Double Island Reef

R

Rog7

New member
This is my first marine tank setup, so I am very new to the hobby. Most of my build is done and I am hoping to be about a week away from filling the tank and getting my cycle underway.

I want to have 2 separate reefs in my tank to have a "gully" between the 2 islands but this is still very much a work in progress and i'm playing around with ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

Display Tank:
215cm long x 70cm deep x 70cm wide for 1050 liters (260 Gallons)
Polario 22000 liters/hour (5800 Gallons/hour)
Aragonite Substrate
Roughly 40kg's of bio rock per island

Sump:
180cm long x 50cm deep x 50cm wide for 450 liters (120 Gallons)
Skimmer
Deep sand bed (aragonite - sugar size)
Refugium
Return
Fresh water reservoir for auto top up system
 

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I will post some more pictures in the next few days. Most of the plumbing is done and today the display tank can finally be moved off my dinning table and onto the concrete stand :lmao:
 
Lighting

Lighting

I want to keep SPS, LPS and softies. I will probably be going with metal halide lights but would prefer use LED. The reason for this is that South Africa is a bit behind on LED's and it is very hard to come by a LED reefer and just as hard to find a place to buy an LED setup. So for now it is either a DIY LED setup or import.
 
Since you are in South Africa IMO I would stick with the tried and true halides. From what I have heard/read there are still problems with the LED fixtures. If you were to have to send it back for warranty concerns it may take quite a while. Just my thoughts.
 
Floor leveler would probably work well in this situation. Use just enough that it will be covered by the sump when it's in place - that way you can just build up around the high spot.

whoops - wrong thread -
 
Last edited:
MOSSJER said:
Since you are in South Africa IMO I would stick with the tried and true halides. From what I have heard/read there are still problems with the LED fixtures. If you were to have to send it back for warranty concerns it may take quite a while. Just my thoughts.
Click to expand...

Ya looks like metal halide is my only option, can't find someone who will export here anyway.
 
hi rog :)

definately go for halides, thats a great size tank, by the way, what are the stores like in sa, can you get plenty of choice with live stock and dry goods?
 
I'm glad i went the size I did, that was the first thing I learnt as a reefer; go big as you can :)

I'm from one of the smaller towns in SA, East London. This was always confusing for the UK peeps, yes there is another London, lol. And the SA East London is not dodge at all like the British East London, lol.

We have a good reef community here and are a few lfs's. Livestock is not to hard to come by, large shipments of livestock come in monthly. If we want anything specific it is ordered and here in no time for pretty much anything we want but at the right price of course, lol.

We are very lucky though to have the South African Wild Coast right on our door step and apparently home to some very sort after marine livestock, so I will be sure to have a few diving trips this Dec/Jan when it gets warm enough.

For those of you who don't know, the wild coast has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and still very rural and pretty much untouched. An extremely fertile part of the country as well as abundant ocean life.
 
 
Right guys, finally got some pics for you and finally reclaimed my dinning table.

The tank JUST fits to, phew!!
 

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The "control box"

Given myself some room to grow. The top section is for lighting and i'm still waiting for 2 more timers. 1 for each MH, 1 for refugium and 1 for moon light.

The bottom is for everything else. Need one more breaker though. Polario, skimmer, return and heaters.

Will label on the weekend.
 

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The Sump area

The builder could only come on friday so i had a go at the plastering myself and i'm dam impressed with my first attempt :dance:
 

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Refugium - to be or not to be

Refugium - to be or not to be

Need some input here please guys, opinions and personal experience.

I am having second thoughts about my refugium. I have read many good things but been told and read otherwise as well. Was thinking maybe turn the refuge area into another DSB. The refuge dimensions are 40cm x 40cm x 50cm and my DSB is 90cm x 50cm x 12cm

Or any other suggestions on what to do with this space?
 
Looking good! Try adding your photos to photobucket.com as I think you'll find it easy to enter pictures to your thread.
 
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