introducing my 870gal tank (pics ahead)

Incredible tank! Definitly up there with Steve Weast's oregonreef on my list!

Great job and thanks so much for sharing!
 
Thanks so much!

I did some changes the last few weeks,
in detail they are:

- added a (to be) harem of 5 young, small Pseudochromis fridmani to the system some weeks ago, they all feel ok by now. Still too small to see if it works that they develop to 1 male, 4 female.

- as the Kole tang was still hunting the goby (Amblygobius phalaena), I gave that one away and
added a pair of smaller Valenciennea muralis gobys. Thats 3 weeks ago and the Kole still does not show any interest in them. Strange but great!

- working in an SPS-dominated tank produces more or less automatically frags. Accidentaly hitting a coral and *crack* there's your new frag. I never had much luck on placeing the new, small frag somewhere in the main-tank and finding it again later. The crowded, too dark algae partition of the sump wasn't the right place also.
Its "only" about 60 USgal, but I now have a frag tank. Its located above the algae partition of the sump, connected to the waterflow of the sump-returnpump and lighted with 6*39 watts T5. That'll hopefully work a lot better!

frag4.jpg


frag3.jpg


Thanks for viewing!
Ralf
 
This is amazing. It is such a beautiful tank, then you have the freakishly clean tank room and the new frag tank! Wow! I am so jealous. Your dedication to your system shows. Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
You have the most beautiful tank that has ever reached my eyes!!!!! I am seriously in love...I wish i had a tank like that..i have 29.:(
 
Boris ;-),
saw this thread higher in the list again and tought that some additional infos would be good ;-).

Regarding the frag-tank, I'll have to add some small algae-eaters. The algae start to grow on the frag-stones. Unfortunately the tank is to shallow to add a surgeon and still feel he's got a good home. Well, let's see what I'll find.

Fragtank's waterflow is still not sufficient. By now I added a Powerhead to the tank, that's doin' its job. I was pointed to Anthony's sprybar system as described in http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/short.htm and think I'll give it a try.

addoo,
if you ever visit Germany, feel yourself invided to having a nice swim ;-). I'll take photos then ;-)

RLMainers,
its not that difficult to keep it all clean, if you're lucky, having a tank-room and having tiles on floor and walls. Not having a lot of places to put things on also helps a lot! ;-)

AVALover,
still the same reef, only a different viewing window.

Thanks again and again,
Ralf
 
Ralf I love your setup, I'm planing similar sized tank that we will implement in our new house (at the moment project being just finished) so I would like to ask you few questions if I may:

1 - What would you like to be the biggest fish in your tank? (once fully grown)
2 - How did you catch that Kole tang in your Reef ? must have been a nightmare.
3 - Are you able to reach in all areas of your tank just with your hands or are you using scuba mask?
4 - How did you decide on your tank size? Especialy the lenght what was your limit?
5 - Newer thought on using T5 bulbs only?

thank you in advance,
Adrian
 
Ralf, maybe a Vortech would be a good idea for flow in the frag tank. I would definitely consider it since they have so many advantages for that kind of set up.
 
Great setup, like the look of the access panels on the front wall, and the removable black panels at the back of the tank.
 
Hi,
today I added a Salarias fasciatus (Jewelled blenny) and a dozen small red hermits to the frag-tank. That should do against the algae.

jnarove,
The Vortechs look really interesting. They are known in Germany, but the usual (online-)shops do not have them :(. Hmm, I'll start with the mentioned setup, maybe the flow from the return-pump is enough that way.
Nevertheless, I'll try to get that Vortech somewhere here.

laomedon,
it's a strange feeling, filling such a tank for the first time... you'll surely discover that ;-).
Sure I like to answer your questions, even more if you like ;-)...

1 - I don't like to see too big fishes in the tank. My goal was to build a system, where you have the impression of looking into a bigger part of the reef than in the "normal" sizerange.
Having larger coral and also many large fishes would IMHO result in the impression of looking into a "standard" sized system but at another scale. (4:1 instead of 1:1 or something like that).
(Hopefully I was able to describe what I mean).
So having a Naso lituratus or a Acanthurus sohal or something in that sizerange was never an option.
As the biggest ones I've chosen the Siganus magnificus, Acanthurus leucosternon, Acanthurus pyroferus.

2 - oops, I have to confess, that was misunderstandable ;-)... I cought the goby and replaced it with the other two... The Kole is still in there. Catching the goby wasn't difficult, because the Kole hold it in an upper corner.
Catching the Kole, I would try a mirror-trap, which is a acrylic box with small holes in it and a door which can be closed (dropped) by releasing a string. In this trap there would be a mirror at the side opposite the door.

3/4 - Yes, I am able to reach all places (with a small ladder), but working near the seafloor means wearing a mask if you want to see what you do ;-). A large gripper is used quite often.
That was also the reason why I did it in that size. I think this size is (for me) the largest possible size to be easily maintainable by myself without any help.
The length was defined by the size of the tech-room. Bigger wouldn't have looked harmonic from the livingroom. Hmm, and I don't like the look of a tank relatively shallow and very very long.

5 - Using only T5 (willing to loose the beauty wave-ripples HQI produces) would certainly mean using less power.
But I want to keep light-hungry SPS also on the bottom of the tank and think thats not possible with only T5 at 85cm height of tank.
Using the smallest available T5-lamps and covering the whole available surface area with them provides still not enough light for my needs.
HQI has a higher "lightdensity" i.e. more watts on the same surface area.
Therefore a combination of 400watts HQI and T5 was chosen.

The others, thanks for your kind words,
Ralf
 
IceCap Inc/Vortech will ship you the pumps. You can order through marinedepot.com and they will ship to you as well. Believe me, they would love for you to try their powerhead and I am sure that Andy will help you out. Just contact them!

NexDog got them and he is in Japan. You can contact him as well for advice on how to get them.
 
md14fish,
here is the actual list of the fishes living in the display-tank:
-Siganus magnificus (Magnificent rabbitfish)
-Chelmon rostratus (Copperband butterflyfish)
-Acanthurus pyroferus (Chocolate surgeonfish)
-Acanthurus leucosternon (Powderblue surgeonfish)
-Ctenochaetus strigosus (Kole)
-some Pseudocheilinus hexataenia, about 5? (Sixline wrasse)
-3,11 (14)Pseudanthias dispar
-1,1 (pair)Valenciennea muralis (Sand digging goby)
-0,0,5 (hopefully developing to 1,4)Pseudochromis fridmani

jnarowe,
Thanks, sounds good, but feels like something I should try after beeing sure not to get them here.
There would be $66 shipping plus 16% of total (purchase+shipping) for customs/import tax.
The pumps were to be seen on a German fair some months ago... maybe one of the shops is planning to import. I sent mail to some few shops... let's see what they'll answer.

Best,
Ralf
 
Ralf, sounds good. Have you seen the videos of the Vortechs? I know there is great equipment available in Germany but the Vortechs really provide supererior flow with oscillating patterns. Once you see one in action you would no doubt pay the extra money to get them. I have only a Sequence Hammerhead for return flow and the rest of my flow is Vortech pumps. They blow a little over 3000g/hr at about 35W with no transfer of heat to the system. Plus you can easily re-position them as needed. No wires in the tank. Just one on that frag tank and you would be set. I have 4 in my 1000g display and there is zero dead space in the tank. As my reef grows, I will install another two. Plus they have a battery back-up in production which will make these pumps even more valuable...

You can PM melev for his rather impressive videos if you haven't seen them already. I am in no way a shill for Eco-Tech, but I think given what I see of your frag tank, that would be the ideal powerhead for that situation.
 
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