265 Gallon Mixed Reef

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.

 

Im curious to how you drain the water for each water change. I would think it has to be done at the same time as you add, unless you don't have an ATO set up. Also where do you drain the water to? I like your set up, and the way your rocks are placed in the tank. I used to do an auto water change using a Profilux doser, but I went back to doing a larger change once a week.

 

We do have an ATO set up however it is on a timer because it is run directly from the RO/DI. It only allows the tank to top off for 2 hours in the early morning and i do my water change within 30 minutes of it finishing that way the salinity never gets out of whack. Until about 2 weeks ago I was draining the water through a hose to the toilet. About 2 weeks ago we got our new frag system set up and I have been using the water change water to fill those tanks. I will be posting another thread on the frag system to explain it better but i drain the 10 gallons from the main tank into the frag system now instead of the toilet and then 10 gallons from the frag system to the toilet. I love doing the daily water changes, it is so easy and I feel like it is better for the tank. We end up changing about 100% of the water per month but do it gradually so there aren't any issues. The tank is not very grown in right now but it is over a year old and we just started needing to dose about a month ago and the amount I dose is very minimal.

 

I just posted the thread on our new frag system http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/3-tier-frag-rack-system-w-leds-106157.html

 

Awesome Tank!

 

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.



Yellow torch

Copper banded butterfly

Green Millie

Green Slimer and Xenia

Hairy Mushroom

Female Maroon Gold Strip Clown

Midas Blenny

Mixed Zoos

Acan

Orange Digi

Acan

Sun Coral

Female Crosshatch Trigger

Xenia

Yellow Tang

 

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


Midas Blenny in his hole


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.


Chromis


Frogspawn


Green Torch


Hairy Mushrooms
As you can see from further up there has been a lot of growth here


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.


Orange Digitata


Powder Blue Tang



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.


Acan


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.


Center


Left Side


Right Side

 

looking good, but what do you do for water flow?

 

Great images. I really like the one of the frogspawn and the Joe the coral. Beautiful tank.

 

I spot a pair of Vortechs in there. That would do just fine for her open rock work.

Your system is looking fantastic.