A Golden Reef Tank (v2)

[halmus]

A Golden Reef Tank (v2)

A month ago, a local reefer put out an SOS to the Denver area.

"œ160g tank established for 15 years. I want out! My tank is leaking. Come and get it."




Part of the reason my system is "œmore crap than you need in the back end" (to quote YouTube trolls) is that I've intentionally built the system to be modular.

I showed up the next day and picked up chalices too big to fit in a 5g bucket and more euphillia and trumpet coral than would fit in two 5g buckets. Some other chalice and Duncan's. Not a huge biodiversity but some really impressive established colonies. Along with a beautiful sailfin tang I've affectionately named "œdumbo". It's a big beautiful tang that doesn't understand its own size.

Everything went into QT. Luckily, I had enough room for the new clowns, Anthia, sailfin, and coral in the various QT systems. Again, I built the system to be able to grow/shrink based on immediate needs. I was able to give a little bit of compensation to the hobbyist.

Today, I've finally moved some of the larger pieces into my display. I've given away some pieces to local hobbyists. The rest I've mounted to plates and letting heal up. Soon, I'll be selling off those pieces to give back to the original owner to help with his transition out of the hobby. It's a win-win scenario as far as I'm concerned.


In other news:

I want to build a camera rig to get some panning views of the tank and try to document the growth of the display side better. By the time I have that done, the new coral should be growing in well.

I'm not doing much on the back end of the tank these days other than maintenance. Growing out frags to trade with hobbyists or give away to guests.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

You made me go back and read the comments. WOW! there's some haters! I'm quite certain that none of those guys know the amount of ingenuity that went into your system. If it didn't come in a box and cost an arm and a leg they won't understand.

I love everything about it!

 

[McPuff]

You made me go back and read the comments. WOW! there's some haters! I'm quite certain that none of those guys know the amount of ingenuity that went into your system. If it didn't come in a box and cost an arm and a leg they won't understand.

I love everything about it!

Completely agree Jimmy. And you've got lots of jealous people too that feel better when they can try to tear someone down.

 

[halmus]

Tonight was my breaking point.

I have 7 Ecotech Vectra M2's on my system. 4 have failed. Finding a workaround for everything or just leaving that pump dead if it's not critical.

I have 4 Ecotech MP60's on my system. 4 have rusty impeller shafts.

My Ecotech Reeflink has been inop for about a year.

I sold x5 Radion G4's and replaced them with either old school MH or T5HO.

See a trend? I'm done with Ecotech.

Just lost another Vectra tonight. Second time the impeller shaft seized on that pump but it's a trend with all others. The plastic housing of the pump is failing and the shaft disintegrated tonight after I cleaned everything and restarted the pump.

Have a Maxijet circulating water to my frag system now as backup.

Planning on replacing every Ecotech product in my system as budget allows.

 

[McPuff]

Tonight was my breaking point.

I have 7 Ecotech Vectra M2's on my system. 4 have failed. Finding a workaround for everything or just leaving that pump dead if it's not critical.

I have 4 Ecotech MP60's on my system. 4 have rusty impeller shafts.

My Ecotech Reeflink has been inop for about a year.

I sold x5 Radion G4's and replaced them with either old school MH or T5HO.

See a trend? I'm done with Ecotech.

Just lost another Vectra tonight. Second time the impeller shaft seized on that pump but it's a trend with all others. The plastic housing of the pump is failing and the shaft disintegrated tonight after I cleaned everything and restarted the pump.

Have a Maxijet circulating water to my frag system now as backup.

Planning on replacing every Ecotech product in my system as budget allows.

For lighting, consider the Orphek Atlantik V4.2. I'm super happy with mine. Installed a couple months ago on my 300DD. Only needed 3 fixtures, have superb coverage and intensity (without even turning them up all the way). Super easy to control (way more easily than ecotech). In fact, I'll be replacing my current Gen 3 pro with another Atlantik over my lagoon. I very much dislike the reef link and the relative complexity associated with adding and controlling the lights (won't even consider adding their pumps at this point... Tunze are far too good).

 

[halmus]

Thanks for the tip McPuff.

For lights, I'm set now. Unless the new world order bans MH bulbs and I'm forced to switch. They worked on my last tank. Working on this one. Just wish I hadn't planned the system around Ecotech.

That being said, I still really like the Vortech pumps. Just wish they didn't skimp on material costs in manufacturing which has led to the rusty impeller shafts. Why skimp there? It's stupid expensive to begin with. How much could they possibly have saved? Or did their manufacturer in Wuhan sneak in some repurposed bat cartilage to cut down on material cost?

Certainly wouldn't use any Vectra pumps or their new peristaltic. I haven't used it personally but a friend locally has had nothing but trouble with it.

 

[McPuff]

Thanks for the tip McPuff.

Certainly wouldn't use any Vectra pumps or their new peristaltic. I haven't used it personally but a friend locally has had nothing but trouble with it.

I agree here... I bought the Versa as soon as it was available because for the price, why not? Figured it would be a good feed pump for my CA reactor. But after a month I really started to question it's ability to serve as a continuous duty pump. Any speed over 70/80 ml/min and it emits a loud whistle/whine which just bores a hole into your head eventually. I started to have some other issues with it [and with Mobius!] as well. Probably got about two months of use out of it and then took it offline and went back to using a manifold to feed the reactor. One less mechanical thing to worry about.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

You guys are making me sad...

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Hey Neighbor! I love your setup. Very inspiring, even for a low-tech nature boy like me. I'd love to hear more about it, so I'll keep following. I'm especially impressed that you share all your ups and downs so freely. I think I can learn a lot from you and your experiences. Thanks for sharing!

 

[BZOFIQ]

Came back to revisit what is probably my all time favorite built. This is a build that rivals what public aquaria do and leaps them by a mile. Back end is simply phenomenal.

Appreciate you sharing the details, learned few tricks too; always loved your setup. Keep going.

 

[halmus]

Sorry so slow in responding here. Life's been crazy. Spent some time looking for commercial spaces in Denver with no luck. Also spent some time looking at homes with large enough shop space for my business. Unfortunately, real estate has exploded even more in the region. I'm willing to move into the middle of nowhere but the wife isn't.

So, good news is that I don't have to tear down the tank! That would be an insane waste after all I've put into it.

Bad news is I'm still trying to build huge cabinets in a shoebox.

Good news is that I finally invested in a CNC.

Bad news is that it only has a 2' x 4' bed for now and as small as it is, it takes up more workspace in my shoebox.

Good news is that it's an Avid CNC which is easy to scale up in size when I have space. Ordered it with long cabling and oversized steppers to handle the scaling and the workload I eventually want to use it for. It's mostly assembled now but still need the VFD spindle and buy a dedicated laptop to drive it.

 

[halmus]

Hey Neighbor! I love your setup. Very inspiring, even for a low-tech nature boy like me. I'd love to hear more about it, so I'll keep following. I'm especially impressed that you share all your ups and downs so freely. I think I can learn a lot from you and your experiences. Thanks for sharing!

Hey Michael. Where are located? Thanks for checking out the build.

I promise I'll update with pictures soon. Been so long since I checked in, I'm not sure where I left off.

As a "œlow-tech nature guy" you'll appreciate the direction my refugium has taken.

 

[halmus]

Came back to revisit what is probably my all time favorite built. This is a build that rivals what public aquaria do and leaps them by a mile. Back end is simply phenomenal.

Appreciate you sharing the details, learned few tricks too; always loved your setup. Keep going.

Thanks for the compliments! I've come up with a few tricks on my own but owe a lot to people I've followed in the past. Glad we can help each other out with our successes and failures.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I'm just up the road in Boulder. Ooh yeah, I look forward to checking out your refugium's direction!

 

[halmus]

Had to re-learn the Flickr account and posting pics. Long time since I've posted pictures. I need to clean my display glass and take some updated pics there.

For now, I re-worked the refugium with help of a friend. Removed the old substrate and put in a deep sand bed. I added all of the recommended critters to keep the deep sand bed healthy. I lowered the water level to about 12" so that I could free up some space for mangroves at the bottom and still allow them to stick out of the water. Planted about 30 mangrove pods. Most made it. I also ordered some sea-grass. That has taken a long time (3-6 months?) to really settle in and start putting out new nodes. It's finally growing in.

I clean away the junk algae once in a while but for the most part, I'm just letting things be. I think the mangroves have been rooting out for about 6 months now. I want them to get well rooted, then I can come back and start trying to keep the roots free of junk algae.

I'm not really using this tank as a refugium anymore. At least not the "textbook" definition of a fuge. It does propagate a lot of pods and snails. I actually had too much nutrient export in the system which I think was starving my SPS. Maybe? I don't know. Just systematically trying to change one thing at a time to get my SPS to color up more. So far so good.

This is going to be more of a secondary display. I want to put in pipe fish and ruby red dragonettes in the future. I think they'd look great hanging out in the mangrove forest.


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<img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50322826413_d2076ef778_k.jpg" width="2048" height="1536" alt="IMG_4959">

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<img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50323492801_d491dc4224_k.jpg" width="2048" height="1536" alt="IMG_4961">

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Nice. I see you've got some manatee grass in there. I've kept that, shoal grass and turtle grass. Manatee is my favorite. Your sand bed looks a little shallow for them, but they look to be doing very well. The shallow water will keep their growth shorter, but they should be fine. I have blades easily 3 feet long in my 30 inch tall tank.

You could throw a molly or two in there to go after that algae. Just don't feed them, and they will take care of it.

Great tank!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Sorry so slow in responding here. Life's been crazy. Spent some time looking for commercial spaces in Denver with no luck. Also spent some time looking at homes with large enough shop space for my business. Unfortunately, real estate has exploded even more in the region. I'm willing to move into the middle of nowhere but the wife isn't.

So, good news is that I don't have to tear down the tank! That would be an insane waste after all I've put into it.

Bad news is I'm still trying to build huge cabinets in a shoebox.

Good news is that I finally invested in a CNC.

Bad news is that it only has a 2' x 4' bed for now and as small as it is, it takes up more workspace in my shoebox.

Good news is that it's an Avid CNC which is easy to scale up in size when I have space. Ordered it with long cabling and oversized steppers to handle the scaling and the workload I eventually want to use it for. It's mostly assembled now but still need the VFD spindle and buy a dedicated laptop to drive it.

ooooh! how exciting!

 

[JMetaxas]

Just found this thread. Remarkable build.

 

[halmus]

ooooh! how exciting!

Thanks. Can't wait to bring the beast online! Will be able to order the spindle after I complete the next job. Then bring it to life! Well....then learn how to use the thing.

 

[halmus]

Just found this thread. Remarkable build.

Thanks.

It's always up and down with this tank. Over the last month I've lost a few colonies. As of today, the "œblue" coral I've always struggled with in the past is looking better than ever. Others that were indestructible are looking worse.

So, must be something that I'm missing. All parameters are within reason after testing. Bulbs are replaced every 6 months.

I had to switch Ca/Rx media to ARM. Ran out of Sprung's material and not sure when I'll be able to get more.

I'm keeping up general maintenance on the system but otherwise taking a hands-off approach. Some coral looks great others not so much. So, I'm just letting the system determine its own direction for now.

Still owe everyone pictures. Sorry about the delay. I'll get some up sometime. Warts and all.