Well it's about time that I actually try to document part of this upgrade so I intend to start chronicling my build here. I've had my existing 180G for 3 years now and I figure that's long enough without an upgrade. To say that I've learned a lot along the way would be a serious understatement and part of the justification for the upgrade is to better incorporate those lessons into the new system.
A bit of background on the existing system;
Display: 180G RR by AGA
Sump: 75G tank
Fuge: 20G tank inside the 75G sump
Lighting: Retrofit 3 x 400 watt MH with 2 x 80 watt T5 atinics. The MH are all 10K Reflux driven by Coralvue electronic ballasts in Lumenarc mini reflectors and the T5’s are 60†Giesemann Atinic+ driven by an Icecap 660 ballast both with individual reflectors.
Skimmer: EuroReef 8-2 (essentially an rs180 by another name) The skimmer was upgraded about 6 months ago to upgrade the original Serda pump to a EuroReef modified Eheim.
Return Pump: Mag24
Extra flow in tank: 2 x Tunze 6100's with single controller on the pair.
Obviously there are other parts but those are the guts.
The new system;
Display:
72.5 x 24.5 x 32 (LWH) with an over sized external coast to coast overflow. The overflow box is 63 x 5 x 10, I wanted the overflow this way so that not only would it not take up any room in the display but be large enough to acclimate most new corals to the system in a little more isolated location that way there will be good cross flow any sliming etc goes straight to the sump and skimmer to be processed before possibly effecting other corals. I’d have liked to go to a deeper setup but the room wouldn’t really support it and in wall isn’t an option (unfortunately). The other benefit to keeping the same footprint is I can keep my existing stand. I know a lot of people seem to prefer shorter tanks due to them being easier to work in but first of all I’ve been accused of having monkey long arms and I since I’m using 400w MH lighting lighting isn’t an issue and the depth may actually help with keeping lower light corals at the bottom. Beside I personally like the taller look. The tank was made by a shop called SP Aquatics, if anyone is interested in a custom tank I can’t say enough about the quality of their work. They’ve been great to work with and always seem to exceed expectations.
Sump: Well that part is pretty straight forward, overall it's 54 x 21 x 21.5. I'm not really big on the overly complex designs that have chambers for everything and 14 bubble traps so there are only two chambers. One is for a deep sand bed and refugium that's 15.5" x 18" high. The rest is one big chamber for the skimmer, overflows, and return. This design will probably evolve a bit as well as the build goes on but it won't become very complex.
Lighting: That will stay the same.
Skimmer: Obviously the existing ER isn’t going to keep up with the increased volume so I’ve decided to go with a Bubble King SuperMarin 250. That should more than keep up with the load.
Return Pump: Blueline 70, I wanted a pressure rated pump because I intend to use eductors on the returns and am just plain tired of the poor performance out of the mag drive pumps. I’ve been REALLY impressed with these pumps so far because of their actual output and very low noise.
Extra Flow: Current plan is to keep the 6100's as well as add a Dart for a closed loop. This part is definitely not ironed out or set in stone though. I like the flow and power consumption of the Tunze but hate looking at the big bodies. As for the CL I'm 99% sure that I'm going to use that with either 2 or 4 outlets on the back wall and 2 on the bottom near the front.
OK enough for now I'll try and get some pics up this weekend.
A bit of background on the existing system;
Display: 180G RR by AGA
Sump: 75G tank
Fuge: 20G tank inside the 75G sump
Lighting: Retrofit 3 x 400 watt MH with 2 x 80 watt T5 atinics. The MH are all 10K Reflux driven by Coralvue electronic ballasts in Lumenarc mini reflectors and the T5’s are 60†Giesemann Atinic+ driven by an Icecap 660 ballast both with individual reflectors.
Skimmer: EuroReef 8-2 (essentially an rs180 by another name) The skimmer was upgraded about 6 months ago to upgrade the original Serda pump to a EuroReef modified Eheim.
Return Pump: Mag24
Extra flow in tank: 2 x Tunze 6100's with single controller on the pair.
Obviously there are other parts but those are the guts.
The new system;
Display:
72.5 x 24.5 x 32 (LWH) with an over sized external coast to coast overflow. The overflow box is 63 x 5 x 10, I wanted the overflow this way so that not only would it not take up any room in the display but be large enough to acclimate most new corals to the system in a little more isolated location that way there will be good cross flow any sliming etc goes straight to the sump and skimmer to be processed before possibly effecting other corals. I’d have liked to go to a deeper setup but the room wouldn’t really support it and in wall isn’t an option (unfortunately). The other benefit to keeping the same footprint is I can keep my existing stand. I know a lot of people seem to prefer shorter tanks due to them being easier to work in but first of all I’ve been accused of having monkey long arms and I since I’m using 400w MH lighting lighting isn’t an issue and the depth may actually help with keeping lower light corals at the bottom. Beside I personally like the taller look. The tank was made by a shop called SP Aquatics, if anyone is interested in a custom tank I can’t say enough about the quality of their work. They’ve been great to work with and always seem to exceed expectations.
Sump: Well that part is pretty straight forward, overall it's 54 x 21 x 21.5. I'm not really big on the overly complex designs that have chambers for everything and 14 bubble traps so there are only two chambers. One is for a deep sand bed and refugium that's 15.5" x 18" high. The rest is one big chamber for the skimmer, overflows, and return. This design will probably evolve a bit as well as the build goes on but it won't become very complex.
Lighting: That will stay the same.
Skimmer: Obviously the existing ER isn’t going to keep up with the increased volume so I’ve decided to go with a Bubble King SuperMarin 250. That should more than keep up with the load.
Return Pump: Blueline 70, I wanted a pressure rated pump because I intend to use eductors on the returns and am just plain tired of the poor performance out of the mag drive pumps. I’ve been REALLY impressed with these pumps so far because of their actual output and very low noise.
Extra Flow: Current plan is to keep the 6100's as well as add a Dart for a closed loop. This part is definitely not ironed out or set in stone though. I like the flow and power consumption of the Tunze but hate looking at the big bodies. As for the CL I'm 99% sure that I'm going to use that with either 2 or 4 outlets on the back wall and 2 on the bottom near the front.
OK enough for now I'll try and get some pics up this weekend.
