one month after the upgrade to an 850gal reef
- Thread starter steveweast
- Start date
BlAcK_PeRcUlA
Premium Member
Agreed, I gotta see the behind the scenes!:eek1:
steveweast
Active member
Time to get caught up on a few inquires....
Ktani.....That is a solid blue A. tortusa that I grew from a 1 inch frag that I acquired about 2 years ago.
Yaoming......evaporation is about 7 gals/day.
Bigbird.....Thanks for the kind words. Aquascaping is indeed very difficult. It is something that I'm constantly trying to improve upon. I stare at the tank for long periods...moving the pieces around in my mind until I come up with a better configuration.
Docjay.... When I first planned this upgrade, I knew that it had to happen quickly to avoid losing much of my stock. What I did was get four inflatable kiddie pools from Toys R Us (about $25 each). Each held about 450 gals. I used one for my rock, one for my corals, and two for new water. I did all the construction that was possible prior to the switch without disturbing the old system. When switch day came, I broke down the old tank, finished the construction, and put the new tank/light hood into place on day one. Day two saw the plumbing completed and all the rocks/corals go back into the new tank. Aquscaping took place over the next week. The total time that the corals were in kiddie pools was about 30hrs.
Bkwudzjeep...I spend about an hour a day on maintenance.
Pi... As stated, the tank is built into the wall of a den with the tank in tne garage. It's only viewable from the front panel.
Stranglehold/Florida Reefer...The main circulation is through four closed loop pumps that each put out about 6000gph. The closed loop piping (2" pvc) in the tank forms a platform that has 28 jets (7 for each pump) of 3/4 loc-line that are distributed/hidden in the rockwork. There is also an eggcrate platform that sits on these 2" pipes that elevate the rockwork off the bottom about 4 inches. Some of the jets blow under the rocks to keep this area detritus free.
I will post some new pics tomorrow night with a few of the backstage area....Nite all....
Ktani.....That is a solid blue A. tortusa that I grew from a 1 inch frag that I acquired about 2 years ago.
Yaoming......evaporation is about 7 gals/day.
Bigbird.....Thanks for the kind words. Aquascaping is indeed very difficult. It is something that I'm constantly trying to improve upon. I stare at the tank for long periods...moving the pieces around in my mind until I come up with a better configuration.
Docjay.... When I first planned this upgrade, I knew that it had to happen quickly to avoid losing much of my stock. What I did was get four inflatable kiddie pools from Toys R Us (about $25 each). Each held about 450 gals. I used one for my rock, one for my corals, and two for new water. I did all the construction that was possible prior to the switch without disturbing the old system. When switch day came, I broke down the old tank, finished the construction, and put the new tank/light hood into place on day one. Day two saw the plumbing completed and all the rocks/corals go back into the new tank. Aquscaping took place over the next week. The total time that the corals were in kiddie pools was about 30hrs.
Bkwudzjeep...I spend about an hour a day on maintenance.
Pi... As stated, the tank is built into the wall of a den with the tank in tne garage. It's only viewable from the front panel.
Stranglehold/Florida Reefer...The main circulation is through four closed loop pumps that each put out about 6000gph. The closed loop piping (2" pvc) in the tank forms a platform that has 28 jets (7 for each pump) of 3/4 loc-line that are distributed/hidden in the rockwork. There is also an eggcrate platform that sits on these 2" pipes that elevate the rockwork off the bottom about 4 inches. Some of the jets blow under the rocks to keep this area detritus free.
I will post some new pics tomorrow night with a few of the backstage area....Nite all....
steveweast
Active member
A few equipment pics:
steveweast
Active member
A close-up:
steveweast
Active member
A close-up to the left:
steveweast
Active member
A close-up to the right:
steveweast
Active member
A photo of how the hood slides and how I access the tank:
steveweast
Active member
And lastly, a pic of my new additions...Heniochus Diphreutes:
Rob_Reef_Keeper
New member
I HATE YOU!!
Just a beatufiul tank and setup. I hopefully can follow in your footsteps.
GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a beatufiul tank and setup. I hopefully can follow in your footsteps.
GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely incredible. That is the most elegant setup I've ever seen.
All I can say is after you build something like that, set it up, sit back and look at it you must feel like. :smokin: :smokin: :smokin: :smokin: And there are not too many of things that feel that darn good.
Like one person said already, I have been diving places that look a lot like that tank. And I have never seen one that was that close to the reef formations with the sand trail throught the middle. Absolutely awsome and now this is for you. :beer:
Like one person said already, I have been diving places that look a lot like that tank. And I have never seen one that was that close to the reef formations with the sand trail throught the middle. Absolutely awsome and now this is for you. :beer:
