Aflac's 240 gallon buil

[Aflac01]

Hi, I am new to reefcentral but am starting a new tank and figured i should post a thread here. And since I like threads with pictures ill start off with one of my current tank. If the pictures do not work I apologize...this is my first time doing this.

The new tank is actually one I had set up last year (it was a craigslist find...ha)...but then I got deployed and the people I was renting the house from told me they were going to sell the house while I was in iraq so i had to tear down the tank and move out. I set up the above 36 gallon tank when I got back but its just not enough so im setting up the 240 again. It had a lot of scratches in it so I took it into ATM here in vegas and they got rid of all the scratches and its good as new again (spent more on getting the scratches removed than I did buying the tank).

I am in the process of getting a new stand built for it, so its kind of standless right now.

hopefully the new stand will get delivered next week sometime and I can get started. but ive done some work getting it ready. ran a leak test on my reactors today. one is going to be for NP biopellets. Ill probably put some sort of phosphate stuff and maybe some carbon in the other.... oh and you can see the calicum reactor behind them too.

and this next picture is just for fun.

 

[Aflac01]

Ha....turns out I forgot to finish writing the world build when i wrote the title of this thread......

 

[Patrick F]

Hello Aflac01,

What are the dimensions of the 240.....what size sump do you intend on using?

Patrick

 

[Aflac01]

96x18x30 acrylic
Sump will be 72x13.5x18. Dividing it into 5 sections. Two inflow areas one left one right. A skimmer area downstream of the left one. A refugium downstream of the right one. And a return section in the middle. Having to get the sump custom built. No one makes a 6 foot long tank that's only 13.5 inches wide. But I'll only have 14 inches of width in the stand since my tank is so skinny. And I have no ability to make a fish room.

 

[Aflac01]

Guess I should probably do an equipment list.
Tank:96x18x30 acrylic
Sump: 72x13.5x18
4xHamilton 250 watt HQI lights
AquaC EV-400 Protein skimmer
Korallin 3002 calicum reactor
2x Nextreef SMR-1 XL media reactors
Neptune Apex Aqua controller (with fun Iphone app to monitor my system)
2x Digital Aquatics float switches
3xMag drive 18 pumps
1xKoralia magnum 8
2 smaller koralia's
1xVortech 20 (import from the smaller tank)
electronic Co2 regulator
5lb Co2 Tank
various heaters ive collected over the years
3xAqualifters (1 for the calcium reactor, 2 for the autotop of system)
4x6gallon jugs that will be my auto top of system. since the apex can measure salinity ill have a salt water top of and a fresh water top of and when the water level gets low it will add salt or fresh based of salinity. that way when i lose water to the skimmer or i drip acclimate a new addition to the tank i dont have to worry about adding messing with my salinity or adding new water right away to compensate. Ill have 24 gallons of extra space in my sump so that if they both fail and dump all their water into the sump it still will not overflow.

 

[Aflac01]

Im sure when i get through all the boxes of stuff ill find other things i forgot to add to the list but here are two i forgot already.
JBJ Arctica 1/3 hp chiller
100gpd RO/DI unit
2x44 gallon garbage cans (1 for mixing saltwater and 1 for storing ro water)
2xbuckets of instant ocean reef crystals

 

[Aflac01]

.......and i remembered a third after i was halfway through that last one and forgot to change the first sentence

 

[Patrick F]

Hello,

Thanks for the equipment list makes things alot easier to visualize your setup. Just curious what pump your going to use on the aquac ev400 I would assume it would be one of the mag 18's. I have used in the past the aquac ev240 with that same pump so I'm curious to see if you feel it is enough pump for that particular unit.

What are bulkhead sized for your drains since I would assume you plan on using the other two mag 18's for returns?

Other than that no real comments or questions other than are you planning on supplementing the hqi with t5 or vho?

Thanks....

Patrick

 

[Aflac01]

Patrick, yes I am using one of the Mag 18s to drive the ev400, i ran it that way for a few months on my old setup before i had to tear everything down when i deployed and it worked great. I currently am not planning on using t5 or vho's, but i am open to input on that, im using 14000k bulbs in the HQI. with the reflectors being 12 inches deep and the tank only 18 inches im running out of space under the hood for t5s or vhos. thats why i decided to go with the 14000k. until i realized how ridiculously skinny my tank was i wanted to go 10000k with some atinics. but unfortunately i didnt know as much about all this when i bought the tank and didnt know deeper would be better...but i got such a good deal on it that it might not have mattered (240 gallon acrylic for 200 bucks).

as for the returns its 2x1.5 inch bulkheads, one in each corner overflow. using the same pumps i did on the old system, just with a different sump design. I had both returns go to the same side before but flow rates through the sump...especially the refugium section where to high. so thats part of why i decided to split it up this time.

 

[Patrick F]

Hello Aflac,

The price you got on that aquarium is fantastic......indeed it is more narrow than ideal but you can still make it work with extra effort put in for aquascaping.

I never mentioned the option but I suppose with that tight of quarters for supplemental lighting you could always opt for leds perhaps?
Using 14k bulbs for your hamilton hqi's will work out just fine I'm just a sucker for supplementation.

The aquac ev400 you have what size is the elbow entering the unit? I also have read some excellent mods on the aquac thread with users have riser cups added on for additional height for the skimmer that made it even more efficient.

What do you plan on keeping primarily in regards to corals in this system?

Patrick

 

[Aflac01]

Patrick, yeah its hard to argue with that price....though if i knew how much money it would cause me to be dumping into everything else i would have run screaming....but now im addicted and can never escape. the light fixtures actually come with 6 led's on each one, so thats 24 total, plus another 12 from my old system, but i was thinking those wouldnt be much use for anything other than night lighting. do you have suggestions for good LED supplemental lighting? that is definitely an option im interested in.

 

[Aflac01]

Patrick...i responded to the light question but forgot the rest...thats what I get for being on here while working on a masters paper....ha. but its a 1 inch elbow on the ev400. I have no room to raise the skimmer. the stand has 32 inches of internal space and the skimmer is 32 inches high. so to make it fit i already have to make sure it will be between the crossbeams at the top....that gets me an extra 2 inches which ill need to remove the skimmer cup for cleaning. i had to get a new stand because the one that came with it was the ugliest stand ive ever seen or heard of. its now acting as storage in my garage.

Yes it is white with blue flecks on it. but the new stand is going to be a steel stand with red oak cabinetry so should look real nice.

as for corals, everything in my little tank thats in my first post will move over and that tank will most likely become my quarantine tank. but i really like brains, and zoo's and ricordia's and most LPS's....i dont have many SPS's but im really thinking about getting more of them....oh and my girlfriend loves pulsating xenia....ha. but mostly im open to anything, i just like them to be colorful and diverse.

 

[SilverGTS]

Awesome can't wait to see the progress!

-Chris

 

[Aflac01]

Now is the part of the thread where i ask for some advice. Im planning on running lots of live rock of course, a refugium with some macro algae and a reactor with the NP biopellets. what should i do with the other reactot? my thoughts are phosphate media, carbon (or both) or a fluidized sand filter....would that be overkill on my filtration? Also my overflow boxes are 6x6x30. last time i had them filled with bio balls. i like filling them with bio balls because it really helped with airation and i was able to make the overflows real quite....but again would that be overkill on my filtration and if so would it be harmfull?

 

[wowkingjames]

Keep us posted, can't wait to see it all set up.

 

[Aflac01]

I have decided to redo the return lines on my tank. there are 9 bulkheads in the back of the tank and i had them set up with direct flow from the return pumps when i had this tank set up before....i had 2 one way valves in each line...but i think the risk of failure on those valves is just too high. the way they are set up a failure could drain almost all the water from my tank....so ive decided to change it, im going to put the feed line for each set up above the water line before coming back down to the bulkheads then putting a siphon break in so that there is no way way it can flood.

 

[Aflac01]

anyone have any input on my question earlier about using phosphate, carbon or a fluidized sand filter and the bioballs in the overflow?

 

[Patrick F]

Hello Aflac,

Now is the part of the thread where i ask for some advice. Im planning on running lots of live rock of course, a refugium with some macro algae and a reactor with the NP biopellets. what should i do with the other reactot? my thoughts are phosphate media, carbon (or both) or a fluidized sand filter....would that be overkill on my filtration? Also my overflow boxes are 6x6x30. last time i had them filled with bio balls. i like filling them with bio balls because it really helped with airation and i was able to make the overflows real quite....but again would that be overkill on my filtration and if so would it be harmfull?

Sorry for not replying sooner.....in regards to the bioballs in the overflow partition I would advise against doing that. A simple search on here will provide you with excellent response as to why bio balls are not a recomended approach to reefkeeping. A quick summary would be when utilizing bioballs in a reef aquarium they do provide excellent dentrification however they also trap detritus and have a negative effect on nitrates (which in theory is what they were designed for breaking down ammonia-nitrite-end result nitrate).

A better suggestion to maximize using the excessive space in your overflow boxes would be an idea that Mr. Wilson provided a few months ago and that is filling the overflows with substrate to create a remote deep sand bed. I would assume you will be using a durso type overflow pipe in your overflows so that being said you will have a large section of water available in the overflow box to fill with sand. Mr. Wilson suggested using a thicker substrate for the top layer however to prevent too much disturbance of the bed. I would fill 6-8" with oolitic sand and 2-4" with a seafloor type substrate that is larger granules.

For using your reactors I would suggest just running phosphate remover and carbon and if you would like to experiment with NP Bio Pellets go right ahead but I cannot chime in on this product as I have no experience running this media. I do know of a few threads that are directly on that topic though with pros and cons of the product.

I don't feel you need to use a fluidized sand filter for your setup adequate live rock with carbon, ferric oxide and protein skimming in my opinion will certainly be adequate for your system. From my reading on fluidized sand filters there typically used in fish only setups and retail fish setups where the bioload of fish coming in and out is quite often exagerated either way.

Cheers,

Patrick

 

[Patrick F]

Hello Aflac,

I have decided to redo the return lines on my tank. there are 9 bulkheads in the back of the tank and i had them set up with direct flow from the return pumps when i had this tank set up before....i had 2 one way valves in each line...but i think the risk of failure on those valves is just too high. the way they are set up a failure could drain almost all the water from my tank....so ive decided to change it, im going to put the feed line for each set up above the water line before coming back down to the bulkheads then putting a siphon break in so that there is no way way it can flood.

I suppose another option for the bottom three bulkheads could also be utilized in running a close loop system through them. That way you would not have to have loc line all the way up to the water line in the aquarium. You could also then have adequate flow provided in the lower regions of the aquarium without cause of concerns of the aquarium draining with a power outage.

Just a suggestion.....

Patrick

 

[Aflac01]

Patrick, thanks for the response....i thought of using them for a closed loop system using the bottom ones as the drain and the top ones as the return.....but since ive gone with a 6 foot long sump that only leave 2 feet of space for all my other stuff and ive accounted for almost all of that space already.....so i didnt think i would have room to put a closed loop system....even though they dont take up much room. Plus i would like to put an anemone (i love having a clarkii clown playing in a anemone) and i would be worried about the anemone climbing onto the drain and getting sucked in.....ive lost anemones that way before back when i still thought canister filters were the way to go.

yes ive read every thread i can find on the biopellets....took me several weeks to read it all actually...and i want to give them a try. I had never thought of using the overflows as DSB.....do you know where the thread discussing that is? i could make a really deep on in there, but from what ive read too deep isnt a benifit. but yoru right there is a lot of space there....about 5 gallons worth on each side and it would be nice to utilize it for something.