New to the site, But not the hobby

[Stupidsreef]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to this site, a friend refered me d.french. I started this hobby in 2004 with a 90g NON-RR tank. Like so many new-bies I had the HOB fitler's and a Prizm skimmer with PC light's. Within a few months a friend of mine gave me the Key's needed to have a nice system. I then went to a 90g RR tank with MH and an ASM skimmer. Then in the summer of 2006 and nasty storm came through and knocked out our power for 8 days. I lost everything tank wise. That was a hard blow, and really hurt to see everything I had gone within a few days. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I rebuilt the system and got back on track. 2006 was a good year for me & I came into a small chunk of change, I started building another system. Through the help of friends and ideas from all of them we were able to put together a 225g RR system. A friend and myself built the stand and canpoy, the tank is custom designed by the two of us.
It is a glasscages.com tank and I designed a sort of coast to coast overflow.

Tank: 60 X 36 X 25 Euro braced ( no center braces ) with 4 two inch holes acrossed the top back. 3 feed the sump & one goes to the skimmer.

Sump: 100g stock tank rubbermade.

Skimmer: Reef Octopus TDNW300

Calcuim Reactor: Geo 618 Calcium Reactor

GFO Reactor: BRS "DUAL" GFO and Carbon

Lighting: 3 Ice Cap Ballast running 8 Giessmann T5 bulbs

RO/DI unit from thefilterguys.com.

ATO system is by autotopoff.com. I fill a 55 gallon drum with RO/DI which is hooked up to the ATO, once the drum is down to 10g RO/DI unit refills it.( I have to turn it on and a float vavle shut off keeps it from overflowing ) I make SW in another 55g drum for water changes.

My tank is ran by a Sequence Reeflo Barracuda pump and 3 of the maxi-jets 1200 Sureflow Mods.

My fish list has grown in the last 3 months.
1)Maroon Clown--Had for 2 years now
1)Christmas wrass--Had for about 2 years
1)Copperbanded Butterflyfish---Had for almost 1 year
1)6 inch Yellow tang (Holding for a friend)---About 6 months now
1)Coral Beauty--Given to me about a month ago
1)Bristle tooth tang 3 inches (given to me a few weeks ago)
1)2 1/2 inch Longnosed Hawkfish---about 2 months now
1)Long Horned Cowfish--Just bought 1 week ago

Due to a nasty Virus, I can't up load pics to my computer now . But I will see what I can do as far as finding some. If there are any questions please feel free to ask. I don't consider myself to be anything more than a Newbe as I'm still learning something new everyday about this hobby. I've made a lot of mistakes hence the SN, and most just call me Stu. I've come here to learn from other's and maybe offer what little advise I know.

Stu.

[Stupidsreef]

Let's see if this works. Will try to post some of the pics.









Fresh water test:

[dustin_P74]

couple of questions about the glasscages tank, 1) how was the silicon job? 2) how is it holding up so far? 3) and have you had any issues with the tank or with the company itself. and the skimmer is very sexy

[Stupidsreef]

A few more pics.

Lighting:
Here is the pics of the lights:
3 icecap ballast. 2 are the 660 & 1 is the 430




This is the panle that runs most things;


The tank up & running:

[Stupidsreef]

Originally Posted by dustin_P74

couple of questions about the glasscages tank, 1) how was the silicon job? 2) how is it holding up so far? 3) and have you had any issues with the tank or with the company itself. and the skimmer is very sexy

The silicon Job was done quite well. There was a huge amount of it, and I trimmed back some that was excess. Other than that it was done in the conner's very well. The Euro brace was where the excess had squezzed out.

Holding up. I've had no issues with the tank at all.

My best friend had bought 3 tanks from glasscages and his were in very good shape oldest being 3 years old. I spoke directly with the owner Tom. There were many issues at hand, first he wasn't sure about the overflow. But he was willing to give it a shot, if he felt unsure about it he said we'd have to talk about it then. He worked with me for about 3 weeks over the phone letting me know where he was an his thoughts. He did inform me right off the bat that I'd have no warranty if I placed it on anything other than a stand built by them. I sent him pics of the stand as we built it explaining what we were doing and how, while he liked the ideas and agreed it was a good design he reminded me of the warranty issue's. Although he said if something happened and I called him he would work with me. Over all I've never had an issue with the tank.

The skimmer, well that's not the one I had ordered. Due to a mistake the place I ordered it from was out of stock on a smaller one. But they had taken payment for it and shown a number of them in-stock. After an argument I was offered the next size up model for only the shipping cost of $20. So I got a $700 skimmer for $420. I couldn't refuse.

[dustin_P74]

sounds like you are a lucky one when it comes to galsscages, i have heard more bad things then good about them. and there warranty is useless, its only for 30 days anyways. and good deal on the skimmer

[Stupidsreef]

I have heard the war stories too. And I agree there warranty is not much at all. However if I bought this tank somewhere else it may have only taken 4 people to lift it and move it around. It took 10 of us to lift it and place it on the stand. They are built like a tank lol A war tank that is. That and as I said my best friend has bought 3 tanks from them, a 75g RR, a 180g RR and a 240g RR from them over the years. Not one of his tanks ever had an issue. He's built every stand including helping build mine. So I figured I give them a try. So far so good. That and I only paid $990 including the shipping fee, I couldn't beat the price anywhere, and I was limited on funds.

[dustin_P74]

well most of the horror stories usually seem to be tanks that are pushing the 8' length mark so maybe thats were the problem lies

[Stupidsreef]

Good point. Mine's only 5 foot.

[RyanG]

Great looking tank! Love the 60" length its a great look and a different size!