In Doctor's Office 220 Gal Upgade

[DrHarryLopez]

In 2006 I moved my 90Gallon tank and water from home to my office. Eventually the softies, a few LPS, and some SPS I kept had overgrown in the tank, and now I needed a bigger and better challenge. The chemistry and ecosystem totally caught my interest. Maintaining a very stable tank for the last couple of years made me want to dive (no pun intended) into an SPS dominated tank. This is my journal. Thanks for visiting.

Fastforward to the October 2010 FTS

Back to March 2010
I bought this 220g tank from a friend. Here's a pic of the tank on the stand. underneath i have a 75 gal sump.
You can see the lights of the 90 gallon tank in the backgroud

 

[DrHarryLopez]

A view into my waiting room. I wish the tank would be able to be viewed from the waiting room, but the configuration didnt allow for it. Now the problem is that when a patient is escorted to the treatment rooms they usually stop to look at the tank. Needless to say this sometimes delays me.

Here is the wreck one night while setting up the hood. The railings will hold three Ice cap 250W MH's with Electronic ballast. I'm going with XM 10KK Mongul type.
Ice cap 660 Electronic ballast with four Giesemann Actinic+ T5 36" 39W bulbs.
Power compact Actinics from the 90G placed at the ends of the hood perpendicular to the front of the tank.
Maybe some small 13W mini pc inside the hood for moon lights, but I'm never in the office that late to appreciate them.
Maybe one day i'll bring the tank back home.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Just a few pic of the corals from the ol tank now in their new home.

This hammer coral has about 12 branches. I think now she can grow happier with more space and better lighting n flow

Here is a pic of the above hammer when I bought her in 03'

This green Pogoda LPS is in war with the brown polyp thing (not really into the name thing as u see) the some of the brown polypls are actually growing on the Pogoda.

This piece came from OzoneParkPaul with some of the rocks I picked pickup from him.

This Toadstool is big. His stalk is like 2" thick, looks like a muscle. He's about ten years old. I didnt want him in the 220 but my mother insisted. :lolspin:

My bubble coral. She is like 8 yrs old n very happy. This is the piece most patients like.

Hope you all enjoy the pictures.
Already done:
Topoff
dosing pumps
and cutoff the umbilical cord from the 90. The 220 is fully self functioning

I still have plenty of work to do ie:
Aquacontroler III
Wavebox
tunze stream 2
setup the fishroom (unused treatment room) with refuge, growout tank shelves for storage n stuff.

 

[coolname1]

Nice! I dun mind to be treated at ur office

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Full tank Shot with MH's and Actinics on and working

Until i setup my fishroom i'm placing my dosing pumps and associated chemical tanks (5 or 7 gallons) under the tank stand.

I used Randy's 3 part Supplement formula.
I mix 5 cups of Prestone Driveway Heat (Calcium part) in a total of 4 gallons of RO water.
4 cups of Baking Soda (Alk part) in a total of 4 gallons of RO water.
Epson Salt (Mg part) one quart into a total one gallon of RO water.
Monitoring weekly, I test the water using Salifert test kits

My pumps can dose only to a minimum of 5ml/hr.
The bucket is my topoff RO water, oh and yes I use Reef Crystals Salt.

Installed my Neptune AC3 Controller from my old tank with the DC8. I bought two more DC8's and a HeavyDuty DC4 for a total of 25 outlets!

The manual for the DC8 must have been written by *^%%$, because I could not figure out how to set the dip switches to operate the second DC8. Finally posted a blog for help and got it working.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Nice! I dun mind to be treated at ur office

Thanks, I actually have quite a few patients that got into the hobby after seeing my reef.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Got some good shots of my fighting conchs

So i set up the Aqua Controller and two DC8 's daisy chained.

So far the only equipment I have on it is:

Four T5's Actinics = AT1
Left side PC Actinics = AT2
Right side PC Actinics = AT3
Left side MH = LT1
Center side MH = LT2
Right side MH = LT3
Three heaters
HT1, HT2, HT3

LT1$-A05 (5th outlet on the DC8)
LT2$-A06 (6th outlet...,)
LT3$-A07
ALM&-A09
HT1&-B10 (second DC8 outlet 10)
HT2&-B11
HT3&-B12
AT1&-B09
AT2&-B13
AT3&-B14

Here a shot of the PC at the ends of the hood.

Here is a view from the top on the hood. I have 3 250W MH with the spider reflectors retrofitted.

The dip switch config of the second DC8 to my aquacontroller. The instructions must have been written by martians because I could not get it.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Tsunami in my tank

The first rock I bought for my tank was an aragacrete rock scupture from GARF.org. Its a well established live rock which i placed in the new tank. Well I guess it wasnt sat very securely and mybe the wavebox, a strong hermit or a big fish had enough strenght to knock it over!

In the picture below the fish appear to be wondering what happened. They look as if their right out of the movie Nemo! Hey? What happened?

 

[DrHarryLopez]

In May, the reef had a Dinoflagellates infestation!
Damn I can't believe my tank is infested with dinos!
The causes could be:
Excess/hi phosphates
poor flow
low pH

In Retrospec, it was all part of new tank syndrome. I corrected the flow and reduced the feeding, and the Dinos disappeared.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

I borrowed a fish trap from Anthony27, Wow this thing is worth every penny. Yesterday I caught my V tail Grouper, and today within 5 mins I caught the Lemon Peel Angel !

Now I hope I have a reef n fish friendly tank! Thanks Anthony

Here's the angel, he's not very happy! LOL the Hawkfish is on the outside of the trap laughing probably because they have been fighting.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Tunze Turbelle® Stream 2 Controllable Pump 6205 (New Generation with Titanium Alloy Shaft)

I already have the 6105 (3,434gph), I thought about getting the Vortech MP40 but at between 100 and 3,000 gph of flow and no directionality it didn't work for me. Also I needed a stream to flow the whole distance of six feet.

The pump I ordered is the 6205, 5,811gph! Streams all the way across my tank!

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Ric and Zoa Garden in the 220 righthand side

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Frag tank and fishroom construction
Fragtank built (rimless all glass 48"LX18WX12"D) DIY

Fragtank rack built n placed into the fishroom.

Sump being taken out from under the maintank display cabinet

In place, however i had to use the egyptian method of moving large items. Notice the two segments of 1 1/2" PVC piping.

Fragtank placed on rack and already a "NO VACANCY" sign, without lights.

I want a lighting system which allows me to move the light fixture up and away. Here is temporary Tek4 lighting with new Geisman bulbs.

Fishroom Shot

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Frag tank update
Just installed my DIY lighting fixture on a pulley system.
The fixture holds my LEDs in the center bordered to two 175W
MH spider reflected lamps.

Here's a shot of the lighting, I have two 175W MH 10KK XM Mogul Bulbs.
Illumagic LED Fixture I won from Afishionado Podcasts, in the center

My pulley system. I need to review my physics for a better pulley scheme.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Naso n Powder Blue living in harmony

 

[Turbovr3six]

Looks great doctor! :wavehand:

Might end up sending ya some corals if thats still cool with you.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

I've been using Biopellets since Aug 2010 with excellent results.
I use the Pentair Aquatics fluidized filter reactor.

Arranging and rearranging things in my fishroom. Thanks to OPG (OzoneParkGuy) I got a formica table top which I quickly used to place my dosing pumps n chemical tanks on and out of the way. On the right side is my refug that is not going any Macro Algea. I'm thinking its the Ultra Low Nutrient system that is holding back the growth.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Looks great doctor! :wavehand:

Might end up sending ya some corals if thats still cool with you.

LOL you found me. I'm redoing my frag rack as I need more room to clean the sump under it. We can definately talk if you still need.

 

[dogstar74]

Fantastic tank. Pity that it can't be in the waiting room. It would keep less noisy kids in the treatment rooms.

I hope my waiting room has enough room for a tank. It's just something I've always wanted to add to front office. Alas, I can't find a good place for it.

Aaron

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Acrylic Sock Rack i made. It has six 4" holes to accomadate as many filter socks.

Skimmer in place n working now double time!

After about 3 weeks with the two skimmers, my conclusion is that they each are pulling about the same amount of skimate. IMO, I believe that since they are the same model n type of skimmers they are functioning at the same effective levels. I dialed one skimmer for wet skimming and the other for dry skimming.