Mike's 300 Double-D
- Thread starter prop-frags
- Start date
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Awesome video. I say you sufficiently nailed the aquascape, it's absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks Brett! We definitely like the rock work better than what we had in the original 300.
Thanks hpfunk! I wish we had taken some pics of the Aiptasia outbreak in our refugium before we sicked the Filefish on them. Some were about the size of my hand. It only took him 2 to 3 days to devour the entire mass of them and it was amazing to see.
Thanks bagz727 for participating in our thread!
We clean the front and sides of the glass every 2 to 3 days and the back wall gets a good cleaning every other week.
apayan
New member
The tank is looking great!!! I agree with everyone that you both have certainly come back better than ever. A couple questions though:
1) I am a bit embarrassed at not asking this before, but why is the tank called a "Double-D." I never quite understood that.
2) Do you have TWO blue star leopard wrasses in your tank?
Thanks
1) I am a bit embarrassed at not asking this before, but why is the tank called a "Double-D." I never quite understood that.
2) Do you have TWO blue star leopard wrasses in your tank?
Thanks
crvz
Team RC
apayan, the model of this tank is the Marineland 300DD, with the DD standing for deep dimensions (36" front to back).
Mike, can you remind me how long your photoperiod is? What do you typically run? when I was barebottom on my last tank, I barely had to run my lights for 4 hours a day, but I think that's inadequate now with my new system.
Mike, can you remind me how long your photoperiod is? What do you typically run? when I was barebottom on my last tank, I barely had to run my lights for 4 hours a day, but I think that's inadequate now with my new system.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
1) Yep, what Chris said.
2) Actually, we have three! The one big male (formerly female), and two new females for him to enjoy
And thank you very much for the kind words, Apayan.
Chris, here's the breakdown on our photoperiod:
10:00 am Blue LEDs on
11:00 am Actinics on, LEDS off
4:00 pm Halide #1 on
4:15 pm Halide #2 on
4:30 pm Halide #3 on, Actinics off
10:00 pm Actinics on, Halide #1 off
10:15 pm Halide #2 off
10:30 pm Halide #3 off
10:45 pm LEDs on
11:00 pm Actinics off
11:30 pm LEDs off
The idea is to get a fairly decent dawn-to-dusk, with 6 hrs of halides.
Some of the corals in the new arrangement are not appreciating the 6 hours of 400w halides, so we are moving some corals around. We expect this process to take some time, as they acclimate to this new arrangement. But the plan is to leave the photoperiod alone, and handle the acclimation by moving the corals.
Last edited:
prop-frags
SPS Slave
OK, for the holiday weekend (it's memorial day here in the states) we have some work planned! Time to give the fish room some love. A couple of weeks ago, we tore down the 75g prop/refugium tank and gave it a top-to-bottom scrubbing. That seemed to really help with PO4... the levels very quickly dropped down from 0.05 to 0. Good outcome there.
What we have in mind is to add in a bigger sump for increased water volume and some additional filtration capacity, perhaps eliminate the existing 125g sump, and improve the plumbing for better organization and maintainability (particularly with reactors, probes, etc.).
Our fishroom is roughly 10' x 5'. You can see from this that the roof is irregularly shaped though to accommodate the windows in the garage:
Here's some very rough drawings. As you can tell, we've been playing with several ideas on sump sizes. The 180g stock tank we used during our recent crisis is just too large to fit in the "purple pump shack".
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5766281714/" title="fish room sketch by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/5766281714_ddd6507a77_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="fish room sketch"></a>
So what we've landed on is this 150g rubbermaid stock tank:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5765692561/" title="P1000034 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5765692561_687ef66bea_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1000034"></a>
Trouble now is how to plumb all this together! Easy access and maintainability is an essential requirement for our design. Any ideas out there?
What we have in mind is to add in a bigger sump for increased water volume and some additional filtration capacity, perhaps eliminate the existing 125g sump, and improve the plumbing for better organization and maintainability (particularly with reactors, probes, etc.).
Our fishroom is roughly 10' x 5'. You can see from this that the roof is irregularly shaped though to accommodate the windows in the garage:
Here's some very rough drawings. As you can tell, we've been playing with several ideas on sump sizes. The 180g stock tank we used during our recent crisis is just too large to fit in the "purple pump shack".
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5766281714/" title="fish room sketch by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/5766281714_ddd6507a77_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="fish room sketch"></a>
So what we've landed on is this 150g rubbermaid stock tank:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5765692561/" title="P1000034 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5765692561_687ef66bea_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1000034"></a>
Trouble now is how to plumb all this together! Easy access and maintainability is an essential requirement for our design. Any ideas out there?
blumoon reefers
New member
meh, just tear down the walls and make the whole garage the "purple pump shack".....then you will definitely have accessability.
:wavehand::lol2:
:wavehand::lol2:
drummereef
Team RC
Here we go again! Can't wait to see it come together.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Heh, you guys are too much.
So as we are sure never happens to you, we got distracted looking at the display tank today and decided that we needed to work on the flow before we dig into the big fish room project... or maybe we were just looking for a good excuse to not get into that sump project just yet...
Anyhow, here's the update from today's work. The closed loop outlets continue to work great. We're getting great flow behind the rock structures on both sides, as well as some decent flow from the front outlets which are preventing dead spots along the sides and front bottom corners. The job of the Tunze 6055 nanostreams is to give us "spot lights" of flow across the top and directed at the sps colonies. The 6055's deliver 264 to 1,453 gph with really low power use (4w to 18w). That means with all four going full-out, we're adding roughly 5,800 gph with only 72 additional watts. Nice!
In keeping with our school of hard knocks lessons, we're are going to put all electronics behind the wall, in the electrical panel we've built. So first task was to drill another 1.5" hole through the walls, and into the electrical panel:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040641/" title="nt 1095 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/5774040641_5146e4d792_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1095"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040613/" title="nt 1094 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/5774040613_b4931e4541_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1094"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040787/" title="nt 1098 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3664/5774040787_635df89b8b_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1098"></a>
Next was to assemble our parts, and label the cables so once we pass them through into the other room, we'll know what's what.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040707/" title="nt 1096 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5774040707_411f56d555_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1096"></a>
We used one of those nice computer desk plastic grommets that will trim out our drywall hole and give us a clean look. Yeah, don't forget to put the grommet on first before putting the cables through the holes in the wall!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040765/" title="nt 1097 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2627/5774040765_9681287b68_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1097"></a>
The two new 6055's we ordered came with a very cool new design for mounting the pump clamp to the magnetic holder. Tunze is now using four rubber mounts...a fantastic improvement to the design.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040821/" title="nt 1099 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/5774040821_0461a98445_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1099"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579650/" title="nt 1100 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5302/5774579650_79d5db79cc_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1100"></a>
Next up is cable management. We used these handy little plastic clamps to secure and guide all the cables up out of the water, and neatly around the edge of the canopy.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579666/" title="nt 1101 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/5774579666_2fcc9b5949_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1101"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040923/" title="nt 1102 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2285/5774040923_3aa1190f41_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1102"></a>
And the final, time-consuming challenge of this project was to mount and organize all the power supplies, cables, connectors, and the Tunze 7095 controller within the electrical panel. Say goodbye to the neat looking panel!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579404/" title="nt 1093 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2597/5774579404_6c0bc28698_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1093"></a>
So far, so good. The new pumps are working great and really churning up the water around the corals. We need to pull out the 7095 manual again and read up on the different flow pattern modes. The 6055's are controllable pumps, so we can take full advantage of the capabilities of the 7095. This should make for happy, healthy corals!
As always, thanks for watching. Maybe we'll look at that sump room tomorrow...
So as we are sure never happens to you, we got distracted looking at the display tank today and decided that we needed to work on the flow before we dig into the big fish room project... or maybe we were just looking for a good excuse to not get into that sump project just yet...
Anyhow, here's the update from today's work. The closed loop outlets continue to work great. We're getting great flow behind the rock structures on both sides, as well as some decent flow from the front outlets which are preventing dead spots along the sides and front bottom corners. The job of the Tunze 6055 nanostreams is to give us "spot lights" of flow across the top and directed at the sps colonies. The 6055's deliver 264 to 1,453 gph with really low power use (4w to 18w). That means with all four going full-out, we're adding roughly 5,800 gph with only 72 additional watts. Nice!
In keeping with our school of hard knocks lessons, we're are going to put all electronics behind the wall, in the electrical panel we've built. So first task was to drill another 1.5" hole through the walls, and into the electrical panel:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040641/" title="nt 1095 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/5774040641_5146e4d792_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1095"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040613/" title="nt 1094 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/5774040613_b4931e4541_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1094"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040787/" title="nt 1098 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3664/5774040787_635df89b8b_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1098"></a>
Next was to assemble our parts, and label the cables so once we pass them through into the other room, we'll know what's what.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040707/" title="nt 1096 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5150/5774040707_411f56d555_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1096"></a>
We used one of those nice computer desk plastic grommets that will trim out our drywall hole and give us a clean look. Yeah, don't forget to put the grommet on first before putting the cables through the holes in the wall!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040765/" title="nt 1097 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2627/5774040765_9681287b68_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1097"></a>
The two new 6055's we ordered came with a very cool new design for mounting the pump clamp to the magnetic holder. Tunze is now using four rubber mounts...a fantastic improvement to the design.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040821/" title="nt 1099 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/5774040821_0461a98445_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1099"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579650/" title="nt 1100 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5302/5774579650_79d5db79cc_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1100"></a>
Next up is cable management. We used these handy little plastic clamps to secure and guide all the cables up out of the water, and neatly around the edge of the canopy.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579666/" title="nt 1101 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2688/5774579666_2fcc9b5949_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1101"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774040923/" title="nt 1102 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2285/5774040923_3aa1190f41_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1102"></a>
And the final, time-consuming challenge of this project was to mount and organize all the power supplies, cables, connectors, and the Tunze 7095 controller within the electrical panel. Say goodbye to the neat looking panel!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5774579404/" title="nt 1093 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2597/5774579404_6c0bc28698_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1093"></a>
So far, so good. The new pumps are working great and really churning up the water around the corals. We need to pull out the 7095 manual again and read up on the different flow pattern modes. The 6055's are controllable pumps, so we can take full advantage of the capabilities of the 7095. This should make for happy, healthy corals!
As always, thanks for watching. Maybe we'll look at that sump room tomorrow...
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thanks Chris. Have you decided on the source for your sump? We are trying to decide what to do...see below.
Appreciate that, Brett. Hopefully we can figure out what we are doing with this sump room :spin2:
OK, so here's our updated (and highly sophisticated) sump room drawing:
With this latest plan, the intention is to replace the current 125g sump with two independent tanks. The 150g stock vat will be on the far left side sitting on the floor. Pulling out the existing 125g sump will leave the space along the wall where we can put a new shallow sump to contain our probes, reactors, and skimmers. What we need is a 48" length, 18" depth, and 12" height.
Problem is, there's no standard tank size of those dimensions, so it looks as though we might have to go with a custom sump. Any ideas you guys on where to find something of this size? We hate to pay for an expensive custom-made acrylic jobbie when something tough and no-frills would fit the requirement just fine.
Taqpol
New member
Isn't a standard 75 gallon only 18" tall? Would that six inches make a big difference? Otherwise you could try and fabricate the sump yourself, either out of acrylic or glass. I've done both and find them fairly simple.
Whats the 150g stock tank going to be used for, besides extra water volume? Any plans on having a plumbed in frag tank?
Lastly, didn't you use a herbie drain so wouldn't you want two drain pipes? Any reason to have one dump straight into the stock tank instead of them both running through the skimmer chamber?
Whats the 150g stock tank going to be used for, besides extra water volume? Any plans on having a plumbed in frag tank?
Lastly, didn't you use a herbie drain so wouldn't you want two drain pipes? Any reason to have one dump straight into the stock tank instead of them both running through the skimmer chamber?
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Good questions, Alex; thank you.
What we want to do with the 150g is create additional water volume in the system, and also have a place for more live rock. There is already a frag tank/refugium combo in the current setup (our 75g) - you can see here it's to the left of the sump:
The standard 75g is 48 x 19 x 22, so yes we could use the 75g in as our new "shorty sump" for holding the skimmers, reactors, probes... had not thought of that since we were planning to use the 75 for the refugium/frag tank.
My crappy drawing doesn't really show the drain lines very well, but yes, we do have dual drain lines coming down from the display. It does seem best to have everything drain into the skimmer tank first, then we'll drain off to the 150g vat - perhaps with some filter socks in between there to keep detritus out of the 150g.
As far as DIY fabrication - would you have a "how-to" reference that you recommend?
What we want to do with the 150g is create additional water volume in the system, and also have a place for more live rock. There is already a frag tank/refugium combo in the current setup (our 75g) - you can see here it's to the left of the sump:
The standard 75g is 48 x 19 x 22, so yes we could use the 75g in as our new "shorty sump" for holding the skimmers, reactors, probes... had not thought of that since we were planning to use the 75 for the refugium/frag tank.
My crappy drawing doesn't really show the drain lines very well, but yes, we do have dual drain lines coming down from the display. It does seem best to have everything drain into the skimmer tank first, then we'll drain off to the 150g vat - perhaps with some filter socks in between there to keep detritus out of the 150g.
As far as DIY fabrication - would you have a "how-to" reference that you recommend?
Mrs. Music
New member
I always get excited to see an update. Love the neat and tidy wire control! What are you growing in the refugium? and do you feed your tank with it?
yoccm
New member
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Thought we'd share some pics we took of the fish this weekend.
Desjardini Tang
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5805458490/" title="DSC_6735 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2495/5805458490_6ecc7be5dd_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6735">
Bristletooth Kole's Tang
</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804898295/" title="DSC_6817 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5031/5804898295_fbb57fa3f9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6817"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804896107/" title="DSC_6816 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/5804896107_49b6c8d462_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6816"></a>
Tomentosus Filefish
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804894289/" title="DSC_6809 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/5804894289_1504a81669_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6809"></a>
Regal Angel
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5805451502/" title="DSC_6814 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/5805451502_ab21550899_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6814"></a>
Our 1st male Lineatus Wrasse
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5796301694/" title="nt 1111 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5796301694_9f10cc28e9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1111"></a>
Our 2nd male Lineatus Wrasse (he was supposed to be a female, LOL)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5795742911/" title="nt 1112 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5074/5795742911_befdc021b7_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1112"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5796301514/" title="nt 1105 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/5796301514_0e69027dc5_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1105"></a>
Desjardini Tang
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5805458490/" title="DSC_6735 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2495/5805458490_6ecc7be5dd_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6735">
Bristletooth Kole's Tang
</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804898295/" title="DSC_6817 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5031/5804898295_fbb57fa3f9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6817"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804896107/" title="DSC_6816 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/5804896107_49b6c8d462_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6816"></a>
Tomentosus Filefish
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5804894289/" title="DSC_6809 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/5804894289_1504a81669_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6809"></a>
Regal Angel
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5805451502/" title="DSC_6814 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2156/5805451502_ab21550899_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="DSC_6814"></a>
Our 1st male Lineatus Wrasse
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5796301694/" title="nt 1111 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5796301694_9f10cc28e9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1111"></a>
Our 2nd male Lineatus Wrasse (he was supposed to be a female, LOL)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5795742911/" title="nt 1112 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5074/5795742911_befdc021b7_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1112"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5796301514/" title="nt 1105 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/5796301514_0e69027dc5_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1105"></a>
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