 3 years old on the 25th. of this month. It had two disasters, 1 with a heater that took out almost all of my fish, added 4 # 4 Koralias at once without acclimating a tank that had never had Power heads to begin with, and I consequently shocked all my LPS. Lost 90% of all my lps with that one. The last one was my stupid forgetfullness mistake (I turned the lights on 1 morning for another reefer to see the tank, and forgot to turn them off before I left the house). The lights normally are on PC 10 AM to 11 PM, MH 5 PM to 10 PM. That day the MH were on 10 AM to 10 PM, when I got home a few of my SPS had began the threaded RTNing process. I tried clipping them at the rtning spot, but lost them anyway.

I replaced a few of the fish I lost to the heater, the lps that hung in during the Power Head incident have rebounded, and are doing great! The SPS are doing well, I am working on providing them with an even better home.
Running this tank with a EuroReef RS80 which is very under rated for a tank this size, so I will God willing will be upgrading that to a BM 200 soon. I do have an ATO (Reef Fanatic), and a Reefkeeper 2 controlling the lights, heaters, and fan. I was not running the Two Littlefishies reactors.

Parameters were staying stable at that time with weekly 20% water changes - using RO/DI water & IO salt.

Not dosing at the time since pars are stable. Did have to dose a few months back when I had stopped doing weekly water changes, and pars went out of wack.
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August, 2010
That summer had been really tough on us both. My house is nearing 100 years young, and the wiring is in desperately in need of work. Consequently the first floor which houses my tanks had no A/C, and running a chiller was out of the question due to the same issue. The tank temps reached 85 degrees at times that summer. So the high temps, and the lights not coming on due to those high temps had devastated my tank. I lost just about every single SPS, and the ones that were hanging on did so by the grace of God.;(
So the losses to the heat of the Summer of 2010 were as follows:
Turaki this one really hurt. For starters it came from Rich (another reefer), and 2nd. it was growing so great. So much promise...
Turquoise Stag from Loismustdie/Chris, another one to cry over
Purple nana
Tricolor Valida
Sanjay's Mauve acro
Pink millie
Yellow millie
Red Digi
Lemon/Lime acro
Green slimer

And my heart shaped brain.

Plus a couple others of who's names escape me.

Sept., 2011
After much neglect.
The net was part of the new bulbs acclimation.
een a while since I updated. This is as of today, Sept. 20, 2011 after much neglect. Trying to get back on track.
The net is part of the new bulbs acclimation.

December, 2011
Another mini disaster hits.:(

Got up to something a mist in my reef! Several SPS extremely pail, some looking dead, LPS also not looking happy, PO Leathers.

Tested everything I have test kits for; found alk & calc a little low, trates a little high.
Temp 77.3
PH 8.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Alk 6
Calc 380
Mag 1330
P04 .15
Dosed 3.5oz Alk, and 2.5oz cal.

Since the test results were not that far off I was stumped. Checked the sump no foreign objects, noticed the skimmer was not making bubbles checked the pump, and it was not running. Pull the pump out, and there was smoke coming out of it.

Could this be the reason for the death of some of my corals?

Did a 20% water change asap..

Prior to the water change I noticed there were some sudsy looking bubbles on the lower side of my tank by the overflow, and the water was a bit cloudy.

Losses that time around were as follow:
Ponape Bird Nest colony grown out from a small branch
Pink Bird Nest colony grown out from a twig.
Sunset Montipora grown out from a .5" to a nice size of about 6 or 7"
Tricolor something colony also grown out from a twig.
mummy eye
watermellon

Very sad; not only for the deaths of the animals, but the fact that I grew these out from tiny frags that were either gifts or tiny frags? My first sps ever that not only survived but thrived for me.
Others are not looking to good, but they seem to be hanging in.

Fish were fine..

Then came the new stand build which was long over do.;) The old Pine AGA stand had been falling apart for some time.
This pic is off the old stand once it was pulled out from under the tank. :shock: Apparently all that was holding it together was the weight of the tank.
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Now for the new stand.;)
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Trimming for the overflows:
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Leveling the new stand.;) Old setup was off by 5/8" side to side, and a little front to back.:(
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Doors go on! Extra wide for easy access.;)
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Blurry, but you get the picture.lol
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Then the fun began! I was left alone to redo the aqua scaping, and put all the animals back in.lol
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Fish

5 Tangs
Sailfin, Purple, Hippo, Kole, Yellow
1 Marine Betta
1 Majestic Angelfish
1 Niger Trigger
1 Flame Angelfish
1 Bengaii Cardinal
1 Royal Gramma
3 Wrasse
Mystery, 4 Line, Yellow Stripe Possum
1 Ocellaris Clownfish
2 Mandarin fish


Corals

Aussie elegance
2 Frogspawns
1 Branching Hammer
1 Wall Hammer
3 Types of Torch
3 Lobophyllias
2 Wellsolophyllias
1 Favia
3 Candycanes
5 Chalices
6 Acans
3 Blastos
1 Duncan
1 Dendro
3 Sunpolyps
Green caps
4 montiporas
14 or so SPS frags
1 Red mushroom
3 Brown mushrooms
1 Snake Polyp
Padua Neon Green Nepthea
Green Star Polyp rock.
Quite a few zoas

Inverts

4 Rainbow Bubble tip nems
1 Brittle starfish
1 Serpent starfish
couple hermits
couple nassarius snails
couple turbos


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