After some deliberation and tossing ideas around I've finally convinced my wife to allow me to build my dream tank. It's been a number of years since I had a reef tank. My last set up needed to be torn down, when I moved into her very small condo. Fast forward to present day.
We purchased our home 1 year ago, in Freeport Maine. We recently learned that we will need to replace our oil furnace so that is obstacle number one. And last summer we put in a new back yard, and built a pad for a shed. The Mrs. really wants this shed built next spring, this is obstacle number two. You know what they say happy wife etc. also she's letting me do this so I better make her happy any way I can. In the mean time I will be and have been doing lots of planning and saving money. My birthday is Feb. 14, so hopefully I will get some decent cash, as well as tax return money to help fund this project. I will be needing to purchase a lot of new equipment, as my last set up was only a 40breeder. I will be slowly purchasing parts as well as the tank in the coming months.
The plan so far is to use a pantry that divides our dinning and kitchen to house the tank. The tank will be 48x20x24. I'm going to go with Miracles or Coast to Coast for the tank. I thought about going with SCA but the glass they use is substantially thinner and this tank is going to be here for the long haul so quality is a must! There will be two viewing panels one of which will be a side.
This will be a mixed reef heavy on SPS. The sump and refugium will be in the basement. I'm going to use my old 40breeder with coast to coast overflow as the fuge, and my 29 as the sump. I may get another 40breeder to use as the sump once I make my final equipment decisions.
I've been trying to decide if I want to plumb the DT overflow directly to the fuge and then the fuge to the sump or just use a separate return pump to feed the fuge from the sump. I like the idea of using less pumps , but I also want the skimmer to be cleaning the DT water so I have to think about that more. The return from the sump to DT will be an Ecotech Vectra L1. There is about 13 feet from the sump to the top of the DT, so I need something with good head pressure. Skimmer will be a reef octopus 202 8" internal. Flow in the display will be a gyre 150 and miscellaneous hydors and a sicce eventually switched out to mp10s and mp40s. I am also thinking of going zeovit or at least partial zeovit so I need to leave room in the sump for a reactor. Lighting will be all LED. I have a diy rapid led array that I made for my 40 breeder that will ultimately light the fuge, once I have enough cash for some kessils. I have really been liking the A360w-e tuna blues. I think three would give me the coverage and par I will require. But I'm still on the hunt. $1200 for lights is a lot of cash, especially when I can spend 1/2 that and still light the tank well.
I recently started working on the fish area of the basement. I built a new stand for the sump, and started cleaning up the fuge and sump tank. I've cut out most of the panels from my old sump and am starting to layout the new baffles.
Anyway that's kind of where things stand now. As I said this is going to be a slow build. But that way I will be able to thoroughly think things through. After all you don't plan to fail, you fail to plan. Stay tuned for updates.
We purchased our home 1 year ago, in Freeport Maine. We recently learned that we will need to replace our oil furnace so that is obstacle number one. And last summer we put in a new back yard, and built a pad for a shed. The Mrs. really wants this shed built next spring, this is obstacle number two. You know what they say happy wife etc. also she's letting me do this so I better make her happy any way I can. In the mean time I will be and have been doing lots of planning and saving money. My birthday is Feb. 14, so hopefully I will get some decent cash, as well as tax return money to help fund this project. I will be needing to purchase a lot of new equipment, as my last set up was only a 40breeder. I will be slowly purchasing parts as well as the tank in the coming months.
The plan so far is to use a pantry that divides our dinning and kitchen to house the tank. The tank will be 48x20x24. I'm going to go with Miracles or Coast to Coast for the tank. I thought about going with SCA but the glass they use is substantially thinner and this tank is going to be here for the long haul so quality is a must! There will be two viewing panels one of which will be a side.
I've been trying to decide if I want to plumb the DT overflow directly to the fuge and then the fuge to the sump or just use a separate return pump to feed the fuge from the sump. I like the idea of using less pumps , but I also want the skimmer to be cleaning the DT water so I have to think about that more. The return from the sump to DT will be an Ecotech Vectra L1. There is about 13 feet from the sump to the top of the DT, so I need something with good head pressure. Skimmer will be a reef octopus 202 8" internal. Flow in the display will be a gyre 150 and miscellaneous hydors and a sicce eventually switched out to mp10s and mp40s. I am also thinking of going zeovit or at least partial zeovit so I need to leave room in the sump for a reactor. Lighting will be all LED. I have a diy rapid led array that I made for my 40 breeder that will ultimately light the fuge, once I have enough cash for some kessils. I have really been liking the A360w-e tuna blues. I think three would give me the coverage and par I will require. But I'm still on the hunt. $1200 for lights is a lot of cash, especially when I can spend 1/2 that and still light the tank well.
I recently started working on the fish area of the basement. I built a new stand for the sump, and started cleaning up the fuge and sump tank. I've cut out most of the panels from my old sump and am starting to layout the new baffles.
Anyway that's kind of where things stand now. As I said this is going to be a slow build. But that way I will be able to thoroughly think things through. After all you don't plan to fail, you fail to plan. Stay tuned for updates.