drummereef
Team RC
Dang. Well, maybe I should go with the Lumenarc DE pendants then. Or, stick with the Lumenarc Mini's SE and use 20k Radiums on HQI. This lighting thing is driving me nuts! :lol:
Starting Over (Literally) - My upgrade to 270G
- Thread starter kelhuffman
- Start date
Dang. Well, maybe I should go with the Lumenarc DE pendants then. Or, stick with the Lumenarc Mini's SE and use 20k Radiums on HQI. This lighting thing is driving me nuts! :lol:
NewSchool04
New member
I'm using the Reeflux 12K now but I've tried a bunch. I think I'm going to try a 10K.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
One year update
One year update
Tank Update:
Thought I’d add an update post since the tank is now just over a year old. I will do photos shortly but frankly not a lot of noticeable coral growth over the past 8 months, at least not on camera. Overall the tank has proved to be quite stable in its first year and the maintenance required has been significantly less than with the 120G tank. This week was traumatic and depending on how one views it a good week or a bad week. One, I had a A. turaki that was growing like a madman suddenly STN on me. Not sure why. Then yesterday I came home to find a Tunze pump alarm going off due to a jam. That pump just needed a cleaning but then I noticed another pump had my only Holothuria sea cucumber actually inside the prop area and being slowly shredded as it was stuck to the inside of the fish guard. It must have been a recent occurrence and presumably had just disgorged its toxic innards. So my timing was good as the fish were all in serious distress, swimming erratically, all breathing heavily, some buried in the live rock, some trying to jump out but none were dead yet when I first noticed the issue. I put a new batch of carbon in my carbon reactor and crossed my fingers as I had no way to catch the fish and move them to a fresh batch of water. So unluckily I lost two (flame hawk and one Bartlett’s anthias) but luckily didn’t lost any of the 12 others despite how badly some were doing. Everything is back to normal today. I'm glad I was home, glad another pump jammed to alert me and glad that carbon is SO effective!
Regarding my overall tank build here are some lessons learned for those building their own similar systems:
1. The external Tunze boxes are a great idea but were not executed properly. The bottom intake holes cannot handle the inflow of water when running 2 pumps in each side. The small boxes cause the pumps to suck the water out so that the water level lowers and they suck air. Also, the intake holes require large cup strainers on the 2 ½ inch intake which defeats the purpose of the box, namely to hide the equipment. So now each box runs one 6200Tunze Stream drawing water from the two lower 2 ½ inch intake holes. Solution: Next time build a much larger intake area and a larger box to house the pumps.
2. Two 6200 pumps are not enough flow for a 6ft long 275 gallon tank. The plan had been 4 pumps hidden in the external box, so now two 6100 pumps reside in each corner of the tank. I had the two 6100 pumps in the tank but also on the same side by the external box. All pumps on one side simply don’t create enough random flow on the other side of the tank. A bummer to have visible gear but a necessary addition.
3. I thought that fish accidentally getting into those boxes would be fine since the Tunze Streams also have grilles to protect them. This was a bad assumption. The flow is so strong in these boxes that the fish get stuck to the sides of the pumps and drown. So now all fish I purchase are too large to get through the intake grilles.
4. Sun lifts and 4 grip-lock cables are not an effective way to easily raise and lower a lighting rack. A $20 bike hoist is. The grip-lock cables now serve an equally important function as the safety stop and light rack support when lowered to their ideal position using the bike hoist.
5. 500W aluminum heaters are not reliable. I have been through 4 heaters from two manufacturers and have given up and gone back to 350W heaters placed in the sump and also in the Tunze boxes.
One year update
Tank Update:
Thought I’d add an update post since the tank is now just over a year old. I will do photos shortly but frankly not a lot of noticeable coral growth over the past 8 months, at least not on camera. Overall the tank has proved to be quite stable in its first year and the maintenance required has been significantly less than with the 120G tank. This week was traumatic and depending on how one views it a good week or a bad week. One, I had a A. turaki that was growing like a madman suddenly STN on me. Not sure why. Then yesterday I came home to find a Tunze pump alarm going off due to a jam. That pump just needed a cleaning but then I noticed another pump had my only Holothuria sea cucumber actually inside the prop area and being slowly shredded as it was stuck to the inside of the fish guard. It must have been a recent occurrence and presumably had just disgorged its toxic innards. So my timing was good as the fish were all in serious distress, swimming erratically, all breathing heavily, some buried in the live rock, some trying to jump out but none were dead yet when I first noticed the issue. I put a new batch of carbon in my carbon reactor and crossed my fingers as I had no way to catch the fish and move them to a fresh batch of water. So unluckily I lost two (flame hawk and one Bartlett’s anthias) but luckily didn’t lost any of the 12 others despite how badly some were doing. Everything is back to normal today. I'm glad I was home, glad another pump jammed to alert me and glad that carbon is SO effective!
Regarding my overall tank build here are some lessons learned for those building their own similar systems:
1. The external Tunze boxes are a great idea but were not executed properly. The bottom intake holes cannot handle the inflow of water when running 2 pumps in each side. The small boxes cause the pumps to suck the water out so that the water level lowers and they suck air. Also, the intake holes require large cup strainers on the 2 ½ inch intake which defeats the purpose of the box, namely to hide the equipment. So now each box runs one 6200Tunze Stream drawing water from the two lower 2 ½ inch intake holes. Solution: Next time build a much larger intake area and a larger box to house the pumps.
2. Two 6200 pumps are not enough flow for a 6ft long 275 gallon tank. The plan had been 4 pumps hidden in the external box, so now two 6100 pumps reside in each corner of the tank. I had the two 6100 pumps in the tank but also on the same side by the external box. All pumps on one side simply don’t create enough random flow on the other side of the tank. A bummer to have visible gear but a necessary addition.
3. I thought that fish accidentally getting into those boxes would be fine since the Tunze Streams also have grilles to protect them. This was a bad assumption. The flow is so strong in these boxes that the fish get stuck to the sides of the pumps and drown. So now all fish I purchase are too large to get through the intake grilles.
4. Sun lifts and 4 grip-lock cables are not an effective way to easily raise and lower a lighting rack. A $20 bike hoist is. The grip-lock cables now serve an equally important function as the safety stop and light rack support when lowered to their ideal position using the bike hoist.
5. 500W aluminum heaters are not reliable. I have been through 4 heaters from two manufacturers and have given up and gone back to 350W heaters placed in the sump and also in the Tunze boxes.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
Wow, its been a year and a month since I said I'd post some progress pics. Not much has happened and generally everything has been stable. Corals growing slowly but finally beginning to see some progress. Just adding a few shots to chronicle the tank around its 2 year 3 month mark...
kelhuffman
Premium Member
kelhuffman
Premium Member
The lone Acro survivor from my old tank has recovered nicely.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
Thanks! It has a long way to go and in the pics looks quite barren to me. I'm definitely going to be waiting a long while to see it fill out. I deliberately kept the rock work low and have no staghorn or other arboreal SPS in this system, except for the lone survivor from the last system. The idea is to have all tables and corymbose clumps throughout, but they sure take a long time to grow!
I had battled cyano and algae growth issues over the past year but got onto the vodka dosing train and things have really improved. I dose about 10ml/day or every other day now into 450G total system water. Measurable Po4 dropped off the scale and the algae problems disappeared. It works!
I had battled cyano and algae growth issues over the past year but got onto the vodka dosing train and things have really improved. I dose about 10ml/day or every other day now into 450G total system water. Measurable Po4 dropped off the scale and the algae problems disappeared. It works!
kelhuffman
Premium Member
Happy with it two years in. Well built and no problems.
customclimates
New member
I just saw this for the first time this morning. I am totally loving the in kitchen reef set up. I would love to have my tank in such a general area of the home for all to see. Great job on the cabinetry too … Looks superb.
kelhuffman
Premium Member
3 and a half years old
3 and a half years old
Over a year has passed so time for another set of update photos. The past 14 months have been very stable except for an outbreak of disease that cut my fish population in half. The one issue that also confounds me is my apparent inability to successfully keep tridacnas. I have a h.hippopus that's bulletproof and now 6 years old, and I have a t. max that is now 1 year old. But I've tried a bunch over the past few years and ALL have died within a few months (croceas, maximas.) Some real beauties too, like blue teardrops and some other magical specimens. So for now I'm done trying clams.
Full shot
Left
Right
Left side view
Ride side view
3 and a half years old
Over a year has passed so time for another set of update photos. The past 14 months have been very stable except for an outbreak of disease that cut my fish population in half. The one issue that also confounds me is my apparent inability to successfully keep tridacnas. I have a h.hippopus that's bulletproof and now 6 years old, and I have a t. max that is now 1 year old. But I've tried a bunch over the past few years and ALL have died within a few months (croceas, maximas.) Some real beauties too, like blue teardrops and some other magical specimens. So for now I'm done trying clams.
Full shot
Left
Right
Left side view
Ride side view
kelhuffman
Premium Member
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