Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank) - split

nineball

nineball

Active member
VISION

To create a suite of 4 coral islands in a shallow lagoon. Each island is to be named in recognition of four of the top aquarists generally acknowledged by members of the reef central community.

CONFIGURATION
Display Tank
The acrylic tank is L shaped with the following dimensions: Length is 8 feet plus 16 feet: Width is 3 feet: and Height is 2 and one half feet. (24'X3'X2.5') I'm not sure what the metric equivalent would be. The tank is at least 1" thick all round except the 16 ft panel which is 1.5 "œ.
The tank is accompanied by a custom tubular steel stand fitted to the tank by ATM.
All sides of the tank are viewable except the two end caps providing almost 50 feet of seascape.

Dedicated Purpose Built Fish Room

The support for the main display tank is a custom integrated system with various tanks and reactors built in line. There are also three MARS retail display units housing at least twenty-five tanks that will be used for coral and fish propagation as well as quarantine /hospital tanks. Additional dedicated power with an on line natural gas 17,000 watt generator has been added.


COST

The algorithm that has proven to be the most accurate measure of costs for this project is as follows: Take your worst nightmare, double it and you are halfway there..........+1. I do not plan to deal with the inevitable questions of cost in this thread. It's not that I wish to be rude it is just that far too many members equate success with dollars expended and the truth of the matter is that success is NOT measured in dollars and cents but in good planning, discipline, good access to knowledge and sound practices, phenomenal execution and above average imagination.....oh yeah, and demonstrated ability to learn!

I have a strategy to deal with my wife which involves reusing the same large colourful box which will become known as my fish maintenance box. It was a terrific strategy for my home theatre as it allowed me to upgrade several generations all on the basis of "˜mandatory' annual maintenance at no apparent cost!!!! Same box in and out every time.
 
Credits

Chingchai Uekrongtham

First and foremost Chingchai from Thailand. His influence on me and this project has been profound. If you are reading this and you haven’t read Chingchai’s build thread I would strongly urge you to take the time and go from the beginning. It’s a long journey but in my opinion, one of the more remarkable experiences on this forum.

Contrary to the beliefs of some, Chingchai’s success has less to do with budget and more to do with intangibles like passion for this hobby, phenomenal vision, unequalled ability to execute on a detailed plan and an honest sincere belief that we can all learn and grow from sharing his experience. His team of helpers and advisors were and are second to none, not to mention the phenomenal input and support from the Reef Central community. The original design concept graphics were exceptional and only surpassed by the real thing. The fact that he has been a TOTM previously speaks to his experience and dedication to this hobby.

Chingchai’s patience in documenting every relevant detail in his build took an inordinate degree of commitment to his project and especially this community. I find that my moments of self doubt have been healed by going back and reviewing the incredible detail of his build. The documentation of Chingchai’s journey was frankly as much work as the actual build itself. Yet his respect for each and every member of this forum is unmatched by any of its contributors. Even when it was clear that a question had already been answered a number of times in the past Chingchai still took the time to answer it again.

While the diversity of tanks and their associated ecosystems around the world is almost overwhelming Chingchai’s ‘creation’ is distinct and unique. There are larger tanks around the world but none have the unique deep open coral architecture with the rich display and range of healthy coral that he has. A consistent observation I have made is that the main thrust of Chingchai’s project has been the coral and its presentation. The fish are the accent to the main event (the coral).

All of this finesse in preparation through execution qualifies this tank as truly unique and distinct from the mainstream in this hobby. There are a number of design attributes that break new ground and in fact I would argue, create a refreshing stylized vision for a marine aquarium that is truly innovative and absolutely unique. Chingchai’s journey and achievements along the way has truly raised the bar for excellence in this community and he will soon join David Saxby as one of the four principle influencers for serious coral aquarists in the world. One day I hope to call him ‘friend’.
 
ATM
Can these guys build an aquarium? It is no accident that they are certainly recognized as being in the world’s top acrylic aquarium manufacturers. I have an unwritten insurance policy that inherently comes with the custom order........ They won’t build a tank that’s wrong! The tank was custom built in Las Vegas and shipped over two thousand miles on a flatbed to a suburb of Toronto Ontario without a hitch. More on this later.............

DQI
These are the guys that had overall concept and responsibility for the 4,000 sq ft renovation. It was the archetect who determined how the tank would be visible throughout most of the 10,000 sq ft living space. As you will hopfully agree the did a phenomenal job......
 
Congrats guys....

Cant remember if I need to subscribe to a split or if it automatically transfers the subscription over....dont think it does...
 
Amazing build. Well maybe take advantage of the split and show a recap of the build in pictures, from Day 1 to Today? I think we would all thoroughly enjoy that.
 
Congrats Peter: what an amazing journey so far: thanks again for taking so much of you and your team's time to share it all with us
 
Grats on the split! Thought they removed that 'feature'. Based on your tank I finally took the dive and got an Orphek light, though I went with the DIF-100 since it was a better fit for my tank (2' cube).
 
status

status

There is a lot going on here and its all good. At the moment the main activity is preparing for Christmas. Judy and I are buried in Christmas trees, lights etc.. I've just been fitted for new golf clubs which feels incredibly dumb considering that its six months before I can play again. I can hear all the Aussies grinning from ear to ear. I have been working on my home theater refresh and the room looks more in disarray than when I started. I'm taking a lot of heat for not cleaning it out but I get hung up watching a movie and never seem to get the time to get anything done. Making matters worse I have just added an XBox 360 and a PS3 playstation and of course I had to try and break them in. Anyone who has ever tried to play Call of Duty on a 14 foot screen would understand why so little other stuff gets done!

Soaring through the middle of all this have been activities related to the coral ecosystem. I will be taking the time to do a photo update in the next week. I have been waiting for Mr. Wilson to do the final swap and upgrade to the lighting system over the display tank. I continue to be very impressed with the Orphek lights and will have a lot more to say when the new product arrives and is installed. I continue to learn more and more, the deeper I get into this hobby. Lighting is a fundamental and very basic component of a healthy marine coral ecosystem. This everyone knows. There is above all this a general preference for particular aesthetics ranging from 10K to 20K colour and various levels of intensity in between. The hobby generally accepts that metal halide lighting gives the best results as far as health and nutrition goes but I believe that this is changing very fast. I am observing a phenomenal evolution taking place in the tank and I expect I will have tangible proof that the world is ready for LED's that do not compromise either the health or the aesthetic of the maine inhabitants in our care. I believe we are looking at a best practice in using LED's to light our environments. Again more on this as we move forward.

I continue to be impressed with the Abyzz pumps. I cannot understand why anyone would use anything else except for the cost. We will be taking one of my pumps apart in the summer to see for ourselves how well they are standing up. I have five of them and I still have to actually touch them to see if they are working because they make no noise, vibration, heat or obvious signs that they are even plugged in. The biggest testament to their effectiveness would be the impact on the life in the tank. The growth and colour of the corals in the tank I believe speaks for itself. 5 pumps to move the water column in the display tank with a peak of 540 watts total.

One of the best things I did was to study the water quality system at the very outset of this build. I am very pleased with the configuration I now have in place for the RO/DI. The off the shelf consumer products I started with were in comparison terrible products that introduced unnecessary risks with numerous failures to maintain 0 TDS reliably and consistently. I know what I have is a best practice and is a major contributor to the excellent health and welfare of my tank inhabitants.

The mangrove trees are kkrrrraaaaazy. They are growing very well and fast. I am very impressed with the misting system that is making most of the progress relatively labour free. Thank you Mr. Wilson. Again, as I have said in the past, the design of the wall unit raceway is truly unique and represents yet another best practice for the fish room support system. My refugium is waaaay undersized for the size of display tank I have so the Mangrove raceway goes a long way to make up for the refugium shortfall. I have a real challenge with respect to the plasma lights that are feeding the mangroves. I can't argue with the health and growth rate. They are second to none but there is also a regular blooming of nuisance algae which does not seem to occur as severely under the plasmas. The plasma are big, very heavy, hugely energy inefficient, generate a lot of heat and extremely awkward to hang. They are the last option I would use if other options were available. On that note we are going to test two custom made 300 watt LED pendants to evaluate all features of life in the mangrove environment. We will be taking a lot of pictures through the test period for everyones benefit.

Mr. Wilson has been very very busy lately preparing for the official opening and launch of his new coral and fish store. The Coral Reef Shop has been competing for his time on some of the projects for our tank but I think it will be to our benefit to be able to count on his continuing participation in this build as he has to go by my house on his way to work every day. I think it is going to open in January so I was thinking that we might organize a drive/fly in for folks who might be interested in meeting Mr. Wilson in the flesh and I would be willing to combine that experience with a tank tour since we are so close. Since he is so busy that he can't find time to read this thread perhaps we can try and organize a surprise visit!!!!I will bring up the idea again when we get closer to the date.

Steve Noakes has been a godsend to the build. The coral could not get better care. Steve comes here 7 days a week and tests water quality each and every day. Every coral is inventoried and inspected. The results speak for themselves and I will produce a photo essay later this week for everyone's benefit. Thanks to everyone for hanging in and checking up on our progress. You are a great community.

Peter
 
Great update Peter! Looking forward to the new pictures and the test of the new LED system over the mangroves. Keep up the great work.
Mark
 
Thanks for the update Peter. Glad all is going well.

Peter, what salt are you currently using and what test kits is Steve Noakes using.

Thanks
 
Last edited:
nuccadoc said:
Thanks for the update Peter. Glad all is going well.

Peter, what salt are you currently using and what test kits is Steve Noakes using.

Thanks
Click to expand...

We started as you may recall with reef crystals for the first year. I chose reef crystals because that was what Chingchai was using and when I surveyed this community I got the least amount of negative feedback on the quality of the product. Recently, around three months back we started to get some readings which we thought was related to the salt so we changed to Instant Ocean. Its around that time that Steve joined the team and he felt the change was appropriate. It might have just been a bad batch because we have switched back and the numbers are all in order. So we are using Reef Crystals again and I suspect we will stay there for the foreseeable future.

As far as test kits go I believe we are using 3 different ones but since Steve and Mr. Wilson are the ones doing the testing I will let them list the names. I believe two of them are the most common test kits used by everyone here.

Peter
 
What a total riot of a project! I'm in Niagara myself. Would be lovely to see your tank! My cousin is off of 3rd Line. What store do you purchase your specimens from? There's the two well known stores on Kerr, but there is also a new one opening soon in Burlington.

I've been scrolling through looking for pictures - are those commercial marineland fish systems you purchased for the QT of your inhabitants? I forget what page it is on now - so many pages :lolspin:

Also, you may be interested in a new line of pumps that rival Abyzz power/cost/efficiency, which I just recently heard about that are going to be offered here locally. I use a mag drive myself, but thought you may want to know :)


Edit: I just read that Mr. Wilson is the same fellow I have been having a chat with on another forum - the coral reef shop - ha! What a small world.

Regards,
 
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