Pny
New member
Introduction
Hello all, after several years of reading I finaly decided to start a thread about my own reef aquarium here. This tank is my very first marine / reef tank that I initialy started a few years ago (July 2008). Since then I slowly realized that my initial equipment doesn't really let me hold the type of corals I've tried (mainly SPS). But recently I decided to make a number of important changes to my aquarium to (hopefully) be able to keep a wider range of corals. These changes includes; a new recirculating design of my DIY biopellet reactor, replace lights with two 275 W DIY Cree LED fixtures, replace the return pump to match the flow of the skimmer, addition of a DIY reactor for activated carbon, and get better test equipment for phosphate testing. Maybe I also add a DIY kalkwasser stirrer and/or an ozone reactor...
System Profile
System Water Volume: about 1040 liter (275 gallons)
Display tank: 200x70x70cm, 980 liter glas tank
Sump: 115x54x60cm DIY glas sump with a built in ATO reservoir
Stand: DIY stand based on IKEA kitchen doors
Skimmer: Royal Exclusive Bubble King Supermarine 250 internal
Lighting: 2x275W DIY LED, mainly Cree XT-E and XP-G, (in progress)
Return Pump: Laguna PT344 max flo 6000 (1500 gallons/h)
Circulation: 3x Tunze stream 2 610x, each 12.000 liter/h
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155 with 100 l reservoir in sump
Heater: 200 W Unknown manufacturer
UV-filter: De Bary AN-25E
Calcium Reactor: Schuran jetstream 1 with 6 kg CO2 bottle
Other Reactors: DIY Biopellets reactor, DIY Activated Carbon reactor
Auto Feeder: 3x Eheim 3581
Aquarium
The aquarium is a 980 liter (260 gallons) glas tank, 200 x 70 x 70 cm, in 12mm glas with black background and black silikon. Before turning this aquarium into a saltwater tank a few years ago, the aquarium was running as a "High-Tech" heavily planted fresh water tank for about 6 years. I reused the tank, the DIY stand, HQI lights and UV-filter from that setup.
Tank stand (DIY)
The DIY stand is a wooden stand with doors from IKEA. These doors are very resistant and still look very nice ten years after I built it! The tank base is about 1 meter above the floor so it provides plenty of room for my sump and equipment inside the stand. I also like the idea of being able to look straight into the tank in standing position. I built this back in 2002...(!)
Sump (DIY)
The sump is a 380 liter tank measuring 115 x 54 x 60 cm in 10mm glas with black background and bottom and black silicon. The sump is placed inside the stand under the display tank. The sump is partitioned into four sections. The sump holds about 100 liter fresh water for top off. The return pump has its own section at the right side of the sump and the skimmer has its own section above the fresh water reservoir. A water change section holds about 100 liter water and allows me to mix new saltwater while the rest of the system is runnig without using any external buckets. I built this in 2008.
LED Light (DIY)
The light is undergoing an upgrade to a full spectrum DIY LED fixture with DIY LED driver and DIY LED controller. The LED driver is a CAT4101-based design with six individually controlled constant-current drivers per card and the LED controller is a very slim Arduino based stand alone 16 chn PWM controller with LCD, FAN control and RTC with battery backup. The LEDs are 35 pcs (115 W) Cree XP-G NW, 56 pcs (118 W) Cree XT-E Royal Blue (455 nm), 8 pcs (12 W) True Violet (420 nm), 7 pcs (17 W) Cree XP-E Blue (475 nm), 2 pcs (3 W) Deep Red (660 nm), 4 pcs (10 W) Green (495 nm) per fixture, (I have two fixtures).
The aquarium initialy had a setup consisting of two Giesemann System 400+ with 250 Watt each and 4x39W T5 actinic light that unfortunately didn't provide much growth to SPS corals.
Flow
The water movement in the tank is generated by three Tunze Turbelle Stream 610x each delivering a flow of 12.000 liter per hour. A Tunze Multi controller 7095 pulses the flow between the pumps.
A powerful Laguna PT344 max flo 6000 pond pump recently replaced my Eheim 1260 pump to better match the flow rate of my skimmer. This pump delivers 6000 liter/h (1500 gallons per hour) (not all of the water is sent to the disply tank).
The aquarium has a DIY PVC overflow made entirently from PVC pipes (no box required), utilizing a two pipe full siphon design for silent operation.
Filtration
The tank contains a little over 120 kg (260 lbs) of live rock and a 1 inch sandbed of fine aragonite for biological filtration.
A DIY biopellets reactor keeps the phosphate and nitrate levels low.
The skimmer I'm using is a Bubble King Supermarine 250 internal from Royal Exclusiv. Actually, this was the very first of this model to be imported to Sweden. This skimmer is rated at 2300 liter air/h i combination with a power consumption of 48 Watt.
Another DIY reactor holds activated carbon. Additionally a De Bary AN-25E UVC filter is attached to the full siphon drain pipe from the aquarium.
Top Off and other Additions
Top off is controlled by a Tunze Osmolator 3155. The fresh water reserve is a section inside the sump. The desgin allow water to flow back into the fresh water reserve instead of out on the floor in case of a failure of the equipment controlling the ATO. I'm thinking of adding a DIY kalkwasser stirrer to automatically produce Kalkwasser to replace the evaporated water in the future.
A Schuran jetstream 1 Calcium reactor that holds 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) of coarse coral media adds Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) to the aqarium.
As a rule I don't use any additives that lacks a proper declaration of contents. No blue bottles, no vials of bacteria, no secrets or magic potions.
Maintenance
I'm trying to keep everything as simple and easy to do as possible, otherwise it won’t get done!
Weekly:
Clean the tank glass.
Clean the skimmer cup.
Fill up the top off water tank.
Monthly:
Changing 10% of water.
Every third month:
Change activated carbon in GAC reactor.
Fill up the Calcium reactor with new media.
Fill up Bio pellet reactor with new media.
Clean lights.
Annual:
I clean all of the pumps in the tank.
Add CO2 to calcium reactor tank.
Feeding
Some of the feeding is carried out automatically via 3x Eheim 3581 auto feeders. The feeders doses each 2x per day with a mixed granular feed. I just mix up a variety of granular foods for this. Also I feed a variety of DIY frozen foods each evening.
Livestock
Fish:
Pomacanthus paru, French angelfish
Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides, Harlequin sweetlips,
Naso lituratus, Naso Tang / Lipstick Tang
Paracanthurus hepatus, Blue Tang (x2)
Zebrasoma xanthurum, Purple Tang
Ctenochaetus tominiensis, Tomini Tang
Zebrasoma flavescens, Yellow tang
Amphiprion ocellaris, Ocellaris clownfish (x2)
Pterapogon kauderni, Banggai cardinalfish
Chrysiptera parasema, Yellowtail Damselfish (x2)
Corals:
Mainly LPS at the moment... I'm planning on adding a more variated range of corals when my LED lighting is up and running.
Hello all, after several years of reading I finaly decided to start a thread about my own reef aquarium here. This tank is my very first marine / reef tank that I initialy started a few years ago (July 2008). Since then I slowly realized that my initial equipment doesn't really let me hold the type of corals I've tried (mainly SPS). But recently I decided to make a number of important changes to my aquarium to (hopefully) be able to keep a wider range of corals. These changes includes; a new recirculating design of my DIY biopellet reactor, replace lights with two 275 W DIY Cree LED fixtures, replace the return pump to match the flow of the skimmer, addition of a DIY reactor for activated carbon, and get better test equipment for phosphate testing. Maybe I also add a DIY kalkwasser stirrer and/or an ozone reactor...
System Profile
System Water Volume: about 1040 liter (275 gallons)
Display tank: 200x70x70cm, 980 liter glas tank
Sump: 115x54x60cm DIY glas sump with a built in ATO reservoir
Stand: DIY stand based on IKEA kitchen doors
Skimmer: Royal Exclusive Bubble King Supermarine 250 internal
Lighting: 2x275W DIY LED, mainly Cree XT-E and XP-G, (in progress)
Return Pump: Laguna PT344 max flo 6000 (1500 gallons/h)
Circulation: 3x Tunze stream 2 610x, each 12.000 liter/h
ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155 with 100 l reservoir in sump
Heater: 200 W Unknown manufacturer
UV-filter: De Bary AN-25E
Calcium Reactor: Schuran jetstream 1 with 6 kg CO2 bottle
Other Reactors: DIY Biopellets reactor, DIY Activated Carbon reactor
Auto Feeder: 3x Eheim 3581
Aquarium
The aquarium is a 980 liter (260 gallons) glas tank, 200 x 70 x 70 cm, in 12mm glas with black background and black silikon. Before turning this aquarium into a saltwater tank a few years ago, the aquarium was running as a "High-Tech" heavily planted fresh water tank for about 6 years. I reused the tank, the DIY stand, HQI lights and UV-filter from that setup.
Tank stand (DIY)
The DIY stand is a wooden stand with doors from IKEA. These doors are very resistant and still look very nice ten years after I built it! The tank base is about 1 meter above the floor so it provides plenty of room for my sump and equipment inside the stand. I also like the idea of being able to look straight into the tank in standing position. I built this back in 2002...(!)
Sump (DIY)
The sump is a 380 liter tank measuring 115 x 54 x 60 cm in 10mm glas with black background and bottom and black silicon. The sump is placed inside the stand under the display tank. The sump is partitioned into four sections. The sump holds about 100 liter fresh water for top off. The return pump has its own section at the right side of the sump and the skimmer has its own section above the fresh water reservoir. A water change section holds about 100 liter water and allows me to mix new saltwater while the rest of the system is runnig without using any external buckets. I built this in 2008.
LED Light (DIY)
The light is undergoing an upgrade to a full spectrum DIY LED fixture with DIY LED driver and DIY LED controller. The LED driver is a CAT4101-based design with six individually controlled constant-current drivers per card and the LED controller is a very slim Arduino based stand alone 16 chn PWM controller with LCD, FAN control and RTC with battery backup. The LEDs are 35 pcs (115 W) Cree XP-G NW, 56 pcs (118 W) Cree XT-E Royal Blue (455 nm), 8 pcs (12 W) True Violet (420 nm), 7 pcs (17 W) Cree XP-E Blue (475 nm), 2 pcs (3 W) Deep Red (660 nm), 4 pcs (10 W) Green (495 nm) per fixture, (I have two fixtures).
The aquarium initialy had a setup consisting of two Giesemann System 400+ with 250 Watt each and 4x39W T5 actinic light that unfortunately didn't provide much growth to SPS corals.
Flow
The water movement in the tank is generated by three Tunze Turbelle Stream 610x each delivering a flow of 12.000 liter per hour. A Tunze Multi controller 7095 pulses the flow between the pumps.
A powerful Laguna PT344 max flo 6000 pond pump recently replaced my Eheim 1260 pump to better match the flow rate of my skimmer. This pump delivers 6000 liter/h (1500 gallons per hour) (not all of the water is sent to the disply tank).
The aquarium has a DIY PVC overflow made entirently from PVC pipes (no box required), utilizing a two pipe full siphon design for silent operation.
Filtration
The tank contains a little over 120 kg (260 lbs) of live rock and a 1 inch sandbed of fine aragonite for biological filtration.
A DIY biopellets reactor keeps the phosphate and nitrate levels low.
The skimmer I'm using is a Bubble King Supermarine 250 internal from Royal Exclusiv. Actually, this was the very first of this model to be imported to Sweden. This skimmer is rated at 2300 liter air/h i combination with a power consumption of 48 Watt.
Another DIY reactor holds activated carbon. Additionally a De Bary AN-25E UVC filter is attached to the full siphon drain pipe from the aquarium.
Top Off and other Additions
Top off is controlled by a Tunze Osmolator 3155. The fresh water reserve is a section inside the sump. The desgin allow water to flow back into the fresh water reserve instead of out on the floor in case of a failure of the equipment controlling the ATO. I'm thinking of adding a DIY kalkwasser stirrer to automatically produce Kalkwasser to replace the evaporated water in the future.
A Schuran jetstream 1 Calcium reactor that holds 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) of coarse coral media adds Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) to the aqarium.
As a rule I don't use any additives that lacks a proper declaration of contents. No blue bottles, no vials of bacteria, no secrets or magic potions.
Maintenance
I'm trying to keep everything as simple and easy to do as possible, otherwise it won’t get done!
Weekly:
Clean the tank glass.
Clean the skimmer cup.
Fill up the top off water tank.
Monthly:
Changing 10% of water.
Every third month:
Change activated carbon in GAC reactor.
Fill up the Calcium reactor with new media.
Fill up Bio pellet reactor with new media.
Clean lights.
Annual:
I clean all of the pumps in the tank.
Add CO2 to calcium reactor tank.
Feeding
Some of the feeding is carried out automatically via 3x Eheim 3581 auto feeders. The feeders doses each 2x per day with a mixed granular feed. I just mix up a variety of granular foods for this. Also I feed a variety of DIY frozen foods each evening.
Livestock
Fish:
Pomacanthus paru, French angelfish
Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides, Harlequin sweetlips,
Naso lituratus, Naso Tang / Lipstick Tang
Paracanthurus hepatus, Blue Tang (x2)
Zebrasoma xanthurum, Purple Tang
Ctenochaetus tominiensis, Tomini Tang
Zebrasoma flavescens, Yellow tang
Amphiprion ocellaris, Ocellaris clownfish (x2)
Pterapogon kauderni, Banggai cardinalfish
Chrysiptera parasema, Yellowtail Damselfish (x2)
Corals:
Mainly LPS at the moment... I'm planning on adding a more variated range of corals when my LED lighting is up and running.
Attachments
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