The Washington 200 Gal Reef Project part 1

[washingtond]

This is a retro report of the thinking and design considerations that went onto our 200 gal reef project that started Feb 2005 with the designing of the system. We wanted a solid Maple cabinet with all the space needed for most of the equipment and easy access were the primary considerations.

I designed the Sump/Refugium and it was built by Marc in Fort Worth after I emailed him the plans. It was designed to have a skimmer section and a refugium section with Caulerpa algae. It holds approx 45 gals of water. Click here for more details on Model L http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/l/sump_model_l.html

A close friend who is really good with woodworking built and stained the cabinet again to my specifications. The tank was an Oceanic Reef Ready Brick style built here in Dallas. The tank dimensions are 7’ by 24” by 24”. The cabinet was designed with one end open so that sump could be removed if necessary. Here are some pictures”

The whole thing came together in Sept 05 when I started with the plumbing using a Sequence Dart pump for the return. Decided on an Aqua C EV180 Skimmer, the sump also has 2 ea Phosban reactors. First filled with water for leak checks in mid Oct 05 and there were none. The design includes a drain pipe used for water changes and it discharges the old water down the drive way at the same time new water is pumped into the aquarium at the same time. The system allows us to do a 35 gal water change in less than 10 min.

For the lighting I decided on 4 ea. 250W XM Metal Halides along with 2 ea. 72” VHO Actinic all placed into the canopy. The MH are being driven by 2 ea dual PFO Magnetic Ballast and the VHO’s by an IceCap Electronic Ballast.

Did not have room for a fish room so all the lighting electronics, water storage tank are located in the garage which in on the other side of the wall behind the aquarium. With a 6 inch hole in the wall for all the wiring and tubing and next summer I plan to put a chiller out there as well.
Timers for the lights

Here is the top off water storage tank and lighting equipment located in the garage. The storage tank has a MaxiJet 1200 pump connected to a JBJ ATO controller located in the cabinet. The water line runs to the overflow on the tank to prevent water from draining out of the storage tank.

Filled the tank with RO/DI water and mixed Kent Salt in Nov 05 with all the pumps running for about two weeks also activated the Auto Top Off system at that time as well. The circulation pumps are 3 ea Tunze 6100’s and 1 ea. 6000 with at 7095 controller.

 

[washingtond]

Ordered most of the live rock from the Florida Live Rock http://www.floridaliverock.com/ and it came with lots of stuff on it, but nothing really bad. The rock did come with 4 baby Urchins that were the size of a head on a nail, but more on them later in this report. Also added 7 Damsel’s and a clean up crew to cycle the tank and also added the cured base live rock, all purchased at LFS. With the Florida Live Rock, I talked to the diver on Tue to tell him what size rock I wanted and it was in my tank that Thurs.

We were really surprised that there was never a hair algae breakout ever…. And now that everything is up a running here is what the skimmer was pulling out back then.

Here is how things looked back then, January 06

Now for the fun part adding corals since the tank cycled very quickly we started adding corals in Jan 06 and here are some of the first ones.

 

[hawaiianwargod]

Looks awesome!

 

[alien9168]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8665861#post8665861 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hawaiianwargod
Looks awesome!

I second that

:thumbsup:

 

[drummereef]

Beautiful tank! Killer plumbing there too.

 

[qwuintus]

Sweet and simple. May I suggest covering the bottom tank trim.

Also is the pump sitting on temperpedic type foam or that kind DVD players are packed with?

 

[washingtond]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8669013#post8669013 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by qwuintus
Sweet and simple. May I suggest covering the bottom tank trim.

Also is the pump sitting on temperpedic type foam or that kind DVD players are packed with?

Thanks for the suggestion on the trim, this is still a work in progress and my friend is going to build a trim piece for the bottom of the tank along with another cabinet piece for all the electrical equipment on the side of the tank.

Yes the pump is sitting on foam to dampen the noise and vibration. I will be posting more pictures today.

 

[qwuintus]

^ Where did you get the foam?

 

[washingtond]

The foam came from some of the packaging material on a somthing that I ordered. It is about 1.5" thick and I cut to fit for my application under the pump.

 

[washingtond]

When we first started this project we had an Electrician run a 20 amp GFI circuit to support the aquarium. Everything on the tank is supported by this circuit except for the main return pump which is on another circuit incase the GFI trips, this will maintain circulation in the tank if that ever happens.

I have designed a side cabinet that will house the rest of the equipment such as the electrical and CO2 tank. My friend is building this cabinet as of this writing.

From Jan 06 to thru the summer we just added various SPS frags, sticks as my wife calls them. The aquarium was dose with EVS two part to maintain Calcium and alkalinity levels. I also dripped Kalk 24/7 from a home made system into the aquarium. I can make up over 20 gals of Kalk at a time since I travel a lot and needed a way of maintaining the drip for 7 days at a time. Also does EVS magnesium when require by testing. I used Kent salt up until the supply from a local group buy ran out then switched to Reef Crystals salt. I made this change because of all the problems report with the Kent salt at that time.

The overall tank maintains the following parameters:

1.026 SP
8.05 â€"œ 8.32 PH (day/night swing)
420 ppm Ca
8.6 Kh
1350 Mg

During the summer months in Texas it gets really hot and I really did not want to add a chiller to the tank so I placed a small room AC unit in the garage that vented into the bottom of the aquarium stand in the house. Since the tank is against the wall and the back of stand and canopy are open I sealed the back outer edges of the stand and aquarium so that the cold air from the AC unit would channel up the back of the stand and aquarium into the canopy where fans would pull the heat out of the top.
This is where the cold air comes into the stand from the AC unit:

There are two 4” cooling fan on top of the canopy both pulling air out. I have a temp controller that turns on/off the AC unit and heater so that they are not ever in conflict.

The system worked as the aquarium temps never went above 83 degrees during the hottest part of the summer when outside temps were over 100 degrees, and we had over 30 of those days this past summer. By the way our highest electric bill was $843 for one month in Aug this past summer. OUCH.

In Aug 06 I added a GEO618 Calcium Reactor with a PH controller and that really made life much easier since I no longer had to dose with the two part system. Also ALK and CA levels in the aquarium becoming much more stable without the wild swings.

Also noticed that the growth of the coral frags was really taking off and I would suggest to anyone building a system that you need a Calcium Reactor. By the way I still drip the Kalk to maintain the PH levels

Here is a closer look at the hardware:
Here is the Aqua Logic Controller:

Here is a view of some of the controllers that are used and the Tunze drivers:

Here is the hole going into the garage, all this equipment on the floor will be going into the equipment cabinet when it is completed. This cabinet will contain an electrical panel that the DJ switches will be mounted to as well. I hope to have this cabinet and all the final trim on the tank complete by the middle of Jan 07.

This is the air outlet from the outside AC unit bring cool air into the base of the cabinet.

The Dart Return pump:

 

[washingtond]

The output of the return pump flows into a manifold located above the sump shown herein these two pictures:

Here is a view of the right side of the manifold and notice the spare outlet that can be used if I decide to add a chiller. The power of the manifold is that many other things such as the PhosBan and a chiller can all be driven from the main return pump.

 

[washingtond]

Here are some pictures of the aquarium all taken this past August 06.

We were able to get some large pieces from a friend who was down sizing there tank.

Here is a nice clam from Gigi’s tank:

Here is a large Acro from that tank:

This is the frag from Peter Lin that we got back in Jan 06

From a LFS:

An Emerald Crab (one of three) in the tank:

A full tank view taken in Aug 06:

 

[washingtond]

The end of July 06 we had to remove the Dart Return pump for cleaning to remove the Calcium deposits. Also broke down the Aqua C EV 180 Skimmer as the injections jets became clogged.

We are also had an outbreak of Bubble Algae back in the summer with bubbles of all sizes. That was when we added the Emerald Crabs who did not seem to touch it. Some of the bubbles were very large. The algae seem to be in the decline now however.

Now for some pictures taken in Dec 06:

 

[washingtond]

This Blue Sponge came from Gigi’s tank back in Aug picture were all taken Dec 06:

Full Tank View:

View from the end:

This picture was taken with the two middle MH lights off.

This picture was taken with only the left side MH on.

Can hardly wait for things to grow up.

 

[washingtond]

Getting back the Urchins, They were hitchhikers on the live rock that I purchased in Oct 05. Back then they were the size of a head on a nail. Now they have almost a 4” span. About three weeks ago there was a spawning event in our aquarium where they both got together. In the picture you can see the male releasing sperm did not see any eggs so I don’t think that anything will come of the spawning. We never clean the back glass on the aquarium so it is full of Coralline Algae which is plenty for them to eat. Amazing that with their current size they have never knock over any corals or rocks in the tank.

Here is the male releasing sperm.

And here they are together.

 

[washingtond]

Now for the fish that are in the 200 gal aquarium:

First there is the staple of almost every aquarium a one Yellow Tang.

Five Blue Green Reef Chromis.
Five Blue Reef Damselfish.
Four Lyretail Anthias (3 female orange, and 1 male red)
One Velvet Wrasse.
One Fridmani Pseudochromis
Three Peppermint Shrimp.
Three Emerald Crabs.
Approx 25 Astrea Snails.
Four Turbo Snails.
Fifteen Hermit crabs.
Two Spinny Urchins

Here are some pictures:

Yellow Tank:

Male Anthias

Overview:

The Green Chromis, Lyretail Anthias, & Blue Reef Chromis:

Spinny Urchin:

Having a breakout of bubble algae that seems to be on the decline but don’t think the Emerald Crabs are doing much. All the water parameters test OK.