450 Gallon Peninsula Display

[mcrist]

These pictures were taken on March 20th.

[mcrist]

I just added this beautiful pair this past weekend. I always wanted to have a mated pair of Crosshatch Triggers but I always figured that they were price prohibitive. My favorite LFS had a pair of them at a good price and I just couldn’t say no. I am not planning to add any additional fish to my setup.

[kwl1763]

Those crosshatches are outstanding! Great job. the tank is looking relly good!

I settled on a pair of blue throats for my 450. I'm picking them up tomorrow. I cant wait!

Did you get your skimmer issues worked out? I have heard several people having gravity feed issues.

[radone]

Coming along nice, yes nice fish!

What are the white pipes across the top (return)
What were the dimensions LOVE the width

[LNell]

That crosshatch pair is absolutely amazing!

[mcrist]

Originally posted by kwl1763
Those crosshatches are outstanding! Great job. the tank is looking relly good!

I settled on a pair of blue throats for my 450. I'm picking them up tomorrow. I cant wait!

Did you get your skimmer issues worked out? I have heard several people having gravity feed issues.

I was originally planning on the blue throat triggers for my tank too, but when I saw this pair I fell in love with them immediately. I just couldn’t think of life in my tank without them.

Good luck with your pair when you get them. Triggers have an awesome personality.

I still feel that my skimmer isn’t working as well as it should but I am still pleased with it. I shorten the feed line to it and also restrict the amount of water entering the skimmer. Both changes seem to help but I don’t get a lot of thick skimate from the collection cup. I seem to be able to only skim wet.

[mcrist]

Originally posted by radone
Coming along nice, yes nice fish!

What are the white pipes across the top (return)
What were the dimensions LOVE the width

The two white pipes running the length of the tank are my return lines. I wanted to have my sump water returning to the opposite end of the aquarium. I never liked where I had the return line when I first setup my tank. I am very happy with this change.

The dimensions of the tank are 84� long x 48� deep x 30� tall. I wanted to have an 8’ tank but I couldn’t fit it in my house comfortably. Now I am glad because I wouldn’t have wanted the extra weight. I couldn’t be happier with the dimensions of my tank.

[mcrist]

Originally posted by LNell
That crosshatch pair is absolutely amazing!

Thank you, I feel the crosshatch pair completed my fish stock quite nicely.

[radone]

Thanks for the info
Those are nice dimensions

Good Luck and keep the pics flying

[fishymann]

amazing tank love it

[invincible569]

Originally posted by mcrist
I I am not planning to add any additional fish to my setup.

LOL!! Until next month right?

[mcrist]

Originally posted by invincible569
LOL!! Until next month right?

I hope not, I don't want any problems with my nitrates. Not to mention the triggers definitely intimidate some of the smaller fish. I saw their eyes the first time the triggers swam by.

[invincible569]

Originally posted by mcrist
I hope not, I don't want any problems with my nitrates. Not to mention the triggers definitely intimidate some of the smaller fish. I saw their eyes the first time the triggers swam by.

Those are some sweet fish. Wouldnt mind having some myself.

[Grunt]

Stunning tank. I was curious how much sand you put in there, as far as lbs and how many inches. Also how many lbs of live rock is in that puppy. Sorry if you ahve already answered my question previously, I must have missed it.

Nice coral colonies btw. Great size to some of those, is that the green frogspawn on the top of that one formation?

[mcrist]

Originally posted by Grunt
Stunning tank. I was curious how much sand you put in there, as far as lbs and how many inches. Also how many lbs of live rock is in that puppy. Sorry if you ahve already answered my question previously, I must have missed it.

Nice coral colonies btw. Great size to some of those, is that the green frogspawn on the top of that one formation?

I put approximately 1000 pounds of sand in the tank. About 950 pounds of that was sugar-size aragonite and I believe it was from CaribSea. The rest was a mixture of larger grains of aragonite that made up the rest of my deep sand bed. It is at least 6 inches deep in the majority of the tank with some areas a little lower.

The rock was purchased over the years for my previous tanks. My best guess is about 350 pounds of Fiji rock. I was happy with my aquascaping until I added the triggers. Now all the nooks and crannies seem too small for these beasts. They did seem to find a favorite spot so let’s see how that works out. Anyway, I doubt my wife wants to see the kiddy pools upstairs again so I can rearrange the rock.

I always try to look for corals that are on the larger size. Most of the time I only find them as a small frag which would fit perfectly in a nano tank but not mine. The frogspawn was in one piece until this past weekend. I went to move it since it was now touching the colt coral and the skeleton broke into two pieces. I am debating on gluing them back together or to leave them apart.

[Grunt]

In my experience they can grow quite fast under the right conditions. So you can have two colonies. Or you can glue em back together. In any case it looks great.

My wife loves frogspawns and hammers, I dont mind either. She is interested in the tank and not so much the money :-P
Your tank is somewhat inspirational since thats similar to what I had in mind. Although I think we will skip the triggers. Hope you enjoy yours.

Cheers

[mcrist]

I am currently looking into replacing my current Kent RO/DI unit. I seem to have outgrown it since it is only a 50gpd unit and with my cold tap water is more like a 25gpd. I really like the SpectraPure MAXCAP RO/DI 150gpd unit but I read that SpectraPure is going to be releasing a new microprocessor controlled RO in about a month. It’s supposed to revolutionize the RO market, but should I wait. Of course the company wants to make a big stink about how great it will be, but will it be worth it. Not to mention when they wrote revolutionize, that just translates into expensive.

[mcrist]

Originally posted by Grunt
In my experience they can grow quite fast under the right conditions. So you can have two colonies. Or you can glue em back together. In any case it looks great.

My wife loves frogspawns and hammers, I dont mind either. She is interested in the tank and not so much the money :-P
Your tank is somewhat inspirational since thats similar to what I had in mind. Although I think we will skip the triggers. Hope you enjoy yours.

Cheers

I haven’t decided yet on gluing the frogspawn back together or leaving them apart, maybe this weekend when I work on the tank. It always looked awesome because of the sheer size of it but I did lose one head since it was too far on the bottom and not getting enough light.

Frogspawns and hammers have always been on the top of the list form me. Any coral that moves in current get two thumbs up in my book.

I wish my wife was more interested in the tank than the money. At least she doesn’t complain too much when she gets the call from the LFS and I ask her if she loves me.

What’s with this somewhat inspirational comment…

We shall see if the triggers were worth it. I do wish they were a little bit more active.

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

WOW! I am planning on getting a 240-300g reef tank. I currently have a 75 FO with a Niger Trigger, Dogface Puffer, and Snowflake Eel. are snowflakes reef safe?

[mcrist]

Originally posted by TheSaltwaterGuy
WOW! I am planning on getting a 240-300g reef tank. I currently have a 75 FO with a Niger Trigger, Dogface Puffer, and Snowflake Eel. are snowflakes reef safe?

Not sure I never had one due to an eel’s abilities to get out of a tank. Everything that I have seen points to that they would be safe with corals but would probably attack shrimp and any small fish.

[Sanjay]

Nice pair of cross hatch triggers ? How big are they. i am tempted to try something like that, but I am not a fan of big fish.

Did you get them at something fishy ?

sanjay.

[mcrist]

Originally posted by Sanjay
Nice pair of cross hatch triggers ? How big are they. i am tempted to try something like that, but I am not a fan of big fish.

Did you get them at something fishy ?

sanjay.

Thanks. They are about 6-7 inches long. The female gave me a heart attack when introducing her to the tank; she jumped out of the bucket and landed on my kitchen floor.

Yes they were purchased at Something Fishy. Have you been there before? Todd is a good guy and I have never had any problems with his livestock. Good prices too.

[bigtyguyy]

very sweet tank... keep up the hard work!

[mcrist]

Last week I purchased a MaxCap RO/DI unit from SpectraPure. I went with the 180 GPD model since they dropped the 300 GPD units due to poor membrane performance. I wanted the higher GPD but I guess a better membrane is more important. I needed to upgrade my older Kent RO and Coralife DI unit for awhile since it couldn’t keep up with my water requirements and it always seemed to let some nitrates and phosphates get by.

[mcrist]

I also purchased a LiterMeter III from SpectraPure last week to help dose Kalk. My system’s alkalinity was always low and I was tired of manually dosing my system with B-Ionic Buffer liquid supplement.

I’m seriously looking at the Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System that I found of Reef Central. I always tread softly when it comes to cheap solutions because you usually pay for it in the end but it does seem to work for a lot of people.