Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
Without focal lenses and only 24" of water you can easily cover the width. I would probably run the lights 10" off the surface. Just be careful and do not start off at 100% across the board you will fry things.
900 Gallon Reef Project
- Thread starter Bennytheblenny
- Start date
Without focal lenses and only 24" of water you can easily cover the width. I would probably run the lights 10" off the surface. Just be careful and do not start off at 100% across the board you will fry things.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I take my 160 gallon water changes and do them in small batches over a week. I have 2 160 gallon water storage tanks linked together with a pair of small Iwaki pumps. One contains R/O water and the other is my mixing tank. The fresh water tank is connected to the mixing tank and the mixing tank is connected via PVC to my sump.
I have a ball valve on each pump so that I can chose to either mix water in the current container or fill the next container down the line. The ball valve also allows me to fill the sump very slowly. I can drain 150 gallons out of my sump without turning off the main pump. This allows me to do a 40-50 gallon water change every other day very slowly.
Here are some pics:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
ballenreef
New member
Beautiful setup and an inspiration to us all! Well done sir!!
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
So far only the very white piece on the far right side, its just two large pieces of BRS dry rock drilled and held together with 3/4" acrylic rods. I am slowly replacing the rest of the rock as its very difficult to do all in one shot at the moment. I have several more dry pieces curing in the sump.
Crazyfingerz
New member
beautiful setup
Are you removing pieces as you add or just adding? I'm asking because I like the amount you currently have in the tank.....adding additinal rock without taking other pieces out might be too massive. Just my opinion....
SchnitzelReef
Active member
this is the COOLEST thing ive ever seen! AWESOME and im so jealous
Your tank is a dream for many reefers. Seems like the last couple months you are really struggle with your tank. Let me share some of my experience with reefs for over 12 years. Whole set up is done very professional. Unfortunately your main problem is:
Life rock formation
Too many dead spots
Week circulation
Amount of rocks in tank.
From my experience rock should be set up so you have a large space between front , back , bottom, top and side of the tank. the way you have set up now your water doesn't circulate with full force.
Personally I am not fan of using a dry rock. Too much work is involved to make those rocks life again and you already spend huge amount of money for a very high-quality life rock. Diamond sow and couple acrylic rod should be very easy for you to put them together and make it nice set up. Your tank already go to process of maturing.
0.5 Lb line rock per GL should be plenty in your tank.Two MP60 and
Ocean waves box should give you plenty of circulation. Another issue I notice is the way the lamps spreading the light. Look on the pictures of yours tank and you should get idea what I'm talking about.
By lowering the whole rock set up light should spread much better.
If you needed help that is a lot of us are willing to help you.
Happy reefing.
Life rock formation
Too many dead spots
Week circulation
Amount of rocks in tank.
From my experience rock should be set up so you have a large space between front , back , bottom, top and side of the tank. the way you have set up now your water doesn't circulate with full force.
Personally I am not fan of using a dry rock. Too much work is involved to make those rocks life again and you already spend huge amount of money for a very high-quality life rock. Diamond sow and couple acrylic rod should be very easy for you to put them together and make it nice set up. Your tank already go to process of maturing.
0.5 Lb line rock per GL should be plenty in your tank.Two MP60 and
Ocean waves box should give you plenty of circulation. Another issue I notice is the way the lamps spreading the light. Look on the pictures of yours tank and you should get idea what I'm talking about.
By lowering the whole rock set up light should spread much better.
If you needed help that is a lot of us are willing to help you.
Happy reefing.
Last edited:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I am removing 200 pounds of rock and putting in 50-60 pounds of BRS held together with acrylic rods and some aquamend with each batch. Also each island has 3-4 rods on the bottom to keep the rock off the sand 4 inches. I should have taken a pic before I put the one island in.
I have way too many small pieces in the setup, stacked too tightly against the edges of the tank. I am going to probably do 5-6 islands in the end of 24 inch pieces. My main problem is time right now as I have way too much on my plate to do more than 1 island a month.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
All great points that I have in essence put into action over the past few weeks:
In terms of aquascape I am replacing the rock slowly with BRS dry rock, so I will have plenty of time for it to become "live" again with no issues. I am not going to replace 100% of existing rock. As stated in a previous response I have too many small pieces, stacked in a jig-saw puzzle like wall. I will have 5-6 large islands of rock with no rocks sitting on the sand and nothing touching the walls of the tank. Currently I have way too many deadzones, I am aiming for none when I am done.
In terms of circulation I have 21,000 GPH of water movement between the closed loop and the main returns on oceans motions. I have since added 2 tunze waveboxes and I can see the difference in terms of water movement. Tons of detritus being kicked up. I have them currently mounted in a very visible spot but will be moving them this week to the opposite end of the tank once my stronger magnets show up.
In terms of lighting the spread is not an issue as I wont have anything in the top 8" of the tank once the aquascaping is done. Also you are noticing a bit of an effect because I have more lighting in the center of the tank vs the sides due to bracing. So you will see what looks like shadowing on the sides and where the overflows jut in you see a lot of brightness which is misleading. With these LEDs I am not having any spread issues. I currently have SPS on the bottom of the tank with no problem at all.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I can take some step by step pictures if you want. Ill post them up here as I am in the process of building another island.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I will grab a few beers, my camera and do a step by step on Saturday. The only tools you need are a drill and a Dremel. For materials dry rock, acrylic rods (I get them from US Plastics) and aquamend.
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
44656 1/2" Clear Extruded Acrylic Rod ±.015
44658 3/4" Clear Extruded Acrylic Rod ±.025
44654 5/16" Clear Extruded Acrylic Rod ±.010
Pick a size that fits your build type. 3/4" for rocks 25# or above, 1/2" for 15#and above and 5/16" for anything smaller. I would grab a dremel and a plastic cutting disc. Make sure you sand paper each cut end to remove any potential contaminates. Also grab some Aquamend for the larger pieces or you can use gap filling acrylic cement used in model building for smaller pieces. For the base I would use the larger sized rods, at least 3 to distribute the weight of the piece across a larger area.
44658 3/4" Clear Extruded Acrylic Rod ±.025
44654 5/16" Clear Extruded Acrylic Rod ±.010
Pick a size that fits your build type. 3/4" for rocks 25# or above, 1/2" for 15#and above and 5/16" for anything smaller. I would grab a dremel and a plastic cutting disc. Make sure you sand paper each cut end to remove any potential contaminates. Also grab some Aquamend for the larger pieces or you can use gap filling acrylic cement used in model building for smaller pieces. For the base I would use the larger sized rods, at least 3 to distribute the weight of the piece across a larger area.
PirateFish52
New member
First off, your tank is unbelievable. You should be very proud.
Happy to see you went with the Tunze waveboxes.
I've been doing reef tanks on and off since I was 18 (only off when moving around a lot). In the past 20 years I've always had a problem with Nitrates and getting them to zero.
Daily water changes, weekly water changes. You name it I've tried it.
I just started my 180, which is my biggest tank ever and bought a Tunze Wavebox for it. I've been running it since week 2 of my tank's cycle. I liked the idea of how it moves pretty much all the water in the tank, kicking up detritus and getting it into the over flows and helping with polyp extension.
I'm happy to say that I have nitrates at ZERO!!!! 20 years later, I've finally conquered the enemy. I feel like I won the Super Bowl. Probably not due all in part to the Wavebox, but I'm sure it's a big reason.
Keep posting pics and blogging about your tank. I'll be tagging along.
Happy to see you went with the Tunze waveboxes.
I've been doing reef tanks on and off since I was 18 (only off when moving around a lot). In the past 20 years I've always had a problem with Nitrates and getting them to zero.
Daily water changes, weekly water changes. You name it I've tried it.
I just started my 180, which is my biggest tank ever and bought a Tunze Wavebox for it. I've been running it since week 2 of my tank's cycle. I liked the idea of how it moves pretty much all the water in the tank, kicking up detritus and getting it into the over flows and helping with polyp extension.
I'm happy to say that I have nitrates at ZERO!!!! 20 years later, I've finally conquered the enemy. I feel like I won the Super Bowl. Probably not due all in part to the Wavebox, but I'm sure it's a big reason.
Keep posting pics and blogging about your tank. I'll be tagging along.
Have you considered using a high strength PVC pipe to hold up your rock structures and the drilling some holes in them and connecting the pipe to the return to get flow out of the rock structures. I plan to build my islands for my next tank when I upgrade my 150 to try and reduce dead flow in the islands.
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