MitchM tank build

[MitchM]

This is how far I got today. The lights are a little bit askew because I had to lie right on top of the tank to adjust the rock.
It looks like the ATI's won't be sufficient to provide light to the whole tank. I'll probably end up putting my 3 Mitras along the front and moving the ATI's back a bit.
I've ordered a PAR meter that will hopefully be here in a week or so.
(The iphone pics make it look a lot bluer than it is. I have a Nikon D70, but only with a 105mm macro lens.)





I started out thinking I would be using a lot more rock, but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted a wall or pile that created a lot of detritus traps that I knew I wouldn't be happy with.

I kept thinking of CingChai"s setup and thought I would set it up similar. I like the idea of corals being viewed from a couple different sides, not necessarily the front only.
My tank doesn't have the height that his does, my tank is only 30" tall, so I decided to make a few more columns instead. I also want to leave as much room as possible for corals to grow until I need to prune them.

There's a couple of new little rocks in the lower front that I saw had some life on them (maybe some corals that survived the trip), I left them in there with the lights to see what becomes of them.

To help with the stability of the columns, I made some 1 1/2" high feet out of 4" PVC. This will also help prevent detritus from accumulating directly underneath the rocks.





I may still add some arches reaching from column to column, I'll leave this for a while and see.
There are2 MP60's on the far end of the tank, synced together, but unfortunately they can't be directed anywhere other than perpendicular to the tank wall they are mounted on. I'll probably add a couple of Tunze 6255's in the future.
There will be some sand at the bottom, very little. Maybe some Caribsea pink, coarse.

Of course any criticisms or suggestions are welcome!

There's a LOT of rock left over!

[MitchM]

For the last 3 weeks I have been waiting out what I thought was a bacterial bloom, except bacterial blooms only last around 3 - 4 days.
If it is algae, I thought my 200 micron filter sock would have picked it up.
I stopped any further Zeo dosing or adding more rock and I started up a diatom filter today to see how that works out.
Over the last couple of weeks the cloudiness hasn't gotten any better and hasn't gotten worse than what it is here.

My Tunze 6255's came in so I added those.

[MitchM]

My cloudy bacterial problem is just now clearing up. I couldn't see 6 inches into the tank for most of the last 2 months.
I would try one thing, wait a few days/weeks, try another thing, wait a few days/weeks....
What finally worked was changing out all the filters in my RO/DI unit, after I noticed I was having ongoing cyanobacteria problems in my freshwater tank which also gets the RO/DI water.

I want the last 2 months of my life back, lol.

[Skimmerking]

good to have you back Mitch. PS my Mitras light is working flawless now after the update.

[MitchM]

Thanks Mike, good to hear about the Mitras.

[Delphinus]

Wow that was the RO/DI filters?? An exercise in patience for sure. Good to hear it's clearing up...

[MitchM]

It doesn't make any sense to me either Tony, but I was getting huge algae blooms in my freshwater tank the day after a big water change there. I thought that maybe my fertilizer dosing wasn't right or something.
The RO unit was what the two tanks had in common.