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

[nineball]

I finally finished this thread and read the website and I have to say I have a new perspective on the concept of true tank build. Words cant describe my feelings and how attention to detail has played a major roll in my own tank build. I have to reprocess, reprogram, and totally redo my tank build.

I am very impressed on how you have taken the basics of reefing and extended upon the concept. I think most reefers, especially those who fail, forget about the basics and just concentrate on impression and presentation. Without the basics you wouldn't have the other two. Thank you for the inspiration, incite, and motivation to make me do it right.

I have a question about flow from what I read from the website. The skimmer that I am using(Reeflo Hurricone CAT3 protein skimmer) to work proficiently needs to be fed around 1000 gph. The website states that the flow should be 1.33333 times the tank size or volume and equal to the skimmer feed. My setup DT will be 8'L x 4'W x 2'H which comes out to about 478 gallons. Multiply that by the 1.333 and that puts my sump volume flow to approximately 650 gallons. Even with power heads isn't that flow low for my setup or am I reading your concept wrong?

Thank you, your comments are too generous. As far as your question about flow is concerned I will defer to Mr. Wilson. he seems to know both the science behind the calculation as well as the real world practical advice. The two don't always coincide by the way. For me the flow throughput is not as important as whats happening to the water displacement in the tank. My philosophy is that the principle here is aspiring to managed chaos in the tank. That does not mean hard flow necessarily but it does mean that water is clearly moving around the tank with no dead spots. Coral can't go get food you have to deliver it. Some of the best quality food for coral is fish poop so keeping it in solution is a good thing. Too much of a good thing however can upset a healthy balance so thats where the skimmer and sump come in. That balance takes some experimentation to get just right and it changes with evolving life in the tank. So numbers in isolation are only half the story. Here again we need Mr. Wilson to bring his wisdom to the tank. His store is open now so he is pretty busy these days.

I have been heavily invested in setting up a video update and I hope we will have something up on the thread in the next 3 weeks. Its a lot of work but hopefully worth while. Long term members of this thread should really enjoy it I hope.

Peter

 

[nineball]

Peter, are you referring to the new Nilus lights (dimmable, 4 red and 4 uv leds added)? If yes, can you say something about the quality (amount, color rendering) of the visible light and about the effect on the corals?

My two Nilus units are on it's way to the Netherlands, I'm looking forward to seeing them above my tank. I did consider the pendants mentioned by Shawn, but given the layout of my tank I decided the Nilus would fit better.

Also, I can't wait to watch the videoclips you mentioned, even if shot with a point and shoot camera it seems impossible not to get an impressive movie, let alone with all the effort you took.

Have a nice weekend!

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Yes these sound like the same lights and I am really pleased with the light. More importantly the coral seems to like it. Aesthetically they are incredible. However I have to point out that I have somewhere around 27 lights with 9 of the new lights running down the middle or centre row of the three rows of lights. This allows me to throw all blue on the outside two rows and keep the centre dimmed to 10% white. This is my favourite scene but I only have that for one hour in the morning and one hour at night as the main program for the health and welfare of the coral is everything on for 9 hours. I think I am going to switch everything over to the new lights for even more versatility.

Movie to come very soon I hope!!!

Peter

 

[JasonBJones]

Really looking forward to the new movie!

 

[captngreg]

Congratulations Capt'n,

I have been following along your progress and look forward to watching your hard work pay off. I have been very busy lately and haven't been doing as much updating of the thread as I should. best of luck Greg. Mr. Wilson and I will be watching.........

Peter

Thank you for your kind words & support. This summer my new tank will not be ready to receive livestock, but by the following summer I should be up and running. I'd love to come to Canada for a brief visit to see your magnificent tank. I figure I can justify the trip if I can talk Mr. Wilson into setting aside a dozen & half really nice corals for me to take back to Peru. If you or Mr. Wilson get tired of that cold weather, just remember I'm south of the equator, your winter is my summer, So if you are ever in the neighborhood or just need to get away from all that cold "me casa su casa" and I'll even let you feed the fish. Just took this photo the other day from my balcony.

 

[nineball]

Thank you for your kind words & support. This summer my new tank will not be ready to receive livestock, but by the following summer I should be up and running. I'd love to come to Canada for a brief visit to see your magnificent tank. I figure I can justify the trip if I can talk Mr. Wilson into setting aside a dozen & half really nice corals for me to take back to Peru. If you or Mr. Wilson get tired of that cold weather, just remember I'm south of the equator, your winter is my summer, So if you are ever in the neighborhood or just need to get away from all that cold "me casa su casa" and I'll even let you feed the fish. Just took this photo the other day from my balcony.

Well Greg, your balcony beats mine by a country mile. If I come down I want to sleep on the balcony. :beer:

Based on the last order that Mr. Wilson got your visit would be worthwhile. I was very pleased with the health and colour. I have to be careful as I am running out of space to put them.

Take your time on your build Greg, its worthwhile to make sure all the pieces work well together.

Peter

 

[nineball]

Really looking forward to the new movie!

I am too Jason. Hopefully with the help and new equipment I got we will have a terrific opportunity to review this build.....

Peter

 

[spsreeflover]

Do you use zeovit product ? thanks

 

[vanzea]

Any word on the movie?

 

[Ojos22]

I have been reading this thread for days.. (I only get the read a few minutes at a time) I believe I am at around May of 2010 and you have not yet put any water in the tank. Amazing project. I cannot wait to see how it all turns out!

I just started my tank back up after being down for 4-5 years and I am getting so many good ideas on what to do. Thank you so much for taking this project on and taking the time to teach us all how wonderful something can be if you give it the time and attention it deserves. After seeing how you treat a fish tank there is no doubt how you have been so successful in your life.

I wish you all the best and I hope to catch up to present day soon enough.

 

[dave.m]

The last I heard was that the movie had failed to pass its first inspection by the Censor Board Review. Something to do with "excessive reef porn". Hopefully the next edit will pass the Censor and be available within the next couple of weeks.

Dave.M

 

[chingchai]

Peter. Just take your time.
We can wait.

 

[vanzea]

Yes I will wait for the "safe for work version" haha

 

[canyousee]

Happy Easter every one

 

[Briney Dave]

How has the movie project been coming along: any hope of a teaser trailor

David

 

[nineball]

How has the movie project been coming along: any hope of a teaser trailor

David

I hope that the first episode will be ready tomorrow.......and I hope we will be delivering on a few interesting outstanding promises one of which is a formal announcement of the identity of the four masters........

so stay tuned.....

Peter

 

[nineball]

Dave M. did you get my email???I have one more question.....

Peter

 

[dave.m]

Peter, I received one email and two PMs. Unfortunately, you did not Send the email from the address you want to test. If you receive my test message see if you can reply from the address you want to test, as that is the point, I think.

Dave.M

 

[nineball]

Update as promised

Update as promised

Its been a long while since any updates. We have been very busy with the build and have lots to talk about. We have been shooting videos for the last six weeks and have put together a 6 minute first episode to get some feedback before we release any others. This first episode is designed to give the first time visitor a general high level overview of this build and introduce the Four Masters who were inspirational in this build for both design and best practices.

This video also marks the milestone of 100% LED lights over the display tank. As I have noted earlier I am very impressed with the results and firmly believe that LED's now represent a best practice for our hobby. I am planning a full episode devoted to lighting to discuss the evolution of lighting with this build from the beginning as well as a look into the future as we further develop the quality and capability of this technology.

It was a challenge to release this episode as there were a million things and ideas we wanted to improve on but we realized just like everything else in this hobby there is a learning curve that we need to respect. That means we hopefully will get better with time and practice. The original source file was shot in 1080P and Phanfare lets you choose the resolution based on your equipment and bandwidth availability.

The 1080P is the best resolution but may not be suitable for everyone. If the video seems jerky or out of sync with the audio the choose a lower resolution. The levels are "˜LO' "˜MED' "˜HI' and "˜HD' . HD is 1080P and should be best on a high end system. "˜HI' is 720P and is much easier to use for most folks. We are looking for feedback so please let us know.

The equipment used was the Gopro Hero2 with the 'BlurFix' lens attachment, Canon 5D II with a variety of L lenses, Canon XF 100 video camera. There's a bunch more accessories including lights, mikes etc but Rob Baxter our videographer was the real magic in the mix from my point of view.

The first question that I can anticipate will be "œwhen is the next one" and I can say that we want to get some feedback before we do any more to hopefully improve the format to everyone's' benefit.

So with that brief introduction I will ask Dave M to post the video and hopefully find out it was worth while"¦"¦"¦:dance::dance::dance:

Peter

 

[dave.m]

The Four Masters Video Series

The Four Masters Video Series

Episode One



Enjoy!

Dave.M

 

[bullitr]

Great job guys!