My new 210 gallon reef tank

[mildcustom2]

This will be a step by step story of the contruction and developement of my new 210 gallon reef tank. I have literally just started this project and will constantly add updates as I make progress. The goal is to have the tank up and running with water in it by Dec 16/07.

First things first I will give a description of the massive amounts of wonderful little gadgets and gizmos I have accumilated over the past couple of weeks to start the project. Everything was purchased brand new.


210 gallon reef ready all glass tank
Cherry oak stand ( Very nice )
72" coralife aqualight pro 250 watt HQI x 3 + 4 power compacts + moon lights
75 gallon custom sump (glass)
3600 gph Dart return pump
ATI bubble master 200
2 phosban 150 reactors ( one for phosban, one for chemi pure/carbon )
2 Life guard FB900 fluidized bed filters
10 gallon refugium
20" 96 watt coralife power compact ( refugium )
500 watt titanium heater
1 hp coralife aquachill
Red Sea wave master pro + 4 maxijet 1200 (one upgraded to 1600 gph)
2 Koralia 3 850 gph powerheads
Lots of fittings for plumbing
90 lbs of Caribsea sugar sized oolite
20 lbs Caribsea arag alive sugar sized oolite
10 lbs Caribsea refugium mud

I am currently just waiting for the sump to be delivered and then I can start plumbing.

Looking forward to hearing lots advice and or coments on my setup.

Pictures to follow shortly.

Thanks for looking

[Reefhawk1]

welcome to Canreef.

Sounds like a good project. I will definitely be following along.

[danny zubot]

The 16th in creeping up soon, any progress?

[michika]

Welcome to the board.
Sounds like you have an interesting build on your hands!

[NateL]

Welcome to the board! If you need a hand with anything there are lots of great people around willing to help out.

Nate

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I have exact same tank & light. I think you'll be very happy with these choices. Be prepared though for wet armpits unless you have extremely long arms:biggrin: .

Anthony

[mildcustom2]

I have been making slow progress up until this point due to the fact that I have been waiting for the 75 gallon sump and 14 gallon refugium. I just picked them up late last night so I plan to start plumbing Saturday morning and hopefully have water in it Sunday. I want to post pictures but am having trouble figuring it out. Anyone who can help me with this would be greatly appreciated. In the mean time while I have been waiting for the sump I built a stand to house the chiller below. In the middle is the refugium and on top is the electrical ( power bars, timers, temperature controller etc... ). I have already ordered live rock (premium Jakarta) that is arriving tonight and being tanked at the store I got it from. Hope to have the live rock in the tank next week.

Thanx

Sean

[michika]

What kind of help do you need for posting your photos?

[mildcustom2]

The problem I have with posting picks is that it asks for an HTML address to retrieve pictures from. Does this mean I have to down load the pictures onto a webpage then I can post. If anyone can let me know the process for posting pictures it would be greatly appreciated. HELP !!!!!!!!!!!! I finished plumbing my tank yesterday and when I put water in it today and fired up the pump ( Sequence Reeflo Dart ) the darn thing leaks really badly out the back seal. Please let me know if anyone else has had this problem and or solutions. The pump is brand new.


Thank you

[Doug]

Perhaps this thread will help.

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=8129

[mark]

It's not really a problem using something like photobucket.com to post pictures. Account is free, you just upload your pictures from your PC to your account, copy the direct link, then paste the link back here.

[mildcustom2]

Here is a picture of what i started with. The stand is not the typical all glass supplied pine stand but instead a custom cherry oak made by a furniture company in Seattle. Thanks for everyones help with posting pics. The tank has water in it, live rock etc. and I will be posting more pics today.



http://www.canreef.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=4020

[mildcustom2]

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_001.jpg


Thank you to everyone for their help it took a bit of experimenting but I now know how to post pics.

Thanx

Sean

[mildcustom2]

The following is a bunch of pictures that I took over the past week while putting the tank together.



Plumbing for the Refugium and Chiller

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_009.jpg



Plumbing for the refugium return and fluidized bed filter

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_011.jpg


When I Painted the back of the tank black I didn't paint over the overflow sections so I could look inside them from top to bottom. You never know what might end up in there. I test ran the tank with fresh water while it was pulled away from the wall to check for leaks. Drained it and moved it into place. I had to replace a leaking Sequence reeflo dart pump but other than that there really wasn't any leaks.


Pump and plumbing left side of the tank

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_004.jpg


Left side of 75 gallon sump, ATI Bubblemaster and Phosphate react and carbon reactor.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_005.jpg


Right side of Sump with dual sock filters, 50 microns and 100 microns

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_006.jpg

Top of adjacent stand that houses the electrical on top to avoid water contact, 14 gallon refugium in the middle and chiller on the bottom.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_007.jpg



http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_008.jpg



http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_010.jpg


The tank is very cloudy in this picture because I added a bag of Carib Sea arag alive aragonite to the tank. I changed out the stock 10 k coralife bulb in the middle of the 3x250 watt hqi aqualight pro to a Giesman Megachrome 13 k bulb. I heard the coralife bulbs are not very good. There is definetly a differance in the color and intensity. Plan on changing the side bulbs later to aqua connect.


http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_016.jpg

[mildcustom2]

Here is a new picture after the tank cleared from the addition of a bag of aragontie.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_021.jpg


I picked up a few fish for the tank today from J&L. 4 female lyre tail anthias, 1male lyre tail anthias, 2 bangaii cardinals, 1 yellow tang, 1 coral beauty, 2 ORA percula clowns. Just so nobody thinks I am insane because the tank has only had water in it for 5 days. I have a large canister filter that is well aged from one of my other tanks that I am renovating currently on the tank. I also used aged media for my fluidized bed filter and aged aragonite. Water parameters are pretty good right now.


Picture of my 2 new Bangaii Cardinals

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_022.jpg


Thanx for looking

Sean

PS. Plan on dropping a massive amount of cash at J&L on Boxing Day.

[Skimmerking]

Sean the rock work looks awesome man.. what type of rock is that I love it, might have to get some rock like that when I redo my cube after Afghanistan next summer...

Oh ya Sean looking at your list, take the maxi jets and turn them into the modded 1600gph talk to wendell at Ocean aquatics he has them from 18.95 per mod you can't go wrong. they are amazing...

[mildcustom2]

The rock is from Hidden reef. Mike gave me a really good deal for buying 150 lbs ( Jakarta ). There isn't much for coraline but it has great shape to it. There is a couple of pieces of fiji purple with the really nice purple coraline on it. The fiji rock is from my nano tank ( 1 yr old ) that I am currently turning into a dwarf sea horse tank ( future breeding plans ).

As for the maxijet upgrade. I already have upgraded one to 1600 gph and love it. I run it on my wave maker parallel to the front of the tank. As for water current I think between the upgraded maxijet, 2 maxijet 1200, 2 korylia 3's and the couple thousand of gallons of water from the return I have enough water movement. Just short of a tsunami at this point. Thanx for the advise though.

More pics of the tank to come soon. And later I will hint at future plans for a major project. Bigger than most could imagine.

Thanx

Sean

[mseepman]

Tank looks awesome. Nice job with the setup of the electrical and fuge. Is that a fish room behind your tank?

[mildcustom2]

Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of a fish room. In that picture my tank was pulled away from the wall so that I could get access to the back for plumbing. As it is there is just enough room between the wall and the tank that I can crawl in behind.

So I recieved a bit of critisism for the 35 fish and various corals and inverts I added on boxing day from J&L in another thread. And people have asked that I post updates on the fish, corals and inverts. So far the only fish I lot was a bangaii cardinal that didn't look so hot the minute he went in the tank.

And now for the pictures


Refugium is doing very well, I love the carib sea refugium/mineral mud and aragonite combo I am using. Getting lots of growth out of the various macro algaes that are in it.


http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Jan_1-07_004.jpg



General tank picture, star polyps in the corner were just given to me from a friends tank that had crashed during a power outage.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r8.jpg


My 6" clam

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r1.jpg


Zoo's

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Jan_1-07_003.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r5.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r12.jpg

Star polyps

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r3.jpg

Pink Mushrooms

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r4.jpg

Orange Monti Digitata

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r10.jpg

Cool picture of my school of chromis under the actinics only

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/r-1.jpg


I'll continue to update as things progress. Thanx for looking.

Sean

[mildcustom2]

Just FYI for anyone that posts anything for my tank journal or is wondering why I am not posting updates. I'm going away for 2 weeks off shore (oil rig ) New Foundland. Currently in St. Johns but fly out to the rig on the chopper this friday. Left my tank hopefully in the capable hands of my brother to look after since my wife is out of comission due to a operation to remove a tumor. I'll post an update of the after math of my trip when I get back. Fortunately with my job I do travel to some really nice places. I've been fortunate enough to see Moorish Idols and butterfly fish in the wild. The waters of Tahiti are like a reef tank owners dream fish store.

Thanx

Sean

[mildcustom2]

So I made it back in one piece from my trip to an oil rig in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and much to my delight my brother didn't manage to wipe out my entire tank. He only managed to grow a large amount of Algae on the rocks and sand. Seems he didn't want to rinse the frozen foods before he put it in the tank. Not to mention I suspect he grossly over fed while I was away. Hello Nitrate and Phosphate city. Nothing a few water changes shouldn't correct, I hope. Enough rambling its time for an update with some pictures.




I bought this Green Monti Cap 1 week before I left. He is a monster and I think I'm going to have to frag him he takes up too much room in the tank. He's easily 9" across and about 12" high. I'll keep one large piece for myself.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_001.jpg

Picked up this Rose Milli a couple days before I left.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_005.jpg

Blue Monti Digitata

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_006.jpg

Birds Nest Amongst A few frags. I need to build a frag tank soon for all my future frags. I'll have to sell off a few I have now to get the funds.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_007.jpg

Blue Acro in front of one of several of my purple cap frags

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_010.jpg

My Favorite Zoo's in the tank

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_015.jpg

Purple Zoo's

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_016.jpg

Orange/Yellow Milli

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_018.jpg

Blue Milli

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_021.jpg

GSP and Anthelia

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_002.jpg

Orange Digitata growing pretty fast

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_012.jpg

More fast reproducing Zoo's

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_023.jpg

I had to get this gorgonian for my wife its always been her favorite

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07_004.jpg

For anyone interested I should have some green and purple Monti Cap frags availabe in the future and some various colored Digitata and Millipora frags too. I'll post pics when they are available.

Thanx for looking

Sean

[Gools]

Sorry to here about your wife. Hope she's OK. Wish her all the best.

Very nice tank, In the spring I will have my tank setup, I will have to make a trip to vancouver, hopefully you will have some frags then

[tang daddy]

glad to hear you made back ok Sean, How's your wife doing?

I would be thrilled if the person taking care of my tank only grew algae and everything was ok it could be alot worse....

Great start on the corals keep us updated with more pics cheers Chris

[Joe Reefer]

Nice tank, can we get a full tank shot? :biggrin:

[mildcustom2]

Thanks to everyone for there concern regarding my wife. She has almost completely recovered from her surgery. Tumor weighed in at 5.5 lbs and it wasn't cancer. Now time for another update. I have decided that I am going to try and add a new colony of SPS coral every 2 weeks. New additions every 2 weeks of course is based on if I am in town or not. I do travel quite a bit all around the world :biggrin: so it may throw a wrench in to my plans from time to time :cry: . Todays new addition came from Ocean Aquatics, thank you Wendell. Its a softball sized baby blue acro. I will post a full tank shot soon as requested.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Jan_31-07.jpg

Thanx

Sean

[Gools]

geez man 5lbs tumor, that's unreal. I'm sure glad she will be OK. All the best

[mildcustom2]

I know I promised I would post a full tank shot as soon as possible but work sent me to Vancouver Island for a week so I had to delay it. Now I'm back so its time for those pics I promised. I should also mention that my Green Monti Cap took a fall off its rock and broke into about 50 pieces. I had to make two temporary frag shelfs in the tank to hold them. Try and not laugh too hard they do look a little slap stick.


http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_001.jpg




http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_003.jpg



http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_004.jpg

[mildcustom2]

So due to recent events, ie. large amount of frags I have accumilated I have decided to build a frag tank to hold everything from the main tank and to grow out frags to put in the main display tank. I had an old acrylic cube that was used as a terrarium when I used to breed snakes and lizards. It had a large crack in it so I cut it down to a 3ft x 3ft x 7in deep tank.


http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08.jpg

Plans are for a 20 gallon sump and a 14 gallon refugium. Circulation will be from a Dart pump, water will return via 8 return nozzles. Four of them having hydor rotating water deflectors. Haven't decided on a skimmer yet or calcium reactor. Lighting plans are still up in the air too. Trying to decide if I will use 2 250w hqi with 1 14000k bulb and a 20000k bulb or 1 400 watt hqi or mogel with 14000k bulbs. Any input on lighting setups would be great :biggrin: .

Thanx for looking

Sean

[Delphinus]

That will make an AWESOME frag tank!!!!!

[mildcustom2]

Not really that much progress this weekend on my new frag system I'm setting up. I moved it into its new home across from the display tank in what was supposed to be my office and is fast becoming my fish room. I had to cut the stand down to fit it through the doors. The genius that built it didn't think about getting it into a house. I also removed the wheels from the bottom as it wouldn't make to much sense having a tank rolling around the room.



http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_005.jpg

The tank on top is going to be the refugium and the pump is the dart I am planning on using for circulation. Its not your typical home depot grating on the bottom of the tank, its the same shape but acrylic. I didn't get any input from anyone on lighting suggestions so I think I'm going to start with a 250w Reefstar HQI pendant and 14k bulb (ordering it this week):lol: . Thinking about using one of those Via Aqua ACRO-Cal Reactor Calcium Reactors too:question: .

I was wondering if I should consider bracing the top edge of the tank:question: . It is only 7" deep and it is 1/4" acrylic but I don't want to come home to water all over the floor. Any suggestions or comments would be great.


Thanx

Sean

[blacjack]

G'day Sean,

I'd add bracing for piece of mind. It might not need it, but if it does, then it will be easier before water is added. Like you say, don't need to come up and find water everywhere :wink:

[mildcustom2]

Time For an update. Made a few new additions a week ago. Couldn't resist buying more than one this time when I was at Ocean Aquatics. No progress on the frag tank lately as I have been very busy with work not to mention my other obsession, 1964 VW Beetle. When finished I'll be stuffing a turbo'd fuel injected, nitrous injected 2.3 litre in it. Estimated at around 500hp :mrgreen: .


Blue Acro Colony

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_007.jpg


Green Acro Colony

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_008.jpg

Green Birds Nest Colony

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_009.jpg


Anyone interested in any of these frags

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_011.jpg

How about some of these. Green Monti Caps in the back are 3"-4" and growing very rapidly now.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/Fish_Pics_Feb_09-08_012.jpg


Thanx for Looking

Sean

[dsaundry]

Hi; Will the Monti's grow ok under pc lights in a 27g bow? I can grow them ubder my halides in my 72g but I have set up a small nano style tank in my office and thought they would look nice, but the lighting is only pc in that tank. Let me know as I come into Surrey quite often. What price do you want for the frags??

Thanks....:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

[mildcustom2]

Sorry for the late reply I was sent to Vancouver Island for work. Didn't have any spare time for checking up on Canreef while I was away. I have kept Monti Digitata under power compacts in my bio cube in the past with growth but not as much growth as I get under my metal halides. Frag prices will be 10.00$ for the small green digitata, green cap and white polyp birdsnest. Purple monti cap is 15.00$ and the large green caps ( aprox 3" or bigger ) are 25.00. The larger green monti caps go for 70.00$ right now at the LFS. I am also always interested in trades for other frags. Upcoming available frags in a month are green birdsnest, pink milli, purple milli, yellow milli, orange digitata, baby blue acro and rainbow digitata (green and blue polyps).

Please note that all frag pics are under 10K bulbs.

Thanx for the interest.

Sean

[Skimmerking]

Sean I got ahold of Mike about the rock. hye a quick question thou how much in your tank was 150 is that all of it.... do you have a picture of the rock the you bought, so I can get a rough idea on how much that would be its going to be going into my 150 gal 60x24x24

thanks

[mildcustom2]

I finally managed to find the time to plumb my frag tank today and made a hanger for my new Lumenmax 3 Pendant. I ended up going with a lummenmax 3 with galaxy ballast and phoenix 15K bullb because I decided it wasn't worth it to cheap out on my lighting since its the key component to my tank. I haven't heard very many good things about the reefstar lighting either. I also decide to to run my Sequence Reeflo Dart on a closed loop and eliminate a sump all together. I added a canister filter ( full matured filter sponge and new chemi pure bag) to do what minimal bio/chemical filtering that will be required since there may be only one or two fish in the tank. Still planning on adding a refugium in the next couple of weeks but for now I'll live with out it.

I really needed to get this up running even if it is a very minimal setup for now due to the large amount of frags I have accumilated from constant growth and clipping in the display tank. Future additions to the setup in the month to come will be a protien skimmer, calcium reactor, refugium, phosphate reactor and about 300 frags. Time for some pics.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_023.jpg


http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_024.jpg


Thanx For looking

Sean

[mildcustom2]

Made some new additions this past week or two to the display tank and I recieved some frags from Frag A Lot. Curious to see if the brown acro's I picked up will change color.


I'll let the pics do the talking for me


Hot Pink Birds Nest

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_002.jpg


Green Acro

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_009.jpg


Blue Tipped Acro

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_010.jpg


Another Blue Tipped Acro

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_011.jpg


Unknown Acro

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_012.jpg


Unknown Acro

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_014.jpg


Picked this one up a couple weeks ago and its changing color to Bluish/Purple with green polyps. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it finishes.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_015.jpg


Started filling the frag tank again after a recent frag sale day

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_006.jpg


Some Zoas I fragged recently

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_019.jpg


New Monti I picked up

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_017.jpg


Poker Star Monti from Frag a Lot

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_018.jpg


Sunset Monti from Frag a Lot

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj246/mildcustom2/My_reef_tank_March_22-08_005.jpg


Thanx For Looking

Sean

[Skimmerking]

looks good Sean, I contacted Mike and he is going to give me a great deal for 100 lbs of rock like yours. I used your name if ya dont mind can't wait to get it thou.