Where do I start...
I had my AGA 90g up and running for almost two years with little troubles. It unfortunaltely had an external U-tube overflow which was its demise. I was gone to a week long training class and on fourth day my wife called in a panic saying there was water all over the floor. You guessed it. Somehow a snail made it past the mesh snail guard and wedged himself nicely inside the U-tube.
I do have to give credit to my wife. The system had lost nearly 20g and was without heat/circulation for nearly 3 hrs. I was able to walk her through the process of starting the siphon and dumping a bunch of reserve water back in the system. Let me tell you.... Its very difficult to explain a siphon to someone who doesn't have a clue and doesn't really want to learn. In the end she stabalized the system and I returned the next day to help clean up the water.
What did I learn from this experience?
1. Never have a tank with an external overflow. It will fail. Even if you have fancy float switches to turn off the pumps they will fail and you will have water on the floor.
2. Always have pre-mixed saltwater available for emergencies.
3. Failures will only happen when you are out of town.
The next day I started the research and order process to upgrade the tank. This time with an internal overflow!!! Since my reef addiction is very strong I spec'ed out a tank as big as I could possibly go in the given "wife allowed" space. The final dimensions came to 70" x 36" x 30" with a single large center overflow on the back wall. The tank was built by SoCalCreations and the whole process was very smooth from start to finish.
Circulation - 2 tunze streams and tunze wavebox
Return - Sequence Dart -> 1" sea swirl - Some flow will also be directed to my 60g frag tank.
Sump - 100g rubbermaid stock tank - ASM G4x skimmer
Fuge - 50g rubbermaid stock tank
Lighting - 3 x 400w 20k XM. The two outside bulbs will be housed in the 19" x 19" lumenarc reflector.
Misc
Alk/Calcium - Precision Marine CR422 Calcium Reactor w/ additional effluent chamber
Calcium/PH - KR620 Precision Marine Kalkreactor
60g frag tank w/ 250w halide
Now for the progesss pics.
I borrowed a truck from a friend and as they were loading the tank in the truck the forklift driver hit the top right corner of his bed. lol (Reddaway insurance did take care of the problem quickly)
Wow. Thats one big box. My wife and daughter checking things out.
We took it out of the crate and four of us were able to get it moved into the house.
My first fish.
I had my buddy build me a 1.5" steel tube stand for the tank which turned out really nice. I was originally going to cover the stand in wood but it turned out so nice I'm going to leave it exposed.
I had my AGA 90g up and running for almost two years with little troubles. It unfortunaltely had an external U-tube overflow which was its demise. I was gone to a week long training class and on fourth day my wife called in a panic saying there was water all over the floor. You guessed it. Somehow a snail made it past the mesh snail guard and wedged himself nicely inside the U-tube.
I do have to give credit to my wife. The system had lost nearly 20g and was without heat/circulation for nearly 3 hrs. I was able to walk her through the process of starting the siphon and dumping a bunch of reserve water back in the system. Let me tell you.... Its very difficult to explain a siphon to someone who doesn't have a clue and doesn't really want to learn. In the end she stabalized the system and I returned the next day to help clean up the water.
What did I learn from this experience?
1. Never have a tank with an external overflow. It will fail. Even if you have fancy float switches to turn off the pumps they will fail and you will have water on the floor.
2. Always have pre-mixed saltwater available for emergencies.
3. Failures will only happen when you are out of town.
The next day I started the research and order process to upgrade the tank. This time with an internal overflow!!! Since my reef addiction is very strong I spec'ed out a tank as big as I could possibly go in the given "wife allowed" space. The final dimensions came to 70" x 36" x 30" with a single large center overflow on the back wall. The tank was built by SoCalCreations and the whole process was very smooth from start to finish.
Circulation - 2 tunze streams and tunze wavebox
Return - Sequence Dart -> 1" sea swirl - Some flow will also be directed to my 60g frag tank.
Sump - 100g rubbermaid stock tank - ASM G4x skimmer
Fuge - 50g rubbermaid stock tank
Lighting - 3 x 400w 20k XM. The two outside bulbs will be housed in the 19" x 19" lumenarc reflector.
Misc
Alk/Calcium - Precision Marine CR422 Calcium Reactor w/ additional effluent chamber
Calcium/PH - KR620 Precision Marine Kalkreactor
60g frag tank w/ 250w halide
Now for the progesss pics.
I borrowed a truck from a friend and as they were loading the tank in the truck the forklift driver hit the top right corner of his bed. lol (Reddaway insurance did take care of the problem quickly)
Wow. Thats one big box. My wife and daughter checking things out.
We took it out of the crate and four of us were able to get it moved into the house.
My first fish.
I had my buddy build me a 1.5" steel tube stand for the tank which turned out really nice. I was originally going to cover the stand in wood but it turned out so nice I'm going to leave it exposed.
