introducing my 870gal tank (pics ahead)

Thanks Ralf,

Do you ever check Dkh of the new water before you put it in the system?.
I do the same, but check kh now as I've had a couple of buckets measure only 4.

I switched to bioactif recently. It's a great salt. It gives a really crystal clear water column for a few days after every change.

Mo






Hi all,
thank you very much for the latest compliments.

DuncanUK:
Its more than 40cm in Diameter (about 16") and a little higher than half of a sphere.

Moser: I've had some Cyanobacteria issues in the past.
We came to the conclusion, that using my modified version of that Balling/Randys 2part etc. method to supply Ca/Mg/KH brings way to much traceelements/heavy metals into the reef. I changed that (not adding "NaCl free seasalt anymore).
I did lots of waterchanges to rinse the system.
I think that, in this system, changing up to 350 liters a week (no traceelement additions) adds more color to the coral, changing more than that feels save to prevent ion-displacements due to chemical addings.
Now I change 500 liters a week which is compared to the netto volume of the tank about 20%.
The 500 liter comes from a easy handling thought. If I have too much work with waterchanges I tend to "forget" them.
My work with that is now:
- press button to fill 500 liter container with RODI water (with is refilled (level probe))
- drop one 20 kilogram sack of TM Salt into it.
- wait a week with water moving inside the container.
- press another button (500 liters water runs into the maintank, old water is flowing into the sink.
- start from the beginning.

thats quite easy to do (pressing 2 buttons, dropping one sack). no measuring etc...

viorel:
great what you did there.
Do you use less blue-ish light (more yellow) or is it just the photos?
Interesting, how different the coralcolor looks with this. A lot more red-ish colors. I recently added some few pink-ish bulbs, which pushes colors, I've not seen in there before.

dar8nge1:
Thanks a lot, I have mostly egoistic reasons to do so ;-)

Thanks again for your kind words,
It really helps facing larger changes and cleaningwork.

Best,
Ralf
 
Hey Mark,
I arrived at the actual size because of "easy handling" thoughts.
Height and depth of the tank were chosen according to my ability to
reach most places in the tank (with help of a ladder) without diving there.
A bigger one would be exponentially more work, I fear.
I guess that would also mean using not standard "hobby" technology.
Well.. making the tank bigger, having more water, not more reef, would
mean that I do not have to use more light... maybe also not more chilling...
hmmm ;-)).

Your project sounds very interesting.
Also my "small" tank did involve quite a lot of construction work.
We removed a wall, put lots of steel into it and removed the floor heating and
added concrete.
I am lucky, having a tech room behind the tank, you'd have to keep that
somewhere else... I guess.
Like the idea of natural sunlight, if the heat stays outside!
There are some products, were they collect light on the roof, leading it through pipes, ending in something that looks like a lamp.
Great would be a real heliostat, collecting light with moving mirrors, bundling it in a small prism on your roof :-). (ok ok thats way to big and costly).

Best,
Ralf


Ralf, can you stop at 870? We have had some discussion about cutting a hole in the dining room/kitchen wall and building a big tank in between the rooms. This would involve major construction and expense going to such a large tank. I think I would cut a hole in the roof as well and use a skylight to light the tank during the day.
Right now we are working on putting solar power on the roof... trying to cut down on my power bill!
Mark
 
Hi Mo,
upps, haven't done that.
I check the tank after the water change to correct sg, KH, Ca, Mg.
But yes you're right, I'll have a look at it next time.
Btw. Salt demixes due to gravity, small particles wiggling through the big ones down. So if your 4 DKH salt was standing for some time without mixing the dry salt afterwards, this could be one reason?

I haven't tried bioactif and you are the 2nd one recommending it to me... hmm, think I'll try it with 2-3 water changes in the future.
I usually buy a pallet of salt with about 800kgs, thats 40 weeks water changes, so "changing salt" ideas seldom show up.

Thanks for the hint,
Ralf

Thanks Ralf,

Do you ever check Dkh of the new water before you put it in the system?.
I do the same, but check kh now as I've had a couple of buckets measure only 4.

I switched to bioactif recently. It's a great salt. It gives a really crystal clear water column for a few days after every change.

Mo
 
Hi Ralf again:rolleye1:

How much time do you spend daily for your tank maintenation etc..?

And who is taking care for your tank when you go for Holidays ore busyness trips?

Of course I cannot compare with your tank but when i'm in Holidays i think everyday what could be happen at home...

Bests,

martin
 
Hi Martin,

Friday is my tank day, I am in the wonderful situation, that I do not have to work on Fridays. During the week, I only feed the different tanks. Friday takes me about 5 hours.
But that is not only Chemical refill / measure/ water change / cleaning of the main tank but also the different frag/quarantine/Mantis/freshwater/etc. tanks.

On holidays and business trips, a non aquaristic-related friend is coming on a daily basis, playing and feeding my two cats. The pre made food portions are thawed and fed, the autofeeder for pellet food feeds more often than usually.
He also takes a daily look if there is light off, strange smell, beeping aqua computers etc.
My aqua computers (IKS) send daily SMS to me with actual values.
There are 2 webcams, one looking into the main reef, one looking into the cellar-room with the fragtanks. (no, can't open them for the public, did that in the past and they were not usable for myself anymore)
With my mobile phone, I can query the IKS values and webcams for an instant look.
Chemistry suffices for about 3 weeks.
If really, really bad things happen, we can phone the nearby LFS guys, also being wholesaler, having a lot more, bigger tanks and a lot more experience than me.

There is some redundancy and safety in the systems. Three independent circuits for lamps, two for water flow (UPS-backed), one for cooling, one for other stuff. Two overflows to the sump. Water detector on the floor. etc. etc.

Best,
Ralf
 
You're right about settling, Ralf, except I do one bucket at a time! :twitch:
I think this may have been A batch mixing fault.

I'd be interested in your findings with Bio-actif.
I have heard a few notice the same changes as me, but I've only recently changed myself...

I love your tank. It's one of my all time favourites. :bounce1:

Mo


Hi Mo,
upps, haven't done that.
I check the tank after the water change to correct sg, KH, Ca, Mg.
But yes you're right, I'll have a look at it next time.
Btw. Salt demixes due to gravity, small particles wiggling through the big ones down. So if your 4 DKH salt was standing for some time without mixing the dry salt afterwards, this could be one reason?

I haven't tried bioactif and you are the 2nd one recommending it to me... hmm, think I'll try it with 2-3 water changes in the future.
I usually buy a pallet of salt with about 800kgs, thats 40 weeks water changes, so "changing salt" ideas seldom show up.

Thanks for the hint,
Ralf
 
Hi Ralph,its cool to see your tank in Tony Vargas book. I had it for a while and just realized your tank is featured there.
 
Hey Mark,
thanks a lot, unfortunately I wasn't able to order it in the first order-batch from Germany.
Think there is a way to order it now, but I haven't managed to buy or look at it yet. :-(
Best regards,
Ralf (looking into a milky clouded reef at the moment, one small T. maxima started releasing sperm, now all clams started, the big ones also eggs.)
 
Thats is a fantastic reef and an inspiration for all of us, Im working in a 260g reef and Im using all your experiences and tips for my build.
What has been the most difficult and challenging for you?
Thanks for sharing
 
Mo,

Yes, tomorrow, I will try to cut something useful out of the material.

A large sized T. maxima started with sperm release at 8pm,
the others (1 large T. maxima, 4 med sized T. maxima, 3 large T. derasa) joined in during 10 min.
They continued 30 min.
A short time later, the large clams started to release eggs, the med. sized did not.
They continued 30 min.
It took about an hour and the water was clean again.

Sad that nothing will survive (UV/Filter/wrong sperm:egg ratio etc.)

This happens at least 3 times a year.
This time, I changed the 4*400Watts MH (one year old) 2 days before this event.

Ralf
 
Thats is a fantastic reef and an inspiration for all of us, Im working in a 260g reef and Im using all your experiences and tips for my build.
What has been the most difficult and challenging for you?
Thanks for sharing

Thank you so much, explorer,

hmm, looking back, it's maybe keeping a constant environment.
Doing really regular cleanings, water changes / chemical checks, corrections / bulb changes etc. over years and years.
I've had to optimize and automate a lot to have enough fun doing it, in order to not "forget".

All changes, additions (tech, animals, chemical additions, wonder bottles) will have to be well thought out with a certain goal to achieve in mind.
And of course also a kind of "milestone" calendar, dropping it again, if the expected change did not happen within x days/months.

Researching these things is quite exhausting from time to time.

Resist putting wonder-elixirs in the water is also quite hard sometimes ;-)

Good luck,
Ralf
 
Hi Mo, hi all,

here's the video of the Tridacna spawning, that happened yesterday.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hPxgSlyhXHM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks for viewing!

Ralf
 
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