Our project for Macna.

[gooch]

Most of you do not realize that I am the proud father of two special needs children. Well they are actually young adults now. My wife and I are very blessed to have them in our lives. Without getting too personal here we decided we were at the point of our business where we could give a little back.

This year we decided to set up a full 93 gallon marineland cube tank. We actually started this project last october. Believe it or not we ran into snag after snag after snag. But it is so close now I can talk about it more. This tank will be set up at Reefs Aquatics in Green Bay Wi for the next six months plus. At Macna a brand new tank and equipment will be given to a school in the Des Moines Iowa area. Home of Macna this year. I am hoping they place it in a special needs classroom. The Alternative Reef is supplying all the equipment and the structure. Reefs Aquatics is supplying the majority of the livestock. Since we want to give them new equipment much of what we are using on this tank had to be purchased in double.

We have gotten discounts from a few vendors and a few gifts from others to help offset the cost of this set up. Marineland sold us the tank at the normal sale price when it wasn't on sale. Tunze provided us a big discount on the equipment we will be using of thiers. Orphek Lighting was quick to get us a couple of fixtures when our first choice was unable to do so. Who Dah from Exotic Frags sent us a nice colony of Tubs Galaxia for the branching powerhead rock. We also have a really nice donation in the works from a private reefer we will talk about later.

If you want to read more about the set up and why we are doing it you can read it here. But I don't want to bore you with the details.

What we're doing for Macna 2011

Anyhow the tank is wet. Hoefully it will be set up and running on saturday. We hung the lights today and you can see the first part of the pillar in the tank. The rest is being fired next week and will go in the tank then. So, there is not much to see but it is finally happening.....yeah! I will be taking progress and growth shots every week or two and add them to this thread. I will probably change these pictures once I get the full tank set up.

[Sir Patrick]

Bump!!!!

[jimsflies]

Very generous of you Scott! I'm sure it will be awesome and enjoyed by the kids.

[creefer]

Very cool Scott! I

[gooch]

The tank is finally online. I had a kiln break down so I haven't finished firing the rest of the pillar. Parts should be here soon. I hope to have it in the tank by friday. We are still waiting on the pumps. I did take a pic of the Tubs Galaxia that was donated by Exotic Frags. This is what it looks like under the Orphek lights. No photo editing other than resizing.

Scott

[Tom@HaslettMI]

That is a beautiful looking tank and aquascape... and a great cause too!

Tom

[gooch]

This is what the finished aquascape will hopefully look like once I fire the rest of the pillar. I had to do it in three pieces so we could transport it. It is huge.

[gooch]

We have run into a few snags with the updating of this tank. Seems we will have to go a different direction with the lighting. I really loved the look of the lights but we have run into some issues behind the scenes and will have to put different light over this tank. I am really getting frustrated with this set up. It shouldn't be this difficult. I have also been waiting on a kiln part for three weeks now. Hopefully it will get here on tuesday and I can finish this aquascape.

[gooch]

Here are the pics of the tank with a few corals in it. The Tubs Galaxia, the birdnest and the brain coral are all staying in the tank. The rest of the corals are just there for show right now. I am going to go there when both Pete and Chris from the store are present and we will discuss how to stock it. The Galaxia is going to get cut up and placed on the branching magnetic power head holder. That bad boy has some long sweepers so it gets it's own rock.

The tank does have a light on it. I was able to borrow an Aqua Illumination Sol Blue. But it needs at least one more before we stock it fully.
Pictures are 3-292-011. We put the corals in the tank on saturday. That galaxia is awesome.

[gooch]

Tunze Products arrived on tuesday. Big thanks to Roger Vitco and Tunze USA for wanting to be a part of this donation. As you can see in the pic. There is a lot of Tunze going into this give away. Two of the four Streams will go in the tank today and the other two will be given to the school.




This is a pic from a few days ago. We actually have a lot of coral already placed in the tank. Just waiting for one more SOL BLUE so we can finish up the stocking of the tank. Unfortunately I think we will be waiting for awhile. MY LFS ordered me a couple last November. I waited well into January before I went with other lights. Unfortunately that didn't work out and I had to reorder the Sol's. So who knows when I will get them. I am using one of the owners of Reefs personal fixture until the schools show up. Getting the lighting for this tank has been very frustrating and has ended up costing $2800 more than I had planned. But what are you gonna do right?