Fury165’s ultra low profile grow out tank - Haven

[kuros]

Hi everyone, my name is Roger and I'm from Toronto, Canada and I'm new to the forum so I thought i'd post up my new build as my introduction to R2R. This started last October with an unplanned purchase of a frag tank and a promise to myself it was just going to be a simple upgrade. Plan was to replace the existing tank and reuse all the other gear I already had running on my existing grow out tank lol. Well that plan lasted all of one week and with the lots of help of some local reefers in Toronto, I turned this into a full blown rabbit hole that took the better part of five months to complete. Without the help of these fine gentlemen I would not have been able to do this with such polish.

I had planned to document each step of the way, however I was given marching orders to finish this rabbit hole no later than Easter Monday. I only realized that I hadn’t taken any serious pics until I had already added water and was in the process of transferring the frags to the new tank. I managed to take some quick and dirty shots this morning. There is still a lot to be done, fit and finish and polishing up but that will happen as the week progresses.

So without much further ado, I present to you Haven – I hope you like it!


[h=1]Tank[/h]
Canada Corals in Toronto made this tank specifically for frag shows, but decided to go in a slightly different route so I jumped on it when they offered it to me.

1/2†clear and black acrylic 24â€L x 18â€W x 6â€H

[h=1]Stand[/h]Custom made Bosch Rexroth 45 Aluminum profile
24 1/16â€L x 18 1/16â€W x 37â€H

[h=1] Sump[/h]
Custom made acrylic sump in white and clear

[h=1]Equipment[/h]
Return pump Tunze Silence 1072.040
Skimmer Bubble Magus NAC 3.5
ATO Tunze Osmolator 3155
Lighting AquaIllumination Vega
Water Movement EcoTech MP10WES

[h=1]Control[/h]Reefkeeper Lite
AquaIllumination Director
Apex Jr. with WXM module (for MP10WES)
[h=1]Plumbing[/h]All Schedule 40 PVC with silicone tubing for last foot to return pump.



FTS

FTS open

Sump auxiliary light

External overflow

Plumbing

Inna da sump
Red and white.. to match future Vertex upgrades

Light rail
Bosch Rexroth EcoShape profile and fittings

Held on by one bolt and that little connection EEK!

Stand detail
Bosch Rexroth 4545 Aluminum profile

 

[kuros]

Electrical panel

Control and monitoring center

Cable management duct custom painted in red

Spaghetti anyone? can't wait to finish the cabling and pop the covers on.

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[jabeuy]

Nice. Saw this on the gta forum, are you planning to sell frags out of that

 

[kuros]

Nice. Saw this on the gta forum, are you planning to sell frags out of that

No, not really. It really is for the frags I buy and serves as a growout / QT tank. Couple of years ago I got ICH in my DT due to a frag I had bought form someone who had ICH (unbeknownst to me). Wiped out all but two of my fish, since then I've been running a growout tank for this reason.
I plan to run this tank completely fish and CUC free, I'll deal with any pests manually or as a last resort, nuke it and restart the tank.

 

[jabeuy]

No, not really. It really is for the frags I buy and serves as a growout / QT tank. Couple of years ago I got ICH in my DT due to a frag I had bought form someone who had ICH (unbeknownst to me). Wiped out all but two of my fish, since then I've been running a growout tank for this reason.
I plan to run this tank completely fish and CUC free, I'll deal with any pests manually or as a last resort, nuke it and restart the tank.

That's a good idea, I think I'm gonna do a dedicated frag QT tank for an upcoming build. I've got some bubble algae (not too bad so far) algae right now, that I'm pretty certain came from frags I got from a very reputable seller. There was bubble algae on the frag disks when I got them, and I took them off. But I couldn't take the frags off the disk or i would've done that lol. If I had a frag QT, I probably could've prevent the algae from spreading it's spores in my DT.

 

[WilRams]

Cool unique build.

 

[snoopie]

Where can I get the items from your light rail? I really like that idea and see your stand is frame with it as well!!

 

[kuros]

Where can I get the items from your light rail? I really like that idea and see your stand is frame with it as well!!

The aluminum profile for the stand and light rail are both Bosch Rexroth - the stand is 45x45 Profile and the light stand is their Ecoshape line.

 

[kuros]

The little things

Progress so far.

the transfer of the frags from the old tank to the new is done for the most part. Before I can begin mothballing the old tank once and for all I just need to catch the fish and shrimp - they will all be going to a good home. Originally i planned to go with no livestock in this tank, but I've decided to keep the big Emerald crab that was banished from the DT to the old frag tank's sump a few months ago. Eugene (named after Eugene on Walking Dead) has grown on me - as big and bumbling as he is, he is harmless for the most part and the world needs a Eugene in it.

now on to the little things....

Water changes
I've done two since putting the tank up and I am glad I built the manifold and attached a ball valve for water changes. In all it takes me 3 minutes to drain, remove and replace water in the tank. previously i could do it in 20 minutes if I was lucky. The return chamber in my sump is small, insufficient by itself to do a proper water change with the system running but I can still do it with a few easy steps.

Return chamber

WC setup

Loc-Line NPT ball valve

here is how it works.

• Lower the Loc-Line nozzle on the return as low as it will go so I can drain as much water as possible into the sump.
• Put the Reefkeeper in standby mode and it shuts off the return pump, heater, skimmer and ATO.
• The overflow drains and empties the lines while the return back siphons into the sump until air enters the return plumbing.
• Now there is ~4" of water above the normal operating level in the sump. Now there is enough water to do a proper WC
• I close the ball valve on the Loc Line fitting so that all the water will be forced to exit through the manifold and out the WC setup.
  
• Take the Reefkeeper out of standby and begin draining 2 gallons of old water into a bucket.
• I'll then add back 2 gallons of new salt water into the sump, reposition the nozzle and open the valve on the Loc-Line fitting.

Works like a charm! I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to start a new build.

Reefkeeper programming for the ATO

I need to delay the turning on of the ATO so that it does not turn on when the Bean Animal setup is trying to restart and auto tune. the first time I did a water change the Tunze ATO kept on adding RODI water because the water level in the return compartment goes go up and down until the BA overflow system auto tunes. Needless to say the salinity dropped a few points that day

Lighting

I suspected that the AI Vegas would be too strong for this tank with less than 5" of operating water level. a quick check with a PAR meter confirmed it and the zoas certainly responded negatively the first 2 days before i put the light into acclimatization mode.

I had planned for this by factoring the purchase of a new light better suited for this layout... sure I could lower the intensity of the Vegas, but i'd be under utilizing the light. So I purchased the new AI Prime LED for Haven and will move the Vega to the DT.

AI Prime
speak about little things.. this light is 4.88"Lx4.88Wx1.34"H and weighing 0.95 lbs, it is tiny! unfortunately the supplier was out of the hanging mount kit for it so I will have to provide a performance review later on

My initial impressions of it:

• very sleek and well built
• Easy setup
• built in WiFi rocks
• Freakin' bright!
• Integration with AI Director not possible - even though the initial reports says it was. It uses MyAI which is a portal for both the director AND the Prime LEDs. I was expecting "single pane of glass" that I've come to love when controlling my Vegas across two tanks.
• Single lighting profile. ***??? I got lots in my AI director lol.
• Paired down effects, but I guess that was to be expected.

In all, I expect the lights will work just fine for my needs - just a little put off by the usual marketing department spin on actual facts.

Gratuitous pre unboxing shot.

 

[revhtree]

Wow very cool build! Keep us updated!

 

[kuros]

Wow very cool build! Keep us updated!

Thank you very much :wink:

 

[cbort]

Looks great! Love the creativity and ingenuity!

 

[squillaempusa]

No, not really. It really is for the frags I buy and serves as a growout / QT tank. Couple of years ago I got ICH in my DT due to a frag I had bought form someone who had ICH (unbeknownst to me). Wiped out all but two of my fish, since then I've been running a growout tank for this reason.
I plan to run this tank completely fish and CUC free, I'll deal with any pests manually or as a last resort, nuke it and restart the tank.

awesome build. took some skills to design and put together, for sure. but i just felt the need to comment on ich. the parasite is in just about everyone's aquarium water column, but fish will only become infected if they are stressed out, due to loss of protective slime during that time of stress. in my experiance it's usually from fluctuations of temperature.

 

[_divad]

Wow! Very cool build! Sleek and high tech!

 

[kuros]

Looks great! Love the creativity and ingenuity!

Wow! Very cool build! Sleek and high tech!

Thanks for the compliments guys

awesome build. took some skills to design and put together, for sure. but i just felt the need to comment on ich. the parasite is in just about everyone's aquarium water column, but fish will only become infected if they are stressed out, due to loss of protective slime during that time of stress. in my experiance it's usually from fluctuations of temperature.

Thanks squillaempusa, glad you like it. I have heard of this position on ICH and it always being present, but in my case there was no signs of stress and the logs showed the temperatures were within normal operating ranges. Still, it won't hurt to take the extra precautions to weed out any parasites to prevent them from entering the DT.

 

[squillaempusa]

Thanks squillaempusa, glad you like it. I have heard of this position on ICH and it always being present, but in my case there was no signs of stress and the logs showed the temperatures were within normal operating ranges. Still, it won't hurt to take the extra precautions to weed out any parasites to prevent them from entering the DT.

yea, it can never hurt to take a little extra precaution on keeping the population of parasites to a minimum. beware of weakening copepod population (and other beneficial organisms) in the process tho. not trying to seem like a know-it-all, just trying to throw some info at ya. anyway, i love your tank... can't stop staring at the sump area. lol.

also, how do you like that Prime light? what made you choose that one over a Kessil? i myself was thinking about getting a Kessil 160 for my 8 gallon cube, but i'm starting to see people using thes Primes now. Kessils get to be a little pricey once ya get the bracket/gooseneck, and the remote control.

 

[Rookie J]

Sweet build. How high off the tank are you running your light ?

 

[kuros]

Thanks Rookie, the lights are ~18" awl.

I finally got my hanging kit and it too suffers from the same issue as the tank mount kit. :squigglemouth: A quick email to AI and they are sending out a new hanging kit :rockon:

 

[kuros]

also, how do you like that Prime light? what made you choose that one over a Kessil? i myself was thinking about getting a Kessil 160 for my 8 gallon cube, but i'm starting to see people using thes Primes now. Kessils get to be a little pricey once ya get the bracket/gooseneck, and the remote control.

That was easy, I own other AI lights and have always been pleased with them and their support is top notch. The price point and features made the decision easy as well.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Any updates? I really like this tank. It is really unique.