500G Reef Tank in Puerto Rico

[ruidos99]

hi

dont get me wrong the mp40 are nice! but i think i need more flow! or i dont have the on the correct places! i will keep them on my new tank! but plan to do a closed loop for flow!

i did a lot of looking online and called lots of real exprert sps reefers and the injector skimmer is the most powerfull ( as far as i can tell!)

i had an octopus 300 and it was ok, but the MRC orca proII blows it away! i plan to have more corals but no more fish so i hope that with 2X more water And lots of live rock in the sumps ill have more natural filtration to keep the water perfect.

the problem with injector skimmers is the sound it generates! but in a closed room at the back its not a problem, so i think ill go that way!

i still have a full 14 months to get my new place and start the build, but these things take time!

 

[cougaran]

Well i hope the MRC orca proII blows away a octopus 300(3000?), the thing is rated for 400-1,000 gallons..lol.. Did you have an int or ext one? I'm thinking of going ext. For the 300 im setting up it looks like im going to be buying a Super Reef Octopus XP 5000 EXTERNAL
Cone rated up to 450 gal..

 

[JanVelazquez]

Try this brand of skimmer.

http://www.skimz.sg/

Thanks for the recomendation. Actually.. for less than $2k it looks very good.

They hit the US in September.

 

[cougaran]

or sooner..http://www.aquacave.com/skimz-sm-302-monzterbr-e-series-externalbr-protein-skimmer-3329.html ...got me wondering on this brand as well..hopefully you will be the guinea pig before me...

 

[ruidos99]

i had the TDNW300.... when i got it it wa rated for 700 gallons! its a good skimmer, but the MRC is better IMHO

 

[JanVelazquez]

Good luck with the wet/dry it looks nice, I try to save some money when I can.



Mine is still in storage..Unfortunately..fortunately??? I'm going to have to set it up as I'm going to be losing storage, but where i'm setting it up temporarily is in the living room. I'm going to have modify the floor a little bit as I have rugs. Originally I was planing a sunroom/fish room off the living room. I still want to do that, but only lately have had more time to spend on my hobby and house.The plans were only partially drawn and building right now will take too long before i lose storage...When I do setup ill have to run a thread, but its going to be on the cheap..lol...


That protein skimmer is a monster. I was following the reef octopus threads
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1727974
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1659495

You have to keep in mind that they are sponsered forums, but this thread which is not sponsored rates them as very good for a budget, but not the best skimmers out there which are generally ALOT more expensive.http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1589426&highlight=reef+octopus+skimmer+5000&page=142 Mojo runs the thread, I would probably give him a shout as a recommendation for your tank. It seems that if you get too big a skimmer you wont get the most out of it and can waste money, and if you get too small of one then well you get the picture...lol

Good luck!

cougaran

Thanks for your recomendations. The only Reef Octopus I would consider is:

http://www.aquacave.com/reef-octopus-fdnw-400-brrecirculating-proteinbr-skimmer-16-diabr4-pumps-1136.html

The SKIMZ SM 302 MONZTER E SERIES - EXTERNAL PROTEIN SKIMMER looks really good. It comes out in September and it's only $1,200 USD

I'll post a thread in the forum you recommended as this has been the most difficult choise of all.

Thanks again... Jan

 

[JanVelazquez]

That brand of skimmers Skims looks very nice. I was looking at prices in AquaCave and appears reasonable. The Reef Octopus line is my favorite, excelent skimmers and very reasonable prices.

Thanks for the recomedation Luis

It is a candidate as well.

Lots of options to choose from.

It's hard to decide

Saludos

Jan

 

[JanVelazquez]

hi

dont get me wrong the mp40 are nice! but i think i need more flow! or i dont have the on the correct places! i will keep them on my new tank! but plan to do a closed loop for flow!

i did a lot of looking online and called lots of real exprert sps reefers and the injector skimmer is the most powerfull ( as far as i can tell!)

i had an octopus 300 and it was ok, but the MRC orca proII blows it away! i plan to have more corals but no more fish so i hope that with 2X more water And lots of live rock in the sumps ill have more natural filtration to keep the water perfect.

the problem with injector skimmers is the sound it generates! but in a closed room at the back its not a problem, so i think ill go that way!

i still have a full 14 months to get my new place and start the build, but these things take time!

Hey ruidos99

Thanks again for your comments.

I found some reviews on youtube regarding the MRC orca proII and it looks really good. I'm leaning towards injection myself.

In terms of the size... well ... I want to be able to handle both tanks and if not I expect to have a lot of bio load so a larger skimmer should help out with that.

Regards

Jan

 

[ruidos99]

nice skimmer! i did concider it once for my 450 system!

i just got my new skimmer from champion lighting... a MRC orca III
ill run the 2 skimmers, the orca II skimmes ALL the water from the biopellets
the orca III skims the rest.

i dont know if this is overkill but i can just turn one off if i need to.

how much water will be in the hole system? is it going to ve an SPS system?

 

[Ram Jr]

Sweet build so far. I have a 185 diy tank and have been running Miracle Mud from day one. Dont let people tell you its a waist of money because its not. You can run your skimmer as long as you want and it wont kill the cheato. I currently have mine on 24/7 but might scale it back to 20hrs. What have you decided about lighting???? I have LED's and they work great. reefledlights.com is who sponsored me and I get lots of comments on them. If you get a chance take a look at my forum and see all the you tube videos I have of my build. Hope this helps.

 

[ruidos99]

hey Ram!!

i have lights from reefledlights too!!! they rock!!! i will get 3 or 4 more 24 inch moduels for my 600g display. right now i have 4, and Bill from reefledlights tells me that I have all the light i need for the 600g display ( with 4 moduels ) but i prefer to run a bit more light.

but if leds are on the plans reefledlights.com is the way to go!!!

 

[nanonubey]

Yeah Bills kits a re great if tou go the l.e.d. Route.

 

[cougaran]

Have you decided reef or FOWLR? If reef then LEDS all the way! For FOWLR I wouldnt spend the money on LEDS unless you plan on some corals. I was going mainly FOWLR and a few corals but im finding butterfly's really cool and the two dont mix well together, especially with the threadfin i have right now....I'm sticking with T5's for my setup.

 

[Ram Jr]

Good point cougaran. you sure dont need to spend the money on LED's if you dont want a reef.

 

[JanVelazquez]

nice skimmer! i did concider it once for my 450 system!

i just got my new skimmer from champion lighting... a MRC orca III
ill run the 2 skimmers, the orca II skimmes ALL the water from the biopellets
the orca III skims the rest.

i dont know if this is overkill but i can just turn one off if i need to.

how much water will be in the hole system? is it going to ve an SPS system?

Hey ruidos99

About your two skimmers, you can never overkill when it coomes to backup systems. If one fails you have the other ready to go.

Are the two skimmers the same?

I expect to have between 700 and 800 total volume. Depending on the other filtration and fuge.

As far as the SPS/LPS, I would like to have both but I like movement so I'll probably have more LPS but I'll try to have a mix.

How about your tank?

 

[JanVelazquez]

Sweet build so far. I have a 185 diy tank and have been running Miracle Mud from day one. Dont let people tell you its a waist of money because its not. You can run your skimmer as long as you want and it wont kill the cheato. I currently have mine on 24/7 but might scale it back to 20hrs. What have you decided about lighting???? I have LED's and they work great. reefledlights.com is who sponsored me and I get lots of comments on them. If you get a chance take a look at my forum and see all the you tube videos I have of my build. Hope this helps.

Hey Ram

The miracle mud is a must on my book. Thanks for your feedback on the subject. I didn't know how many hours to leave the skimmer on so I'll consider the 20 hrs. Got to do some research on that one.

As far as lighting I have 4 Hamilton Technology MH lamps 250W but I plan to add some more later on including LED's

I just saw you had a bunch of videos on youtube. I have to watch them from the begining, it's gonna take me a couple of days but I want to see the progress.

Thanks

Jan

 

[JanVelazquez]

Have you decided reef or FOWLR? If reef then LEDS all the way! For FOWLR I wouldnt spend the money on LEDS unless you plan on some corals. I was going mainly FOWLR and a few corals but im finding butterfly's really cool and the two dont mix well together, especially with the threadfin i have right now....I'm sticking with T5's for my setup.

Good point cougaran. you sure dont need to spend the money on LED's if you dont want a reef.

Cougaran & Ram

I already have some MH lamps so I'll start off with those and swap them out later on. I expect to continually make improvements on the tank so thank you for your recomendations. They are apreciated.

I will definatelly be having a reef, also I dont exp;ect to have large fish as it would minimize the size of the aquarium. I want schools of smaller fish and lost of LPS corals and softies.

Regards to both

Jan

 

[JanVelazquez]

After rechecking my meassurements the sump I have in mind fits inside the stand perfectly and with some spare room. The problem is that it wont fit through the opening by less than an inch.

I'll either have to lift the aquarium again so I cah move the stand and lisft it so that I can set the sum underneath or have a custom sump made.

I had a the area meassured for custom cabinetry so I expect to have some pics soon.

Regards to all

Jan

 

[luisgo]

Jan I read that you are considering runing the skimmer for 20 hours. I think that it is not a good idea to turn off the skimmer. The reason is that for four hour you will have water without movement inside the skimmer. That water sitting there without oxigen I think is not a good idea. I like the skimmer on 24/7.

 

[Ram Jr]

Jan,

I have talked with Lang who is the owner of Miracle Mud b4 I even started my system. He says and its so far been true. That you dont need 2 skimmers. In fact he keeps on pushing that you dont need a skimmer at all but my experiments have shown me that I do. He also says that you dont need bio pellets or a reactor. The Miracle Mud does that for you. If you were to use the bio pellets and Miracle Mud you would have a high nutrient system and too much is sometimes a bad thing.

Know this b4 spending a bunch of money on all the accessories for reef tanks. What might work for one person system can be a disaster for yours. Start with the basics or the must haves then add on if needed.

If you watch my video's on you tube you will see that I did not have a skimmer for 6 months and things were fine. But I also started with dry rock and later added 50 lbs of live rock to seed the tank. The reason for me adding a skimmer to the system is because I added lots of fish and corals too fast and the bio load for the age of my live rock was not up to par with the demand. If your live rock is very mature like 3 years or more then I have seen 3 or 4 local aquariums that run great without a skimmer. Yes I know people swear by there skimmers and will bash you up and down if you dont put one on your system but take your set up and your system and see what works out best for you.

Right now people are telling me that I need to get dosing pumps and or a cal reactor but I look at the parameters or do testing and because of the Miracle Mud, the salt and the size of my tank so far I stay in sea water range with only doing a 5 gal a week water change.

My last point is this...... dont let others tell you what you need because only you know your system best. Try and save as much money as you can with this hobby and only buy stuff that is needed after you do your research on what your system is lacking.

Hope this helps.