6x3x3 (ish) multipanoramic 1800 litre monster build mixed reef!

[blackjack666]

hi guys, as promised, here is a "build thread" even though the system is now 3 months in!!!


soooooooo here goes! mixed reef now running natural sea water - started on a mix of DD (total crap) and red sea coral pro..

the display; i purchased second hand from a fellow reefer 8 months old, as my previous build refused to settle even after a year, and thousands spent trying to cure it!,,

the new one is custom seabray 72"x36"x34" 8 sided multipanoramic 15mm glass double base - 2" box section steel stand... the display holds exactly 1340 litres to wier level before displacement but with return running its closer to 1400 in the display. 50mm durso and a 25mm stans pipe so runs vertually silent other than the return pump. there is approximately 50kg of live rock, a massive reefbone jsut cured wich must be a good 20+kg and also have equivient of 2 black bins worth of reef bones curing - all massive bits (about 5) and 2 large plates.... this should equate to about 150+ kg of liverock once in

the sump; 72"x20"x20" with 3 equal sized chambers... the first houses an aquamedic 5000 shorty compact skimmer and the durso drain, this will soon hold the pumps for the reactors that will run externally to the sump soon , the second chamber holds a crap load of chaeto, the 25mm standpipe runs into here directly to a filter sock to take any dust and crap from the surface,, works very well too... sump never runs less than 400 litres and 440 full.

the final chamber is litterally for water capacity and the return pump inlet. i loose about 60 litres evaporation a week so its the ideal size!

so the equipment list;

lighting - 3x 150w arcadia proffessional series halide unit with 3 iquatics 20k lamps (awesome colour). these are backed up with 2 g63 9 watt 6500k lamps in the same luminair, but all soon to be replaced with 2x 400w halides with blv 10k or 14k lamps..i

i also run a pair of 54w t5's with aquaone marine blues... these are 420nm iirc and very clean colour from them - these will be replaced with LED's once the ones i want are available in the UK - depending on par ratings / consuption

flow is produced from a pair of sunsun 12000lph wavemakers and im planning on adding another 2 of these or a pair of the 6000 litre per hour models..... awesome for the price!

return pump is a sequence 10000 litre per hour pump, modified to take a 63mm inlet pipe, then the outlet runs into a 32mm rather than a 40mm,, this has greatly helped with the lift height although undoubtably not helped efficiency and power consumption!!

soon to add a pair of home made reactors although still to decide between carbon / rowa or to take the plunge with bio pearls..... i run 1-4" dsb using caribsea aragonite sugar sand so will see how this establishes.... before deciding on final reactor use.

temperature control will be from a tc10 and a pair of 300w heaters - wont need any more as i only have a 0.5 degree temperature swing a day even in this aweful winter weather - as it stands im yet to put heaters on the sytstem but i do keep a close eye on temp .. joys of such a large system - sits at 24,5 -25 degrees - for summer cooling this will also operated by the tc10 will be 24 4" pc fans on a pair of custom racks..

think i have covered everything equipment wise - if i have forgotten anything or you have any questions feel free to ask.........

feeding - i use new era marine flake, herbivore flake, merdium marine pellets and small algal pellets,, i also feed cyclopes, mysis, brine with omega 3, and blood worm twice a week

now onto the stock!!!!

LOTS! simple answer,,,, most of the fish and corals were brought over from the previous build (72x20x20 which is now the sump on this system) however i would say i have doubled the stock numbers over the past month or 2........ the list is as follows;

fish / nems / CUC etc;

marine betta (comet grouper) - 5 years old and still growing,, already bigger than they supposidly get!
yellow belly regal (9" monster and still growing)
yellow tang
scopas tang (thinks its a yellow)
pair of clarkii clowns
breeding pair of oscelleris clowns
breeding pair of bangaii cardinals
strawberry basslet
cleaner wrasse
yellow wrasse
velvet damsel
dartfish
spotted mandarin
court jester goby
coral beauty angel
4 green chromis (upto 6 more stuck in my wier but not a simple task to check)

think thats all the fish!! - lots more to come though....... will come to this at a later stage!! more tangs, dwarf angels and gobies

nems - i have a pair of herrectus magnifica's - one is about 6" the other is aout 8",, clarkii;s host in one, the oscellaris in the other.. i also have an RBTA which is the size of a 5 pence peice which has never grown and refusing to die!! bloody thing!

shrimps - one peppermint (may be food as i dont see it), a pair of cleaner shrimp - one regularly holds eggs, and a boxing shrimp!!! YES YOU CAN MIX BOXING AND CLEANERS!!!

cuc - loads of turbos, a mexican turbo, a few red leg hermits and a 12"+ black spiny urchin... seriosly need to increase size and diversity of the CUC though so if anyone want to send me some dove snails etc, then please do!!!!

as for corals,, ill list what i can remember,,, not a great deal as yet but its a big sytem to fill and some of the corals are rather large / in large numbers!

softies - mushies and zoas etc;

pussy coral (red colt) 2ft spread on it!
leather
another softy which i cant ID
furry mushies
fuzzy mushies
red mushies
blue spot mushies
green striped mushies
snake polyps
green star polyps
orange and green zoas

sps, lost sooo many during the upgrade - long story i wont bore you with, still have;

green pavona
pink hysterix,,
will be a hell of a lot more once new lighting and excess nutrients are under control

lps - new to mw so only a couple;

aussie brain maze
brain frag from fishmans
and a nice trumpet

so.... think that is just about everything in the system,, future plans are - get it stable on the nutrient front and let it settle for a while, get these new lights here and on, get the huge amoutn fo rock cured and added, and then the rest of the equimpent mentioned above added too!! after that will go mad with the stock

so now ive typed this lot, im gonna have a ciggy then dig out a few photo's from start to now!

hope you have all enjoyed this essay!!

thanks

jon!!

[Ged]

so now ive typed this lot, im gonna have a ciggy then dig out a few photo's from start to now!

Looking forward to. Great write up so far mate.

[blackjack666]

Ohhhhh the hassle to get the system in!!! thta was a laugh,,,, ripped out the lounge window much to the disgust of SWMBO!!!! due to the over engineering of the tank it was rediculously heavy. atleast 750kg's... 6 of us couldnt lift it, so we reversed the van up to the "missing" window and slid on polystyrene, hooked onto the edge of the stand and pushed like hell!!! eventually after 4 hours it was in!!! day i wish to forget lol!!!

had a trillion and one issues early on in the build,, far too may to bore you with but its no secret as to my thoughts of DD

[blackjack666]

this was the only pic i had to go by when i agreed to purchase!!! even this didnt prepare me for the true size of the thing and pics never will!! when you see it in the flesh im yet to see a jaw not land on my carpet lol! mine inlcuded!! first words when i collected were "**** me, im in serious **** when i get home" hehe

[img]http://**********************/uploader/2010Q1/DSC00391.JPG[/img]


then i got it! and this was how its been going since!

this was the last build (unfotunatly the moorish idol died soon after move as wierdly got whitespot.. i had been whitespot free for over a year) - ive inluded a few pics of it to give a rough idea of the size difference of the new one comapred to a 6x2x2



got bored






new one in and window been refitted

[swin]

great start to the thread ,really looking forward to the pictures

[deb+wayne]

thats a monster.

we are upgrading to a 72x30x30 in a few weeks.
wish we could of gone that tall tho

[swin]

lol that was quick i started posting and there they were,looking good

[Marine Life UK]

That sure is a monster, looking good thus far although my misses would have gone ballistic.
I had a 7ft x 20 x 30 tropical and that was a mission and half to get in so I know what you mean

[cdurkin100]

Stunning build, however I would be in a hole in the ground if I tried to bring that in the living room

[blackjack666]

then things went wrong.... i started the inital fill and had a duff bucket of salt from DD... had one hell of a battle with them over it and now im very much hated by them as a result! set the buld back a few weeks.... i had a thick layer of scum, and sediment far worse than imaginable!! not the usual DD sediment either! luckily one of my favourate shops where i purchased the salt was more than happy to help me out though! even though DD were addiment there wasnt an issue!

heres what 650 litres of knackered water looked like!





this was at exactly the 1000 litres mark... felt it only right to celibrate with a bit of a dip!



unfortunatly on the same night i had massive issues with the holding tank, so had no option but to move the rock, corals and fish over far ealier than i would have liked too... meant running no filtration, litterally the wavemakers for a few weeks



then i had a leak from the sump and lost 80 litres of water... made a bit of a mess but was easily cleared up!