# updates for the tech 45



## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i havent posted pics in a while, i have been slowly reintroducing my corals into the tank after erradicating dinoflagellate bacteria. i have also gone back to vodka and sugar dosing to control my nitrates and phophates, this seems to be going well. and i made a few revisions to my aquascape since my last thread about that. plus i upgraded my lighting from 150w 10k halide to 250w 14k halide.. at this point im pretty satisfied with the rock lay out and its working very well with coral placements.. enough blabber heres a picture i will update with more when i motivate to take them.
















most fo the sps is back in teh tank, i have a few piece that i want to grow out more before i put them in and the ret of the sps is frags of what is already int eh tank that i want to trade r sell for new stuff i dont have.. havent decided what to do with my zoo's shrooms, i might leave them in the 10gallon buti dont think i want two permanant tanks running so they might get traded out or sold except for a few pieces


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## Apott05 (Jul 19, 2005)

id like to ask you a few questions ND. I can pm them. Your tank is looking great.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

i feel like im going to get a back room interrogation..

"im going to ask you some questions and your going to give me some answers" 
"im dective john kimbal.. im a cop dammit"


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## Apott05 (Jul 19, 2005)

lol i was just listening to a bunch of those.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

tank looks great nismo!

what fixture did you go with for the 250? and what bulb?

im looking to get new lights for the 40G breeder im setting up. having a hard time deciding.


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## MiGsTeR (Jan 19, 2008)

That tank looks soooo Sweeet!!! If only I can afford such thing..


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

very nice!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Puff said:


> tank looks great nismo!
> 
> what fixture did you go with for the 250? and what bulb?
> 
> im looking to get new lights for the 40G breeder im setting up. having a hard time deciding.


it was the current USA outter orbit 24" 150w 10k with 2xactinic compact florecent, but i bought a sunpod 250w and retro fitted the 250w into the outter orbit, so now its a 250w 14k.

http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=168931


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## Sheppard (Jul 8, 2004)

Great job Nismo! I'm a fan of the tall tanks if people can do them properly or else they look like crap IMO. (Im one of those people who cant do it right) But yours certainly looks awesome! I can't wait too see an update pic with all those sps grown in.

Can you explain what the vodka and sugar dosing does? I'm not really understanding why you would put either of those in your system


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Sheppard said:


> Great job Nismo! I'm a fan of the tall tanks if people can do them properly or else they look like crap IMO. (Im one of those people who cant do it right) But yours certainly looks awesome! I can't wait too see an update pic with all those sps grown in.
> 
> Can you explain what the vodka and sugar dosing does? I'm not really understanding why you would put either of those in your system


there was a brief discussion about it in the marine water chemistry section

http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=118788

i have made the upgrades i listed since my last post in that thread and so far the skimmer is pulling out a ton of the nastiest smelling stuff ever..

part of this sugar/vodka dosing is that it fuels bacteria growth, this abcteria growth consumes nitrates and phosphates faster then algae can, this causes the algae to die off and releases more nitrates and phosphates so you really need a good skimmer for this process to not cause more harm then good.


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## pcrose (Mar 9, 2003)

very nice


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

heres more pictures that may or may not be worth looking at i thinki had my white balance off since i set it before th bulb warmed up also a few p[ictures of the sps in the frag tank


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

just moved most of the rest of my stuff back into the 45 from teh 10. mostly zoo's and shrooms, i want to trade off the rest of the stuff in the frag tank before the summer.


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

holy crap nismo! that looks friggin awesome!!! how many pieces (corals, not LR.lol) do you think you have in there?


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## notaverage (Sep 10, 2005)

Great! I am jelous! I wish I had the time for something like that!!!


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Puff said:


> holy crap nismo! that looks friggin awesome!!! how many pieces (corals, not LR.lol) do you think you have in there?


about 24 types of SPS 2 type of LPS 4 types of mushrooms 5 types of zoo's/paly's 1 type of leather

after looking at it the last couple of hours i want to peel off the pally's and zoo's and shrooms on the one rock dead center and put them on a differnt rock or rocks and put the other one in the sump.

the tank looks fuller but its too "busy" i want it more organized

i still have a pile of digi frags in my frag tank that i need to figure our what to do with i dont want duplicate colonies so im trying to trade off the duplicates i have, i want to get everything out of my frag tank so i can convert it to a simpler planted freshwater nano..

im also considering just selling off or trading most of the soft coral


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## Puff (Feb 14, 2005)

nismo driver said:


> holy crap nismo! that looks friggin awesome!!! how many pieces (corals, not LR.lol) do you think you have in there?


about 24 types of SPS 2 type of LPS 4 types of mushrooms 5 types of zoo's/paly's 1 type of leather

after looking at it the last couple of hours i want to peel off the pally's and zoo's and shrooms on the one rock dead center and put them on a differnt rock or rocks and put the other one in the sump.

the tank looks fuller but its too "busy" i want it more organized

i still have a pile of digi frags in my frag tank that i need to figure our what to do with i dont want duplicate colonies so im trying to trade off the duplicates i have, i want to get everything out of my frag tank so i can convert it to a simpler planted freshwater nano..

im also considering just selling off or trading most of the soft coral
[/quote]

i love my softies and LPS. my tank is so friggin crowded right now though.lol

IMO your tank looks great. but i know what you mean when you have the opinion that your (or in my case my own) tank looks too busy.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

I just love this tank. What is that clump of green in the first few pictures? Is that some kind of algea?


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Grosse Gurke said:


> I just love this tank. What is that clump of green in the first few pictures? Is that some kind of algea?


thank you

That is GSP aka green star polyps


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

nismo driver said:


> just moved most of the rest of my stuff back into the 45 from teh 10. mostly zoo's and shrooms, i want to trade off the rest of the stuff in the frag tank before the summer.


i dont think this picture did much justice to what the tank is looking like at this point, i managed to get abetter pic off tonight. 
i think i need a better camera though.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

ND - That is a wonderful looking tank, as always. Keep up the good work.

The only issue that I could see, is that you might have to move the M. Cap on the left as it is growing into the glass. Under that 250w 14k MH, that bad boy is going to grow, and grow fast.

Question, on that same M. Cap what color growth ring does it have?


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Coldfire said:


> ND - That is a wonderful looking tank, as always. Keep up the good work.
> 
> The only issue that I could see, is that you might have to move the M. Cap on the left as it is growing into the glass. Under that 250w 14k MH, that bad boy is going to grow, and grow fast.
> 
> Question, on that same M. Cap what color growth ring does it have?


actually i put it there because i want it to grow onto the glass.

its purple rim and its supposed to be green but it kind of greyed out a few months ago and hasnt really gotten much color back yet. im starting to think its the low nutrient levels but it could be a million differnt things, i have good colors from most of the rest of my stuff so its hard to say.

i just picked up another peice of green cap that appears to have differnt growth characteristics so i will see what happens to the color of that one.

im starting to wonder if i have enough flow for the caps. usually when you see them "whirling" it dues to high flow, i have a lot of flow but not sure it would be considered "high"


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

Growing on the glass makes sense for the placement. I have seen some really cool SPS (e.g. acros) growing on the glass. Good luck with that.

What is your turnover rate in the tank? Since you are using the wide-flow PH's, then you could actually direct the water flow more towards the SPS. That would increase the flow they receive, but without having to add additional PH's to your tank. Just a thought.


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## nismo driver (Jan 27, 2004)

Coldfire said:


> Growing on the glass makes sense for the placement. I have seen some really cool SPS (e.g. acros) growing on the glass. Good luck with that.
> 
> What is your turnover rate in the tank? Since you are using the wide-flow PH's, then you could actually direct the water flow more towards the SPS. That would increase the flow they receive, but without having to add additional PH's to your tank. Just a thought.


I think its around 2000 gph so roughly 44x turn over.. the return pump is a mag 7 but with head loss i belive its about 550-600 gph and teh two PH are K3's @800 gph, the way they are pointed now does give a pretty good amount of flow, its some what turbulent but slightly linniar since tirnbulance always ceoms from the same direction and they are on 24/7..

i do have an ocean wave timer but the koralias dont work very well on a timer, they clatter alot when they restart and if i have them alternate im not getting enuogh flow.

what i really should do is get two more and position them lower in the tank so it directs the current from a slightly differnt direction and run them on/off alternating every 6 hours or so to create more of a tidal flow effect.

the other option is to get a bigger return pump and run a SCWD on the returns with either locline outlets or eductors to direct the flow...

right now its not the best butit works good enough so im trying not to fuss with it but eventually i would like to improve it.

if i start making more money maybe a tunze wavebox is in the future..


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