95 gallon tank 130 gallon system

[agarza]

Hi all, first of all I would like to thank everyone that willingly or without their knowledge have helped my for the last year and a half while planning my tank, to name them all would be as a long post as I hope this thread grows but to name a few:

Melev
Weatherson
jeffbrig
rdmpe
jnarowe
bheron
gkarshens
Hop
sidewinder770
Nexdog

Thank you all for answering all kind of questions.

Three years ago I set up my first tank, little reading and bad LFS advice led it into disaster until I took it apart about a year ago, things had gone to badly to bring it up again, so that plus a temporary change of residence help me make my decision.

Around that time I have already found RC and a very good Mexican web page All-Reefs, since then I have been reading a lot asking a lot more questions and started realizing everything I did wrong.

This is what it looked like just before taking it apart:

The only thing I was happy with was the stand which I built myself

 

[agarza]

So the plan started and as I said before after many months of planning it I came up with this drawings of my vision:
(I'm sorry but all the notes on the drawings are in Spanish)

 

[agarza]

I started buying equipment and ended up with:

Euro Reef RS-180
Mag Drive 12
Won bros 300w heater
JBJ ATO
2 Seios 1500
My near future acquisitions will be:
2 MH 250 w 14,000 °k
2 actnics VHO 95 watts
ACIII
and a chiller 1/4hp around 2500 3000 BTUS

And here are some pictures of the process (kind of)

That's my kid playing around in the tank (120x50x60 cms)

My devoted helper

This is the mess that my wife put up with for a whole week which I thank her for not complaining (that much)

 

[agarza]

Well that's about all the pictures I have for now, it has been running for week now and tomorrow I will be adding another 100 pounds of live rock.

Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as have enjoyed building it.

Cheers!!

 

[TKByrnes]

looks good keep the pics coming!

 

[agarza]

Thanks I'll update this weekend after adding the live rock

 

[kravi]

Very beautiful work on the stand, I'm jealous (and impressed)

The pictures are great, but some of them need to be scaled down a bit (too large to see in one screen).

I'll be keeping an eye out on this thread.

--Me

 

[agarza]

Thanks, yeah I have to work on my picture taking skills as well as adjusting them for posting

 

[HotRod68Camaro]

Looks like you got everything planned out great.

 

[agarza]

Yeah, thanks been planning it (and saving) for a year now

 

[drummereef]

Looks good! :thumbsup:

 

[adddo]

Looking nice! Keep up the good work!

 

[Snakebyt]

looks very well planned out.. should do well for you

 

[agarza]

Thank you all, looking forward for this weekend milestone, the new live rock.

Cheers!!

 

[agarza]

Whch brand of chiller would you recomend, my system has 125 gallons, and need to reduce heat from 92°F so we are talking around 12-15° so was thinking of a 1/4 HP and around 2800 to 3200 btus, what do you think?

 

[bheron]

Alfonso - great work so far! I am impressed with your planning and attention to detail.

unfortunately I dont have a chiller and never have, so i cant offer any advice.

a few questions:

- is the tank custom built? i like the overflow style.

- how do you find the extra short dursos to work?

- what is your stock list? reef tank, etc?

- do you have a heater in the tank as well? i see the one in the sump, but good to have one in the heater as well in case the pump stops.

- also hard to tell, but where the overflows drain into the sump, it looks like you have built a little compartment - cool - for a bubble trap i guess? if so, do you have live rock in there? also, did you make little slits/openings at the bottom of the bubble trap?

- looks like you have a DSB in the fuge. i cant say for sure, but i once heard that you need a certain amount of surface area for a DSB to do whats its supposed to do. i dunno.

- finally, it looks like you have the overflows draining to both the protein skimmer area and also the fuge?

Im really nitpicking here b/c this looks like a great start. i love it. just hoping to throw some things out there is all. keep it coming!

 

[agarza]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron
Alfonso - great work so far! I am impressed with your planning and attention to detail.

Thank you very much

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

unfortunately I dont have a chiller and never have, so i cant offer any advice.

a few questions:

- is the tank custom built? i like the overflow style.

It is a custom built tank, and on this second try I had the overflow added, I wanted to be a complete 80x1.5 cms opening but for security reasons the holes had to do, they seem to be working very well

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- how do you find the extra short dursos to work?

They are working great, no noise at all and the flow to the sump is incredible

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- what is your stock list? reef tank, etc?

I'm planning on few fishes mostly clowns, chromis and one tang. and it will be soft and LPS dominated reef tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- do you have a heater in the tank as well? i see the one in the sump, but good to have one in the heater as well in case the pump stops.

I only have one in the sump, but your idea is good, I will put a backup in the tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- also hard to tell, but where the overflows drain into the sump, it looks like you have built a little compartment - cool - for a bubble trap i guess? if so, do you have live rock in there? also, did you make little slits/openings at the bottom of the bubble trap?

Two of the three dursos drain into the bubble trap, I dont have live rock in there do uou think it's a good idea to put some in there? The sump is made of glass and didn't remeber of ordering the slits at the bottom.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- looks like you have a DSB in the fuge. i cant say for sure, but i once heard that you need a certain amount of surface area for a DSB to do whats its supposed to do. i dunno.

I do have a DSB in the fuge, that where the other durso is draining to, I hope that the 4" of sand in there as well as the 3" in the tank do the trick.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

- finally, it looks like you have the overflows draining to both the protein skimmer area and also the fuge?

That is correct, do you think I should have water from the return going into the fuge, I was thinking that as the water coming from the tank is the most nutrient rich it's the one taht would work better in a fuge. Any ideas?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8246990#post8246990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bheron

Im really nitpicking here b/c this looks like a great start. i love it. just hoping to throw some things out there is all. keep it coming!

Not at all, please keep the comments coming that's exactly what I'm looking for

 

[thor32766]

yeah great work!

 

[jeffbrig]

Alfonso,

Great looking setup, very clean. Nice CAD work, too! I love the attention to detail, little things like the unions all over the plumbing.

If I were to offer one suggestion it would be to put a gate valve on your skimmer - makes it much easier to adjust. While you're at it, you may also want to consider converting it to recirculating. It's a pretty easy way to boost the performance of the skimmer. It's an easy weekend project once everything is settled.

For the chiller, it sounds like you need a pretty large pulldown. It's kind of hard to forecast chiller needs, because things like humidity and ambient temperature have a big impact on the effective cooling capacity of a chiller. There usually isn't too much difference in cost between 1/4 and 1/3hp, so I would lean towards the bigger one. I've been very happy with my Aqua Logic, but they are a bit pricey. Used chillers are generally a bargain (mine was about 50% of what they go for new).

Oh, and your weeklong "mess" during construction was nothing compared to mine (both time and magnitude).

 

[J_Geisinger000]

Hey agarza

whats that red thing on the top of your airline on your euro reef?