46 to 65gal upgrade. New photos added 1/17

Its the Pukani from BRS. Great rock, a little more expensive then Marcos or RC and without seeing their rock I can not say its better, many people here tell you you cant go wrong with any of the 3 sites. I love it though much better looking than any dense boulders I find in local stores ;D

 

The skimmer arrived last week and was easier to assemble then I had thought. Had a bit of an issue getting it primed but am thinking its mostly due to my inexperience, not knowing what to expect, and trying to run it on a tub of FW before putting it on the tank.

I finally put it on the tank last night though and all I can say is damn this thing is BIG. Had a lot of microbubbles but they seem to have cut back a great deal after running overnight. The pump is a little louder than I had hoped for, maybe after time it will be quieter??, and the output pipe sounds like a toilet bowl so I am hoping to cap it off. During installation I stepped and broke the glass top of the aquarium. Everybody was telling me to ditch the glass anyway so no biggie but now I have to figure out what to cover it with.

I also made my first modification as a safety feature since I have been so nervous about it overflowing. I put 2 holes near the top of the collection cup, 1 above the pipe the foam comes out of and what right about level with it, so I can connect airline tubing to a gallon container behind the tank in case it fills up to fast while Im away.

 

As always, pictures of the updates

Still have not moved the heater but I dont believe I will have an issue fitting it in here

After 8 hours of use


The overflow protection

Still have to modify inside the tank a little. Hoping to get rid of the skimmerbox and use a sponge prefilter, also want to modify the outlet a little bit to help reduce microbubbles but not sure where to start with that


Overall am happy with the purchase, just wish the pump was quieter I thought the OSH-1000 pumps that replaced the resun pumps were supposed to be pretty quiet. Not sure if that color skimmate is considering good but after only 8 hours Ill take it for now.

It seems like the tank is constantly evolving but at least equipment wise I believe I finally have all the pieces I need to have a successful reef

 

Nice setup. Just a note, xenia spread pretty fast and will likely cover that entire rock and anything else in contact. Most folks keep them on a small rock island where they cant spread. Unless you want them to spread over the rock, I would move them now if you still can.

Keep up the good work!

 

I am kind of hoping it spreads. I always tried to cram as many different types if plants and fish into a tank and it always looked unnatural. As I get older I am realizing the beauty in simplicity and really want my reef to look natural. I also plan on getting some pipe organ coral and some bluw snowflake polyp coral and am hoping that those 3 will spread naturally to different areas of the tank. I plan on getting only a few "specimen" if you want to call it that corals which would include a frogspawn or touch, maybe a scroll or a chalice of some sort, and thats about it. Im thinking those corals pack enough of an aggressive punch to sting any xenia that tries to invade.

If not there is always weeding

 

Added my second coral the other day, a ricordea yuma. Having a difficult time with the camera but ocne figured out pictures to follow.

Skimmer throwing less microbubbles and starting to make some nasty stuff. A little quieter but still louder than expected. Also still have the acrylic cover on the tank until I form a permenant cover, been thinking of trying to make a canopy. Wife is not to happy with me and hates the skimmer, asked if we really need it or if I can take it off and just lsoe out on the 80 bucks. Not sure if they make quieter mroe discrete skimmers that arent as big and bulky but may be in the future plans if she doesnt warm up to the reefoctopus lol.

 

If she makes you choose between her and the skimmer- I'd keep the skimmer. How long has it been up and running? They do have a break in period and then after that, it will get quieter. If you are just starting to pull out junk, it is probably just getting to the end.

 

HaHa, yea it does seem to be getting quieter. As much as I love my tank I would never ditch my wife for it, she just hates the look of the plumbing so maybe I can disguise it somehow with corals or rockwork. Will most surely go sump next time with my next setup, which will of course be MUCH bigger even she agrees so she can get the tangs and angels she loves ;D

 

Update. Thinking I need to rework my flow patterns now that the filter was moved and the skimmer added, seems to be really strong on the right and weak on the left saw my first sign of some cyano where there used to be high flow but now really low. Also the microbubbles attach to everything and form bigger bubbles on the rockwork kind of ugly looking hoping it will go away soon.

Pictures as promised



To give an idea of where I placed them in the tank


And some lovely little hitchhiker guys, still unidentified

 

I love the way your aquascape ended up! I find that the Tonga makes for great accent pieces! Love it!