New Reef Tank

[cwfish]

I have been keeping SW fish for almost 15 years however have not ventured into a reef setup. Its always been FO or FOWLR. I built a new house and thought i'd finally take the plunge into a full reef setup.

I build the stand and light racks about 6 months ago and once the house was done, had the tank built and carried it in mid December (yes acrylic can still be heavy!!). Its a 8'x3'(H)x2'(D). Spent some time plumbing it and moved in about 400 lbs of LR about 5 weeks ago. Finally was able to start with some fish yesterday.

The goal of the tank was to make it as easy as possible for maintenance. Water changes of 80-120 Gallons are done with the flick of a few switches and about 15 minutes of waiting on the drain/fill. So far its been great. Very happy with the equipment selected. Still some work to clean up and organize the pump room but thought i'd post a few pictures to start.

Comments welcome

 

[cwfish]

Here are some pictures of the new fish.

 

[worm5406]

Can you explain the back drain?

I have lots more questions but that intrigued me.

OHHH....

Welcome to Reef Central!!

Nice first post btw.

 

[cwfish]

Sure - there are 2 overflows on the back of the tank. Each are about 10" wide. Each have a 1.5" bulkhead for drainage. The rest of the tank background is blacked out so from the rear of the tank all you can see are the 2 drains which is fine because its in a purpose built salt water tank utility room. The PVC pipe you see running up the overflow boxes are actually the supply lines that run to the tank.

Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[tank121]

Looks good. Is there a reason you did not use unions on your return pump ? The way you have it now looks like you will have to cut the pipe to service the pump.

 

[cwfish]

May be hard to see from the pics however the return pump has union connectors where it screws into the supply and return.