introducing my 870gal tank (pics ahead)

I want to thank you all very much for your kind words.

Bax:
The TOTM is nearly exactly 5 years ago. Amazing how coral grow in that time.

Ching:
Thank you very much, I am an admirer of your tank with your very modern design approach.

joao:
I stopped dosing NO3, I bought more fish and am feeding a lot more and cleaning the skimmer less often.
I still can't find NO3 in the water, but the coral grow well, so there'll have to be some around.
I don't remember, how many grams I exactly dosed. It was a NaNO3 solution in water and I used a Hosepump to dose and adjusted its ON-time to keep 3 ppm NO3 in the reef.

stone.david:
Thank you very much,
the equipment is very much the same than mentioned on page 1 of this thread, it is:

The 870 USgal (gross) reef is running with the following devices:

Size: about 9.8 x 4.3 x 2.8 ft. frontglas made of LSG Optiwhite glas Silicone joints covered with glasbars

V2A- high grade stainless-steel stand
4 * 400 Watt HQI Giesemann System 400 (2 * Megachrome coral / 2 * Megachrome marine)
4 * (4*54 Watt) Lumimaster T5 (Aquascience special / Aquascience Blue / a few Giesemann Powerchrome aquapink )
5 * (4*24 Watt) Lumimaster T5 (Aquascience special / Aquascience Blue / a few Giesemann Powerchrome aquapink )
= 2944 Watt max. at high noon switched in 5 groups, having a lot of different blueish colorscemes :-)
120 USgal filtersump
14 m3/h Red Dragon with antichalk mod. as sumppump
2 * 14m3/h Red Dragon with antichalk mod. outside the tank (closed loop)
2 * 20m3/h Tunze Streams changeing every 6 hours with nightslowdown
2 * 12m3/h Tunze Streams with nightslowdown
2 * Tunze Wavebox with nightslowdown
1 * Vortech pump that blows from behind the center reefstructure
2 of the Tunze pumps with 2,2 kVA UPS(Battery power supply) each
skimmer Bubbleking 500 (580 - 1320 USgal )
IKS-Aquastar measuring for safety
IKS-SMS-module for remote monitoring/alarm
Grotech dosing pump (Mg/Sr/Traceelements)
2 Harton industrial grade hosepumps (CaCl2/KH(NaHCO3) dosage)
osmosis with ion exchanger (autom. rinsing/level 400 USgal container in cellar)
waterlevel in sump maintained by IKS (refill) with SP4800 hose pump (Grotech)
mech. prefilter in outlet shaft, finefilter (AMA pre-filter in sump)
Rowa fluidized bed filter as phosphatabsorber (very seldom used)
UV sterilizer from Deltec with 4 * 34 watts
temperaturecontrol via splitlevel aircon in tankroom
air exchange with Stiebel Eltron DL 13 cross flow heat exchanger fan
1/2 of sump is dark and filled with some living rocks
8 * 66 USgal tanks (some with 250 watts MH some with 4*39watts T5)
are frag and other small tanks with a different sump system
132 USgal (500 liters, thats 20 kg Salt) waterchange a week with one week aged water

powder blue:
I am also a true ching chai follower :)

again, thank you all very much
 
This is without a doubt my all time favorite reef tank the world over. Thank you for the update, awesome.
 
While everything about this tank is impressive I must say that I am totally in awe of the growth of that brain coral front and centre. It's difficult to make an aquarium look anything like a real reef but a huge brain coral like that goes a long ways towards creating the illusion.

Dave.M
 
I don't think I can say anything that hasn't been said already. Simply amazing though. It is very cool to see an actual reef tank instead of the frag tanks that are so popular today. This tank is definitely in the top 5 tanks of all time!! Very inspirational!
 
RalfP

Just finished your tread, your tank and CHing's are in my optinion a leading exsample of a minimalistic large tank set-up. I love what you guys have done.

I will defiantely keep my eye on your tread. I hope you get TOTM again, you have my vote that is for sure.
 
RalfP

Just finished your tread, your tank and CHing's are in my optinion a leading exsample of a minimalistic large tank set-up. I love what you guys have done.

I will defiantely keep my eye on your tread. I hope you get TOTM again, you have my vote that is for sure.

far from it.......but these are the ways true big reef tank should be...if you really want to set up a big system,make it worthwhile...treat your livestock as it should have been treated in natural settings...
kudos to ralf,ching and others who achieved top level of perfection...:fish2:
 
Hi,
thank you very much, I am feeling honored.

Dave.m:
Yes I really love the brain. I bought it quite cheap in 2005, because
it was a brown, flat, quite large thing and living for quite some time
in a T8 lighted filterchamber. To big and brown to be sold at the LFS.
The brown went away and the deeper parts became green.
It's also impressive at night when it expands it's polyps all over.

GvineReefer:
Thank you, I am trying to keep some coral in their (more or less) natural
growing form. Interesting how different coral develop form.
2 animals as a frag looking like the same species in a different color and
differs more and more in form.


120gallonFOWLR:
Well... I am being paid for not closing my mouth when words hurt :-)
I am doing some mentoring sessions and consulting in different companies.
I have to confess, there is a little soft cushion from a prior foundation, operation and selling of an internet/web related company.


Thanks a lot, just trying to keep it all healthy and alive.
Ralf
 
IN-Credible!

This aquarium is mind boggling.

That Platygyra is one of the most impressive corals i've seen in captivity. A credit to you!

Kind Regards
Duncan Lister
Manchester UK.
 
Ralf,

What and how much do you feed the tank?.

What do you feel is the main nutrient export means in your system?. Do you harvest a lot of macroalgae, or do you think the system is mature enough now to deal with nutrients without the macro algae..... ie Berlin is in action here?.

Thanks
Mo
 
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