Tank now has liner in, water from Rich's frag tank, and fully cured live rock. Just waiting for the sand guy in Haskins to get back to me.

That little Rio 1100 I have in there is creating one heck of a current. Might be skipping the air lift idea since I have enough flow as is for softies. At most I'll add another 1100 just for some more turbulent flow.

Lookin' good. looks like your off to a good start.             Keep the pics comming.   

I want one  One question though, why didn't you go with 10k for a growout tank for best growth. It's not like you are looking for display tank color?

Chad7531 said :

I want one  One question though, why didn't you go with 10k for a growout tank for best growth. It's not like you are looking for display tank color?

That's just the bulb that came with the fixture, and a good one at that. There were a few others that were 10k but honestly they weren't nearly as bright (eBay bulbs I believe).

It's a Phoenix 14k which actually has a pretty darn good PAR/PPFD/whatever value. Didn't have the cash to go with a 10k bulb. It was either stick with a Phoenix until I could buy a new bulb or sacrifice coral money......I can wait on a bulb.

Will be doing mainly soft coral as well rather than SPS (growing out of the SPS stuff I guess). From all I can gather the Phoenix is one of the best for growth while controlling algae outbreaks. We shall see.

Oh yeah:

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - Zilch

Nitrate - 5ish or so.

Gotcha

Question here from a non-marine person.  What's the reason behind a setup like this? Do the corals grow faster than in a regular tank?  Do they stay in there always or will they get moved into display tanks eventually?

I'm fascinated by marine tanks, and am interested in learning the whys & wherefores of what you all are doing.

Burks, is the wall at the bottom of the pic bowing or is it just the lens?

its cheaper for most people to build vats than tanks you get alot more bottom surface for coral less water depth less wattage of lighting required to make coral grow nice set-up burks let me know when you get some frags

Fish E said :

Burks, is the wall at the bottom of the pic bowing or is it just the lens?

Just the angle the picture was taken at. I was up on my chair and diagonal to the vat when I took the photo. The liner is also a little bunched up in the middle also giving the illusion of a bend. I measured and there MIGHT be a 1/8" bow....maybe as I can't measure to save my life.

The reason why tanks like these are nice are like bananaboat said. When you build your own vat (wood, glass, acrylic) you can make a much larger footprint which allows more frags to be placed.

I will have coral in there this week. Will start with stuff like Xenia (I want a bunch of different species, love the stuff), leathers, Yellow Polyps, Ricordia, Duncans, Favia, etc. A lot of stuff in my pico will be moved to the vat and grown out. Grows nicely in my pico but just not fast enough for me. Got some stuff I know a LOT of people want.

There is a TRAC section of my tank. Anything in there will either be for the Donor Program or be given the "TRAC Discount". I'm a firm believer in aquacultured coral as wild stocks are being depleted. While my stuff might come wild (most will not), I want to spread home grown stock at wild stock prices.