Tank of the Month - August 2007

[RobynT]

Absolutely stunning tank! I was wondering how you can have so many full sized corals so close together without major coral battles and problems. This is a question I've always wanted to ask of those that have nice mature, full reef tanks.

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by Zoom
As your Emperor angel gets older you may have problems with him eating all the zoos ,clams ,lps. My Emperor is five years old now i had to move him out off the reef tank to a FO tank two months a go , after all this years now he start to nip/eat on my sps to.
Very nice tank you have there congratulation for the TOTM.
Did you ever try to install a A/C unit in your garage? Even if you don't have a window is some units that they have the compressor remotely mounted outdoors and the cooling unit in your garage they only need to have a small hole to run the wires and small copper tubing .
Pictures of the Emperor in my gallery.
Here is some info on A/C units just so you get a idea what i'm talking about.http://www.mrslim.com/UploadedFiles/...im_catalog.pdf

Yeah I do have concern about the emperor may start nipping when it gets older. So i'll watch it closely and remove it if needed.
Thanks for the link on the AC and that seems to be the solution i'm looking for my garage Wonder if this type of air conditioning system is reliable? and energy efficient? I saw they mentioned in the EFFICIENCY section that the units "use less energy (than standard units) in MILDER conditions" That could mean their unit efficiency is about the same or could be worse than the standard units But thanks for the idea, I'll do more research into it.

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by RobynT
Absolutely stunning tank! I was wondering how you can have so many full sized corals so close together without major coral battles and problems. This is a question I've always wanted to ask of those that have nice mature, full reef tanks.

if you put new corals into the tank and touching each other.. then they are more likely to kill each other. But if you let them grow out and touching it other eventually, they can handle the 'touching' issue better The more agressive species of the two may encrust a little more to the less agressive one which would learn how to either fight back to stop the encrusting or grow out faster in other branches as a way of survival. this is what I observed on my purple slimer and green slimer.
One of my green slimer colony used to grow very slow. Then the purple slimer grew out and encrusted to the green slimer. I thought the green slimer would be a goner in a month or two. But then the green slimer started to burst out in grow in all direction!

here is the pic of the purple encrustinng the green:


green slimer in Feb 07 (the smaller colony on the right )


Green slimer in June 07: a closeup on the far right tips - all of which started to grow out in just the last couple months..

[GTriever]

Awesome! Know what you mean about the heat (100 now in Kentucky with heat indices expected from 105 - 110) and my tank is installed the same as yours, into a garage as well. Question... you think maybe air conditioning that garage might do better than adding a chiller?

[Shaun120]

Love the natural look of your reef! In maybe 5yrs or so my 225 will look half as good

Congrats!

[Zoom]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
Yeah I do have concern about the emperor may start nipping when it gets older. So i'll watch it closely and remove it if needed.
Thanks for the link on the AC and that seems to be the solution i'm looking for my garage Wonder if this type of air conditioning system is reliable? and energy efficient? I saw they mentioned in the EFFICIENCY section that the units "use less energy (than standard units) in MILDER conditions" That could mean their unit efficiency is about the same or could be worse than the standard units But thanks for the idea, I'll do more research into it.

This A/C / Heater units are use world wide they been use in Europe for many decades . I know about this units from my parents, they had two A/C/ heater unit in Greece where the temperature is always above 100F in the summer they had this two unit for many years with no problems .

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by Zoom
This A/C / Heater units are use world wide they been use in Europe for many decades . I know about this units from my parents, they had two A/C/ heater unit in Greece where the temperature is always above 100F in the summer they had this two unit for many years with no problems .

That's good info! Thanks!

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by Shaun120
Love the natural look of your reef! In maybe 5yrs or so my 225 will look half as good

Congrats!

Thanks. You will be surprised how fast your reeff will grow after it matures.. I don't think you have to wait that long

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by GTriever
Awesome! Know what you mean about the heat (100 now in Kentucky with heat indices expected from 105 - 110) and my tank is installed the same as yours, into a garage as well. Question... you think maybe air conditioning that garage might do better than adding a chiller?

So do you have air conditioning in your garage? or use a chiller like mine?
I'm not sure if air condiitioning the garage will be more efficient than a chiller.. Mine is a 3 car garage so it may take a lot BTU to cool that big garage while the chiller only have to remove the heat from your tank only..

[cbui2]

Congrats on TOTM. your mature display is definitely awesome and very clean. what would you say was the hardest part from the beginning of your build? all i can say is wow again

[KEEPERZ]

Fishcraze- great looking tank-congrats man!! I live in Las Vegas,NV so I can understand heat, but I was able to seal off the third car garage and add a split system a/c unit which has worked out great even in 118 degree weather. I use no chiller and still hold 1000g's to 77-80 degrees-here's my tank thread for more info,might help-
Tank thread-scroll down

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by cbui2
Congrats on TOTM. your mature display is definitely awesome and very clean. what would you say was the hardest part from the beginning of your build? all i can say is wow again

Thanks for the compliment. Did you mean about the construction of the tank system?
I had a local tank builder to build the stand, canopy, driliing the hole as well as all of the acrylic equipment. He also helped me to move The heavy part (in term of labor) is probably the plumbing since I did most of that myself, including the closeloop. However, the hardest part to me is organizing the wiring from all the equipment - it was messy and is still a mess today

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by KEEPERZ
Fishcraze- great looking tank-congrats man!! I live in Las Vegas,NV so I can understand heat, but I was able to seal off the third car garage and add a split system a/c unit which has worked out great even in 118 degree weather. I use no chiller and still hold 1000g's to 77-80 degrees-here's my tank thread for more info,might help-
Tank thread-scroll down

Thanks for info about the split chiller. Zoom has mentioned it to me in an earlier thread. Now seeing you are also using it makes me think harder about getting one for my system. The only issue is that I can split the garage like you. If I'm going to get a split chiller, i'll need one that can keep the whole 3 car garage cool. What size that you think I'd need for this?
I read your tank thread - you have a MONSTER tank there love the way you organize your fish room too.

[KEEPERZ]

Well-it may be tough to cool the whole garage with efficiency in mind. Sealing off the third car allows the rest of the garage to still be used to park in and unless you insulate+seal off the garage door,your A/C will run more then you'll want it too due to cool air leakage.You would need a larger unit to do the whole garage instead of just a sealed off fish room,remember larger unit=more power=more $$

[BigMOCats]

FINTASTIC TANK!! One of the best I've seen! Love the whole room!!!

[cbui2]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
Thanks for the compliment. Did you mean about the construction of the tank system?
I had a local tank builder to build the stand, canopy, driliing the hole as well as all of the acrylic equipment. He also helped me to move The heavy part (in term of labor) is probably the plumbing since I did most of that myself, including the closeloop. However, the hardest part to me is organizing the wiring from all the equipment - it was messy and is still a mess today

thanks, it doesnt matter how messy wires is ran, plumbing and etc. the main dispaly is what counts and you made it on TOTM which states itself. congrats again

[Kkubiak]

I am extremely impressed with the growth in your corals. I am from just outside of houston in a small town and i was wondering which fish stores you use to help you along the way. i am in the process of putting a 380 gallon tank together and wanted a little insight as to some trustworthy shops. Thanks for the help and congratulations once again.

[jfish298]

congrats on a beautiful tank

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by Kkubiak
I am extremely impressed with the growth in your corals. I am from just outside of houston in a small town and i was wondering which fish stores you use to help you along the way. i am in the process of putting a 380 gallon tank together and wanted a little insight as to some trustworthy shops. Thanks for the help and congratulations once again.

Honestly, I learned most of my reefkeeping skills from RC and marshreef.com (Houston online club) and some local experienced reefkeepers. I normally would go to these online forums or clubs to ask my peers about how to keep certain species of corals or fishes rather than trusting the sale pitches from the lfs salemen However, several LFS in Houston nowadays have stepped up in the past couple years and been quite helpful. Some my favorite LFS for livestocks are CityPets, T&T Fish and Reptile and Fishland.

[fishcraze2002]

BigMOCats, cbui2, Kkubiak, jfish298 - thanks for the compliments!

[fishcraze2002]

Originally posted by KEEPERZ
Well-it may be tough to cool the whole garage with efficiency in mind. Sealing off the third car allows the rest of the garage to still be used to park in and unless you insulate+seal off the garage door,your A/C will run more then you'll want it too due to cool air leakage.You would need a larger unit to do the whole garage instead of just a sealed off fish room,remember larger unit=more power=more $$

Thanks for the good advice!

[fishcraze2002]

I forgot to mention in my article that my Blue Carpet is one of my favorites

This's the pic when I first got it in Jul 04:


April 2005 (also notice how tiny the birdnest frag I got from Upscale back then


in 2007

[Zoom]

Do you need a DSB for the Blue Carpet ? it looks like it is anchored under some Live rock . I lost my five years old RBTA after it spawned and kill my tank it was 23" round it never split ,here is a picture .

[fishcraze2002]

Wow, that's the biggest RBTA I've ever seen! Sorry to hear about the loss. I currently have one myself and it is growing fast. It has never splitted either

There is a DSB below the Blue carpet base. It does also try to anchore below the rocks in that corner.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by fishcraze2002
Wow, that's the biggest RBTA I've ever seen! Sorry to hear about the loss. I currently have one myself and it is growing fast. It has never splitted either

There is a DSB below the Blue carpet base. It does also try to anchore below the rocks in that corner.

It was very small when i first got it, it was 100% wild RBTA none splitter .
Ye i lost everything when it spawn in the tank.
You can look at the pictures of the tank in my gallery when the RBTA spawn.