Decadence
New member
Hello, I don't make to many posts about my tank so I thought it was time to make a new thread. I have had this system running in its current configuration for almost a year. The main display has been up for roughly two years and a lot of my colonies are over three years old as they started as small frags in my old 20 long.
The whole system:
Display tank:
I'm in the middle of building out a new display tank stand and expanding on my vast arsenal of filtration equipment. For now, I am running a standard reef-ready AGA 90. I have converted the return inside the overflow box into a second overflow and cut away some of the weir to allow for much great flow. The return now comes over the back and T's off to 3/4" lock line from inside the overflow box. One overflow feeds a 5 gallon bucket outfitted to grow chaeto at an accelerate rate utilizing strong light and extreme flow. There are safeties in place in the form of block-offs and an additional overflow in the bucket to keep it from clogging with chaeto. The tub which the two overflows ultimately flow into holds my heaters and has a 2" bulkhead in it which runs over to the other stand and the rest of the filtration system.
The display is filled with SPS colonies, most of which have been grown out from frags but some were purchased as small colonies. There are a few small patches of random zoanthids. I keep a very heavy stock of fish, some of which would be considered too large for this tank but I bought them after buying my next upgrade, a 300dd and I already have an 11ft tank which will be the next upgrade so that are good. I keep the display very well fed and aggression is near nonexistent. Over the display, I run AI hydra52s tilted backwards from the front and AI sols angled inward. I believe that this helps give much better light spread and reduced shadowing and is the sole reason for the great growth that I get with LEDs. For flow, there are three vortech MP10s and two MP40s producing a very strong and very random current throughout the tank. Detritus does not accumulate to any appreciable amount anywhere in the system as it all finds the skimmer.
Second display:
This tank is a Mr. Aqua 12g boockshelf tank. It holds all of the girlfriend's LPS, some softies and a few SPS frags which have broken off bigger colonies. My yellow long nose butterfly was banished to this tank as he developed a taste for a 5" leishman's tabling acro which fell victim to a dosing issue and was losing flesh. He will be in the 300 soon. There are also two blennies in this tank and they keep it pretty clean. There is a powerhead which pushes water behind all of the corals in this tank.
Filtration cabinet:
The 2" crossover pipe from the first sump feeds the skimmer in this sump. I built this sump with ease of maintenance in mind. I wanted all of my equipment to be accessible in the order in which it would be most frequently removed. You can see that each piece of equipment plugs into a gray PVC outlet. Each of these outlets run to places on the RKE, making the components easy to be removed but still controlled by the remotely located RKE. This was essential as it makes maintenance possible which otherwise would not be. My return pump feeds both displays, my calcium reactor and the tank to the left. This used to be a frag tank but now holds extra live rock and two tangs which are awaiting their new 300 gallon home as I did not want them with the butterfly or the other two tangs in the display. This tank also has a few corals in it which are healing in the lower light of the single AI sol.
Dosing cabinet:
I built this dosing cabinet in order to keep all of the sensitive equipment away from salt water. This cabinet houses my vast collection of Digital Aquatics modules, all of my dosing pumps, four of the five vortech controllers, the AI director and at the bottom, RODI and Kalk jugs. I dose kalk on a timer with a higher concentration going in at night than during the day. The RODI is used by the top-off. I find that this way, I don't have to worry about a dumb mistake causing a water leak that pours gallons of kalk into the tank. I run dosing pumps, a calcium reactor and kalk all together with split duties because they are all doomed to fail. With the duties split up, one component failing is much less likely to nuke the whole tank. I also find that each has their strengths and weaknesses which the others make up for. My calcium reactor drops my PH and my kalk raises it back up. The dosing pumps are easy to make small changes with.. It's a match made in heaven. Safety factor will always be a huge inspiration after having every possible failure take place in my previous systems. For this reason, I am running most of my major components through battery back-ups and I have a generator on stand by.
Hope you guys enjoy it. Please feel free to ask any questions.
The whole system:
Display tank:
I'm in the middle of building out a new display tank stand and expanding on my vast arsenal of filtration equipment. For now, I am running a standard reef-ready AGA 90. I have converted the return inside the overflow box into a second overflow and cut away some of the weir to allow for much great flow. The return now comes over the back and T's off to 3/4" lock line from inside the overflow box. One overflow feeds a 5 gallon bucket outfitted to grow chaeto at an accelerate rate utilizing strong light and extreme flow. There are safeties in place in the form of block-offs and an additional overflow in the bucket to keep it from clogging with chaeto. The tub which the two overflows ultimately flow into holds my heaters and has a 2" bulkhead in it which runs over to the other stand and the rest of the filtration system.
The display is filled with SPS colonies, most of which have been grown out from frags but some were purchased as small colonies. There are a few small patches of random zoanthids. I keep a very heavy stock of fish, some of which would be considered too large for this tank but I bought them after buying my next upgrade, a 300dd and I already have an 11ft tank which will be the next upgrade so that are good. I keep the display very well fed and aggression is near nonexistent. Over the display, I run AI hydra52s tilted backwards from the front and AI sols angled inward. I believe that this helps give much better light spread and reduced shadowing and is the sole reason for the great growth that I get with LEDs. For flow, there are three vortech MP10s and two MP40s producing a very strong and very random current throughout the tank. Detritus does not accumulate to any appreciable amount anywhere in the system as it all finds the skimmer.
Second display:
This tank is a Mr. Aqua 12g boockshelf tank. It holds all of the girlfriend's LPS, some softies and a few SPS frags which have broken off bigger colonies. My yellow long nose butterfly was banished to this tank as he developed a taste for a 5" leishman's tabling acro which fell victim to a dosing issue and was losing flesh. He will be in the 300 soon. There are also two blennies in this tank and they keep it pretty clean. There is a powerhead which pushes water behind all of the corals in this tank.
Filtration cabinet:
The 2" crossover pipe from the first sump feeds the skimmer in this sump. I built this sump with ease of maintenance in mind. I wanted all of my equipment to be accessible in the order in which it would be most frequently removed. You can see that each piece of equipment plugs into a gray PVC outlet. Each of these outlets run to places on the RKE, making the components easy to be removed but still controlled by the remotely located RKE. This was essential as it makes maintenance possible which otherwise would not be. My return pump feeds both displays, my calcium reactor and the tank to the left. This used to be a frag tank but now holds extra live rock and two tangs which are awaiting their new 300 gallon home as I did not want them with the butterfly or the other two tangs in the display. This tank also has a few corals in it which are healing in the lower light of the single AI sol.
Dosing cabinet:
I built this dosing cabinet in order to keep all of the sensitive equipment away from salt water. This cabinet houses my vast collection of Digital Aquatics modules, all of my dosing pumps, four of the five vortech controllers, the AI director and at the bottom, RODI and Kalk jugs. I dose kalk on a timer with a higher concentration going in at night than during the day. The RODI is used by the top-off. I find that this way, I don't have to worry about a dumb mistake causing a water leak that pours gallons of kalk into the tank. I run dosing pumps, a calcium reactor and kalk all together with split duties because they are all doomed to fail. With the duties split up, one component failing is much less likely to nuke the whole tank. I also find that each has their strengths and weaknesses which the others make up for. My calcium reactor drops my PH and my kalk raises it back up. The dosing pumps are easy to make small changes with.. It's a match made in heaven. Safety factor will always be a huge inspiration after having every possible failure take place in my previous systems. For this reason, I am running most of my major components through battery back-ups and I have a generator on stand by.
Hope you guys enjoy it. Please feel free to ask any questions.
