265 Gallon Mixed Reef

[MH_Courtney]

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Courtney and I have been in this hobby for 2+ years and my fiance has been in the hobby for over 7 years. We have a 265 gallon mixed reef that is about 1 year old. It started with the contents of a 75 gallon and we have been slowly trying to fill in all the extra space. It is amazing how a coral that can look like a huge colony in a 75 can look like a frag in a 265! The tank was started with overdriven T-5 bulbs and a few months ago we converted one side to LEDs so we could compare the T-5s and the LEDs. We just finished converting the rest of the fixture and we are very excited about the LEDs.

Here is a little background information on our system. The display is a 265 gallon glass tank (7' x 2' x 31") and the sump is a 30 gallon glass tank. We run 2 MP40 vortechs on reef crest 100% as well as the return pump for flow. Lighting is 72 three watt LEDs, 36 Cree Royal Blues and 36 Rebel Luxeon Whites. The Blues have 40 degree optics and the Whites have 60 degree optics. They are driven by 6 dimmable Meanwell drivers and we have a potentiometer for each color to control them. We run a protein skimmer and filter sock for filtration and I do a 10 gallon daily water change with Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt. We do not use any reactors of any kind, we rely on the water changes and a very small amount of Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Tropic Marin Bio-Magnesium daily to maintain our parameters. That about sums up the equipment side of our system, we try to keep things simple and effective and have found these methods give excellent results.

The livestock in the tank is still a work in progress. Some of the fish we currently have are a Powder Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, Female Crosshatch Trigger, Copper banded Butterfly, Filefish, a mated pair of Yellow Assessors, a mated pair of Maroon Gold Stripe Clownfish and several others. We still have quite a fish wish list for the tank that we are slowly working on. Corals are mostly SPS and just to name a few: ORA Joe the Coral, ORA Frogskin, Nathan's Green Milliepora, Idaho Grape Monticap, Orange Setosa, Orange Digitata, ORA Green Digitata and many other SPS frags. The LPS we have are mostly different acan lords with a few chalices as well as a basketball size colony of Purple Tip Frogspawn. The only soft corals we have are zoanthids and palythoas some of which include Red People Eaters, Candy Apple Reds and Armor of Gods to name a few.

Some daily maintenance that I do on the tank includes the 10 gallon water change, dosing the Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium and Bio-Magnesium and feeding a variety of frozen foods to the fish and corals. The fish also receive dry pellets in an auto feeder twice a day. I change the filter sock every other day and clean the skimmer collection cup and test the water parameters once a week and clean the glass as needed.

I think that about sums up everything with the tank. We try to keep everything as simple as possible and have definitely seen some amazing growth. I am very excited to see in a year or so how much more mature it will look as everything grows and fills in more.

Here are a few pictures, the full tank shot is from May 2010 and many of the coral shots are from August 2010. These pictures are all with full T-5s on the tank. I will be posting more recent pictures soon so that everyone can see how it looks with the LEDs.

[MH_Courtney]

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/IMG_1561.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/AOGPaly08-26-10.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/BlueTort08-23-10.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Bubble08-26-10.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/FruitLoopsAcan08-26-10.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Joethecoral08-23-10-1.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/ORAGreenDigi08-31-10.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Setosa08-31-10.jpg

[CalmSeasQuest]

Welcome to CR Courtney - Beautiful tank!

I agree with you about the LEDs, I've been 100% LED for a little over a year :)

[jolson10450]

Welcome! and looks good! i like that acan!

[Manoj's Reef]

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/FruitLoopsAcan08-26-10.jpg

This is a very nice acan, It looks very similar to happy ending acan.

[MH_Courtney]

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/FruitLoopsAcan08-26-10.jpg

This is a very nice acan, It looks very similar to happy ending acan.

Thanks, it is a fruit loops acan

[tankdude]

Very beautiful tank.

[Sir Patrick]

Very nice!!!!

[iyachtuxivm]

Very nice tank! You say you are running the mp40s on your tank. How thick is the glass on your tank? Reason I am asking is I have heard that at the 1/2" mark its a gamble on the 40s if it will stay attached. Ever have any issues like that? I am looking into them for my 225.

[Heidi]

Very nice tank! Welcome to CR can't wait to see more of your pictures!

[creefer]

Welcome to CR!! Beautiful tank!

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Sweet tank and welcome to CR! I'm looking forward to seeing the LEDs. Also, are those 6 small fish in the center of the FTS? If so, what are they?

Thanks,
Tom

[MH_Courtney]

Very nice tank! You say you are running the mp40s on your tank. How thick is the glass on your tank? Reason I am asking is I have heard that at the 1/2" mark its a gamble on the 40s if it will stay attached. Ever have any issues like that? I am looking into them for my 225.

I think the glass is about 1/2" and no problem with the vortechs.

[iyachtuxivm]

Thanks for the info! We will now need new pics with the leds. lol

[MH_Courtney]

Thanks again everyone :) I have a pretty busy weekend but hopefully I can snap a few pictures. I am still trying to figure my camera out, im still pretty hit or miss.


Sweet tank and welcome to CR! I'm looking forward to seeing the LEDs. Also, are those 6 small fish in the center of the FTS? If so, what are they?

Thanks,
Tom

Those are red spot cardinals. We had quite a number of them but they have slowly dwindled. Every few weeks they would see to exile a fish from the group and within about a week that fish was gone. The only time we would lose one is when it would be seperated from the group.

[MH_Courtney]

I don’t think I ever explained the water change system on this tank. I have a 20 gallon high tank that is gravity fed through a solenoid to the sump of the 265. I have a heater and powerhead in the water change tank and I add salt to this tank every day after I do a water change. The water change has gotten a bit more complex since we added our frag system but I will talk more about that in another thread. I drain 10 gallons from the sump through a hose and then I flip a switch and 10 fresh gallons drains from the water change tank into the sump. The water change tank is automatically filled through a solenoid off the RO/DI unit and float switches. Having this automated system makes doing water changes a piece of cake and actually possible. I can't imagine how long it would take me to do a 10 gallon water change a day if I had to manually fill buckets.

[Sir Patrick]

The water change system sound awsome! Any chance at a pic of the whole water change set up?

[MH_Courtney]

I could try to get a few pictures but it might be a little hard to get from the pictures. My water change tank is upstairs in our "zoo"/office and is plumbed down through the floor to the tank in the family room. Later this afternoon I will be posting a thread on our new frag system which was added on to the end of this water change set-up.

[MH_Courtney]

I just posted a thread on our new frag system http://www.captivereefs.com/forum/diy-projects-plans/3-tier-frag-rack-system-w-leds-12964/

[MH_Courtney]

So I haven't had time to take any new pictures but here are some old ones I was digging through today. A few are a little more recent but everything is still with the T-5s. I figure these should work as growth shots as well. I think the only more recent one I included is a purple/green chalice (supposed to be a watermelon but I don't have any lineage on it) and I included a growth shot with it. The first pic is from end of August and the other pic is from the middle of February.

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/chalice9-10-10.jpg
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/_MG_3069.jpg
Yellow torch
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/_MG_3053.jpg
Copper banded butterfly
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/_MG_3094.jpg
Green Millie
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GreenMilli5-3-10.jpg
Green Slimer and Xenia
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GreenSlimer5-3-10.jpg
Hairy Mushroom
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/hairymushroom.jpg
Female Maroon Gold Strip Clown
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/MaroonClownfemale05-03-10.jpg
Midas Blenny
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/MidasBlenny9-10-10.jpg
Mixed Zoos
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/MixedZoas08-31-10.jpg
Acan
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/orangeacan9-10-104.jpg
Orange Digi
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/OrangeDigi08-31-10.jpg
Acan
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/redacan2-12-11.jpg
Sun Coral
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/SunCoral5-14-103.jpg
Female Crosshatch Trigger
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/TriggerFemale08-20-102.jpg
Xenia
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Xenia11-14-105.jpg
Yellow Tang
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/YellowTang11-14-10.jpg

[Heidi]

Beautiful system you guys have! I love the midas blenny! I impulsed bought one when I first set up my tank and he got the ich and died. I had never even been to the petstore he was from but he was such a cool fish. I have ordered another to add to my big tank from somewhere I trust, can't wait to have that frisky guy again! SO cute and fun to watch

[MH_Courtney]

So I finally got a chance to take some pictures last night. I am stilling trying to figure the camera out so bear with me. I was finally starting to get decent pictures with the T-5s and now the LEDs are harder to get good pictures because there is definitely a lot more shadowing in the tank. I used the tripod for the first time last night and what a difference. I don't know how I ever got any decent pictures without it. A little bit harder to use the tripod for the fish but I was getting a much better ratio of good to bad pictures. I got 3 good pictures of the Powder Blue in one night where normally I am lucky to 1 good fish picture in about 5 nights worth.

Anyway on to the pictures. There is definitely a noticeable difference with the LEDs versus the T-5s when you look straight on at the tank. I am starting to get used to the black bars because of the braces but in pictures it looks terrible. I will say that up until a few days ago I was still doubting the LEDs. You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. The T-5s were working fine and we were getting good color and growth. However….since switching to full LEDs I am seeing even better polyp extension then I have ever seen before. Also several of my acans that were a little plain looking are starting to morph with some greens and yellows. Only time will tell for the long term but the results I am seeing already definitely has me convinced that it was a good switch not only for money and energy savings but for coral growth and color as well.

Powder Blue Tang
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/PowderBlue3-9-11contestpic.jpg

Midas Blenny in his hole
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Blenny3-9-11.jpg

Blue Green Tort
This one doesn't appear to have grown a lot from the previous shot I have of it but I fragged off the larger right branch and I now have a frag almost the size of this colony in my frag tank.
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/BlueTort3-9-11.jpg

Chromis
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/chromis3-9-11.jpg

Frogspawn
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/frogspawnmacro3-9-11.jpg

Green Torch
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/greentorch3-9-11.jpg

Hairy Mushrooms
As you can see from further up there has been a lot of growth here
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/HairyMushroom3-9-11.jpg

ORA Joe the Coral
This has so much polyp extension you can barely see the skeleton, the difference in polyp extension in this picture compared to the previous one is insane.
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/joethecoral3-9-11.jpg

Orange Digitata
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/orangedigi3-9-11.jpg

Powder Blue Tang
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/powderblue13-9-11.jpg
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/powderblue3-9-11.jpg

RBTA and Clowns
Not sure if you can really appreciate the size of this RBTA but the hammer next to it is a 4 headed frag and the clowns are 2" and 5". This is the easier one to see but you will see in the full tank shot that there are 2 in the tank and the other one is about the same size but most of it is behind the rock.
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/RBTA3-9-11.jpg

Acan
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/RedAcan3-9-11.jpg

Full Tank Shot 3-9-11
Not quite head on, too much stuff in the way for the tripod but I will try not to be so lazy next time.
The colors are tad bit off in some of these, the color in the FTS are pretty accurate though.
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/fts3-9-11.jpg

Center
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/centershot3-9-11.jpg

Left Side
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/leftside3-9-11.jpg

Right Side
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/rightside3-9-11.jpg

[MizTanks]

Seems you def got the hang of your camera :) very beautiful pictures.

[MH_Courtney]

I took a few more quick pictures of the tank this afternoon.

Full tank shot
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/FTS3-15-11.jpg

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/FlowerpotMonti3-15-11.jpg

Pink Birdsnest
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/PinkBirdsnest3-15-11.jpg

Green Ricordia
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GreenRic3-15-11.jpg

Green Torch
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GreenTorch3-15-11.jpg

Acan starting to morph under LEDs
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/RedAcan3-15-11.jpg

Gold Assessor
We have a spawning pair of these guys.
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GoldAssessor3-15-11.jpg

Green Star Polyps
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/GSP3-15-11.jpg

Hairy Mushroom
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Hairymushroom3-15-11.jpg

Orange Digi
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/OrangeDigi3-15-11.jpg

Crosshatch Trigger
This is her favorite spot
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/TriggerFemale3-15-111.jpg

Chalice
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/Chalice3-15-11.jpg

Maroon Clownfish Female
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/MaroonFemale3-15-11.jpg

Idaho Grape Monticap
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/IdahoGrapeMonti3-15-11.jpg

Copperbanded Butterfly
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/CopperbandedButterfly3-15-11.jpg

Xenia
http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv183/ponies999/265%20gallon/xenia3-15-11.jpg

[Manoj's Reef]

Nice pics!!!

[Sir Patrick]

I am loving this tank!!!

How long has it been running?

[Rabidgoose]

Very nice set-up, very neat and clean. Now....more pictures of the CBB, I love those things...:)

[MizTanks]

Thats it, I'm taking scuba lessons. Your tank is beautiful!

[MH_Courtney]

Nice pics!!!


I am loving this tank!!!

How long has it been running?

Thanks! It is just over a year old


Very nice set-up, very neat and clean. Now....more pictures of the CBB, I love those things...:)


Thats it, I'm taking scuba lessons. Your tank is beautiful!

Thanks so much everyone :)

[MizTanks]

This may be a silly question, but I'm looking and looking and I can't see where or how you have your tank plumbed. How do you?