It's Tonga from J&L.

How many pounds do you have in the pictures?

That is about 310lbs.

Looks awesome laid out like that. How are you gonna get the pieces into the tank? Man, I can't move a rock and then put it back the way it was 5 minutes later, they never fit together the same way! :)

Just curious why you want to run UV, what's the goal behind that?

wow nice rocks!! great color on them already.

I put the rocks back into the bins in groups, left island in one box, right in another, middle in another. And I took a ton of pics so hopefully I can recreate something similar.

The goal behind the tank is to keep it clean, low nutrient, disease free, algae free, cyano free. I've had good luck with UV for many issues in the past & it's like a good insurance policy in my experience.

The stand is done. I used 1/2" MDF with primer & 3 coats of alkyd paint to seal it. It's a nice charcoal grey. The panels are held to the stand with four 1/2" rare earth magnets. There is a slot for the DJ panel to pop out so I don't have to remove the panel to turn on/off devices. I ditched the other DJ panel and will access those devices through the Aquatronica controller, which is also mounted on the outside of the stand. So I can control everything from the front of the stand.

I made the height of the panels 2 1/2" taller then the top of the steel so it will cover the 3/4" plywood, 3/4" styro and the bottom pane of the tank.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0352.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0354.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0351.jpg

The grey sure gives it a cool industrial look to it.

Looks really good. Although I can tell right off the bat that you don't have small kids :p Man those are some mighty tempting buttonnnnnnnns!!! And an LCD controller? Total finger magnet! ;)

Go
 

That looks well-built and very tidy. I like that the controllers are visible. The magnet idea is awesome, too. Good job.

I can't help but think that it looks a bit like a server, or maybe a smaller version of ENIAC. :lol:

Once the tank is on there, though, it'll look wicked.
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MAINE DISPENSARY

Actually I do have an 8 year old boy. But he wouldn't touch any of those buttons, he's as stoked about the new tank as I am.

Ah... 8's not too bad though. I was sorta thinking 3 and under. "Ohh buttons and switches." At least that's how it is in my house... My guy is 17 months and I'm sure my neighbours think my house is possessed with the lights turning on and off all the time. I've learnt to live with it ... But it's something that immediately leaps to my attention, those red switches and the controller... right at toddler height to boot. Oh well, don't worry, at least since we're in different cities you're in no danger of us coming over for a visit and rearranging the on-off thingies in your tank :p

I've got a three year old, and I thought she would sabotage my reef for sure. Instead, she's very into fish and corals, and very respectful of the equipment. If they like reef, they learn fast. Now, if I can only get her to stop eating the saltcreep...........
Once everything is hooked up Dave, I wanna try ALL the buttons and controls:mrgreen:

Apparently you'll be equally lucky very soon. If you get your lights first I look forward to reading about them.

The tank left Barrie, ON today. Maybe by next weekend I'll get some water in it.

Circuit breakers.
 

How many circuits do you have there?

There are 3 15 amp breakers.

Yahoo, the tank's in place and filled with water... Yeah, right. Ok so it's sitting at Reimer's Express and won't get to my house until tomorrow. But I've got the sump filled and I'm making another 80g of RO/DI water right now so I'll be ready when the tank does get here. This also allows me to test much of the plumbing for leaks. Just have to get the tank connected and make sure the bulkheads don't leak. I'm going to risk it and not do a leak test with tap water. I figure if it leaks I don't have to drain the tank as the tank is drilled only within the overflow box. We'll see if I'm ok doing this. Otherwise all I have to do before moving the tank into place is to get the lights hung.

Since I have water in the sump I was able to connect the Aquatronica and get all of the probes in place and much of the timers/programs setup. So far this unit works great and is very easy to use. It's going to:

- handle the refugium light timing
- monitor the pH in the calcium reactor and adjust the co2 on that basis
- turn the kalk mixer on/off throughout the day
- act as a thermostat for the heater
- handle the topoff of the sump with RO water
- measure the pH in the sump
- measure the salinity of the system
- measure the ORP of the system and control the ozone reactor on that basis
- possibly put the UV on a timer

I've also got the ethernet adaptor on order so I'll be able to monitor/control all of these devices remotely.

how does it control the co2 for the reactor. is it with a shutoff solenoid or is there an electric regulator setup?

It's just a milwaukee regulator with a solenoid on it.

Return that reg now! I have just had 2 fail on me in the last 4 months. IMO they are worthless!

Yeah, I read about those problems after I'd ordered it.

Hey, I got my order yesterday and they forgot to ship the Milwaukee co2 regulator. So I cancelled it and ordered this instead...

http://www.marinedepot.com/IMD%5C150%5CCO3117.jpg

While I was at it I got this brass check valve...

http://www.marinedepot.com/IMD%5C150%5CKL3115.jpg

I'm hoping that this equipment won't suffer the same fate as the Milwaukee.

Awesome Setup Dave,

I look forward to watching it come together! We have some of the same equipment... Ozotech, Aquatronica, Tunze's

Nice stuff! Glad to see you are doing it right, from the beginning.

Same steel stand with wooden shroud on magnets too.

Right you are!

The tank is in place. The lights are up and everything is ready for water & rock. I'll be filling on Wednesday.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0381.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0382.jpg

You can count on me coming over some day to look at that thing!:biggrin:

Very cool High tech look. I really like it. Can't wait to see it full of water.

Yesterday I half filled the tank and then put the live rock in. Now that is not an easy chore. Between handling the couple of 55lb pieces and not scratching the glass on the way in, positioning them to my liking and making sure that they are solidly in place... that's tough. Then of course after I'm done my wife gets home and asks me to move that big piece over there, shift those pieces over to the gap you just created and move that one on top of that one. She's an interior designer and has a good eye so I'm not going to argue. In the end I'm totally happy with what we ended up with. It's hard to visualize the depth of the rock but it is not a solid wall. There are caves everywhere, fantastic mounting spots for coral and lots of holes, gaps and neat stuff to look at and for fish to swim in. I'm still making water as I don't have enough to fill the sump so the tank is just being circulated by a couple of Tunze 6100s (and boy are they dead silent) and heated by the light. But I did have enough water to overflow the tank for awhile and there were no leaks. I also don't have a skimmer yet, but from what I noticed with my first tank I wouldn't want to be skimming right away anyway as the skimmer goes nuts producing tons of foam and overflows for the first week or so until the saltwater gets "experience".

So here's the pics, hope you like them. If you want me to move anything you'll have to submit your requests to my wife... we'll see how that goes over. All comments are appreciated though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0394.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0395.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0396.jpg

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That looks great. I have a suspicion that seeing it in person is a totally different experience,though. 225g is a lot to take in. That's even bigger than Quinster's largest display... :lol:
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Blonde Babe

Night is falling on the reef. I love this light fixture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0410.jpg

Drooling is a very descriptive word !!!! It may be my advancing years but your tank has this affect :) :)
Wonderful thread with great pictures and oodles of info.
Wow! And to think we had to rely on books in the old days...................
Check in every day to see your progress, cabinet,aquascaping and lighting unbelievable.
Appreciate the time you spend to upkeep this thread.
Thanks................................Dave

Just posted a review on RC, I plan on posting some pics on there soon as well :) I can tell you like yours :D

This is probably the coolest thing for my reef I have ever bought. Most things aren't so exciting since you can't actually see any results immediately after adding (e.g. skimmer, reactor etc), but this is something that you see right away.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=979562

Ok, here's some shots. I jumped the gun on this tank I guess. I was patient for a couple of months during the build process and when I finally had water in the tank I lost it. The water never did register ammonia or nitrite though it did when I was cooking the rocks. So I assumed they were cured and the tank would be ok. So far that has paid off. There is still no nitrates so I hope I'm right. Either way the fish load is pretty minimal with just the 3 fish (Sailfin Tang, Yellow Tang & Copperband Butterfly). I started by moving some mushrooms & ricordia from my 67g tank to this one. They handled it well and settled in nicely so I moved a few more. Then all hell broke loose and I started buying stuff for the tank. The clams were placed in my 67g tank for a week until I was confident they'd do ok and they are. Most of this could fit back into my 67g if I absolutely had to but it's not been necessary yet. Here's some pics...

Here's my equipment side under the stand. It's pretty crowded but all fits. When I was planning this I didn't account for all of the hoses and the space taken by the hang on recirculating pumps. I might be able to fit a 10lb co2 tank in the middle and that's all I need. Until then the ca reactor sits idle. The skimmer started removing crap the second I turned it on and had 2" of brown/green crap in the cup in 2 hours. It has since settled down.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0524.jpg

Here's an overall shot of the tank.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0522.jpg

And left side closeup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0525.jpg

Middle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0529.jpg

And right side.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0527.jpg

As you can see the algae is really rockin'. I'm sure it will settle down in a month or so. I just got the magnets for the two Tunze 6100s yesterday so the ones on the front/sides of the tank are newly placed. All of the 6100s are operating switching from 30% to about 50%. I also have two Nanostream 6025s at the back of the tank on each side of the overflow box pointed straight down. They blow all of the crap out from under the rocks. I was starting to get some cyano back there but it doesn't stand a chance now. I may put the 6025s on a timer and turn them on/off throughout the day and leave them off at night.

Some closeups...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0436.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0465.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0513.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...k/DSCN0500.jpg

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The tank looks awesome. You've got some nice riccs in there.

How well do clams do in a BB tank? I don't know much about them at all, but I always figured they liked to sit in a sandbed.
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PREGNANT LATINA

Great tank, I like the kalk reactor stand. :mrgreen:

Yeah, I really like ricordia/yuma. The clams seem ok. Even in my other tank that has sand I put a piece of rock under the clam to attach to and these clams are on rocks so i don't think they notice the difference. I assume they'll like the MH lighting better then T5. Everything else seems to.

That's pretty ghetto eh? It's all I had. I'd like to get a nice acrylic stand to put it on because I know if I get much water spilled in there the mag box will start to droop. It works for now.

On the kalk subject, that AQT controller sure makes it easy to dose kalk. I have a solenoid on my water top off line and then a T that branches off to my kalk mixer and straight to the sump. Each of those lines also has a solenoid on it. When the float in the sump drops the controller checks the pH and if it's below 8.4 it opens the master & the kalk solenoid, otherwise it opens the master and the fresh solenoid. Now my pH hovers between 8.35 and 8.42 all day long.

AQT is supposed to come out with a calcium probe and that will allow me to do the same thing with my co2 solenoid and the ca reactor. That will be sweet.

Looks good so far. Should look really nice once the coraline starts to take hold on the rocks. :)

Why put the calcium reactor on a controller though? I'd just have the thing run all the time. Otherwise you'd also have to have a CO2 controller on the reactor (I'm guessing you probably already have this) but what's going to happen is that it will just be constantly cycling on and off whereas usually it's pretty easy to dial it into a steady-state operation. I don't mean to dissuade you out of buying toys if you really want to buy them :p but I'm just thinking that this is one you don't really *really* need if you know what I mean?

Truth be told, you won't find clams in the sand out on the real reef, at least not maximas or croceas. People like to put them on the sand for a variety of reasons, some of it is aesthetic, some of it is that they can't "fall off" the sand, etc. But in the real reef, these guys live on (or more accurately, "in") the rock of the reef. They actually can burrow into the rock and all you see of them is their mantle (looks a little like a nudibranch until they see a shadow and zip in).