new pictures of my 600gal puddle

Just amazing! How on earth do you keep up on all those tanks! top offs alone! Tom are your set ups mostly automated? and wow vacation time (must be someone you really trust huh?) lol Love the wall of tanks though and 11 feet of beautiful coral and fish would have me in that room all day :)
 
Thanks Shawna., 7 of the 8 tanks are linked together at the sump in the basement. So it's really one big system plus a 65 gallon that runs on a canister filter. Top off is automated via a still reservoir(32 gallon brute can) of klakwasser which I refill every 5 days or so. Much of it runs on gravity from tank to tank to sup to crlyptic zone to rsdb to refugia. I keep another 32 g brute with a float valve that refills with ro automatically . I also keep a 16 gallon bin of mixed salt water going. It's not very hard . There are a few things more I could automate but like to keep my hands in it. My son does a nice job watching it for me when I'm not here. If not my grandson's dad stops by. Not much to do except feed , dose vodka vinegar and keep track of the kalk reservoir. unless something breaks.
 
Nice tanks tmz.Certainly inspirational seeing yours and many others Iv'e seen in this forum.
No questions at the moment but I'm sure that'll change.LOL.
 
Awesome set up tom! Can you post some pictures of the other tanks (sumps,fuge, etc) ?

Ok Neil, Here are some pictures of the basement tanks and equipment and some coral shots from the 30g breeder tanks, mostly zoanthus:

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I think everyone has used every possible adjective to describe your tanks - what's left? Simply amazing! I'm speechless. Awesome!
 
Thankyou Garys. Gary M ,I've had lot's of help from the RC team including you and all the good info and debate. Glad you like it.
 
Thanks Shawna., 7 of the 8 tanks are linked together at the sump in the basement. So it's really one big system plus a 65 gallon that runs on a canister filter. Top off is automated via a still reservoir(32 gallon brute can) of klakwasser which I refill every 5 days or so. Much of it runs on gravity from tank to tank to sup to crlyptic zone to rsdb to refugia. I keep another 32 g brute with a float valve that refills with ro automatically . I also keep a 16 gallon bin of mixed salt water going. It's not very hard . There are a few things more I could automate but like to keep my hands in it. My son does a nice job watching it for me when I'm not here. If not my grandson's dad stops by. Not much to do except feed , dose vodka vinegar and keep track of the kalk reservoir. unless something breaks.

Nice!
 
Sorry. Descriptions from photobucket didn't carry over. The first two pictures are cryptic zones.
 
tmz,
I was just wondering if you have any maintenence on the cyptic areas.I guess with all the live rock do you find detritus buildup to become an issue in the brute can?

I couldn't remember if you had already answered this question before.

Such an interesting setup.
 
Ive had the first cryptic zone for a few years, It doubles as a catchbasin in case of pump faliure so it is kept shallow. Still get plenty of sponge growth and feather dusters etc. There is very little detritus and most of is just sandy grit.
The brute can has been in play for about two months, so I don't know if detritus is building up. PO4 and NO3 are staying very low . So it's not hurting things as it breaks down. The feeder hose( disconnected in the photo ;it passes through the lid) from a drain delivers about 400gph to the pvc pipe which runs to the bottom of the can. The water exits the can through a bulkhead near the top and then flows into a bin with 7 inches of sand and about 5 inches of live rock on top before draining to the sump.
My expectations are that the detritus in the can will feed cryptic fauna and ultimately mineralize via bacterial activity and that the extra live rock surface area will support nitrification and denitrification as the water wells up through and around it.
I plan to continune monitoring PO4 and NO3 and may open the can and check the bottom in a few months or maybe I'll just sink a big powerhead down there to see what blows off and up. Ideally, the can would have a viewing window and perhaps a cone like bottom and a drain to remove any material that might cause concern but that would be a mu h more challenging project. I don't think it;s going to be a problem anyway.
 
The rock I used was cured for several months and the bin water tested for near zero PO4 and NO3 for a couple of weeks before introducing it to the system. I think pre curing is very important whenever adding a substantial amount of new rock to an ongoing system.
 
On the cryptic areas,I see you make mention of dark and twilight zones. Did you select liverock harvested from deepwater regions or do you think it wouldn't matter to much?
 
On the cryptic areas,I see you make mention of dark and twilight zones. Did you select liverock harvested from deepwater regions or do you think it wouldn't matter to much?

I wouldn't know how to know what depth the live rock came from. Maybe it would make a difference in terms of the fauna it would carry in.

I do have a couple of twilight zones, ie ambient light only,in the sump and via athe rock on top of the remote deep sand bed.

I used some fiji rock for the 32 gallon brute which I acquired uncured from a local reefer and some phosphate laden rock from another local reefer. In the crypptic bin , I have a mix of fijii rock , dead coral , other rock, some of th florida rock from Salt Water Paradise which I selected for sponges and some Seachem matrix media(very porous pebbles) I cured the rock for months and wouldn't risk adding them to the system until I had 2 solid weeks of near 0 PO4 and near 0 NO3. I dosed the bin with the PO4 laden rock with some lanthanum chloride . After about 3 weeks it stopped leaching PO4.
 
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