My 180 gallon sps reef tank

[jjoos99]

I thought that I would share several pics of my 180 gallon tank. I previously had a 120 gallon that was close to 20 years old and was in need of alot of work so I decided to upgrade. After starting out with some softies, lps and such I started to get addicted to sps. After alot of learning and upgrading equipment I feel that I am experiencing pretty good success. I started out the route of t-5s and a smaller g3 skimmer. After a year or so with the t5s I was unhappy with the growth and some of the coloration I was getting I decided to go the route of halides. I enjoy doing my own projects so I built my own hood along with modding my skimmer (which was upgraded to a euroreef) to run with twin 5000 sedra pumps being recirculating. I also diy'ed my own copy of lumenarc reflectors for about a 1/4 of the cost. I have the reflectors mounted together with 2 t-5s running blue+ bulbs. They are all on drawer slides so I can just slide them back out of the way when I want to work in the tank. I am running a mr2 twin calcium reactor along with an autotop off unit that makes things pretty much low maintence. i currently change about 20 gallons of water a week and use seachem salt. After trying the route of modding maxijets for circulation I bit the bullet and bought some used vortechs and what a difference the flow has made. Polyp extension went crazy within a week of adding them. I will get some pics together of some of the corals and post them later.
Jeff

[jeremyreef]

:poster_kewlpics:that is one nice set up you have! i like i like :D

[marinelife]

Tank is coming along nicely. You are doing a great job. Thanks for the pictures!!

[chromiumlux]

Nice..very nice! pic 3----juan valdez anyone?

[mayhem_audio]

looks awsome gives me somthing to strive for

[ghurlag]

frak me... I didn't realize you had such an awesome setup!

[jjoos99]

thanks for the kind words. It has been alot of work and alot of learning to get it where it is. I do hate to admit that to have great success you have to spend the $$$$. I have tried several diy low cost alternative but never really was satisfied with my corals until I saved and spent the extra money on better equipment.
I recently switched over my lighting from 20k halide bulbs to 10k and have been impressed with the color change in the corals and growth increase. One thing I have learned over the past 2 years is you never seem to stop learning new tricks and sometimes mistakes.
jeff

[chromiumlux]

So true Jeff!! Can we get some close up shots of your corals? I am currently running 20k mh over ny 30g. I have great color but moderate growth in my acros. I have a new 15k bulb. I may move up to this and see what happens. I have been amassing the equipment to start my 150g build and plan tho run LEDs over this tank.

[jjoos99]

I loved the blue color of the 20k but after 4 months of use I noticed the colors of alot of my corals had washed out some. I was surprised of the color increase and most of the corals started getting new growth tips. I dont mind the looks of the 10k bulbs at all. they are still new but I dont notice the yellow color alot of people report. It might be the help from the t-5s. i will see if I can get some pics up of some of my corals. I have 2 pieces that came from Eric over 3 years ago that I tried to grow under just 4 t-5s with not alot of luck until I got them in my new tank with the better lighting.
Jeff

[marinelife]

In my 180 I ran a 6500k on each end and a 20000k in the middle with 2 VHO actinics, I liked the look and the corals loved it.

[marinelife]

How is the tank doing?
How are the LEDs?

[jjoos99]

I do need to do some updating on this thread.
I am totally satisfied with the leds. My colors are very nice. My only complaint is I should have bought en larger heat sinks so that I could add another dozen leds to each sink so if I felt I ever would need to increase the intensity I would have the space on the sinks to do so. My led setup of 106 leds over a 6 ft 180 gallon tank is equal to a 10k halide setup, with alot better color of course. I feel as if another dozen per light would bring it up to a 400 watt strength.
My tank has been suffering off and on from stn from the base up on my corals. I discovered I was using my test kit wrong and I had nitrates upwards in the 60 range. I built my own coil denitrate filter and started to remove some of my substrate and I have it down now where it will barely change the color in the test vial. Along with that mistake I found my ph probe had gone out of calibration and I was having ph dips at night into the 7.8 range. I run a ca reactor and it was driving down the ph. I have since added a geo kalk reactor that all my top off water is going through. I have a pretty good ph now and have been working at getting the ca reactor dialed in to steady my alk in the 10 range. The good thing is I have been seeing new growth and encrusting which I havent seen in quite awhile. My corals have gotten quite large. I just ordered a compact flash card reader and as soon as it comes in I will post up some more updated pics.
Jeff

[marinelife]

Glad to hear things are going well. I can not wait to see some pictures.

[ghurlag]

Sounds like you have had some trials and tribulations. Glad you are getting it all figured out. Hope to see some pics up soon!

[Eshyr]

Yaaa!! to pics :)

[jjoos99]

Here a few pics of my tank and several corals I took tonight.

[jjoos99]

A few more

[dogfytr]

very nice

[marinelife]

Lost of nice looking corals!!!

[Eshyr]

Nice tank! Love the rock scaping! The corals look like they are reaching for the sky :)

[jjoos99]

Thanks for the compliments. This hobby has been a trial of patience at times. Wouldnt it be nice if corals could tell us what is exactly wrong with your water? My water is testing out good now but several of my corals are not extended near as much as they should be.
Jeff

[chromiumlux]

What type of flow you got going in your tank Jeff? I have found in my tank that my acros love the wave action more than any other type of flow.

[ghurlag]

Those are some nice looking colonies, Jeff!