Cali Kid Corals

Gimmito's 450 gal L-shaped tank

Hot water works well for the flex PVC.

With a tank your size I'd go with halide to get enough punch to illuminate the bottom, plus since your tank has unconventional dimensions it will allow you to move the lights so there are a limited amount of shadows.
 
I'd get teh new Key largo rock from Marco. I've never been impressed with TB rock. The live is filled with mantis and such (aptasia as well). I enver really liked the dry either, bland shapes in the past, don't know about now.

The dampen vibrations use a chunk of silicone tubing (~1' or so) along with SpaFlex.
 
If you want to see the Marco first hand, I have a few hundred pounds and will be bringing some to the Dec meeting.
 
I did several tanks in the past with TBS liverock. You do get some nice stuff that comes on the rocks (some gulf corals, decorator crabs, brittle stars) but you also get some very annoying stuff. I spent the first 3 months when I set up my 58 in the city years ago trapping mantis shrimp. The total tally was 5 mantis shrimp 2 gorilla crabs and a urchin. They recommend things you can do to limit some of the pests (which I did) but you will still get lots of bad with the good.
 
I did a tank with over 600lbs of that stuff and I will never touch it again. The work I had to do was unreal. The only thing I like about it is all the bivalves :)
 
Thanks for the input guys...I definitely don't want to spend hours on end catching unwanted pests ! Thanks, Gresham, I'll look into the key largo stuff at Marco's rock. Unfortunately, I usually work on saturdays and making the meetings are tough. What did you think of those reefbrite led's by the way ?
 
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http://www.marcorocks.com/

It'll be available locally from a few select LFS so in other words, no shipping :) Marc does have great shipping prices though.
 
A great SF Tank Tour over the weekend ! Good food, great meeting fellow reefers, & of course some great looking tanks.

Some things I took from these tanks:

Jon's tank-Beautiful in wall. The framed window of the side of the tank has to be seen to be believed. :D I loved the light rail. I had thoughts of doing one on my tank, but was concerned with shadows. No shadows from what I saw. :)

Ian's tank- Beautiful tank. Loved the flow and school of spotted anthias. The frag tank was like going to the lfs. :) You gotta be a bachelor if 1/3 of your place is dedicated to tanks ! ;)

Lapson's tank- The biggest tank of the tour. Nice to see such dedication from a long time hobbyist. I'm sure the tank will once again look amazing.

Arnold's tank- Beautiful tank. Nice mixed reef and skimmerless !

Patrick's tank- Great colors and eco friendly too boot !

Arman's tank- Beautiful peninsula style tank. Loved the "guts of the system "and attention to detail.

You guys inspire me to get my 450 going. ;)
 
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Stocking up on schedule 80 true union ball valves, tees, elbows, etc.
I have way more than I need so let me know if any of you guys need any...will trade or sell at a good price. ;)
 
Man your plumbing is going to look better than my whole tank! :D

Is that a sliding rail I see there? For a light hood/canopy? I've worked my mind around trying to find something that I could do that works like that but always come up short on ideas, tried drawer sliders but either they have very little movement or they're weight is insufficient.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Man your plumbing is going to look better than my whole tank! :D

Is that a sliding rail I see there? For a light hood/canopy? I've worked my mind around trying to find something that I could do that works like that but always come up short on ideas, tried drawer sliders but either they have very little movement or they're weight is insufficient.
Click to expand...

Hey Mike (aka "The Happy Newlywed"),

The good thing about taking it slow with this build is that I come across deals like all the schedule 80 parts. ;)

Those rails you are referring to is for my garage door. I did toss around the idea of using one for my set up, but a header is preventing me from doing it. |(

If you want a heavy duty rail for your lights, I believe Steve Weast used a Stanley rail system for his light set up.
 
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A buddy in the car painting business helped me paint the acrylic black on the top and bottom to hide the vortechs. Looks a bit like a flag at this point, but we'll see how it looks with the aquascaping in there.

I can always get another piece of acrylic. :p
 
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I haven't updated in a while...been working on the house. :tired:
I bought a bunch of schedule 80 bulkheads, uni-seals, & a hole cutting kit at Bulk Reef Supply (20 % off the schedule 80 plumbing :bigsmile: ). The hole saw set was less than 15 bucks...you can't beat it. I drilled the frag tank stand for the bulkhead to go through. I wanted to drill out either the frag tank or sump underneath for a quick water change...what do you guys think ? I'm also going with a 2" bulkhead and elbow for the return pump, since I don't have alot of room to play with next to the sump. |(
Up next is to buy a bunch of 8' x 12' sheets of formica to line the hood, sump, & frag tank area and order the reeflo hammerhead so I can start plumbing.
 
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I traded some frags with a fellow reefer for this used quarantine tank. It measures roughly 2' x 2' and has 6 cubicles that measure 8" x 11" x 8". I remember talking to Matt Wandell during the SF Tank Tour, he mentioned they use similiar systems to acclimate their fish and inverts at the Steinhart Aquarium. It's made by a company named Minireef...anybody heard of these them ?
 
hey there so your finally getting back to the tank huh haha. Well my plans have chanded when i got a good deal on a 120g tank and stand lol 4'x2'x2' i like the depth of it, you still looking for lights?
 
Hey Jon,

Long time no hear. How was your move down here ? Just keep an eye peeled on craigslist or give Max a ring at Aquarium Showroom. Apparently he did some cleaning at his place and has a boatload of tanks for sale. I'm heading down to LA this weekend and will checkout a buddy's place for lights, skimmer, etc.

-Jim
 
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