ETR's Acro Tank

Beautiful Regal Angel!
great decision on going with Herbie style drain. No more salt creep in your sump/stand :)
I'm not sure how you're going to avoid coraline algae, you will need to only buy fully encrusted frag plugs, or buy SPS that aren't attached to plugs that might have microscopic coraline on them. I hate cleaning coraline myself.
 
We need a FTS. BTW is the "penis" rock in there? You can play a game like find Waldo. :sarcastic:

Regarding the coraline, My tank was up for 15 months and I had very little of it. It was helpful starting with dead rock, but I tried to keep it out of my tank as well. I can't tell you if I would have had luck long term, but one can hope.

I'm so happy the regal has made it. He sure looks happy and healthy in his new home!
 
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Looks great and absolutely love the regal. You know you'll get coralline though, especially with those T5s. That purple crap loooooooves SPS tank conditions :mad:
 
Haha, I know I'll get coralline eventually but hoping it won't be too soon :)

Here's the latest FTS, can't wait to start stocking ...

 
EricTheRed said:
Haha, I know I'll get coralline eventually but hoping it won't be too soon :)

Here's the latest FTS, can't wait to start stocking ...

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my coraline took off crazy after i bleach and acud washed the rocks . Ptobably cause there was less coral so had more calcium and stuff to use to grow . I say few months whole tank be purple again
 
Well, it didn't take long but there is already some coraline, hair algae and even some bubble algae that hitch-hiked their way into my formerly sterile tank ;)
I knew it wouldn't last, haha! No doubt from the 66 pieces of SPS I've added in the last 90 days. I still have a little bit of surface area for a few more frags, but not much. I'll be getting a few pics posted soon to start documenting the growth.
 
looking forward to seeing some pictures. Being so far away.... I just don't have the time to head over there like I used to.... I bet the tank is starting to look sweet.....

:beer:
 
DanSreef said:
looking forward to seeing some pictures. Being so far away.... I just don't have the time to head over there like I used to.... I bet the tank is starting to look sweet.....

:beer:
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Yeah and my frag racks are filling up with sticks for you when you're ready. I sure could use a few beers tonight..........
 
EricTheRed said:
The time has come for me to finally reboot my 90G after the crash earlier this year. The tank has been sitting dormant for about 6 months while I marinated in the lose of so many acro's and other nice coral. After the crash I focused on stocking my 75G with 6 awesome BTA's and some slick softies.

Now it's time to focus on getting the SPS tank up and running again and this time I'm taking my time and setting things up the way I wished I had in the beginning. As the title says, this is going to be primarily an acro tank. I'm sure I'll have a few monti's mixed in, a clam or two and likely a few chalices. Otherwise this will strictly be an SPS tank...no softies or LPS. I also have a sweet new yellow bellied Regal Angel hanging out in another tank ready to be introduced as soon as the cycle is complete.

I'm using the same stand as before. There were a few worn areas that I lightly sanded and re-stained...it looks good as new. As far as all the old rock, I soaked it in bleach for a day then gave it an acid bath. It looks great and the acid bath cooked off the outer layer and exposed a more porous surface on most of the rock.

I had a custom sump built by Anthony at Nano Sea Creations. Although it came out 6" longer than I ordered, I'm still very happy with it and the overall quality is top-notch.



I only used about 2/3 of the rock and here's what it looked like after the bath...



Originally I was planning on buying some CeramEco pieces but their only distributor is worthless. I decided to make my own using real reef rock...I think it looks better anyway...



My wife didn't want me to use this rock...it was going to be my centerpiece but she seriously didn't want it visible in our family room...



My plan with this tank to have a more minimal rock-scape to allow for more water and room for fish while allowing lots of places for acros up top. I epoxied the pillars together for stability...







I added 30 lbs of Tropic Eden Reef Flakes, filled the tank and added a few raw shrimp today to start the fish-less cycle. Once the cycle is over I'll update with some new full-tank shots.

So here's the stats:

90G Glass w/ Oak stand and canopy.

Lights:
1) Geismann Spectra Metal Halide & T5. Has 2x250W SINGLE ended and 4x54W T5. I'll be able to run 20kRadiums with 3 ATI Blue Plus and 1 ATI True Actinic
2) Reef Brite XHO 36" LED Strip (all RB)

Flow:
2 MP40's

Skimmer:
Skimz Monster 201. It is suitable for tanks up to 533G...

I've been happy with my RKL and will keep using it but will likely succumb to per pressure and get an APEX in the future.
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Let me know if you part out with the center piece rock lol I'd like to throw that in my gfs tank just to see her reaction.

Awesome build by the way. Coming along quite well. where are you buying all your liveatock? Have you planned what will go where, color arrange? Or are you just going to improvise?
 
Thanks! Most of my sps came from local reefers. I drove up to WI and picked up a bunch from Adam at Battle Corals and ordered some online from Cultivated Reef. I also took advantage of Jason Fox being in town at the Aquatic Experience and scored a handful from him, but I'd say 70% came from other reefers. I only had 4 acros that survived the crash. Luckily my WCR Awesome Aussie made it. It is one of only two that were sold. (The other ended up in Cali, I think.) It has a blue-pink body with deep red polyps...will be my centerpiece.

As far as planning what will go where, yep, already done that. In fact they are already in the tank and barring any more adjustments for light preference I should be in grow-out mode soon. I tried to envision what the various shapes and colors would look like when they are colonies and placed them with a vision of what it would look like in two years. I'm sure it won't be exact but I'm hoping it will be close.
 
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Here's a bad cell phone pic. I can probably squeeze a few more acros in here but for the most part I'm going to leave things alone and let it grow-out. Having a bit of a cyano outbreak which I think came as a result of dosing NoPox. I've since stopped dosing everything and things have balanced out nicely. Aside from the cyano, the sps are doing awesome and growing fast. I'll likely run some Chemiclean Red Slime Remover this week and take a few closer pics once it is cleared up.

 
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