A Reef Tank in the Desert - +/- 1,400 gallon system

Newbie Aquarist said:
Glad you are back. Christina has some great buys and awesome sales. I see you took advantage of that. Nothing like coming home to boxes.
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Thanks Wayne. I hope that you are doing well. I know that you have had to take a little reprieve lately.

Its good to be home. Yes, I am pleased with Christina and Reefs2Go. I love coming home to boxes. With as many orders as I have been placing, it seems like it is 24 days of Hanukkah!!
 
This build is awesome I'm following along... Love all the Radions and once it's all said an done your investment will be worth every penny and your family will love you for it... :thumbsup:
 
danfeig said:
I have not installed a water sensor system yet. Being away for a month...it hasn't been my top priority. I will be following David's system: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1958259

I wish that I could put in a floor drain. It's not possible without a lot of saw cutting. The lighting should be completed this week. The light kits from EcoTech are great! It is just time consuming!

Thanks for the compliments and following along!
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I installed my sensor like this. A week after I set it up a temporary line fell out of my cheato tank. Worked like a champ all my pumps shut off. Disaster avoided.

Did you get any of those bad storms at your place?
 
BigOldReef said:
Dan

I figured Jet lag kicked in and you just crashed.

Circus, was Ringling Brothers. Not as "amazing" and "astounding" as when we were kids. Sadly the clowns were the biggest disappointment, but the 4 year old seemed entertained. And an elephant did poop!

I have a pair of 22" linear actuators that I bought for my light rack, but they are sitting in my tool room unused.

Are the fish you put in the tank before you left visible ?

Dave
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Most of the Chromis perished while I was away. My caretaker wasn't feeding much. I had a ton of pods and a few flat worms. I think every other day she was feeding a little.

One of my melanurus wrasses jumped out of the tank but the other is doing very well.

My LFS has some small Yellow Tangs and a couple of Tomini Tangs ready for me. I will be throwing those in this evening. I will be starting to transfer over the stock of my existing system this weekend so it won't look so empty very long!
 
techreef said:
i swear just looking at those pictures of all the new boxes of equipment and livestock gives me a rush! lol. This is a great phase of the new tank setup. Thanks for sharing Dan. Can't wait to see the pics of the tank once it clears.
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Thanks Techreef!

I will shoot some pictures this weekend if not before!
 
Well with only wrasse in the tank she was probably doing you a favor by not feeding. The chromis is not a big deal, under the most ideal situations they are initially not hardy fish.

I look forward to seeing a school of yellows... I have 9 are you going to outnumber me ?

Dave
 
MattyO said:
Never actually seen the filter u talked about a few pages back that needs darkness but can u put a dark sheet over it? That way it's protected from light but u can always peak to see what's going on
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That is certainly an option. It is an approximate 4' high filter that will be used as a Fluidized Sand Reactor. I spoke with the contractor that tinted the windows in my house. He is coming back to tint two windows that I had replaced and I am going to have him put a dark tint on the reactor itself.
 
Al Bundy said:
First off sweet a$$ build im only on page 9 but eager to get to the next page. In the mean time i found this gem of extremely use full info and i just had to thank BigOlReef, I think he may have solved my problem. So Thanks Dave.
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Thanks Al Bundy!

Yeah, BigOlReef is full of useful information....

Thanks for following along!
 
Tank2379 said:
This build is awesome I'm following along... Love all the Radions and once it's all said an done your investment will be worth every penny and your family will love you for it... :thumbsup:
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Tank2379.

Thank you for the kind words. I am anxious to get the lights fired up. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow night! I can't say whether or not my family will love me any more or less with my investment. I don't think they have any clue what I have into the system. I do know that they will be happy when I am able to spend less time working and more time enjoying!

Although I have to tell you, I have enjoyed every minute of the build!!!
 
We've got Fish!!!

We've got Fish!!!

The Radions should be hooked up tonight! I have got all the lights hung, all of the ballasts mounted and all of the wires routed neatly away. I just need to buy a few DJ Power Strips this afternoon.

I shot all few pictures this morning before heading into work.

All of the fish are eating well and have showed no signs of aggression.

The Yellow Tangs, I added 4 smaller ones, are all schooling nicely together but were a little camera shy with me standing next to the tank. I will be adding a little larger tang from my 150 gallon tank on Saturday.

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I have one of the Purple Tangs in the display. I still need to get the other out of my 150 on Saturday. He appears to be as happy as can be.

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I added two Lieutenant Tangs (Acanthurus tennenti) whom appear to be best of friends. If they aren't hanging out together, they school with the Yellow Tangs:

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The Melanurus Wrasse didn't want to come out this morning. My two six-lines weren't the slightest bit shy:

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A couple other shots of some Purple Firefish and Wrasses that weren't too camera shy this morning.

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Saturday I will be adding a pair of Blue Hippo Tangs, Convict Tangs, Powder Blue Tangs, Unicorn Tangs, a pair of Blond Naso Tangs and many others. I am going to leave the Anthia's (except for those in my main display) a while longer in quarantine. I want them all to be eating well!
 
Awesome finally movement to the huge tank! Love it!!! Glad to see someone from Tucson going big or going home!!!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
 
I see you like to do things in deuces. I am looking for some schooling fish. I just wanna do something different other than the yellow tangs. Keep up the good work.
 
Let There Be Light! EcoTech Radions that is!!!!

Let There Be Light! EcoTech Radions that is!!!!

They are installed!!!

After a few nights of working on the hanging kits, prepping the ceiling, setting up the ballasts, running the wires, installing the software, programming each fixture...

...We finally have LIGHT!!!! or lights that is... 12 of them. 12 EcoTech Radion XR30's...

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I am currently running the "Natural Light" program and have it set from 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM. It is a gradually phased on and off program meant to stimulate the natural environment. I am going to set the maximum light setting at 75% power when I put the coral in the tank (to hopefully prevent bleaching). I will gradually increase 3%-5% each week.

I installed two sets of six (6) ballast on each side of the tank.

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Finally, the finished product:

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