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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 7:54:09 GMT -5
 A pic of when the tank was first set up. Most of the rock and the few corals came from my first tank. A 75 gal.  Always check the results of the method being recommended |
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Post by Carl on May 20, 2009 9:01:08 GMT -5
Beautiful tanks!
Thanks for sharing!!
Carl
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Post by bikeguy33 on May 20, 2009 9:23:26 GMT -5
very nice. alot here would like to hear about your maintenance schedule as alot here are interested in reef tanks.
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Post by eve on May 20, 2009 10:18:29 GMT -5
absolutely gorgeous and awesome  we definitely want to hear more about it  |
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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 15:10:49 GMT -5
Thank you for all the nice comments. The tank is a 125 AGA with the mega overflows. It is going on 8 years old.
When I set this tank up I needed it to be a simple and as cheap as possible. I have 3 small children who are all heavily into sports and I coach some of their teams. So not much time and even less money.
I built The canopy with a plywood and 1x12 pine. The inside was painted a flat white with several coats of oil based paint. The outside with a normal varnish and a few coats of polyurethane.
The lighting is three 250 watt halides, with 2 VHO for actinic coloration. For ballast I use inexpensive magnetic cap and coil ballast and enclosed them in electrical boxes I got a Harbor Freight.
I ran 4 dedicated electrical outlets to the tank. This way if one breaker trips it does not take down the whole tank.
Filtration. I built a 40 gal acrylic sump myself with mostly scrap that picked up at a local plastics supply house. It is divided into 2 sections.
One for the return pump which is submersed and one section where I grow chaeto. The chaeto is lit with a clip on work light fixture from Home Cheapo that cost 5 bucks. The bulb is a $13 compact florescent spot light type with a built in reflector.
I use a Deltec Protein skimmer. Very over priced, but at the time one of the best available. I do think you can do things cheaply in this hobby, but this is not one of them. I fill my collection cup in 2 days , at that time I dump it and clean just the cup.
For circulation I use a dolphin ampmaster 3600 gph on a closed loop. I thought this would be enough but after the tank grew out it was not. I have 3 korila 4's hidden behind the rocks for additional flow. I discovered after the tank was set up that having so much rock so close to the side and back was a problem with the flow.
Water changes are done every other week. I use an Air Water Ice Rodi with dual DI chambers. I change 20-30 gallons depending on how much I fed during that period. I use Tropic Marin pro and Seachem, alternating buckets.
I test for alkalinity and magnesium a few hours after the water change. Any dosing that is needed is done at this time.
Ph is monitored with Milwaukee monitor that is hung over the tank, I look at it several times a day. I calibrate it every other month.
Calcium, carbonate alkalinity, and magnesium are maintained with a GEO 612 calcium Reactor. The tank outgrew the size of my reactor so I built a second chamber out of an old inline DI chamber. In the reactor I run ARM media and about 10% of Dolamite to keep up magnesium. This works out perfectly and rarely do I need to dose anything additionally. I do not dose any other chemicals at all. ZERO nothing. NO strontium, no iodine or any of the so called needed elements. Its all in the salt.
Top off from evaporation is handled automatically by a float switch.
When the water level in the sump drops about a 1/4 of an inch the switch trips and powers a powerhead in a 40 gallon bucket of RODI water that is pumped to the sump. When the float switch rises it shuts off the pump. I also use a back up float switch so that if the first one ever fails the second one will trip and shut off the pump.
This has happened once and it was not a problem as everything worked as it should. All lights are on timers as well.
For power outages I have an automatic battery operated air pump from foster and smith $75. Power goes out and pump kicks on keeping up oxygen levels . For longer outages I have an inverter. I will go into detail on this in another post.
As you can see the tank is pretty much on auto pilot. The way it has to be.
Thanks again
Frank
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Post by Chris4Reef on May 20, 2009 16:08:04 GMT -5
nice frank,
again it looks nice and im happy for your results. It looks very similar to the picture in my mind for my newest reef tank without the SPS for now. The plans are for a 210 with 3 150 W DE MH, maybe 250 if the price is right, 2 overflows with the sump. IDK about the fuge maybe the HOB versions or some variation. Blue line protein skimmer, chiller and a small generator. The tank itself is going to be LPS and soft mostly. Fish list would probably be pair of picassos blue and yellow tang. Maybe some anthias not sure.
The estimated tag was 5000 delievered but we are working on the price to see if we can cut the tag.
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Post by bikeguy33 on May 20, 2009 16:39:17 GMT -5
wow....your not kidding about autopilot. my only concern is the auto filling. you mentioned a bucket that goes into sump automatically but didnt mention if there is an airstone in the bucket. my concern would be the bucket water becoming stagnent (I hope i read the post correctly)? in all the time i was in the maintenance field, i had never seen such a self sustained eco system. way to go. you must have some kind of electrical or plumbing background....
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Post by eve on May 20, 2009 17:27:12 GMT -5
awesome breakdown, thanks frank
bill-
if i'm correct, and he has what craig put together, then there is a bucket with a switch going to the tank with a shut off valve, and definitely an airpump in the bucket, which is also covered
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Post by bikeguy33 on May 20, 2009 17:34:48 GMT -5
awesome...absolutely perfect small reef then.....wish i had the know how......lol.
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Post by eve on May 20, 2009 17:38:42 GMT -5
it sure looks like it
i still have somewhere a list on what i would need for a 90 tank
so to see a break up here is absolutely awesome
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Post by Carl on May 20, 2009 17:54:06 GMT -5
wow....your not kidding about autopilot. my only concern is the auto filling. you mentioned a bucket that goes into sump automatically but didnt mention if there is an airstone in the bucket. my concern would be the bucket water becoming stagnent (I hope i read the post correctly)? in all the time i was in the maintenance field, i had never seen such a self sustained eco system. way to go. you must have some kind of electrical or plumbing background.... Kent makes a float valve that I have used for ponds, but the original intent is for reef tanks, although I did not use them for this. The principle is similar to a toilet float. The Azoo Pump is likely the air pump referred to (Nirox has a similar one that is a little lower priced), it is an excellent pump that switches over autmatically to DC. Inverters connected to a deep cylce RV/Marine Battery have saved many of mine & my client's tanks too for longer power outages (I had a marine tank in a strip mall that burned down and the tank survived on the Battery pump, then the inverter deep cycle battery until we could move it to a new building) Carl |
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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 19:54:48 GMT -5
No there is no air stone in the make up water tank. I have a good sized hole cut in the hose from the pump. This does 2 things. It is a siphon break so that a vacuum is not created. The water flowing out from it mixes the standing water. The bucket needs to be refilled about every 4-5 days. The float switch is basically an electrical switch. when the water level drops it opens or turns on the switch as the water rises it closes the switch. This is almost exactly what I Have. autotopoff.com/products/DS1/ |
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Post by Carl on May 20, 2009 20:02:22 GMT -5
The float switch is basically an electrical switch. when the water level drops it opens or turns on the switch as the water rises it closes the switch. This is almost exactly what I Have. autotopoff.com/products/DS1/This is more advanced (& likely more accurate) then the Kent floats I have used. Sorry, I misread your first post, I did not notice that you used this for turning on a power head, I head a gravity fed water supply stuck in my head Carl |
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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 20:06:01 GMT -5
They are also very small, and very reliable. The first switch has only failed once in 8 years, but the second one kicked in like it was suppose to. The first one only failed because I did not clean it and it built up with so much calcium deposits it weighed it down.
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Post by murdock6701 on May 20, 2009 20:10:16 GMT -5
extremely gorgeous ecosystem Frank! seems like I have seen the 1st picture before somewhere.....very high tech set up as well! thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 20:16:20 GMT -5
BC,
On the lights, I would go with the 250 watt on any tank over 21 inches tall. They are only like 15 dollars more and well worth it. One of the most expensive parts of this hobby is when we try to save a few bucks and end up buying it again, spending almost twice as much as we could.
The blue line is a nice skimmer, at a decent price.
As far as the fish , I would lay off the anthias for at least a year. They need a heavy population of pods and things to survive the first few weeks. They also need to be fed at least once a day if not twice. This can become a chore. I hatch my own brine shrimp for them and then feed them Nannochloropsis for 2 days before feeding the anthias. After this drama I now refer to them as atheists. They have very small stomachs and small mouths. This is why they need to eat often and why they starve to death quickly in new tanks. They need a strong pod population to pick on between feedings. The lyrtail are the most hardy in the atheist family.
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Post by Carl on May 20, 2009 20:50:01 GMT -5
BC; For the money, I like the ASM Protein Skimmers if a needle wheel (mesh wheel) skimmer is desired. For an excellent high end venturi skimmer I prefer the V2 Skim from Tropic Marine. This skimmer has a bubble stop that improve protein skimming and can be hooked up either HOB or in the sump. Your sump can also be a good area to hook up a UV Sterilizer to a lower speed pump to improve Redox and disease prevention/water quality. Carl |
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Post by techreef on May 20, 2009 21:20:33 GMT -5
BC, now that I think of it, there has always been a problem with getting parts from europe. Especially for skimmers. Many an online vendor has dropped a skimmer line due to this. Just keep this in mind. As an example, Schuran made THE best calcium reactors on the market. They were readily available at any online retailer. They are not even carried by anyone in the states any more due to the fact that Schuran would not give them spare parts and it took weeks sometimes months to get them here.
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Post by Carl on May 20, 2009 22:06:50 GMT -5
I know Commodity Axis/Taam has a new Calcium Reactor that is American designed and Chinese made. I have NOT used it, but I know a few that are giving it a try (one of them is Gregg that ran several tests on BCs Bio Home that gave it good results). Generally this company comes up with good designs and insures a good supply of parts as well. An example is the Seio propeller pump that has shown to be more reliable than the Hydor Koralia. Carl |
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Post by brenda on May 21, 2009 15:47:45 GMT -5
Wow...That is amazing.
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