New 190 almost done!!

Scott:

The tank is not the All Glass Brand. It was custom ordered at the LFS. The orginal plan was to use 4 96W PCs off the old tank with the 20Ks however, due to space I decided to go just with the 250W 20K's.

ekovalsky:

I saw you purchased the AP 902 skimmer. I would look into running a skimmer of that size off the return pump instead of gravity feed. With a skimmer that tall it might be difficult getting the required flow.
 
I went with the AP902 because after removing the 5/8" thick bottom of the cabinet unit, there is enough vertical clearance between the concrete slab and the main horizontal shelf to fit the AP902 with SCH. It doesn't cost much more than AP702, but you are right it needs around 750-800gph for peak performance. It does have higher capacity than the AP702 which really isn't necessary given the gallons I will have. But I have two little daughters who love fish and the tank will undoubtedly be heavily stocked with fish, which of course will be well fed :)

Now I'm thinking that 750-800 gph via gravity feed is achievable by maintaining a 1-1/2" overflow drain all the way to the skimmer, only reducing to 1" just before the inlet. This will pressurize the skimmer feed a bit and should maintain steady flow rate -- that being at or near the maximum a 1" pipe can carry without being on the receiving end of a pump. Of course I would incorporate a tee before the skimmer with the branch diverting excess overflow (and hopefully any surges or large bubbles along with it) to the sump. There will also be a ball or gate valve between the tee and skimmer input to regulate flow; to achieve 750-800 gph I suspect the valve will be run wide open or very nearly so.

If I use a drop-in chiller, which I am starting to lean towards for simplicity and because my layout is ideal for it (chiller located in room adjacent to equipment closet, only 2-3 ft from sump) then everything could be run off the Dart return pump including the skimmer and phosphate reactor. Return to the tank could be dropped to as little as 400gph or so, meaning that water entering the sump circuit will on average go through the skimmer almost twice before returning to the display tank.

Thanks again for the insight Brent. I really appreciate your good advice.
 
I had the Camera out so I thought I would post some updated pics.

Fullshot1.jpg


Everything seems to be going well at 3 months.

Water Chemistry is CA = 420ppm dKh = 6 PO4 = 0

Only problem I am having is raising dKh without increasing th CA to 500 with the reactor.

Purchased my first SPS frags about a month ago and already seeing some growth.

03/28/07
BrownDiganta032807W.jpg


04/28/07
BrownDiganta042807W.jpg


Also added the red lobo and clam since last update.
 
Update at almost 6 months.

Tank_Resize.jpg


Everything going well. The softies are growing fast. I hope I can keep them as I like the mixed reef look. The tank went though a mini cycle with little hair algae, cyano etc... but things seemed to have stablized for the moment.

I still am thinking of adding another 250W MH but, I think it will wait until after summer and it cools down. Chiller is getting a workout.


Here is a shot of the tank right after the initial setup to show the differece.

TankRsize2.jpg
 
Well I've had the honor of seeing this tank in person and it's stunning! No need to say anything about the equipment room, except it's even more clean in person! The whole set up is smokin! My next large tank build will definately be modeled after Brent's work and more than likely with his help...Brent...???
 
Basically the chiller is wired so when it is plugged in by itself it is always on. The chiiler is then plugged into the temp controller which regulates when the chiller is on/off. It has been 3 years since I swithced and I don't recall the details. Aqualogic tech support told me how to do it.
 
tank looks awesome...i hate the waiting game for corals to grow.wish it wouldnt take so long.but i guess that part of the fun
 
2 YEAR UPDATE

2 YEAR UPDATE

What has worked and what has not.
As I look at past TOTMs I always wonder what the tank looks like today. Mine is not a TOTM but I give a quick update.
bcordill


What.. no SPS! My days as a SPS keeper were short lived. They did not work for me. Maybe I introduced too early or they didn't like all the softies in the tank. I really think it was the lighting. 2 250W 20000k MH's not enough. The softies have done great. Mushrooms and growing everywhere and a I fragged the finger coral multiple times. I don't spend that much time (or money!) on the tank. The softies look interesting and are very low maintenace.


bcordill


Equipment:

The Deltec skimmer has been a dream. Almost no maint. required and still works as good as the first day.
bcordill


The Deltec CA Reactor...a different story. Went through 2 aquabee pumps in the first year. Warrenty was done so I elected to hack apart the $800 reactor and modify it to accept an Ehiem pump. The Ehiem pump as worked for a year...no problems.

<a href="http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t168/bcordill/?action=view&current=CAReact.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t168/bcordill/CAReact.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

The Reeflo Dart Pumps have been excellent. I did replace seals in one after 3 months but is was covered by the warrenty. I thought one of the pumps was going out because when the power went off sometimes it would not restart. When I replaced the pump I found a piece of airline tubing had been sucked into the impeller. Now I have and extra pump. The replacement Dart has a new housing and runs cooler and quiter than the old pump. Note it is 3 inches longer than the old pump.

<a href="http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t168/bcordill/?action=view&current=Pumps1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t168/bcordill/Pumps1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

When I first set up the tank I spent hours working on and looking at the tank. Today it is down to minutes. The reality is other interests/work demand more of my time. I do one 25 gal water change per month. Clean the skimmer and replace the filter bag once a week and try to feed the fish every day. However, the original design of the tank was to be low maint and I feel it has been sucessful in that respect. I don't frequent RC much but I will check back over the next week to try an answer any questions about my tank.
 
THe 250 Watt 20K issue is speculation only. Seems most SPS tanks of this size are using 250W 10K's with actinics or 400W 20K's (I think those combinations have the same PAR values). Tank does look dim compared to other SPS tanks.
 
Yeah, someone was suggesting that I switch my XM 250watt 20K bulbs to 14K bulbs to get SPS growing in my tank. My ritteri anemone has only known 20K bulbs for 3 years, so I am not going to change.
 
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