ColtonNelly's Reef

C

ColtonNelly

New member
Hi everyone,

Just want to share my recent build with all of you. It has been about eight months, but I am happy to say that it is just about complete. Big shout outs to a couple of good friends that I couldn't have done this without. Like many of you, I seem to have a passion for coral eating fish in reef tanks. So my stocking plans include an SPS dominated tank with angels, butterflies, and triggers in addition to some wrasses, a few tangs, and probably a harem of anthias.

Some quick info:

Tank: 96x30x27 made by Leemar with 3/4" starfire glass on all viewing panels. Only perimeter bracing.
Total system volume: Approximately 700 gallons
Lighting: 4x400 watt halides (currently running 10k bulbs, but that may change), 4x 46.5" VHO's for actinic support, and an additional 4 Kessil A360-WE's
Flow: 3 total Oceans Motions, 4 total ReeFlo pumps. One hammerhead for system/return pump, two dart/snapper hybrids for closed loops (one is a d/s gold), and one dart/snapper hybrid
Chiller: Aqualogic DX 1 HP Heat Exchanger
UV: Aqualogic 380 watt unit
Skimmer: Bubble King Supermarin 300 RD3
Heater: Aqualogic 2KW Inline Heater
Kalk stirrer: Deltec KM 500S Kalkwasser Stirrer
Ca Reactor: Schuran Jetsream 1
Reactors: 2 My Reef Creations FMC-620 Reactors
Controller: ProfiLux 3 EX

I'll add info about the closet/fish room a little later

So without further ado, here are some pictures of the build and where we are today...


By the way, the tank is on our second story...

Here is the tank on the stand, you can see the closet/fish room to the right

These pipes got put in here..

View from 1st floor, showing the run from the tank to the closet

Closet floor

Closet at the start of construction

Electrical and plumbing for sink

Had a pannel installed in the closet

Welcome to this beautiful schedule 80 jungle

Tank being filled/ initial rock work
 

Closet almost complete

Different view of the closet, getting closer

Canopy

Rock work still incomplete

Rockwork just about complete, added first fish out of QT and some corals I had

Taken last night after a good clean (still cloudy)

Trying to show some dimension (only Kessils and VHO's on)

Much more to come...
 
FTS:

Here are a few pictures of some of the inhabitants of my reef:

Feeding time

My juvenile goldflake is starting to get some interesting gold in him, and someone keeps knocking over my frags!

I'm a little nervous posting this one since she isn't fully settled in yet in QT.

Notice the other side is normal
 
Previous System

Previous System

Here is a picture of my old 180, things grew in a bit more after this, but then had a major crash. I've learned a ton since then, and made sure to do things "right" this time around. Really stepped up the QT protocols, and learned the value in having proper equipment. I lost just about everything, except for a few fish and some LPS.

 
Amazing setup !! Where are you from ? Due to the 220v outlets ...
Could you post some more pics of the fish room ? Do you have a layout so i can understand it better ?
 
Vlado4x4 said:
Amazing setup !! Where are you from ? Due to the 220v outlets ...
Could you post some more pics of the fish room ? Do you have a layout so i can understand it better ?
Click to expand...

Thank you!! I live in Los Angeles. We set up dedicated 220v circuits for the main system pump, chiller, heater, and UV sterilizer. The rest of the system is all 110v.

The horizontal run from the overflow box to the closet is about twenty feet. The four 2" drains from the overflow turn into two 4" pipes through the floor from the tank to the closet. This dumps into the sump, and we then have 3" pipe running from the sump (under the floor) to the return pump, and then back over to the tank through another 3" pipe in the floor.



Here is the closet when you walk in. The left side of the wall has all of the pipes and pump as described above. They go to/from the main tank, and feed the rest of the tanks on the shelves, my reactors, and the mixing bin.

I am still working on organizing wires, mounting various items, and extending certain wires and tubing, so it will all look much cleaner very soon.

The tank on the top shelf is actually split into two isolated systems. The one on the left is 16"x16"x8", and the one to the right of it is 32"x16"x8" and has slots where I can slide acrylic dividers depending on what I am QTing. The top two tanks are very versatile, and will be used for quarantining corals and fish, and may eventually be turned into frag tanks. They can be isolated from the entire system, and when are linked back to the system, all of the water returning passes through the UV mounted below the bottom shelf.

The Tank in the middle (48"x20"x18") will eventually become a refugium and will most likely house garden eels. However, since I have a lot to quarantine currently, I have isolated it from the main system and I am using it to quarantine fish.

And finally, the bottom tank is the sump (48x24x20). The water from the overflows ends up on the far left side and passes through filter socks before hitting that beastly skimmer. The far right side of the sump has several bubble traps built in, with a shelf mounted within the sump to hold the reactors. The water then goes through a 3" bulkhead, under the floor, back up to the return pump, and then distributed throughout the whole system.



The walls are coated with FRP and the floor was waterproofed. We also installed a drain into the floor, just incase there are any spills. **Just an additional note, there is also a drip-pan with a drain under the main tank.**





The 100 gallon mixing bin can be disconnected from the system, drained, filled, and then reconnected with a few flips of ball valves.
I also have two additional reservoirs (one above the sink and one below) for my regular ATO and one for my Kalk stirrer. Furthermore, There is also AC that I can control from the closet, as well as venting of the tank canopy and closet (I can control the strengths of both by turning the knobs mounted on the wall.

Hope that answers your questions! I have a blueprint laying around for the whole thing that I'll need to dig up. It shows in detail the pipe runs through the floors, pretty interesting. Thanks for looking!
 
Love your tank and setup. I have LeeMar tank as well but mine did not require a crane to move it into my house! LOL... Great work and great looking tank!
 
Any concerns with weight on 2nd floor?

Always trying to learn, what caused your 180 crash? You mentioned equipment and QTing?
 
Benson0219 said:
Love your tank and setup. I have LeeMar tank as well but mine did not require a crane to move it into my house! LOL... Great work and great looking tank!
Click to expand...
Thank you. I'm very happy with the tank, glad I chose to go with LeeMar. It was quite the ordeal lifting that and the stand up!

Mark... said:
Any concerns with weight on 2nd floor?

Always trying to learn, what caused your 180 crash? You mentioned equipment and QTing?
Click to expand...

We used an engineer to make sure that the house could support the weight. If we made the tank 9 or 10 feet we would have had to add extra support. The biggest concern as far as weight was the mixing bin because the weight was located in a small area.

My last tank crashed for a few reasons. One was inexperience and lack of knowledge. It was my second tank, and my previous one was only a 28 gallon nanocube. I lost all of my acros from pests and lack of stability due to improper equipment. Even though I dipped pretty much anything I still had AEFW and red bugs... This time around all corals and fish are getting QT'd and I definitely stepped up the quality of my equipment.
 
MstgKillr said:
Just curious how you actually lifted it? How many people did it take and did you use any special equipment.
Click to expand...

Once the crane dropped it on the balcony they used probably 6-8 guys with heavy duty suction cups and they just lifted it. I wasn't home for that part of it so I don't know all the details, but I know my contractor had to contact a glass company that consistently moves large pieces of glass in order to get those suction cups. Wish I had pictures of that part!
 
Forgot to add that I didn't have a major crash where everything died at once. Had a few little crashes. The main reason why I lost just about everything is that I was sick for about three months, and essentially chose my health over that of my fish. At the time I had a temporary tank set up while we were building the new system, and it was extremely unstable. The temporary system ended up being up much longer than I had anticipated because the build took a long time. Anyway, learned a lot and have a much more reliable system now!
 
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Here's a quick video from feeding time a few days ago. The tank could have been a little cleaner, but oh well! I have moved some stuff around since, and it's amazing how things have already colored up since then.
 
ColtonNelly said:
<embed width="600" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullscreen="true" allowNetworking="all" wmode="transparent" src="http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid1378.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fah94%2FColtonNelly%2FIMG_2667_zps334e1f97.mp4&title=">
Here's a quick video from feeding time a few days ago. The tank could have been a little cleaner, but oh well! I have moved some stuff around since, and it's amazing how things have already colored up since then.
Click to expand...

Seems to me that you've thought of everything. Love the idea of having multiple drains. I'm quoting the video cause it didn't show for me. Oops still can't see it.
 
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