Biggaz's Wet Dream :D

[biggaz_8]

Brief Intro
Well after buying my dad a river reef last august for his birthday we soon realised that its was too small and that we had caught the reefing bug!

I was the brains behind the operation and mum and dad funded it (best way)

We thought about going for a RSM250 but after looking through threads on here I always wanted to go for a sumped system. After a few rough drawings we set the ball rolling on getting some quotes on the tank and cabinet. We found a tank builder close to where we live and went to see some of his work. After leaving happy we decided that his prices where very reasonable and that we would as his to build out tank.

The design of the tank

We decided upon the size 43''L x 15''W x 24''H. We have had to limit the width of the tank because of the placement of the TV!

Another thing that we wanted to include was a separate cupboard for the electrics to go into so that they are nowhere near the sump and we have a complete dry side for all the electrics to be housed in.

The cabinet was another issue. We wanted to be able to straight into the tank from where we sit. So we decided that we would have the cabinet built a little bit lower than a normal tank.


This is what the tank looks like note the small added on cabinet at the side of the tank for electrics.

Arrival

When we where told 6 weeks! We thought that it may take a little bit longer than that, but true to his word 6 weeks came and went and the tank arrived bang on time . The cabinet looked amazing, and it looked even better when the tank was placed on top. Les was kind enough to silicone the bulk head in and leave us with enough pipe work to plum the sump in.

I had been doing alot of reading on how to set up your pipe work. I took my time with the pipe work. I did a dry run with the pipe work just pushed together before I glued anything together. Once satisfied with the pipe work I bonded them together and waited for them to set before filling with RO and salting






Equipment

Once that we knew what size tank that we where going for we started to stock pile equipment so that when the time came we could go for it all at one

Equipment bought was:

Deltec MCE600 Skimmer Ehiem Compact 3000 Return Pump
3 Koralia 4’s AquaMedic wave maker
DD Auto Top Up Phos Reactor
Ozone Generator 3 Aqua Ray Marine White Tiles
2 All blue AquaRay Strips 2 Blue and White AquaRay Strips
Bio Pearl Reactor



We made the decision that we wanted a Vortech just for the fact the the Koralia’s looked clumsy and made the tank look cluttered. So we bought a Vortech mp40esw, WOW what a difference defiantly worth the money!

Current Stock

In our smaller tank we had:

2 Black Clown Fish 1 Red Spot Flymo Blenny
1 Cleaner Shrimp 1 Peppermint Shrimp
Various Snails 1 Conch
1 Urchin

Corals

1 Candy Cane 1 Yellow Sun Coral
1 Cream Tipped Torch 1 Five headed Hammer Head
1 Cataphillia 1 Zoa colony
1 Lobophilla 2 Favia Moon coral
1 Aussie Blasto 1 Big Ric Rock
1 Frogspawn 8 Headed Duncan
1 Back Sun Coral

Scaping
We wanted to keep away from the more traditional method of a wall type scape and go for plenty of ledges made out of plate and two separate main structure and joined up with small link up pieces.
This is our first attempt at the scape we have added to it more now.



We kept all our live rock in a vat because we bought it before the tank was ready. We got a really good deal on the live rock and got loads of plates in there as well.



To make sure that the rock was safe from any falling bombs it was stored in this


Story for another time

Future

We plan on adding a shoal of fish most probably Anthias, Also a tang of some sort still in debate as to which one is more suitable for us. And more corals a mixture of Softie, LPS and higher up the tank SPS.

Thats all for now sorry for all the reading, Any Questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Gaz (biggaz_8) Chrissy (Hockeymum) Big Bri (he's a technophobe Not on here) and Nikki ( long Suffering Girl Friend very understanding)

[killi]

very nice tank and a great write up ,look forward to watching it develop

[biggaz_8]

Its already developed mate! Im a bit behind on the write up already! We have all the stock over and some of Karlos Baldos's corals in there! Will get more pics up tomorrow after the dentist Cheers for your kind words aswell Killi

[Whipitup]

very nice tank and a great write up ,look forward to watching it develop

Agreed, and it's nice to see something a little different with the height of the tank and the separate cupboard for the electrics.

[SmilesDental]

cant wait to see the tank m8 btw, good luck at the dentist XD

[davyr]

Here mate you will need that bomb shelter to hide in once the missus knows how much you will be spending in your LFS on fish and corals

[Ged]

lol That bomb shelter reminds me of Only Fools and Horses. pmsl

[davyr]

lol That bomb shelter reminds me of Only Fools and Horses. pmsl

Just thinking the same Ged. He will have to have a word with the owner of his LFS so he can print him a receipt to half the value of his goods or is it just me that does that so SWMBO has no idea what i spend

[hockeymum]

Glad to see all my funding has finally reached the forum !!!

Steve at Burscough as well as supplying most of the equipment and stock has kindly offered to adopt Big Gaz as I now cant afford to feed and house him.

C

[davyr]

Glad to see all my funding has finally reached the forum !!!

Steve at Burscough as well as supplying most of the equipment and stock has kindly offered to adopt Big Gaz as I now cant afford to feed and house him.

C

i have been living in the shed for the last 4 years when my wife found out that i had purchased 2 x skimmers in 2 weeks