My 1400+ liter (375g) reef system.

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Hi All,

Not entirely new here, but sure not being a well know reefer in RC I’ll give a short introduction first. I’m from the Netherlands having a RSM250 for almost 6 years. I moved from a small apartment to a nicer and bigger house last year and with that I was able to start a bigger reef tank. An RSM250 is nice but I had a dream and it looked like this (is it from someone on RC?):

Having also a small 60liters cube with a Peacock mantis I wanted to build a new system supporting both a large reef and a special tank for little mr T.

Here’s my topic in the mantis forum btw:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2452953

I’ve already started up the system in June but shall take you through some history beginning in December 2015 because that’s where my new adventure started. I also shall post the steps I’ve taken not all at the same time but try to get to the day of today as quick as I can.

The beginning

I didn’t want to have a cluttered set of displays in the living room and therefor the set of tanks needed to seamlessly connect together. Having a single tank with a divider in it was not an option because that’s just ugly.
With this in mind I started creating a design in December and came up with the idea to have a single cabinet with two 2 tanks on it. This also gained extra space underneath the tanks to add the sump, skimmer and other technical stuff, plumbing and also a frag-tank and ATO reservoir.
Also my dream tells me that the reef tank should at least be 250g big so the dimensions of the large display tank is 120x120x80 cm (48"x48"x24"). I decided to go for cube because of the dept it gives and it suited best in the living room

Here is a first sketch drawing a made

And with the cabinet open (stekkenbak is dutch for fragtank):

Drawing the tank gives me insight and while doing it I've refined the details more until they where ready to send out to a builder.

Large tank overflow

Small tank overflow

And sump

 

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Rock and scaping

I'm a fan of fresh live rock to startup a tank but knowing that I needed 6 or 7 boxes I decided to mix fresh live rock with dead rock to keep costs within an acceptable range. I managed to buy 6 boxes of dead rock which was still covered with algae and dead coral peaces. To clean the rock out I first removed the dead stuff with a high pressure cleaner and then soaked it for a week in a NaOH (lots of it) and water.
The NaOH resolves all organic material (including your own skin so always wear rubber gloves when handling this stuff).

After rinsing it for two more weeks with RO water where I replaced the water every 4 days the result was clean and odor free rock, ready for some scaping.

Realizing this was what I thought a good idea at first wasn't as good after al because rock is heavy even if it's dry. I started building pillars in the attic room and needed to carry it downstairs two floors without breaking stuff finally. So I stopped and waited for the tank to arrive first so I could resume scaping in the tank. (At this time the tank wasn't ordered yet )

 

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Technology, gadgets and more

To be able to keep the reef tank of my dream having large colorful SPS and LPS colonies, and supporting beautiful fish you need good equipment and a good reefer. So I aimed for the equipment because than the only failure can be me
In the first months of this year (tank still not ordered) I went through the several ForSale pages on the local forums to find top quality equipment second hand.
Here is the list of equipment I have installed in the system:

Return pump: RedDragon 12000
Skimmer: Bubble King Super Marin 250
Flow: 2x Vortech MP40W
Lighting reef tank: 2x Giesemann Aurora 4 x 54watt T5 & 3 x 85watt led,
Lighting mantis tank: tbd. (thinking of Ecotech Radion XR15 G4)
Calcium reactor: Dastaco XtremA + Ultegra controller
Computer: Neptune Apex full options (Temp, Ph, ORP, Salinity, AFS, 2nd EB6(the one for europe), Ecotech module, break-out box)
UV-C: Aqua Medic Helix 36 Watt
Ozone: Sander C50


Most of this equipment is second hand except for de Apex computer + modules and the tanks, sump & cabinet itself

Some of the stuff

2x Giesemann Aurora 4 x 54watt T5 & 3 x 85watt led

Apex gadgets

Fragtank fixture

PVC

 

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Ordering the Tank

In March I finally found a manufacturer (with help from my LFS) to build the tanks and cabinets.
It was a company in Belgium and they make high standard custom tanks & cabinets.
They invited me to come and visit they factory so I could see a stage of the build of my tank in person

The factory. They had a LOT of solar panels attached!!

The building process. The tanks were glued and drying

The welded frame made in INOX stainless steel

 

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The delivery

While waiting for the tank to be build I had to move the RSM because it was standing on the spot where the new system was planned. I also got an electrician to create an extra power outlet with separate group. That's the ugly box sticking out of the floor.

Before

After

After 10 weeks of torturing patience the announcement came that the setup was ready for delivery. Unfortunately some mistakes had been made and needed fixing so the delivery truck left with the cabinet leaving me with only a big tank and the small size cabinet. Then I saw that the color on the cabinet was wrong too. The finish was matte instead of high gloss so this was also taken back the be fixed. So I ended up with nothing.

After again 2 weeks of more waiting pain the delivery was made and the system could be bolded and build.

That's me with the power tool

And finally after 5 months planning and ordering, it's stands and shines!!

 

[rockworm]

The tank and stand look very nice. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

[locito277]

Woodwork and tank look sleek!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BvN]

The tank and stand look very nice. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

Woodwork and tank look sleek!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks guys!!

 

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Installing the tank

After the tank was delivered it was time to install the equipment, fix the plumbing and scape the rocks into a reef. The date was around May 20th.

The first step I took was the make the whole inside of the cabinet high gloss white. It has a more appealing effect and also is easier to keep clean. I used plastic wrap to accomplish it and the result is stunning, especially with the led light strip I installed.
Together with a red underlay underneath the sump it has the nice red/white colouring.

I already planned out most of the plumbing on paper to know what pieces I needed and had the layout mapped out in my head knowing that eventually the real layout was defined during the actual plumbing.

The third stage was to put all electrical stuf like wires, powerstrips, power supplies etc out of sight and away from salt creep. For this I made L profile casing, added a DJ switch and put everything behind this. Nice and clean.
The same dry area has room for the Dastaco Xtrema reactor.

Finally, it was time for some scaping. I wanted an open structure with pillars and bridge like structures where fish had hiding places and I had lots of room to put corals. I didn’t want the scape to be to perfect and mimic just a spot in the shallow area of a reel reef.

And a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsPuNaYbS_s

 

[vinhle00]

woah.. this is going to be one awesome set up.

 

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Cycle time!

When everything was build, fixed and in place it was time to fill it up with tap water to check for leaks and see if all equipment was working.

3 days later 1600 liters of natural seawater was delivered and the start was a fact. This was on June 1st.
As I wrote in a previous post I started up with around 80% dead rock and 20% fresh life rock. I also planned to do a fast cycle during 2 weeks and then have it ready to start stocking it like KorallenZucht and FaunaMarin described it in their methods. I know there are people out there thinking this is grazy and you need at least wait 6 to 8 weeks and have water params for nitrite, nitrate etc. on zero for some time before even thinking about adding anything, but I'm convinced this is not the best way to cycle. In my opinion you should start the cycle adding additional bacteria's (from a bottle) the keep the nitrite and nitrate spikes low so most of the living creatures survive. If phosphate and nitrate measure acceptable levels ea. Po4 of around 0.04 and No3 of around 5 the system should be stressed by adding fish. This give all strains of bacteria the right nutrition's to feed and grow. If you wait too long and let the params go to zero, you lose some strains because they die of starvation.

1 and a half week later I added 5 bags of live sand

The mantis mansion

Frag tank with ball of Cheato

 

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After 2 and a half weeks from day 1 the levels where great and none toxic so I added the first cleaners and fish. I choose to add the Copperband first too because I had planned to add more tangs in the feature.

 

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Transfer animals from my previous tank, the RSM250

I waited a week to see how the water params were doing after the new fish where added to the tank before I decided to move the animals from my RSM250 to their new accommodation. I also added some test corals (an acanthastrea and montipora digitata) in week 2 to see how those where doing.
In the 4th week I decided it was time for the move.

First the mantis got it's new home.

The frag tanks was ideal for pieces I didn't have a good spot for yet.

 

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And the final result!

I was also able to get a leopard wrasse couple in the week after the big move.

 

[garrettp36]

I can't believe how clean your sump looks. I'd keep the covers off personally to show that off. Incredibly impressive.

 

[BvN]

I can't believe how clean your sump looks. I'd keep the covers off personally to show that off. Incredibly impressive.

Thanks! The sump area and equipment is also part of the hobby for me. Keeping it spotless helps me keeping control on the system

 

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The reef after 5 weeks (I don't know how to embed these youtube movies)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jjGI6pVKfFk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxvmEc3JyOU

 

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After 6 weeks the reef was maturing and the rock was loosing it's pale colour. Because it is still a young reef there was some short hair alge growing on the rocks. No problem for me and the tank

I also added this nice couple which I got from a fellow reefer

It wasn't all sunshine and happiness btw. Due to what I think was an to immature system without the necessary amount of copepods and other reef critters I lost the Chelmon. It was eating all frozen food fed twice a day but suddenly he got thinner and eventually stopped eating at all. I think it didn't got all nutrients it needed to stay healthy and got sick.

Also I had a Salarias Ramosus which got sucked up un the return pipe when I did power off the return pump. No explanation needed about what happened when I powered on the pump again I assume. It is a Red Dragen 12000
:headwallblue:

 

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ATO finally!

I was waiting a long time for the float switches I wanted to become available but after 8 weeks after startup I got them. The switcher are from AMS, the guys who build the Dastaco and Sumpguard systems and are top quality.

Because I have a Neptune Apex system and a break-out box it's possible to implement al the functions the AMS Sumguard has.

Waterlevel monitoring in the sump. (To low: shuts down return pump, To high: shuts down skimmer pump, Lower: starts ATO pump)

Waterlevel monitoring in the RO tank (Apex warns me if the level get low)

Level monitoring in skimmer cup. To high sends out alarm and shuts down skimmer pump.

The Dastaco alarm connected to the Apex

I also connected the AquaMedic Helix UV-C after that for the next 'challenge'

 

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Tank shots after 8 weeks (first week of August)

High tech chiller for the hot summer days