ThePremiumAquarium

LOL. It turned asexual on me and I had to throw it out.

Congrats! Nice looking coral and will give you some funds for some more goodies!

Thanks Ben! I will probably give you a call before too long. Today I got the bulkhead holes drilled! Tomorrow I have ot pick up a couple more tanks as I broke a few of the 10g during drilling. The glass is so thin which makes drilling quick but cracks more common. 19/22 not too bad. Hope to begin some plumbing tomorrow! This will probably be a couple of days worth of work. Garrett

Mangroves can generally be grown in whatever substrate you like. I have grown them free floating with now substrate, just the water column. I have also grown them in fine sand as well as heavier aragonite. They seem to do well after a few weeks in the stystem and love magnesium, iron, and iodine from my experience.

Worked pretty hard to get things started today. First I went out to Home Depot and purchased the rack for the tanks. Then I stopped by Petco and purchased several 10g tanks. I could only fit 5 in my car with the rack in there, so I figured I would go back and grab some more. I got the stand all setup next to the sump the way originally intended. Looked pretty sweet but I didn't quite realize how tall I would have to set the first level of the system in order for it to properly drain into the sump. This forced the other two levels up quite a ways. When I got tanks set up on each of the levels, I was pretty close to one of the houses cross beams. I didn't really like that idea since I would have very little room to work in the top tanks once the lighting fixture was on. Also 10g tanks are not 10" from to back as their label suggests. I figured in an extra 1/4" for each tank to take into consideration the bracing. Turns out that they are actually closer to 11 1/4". This means that only 6 tanks could fit on each shelf, bring the number of tanks down to 18 which isn't too bad. I decided to move the shelf so that it was perpendicular to the wall as apposed to backed up against it. This made a lot more sense but I still wasn't pleased with the overall height of the system. I got to talking with my dad and did some brainstorming. This lead to something the wife was not going to be too happy with. Yes more spending Instead of 1 shelving unit with 3 levels and 18 tanks, I opted to go with 2 shelving units with 2 levels of tanks. This setup allows for a couple of extra tanks as well as a much more reefer friendly height. Now I can actually see well into the top level tanks! I also have a couple of extra shelves for equipment and or future additions(naughty). So the total of tanks at the moment are 22 instead of 21. I decided to replace 4 of the 10g tanks with 2 20g long tanks. This should be pretty cool for slightly larger corals or a bit more swim room for fish. I ended up having to go to a couple different Petco's and had to make 3 trips in order to get all of the tanks back to the house. I didn't get around to drilling any tanks yet but will start that tomorrow and then proceed to the next step on the list. Here are some pics representing something of what it will look like once setup. I plan on painting the backs of the tanks that are on the wall and leaving the backs clear on the ones that are not against a wall. This way I can look into the tanks from the back as well(kind of peninsular). Tanks against wall with sump: Perpendicular to wall: Side shot of both shelves: Some equipment clutter: More to come tomorrow hopefully...

Looking good! Those zoas are hot! I am liking the sps in the tank too. They look to be very happy with nice polyp extension. Keep up the wonderful updates. Garrett

Mike, I will definately keep you in the loop. I am excited to show the system off once it is all set up and worth showing off lol. How is the 210g doing? I made some major headway today!!! Probably the toughest part of getting this whole thing set up was finding space in my parents super clutter of a garage. My dad and I speant the entire day cleaning, reorganizing, and making room for the new system. I will have a lot more room than expected so that will be nice if any future additions are needed Now that I have one giant truck load ready to go to the dumps and another truck ready to go to goodwill, I now think I am on track to set this bad boy up! Tomorrow I will work on getting the stand in place and hopefully will pick up a few tanks to start some drilling. I went by a local farm and feed shop and picked up a 100g trough to use again as a sump. It should work pretty well and the price wasn't too bad. I couldn't find any 150g troughs as I had hoped so the 100g will just have to do lol. 300+ gallons of system water should be sufficient to keep things from getting too far out of wack. Pics to come soon...

Yellow is a good thing

I like the sound of inexpensive materials! I thought about using 20g tanks aswell, but with the room that I have, 10g tanks over a 6ft stand is about all that I can manage. Plus the added height would be kind of tough and I am not sure how much room I would have to work with until I hit the ceiling. The plumbing will be kind of cool. I will be running the snapper to 14 of the tanks. 7 will drain directly into the sump, the other 7 will drain into the 7 below(algae and mangrove tanks) them and then those 7 will drain into the sump. Sounds a bit confusing, but should work out well. I know some tricks that will really help amp flow up and still allow for the smaller more energy efficient setup. Depending on how much flow I get, I may need to add another pump, but I think with 10g tanks I should be ok.

Awesome thanks for the suggestion. I purchased some of the larger all white ones and am going to cut some 4" x4" white tumbled marble down to 3/4"-1". I made sure to get the same weathered looking marble like the small ones that you use. I just wanted to make sure that they were white. It seems that it really makes no difference. I may return the squares I bought and go with the small precut variety. Still though, incredible price either route. Atually for 9 x 4" sqaures it was only like $5.98 or something. I think I could get more than 80x 1" squares out of each $5.98 bundle! Rediculous compared to what I was using before. Garrett

Did it just molt? Some times invertibrates will be much lighting in color just after molting, their exoskeletons then harden and begin to show richer colors. Lets see a pic!

Those pics are sick! I love the acro crabs. Those littel guys are so cool to watch. Garrett

Things are looking nice! I like those blastos. That mint green color is pretty cool. Garrett

Ryan, I think the Extrude Hone in 1/8" for small media reactors should be sufficiant don't you think? If I were making a skimmer with alot of turbulance I could see where the cast in 1/4" would definately be worth the extra $$. I am thinking that the reactors will be external or at least externally hung from the sump. That being said, I would imagine that it would be nice to have a bracket of sorts so that I could just hang it on the sump though it would be nice if they could stand freely on a shelf if the setup called for it. I really like the idea of going with a twist style cap like your plan. It sounds as if replacing media and doing maintanence would be way easy going this route. I am excited to see how yours turns out and really can't wait to build these guys. I am really glad you are down to help with them as you have done such a nice job on yours! I think I am pretty determined to do 21 x 10g tanks. They will be arranged so that you look through on side of the 10g tank and see 20 inches of depth. There will be 7 of them lined up on each shelf and I will be painting the back of each black with rustoleum. I am not sure yet whether I will also paint the sides. It would look way cool and prevent much of the unwanted coraline growth all over the glass, but it would also prevent viewing from the sides. This has its positives and negatives. Fish won't try and fight with each other and are less likely to try and jump into their neighboring tanks. Corals would stand out agains the black back and sides! But I wouldn't be able to look from one side to another. What are everyones thoughts on this? Shaun, Are the ones that you have mostly white? I couldn't find the small ones in complete white sets. I found them with about 50% white and the other 50% in different shades of grey and beige. I wasn't sure that these color varieties would be a good idea but have never used them myself.

Looks like a rad coral to me. I always like the green with red tipped slimer that I had. This looks alot like it with shorter branching. I will have to hit you up when the system is ready! Garrett

Ryan, From what I have read the snapper and dart are the way to go! I got lucky as Ben was kind enough to help me out with one! I think I am going to go with all 1 3/4 inch holes so that I can sort of standardize the system with 1 inch bulkheads. I purchased a new bit as I think I gave away my old one. Plus I needed a new one either way as I had drilled a ton of glass with the other one. I am thinking 3 media reactors with a 4" diameter or so and about 14 to 16" tall. What do you think? I was thinking one for carbon, one for GFO, and the third as an extra reactor for future media not yet determined. I was kind of planning on running a single 600-800gph pump split with ball valves to each one or something similar. This would allow flow control independently to each reactor and would be set up so that each could be removed easily from the system with true unions, slip, or brush fittings. What do you think now that you have both built one and am sure have done some research and speant pleanty of time in thought about such devices? Thanks, Garrett

The suspense is killing me too!!! I just picked up some white marble that I am going to cut into small 1" or 1.25" squares. I found the small precut and tumbled kind at lowes, but some of them had imperfects of granite or other minerals that I am not cofortable having long term in the system or in others reef tanks for that matter. Heavy metals or silicates just aren't worth the work saved by having precut squares. So a cheap tile saw will likely be one of my new "frag tools". Tomorrow evening I hope to make some headway in cleaning up the garage space that this system is going to take up. My dad was kind enough to offer up one of his work benches as a frag/packaging table, so that will be nice. Problem is it is full of clutter and also needs a good cleaning. Goodwill and the local recycle/landfill center are going to love me over the next week! I also may have to run a couple of 20 amp sockets over to the area of the garage that I am building the system. I am not sure if the garage only has 1 15 amp circuit or if it has a couple. I will have to do some plug experimenting and possible rerouting. Next... Cleaning garage. Purchase rack. Purchase sump. Pick up tanks. Drill tanks. Paint back and sides of tanks. Purchase plumbing and plumb tanks. Mix water and get it into tanks. Build frag racks. Start the long process of stocking! FUN BEGINS!

Looks like all that many of us need. Nice setup for the $$$.

My guess is that they have lots of insurance lol

What makes you think that it is not a goniopora or alveopora? Moon coral is a type of brain coral similar to acans or favia. In fact I believe moon coral is a type of favia. Here are a few pics that show similar goniopora species. Goniopora minor is what some of them are named scientifically. Goniopora has several different growth, color, and polyp varieties. Some have short polyps while others have longer polyps. Some encrust while others branch or form a ball. This coral is definately a Goniopora.

Nice looking setup. The aquascaping is kind of all dependent on what you plan on keeping and how much room you would like for coral grow out or fish swim room, etc. I personally like to stack high and leave the sides pretty open so that cleaning is easy and there are more vertical spots for coral frags. Great start! Garrett

LOL. I personally will not set up another display without one. Too much to risk! I will likely buy one for this next prop system aswell. I have had the power go out for days at a time and believe me it is darn near impossible to keep everything in good shape, especially when you are dealing with hundreds of gallons. I found a decent deal on a 5000w generator at lowes that I may pick up. Just under $400 and has all the power I would need to run pumps, skimmer, and even a heater. Plus I may be able to run my modem and router aswell as my laptop. That would be all I need for days. Well that, a stash of pepsi and penut butter sandwhiches. Garrett

Yes thank you for the wonderful dream material Michael. I am seriously scared of such creatures and this one could gnaw off an arm with little effort. Eww. lol Garrett

Gonipora or alveopora. Flower pot is one of the common names. That is what it looks like to me.

WOW! LOOKS AWESOME! Great work there. I am excited to see the finished project. We will definately have to talk when the time comes to get some of this stuff made. PRO! Garrett