A number of you guys know me from CORA and GCAS... I finally joined Ohio Reef, so I feel like I can post a thread in here...
This is from Christmas last year and shows the old lights
Here's a higher res version where you can really make out the coralline algae on the glass:
http://www.reefjunk.com/photos/albums/userpics/reef_frnt.jpgI like big Caps...
The tank is just shy of 7 ft long. Most of the pictured caps have grown significantly in the 8+ months since that pic. The 2 biggest are out of the water. Today, the Green one on the right is easily 2 ft across (again). Last year I fragged well over a square foot off that thing. Well over...
I use Streams and Waveboxes for in-tank flow - lately, just the waveboxes, although I want to put the streams back in to try clockwise and counterclockwise tidal style flows.
Light in the pic were 4x250W Phoenix DE on HQI ballasts. Shortly after that pic, I switched to 2x400W Radiums on HQI ballasts in LumenMax2 pendants. Love them... Both setups utilized light movers to help those lamps cover a larger area than they should. In a non-light-mover SPS setup, I should really have a minimum of about 8x250W over that tank.
Photo period is about 8 hours a day - no staggering or anything like that.
The frag tray (currently 2x250W) is on a reverse photo period for about 8 hours.
In the next room I keep my equipment...
GEO Calcium Reactor
GEO Dart NW Skimmer
120 gallon sump with a Sequence Dart return pump
DIY 90 gallon acrylic - 3 section frag tray
DIY Kalkwasser or GFO reactor
I have 2 more auxillary tanks, but I've disconnected them. I keep them topped off and add skimmate occasionally to feed them. I will be rearranging these in the near future...
120 gallon Cheato tank
120 gallon Cryptic Sponge tank
This winter, I hope to convert my old 180 into a 2/3 frag tank + 1/3 cheato tank using my used Radiums and a light mover. If I do it right, I can partition the tank in half vertically and put the sponge rocks in the bottom half where they will get less flow and almost no light - and do their cryptic thing (consuming silicates and bacteria and a low flow refuge for pods).
Then I can sell the frag tray (Brian Miller's old one - which has 3 seperate 24x24x10 sections with independent input and drain lines).
Once that's done, I want to convert the two remaining 120 gallons into a manual water change system - similar to something I saw in a few Tank of the Month threads on RC.
I also want to take about 1/2 the rock out of my tank so I can re-scape the tank and lower the big caps so you can see the real color from the front (rather than the top down view).
Oh, before I forget...
One of the best pieces of equipment I've ever bought for the tank was an Air Exchanger that can handle about 12,000 cubic feet of living space. I plumbed it to the outdoors and into the sump room (which as adjacent to the tank room in the basement). It is not plumbed as a whole house unit, but probably could come close in my house. It is about 90% efficient at recovering heat that would be lost with a simple vent fan.
Normally, heat and reef tanks don't go together, but not only does this thing do a good job of keeping the heat in the house from October to April; it keeps the humitidy very low. It has the surprising bonus of controlling my evaporation rate - and thus tank temperature. The first time I used it, it made the air so dry that my tank evaporated way too much water and dropped 10 degrees overnight. Boy was I surprised. Now I've gotten good at adjusting the unit to maintain low humidity and a stable tank temp (and added a few heaters that I never thought I'd need).
No more condensation on the windows upstairs, no chance for mold, and a reasonable heating bill.
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