Chasdb Starfire 225g economic stimulis build

CHASDB

Member
It has begun, your comments, pointers and questions are welcome. Well I've had a few reef tanks up for a little more than 2 years. Started with my '06 tax return and got hooked with a 24 Nano Cube. I currently have a 120 and have learned a lot and have meet many great people along the way. I bought a 240g and planned to eliminate my entertainment center and get a flat screen to make it fit in the living room. Well, with the economic slow down I almost had to scrap my project all together but with my stimulus check I'll wait on the Sony Bravia and get a shorter tank but go deeper to 30". So the new tank will be 72"x30"x24", Leemar, 1" lower overflow (for a wavebox) that will be centered in the back- 18" wide , eurobraced with the eurobrace down from the sides of the tank so water drips won't run down the panes of glass, and 3 side Starfire. I didn't think I could do the Low Iron but I got such a great quote from Ron at Aquariums in Motion that I couldn't pass it up.:dance: I should have it in the next week. Thought I post a pic of my pile of boxes and equipment so far.
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For water flow I have a Tunze Wavebox, 2 6101 streams with 7095 controller. The wavebox will be on the back corner pointing across the back, I hope that it will be effective on a wide tank. I will have the 6101 one in each front corner blowing toward the overflow box. I have several Sequence pumps laying around, snapper, dart and wahoo one of which will be for the sump return. The returns will go thru my Super 1/2 Tradewinds chiller and then be split into 2 and go thru 2 Wavy Seas which I will mount on the eurobrace. I also have 2 Vortech WWD and 2 6025 nano streams so one way or the other I hope to eliminate any dead spots.
For water treatment I went with the Bubble King Supermarin skimmer. This skimmer has been on the market for a few months and with the positive reviews, 24 month warranty on the pump and the memory of seeing the gallons of thick nog in Jar*Heads BK External I knew it would me a winner, or at least a great fish toilet. I will also run the Geo Kalkwasser Reactor and the 618 Calcium reactor. I have a couple TLF Phosban reactors for carbon and GFO. I also picked up a couple Hanna Blackstone pumps for automated water changes. I probably going to use my old JBJ auto top off since it and my Reef Keeper 2 has been keeping all up very well.
 
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I live in an older house that has a crawl space so I plan to run the drain and return under the house. This will allow me to do all the water maintenance outside as well as have a large sump/ fuge and use evaporative cooling a majority of the time. The chiller pulls 11 Amps and will be too expensive for me to run except on the hottest days. I had it on my 120 for a week in August when the temps were over 105 deg F and my 1/4 couldn't keep up with the temp, the heat coming out of the chiller felt as if the oven was on and the door was wide open, no way will I have that inside the house again. I plan to build a shed on my back patio as a fishroom. I couldn't put it in my garage as all my woodworking machinery and hand tools would turn to rust. I plan to put my sump directly on the concrete patio as I hope this will act as a heat sink in summer and in the winter I will set it on foam insulation. I was going to set up a geothermal closed loop as I have a tree stump to remove and thought I'd borrow a excavator from work, dig it out and drop in a cooling loop, but it will have to wait as titanium coils aren't inexpensive either. I did have to upgrade my electrical panel as I only had a '70s 100 amp Zinsco panel and I was already having problems. I had an electrician who does work at my shop, help with the upgrade. After talking with him about my concerns about no power on my tank during the change, I found out he was an exreefer who wanted to get a fowler going, so he ended up getting a 60g tank I had laying around I enjoyed wiring for a change. Here is a pic of me with the old panel with only 10 slots and the new one with 20 and twice the amp capacity. A new dedicated circuit for the tank and 220v for the garage. I was happy to get this done. Maybe next year I can get central air and heat too. Man, it's hot! 95 deg F in May
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You can always tell how a build is going to go, based on the equipment purchased. This is gonna be a great one ;) I dont agree with the stimulus checks being handed out, but at least this is one positive from them lol. But how many did you get, 10? jeez lol.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12614425#post12614425 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jflip2002
You can always tell how a build is going to go, based on the equipment purchased. This is gonna be a great one ;) I dont agree with the stimulus checks being handed out, but at least this is one positive from them lol. But how many did you get, 10? jeez lol.

LOL Tax return and my mad money is all gone, if it wasn't for me selling some equipment I wouldn't have been able to by more frags at the swap today. Man I'm addicted. :) Next I need to fab a steel stand and build my sump.
 
Being able to build both of those yourself will save ya some cash for sure! I'll be tagging along with this build.
 
Thanks for the votes of confidence! I picked up 100lbs of Marco Rock in May and it's been curing in a bin. I got in some nice big pieces, that's a yard stick in the pic. I plan to have a few large islands but keep them low to allow lots of room for coral growth and swimming room.
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I've had a ruff time with red bugs, aefw and monti nudies. I picked up some great frags at RAP but wasn't careful. When I just had a nano it was easy to stay on top of things like unwanted algea and hitchhikers. In the 120 I lost control. Too small of a skimmer, over feeding trying to get the Queen Anthias to eat, stocking too fast, my fault. I had some ok growth and colors were good, not spectacular but lost it with this pom pom type algea, bryopsis, mantis shrimp and the list goes on. I decided on this rock to control what goes in and will be keeping up on my quaranteen practices.

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Looks good Charles, minus the pom pom type algae you mentioned (they are actually hydroids), do a search and there will be some links on how to kill them.
 
Hey Charles, very nice equipment list. Nice tank dims too ;) haha. How's the purple tang doing?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12624408#post12624408 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by john37
Hey Charles, very nice equipment list. Nice tank dims too ;) haha. How's the purple tang doing?

Thanks John, I feel bad I missed your "help move the tank thread" happy to hear it went well. After seeing you tank in person I knew I would be happy with the 225. The Tang is looking good. When I got home I checked your water, and set up a tank to bring him out of hyposalinity. I went slow over 4 days. He was shy at first but now is chasing the other fish in my pallet bin. He even tries to get my hand with his barb. I wonder how his temperment will be with the other tangs once they make the move. What did you end up getting for your new set up?
 
glad to see he's doing well. Dont worry about the moving thread. It all worked out fine. Usually does.

my new set up is a cheap 135gal that i ordered to hold my 5-10fish.
As well as a 60gal standard size for my anemone and some corals i have left.

I'm waiting till after i move out of my house to set up something bigger. *crossing fingers* I have huge dreams for a big tank.

make sure you add bigger fish than him when they're new. He can be quite the bully.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12626861#post12626861 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rickyrooz1
How do you get rid of the brown hydroids (hydroid Myrionema)?

Looks like manual removal, that's not going to be fun. I haven't found anything that would eat it.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12673121#post12673121 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by naz420
Lets get this show on the road

I agree.... I'll order steel tomorrow and start cutting square tube ASAP:D
 
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