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Unfortunately I have a little bit of Ich going on and sadly lost my beautiful Achilles Tang, hopefully I can nip it in the bud before I lose anything else. Some pics and a vid.

So far I don't have a big enough quarantine, LOL, so I acclimate and watch closely. I did have a bit of Ich, but has since been controlled by use of Ich medicine and UV, I would imagine the Cleaner Shrimp helped also.

More Pics

LOL, surprised myself when I wrote the list, didn't realize I had added 13 Tangs! The schools of chromis and anthias are amazing.

Lol, glass is a little dirty from algae bloom still dieing away and water is murky after working on system. And I need to work out the lighting on my camera or run them through photoshop. Once I get the ozone going that will help also.

Should be really full and looking nice by then

The clams range from 5" to 8" across. The Achilles Tang is the biggest at about 7" in length. The smallest Tang is the Purple at about 2" in length. So far everything gets along great. Still tweaking some things, but the system is doing awesome.

More Pics Enough Seaweed to feed all the Tangs - about 800 sheets worth in this picture Socks are working well and also have basically a simple algae scrubber and particle catcher at the beginning

Some Pics

Started adding things to the tank Fish List: 60 - Green Chromis 10 - Blue Chromis 17 - Anthias 2 - Blue Tangs 2 - Yellow Tangs Unicorn Tang Black Shoulder Tang Achilles Tang Maculiceps Tang Purple Tang Powder Blue Tang Vlamingii Tang Naso Tang Desjardini Sailfin Tang Scooter Blennies Sailfin Algae Blennies Mated pair of Leopard Wrasses Six Line Wrasse Mystery Wrasse Coral Beauty Angelfish Potters Angelfish 4 - Pajama Cardinalfish Star Spot Rabbitfish Magnificent Rabbitfish Various Gobies More to come

Thanks! Will do. I am actually in L.A. right now for Christmas, but have some beautiful fish going into the tank as soon as I get back. I am sure Clay could post some amazing pics of a few of the amazing Tangs I am collecting. Garrett is also filling my tank with 60 Blue/Green Chromis and 20 Anthias as my schooling fish, along with various inverts, corals, and other fish. January is going to be a big month for the tank, and a challenge for me to keep it all in balance.

Fish and Coral will begin to be added in January. As of right now Temp is at 78, PH is at 7.9, and Salinity is at 1.026.

Lights are up! Even LED light over the area where my Chaeto will grow I installed a lift system for the LED lights, lifts them 12" higher so I can easily get access to the whole tank. At the lowest they are about 6" above the water. Power for lighting (18 AI SOL Blue's over the main tank, 1 AI SOL Blue over the refugium) LED light over refugium - Also I am trying to rescue some Mangrove plants from a friend

The 450 Gallon was acrylic and I can't remember who built it, but it was built for around $4000 I believe. My 750 Gallon is glass and was made by Miracles up in Canada for about $5,000 (not including shipping). There are quite a few Acrylic Tank Makers in the U.S., I think even a good one is located in L.A. Just my opinion, but I would avoid the company GlassCages, they are cheap, but you get what you pay for IMO. Good Luck, and I host a meeting this May that you can see my tank in person.

Lights are being mounted next week. 3 out of 7 of the Energybar8's are programmed. Protein Skimmer running. Other equipment slowly coming on line. Got some new level switches and hooking them up to the Apex. Face frame and doors are 90% done. Trying to get the darn Ecotech's to pulse correctly, but for some reason two of the pumps, every third cycle, only come on for 2 seconds instead of 6. I guess I have to completely reset them. I hope to have some more pictures up soon, especially once the lights go up. I will be adding fish and corals starting in January.

Oh, awesome, thanks! LOL, I guess I did miss something.

For? I think I missed something.

It is a possible concern, but I really think it will take a while before they rust enough to be a problem, and they are very visible, so if I see any issues I can easily change out the clamp. But, I appreciate the advise and I may check into the stainless steel option and if its not incredibly expensive it may be worth the change.

I am very happy with 30", it seems very workable (even though I haven't officially put anything in yet), but 34" might be just a little high. Typical grippers can come in sizes up to 30", so anything over that you are going to get wet, and lighting starts to become a big issue when going over 30". Just my two cents. Oh, and price to go to 34" tall vs. 30" would be quite the jump from my quotes. I am extremely happy with the size of my tank and I think I got just the right size. As far as humidity I have two large exhaust fans that vent outside and one exhaust fan that pulls in fresh air from outside. The entire room is sealed in a material similar to shower surround (I don't know the name off the top of my head) and no moisture can leak into the walls or ceiling or another room, its pretty self contained. The walls are also washable, so if I start to get crud on them or staining I can wash them down. The room's air can be exchanged completely in about 30 seconds (maybe less). I will probably have it on a timer where the air is exchanged every 10 minutes throughout the day.

double post

For those that are curious about the "compartments" of my sump system. 1. Tank drains into two 24" long by 12" deep (6" width) overflow boxes that have three 2" drain pipes in each 2. It all drains into a 4" pipe that snakes around the walls over to the start of the sump system 3. The 4" pipe drains into 24"x6" section 4. The above section overflows into a 24"x24" section containing nine filter socks and filter pad over the top of them 5. The water flows down through the socks and into another 24"x24" section that contains the protein skimmer 6. The above section overflows into a 24"x36" section containing an 8" Deep Sand Bed and will be home to about 30 Mangroves 7. The above section overflows into a 24"x6" section containing four 2" bulkheads leading into the next part the of the sump (the turn of the L shape) 8. The next section is 24"x24" that will just contain Chaeto free tumbling (although part of it is egg crated off for a few submerged pumps that will feed the Carbon, Phosphate, and Ozone Reactors) 9. The above section overflows into a 24"x24" section containing about 150 pounds of live rock and is completely blacked out for a cryptic zone 10. The above section flows into a couple weirs to keep all bubbles out of the last section 11. The last section is 24"x18" containing the heaters and bulkheads for the pumps to pull their water. By the end there should be absolutely no bubbles or particles flowing back into the main tank. So far I am extremely pleased how it turned out and I hope it encourages others to get a little more creative with sump design.

Tank is now running. Finished filling after 6 days (took a while for the RODI to really kick in). Its a little overwhelming to see that much water and how much havoc it could cause, but after the pump has been running for 2 days I am feeling much better. So far I have used 28 bags of salt and I am sure it will be a few more before I am at 1.025. Equipment is going into place and I am replacing some old stuff and trying some new things out, pretty excited to see it all work as it should. The Apex is definitely in for one hell of a test, I am going to be putting it through its paces. I will have to do a video of the ripple effect I am getting through the Deep Sand Bed area, its really cool looking.