Mitchell's 4 x 4 Reef

[Mitchell]

I intended to start this thread when I ordered my new tank but life has a habit of keeping me on my toes and I never seem to get a minute to sit, record and share the journey I’m on with my setup. I spend lots of time reading the trials and tribulations of other reefers in search of that missing link and hope by finally starting a thread of my own can pass a little information on to others.

My tank is 48 x 48 x 21 high and I run the water level at nineteen inches deep giving me about hundred and ninety gallons before displacement and excluding my sump volume.

I have a central weir containing two 40mm and two 32mm pipes configured to serve my closed loop and sump/return feeds. I have three 25mm closed loops in the display area of the tank dispersed into several small jets.
I’m currently running a Deltec 8070s on full power to provide continuous circulation to my three closed loops, two Tunze 6105’s on an opposite random 30-80% flow pattern controlled by a GHL Profliux 3 and a Ocean runner 6500 for my sump return.

The lighting is provided by two eight tube 54w ATI Sunpower units and a strip of 120 blue led for moonlighting.

It’s difficult to get any good full tank pictures as the tank fills a big chunk of the room and there is lots of glass to catch reflections on but I will have a go.

I’ve returned to balling after a brief unsuccessful attempt to use a calcium reactor (more on that later) and I am dosing using a GHL four stage pump.
I’m trying to keep the setup simple but stable and with that in mind I’m running a deltec skimmer, rowaphos and the magical pearls.

I’ve been truly inspired with seeing tanks maintained by Nev and Dave H and hope one day I’ll be able to produce results as good as there’s.

My tank is in my home office and I’ve promised myself having spent the last year or so living with cables, pipes, buckets etc strewn around the place I’ll end up with a streamline clean room to sit and enjoy working in (yea right) so this is still a work in progress.

These are quick snaps taken today showing the general look of the setup. I made the stand myself so I won’t be doing any close up’s of that!

I’ve designed my system to mainly keep SPS hence the shallow depth and lights but I also want to be able to see some flow movement also in the finished reef.

[kinevil]

Now that I do like. Nice to see sumthing diffrent

[Neil]

very nice

what are you running in the sump ?

[LittleOcean]

Looks really sleek, like it

[kinevil]

Like a giant cube. Love it.

[Mitchell]

Cheers guy’s for the kind comments.

It’s taken me a lot of effort to get to this stage and I’m only just scratching the surface.

Sleek is what I’m aiming for. I’ve been living in a sump room for more than a year whilst I get me head around things and now it’s just starting to come together.

I’m running rowaphos, perls, carbon and a skimmer in the sump.

[Kev]

Interesting shape and looks great.

[Mitchell]

I’ve had two previous tanks. I started with a Red Sea Max 250 and then moved on to a 72x28x30. I closed down my six foot tank due to a massive attack of flat worm that invaded without warning and swamped the tank completely.

Even before the flatworm I suffered from nuisance algae’s and unwanted hitchhikers. I’d purchased premium grade bluestone rock brimming with life most of it unwanted.

After closing down my tank I soaked the rock in RO water for a couple of weeks rinsing it frequently and keeping only a little salted to reseed it. I dipped the saved salted rock in Coral RX and watched for out flatworm and other pests.

With my rockwork now pest free (yea right) but dead I’ve created a mainland, a small island and a bommie. The mainland is going to be SPS real estate whilst the island is a little mixed resort. The bommie will be known as “Mount Nem doom” and home to a flame tipped sea monster that is free to roam and plunder.

All the rockwork is as open as I could make it ensuring good flow around all areas.

I’m experimenting with a perimeter of Xena and clove polyps to add some movement.

[reefreak33]

Awesome setup, love the shape. Bet its even better in real life.

[Clearwater]

like the scape

did you find the PAR meter

with those ATI's you should have loads of PAR on that depth