Tank Of The Month - March 2004 - craigg

[craigg]

UltimateReef is proud to feature its Seventh 'Tank of the Month'.

Craigg's Reef Tank


http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/crgtotm1s.jpg

Details can be found here.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/TOTM/Mar04.htm

Rather than congratulating myself, I’d rather shout out some thanks to a few people:-

All you guys for the never ending wealth of knowledge.
The East Midlands Group for the great tanks, great company.
SUK – and his tank, wow what an inspiration, thanks also for tank sitting!

If you have any questions or comments for Me then please post them in this thread.

Thanks.

Craig.

[Cam]

Very impressive mate, a well designed, planned and built system. Something to strive towards in my new system. Colours are looking really nice and some of those acros are going to be stunning :)

I'd be interested to know how much seashell charged for the tank, if you don't mind letting on them please give me a PM.

Cheers,

Cam. :thumbsup:

P.S. don't let those bloody green polyps get out of control!!!

[Chris8]

THATS A FINE LOOKING SETUP CRAIG :D
on the subject of cleaning your streams,mine is in a tunze decor rock :unsure:,so me thinks,i'll be joining you in the swearing dept :P
keep up the good work :thumbsup:

chris

[Northern Man]

No other word for it - superb ! :) As Cam said it's an extremely well designed/planned (and stocked) set up and goes to show that you don't always need a sump to hide all of the equipment that goes with an mixed reef system.

Rgds
Mike.

[Lisa Page]

Craig,

A thoroughly enjoyable write-up and your tank certainly deserves being TOTM.

You did get me going when I saw the full tank picture. OMG he's got 2 powder blues and 3 lipstick tangs..... and then I realised that the pic must have been stitched. :lol:

I see that the corals have coloured up beautifully too you must be pleased about that. Very nice. :wub:

Tell me more about the pipefish. I saw a pair a while ago and would have loved to get them but wasn't sure about compatibility and feeding issues. Have they settled in OK?

Regards

Lisa

[tuan]

Fantastic stuff. Tank looks great with some choice stock in there - a long long way from the initial pics when I thought you were nuts stuffing the streams down those weir boxes :)

Some of those corals are gorgeous - especially the acro in the last pic!

Ditto Lisa on the pipefishes - would love some in my tank but not sure if they can handle the flow and compete for food.

Great stuff!
:bow:

[tufty711]

Great tank craigg and good shots.

The colours are coming on well as already mentioned, a good detailed read too.

Stunning tank again.

Ant

[Suk]

Wow... :bow:

Stunning, have to say I've seen this tank progress over the year & it just gets better & better. A real credit to you Craig for sticking with it as I know you had a few problems along the way.
I like the stitched pic, can't even see the joins!
Looks like the Table frag is doing ok too... excellent. Will be around with my snips soon for some payback... :lol:

Keep it up & keep snapping away...
:D

[bushido]

:o :whistling: ,
Words fail me at this point.
What a superb reef, it's clear to see you must get a great deal of satisfaction from the results.
It gives me something to aim for in years to come, well done mate.
Best wishes,
Mark. :P

[Reef Addict]

Well done Craig, absolutely fantastic looking tank! Great read as well.

Mark :bow:

[Reef Addict]

Sorry Craigg, I meant to ask, are the powerheads easy to get at for maintenance inside the weirs?

cheers,

Mark

[SPS Hoover]

Very nice good write up :bow:

[craigg]

Thanks Guys and gals,

One at a time:-

Lisa and Tuan - Pipe Fish were added sunday and I've seen them for the first time today, so jury is still out on them I'm afraid, I will of course keep you up to date.

Tuan I never had any doubts mate, although there are things I'm looking to add or change slightly, Shed build starts tomorrow ;)

Back to Lisa, yeh the picture was a bit sneaky, I was expecting the how do you manage that questions. and yes the colours are more to my liking, but when I see Suks tank I cant help but think things arnt right with my tank. Although now when I add an acro it does now stay its bought colour and doesnt automatically go brown.

Suk, both frags doing ok, also got a new blue acro that your going to just love.
Thanks for the Wow.

Reef addict its in the text mate about the stream maintenance.

Feel free to ask more questions.

CRaig

ohh cam price? Dont know is the honest answer, just got one big bill and trusted the guys enough not to have it itemised. I will find out for you though.

[Jevs]

Nice one Craigg....super tank m8.

Just one thing....why do you need to get rid of the toady...it looks stunning !

Andy

[neils 2500 ltr]

your tank is stunning craig , well done m8


neil

[craigg]

Jevs I know what your saying about the toady, its just getting to big and I cant frag it cause I havent got a frag tank.

Its soon going to be in my way of my plans for the "valley" to grow over with monti's and table acros etc.


Craig.

[chriskirby101]

Love your setup m8... A real gem... I particualy like the hidden streams and powerheads..


Amazing


Chris

[Mushroom]

I do like the write-up and the coral pictures, really I do ;) However, with no disrespect whatsoever where do you get the idea that feeding dry food instead of frozen food would lower phosphate?

[craigg]

Thanks for the nice comments Chris.

Thanks also Mushie, as to the flake, I'm not saying it will lower the phosphate what I'm trying to say if I didnt very well was that Dry food "should" be "less" of a problem. From people I speak to the frozen cubes are quite heavy contributers to phosphate and should be "rinsed" prior to adding to the tank, this to me kind of defeats the object as you must be rinsing some of the goodness away at the same time.

So I've stopped feeding it bar the once per week. My observations are that with the help of Phosguard and the 95% feeding of dry food that my phosphate problem is improving.

I'm not saying I'm right but I can say its having a positive effect on MY tank.

Craig.

[Valley Boy]

Congratulations Craig,superb.
One question, are your halides supported by the wooden frame into the wall?

[Mushroom]

Originally posted by craigg@Mar 6 2004, 20:28
frozen cubes are quite heavy contributers to phosphate and should be "rinsed" prior to adding to the tank
Not saying you are wrong but this is certainly the first time I have heard that frozen food needs to be rinsed before adding to the tank. When I add frozen food I don't chuck the whole cube in, I would leave it to defrost for a hour or so so that I could use a spoon or pipette to only add the "meaty" part of the mixture and leave the liquid behind. Of course this is virtually impossible to do with something like brine shrimp but with things like mysis shrimp it is easy.

[craigg]

Hi Valley boy,

I'll try to explain with pictures. I'm well pleased with the design, (All mine 2, I even surprise my self sometimes)


This picture shows how the frame is supported.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/lights1.jpg

This picture shows how the lowbays meet the frame, they ar wedged in between the 2 right angle ally strips, thus allowing me to slide them left and right at will, but because they are cant move forward or back it is impossible for them to fall in the tank.

The ally strip helps soak up heat and adds considerable strength the whole structure.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/lights2.jpg


Hope that helps, feel free to ask any more questions.

Craig

[fishman]

CRAIGG A BRILLIANT SETUP AND FOR ONLY A YEAR OR SO OLD ! CONGRATS..FISHMAN... :rolleyes:

[mark]

Nice one Craig B)

Looking great, can't wait to come over and see it again.

Cheers

Mark

PS the Monti frag is doning well and started to encrust with a purple/pink rim :thumbsup:

[craigg]

Mark I'm glad about the monti as mine is really struggling for some reason.

Craig.

[craigandsimon]

craig, very nice m8 :wub: really has come on now - sadly i will be shutting my tank down so i will have to look at yours and others on here instead.

all the best

[Richard D]

Fabulous tank Craig :bow:

[craigg]

Thankyou