Finally have a large tank... 280g Deltec Custom Reef Tank

[ReefingBuddha]

Time for some proof of life.

RBTA is wandering these days but is staying in his designated reef section.

 

[Ed Reef]

Looking great thirschmann. I also have a RBTA in my current tank and can't seem to keep this guy still.... no where seem good enough for him

 

[cbui2]

very nice Tom, is there any way to tied RBTA down .

 

[amashun]

Nice Tom, i like the blue acro and RBTA

 

[Ed Reef]

Tom - how's the hammerhead doing for you...I get a slight humming sound so i don't know if it's normal...is that the same as yours??

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Thanks everyone.

Ed - Spoiled RBTA. They think just because their pretty they can do whatever they want! And my hammerhead humms as well. I've been trying all kinds of things to silence it but no luck so far. Its not bad, but slightly annoying. I would re-plumb it outside but I'm not sure how long this tank will be up and running for so I'm not going to bother.

Bart - Maybe getting it pregnant?

Thanks Adrian!

 

[erics3000]

Tom your tank is looking real good. what else is the hammer head feeding? Is it just feeding a wavy sea? What size is the wavy sea 1 ?

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Thanks Eric.

yeah its overpowered for the wavy sea but there are a few considerations.
1) The UK version of the hammerhead (50hz) only runs the same GPH as a barracuda
2) Restriction from the plumbing (1.5") to and from the pump and further restriction into a 1" line for the last few feet.
3) Dove Tail nozzle which further restricts the flow. Without the dove tail there is a not so good sound coming from the plumbing but with it seems to work fine.
4) I already have it tee'd off, just need to get some plumbing together to shot straight down the back. Probably should get on that.

But you are correct, seriously over rated pump in normal conditions for a wavy sea. Get damn good flow around my tank with this thing though.

 

[Jar*Head]

That is some sweet looking corals....

 

[erics3000]

it must be real easy to have your poo all in one spot..

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Thanks Steve.

All my poo that doesn't end up in the overflow ends up directly below that wavy sea. The bottom has been completely bare, except for that one spot, ever since I hooked it up so I just siphon that out twice a week.

 

[erics3000]

I have a favor can you send me your intake pipe pic we were talking about? I am going to get a dart to run 2 way seas without drilling my tank? You know what I think I will drill 1 ok my 1 over flows for a 2 bulk head and go with that? I would just like to see yours..Thanks bro..When you make it back to the usa. I'll see you at a orca meeting one day..If I ever get to make it myself...hahaha

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Not a problem at all man, glad to help when I can. It should be very easy to do without drilling and if there is a power failure the worst that can happen is that a little air gets injected into your tank when you start back up and that can't be bad.

Here you go;
From right to left; Closed loop intake, Closed loop return to wave sea, Main sump return, closed loop tee that runs behind the rock work. Also that's my tiny overflow.

A thing to note is that the closed loop intake has a little rubber hose coming out of it to add water at the beginning and more importantly as a siphon break in case anything goes wrong.

And here is the intake, its very dirty but at least it has character The flow on the outside is very gentle, fish swim up against it all the time (especially the eel) and don't seem to have any problems at all.

Hope that helps! and yes I do have salt creep issues.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

BTW I wasn't happy with just my AP851 as a skimmer so I decided a while ago to build my own. Since then I found a old TS1060 that came with the tank and didn't work at all. But its working fine after I cleaned it out using EZ-Clean.

Its was running for 5 minutes before it started pulling head. The cup is a little small so I might work on that but otherwise I'm fairly impressed. Very easy to setup at least and should be as effective as my AP851 at least according to the numbers on the Deltec website.

3 sides are black acrylic and one side is clear so you can see what's going on. Here's a attempt as showing that, things are starting to get a little crowded down there now.

 

[erics3000]

Thanks for the pics

 

[ReefingBuddha]

no worries.

 

[chibopelu13]

i wonder how much this all cost??

 

[ReefingBuddha]

You don't really want to know.

The tank and equipment is nearly all second hand so its about a 1/4 of the usual cost to get it set up and running. Almost 400 pounds of rock came free with the tank so that makes a big difference as well.

 

[mpoletti]

Very nice stuff you've got going on there
I have been trying to find a good looking rose like yours for my office nano.

 

[ReefingBuddha]

Well its been a while but I've been busy... blah blah blah...

I finally got my wide angle lens for my underwater housing today and had a chance to quickly play around with it. I'm pretty damn impressed by what this little point and shot can do. Its a Canon 960 camera w/ a Canon underwater housing good to 40m w/ a Inon lens adapter and wide angle lens good to 105 degrees underwater... I think that's all correct

The first few pictures are without the wide angle, just standard settings tweaked a little.

And with the wide angle (its attachable underwater and can be switched out for other lenses)

Other then that the tank is doing well. I'll post another update once I have some more time. Let me know what you think about the pictures.

Oh and the second skimmer is kicking @$$ btw, pulls almost as much nog as the relatively large AP851. So I'm happy with that as well.