[charlie]

After 5 months, and a bunch of soul searching, welcome to my new 300. It is kind of bare now, but I suspect that by Friday afternoon, there will be some more additions. These pics were taken this morning before I put some zooanthids in there and some yellow star polyps. Soooooooooooooooo, here we go again. I am thinking that I can probably downsize on the lites, from 400w down to 250w, and I am going to add some vho's. I don't know exactly what configuration of each I am going to do, but this is a start. I am thinking of leaving my big skimmer on there and maybe adding a few fish too, what do you guys think? Any and all opinions will be accepted.

[Poseidon]

WOW! It is nice to see you put the tank back together.

You mention VHO's, if you have to buy them, I would say T5 instead.

I agree on saving the power, and switching to 250's, as well. That sure is one GREEN piece you have in there.

Congrats!

[charlie]

Thanx Mike, it is nice to be getting excited about this reef tank thing again, I was pretty bummed out!!!!!
The only reason I want to go with vho is because I have the ballasts and lites already. they were just kind of sitting around the house.

[Poseidon]

DOH, I forgot to mention, your rock has some GREAT color on it! Maybe one day the coralline will quit growing on my glass, and start on the rock.

[charlie]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

DOH, I forgot to mention, your rock has some GREAT color on it! Maybe one day the coralline will quit growing on my glass, and start on the rock.

Some of that red is algae. Maybe with the renewed mind, I can even think about how to get rid of it. I ordered a new clean up crew today too. Lots and lots of snails!!!!!

[sihaya]

Way to get back in the game!

[almostdiva]

Very nice! Eagerly awaiting progress updates!

Rebecca

PS -- Do you still have my buddy (I hope)?

[Reefland]

Alright Charlie! I love the very open approach you have selected with the reef structure. Did you ever consider using the Reef Ceramics on the back wall?

[kevinpo]

Way to go Charlie I have plenty of free frags for you my friend!

Regards,
Kevin

[charlie]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

Very nice! Eagerly awaiting progress updates!

Rebecca

PS -- Do you still have my buddy (I hope)?

Your buddy is doing just fine, I should have some time this weekend, I will even give you some desert for that Thanksgiving dinner. I am gonna get a couple of large leathers from one of my friends down the road, so I guess this is gonna be my softie tank. The sinularia that is in my 80 will also be headed to the 300. I am more excited about this than I have been in a while, even Lorie said something about this being a good thing. I really appreciate all the backing that I have gotten from all of you during the collapse, believe me, it was needed. Hopefully I will have some pics on Friday or Saturday, things are hoped to go well. Stay tuned, boy is that a loaded statement. I love hot buttered rum

[charlie]

As promised I have a few pics that I took this morning. They were all taken under actinic lighting so bear with me, OK.
The first 5 are of the 300 and the "new" refugium. The last pic is the 80 after the sinularia was removed.

[charlie]

These 5 were kind of promised as Thanksgiving desert. Hello Rebecca

[Poseidon]

Nice snaps Charlie! Looks like you are getting back on that bike...

[charlie]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

Nice snaps Charlie! Looks like you are getting back on that bike...

Isn't it neat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To paraphrase an old Jefferson Airplane tune, "Feel So Good"

[charlie]

Mike or Gene, how do I get rid of the glare in the eye of the Achilles tang?

[zhenya]

Congrats on the re-start of the 300, I too love the open look, although I am pretty sure it will fill out soon enough with all those frags from Kevin...

On the glare in the eye of the fish.., that's a tough one. I hope Mike has some ideas because I am stomped. If you have full resolution file I can give it a try but I;m not hoping for much success.
Usually, when I use flash, I try to use it with the cord and hold it to the side so it doesn't hit the fish in the eye and gives even light to the entire picture instead. You can also experiement with the el cheapo slave flash of some kind and place it in the canopy, or simply pointing downward from the top edge of the tank. (You can trigger your slave with the flash on the camera).

[charlie]

Gene, thanx. I could send you the large file if you wanted to give it a try. I really need to get an external flash, but the zoom lens I got kind of tapped me out for a while.
All those frags from Kev are gonna be going into the new 180, that I will be starting up in March or April. I don't want to get it going before I go to Las Vegas, that would be just a little to much for me to worry about!!!!!!
I probably took about 25-30 lbs. of rock out to get that look, I really like it too. I think I could probably lose another 30 lbs too. I really think that is the way that alot of people are "scaping their tanks now, lower profile and leaving room for more growth.

[zhenya]

Charlie,

I sure would like to try and see what I can do with that image. Email it to me and I'll send it back to you with results( if there is any success that is ).

I hear you on the open look, all that rock is sure helpfull to glue frags to but a real pain when it comes to flow...
Having said that, being a freak about all the tiny critters that live on/in the rocks makes it tough for me to minimize amount of rock in the tank.

[charlie]

That is a downside of less rock, that's for sure, but I am hoping to get my pods going again when my macro starts going again.
I'll get that pic to ya after I do some luch Gene, I am about starved here.

[charlie]

Gene, forget about it, I accidentally shrnk the main pic, my bad. That's what I get for not having enuf coffee in me when I got to photoshop.:slap::slap: