A Low Country Reef Tank....one more final upgrade

SPotter

Active member
So here I go again with another final upgrade build. For those of you that followed my last thread, thank you for joining in on this one and for those that are new to my threads I will give you a little history on my last system. I had set up 72x36x28 in March of 2012 that was running until June 2013 when my wife and I decided to sell our home in NJ and move to SC. At which point I sold the tank, stand, sump and lighting as well as all of my livestock. We are now in the process of building a house that should be done February/March 2014 and if I have it my way, the new tank will be delivered the day after the closing"¦.I've been going nuts not having a tank to tinker with. Now onto the new system"¦"¦

Display: 96"x36"x24"
Stand: Steel
Filtration: Rubbermaid Stock tanks"¦100g sump, 100g fuge and 150g live rock bin
Lighting: Going old school with 4 x 250w Metal Halides and VHO Super Actinic.
Circulation: My wife asked that on this tank there be none to as little as possible equipment in the tank so I am going to go with 2 closed loop systems powered by DC pumps. My goal on this tank will be to concentrate more on chaotic flow patterns than on overall turnover rates.
Return Pump: Not sure yet
Skimmer: I will be selling my ATB 10.5 because it won't be big enough and will be going with an external skimmer. Based on some recent reviews and feedback by some reefers that I really trust I will be going with a Skimz skimmer.
UV Sterilizer: 120w Emperor Aquatics HO UV
Fish Room: Since there are no basements in the Low Country and I am not a huge fan of having the equipment under the tank I will be running 6 pvc lines from where the tank is, thru my crawl space and into my garage where I will be building a fish room. I thought about not building the fish room but the summers are hot with daily temps that start at 85 for the low and reach high 90's so cooling would be an issue. Dimensions of the fish room have not been finalized yet but it will have its own cooling system thru the use of a mini split ac system.
Water Storage: 2 x 165g water storage tanks
Water Changes: I will be doing daily wc's with a LiterMeter3 that I picked up with the water storage tanks. I will do a bulk water change every 3 weeks to vacuum the sand and remove detritus
Dosing: Given the size of the system two part will be very expensive. I will probably start with two part and then switch over to my MTC ProCal reactor when the demand becomes too expensive for dosing.
Stocking Plans: I haven't gotten that far yet but it will be a mixed reef tank. My plan is to do something different from what I did on the last tank and thats take it really slow. While it will be tempting I will not add any of the more difficult sps until the tank reaches the 9-12 month mark from when it has completed cycling and I am able to show consistent and stable parameters for an extended period of time.

Im sure that some of the items listed above will change between now and the time I flip the power on for this system but we will have a lot of fun between now and then. This build will go slow but hopefully by late March we will have some water flowing in the tanks. I will post more information tomorrow about the flow diverters I ordered for the closed loop systems.
 
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Derkroon Flowwolf V2.0

Derkroon Flowwolf V2.0

So here is my first major purchase of the next build and this is what I will be using for my flow diverter on my closed loop systems and I am really excited to test this out as soon as I can. I will be using two of these with DC12000 pumps on each one.

Product link.....

http://www.derkroon.com/store/products/digital-flow-diverters


Video of it in action....

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OzernwEtQL8?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Man I am very glad for you and cant wait for the Feb/March timeframe. Looking forward to seeing this baby run run run.
 
Im surprised to see you're not going sunpower fixture again here. I know you couldn't dial in the the Hyperion because of the color & intensity but im wondering if the MH will be the same problem & you'll end up with T5 fixtures again lol.

Hey did you ever find a LFS, I know you were saying the closest one was like 100 miles or something over in NJ reefers.
 
I thought about t5's but on a 96" tank I would need to run 12-16 bulbs and felt that was just too much. I started looking around at some of the bigger tanks and still see a lot of guys running MH even though the available equipment to chose from is limited now. There's definitely no question that MH can grow corals and I am going to play with two different bulb possibilities. I will either run 250w 20k radiums and use the vho as dusk/dawn lighting or drop down to 175w 14k bulbs for higher par ratings and use the vho for more actinic supplementation when the mh's are on. This could save me some money on energy consumptions and reduce temps issues associated with mh's. I will be using the Hamilton Sun Cozumel reflectors and that should give me plenty of coverage.

As far as the LFS around here....there's one thats about 20 mins away from me. I wasnt really impressed with their systems or livestock. What they do offer is a good supply of equipment and dry goods. So if I am ever in a pinch and cant wait for a UPS truck to deliver parts I can make the ride over there. I did meet a local installer/designer who used to have an LFS down here that now has a small aquaculture and wholesale business that he uses to basically sell to the tanks he installs or services. So, outside of that I will be doing the majority of my ordering online.
 
Glad to see this build getting started, I know it won't be in earnest till next year but getting your arms around it now will be really helpful.

When you get around to doing the stock tank sump I'm interested to see what you plan on doing as I've been getting some microbubbles that I just can't seem to track down, maybe I'll have solved it before then and can let you know!

Did you decide on a tank builder?
 
Glad to see this build getting started, I know it won't be in earnest till next year but getting your arms around it now will be really helpful.

When you get around to doing the stock tank sump I'm interested to see what you plan on doing as I've been getting some microbubbles that I just can't seem to track down, maybe I'll have solved it before then and can let you know!

Did you decide on a tank builder?

Thanks for joining in Doug. I havent decided on a tank builder yet and will hopefully have that nailed down soon. I probably wont order the tank until late december or early January at this point. There's a chance the rubbermaids will be swapped out for something else and I am just waiting to hear the prices for what has been suggested. I will share more about that when I have more information.
 
At times I wonder if I should toss my rubbermaid set up and go back to a custom built sump, so when you start thinking that through let us know and I can let you know what I liked / didn't...
 
Doug are you using filter socks? Are the drains and return line close? I ask because I am setting up a Rubbermaid stock tank for my sump too

Corey
 
Also, i might be able to take your old skimmer off your hands! I will be needing to upgrade mine, it's junk.

although i just saw the price of it new.........ouch, maybe not!!

I'm very interested to see how you go about the Fish Room is our hot/humid garages!
 
Also, i might be able to take your old skimmer off your hands! I will be needing to upgrade mine, it's junk.

although i just saw the price of it new.........ouch, maybe not!!

I'm very interested to see how you go about the Fish Room is our hot/humid garages!

We can work something out if you're interested. Its a beast of a skimmer but it wont be big enough for the amount of water I am planning on running. I bought it during a black friday deal so I got 10% off of what they ask for them new.
 
We can work something out if you're interested. Its a beast of a skimmer but it wont be big enough for the amount of water I am planning on running. I bought it during a black friday deal so I got 10% off of what they ask for them new.

we'll talk offline so not to derail the thread.

The rubbermaids always appear to be a great option for sumps. The size / price ratio compared to glass tanks cannot be beaten and some are just HUGE. Amazon have the best prices i've seen for them, plus free shipping which just astounds me, i don't know how they're making any money.
 
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