A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

[david00061]

You take some great pics in your thread David. I'd guess you have this lens to take your shots?! I might have to wait on buying that one but hopefully can in next couple months. Too many projects/hobbies

I use it because I have it. I didnt want to spend the extra money as Most all pics of the tank can be taken with a tri-pod.
But my wife likes to take pics of flowers so we got the L version. The lens is so heavy without a tri-pod you would need the image stabilization

 

[Dustin1300]

20 Page Cumulative Update!

Over the past 5 months my build has started to go from design/plans to the real thing. Proper planning on some things would have saved me time/money on the build but thus far the build has been moving along at a reasonable pace and I’m very satisfied. Having gone from a 100 gallon setup to this has been a learning experience! That being said, below is outline of what is in place and what I plan to have in place in the future.

Current Water Volume: 285 Gallons deducting rock/sand (Made up of sump, frag tank, and fuge)
Future Water Volume: 1000+ Gallons with plans of an additional sump under the DT

Currently:

Frag/Propagation Tank (54”X36”X18”):
Lighting - Ice Cap fixture with 2 X 250 MH/2 X 54 Watt T5s/2 X LED Tubes. Soon I will be purchasing two Apollo Dimmable Fixtures.
Water Flow – 4 ¾” Loc-Line returns and a beananimal style overflow. 2 EcoTech MP40s will be in charge of keeping water movement up and corals happy.

Sump (51”X26”X20”):
Drain - 4 holes for filter socks. Currently 2 are occupied by overflow for frag/fuge.
Heating - 3 X 300 Watt Jager Heaters
Skimmer – SRO 3000 Internal. Once DT is up and running will likely run SRO 7000/8000 External.
Media Reactors – 2 X GEO 420 media reactors (Carbon/GFO) fed by manifold off Dart pumps.
Returns – 2 X Reeflo Darts plumbed side by side for redundancy. Currently one is operational because I don’t need the two in tandem.

Fuge (41”X15”X26”):
Feeds off a ¾” return from sump and has 120# of live rock and a 6-8” DSB of live sand. 2 X Koralia 1400 powerheads keep water moving to prevent detritus buildup.

Other Equipment:
Controller – Apex unit with PH, ORP, 2 X EB8s, 1 X EB4, 3 float switches for low/optimal/high water levels in sump, PM2 conductivity/temp probes to keep frag tank perfect salinity for hypo. E-mail/text alarms configured for proper notification of problem situations. Plans to add additional functions/probes to controller in near future.
Dosing – Two Part + Mag being fed by BM T01.
Water Filtration – Vertex Puratek 100 GPD unit. Soon to be 150 GPD with 2 75 GPD membranes, beefier booster pump, and second DI stage.
ATO/Water Changes – Two Brute 44s (Lime Water, Fresh Saltwater). LiterMeter III set up for top off of lime water and automatic water changes throughout the day. ‘Old’ drain water will be plumbed to frag QT tank which will then overflow to house drain to keep frag QT tank separate from main system.

QT Systems:
Fish QT – 75 Gallon plumbed separate to main system but easy to spin up with system water, 200 Watt Finnex Heater, Conductivity/Temperature monitoring, and 2 X Koralia 1400GPH Powerheads. Fish will be treated with prazipro/hypo for 6 weeks minimum, then to frag tank for 4 weeks, then to DT.
Frag QT – 15” Custom Acrylic Cube, 18 Watt LED Ecoxotic PAR 38, Heater, and plans for EcoTech MP10.

Future:

Display Tank (96”X48”X30”):
Water Flow - 2 X ¾” Returns fed by Reeflo Dart, 4 X ¾” Closed loop on back wall fed by ReeFlo Dart, 4 X EcoTech MP60s (Possibly more additional MP40s on back if I’m not happy with flow).
Lighting – LED but still undecided. Apollo fixtures will be tested on frag tank and will likely use those or custom DIY LED fixture.
Aquascaping – Back/Side walls will be made from eggcrate/block pond foam integrating rock structure and powerheads in to give the tank real depth. Open aquascape with arch/valley.

Other Future Equipment:
Algae Turf Scrubber, Calcium Reactor, Secondary Sump, and Skimmer as noted earlier. I’m sure other things will accumulate on the list but these are major additions that I’ll have up and running before bringing DT online. Water change station with 2 X 165 gallon vertical tanks and 2 X 44 gallon Brutes are also in the near future.

Picture Time!

Basement Fish Room Layout:

Wall Cutout for DT:

Full View of Fish Room:

Sump (A little dirty because of too much flow to GFO/Carbon):

QTs (Frag QT on left and Fish QT on right):

Additional angle of Frag Tank/Plumbing:

RO/DI, LMIII, and unplumbed BM T01 Doser:

Temporary Water Station:

Next Steps:
- Build/Bring ATS Online
- Finalize Fish List and put order in for first fish next week
- Start picking up coral at April INDMAS Frag Swap
- Water Changing Station
- Purchase LED lighting for frag tank

 

[msr224]

Soooooooo, when are you hosting the INDMAS meeting? Can't wait to see the system. It's looking awesome!

 

[Dustin1300]

Soooooooo, when are you hosting the INDMAS meeting? Can't wait to see the system. It's looking awesome!

I'll probably have one at some point but for now not much to look at other than equipment:sad2: Hope your following along!

Can't wait to start adding fish/coral over the next few weeks. My Nitrates are still through the roof from the fishless cycle but have the LiterMeter III set up to do water changes throughout the day to help bring them down. Supplies come in tonight which includes PM 2 for conductivity/temperature for fish QT, powerheads, RO/DI supplies (new 75 gpd membrane/restricter to make more efficient), second DI stage, and most of all....Some parts to get my ATS built! I promise to build the ATS by EOW as I want to have some assistance bringing down the Nitrates rather than doing huge water changes

Floyd, how soon should I see ATS start reducing nitrates/phosphates once I bring online? 5 days ago tested and phosphate was at .18 and nitrate was 100+...

 

[SPotter]

Dustin if I remember correctly, when I started my ats I started seeing a drop after the first week.

 

[Dustin1300]

That'd be great! I have a frag swap I'll be attending April 24th and would like to pick up some hardy corals then....Just trying to plan accordingly with water changes if the ATS cannot bring the two down significantly.

 

[Dustin1300]

I've been working on a 'Fish Wish List' so I have some type of road map and can add fish as the tank matures. That being said, I've not started a tank from scratch for 5+ years so a lot of this information contains lots of cob webs in my head! Take a look at the list below and let me know what you think

I planned on possibly picking up the blue tang and two snowflake clownfish next week. Since both have a good temperament I thought they'd be good to start out with. More aggressive tangs, group of anthias, butterflies, and mandarins would all be put off until the main DT is up and going so tank has matured some and they are not stressed.

Questions:
- Any fish you'd recommend if you had a tank this size?
- Any on the list you'd steer clear of?
- With the wrasses I currently have, do you think I'd have a problem with keeping inverts or should I axe them off list? I've had sixline/christmas wrasses with no problem with inverts in past....Still need to figure this out.

 

[Dustin1300]

Come on...No one has a favorite fish they have/want?

I've got some recommendations and re-working some of the list and adding some fish too Of course this is not set in stone but I'd like to have a roadmap for the future!

 

[SPotter]

Im an anthias guy myself. Im thinking about doing a big school of lyretails

 

[Dustin1300]

Im an anthias guy myself. Im thinking about doing a big school of lyretails

I'm with you on that Steve. I'm hoping to get the Anthias soon as I don't think they are a fish I want to add later down the road. I love the ignitus anthias and was thinking I'd start with 10. Only problem is I'm not sure I could add to the shoal once they are built up.

 

[Dustin1300]

Seems like things have been moving slowly lately but things are moving

Tonight I got the following done:
- Additional DI Stage in place
- Changed out 100 GPD flow restrictor/membrane to a 75 GPD restrictor/membrane to make the RO/DI more efficient
- Added PM 2, calibrated conductivity probe, and put PHs/heater in place in fish QT and currently working on some further Apex programming.

New Flow Restrictor:

Old/New Membrane:

Second DI Stage (Will move stage 2 to stage 1 once TDS climbs above 0):

 

[SPotter]

looks great Dustin!!!! how do you like the conductivity probe so far? I have one on my apex and I find that it needs to be calibrated often. I replaced it with a new after a yr and still the same with the new one. I think its a good reference point to have but still rely on manual testing for it.

How are your levels?

 

[Dustin1300]

looks great Dustin!!!! how do you like the conductivity probe so far? I have one on my apex and I find that it needs to be calibrated often. I replaced it with a new after a yr and still the same with the new one. I think its a good reference point to have but still rely on manual testing for it.

How are your levels?

I calibrated with 530 calibration fluid last night and I'm not completely satisfied with the 'accuracy'. I've been out and about today but did some building on the project this afternoon and will be doing a full water test in morning for all parameters. Post will follow shortly on what I've been working on

 

[Dustin1300]

ATS Build Time!

ATS Build Time!

I've been very patiently awaiting to make it around to adding the ATS to the system and it's officially up and running. I've outlined some of the steps used to make the ATS and below is the current specs of it:

- 18" X 12" screen totaling 216 square inches (Current volume of system is 285 gallons so this is a little undersized but is a bit of a pilot test for me)
- 4 X 23 watt CFL 2700k bulbs with full metal reflectors
- ~4 inches away from screen
- Not yet measured the GPH but plan on doing that in morning as well as get all the wires organized and Apex programmed for 16 hours on, 8 hours off for the lighting

If the experts following along have any suggestions on the ATS let me know. If I start seeing results with this thing, I'll be planning either a 3D ATS or bucket style ATS with LED lighting I have a lot of hope in this project and trust what everyone else is saying.

ATS Build:

In the theme of the other plumbing, I went ahead and continued using SCH 80 plumbing only for aesthetic reasons really. I only had to pick up a 1" Union in my latest BRS order to get this thing rolling. That being said, I first needed to mark a straight line which was easily made by lining up another piece of PVC so I had a straight edge as a guide.

Only problem was the SCH 80 being so dark and not seeing the line. After making the first long cut, I went ahead and taped it off so I could actually see how wide to cut it on the final pass.

Here's the straightest cut I could make and when cutting with the dremel, it helped to angle the pipe away from me.

I noticed when I was cleaning up the cuts that the inside had a large amount of 'melted' plastic. To help ensure that algae does not clog/build up inside the pipe, I took a 3/4" pex and slid it up/down inside the pipe to make the inside smooth.

The next and last step of the actual ATS build was getting the screen scuffed up really well. Hole saw up and down every which way for a good 15 minutes seems to have roughed it up really well. I taped off the top 1" to ensure it remained smooth to keep algae from climbing up into the pipe.

Finally the finished product. Simply 1" pipe, elbow, union, elbow barb, adapter, cap, and screen.

 

[Dustin1300]

ATS Build Time! (Cont'd)

ATS Build Time! (Cont'd)

To secure the piping, I put two 1" metal clamps into the concrete wall and then tied the system into the manifold I currently have. I'll likely add a pipe holder to the end if needed but at this point might need something to keep splashing from coming out of the sump.

Opposite side view w/o lighting:

Lighting off/attached but wiring not yet organized.

Lighting on:

Lighting up the whole sump!

Share the feedback with me

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Dustin, have you reviewed the current basic writeup? Screens are no longer based on the volume of the tank. They are based on feeding volume. 12 sq in of screen lit with 6W per side for each cube of food (or equivalent thereof) fed per day. So unless you're planning on feeding 18 cubes of food per day, your screen is not going to grow properly. These are across-the-board design guidelines that changed about 4-6 months ago. Check the post in my signature. This is a very important change and you need to be following the new guideline.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You snuck that post in just before my last one.

I see problems down the line.

#1 those o-rings will not stop water creep along the pipe. You will likely end up with a pool of water on your floor at some point. I've been there. Use big washers like the ones that go on either side of the carbon block cartridge of an RO pre-filter, those block it good. Also a ballcock washer if you can find them in 1".

#2 you definitely need to support the end of the pipe. the weight of algae will make that thing fall.

#3 your screen will grow out and you're going to get spray. I suggest the saran wrap technique. It's way awesome.

#4 as previously mentioned you need a screen likely about 1/10th that size at first. Seriously, 1/10 the size. I can't see any way you would need anything larger than 2 cubes a day for a while, maybe 4, but that's something you can add later on.

#5 If you go with a 24 sq in screen (2 cubes/day) make it square (5x5) and then just one of the 23W lamps per side. Then you can run the lights less than 18 hours per the high-light method. You can actually use the CFL floodlights for a screen that size and ditch the reflectors.

Sorry if this came too late after all that work but believe me this will be #1 easier to maintain (not so big) #2 will grow green must faster (filters better) #3 use less power #4 dump less light into sump

Hope that helps...I just happened to be sitting in front of my PC when you posted all this...

 

[kmooresf]

I like your fish list. I have a Lemonpeel angel........might be one to re-think. I LOVE it, and it was the best fish ever in my FOWLR. However it is REALLY aggressive with the coral. Any LPS and most softies that have tentacles. Did ok with Anemone's. Never put any SPS with it other than a chalice that it made quick work of. They are very individual so they say, so you might get a better one. Mine now lives in my refugium with a clownfish and a baby lion. It's a big fuge.

On another note, one of my favorite fish is a Lemon Peel Mimic Tang. Beautiful color and movement in the tank with striking adult coloration.

Your set up is looking fantastic!

 

[Dustin1300]

@Floyd, I'm going to look into the recommendations and see what I can do with the current design and read up on the ATS thread in morning. I'm calling it a night because the wife wants me to pay a little attention to her

@kmooresf, I'm still working on the list and the lemonpeel/flame are both questionable. If I get them, I'll likely pick them up and let them remain in the frag tank for quite some time to ensure they are on good behavior. While I realize they can change with time, this would make me feel much more confident If it does not workout, I'll go a different route.

 

[Dustin1300]

Got tests done this morning as I've bee slacking because I've been working on other parts of the project. Trates are finally dropping! We'll see if the ATS gives me some help too

Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - .2, Nitrates - 25, PH - 8.13, Alkalinity - 9.3, Calcium - 410, Magnesium - 1140, and Phosphate down to .06 from .18 a week ago.