Elos 160 - First Build

[jason g]

Good job on the sump and plumbing. I like it a lot. What kind of fish you plan on throwing in your tank?

 

[Zaffor]

I have a pair of clowns
Orchid dottyback
Pair of cardinals
6 line wrasse
And tomini tang
I would like a few anthias
A goby/pistol pair
And thought of adding a small purple tang

 

[Zaffor]

Work in progress

 

[Zaffor]

Have some free time so I figured I would update my thread,
I sold my old aquarium and installed my third light and cleaned up the wiring for the three Radion power supplies

Also cleaned up all the wiring for the apex, tunze osmolator, vortechs, return pump and skimmer. I installed two BRS Deluxe reactors for GFO and Carbon fed from return pump. Reviews online were mixed but I am very happy with it. Seems very easy to replace media and sits out of the way. Installed a Reef Dynamics recirculating pellet reactor with just a 1/4 cup of dr tim pearls to start off. I also installed the ghl doser using just 2 pump heads for now. Im considering having an acrylic dosing container fabricated to sit in the area under the doser. Ordered a few short usb cables to clean it up some more and might try to make a breakout box.

For now I think I will decide not to run the separate frag/refugium tank and keep the pellet reactor there. Maybe make a shelf in the open space to hold dry goods. Also going to look for some shelves to install on the cabinet doors.

Installed Apex display along with Tunze ATO controller on the outside of the overflow

Then above the overflow an Apex auto feeder

I found a container that I will use to keep my ATO container in that will sit next to aquarium cabinet. I have to find or fabricate something that will fit inside the wooden box (16x16x18 max)

Here is a photo of room and a closeup of the aquarium.

I will start looking for some fish and sps to add slowly. Would like some different colors to contrast with whats in there now. Not too savvy with whats available but I have seen some photos of some unique sticks and encrusting/plating corals that look very appealing. I guess over time I will find what fits well. As far as fish goes, i have been considering setting up a small simple quarantine tank to minimize risk of introducing diseases. Would like to try some small anthias, a goby/small pistol pair, replace my flame angel (jumped out of old system) and maybe a tang. I dont want to overdo it but I like purple tangs and would love a powder blue but they seem to be very delicate.

Thanks for checking out what Ive got so far

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Did you make the sump?

 

[Zaffor]

No Vince at Evolution Aquatics in Pompano FL makes custom acrylic sumps and more

 

[Breakthecycle2]

How much does he charge? I have the system 120, but want a custom sump with fuge made.

 

[revhtree]

Looks great!

 

[EliteReefs]

Very clean and nice looking. Great job

 

[gotzkill]

great build so far but, was wondering what the distance the lights are from each other? and the height off the water?

 

[ws6kid]

Looks great! Nice and clean.

 

[Zaffor]

I lowered them to about 8 1/2 inches from the water to reduce light spilling into living room
Lights are 20 inches center to center (13inches from edge to edge)

 

[prsnlty]

Nice set up!

 

[Zaffor]

Thanks for the positive remarks, its good to hear the feedback.

Cleaned up the wiring a bit more, almost done. I will fabricate a breakout box and that should be the last device for now.

I found some small shelves to install on door for food, test kits, and misc small items.

And finally, i just finished installing led strip lightng. Will try to use breakout box and mag switches so sump will illuminate when the doors open.

 

[ReeferEric]

Very nice work with the wires. I'll eventually get around to cleaning mine up a little. Still have my whole garage I need to clean up, looks like someone dropped a nuke on it.

 

[Zaffor]

I built a DIY Apex breakout box last weekend and wired it to some alarm magnetic contacts so the sump light comes on when you open either door. Simple yet convenient.

And installed the vertex skimmer neck auto cleaner and programmed apex to run it for 1 min every 8 hours.

 

[zach_discus]

Wow!! Very nice and extremely clean set-up. You did a great job laying out your design and sticking with it. Looking at this I'm pretty ashamed of whats under my tanks

 

[ChristopherKriens]

What's this crap?!

Looks great!

 

[Zaffor]

Been a while wince i update this.

I setup a quarantine tank several weeks ago to start adding fish. Started with a leopard wrasse who I got to eat pellets before adding to display. Now have a trio of carberryi anthias and a purple queen who is extremely picky eating. Few more weeks and at least the carberryi will move to display.

Also have been dealing with pale colors on sps. Initially thought light was too intense but tested par and came to conclusion water is just too clean with the bio pellet reactor. Nitrates always at 0 phosphates 0.05 give or take .01. Trying out feeding the corals some and adding some pohls xtra special and coral vitalizer with some slow positive results.

 

[zibba]

I built a DIY Apex breakout box last weekend and wired it to some alarm magnetic contacts so the sump light comes on when you open either door. Simple yet convenient.

Great build so far. Can you message me or post some instructions/materials for this? Yours looks great.