My 315 upgrade / rebuild
 

I had posted a pic or two in the full tank photo thread the other day and had a few questions that i was asked , so as to not wreck the thread and it's purpose I thought i would start a new one with a quick overview of my newish tank upgrade.






Just to catch you all up , i have been running a 225 gal reef for the past 4+ years .In mid February i came home from work to a rather large problem , the bottom seal on my tank had gone and my tank was down around 80 plus gallons....


Needless to say i spent the next 24 hrs or so cleaning up and trying to save all that i could.

A few days after , i decided it was time to press on and not let this get me down . ( although i was seriously considering a break for a while ) My new tank arrived around mid March ( thanks to Dan @ Aquatic Addictions ) The old fish room has been totally renovated including , new lino floor tiles , emergency floor drain *** ( very important for my marriage ) , repainted, new stand ,new cabinets and work area , new lighting setup , etc...

Equipment ismostly the same except a few new goodies.

Tank 72" x 36" x28" ( front panel starphire / external rear overflow)

*Skimmer Deltec 902
*Deltec Calcium reactor
*Deltec Kal stirrer
*Dart ( main pump on 2 seaswirls for return )
*2 vortecs
2 tunze 6100 ( controlled by aquasurf)
*Aq 3
*Carbon / phosphate reactors
* 200 custom gal sump

Lighting 2 - 250 ( hqi ballast ) 1 -400 ( vertex elec. ballast ) 4 t5 actinics. Halides are using lumineric mini reflector.

Tank is now into it's third month and other than a few minor issues seems to be starting to settle in nicely all levels are staying solid so far and colors are starting to slowly make there way back on a few of my original corals and some of the new ones.
Fish list is up to 22 so far with a mixture of wrasses , tangs ,clown and anthias , and a school of 10 Glass cardinals.

Here are a couple pics from the early part of the setup.up to a moth or so ago, I will try to add some up to date ones later on .


http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...MG_4940REV.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...MG_4951REV.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_4975.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_4977-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_4962.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/uu298/chruss/016.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...russ/004-1.jpg

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Well.....that is certainly a great way to introduce the tank....Sorry to hear about your tank troubles, but great to see that you didnt get out of the hobby.

The tank looks great. Keep us updated.

WOW, Im jealous

How noisy is that skimmer????

Thanks all.

The skimmer is one the best investment i have ever made ( not cheap mind you ) but almost zero maintenance other than emptying and wiping down the cup and for it's size fairly quiet, not sure i would want it outside in my family room but for my application it's perfect. It has been running near flawless for over 3 years.

Couple of updated photos of how things are looking as of now, also a pic or two of some of the new fish added including a mystery wrasse that i have always wanted .

I was trying out my 50mm lens on these to see if i could get a couple decent fish shots... still gonna need practice though. I have seen some awesome photos from a few people on this board so it must be possible.... more practice i suppose.

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5122.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5127.jpg

updated photo right hand side

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...7_edited-1.jpg

Looks awesome! I'm thinking of converting my in-wall FW to a salt tank. It is great having all of the equipment in the back away from little hands!

Do you run your 250W Halides on the sides and the 400 in the middle?
Also how do you get your water up to your ATO tank?

thanks Scherzo , yes I run 2 - 250 aquaconnects on the outsides and a 400 20k in the middle , this combo seems to be one of the best i have found so far for pleasing to the eye as well as to all the corals. Also keeps the heat down from running all 400's. The ATO tank is hooked up to my rodi with an auto shutoff that kicks in when it reaches a certain level . Again a great investment , as i use to do it all manually and you would not believe how many times i forgot to shut it off and came into the room with a few gallons of water on the floor , not really sure why i waited so long to get one.

Rus you DELTEC WHORE, lol I have your 902's little brother the 851. and you must love that skimmer I love mine simple plug and play and wipe and cleaned for another 3-4 days

upgrade
 

Hey Rus the tank looks great! If you and I can ever coagulate our feces, i'll have those acro frags ready. Maybe we should meet at the LFS one day or I can come over for a tour and take that sump off of your hands. I'm sure that would make your wife happy! Mine won't be happy to see, "ANOTHER TANK!" PM when you get a chance.
Keith.

asmodeus , i agree very happy with my skimmer as well , i remember having a bullet 3 skimmer and it would seem like like every couple of days i was fiddling with it to make it work properly , where as with Deltec it's almost like you feel you should be doing something to it , yet it doesn't need anything.

Hey Kieth , thanks man , as you can tell from the pics i have left some perfect spots for some frags from you. And yes moving the tank would make for a happy wife. Anytime works for me , let me know whenever it works, by the way when do we some pics of your new setup huh!

The tank is looking great! I've been following your thread on RC and you're really put a lot of thought into what you want this to look like.

oooooooo........ link to the RC thread please :) I love reading about this kind of stuff.

Cheers,
Vic

Thanks Mark, It's neat to see someone notice that as well, I have been really trying to stick to my original plan for things , although like I 'm sure anyone knows it's hard to be patient as well as to realize potential of things and be able to visualize what things will look like in time as opposed to right at the moment. There are many thing out there that are easy to impulse buy without really deciding first if it is really part of our plan or not.

Thanks Vic, not real sure how to post that , although other than the early stuff you haven't really missed much, mostly just a bit more on the set up and fishroom side. I will try to keep this thread updated a bit as i go along , although i do admit writing these things down is not really one of strong points , as much as i enjoy reading others write ups I feel it's only fair to share a bit of our own as well.

If anyone has any real good links on balling method ( or 3 part dosing actually ) I would be interested , I have been humming and hawwing about possibly trying this method for even more ease and stability.

Hey Rus,

just paste your link and put in the front and at the end of your link and that should link your RC page here.

Cheers,
Vic

Hey Vic, see if this works... what do you know I did learn something new today.. thanks


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1587963

Works fine :)

Cheers,
Vic

I have been noticing my Mag. levels dropping lately and after checking on my new water change levels noticed that the readings are very low from IO mix ( 900 - 1000 ) I have always supplemented the calcium in my mix to raise it and with the offset in price have found it worthwhile. But now with even more to add , I'm wondering if it is worth switching brands.

Has anyone had any luck with the Deltec Brand? At almost double cost I would want it to be near perfect levels each and every time I do a water change.

Any other brands that you have found very reliable?

This tank is Beautiful, said it before. In fact I love this tank :mrgreen:

Wow, nice setup your tank looks great. My entire setup is Deltec I use RowaKalk with my Kalk stirrer, I don’t have my Calcium reactor setup yet but once I do I will be using RowaLith Calcium C+ with it....

Thanks Leah , Tomjay : I use the Rowalith for my calcium reactor as well , but I have not seen any reason to use their Kalk , cost wise it is more and never did see a benefit to the extra costs.

Now their Salt on the other hand is something I'm considering.

I bought some Kalk +2 (Brightwell aquatics) last week it contains Calcium and Magnesium once my Rowa run out I will be using this.

I am using Tropic Marin Pro salt which I am very happy with so no switching for me

I would be interested to see how that works out for you , wonder if it will help with maintaining levels better than other brands

you may want to look into magnesium supplements for your ca reactor, I found this easier than switching salts. Both zeovit and faunamarin make them (as well as one other but I can't remember the brand name).

Also, I was reading your RC thread and you had posted about running a dart split to two seaswirls. How did you eventually resolve the plumbing for this? I'm hoping to do the same.

Here's the link http://www.brightwellaquatics.com/br_base.html you can read up on it or ask them questions good customer service. I have friends in Florida, LA; well all over the US.... can’t list all the states that use the products.

You can find the products here locally at Ocean

Thanks Tomjay , I will check that out.

Hey Christy , thanks for the ideas , I'm actually going to try adding the zeomag to my reactor today so we'll see how that works for now. I don't really want to switch salts if I don't have to ( never know how things will react to the change ) Just trying to minimize any added steps and costs if need be.
As far as my return , yes i did go with the dart pump for return , it is teed off just past the pump to two 1" lines that feed a seaswirl on each side of the front side corners of the tank. I seem to be getting around 1000 gph or so out of this ( pump also feeds reactors ) I really like this setup as it allows me to get a flow across the front of reef without having anything to obtrusive ( ie : tunze ) located on the front side of the tank. Most setups i see use pumps located at the back or sides of the reef to get the flow to the front side either bouncing off the front pane or cross flow. I find that most of our so called prize corals are located facing the front for optimal viewing so getting a good flow continuously across the front of the reef seems to make sense to me. That being said I do still have 2 tunze 6100's helping out with the flow , but I am able to keep them near the back side which helps keep them a little less noticeable.

ooh, I never thought about mounting the seaswirls on the front of the tank! how does that work for plumbing then? it runs along the front as well? do you have any pics of that?

thanks for the info, this is awesome!

They are actually still mounted on the side panel , but right up to front of it this way when it turns 90 deg. it covers right across the front of the reef . I have a couple pics , but hard to tell from them .Pump is located on on side of the sump from there piping goes up to a tee , one line continues straight up to the seaswirl , and the other goes under the stand and back up on the other side, make sure you use valve on each ( which I'm sure you would ) but they are neede to adjust flow to equal the output evenly from each one.

Here's a few early setup pics of it

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_4970.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_4980-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_4968.jpg

Great work!! Thanks for the pics, they totally help!! :biggrin:

Happy New year and Holidays to everyone.

I thought it might be high time to do a small update on the tank. Heading into January the the tank is in it's 40th week now ( or almost 10 months ) . I have gone thru a few learning curves on this tank as far as getting everything dialed in correctly .

I have had some decent growth on some of my corals and a few setbacks on others. I have been trying a few new things with this setup as well. I am dosing 3 or 4 types of zeovit additives to the tank for the past few months , mostly just color enhancers though , and have seen some improvment on a few corals . As of now still keeping a watch on wether it is making a large difference or not. Fish wise I am up to 28 now , and have only had a few issues with lost ones so far , unfourtantley one happened to be my Achilles .

I still am battling a low ph and mag. levels in this tank , so I am seriously considering switching over to a balling method soon. Just trying to decide on wether to purchase the stand alone Profilux , (or sell my AQ3 and Deltec Reactor ) and purchase a complete newcontroller setup and doser. I really like the direction that Profilux seems to going , and what they have to offer.

For those of you dosing in your larger tanks ( 300gal. and up ) Are you purchase premade products or making your own? Also do you find this method a lot more stable for you, in comparison to running a reactor?

Anyway a couple of newer (not so good ) pics as well, I will try to get a few more later on today .
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/DSC03119.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/DSC03121.jpg


http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...DSC03123-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/DSC03120.jpg

My system is ~350 gallons and I just picked up the 2 pump standalone profilux doser last weekend. I get my Calcium and magnesium from the Chemmaster and mix it myself. I have been dosing Randy's recipe manually for the past couple years with good results but having the doser will keep my system that much more stable. A good investment IMO but I don't have any experience with CA reactors so I can't make a comparison.

Thanks for the info , do you know if you can run the stand alone unit thru the Profilux Controller , if you decide to purchase one later on? Any idea on what your monthly costs are on this ? Are you able to premix more than a months supply at a time , if so does it need to be mixed up periodically?

Just passed the 1 year mark on this tank , and thought i would update a little . I have tried few new things over the past few months , latest is switching over to dosing from my calcium reactor setup. I went with the Profilux 3 pump stand alone unit , and so far am very pleased with my choice .It was extremly easy to setup for what you want to dose and to make adjustments along the way if needed.
I have been running it for almost 3 weeks now , and so far everything is staying steady as far as alk and calcium goes .PH has also climbed , and for the first time since setting up this tank it is over 8.00 .

here's a couple of decent pics and not so great videos of the tank lately:

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...MOV03508-1.jpg

Fish room

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...hroomVideo.jpg

Feeding time

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...eedingtime.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_5680-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...IMG_5684-1.jpg

Wow, looks fantastic! Dig that aquascaping!

Thanks Tony, Still think I have a little tweaking to do with the right side for aquascaping though, would like it to climb a little higher in the tank to create a little more variance in areas when looking at it from the right side . There are a few ideas I may have to borrow from some of the other great aquascapes I have seen on this board and others.

Couple of new pics since adding a few new fish from quarantine tank. Added in 2 new Bartletts and a Pyramid Butterfly .I would like to add in probably 2 to 3 more Bartletts yet .They are one of my favourites as far as Anthias go. You can see from the pic that the original female is becoming a male already , color changes were within a week from introducing the new ones into the tank. The Pyramid was picked on a little at first , but seems to be settled in now , and no signs of any further aggression from the other tankmates.

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...4_edited-1.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5700.jpg

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5694.jpg

:biggrin: This is one of my favorite tanks. :mrgreen:

Fantastic tank!!!

Thanks Leah ,Chaloupa. I am actually going to pick me up a few more rocks to try to rework the softy side aquascape today, Looking forward to see how this turn out, it's been the only part of the main original aqua scape that I have not been 100% pleased with fro mthe orginal design, I findo the soft corals harder to aquascape around , as the require larger areas of rock to sit on and in turn tougher to come up with a decent design . Oh well we will see how it goes.

Well I have finished off the main re design on the softy side of tank , here's a few pics of it , open for critique or ideas as well.
I have been able to open up the valley look more on this side which is what I was trying to achieve. Tank is set up so that looking at it from either left or right side , it creates a different view for people. This way coming into the room at first gives you a different perspective than after you have sat down over in the Theater area. The new aquascape also help to create the illusion that the tank is even deeper than the actual 3'. ( or it's suppose to help anyways )

First pic is view down on the tank ( not sure how to get on without all the light reflections ) Left side

http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5801.jpg

Right side
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5764.jpg

Softy side
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5778.jpg

Couple of overhead views showing valleys
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5810.jpg
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5803.jpg
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5809.jpg

Shows valleys for each direction of view
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5805.jpg

overall view from front
http://i657.photobucket.com/albums/u...s/IMG_5803.jpg

Wow that aquascaping is rad! Love your setup. Great use of the real eastate for sure. Thanks for sharing!