Maroun 150g Build Thread

[SunnyX]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15286393#post15286393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maroun.c
True the power outages are horrible. as even with the backup generation you don't have full functinonality....
Still would very much appreciate the address of your uncle as it might be worth moving to the same street

I dont have the address here with me but he lives on the Ramul bayda beach(white sands beach). Very nice spot, but super expensive. The apartments in his building are going for $2-3 Million+!!!

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks Sue.
Actually things were going great for the last weeks and for some reason a downhill stage seeems to have begun... all over its still a very nice experience. My tank has been running for more than 10 years now and I can't see myself without it. I even left it running when I left to live in dubai for 3 years...
Daughter and Son are a great help indeed. just seing their reactions in front of the tank makes it all worth it.
hopefully things will be much better after we finally move to our new appartment where things will be planned much better...

 

[maroun.c]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15287464#post15287464 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SunnyX
I dont have the address here with me but he lives on the Ramul bayda beach(white sands beach). Very nice spot, but super expensive. The apartments in his building are going for $2-3 Million+!!!

that was just a bit beyond my buget you know
That is a very nice area indeed. and I doubt they would even feel that there's a power outage or anything else there....

 

[sue711]

Maroun,
That is a long time to have invested yourself with a tank, and I can see why you can't imagine not having one after all those years... and what would you do with your spare time and money! You'd be richer but bored!

When our children were 7 and 9 my husband started his first and only reef tank. It was a 120 gallon beauty, and believe it or not he had no experience with fresh or salt water (He would look at my fresh water tank and admire it though)! We had an incredible local fish store owner that walked him through the tough stuff, and was a great resource for equipment and corals. As for our children, I fondly remember watching my husband build the tank setup including the cherry cabinet, and having our boys help out when they could... many many good memories. Then we ended up moving, he broke down the tank and never started another one. He says that it was too much to worry about, and we have moved several times since then so I guess it was all for the best. Our children are now grown adults and I have started my own nano reef...and this has, to my happy surprise, got my husband very interested in starting up another large reef tank together.

I know your family will have wonderful memories of your tank and helping you with it as well. It is a wonderful hobby, or should I say, addiction.

 

[maroun.c]

Totally Agree Sue.
One thing that makes it a bit easier (at least to get stuff) is that I travel globally and very frequently so most of the time I can pick things up from travels as you probably saw on earlier pages. I could travel back with 40-50 pounds of reefing equipment or livestock... on the other hand that makes it more stressful if anything happens while I'm on travel. Still so far I have made it without a single crash.

 

[maroun.c]

Some brighter updates:

Appartmenr construction seems to be moving much faster lately.
The room where the tank will be has been closed and cemented ( here appartments are built with stones, steel and cement) Will have a dedicated thread for the tank move and hopefully upgrade, however will post some pics here for suggestions on things to modify.
electrical:

2 electrical conduits on left and 1 on right which will fit up to three .16 inch wires which will handle a lot more than the anticipated load.
on line will be from main current and will not work on backup generator. a second line will work on both and a third line will come from a UPS installed in an attick to feed a second set of essential backup equipment (skimmer, return pump and intank circulation pump, heater and a couple of T5s)
also a cnoduit has been installed from behind the tank to attick to contain cables from a controller to equipment on attick.

Vents and Tubing

4x 4" tubing to pull hot humi air from canopy and stand to the outside.
3 x 1 inch tubing to take water up to and down from attick where I will have a frag tank, big refugium and might have a water changing set
1 1/2 inch tubing to kitchen bringing ROI water or fresh satwater mixed in the kitchen
1 3/4 inch drain from behind tank to balcony drain to make water changes easier and faster.

tubing to attick

 

[maroun.c]

Drain

and the latest picture after the wall was cemented

 

[maroun.c]

 

[melev]

That looks really good so far. Well planned too.

 

[Rocketboy52]

Looks sweet! Is this a custom house, or a remodel of an existing house? You called it an apartment, but it looks like you are having a house built! Its amazing how square the walls look after finishing them, in their raw form they look pretty rough! Congrats, I'm jealous!

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks Marc.

Rocketboy
Its an appartment in a building that still under construction. it does look like a house from that side as due to it being on a cliff it is at the 3rd level from one side and at floor level from the other side. so I get a small garden from one side and a really nice sea and mountain view from the other side...
As I bought it while still under construction I got to change a lot of the room desgins.
I added an extra wall from the inside behind where the tank will sit for having all the plumbing of the tank incorporated.
I also got to modify the power lines depending on the expected load so for the tank for ex:
1 line comes from mains to the tank and another from main and backup generator to tank and a line goes from the power board to an attick where a UPS will sit then backl to power board and then to parts of the house that will be on UPS and analso tot he tank. each one of those lines is a consuit that can fit 3-4 thicker cables easily capable of handling 20-30 Amps each...
and I guess the best thing in all that is the ability to add those vent lines to the outside of the house which I'm hoping will solve the usual issues of heat humidity and smell when feeding tank....
They do look very rough at first due to the rocks used and especially all the cement they needed to place to hold the tubes in the holes but as you say things look much smoother when they add this layer of cement on all the wall.

 

[Aquafred]

Its really good luck that you caught the leak on time.
Love the setup of the new tank, looks it'll be very interesting.
how about tank length? is the tank going to be as long as that wall?

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks Aquafred.
I'm very tempted to make it from wall to wall however that would be 15 feet.
I'm trying to keep tank lenght manageable to overcome it becoming a burden after some time so I think 6-7 feet is my limit. Tank will be centered in the middle of tah wall and I'm still reserching similar tank setups, basically I'm trying to decide in having the tank sit right in between 2 closets or having the two display clsets away from the tank which will allow viewing the tank from the sid eand maybe allow the addition of two small species tank on the sides....

 

[maroun.c]

A fluorescent elegance coral I'm holding for a friend while he tries to take out his Powder blue that so far munched on:
GSP
Xenia
goniopora
alveopora
and now Elegance coral...
Any exact ID tot his one?
It seems to eb diong well under medium light and medium low flow. Any need for feeding I remember reading that these don't make it long term in tanks?

Immediately after introduction:

And after it opened up:

This coral fluoresces like no other coral I've seen

 

[maroun.c]

3 new coral additions: as just IDd on another thread:

Indo Acan

Echinata

Favia

 

[maroun.c]

and a new addition

it's a 1 HP rated for 300-500 G tank and shuld easily eb abel to handle my upgraded tank as well as both my current one and the new one in case i endup keeping both.
One problem is that it shipped with a missing tubing connector which I couldn't find at hardware stores around here so I have to wait for 2 weeks to get one shiped. :mad2:

 

[Aquafred]

This thing looks Huge!
I see people running 1/4 -1/2 HP chillers on simlar size tanks so any specific reason to go this big? What is the tanks temperature without a chiller? Please do post about your experience with Resun chiller as I might be getting one.

 

[maroun.c]

it is very big indeed which rules out having it in the stand.
I did go with this size as the smaller one C500 was not available.
Also considering that it's a Chinese made one it gives me some more reassurance to buy their Pro line instead of the regular ones. the only other alternative here was the Aquamedic models but price was inhibitive witht he 1/4 HP costing around 2.5x what I paid for the Resun... My tank was hitting 84 Max with 3 large and 2 medium fans in the canopy and 2 large and 2 medium fans in the stand last year. however this year as it's in my parents house and here it a bit more hot It's already at 83-84 and it's still not Aug which is the peak for us. Will update on performance and noise level as soon as I get the connectors

 

[maroun.c]

On a side note we had an electrical power station failure 2 days ago and had no power for 2 days (which is very rare although we get few hours of power cuts every day... ) Fortunately the backup generator privided power all day long excpet 1 hour in the morning and another hour in night where it was shot to cool down....
Which again reminds me of the necessity of an additional power backup...
I'm cnosidering a 10 or 15 Amp UPS with 2 200 Amps batteries that should last for around 8-10 hours with everything on. Will connect the vortech, return pump, skimmer and 2 T5s to it which should give me few days continuous supply and as long as we either get main power or backup power from generator that should bring ease of mine. Trying to get that done on Monday -Tue this way I can test the setup and make sure all is OK before traveling in 7-8 days... Other than that tank looks fine although my parameters are not great:
Alk 9
Ca 330
Mg 1130 and some nitrate tat I have to deal with somehow

Wonder if my Low Mg is the cause of the rather rapid Ca drop as I remember reading thal Ca will precipiate if Mg is low???
will bring levels back to normal in the coming few days with a couple of large waterchanges planned to lower nitrates.
I also found a source of Prodibio biodigeset and was wondering if these are a good for Nitrate reduction?
Corals have so far seem unaffecte by all the readings however I notice a clear slow down in growth. my latest addition look well except for the purple accro which seems to have STN i already fragged of a few small branches and it keeps coming back.

 

[Aquafred]

Sorry to hear about your electrical problems. Its weird for those to happen just after you discussed them on the page before:eek1:
was the tank affected by staying for 1 hour without power repeatedly on those days? guess in your situation a UPS is a must.