The Road to DanaMcK's 240g and 180g Dream Tanks - Page 4

Danamck · 02-26-2007, 03:03 AM

My six-line is a perfect fish - no problem with corals - can be a little agressive with other fish.

keyozoxmfc · 02-26-2007, 03:33 AM

hmm im still considering it.. i would like my tank peaceful, cause i get too stressed when i have agressive fish. when i had cichlids, i had about 10 die from getting attacked

man now im really looking at a 100 gallon FOWLR TANK!!!

Danamck · 02-26-2007, 07:46 PM

Just add him last and he will probably be fine.

Danamck · 03-05-2007, 03:40 AM

March 4th update:

180 is doing great. I moved the Moorish Idol and Black Cap Basslett into the 180 from QT. Both are doing great and getting along splendidly with the Purple Tang, Flame Angel, Yellow Tail Blue Damsel, and pair of Purple Firefish. I currently have a Flagfin Angel in QT for this tank - this is my wife's favorite fish.

I also purchased a gorgeous Scott's Fairy Wrasse yesterday that is destined for the 240 reef tank after a stint in QT. This fish is stunning, and ate less than 1 minute after being put in QT.

Pictures coming later in the week.

chase33 · 03-17-2007, 02:52 AM

Great thread. Lots of information. Danamck, I like your corals and fish. I also like the plumbing on the 240.

Danamck · 03-20-2007, 11:37 AM

Thanks, chase33. I really had a lot of fun putting it all together. And yes - there's nothing like hard pvc plumbing - at least you know that should never leak!

I really do feel lucky - I have a nice size tank for corals and reef-safe fish, and a nice size tank for non-reef-safe fish (although it occurred to me that all the fish in the 180, with the possible exception of the Moorish Idol, are reef safe! Bring on the Angels and Butterflies!

iglowce · 03-20-2007, 07:45 PM

i have 3 fish for my nano right now: mandarin, red scooter and flasher wrasse. they are all peceaful, gorgeous and doing well =]

did i mention reef-safe?

Danamck · 03-25-2007, 05:14 AM

OK. This has been a really crazy 2 weeks with my 240 reef. If you've read the thread, then you know I had two dedicated 20 amp circuits installed recently - one for the 240 reef and one for the recently set up 180 FOWLR. Of course these were GFI circuits.

Well, I woke up one morning to find that the 240 circuit had tripped. Based on the temp of the tank, it had probably been out 6 - 7 hours. UGGGGGHHHHH! Fortunately, the temp had only gone down to 72.5. I fired everything up and went to work. When I came home, the tank was back to 78. All the fish appeared fine. All the corals were fine with the exception of two leathers. That evening, I set my alarm to wake up every few hours to make sure the circuit did not trip again. It didn't. The next day we went out for the entire day, only to return home to the 240 with no power.

To make a long story a bit shorter, the circuit kept tripping intermitently. Sometimes it would stay on for days, sometimes for only a few seconds. Obviously, something was causing this to happen. I ruled out the actual circuit by swapping it with the 180 - same problem.

The weird part was that if the circuit had been off for a while, the tank would start right up with no problem. But one day it happened while I was home. When I went to reset the circuit, it tripped immediately. So I unplugged everything, turned on the circuit, and started plugging in everything one at a time. I started with all the pumps first, thinking that one of these would be the likely culprit. Wouldn't you know it - I ended up being able to plug EVERYTHING back in - and the circuit did NOT trip.

I knew I had to resove this soon, as we were planning on going on vacation soon. So I stayed home one day and waited for the circuit to trip. It did. This time I used a different approach. I ran a heavy duty extension cord over to the tank from the outlet, and started plugging in each component directly, one at a time. Everything worked fine until at last - I plugged in one of the 3 sets of power compact lights I have on the tank and the circuit tripped. I tested this twice more to make sure it wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. At last I had found the guilty party.

It has been 4 days now - and no more circuit trips! A new set of lights should be here Monday. All the fish are fine, and the 2 leathers have finally opened fully again. The strange part is I was sure that the item causing the trip was something in contact with the water, like a pump or powerhead. Turned out I was wrong.

**CarmieJo** · 03-25-2007, 10:54 PM

Good detective work.

keyozoxmfc · 03-26-2007, 12:03 AM

glad to hear that!
i would have died in the situation and not known what to do.

Danamck · 03-31-2007, 03:33 AM

It's been over a week and no more circuit trips. Yeah! All corals and fish are good (I was just waiting for my Powder Blue Tang to have an ich outbreak due to the stress of a drop in temp and no water circulation for 8 hours - didn't happen!)

Gave the 180 it's first water change (I call this a major clean, vs. a minor clean which is just cleaning the sides, salt creep, skimmer collection cup, etc.) All is well. 240 gets a major clean tomorrow. Sunday I get out the digital camera and get some new photos posted ... it's been too long.

chase33 · 03-31-2007, 01:36 PM

I'm not an electrician so I must ask what was wrong with the lights that caused them to trip the circuit? Are the new set you're purchasing different from the set that tripped the circuit?

Danamck · 03-31-2007, 02:09 PM

Chase33 -

I am not an electrician either. That said, I hace 3 different sets of power compact lights on my 240, each set consists of a single ballast and 2 96 watt bulbs. The set that failed was the oldest of the lights, it used to be the lights on my 125 way back when. I can only guess that there was some kind of short in the ballast or the end caps that attach to the bulbs. The new set is identical to the other 2 sets (SunPaq).

The good news is that the new set of lights are installed, the livestock is fine, and no more trips. I feel much better about the trip I will be taking soon!

Danamck · 03-31-2007, 04:44 PM

Here are some recent photos of the 180. This tank was set up as a FOWLR, to help me feed my love of butterflies and angels. Funny thing is - so far I have yet to add and butterflies or non-reef-safe angels. Go figure! The Flagfin Angel in QT did not make it. I am very torn regarding purchasing fish directly from importers (I have a friend who owns a LFS). While this may seem awesome (the fish tend to be 1/3 what you would pay for in a LFS) you don't have the ability to see if the fish have survived the shipping ordeal, or if they are eating. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I am amazed that the mortality rate of fish isn't higher, given what they endure on their trip from the ocean to our LFS. Neither my wife or I enjoy watching a fish slowly starve to death, so we have decided to purchase livestock from our LFS from now on.

The tank was set up with the goal of doing it as energy efficeint and as cheap as possible (without skimping on the important stuff). I live in California, and energy costs are very high here. The energy bill for my 240 reef tank (keep in mind this tank has no chiller and no metal halide lights) is $250 a month! I promised my wife that the 180 would only add about $75 to our monthly bill. I think I pulled it off.

The stand is a basic pine stand and canopy. The lights are basic T5s. There are 8 36" 21 watt bulbs, 6 daylight and 2 actinic. This is probably the only thing I'm going to upgrade. While I love T5s, I should have sprung for the high output ones. The current lighting scheme works out to 1 watt per gallon (I can here you laughing!) Keep in mind this is a FOWLR tank, though I did add some Kenya Tree weeds, I mean corals, and a green stripe mushroom. I also plan to add some Xenia and Colt Coral frags, as my Xenia is taking over the 240 and the Colt Coral badly needs a trim! They will probably become fish food for the angles and butterflies, but you never know.

The filtration consists of 175 lbs of Tonga live rock and 200 lbs of live sand (no skimping here!) I do not believe in deep sand beds (the topic of another thread) so the sand bed is only 1" - 2". I am using a standard 40 gallons glass tank as the sump. I use a 100 micron filter sleeve to filter particulate matter, and a Euro Reef RS180 skimmer for disolved waste. I found the 180 on Craigs List, BRAND NEW, for around $200 - an absolute steal. A 250 watt heater keeps the tank warm. There is no chiller, as all my tanks are in my garage, which stays nice and cool in the summer. I am using a 25 watt UV sterilizer to help prevent any water borne disease outbreaks (and yes - I QT all my livestock!) I am also running a Phosphate Reactor with RowaPhos. Water circulation is provided by (2) Quiet One 3000s (not my favorite pumps - but I had them lying around) for the sump returns. (2) Seio 820s and (1) Seio 1100 provide additional water movement. They are ugly, but they move a lot of water and use very little power. Total water turnover is 22x.

OK - enough text - on with the photos! The first is a shot of the entire tank. The second is the left third, staring my mated pair of Purple Fire Fish. The third photo is the middle, which happens to be the home of my Black Cap Basslet. He also is the only fish (out of 4) that I purchased from the importer to survive. The fourth photo is the right side of the tank. Yep - so far so good with the Morrish Idol. He is doing great. My only concern with the him is that he really needs to eat a lot. In the wild they are constantly grazing on sponge and algae. I am feeding my tank way more than I would like to in order to keep him looking healthy. The good news is that he eats EVERYTHING, so he is getting a good variety of foods. The bad news is my Purple Tang and Flame Angel need to go on a diet! The last photo is of the Moorish Idol striking a pose!

Man I need to get a better camera.