New Elos 120 build

[someguy]

Hello,
This is my first SW tank, and it has taken me a long time to get to this point. I started researching a couple of years ago, read several books, spent much time on this site as well as Reefcentral, and a few months ago finally got started. The delay was mainly due to some renovations at my house, but I also wanted to make sure I understood, at least in theory, what I was getting into. After a few false starts, I settled on an Elos System 120, as they have the look I wanted, and seem to be good, high quality all-in-one system. For those not familiar with Elos, the 120 refers to the width in cm, not the system volume. The display tank is actually 90 gallons.

My goals for this tank were as follows:
1) aesthetics - I was looking for a clean, contemporary look
2) efficiency and eco-friendly - to this end, I am investing in equipment that is as efficient as possible, and as far as is practical I am planning on getting captive bred or cultivated livestock
3) simplicity - I am hoping to keep the whole system as simple as possible, but hopefully as biologically diverse as possible.

Equipment
The Elos System includes the following:
-Tank - 90 gallon with their version of Starfire on all sides
-Elos sump - contains a top-off chamber that I will be using as a refugium.
- Elos NS1000 skimmer
-Elos Digital Osmocontroller (ATO)
-Sicce Syncra Silent 3.0 pumps for skimmer and return
-Cabinet in gloss white
- all plumbing parts to connect display to sump

Other equipment
Lighting - Aquaillumination LED - right now I have two modules, but I quickly realized I need at least one more, which in on order right now. They are backordered, so it takes a couple of months to get these things. Right now I am mounting the AI modules with the AI rack, which is ugly. Long term, I will likely get some sort of custom light rack/mount. Lights are controlled by the AI controller.
Refugium lighting - Current USA True Lumen Pro LED fixture 8500K.
Flow - 1 x Tunze 6101, 1 x Tunze 6105, both controlled by a Tunze 7095 controller.
Heaters - 2 x Hydor Theo 150W
Water Purification - System put together by Wendel at Ocean Aquatics. This system consists only of a pre-filter, two charcoal canisters, and 3 in line DI canisters. Probably a little more expensive to run than an RO/DI system, but there is no waste water created.

Filtration - currently running carbon and Rowa-phos passively in the media chambers in the sump. Also have a filter sock on the drain as well as the skimmer output.

No plans at this point for large controller, as most of my equipment comes with their own controllers. I like the idea of no single point of failure. Having said that, I will likely soon be getting a Reefkeeper light to control temp and fuge lighting.

Pretty much everything I have got throught Wendel at Ocean Aquatics, who has been very helpful in helping me figure out what I am doing.

Pictures to follow.

Thanks for reading,
Art

[someguy]

The system was ordered sometime last fall, and I actually got it in November. There were a couple of issues, but those got sorted out quickly enough. Jesse, who runs ElosUSA, is very good about responding to questions and concerns, and I found the customer service to be very good.

The tank has had water in it for about 2 1/2 months now. I started with about 60 lbs of dead rock and one piece of live rock, in order to try to minimize pests. I have a shallow sand bed, made of a mixture of 1-2 mm sand and larger, coarser crushed coral.

Cycling took about 6 weeks, and was done by feeding the tank with fish food. I didn't test obsesively, but every couple of weeks I would check to make sure I was getting a good ammonia spike. After about 6 weeks, things had settled down, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate had all reached zero. I have never been able to detect any phosphates, but I had a pretty good crop of hair algea, so it was time to get some life into the tank.

I started with some scarlet hermits and trochus snails, and the algea started disappearing. Since then, I have added 2 very young ocellaris clowns, and one young yellow tang. All of the algea has disappeared, and everyone seems to be doing well. The fish are eating well, and the only loss I can see has been one hermit. I am not QTing, as Wendel will hold onto, and medicate, my fish for several weeks for me before I get them. This is much appreciated.

That is where I am now. I plan on taking this slow, and adding fish every 2-3 weeks, and corals and inverts in over the next few months.

[someguy]

Dry fitting the aquascape:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/Dryfitaquascape.jpg

Filling with fresh water

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/fillingwithfresh.jpg

Sand added:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/sandadded.jpg

Sump:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/sump.jpg

Water purification:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/DIsystem.jpg

[someguy]

My "fish room" - currently consists of spare SW tank:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/aquascape.jpg

Controllers mounted on door of cabinet:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/controllers.jpg

FTS with sump:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/FTS21Mar2011.jpg

FTS:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/FTS221Mar2011.jpg

[someguy]

Edge of tank. The workmanship of the Elos tanks is great. Smooth seams, beautifully bevelled edges:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/tankedge.jpg

Current inhabitants:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/tangandclown.jpg

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Tank/tangandsnail.jpg

[hillegom]

Things look good. Nice and slow, as you are doing.
I would use that "spare" tank as a quarantine.

[ensquire]

Very nice setup.

[fishytime]

sweet lookin tank fursure:biggrin:

[staceyd72]

Hi Art,

Very ice setup, looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Any idea what's the difference between the Elos starphire glass and 'our' starphire glass? Also, the back pane is starphire?

[someguy]

Things look good. Nice and slow, as you are doing.
I would use that "spare" tank as a quarantine.

Thanks for the comments. The whole QT issue was a tough one for me. My instinct was to QT properly, but after talking with Wendel and having him essentially QT my fish, I figured it at least minimizes any potential issues. If the worst happens, I have an extra 55 gal tank hanging around empty that can quickly become a hospital tank, and I can make lots of SW very quickly.

I have a few other issues I'm currently working through as well:

1) lights - I really like the AI system. It is completely controllable with it's own controller, so I don't have to purchase a third party controller just for the lights. The problem right now is that there is a spotlighting effect, although in real life it is not as obvious as the photos make it out to be. Adding a third module will help, and eventually I'll get a better mounting system that will also allow me to raise them further off the water. I also have the option of buying differentl optics to help with the light spread. Everything I've read indicates that I should be able to grow anything with these lights, but I may get a PAR meter one of these days just to see what I'm getting.

2)Salt - the salt I'm using right now (I won't mention brands) is not giving me the parameters (Ca, Mg and Alk) that it is promising. I will likely go to a cheaper salt since I will be supplementing in either case. This likely explains why I'm getting no coraline algea growth at all.

3) Noise - The Elos system is supposed to be very quiet, but in reality, my system at least is relatively noisy. Mainly a low grade humming from the sump. To solve this, I will be moving the sump into my little fish room, which is a utility room just behind the tank. I had planned to do this eventually, mainly to make maintenance easier, but this noise issue has just accelerated the process.

Otherwise, I'm happy with the way things are progressing.

[someguy]

Hi Art,

Very ice setup, looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Any idea what's the difference between the Elos starphire glass and 'our' starphire glass? Also, the back pane is starphire?

My understanding is that Starfire is just a brand name for a type of ultra-clear, low iron glass. In reality there are many makers of this type of glass. Elos uses a their own brand, but they are essentially comparable.
Yes, the back pane is also clear, low iron glass, so the tank could be used as a peninsula or even in the middle of a room.

[someguy]

Update

I have added some new stuff now. There is now a young Kole tang who was bit shy at first, but is now looking really good. Unfortunately I can't get a good photo of him as I haven't figured out how to shoot fast moving fish yet.
I also got my first coral, a small frogspawn. I just got the one because I wanted to get comfortable with the acclimation, mounting, etc process before loading up on others pieces. I initially dialed down my lights and then increased them over a few days. My experience is limited, but he looks pretty happy to me. He is extending his polyps nicely, and in my mind seems to be a brighter colour than when I got him.

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/frogspawn15April2011.jpg

As far as acclimating inverts and corals, I am using a medical IV drip set and have found it very easy to set up and fine tune the drip rate. For those of you in the medical field I highly reccomend trying these. For anyone else, If you are interested, I would talk to your vet. They only cost a couple of dollars, so they should be able to sell them very cheap.

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/IVline2.jpg

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/IVline1.jpg

[someguy]

I have also set up my refugium in the what was intended to be the ATO section of my sump. I am using an LED light, but it seems dim to me, so I am looking into that. Right now I just have a ball of Chaeto and a couple of big chunks of dead rock that are in the process of coming to life.

I also got my third AI module which really makes the lighting in the tank look much better. I'm looking forward to stocking this thing with corals and seeing how things grow out. My plan for the time being is to not add any more fish for at least a few months, but concentrate on corals and a few clams.

As far as chemistry is concerned, I was having probs with my Ca, Mag and Alk, so I worked on them for a couple of weeks with B-Ionic 2 part and Seachem Mag, and everything is looking good now. I will be looking into a doser as my next equipment purchase.

My next task is moving the sump from below the tank to my little fish room (utility room) behind the tank. I'm just waiting for some plumbing bits from Elos, and hope to have that done next week. It should make everything quieter and make maintenance much easier.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

[Sunee]

Very nice looking tank! Can't wait to see it full of corals.

[someguy]

Update:

I have moved my sump from the cabinet below the tank into a small utility room directly behind the tank. This minimizes noise from the sump and makes maintenance a little easier. To save room in this small fish room, I have also moved my water change tank to underneath the cabinet, and will use a small maxi-jet to do water changes. I have put a few plastic storage bins under the stairs to hold food, testing kits and other assorted stuff. My electrical stuff is still a little bit of a mess, but I will be getting some sort of controller soon to clean up the mess. Eventually I plan on mounting a doser of some sort under the stairs as well. The plastic bin in the bottom left of the photo is my top-off container. It holds about 2 weeks worth of fresh water.

New "fish room", acutally more of a fish closet:
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/fishroom13May2011.jpg

Water change tank:
http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/Waterchange.jpg

[someguy]

duplicate post

[someguy]

Latest additions:
I am moving rather slowly on livestock, as I want to be sure I am completely comfortable on managing water quality. So for now, I'm not planning on any more livestock for at least another 6 weeks.

Current fish are 2 ocellaris clowns, one yellow tang and one kole tang. All are doing very well, eating, growing and very active. They get fed 2-3 times per day, with a mixture of Elos pellets, mysis, blood worms, spirulina wafers, nori and red algea.

Inverts are one cleaner shrimp, a CUC (10 trochus snails and 5 scarlet hermits), and a recently added RBTA. The anemone caused me some concern initially because I was concerned that the tank was a little too new. Having said that, he is doing really well. He moved around the first night in the tank, and by the next morning had settled in and now hasn't moved in about 3 weeks. He is doing well, and in my mind at least seems to have doubled in size. I feed him shrimp and silversides about 2x a week, and so far seems very happy.

Corals so far are my original frogspawn, and since then have added a wellso flat brain, a tiny button coral frag, a bubble pearl and a really nice, big green bubble coral. They are all doing very well, although the frogspawn doesn't seem as happy now as he did the first few weeks. He doens't look ill, but just doesn't seem to expand as much during the day as he did before. Colours are still good though. I feed the brain, and bubbles a couple of times a week with shrimp, silversides and also add some Coral Frenzy every now and then.

The photos look a little washed out. I haven't figured out good photo technique yet.

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/FTS13May20111.jpg

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu73/aceballo/bubblebrainRBTA7May2011.jpg

Water parameters:
Sal 1.025
Temp 80
NO2 - 0- <0.2
Phos - 0
Ca - 400-420
Mag - 1350-1400
Alk - 8.2-8.3