A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

IUfan said:
Absolutely awesome build! Stuck in an airport and it helped me pass the time reading the whole thing... Okay I may have been scanning through to each picture a bit, but was still captivating!

I have a GEO calcium reactor, and was looking at using a dosing pump like the CP, how well is it working for you. No matter how much I try and understand how to set up the calcium reactor I just can't get my head around it.

So you have the circulation pump which is pumping water around and around inside the reactor, you have the carbon dioxide going into that water melting the coral skeleton and producing a high calcium concentrate in the water, the effluent right?

How do you run a dosing pump like the CP? Does it pump DT water into the reactor ... or does it pump water out of the reactor chamber into the DT.

If pumping water from DT to reactor, then how does water from the reactor get to the DT?

And if pumping water from reactor to DT then how does water get to the reactor?

I'm presuming it pumps water into the reactor, and then it reaches max capacity and overflows back to the DT? Is that correct?

I am shocked that 50 chromis turned into 6! I heard that with big number such as those, that the aggression was spread out and fatalities were less. I have 11 in my 180 and as of 2 weeks ago (knock on wood) I still had 11. I have a yellow belly blue tang who rules the tank a bit, so maybe that goes with what you said about having an aggressor in the tank to keep them shoaling and not fighting.

Like your plan to have blue jaw trigger pair, when I saw your first fish list and a blue jaw wasn't on there, I was going to suggest it. Trying to get a pair myself, but don't see many bonded pairs together, I heard making a pair is difficult.

Look forward to following the progress.
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Most of your questions should have been answered when you came over last night, let me know if you have more.

jcolley said:
Dustin,

Now that you've had it together for a while, how is the piano hinge on the upper cabinet holding up? I have a similar access panel on my in-wall tank and have gone through two that rusted beyond the plating.

I have switched to 6 stainless cabinet door hinges to see if that helps.

Once again, very nice build. I've been talking with Bill off and on for a while and thinking about one of his skimmers. How's the noise output from it?
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I ended up not using piano hinges and used three different hinges that have two positions, believe it's like 45/90 degrees.

As far as skimmer, only real noise is from when air gets injected into Dart pump. Everyone says the system is amazingly quiet, but I've still got some tweaks I'd like to do as we just completed my home theater project on the other side of the tank where it's viewable.

Newbie Aquarist said:
Man I love the color of your tank. You are definitely making my decision hard on lighting now. Hit me up when you get free so we can talk numbers.
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Shot you PM, we can talk tomorrow night if that works for you?

SPotter said:
the colors look awesome Dustin!!!! definitely fill us in on whats been going with the tank!
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david00061 said:
I love it
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Atomic081 said:
Great tank Dustin!
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Centralreefs said:
Gorgeous reef, love the rock work
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Thanks guys, I hate pictures of the tank as they really don't show the four foot depth it has but it's coming along. Tweak here and there but overall I'm happy with the way it's all developing. Just sold a bunch of frags from my frag system in past few days and going to the WORC swap to find some nice SPS.
 
Tank looks great! Can you tell me what settings you are using for your Atlantiks and how high off the water you have the suspended? I have three units over my 340 along with 6 24" T5s and am trying to dial them in.
 
acesq said:
Tank looks great! Can you tell me what settings you are using for your Atlantiks and how high off the water you have the suspended? I have three units over my 340 along with 6 24" T5s and am trying to dial them in.
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I have 6 Atlantiks over a 96"X48"X30" tank. PAR numbers are around 150-200 on sand bed and 200-800 on rock with lights suspended 16-18" off the water at peak. I run peak for about 3 hours where lights are 100% and for the larger period they are only at 60-80% depending on channel.
 
so now that the tank has been running for several months, is there anything you would have done differently? I remember with my last tank it didn't take long for me to step and say..."why didn't I do this?" or "why did I do that!!!!"
 
SPotter said:
so now that the tank has been running for several months, is there anything you would have done differently? I remember with my last tank it didn't take long for me to step and say..."why didn't I do this?" or "why did I do that!!!!"
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You rubbing it in now that you get the luxury of doing another big tank build Steve!?! :debi:

Seriously though, I can't do the above yet...I could go ahead and file for the divorce papers!

- Plumbing - Would have drawn it ALL up in sketchup.
- Tank - Would have bought a new hybrid A.G.E. or glass tank built in place with external overflows. (Tank is cheap in comparison to the whole picture)

I've learned a ton of things from this build that I'll use in building my next system is all I can say. I would probably spend close to a year drawing up EVERY detail in 3d modeling software so if I don't like it, I simply hit the delete key! Equipment wise, I've been very happy and that's where a lot of my money is wrapped up. (Lighting, Pumps, Skimmer, CR, etc)
 
Yesterday hit up a swap in Dayton OHIO (WORC) which is only about 2 hours east. Picked up 15 SPS frags and they've been dipped and in QT. Now that params are not on rollercoaster due to the amazing Cole Parmer pump, colors are much better and growth has taken off. That being said, I'm confident in buying nice SPS corals now that the tank is more mature and ready for many more sticks!

Probably some of my favorite out of the bunch are pearlberry, ice fire enchinata, hawkins, and pink panther digi. This was 5 minutes after dipping and PE was already starting.
20140329_204554-X2.jpg


Sold off some of my spare frags in frag tank to pay for the guys above last week locally. Wife is happy that I can supplement most of my fish/coral purchases with frag sales/trading. She actually made the comment before I went to swap yesterday saying you've not been spending much money on your tank lately, what gives? (Guess she's not learned, big mistake!)
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Now I'm done rambling...I've got to go do some cleanup on tank and check out my new frags and do some more fragging for my club's swap and give our club a quick plug! My staff from INDMAS has diligently been working on planning for our swap, what I consider the best in the midwest. Vendors are booked, have already received $10k+ in raffle prizes and still coming in, hobbyist are rolling in and fragswapper will start picking up over the next couple weeks. If you live in the MidWest, mark your calendars and come see us. (I'm sure I'll be running with my head cut off!) Check out the following link for details: http://indmas.org/main/index.php/forum-1/announcement-6-2014-indmas-frag-swap-saturday-may-10th-indianapolis/
FragSwapAnnouncement.jpg
 
Its amazing what you learn from doing a big build. I went from a 40g to an 80g to a 315g in a matter of 18 months and wow what a difference there really is between the planning needed. I wish I was proficient at sketchup because it would really help me. Right now I am using graph paper and colored pencils....lol. No matter how hard I try or how long I read the directions for sketch up.....I just can't get it right. I really spent a lot of time discussing my tank with James @ Envision Acrylic about what I wanted in my tank. I really wanted to get an AGE but I couldn't find anyone local here that would order it for me. Everyone kept on pushing me towards Glass Cages which just made me run from them. I did find one guy that would do it and did get a quote from them but he wanted to mark it up 50% which just made the cost significantly higher than what I wanted to spend. I also had issue with giving the guy 50% for really doing nothing since he had no suggestions on the design and basically was just taking my order.
 
I'm going to read more about the cole palmer pump you picked up and see if thats something i want to incorporate with my ca reactor.
 
Wow great frags! Im so jealous you were able to go to the worc frag swap. Ill be loading up at the indmas swap. Your right about the indmas swap being the best in the Midwest!
 
Atomic081 said:
Wow great frags! Im so jealous you were able to go to the worc frag swap. Ill be loading up at the indmas swap. Your right about the indmas swap being the best in the Midwest!
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Was happy I got to go and will see you at INDMAS swap, it's quickly approaching! Tim (Aquavista) was not selling this year at WORC or our swap due to him being between tanks/houses transitions and MrFish is no longer selling, both a bummer!
 
I am using the same, well almost the same, pump on my calcium reactor. Is yours doing a steady dripping flow or is it completely flowing?
 
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