My 54*20*24

[Haile S]

Tank arrives.

Some holes for closed loop run from Sequence 10000 and oceans motions 4-way.

Lots of plumbing later. The plumbing is designed so that the flow alternates between the front two outlets and the reef-flush. This worked perfectly with the fw wet test however once sand was added the oceans motions continually seized up and took a while to fix.

Pipework boxed in with egg crate. I later had to resize the boxing and silicone the acrylic strips to the tank base to prevent sand getting in under the egg crate.

Tank cycling July 07 after adding about 55kg of live-rock and 2 bags of sugar sand.

Sump and plumbing whilst cycling. Sump has a fist full of cheato and 2 jars of mineral mud.

[djdime]

i really like that closed loop system!!

this will look really nice!

[~JayK~]

Originally Posted by Haile S

Lovely tank, the only thing that spoils it is the far right door is not on correctly - it's on the pee


Seroiusly though, it's looking a great start - keep up the focus, it's looking good

Jay

[Manta]

Nice job, obviously not afraid to do a bit of plumbing. Are you going to hide the crate a bit more or just rely on corals to do that?

[Haile S]

thanks for the comments. btw the tank is about to celebrate its first birthday. more pics soon.

cladiella
i sorted the door out after taking the pic.

manta,

the plumbing took between easter and june but i think its was worth it.

[kwakermad]

Nice pipework, I hope you haven't got copyrite on it coz if I dont get too lazy I might try and copy it.

[Juliette]

Did you buy the tank with the boxing in already done? How do you get to the top of the tank as I can't see access panels in the hood piece? I really like the look with the high top bit to hide the lights. More pics please!

[Haile S]

Originally Posted by Juliette

Did you buy the tank with the boxing in already done? How do you get to the top of the tank as I can't see access panels in the hood piece? I really like the look with the high top bit to hide the lights. More pics please!

No, I did the boxing myself. I cut two sheets of egg crate to size (avoid the diamond shaped stuff on ebay). Then cable tied sections of 32 mm piping to the egg crate. Then siliconed 40mm strips of Perspex to the front and side edges of the egg crate. The first time I used this water flowed under the Perspex and blew channels in the sand. I removed all the water and sand and siliconed the Perspex to the tank and added some strips of Perspex to the back edges of the egg crate. The boxing round the closed loop intake is egg crate cable tied together. There are a few other smaller boxes of egg crate under some of the larger rocks.

The tank maker couldn’t or wouldn’t put access panels into the hood so I have to disconnect and remove all the lighting and fans then lift off the hood. Its heavy but I can mange to get it on and off myself, probably not good for my back though. I use tongs for maintenance and a telescopic baster (kent sea squirt) to spot feed my corals so i don't need to remove the hood that often.

[Haile S]

Tank specs

Display tank 54*20*24
Sump 36*15*18
2* STM 250 watt Halides with 10k blv bulbs on 9 hours per day (replaced magnetic ballasts with electronic April 08)
2* 54 watt actinics guiseman / deltec pure actinic bulbs on 12 hours per day
led moonlight (added dec 07) on 25/7
2* 30 watt energy saving SAD 6500k bulbs lighting sump 16 hours per day
Sequence 10 000 with oceans motions 4 way
Ocean runner 3500 return pump

Schuran pico calcium reactor (added jan 08) on 8.5 hours per day
Tunze auto top up (added sept 07) feeding Ratz kalk stirrer (added April 08) topping up 5-8 litres per day

300 watt heater controlled by Habistat
2* clip on fans controlled by Habistat
PC fan in cabinet

Phosban reactor (added Nov 07)

Approx 50 kgs of live rock from other reefers

Inhabitants

Fish
2 clowns (aug 07 and jan 08-replaced a jumper)
yellow tang (aug 08)
2 firefish (sept 07)
potters angel (nov 07-disappeared june 08)
regal tang (added as ¾ inch baby march 08)
radiant wrasse (april 08)
pair banggai cardinals (June 08)

corals and inverts
too many to list

[Haile S]

August 07

The tank cycled quickly with no detectable ammonia or nitrite. Nitrate peaked at 5 and settled at 0.5. In early august I added misc snails and hermits and a pair of clowns and later a yellow tang.