134-Gallon Cube Build - Random Flow Generator® Powered Mixed Reef - Lots of Pics!

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Isn't it amazing how a tank starts to settle in around the 1 year mark? It's looking great!!!

My 135 just crossed the CA reactor milestone at around the 2 year mark where my 2L DDR containers no longer hold a weeks worth of 2 part and I need to shift gears to using a reactor.

Whiskey

This tank took a bit different path than our last one - the last one was a simple upgrade for smaller tank to a larger tank. The "Ugly" stage was almost non existent. This one however might be the first tank (not counting Nano tanks) I've setup from a cold start in years. So it's been a fun learning experience , and I'm please with results so far.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

took some top-downs during a water change session earlier this week. and just wanted to share

 

[hollow6210]

Just finished reading through the thread. Tank look great. Thanks for the reverse check valve video--may have to use that in the future.

 

[Wiskey]

It's looking fantastic!!! Very nice work!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Just finished reading through the thread. Tank look great. Thanks for the reverse check valve video--may have to use that in the future.

Thanks - the reverse Check Valve setup has worked out really well for me. it was actually inspired by the similar setup on Marc Levenson's (@Mele__Reef ) setup.

This was the first time I did it on a build, and i will likely use it an any future builds I do as well.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Remember that time you forgot to glue the pipes together on your high-flow closed loop underneath your 134-gallon cube tank, and then ran that tank for a little over a year before discovering it?

I do....

I only discovered it because I was disassembling the left loop do to an odd reading from the flow sensor. I closed the valves and drained the pipe. Went to undo the unions, and the pipe was just dry fit. No glue!

Also, no salt creep and no leaks of any kind - for more than a year. The dry fit wasn't even that tight.

Makes me wonder how much we really need PVC glue

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Sad news - lost one of my favorite fish few days ago on Monday. The yellow Coris Warsse I have had for at least 6 years (maybe 7) died.

Not exactly sure what happened - but it happened in as quick as 3 days. All other fish are fine.

Early morning on Friday of last week, I notices some odd behavior from him (swimming in circles) and what looked like small dents and light colored patches.

it seemed like it was in a bit of shock - but didn't appear to be breathing heavy, and (other than the white splotches) his coloration was 100% normal. Its behavior was off though - no hunting the sand bed, showing no interest in food and staying mid-water.

I kept an eye on him and over the next day he quickly it got back to acting normal - By Saturday afternoon he was eating again, hunting the sand bed, swimming normally. Although his look had improved, there was still what looked like lighter colored patches - but less pronounced.

Sunday the same. Even better than the day before.

Then I came in on Monday morning the lights came on and I found him just sort if wedged in headfirst in a small crevice and upside down. Dead.

Other than being dead - he looked pretty normal. Not even cloudy eyes, so i assume he had died just before lights on. This was the pic I took as I pulled him out. :-(

You can still see the faint white patches.

All other fish in the system are still normal - no signs of issues. Sent off an ICP test, just to see if anything shows up, although I don't expect to see anything out of the ordinary.

Kind of of crappy - I really liked this fish.

The tank will miss him... :-(

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Sad news - lost one of my favorite fish few days ago on Monday. The yellow Coris Warsse I have had for at least 6 years (maybe 7) died.

Not exactly sure what happened - but it happened in as quick as 3 days. All other fish are fine.

Early morning on Friday of last week, I notices some odd behavior from him (swimming in circles) and what looked like small dents and light colored patches.

it seemed like it was in a bit of shock - but didn't appear to be breathing heavy, and (other than the white splotches) his coloration was 100% normal. Its behavior was off though - no hunting the sand bed, showing no interest in food and staying mid-water.

I kept an eye on him and over the next day he quickly it got back to acting normal - By Saturday afternoon he was eating again, hunting the sand bed, swimming normally. Although his look had improved, there was still what looked like lighter colored patches - but less pronounced.

Sunday the same. Even better than the day before.

Then I came in on Monday morning the lights came on and I found him just sort if wedged in headfirst in a small crevice and upside down. Dead.

Other than being dead - he looked pretty nominal. Not even cloudy eyes, so i assume he had died just before lights on. This was the pic I took as I pulled him out. :-(

You can still see the faint white patches.

All other fish in the system are still normal - no signs of issues. Sent off an ICP test, just to see if anything shows up, although I don't expect to see anything out of the ordinary.

Kind of of crappy - I really liked this fish.

The tank will miss him... :-(

Sorry about the loss with your tank!!

 

[bakbay]

Sorry to hear about your loss -- such a bummer!

Congrats - simply an amazing setup! Actually, my tank's dimension is the same as yours. I love what you've done w.r.t. flow, sump design, aquascape, etc. I'm not that handy so this build thread is quite an inspiration. My next tank upgrade will need to be hard plumbed and even closed loops.

Keep up the great work!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Sorry to hear about your loss -- such a bummer!

Congrats - simply an amazing setup! Actually, my tank's dimension is the same as yours. I love what you've done w.r.t. flow, sump design, aquascape, etc. I'm not that handy so this build thread is quite an inspiration. My next tank upgrade will need to be hard plumbed and even closed loops.

Keep up the great work!

thanks - I was pretty bummed when we lost that fish. he added a lot to the tank. I had had him for quite a while.

Replacing it with a new fish will also prove to be a challenge, the Tang really doesn't like any new additions. I may end up re-homing the Sailfin as he's getting pretty big for this system anyway.

In any case, the coral growth continues to be really good and I'm very pleased the the direction of that.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Here is a current shot of the display tank.

You can see the fish trap I dropped in a few days ago, just to get the fish used to it, just in case I should decide to re-home the tang.

for me, its important that, should I rehome, i want the tang to go to an appropriately sized tank. If the opportunity presents itself, I need to be ready to catch that fish quickly.

 

[bakbay]

Currently, I have {sailfin, naso, yellow, purple, and blue} tangs, fox face, and a damsel (he's ~11yo). I have not added anything new in 18mos so cannot relate to re-homing. However, I'm in a similar situation where the sailfin, naso, and blue tangs are too big for the tank! Shhh - please don't tell my wife. I want more reasons to upgrade to a bigger tank!

I love your copperband butterfly - such a beautiful fish! I hope s/he's keeping your aiptasias at bay?

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Currently, I have {sailfin, naso, yellow, purple, and blue} tangs, fox face, and a damsel (he's ~11yo). I have not added anything new in 18mos so cannot relate to re-homing. However, I'm in a similar situation where the sailfin, naso, and blue tangs are too big for the tank! Shhh - please don't tell my wife. I want more reasons to upgrade to a bigger tank!

I love your copperband butterfly - such a beautiful fish! I hope s/he's keeping your aiptasias at bay?

The Copperband and is an a aphasia eating machine. Unfortunately also an acan eating machine too - LOL

A fair trade for such an awesome fish.

I'll let aphasia grow in one of our nano tanks sometime and then feed it to the Copperband. Sometime I'll just throw the rock in and let him search for it, other times I'll feed him by hand with it.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

This is the proof of concept!

this tank has reached about 18 months old, and I'm going to call it - the Random Flow Generator® is capable of creating the kind of flow needed to produce a successful reef tank.

Of course, I already knew that, but this tank was the first opportunity I had to really show this off in terms of creating a thriving mixed reef tank and doing it by keeping thing relatively simple and creating flow with just the Random Flow Generator. In this case, two 1in RFGs on the closed loop and two 1/2in RFGs on the returns

The unique flow patterns that are the main contributor to the success of t
his tank are created by the closed loop with just two of our 1in Random Flow Generator nozzles and two 1/2in RFG nozzles on the returns.

Not every tank is set up to run on just Random Flow Generator nozzles, but nearly every tank out there can benefit from what the RFG nozzle brings to the party.

 

[Reign1]

really awesome build.. I was wondering what light is on this system.
Also I do not believe a reverse siphon/check valve would work on a tank that had returns coming up through the bottom even if the check is high up correct?

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

really awesome build.. I was wondering what light is on this system.
Also I do not believe a reverse siphon/check valve would work on a tank that had returns coming up through the bottom even if the check is high up correct?

Thanks

>> I was wondering what light is on this system.
Right now, and since it was set up, I'm running as single Neptune SKY. However, I'm on the hunt for some sort of supplemental lighting to add in a bit a shimmer and to fill in the some of the shadows that coral growth has created. I'll likely end up with a set of strip lights.

>> Also I do not believe a reverse siphon/check valve would work on a tank that had returns coming up through the bottom even if the check is high up correct?

Possibly - it would have e to be tested. The main thing with the reverse check valve setup is that the check valve (which is installed in reverse) needs to be positioned as the highest point. while the return pipe need run just above water level, before dropping back down into the tank. So if you wanted to run a reverse check valve on a bottom inlet return, you return pipe run would need to come up the back of the tank up to and above the water line - the reverse check valve. would be installed there, and then the pip run would need to drop back down under the tank, and up through the bottom. probably way more complicated than it would be worth

With tat said, most tanks with the bottom inlet usually have some sort of overflow box. if not, then I would covert that inlet to a closed loop.

Speaking of closed loops -I'm getting ready to make some changes to the one in this tank. The coral is growing and its time to raise up the stand pipes in the back.

As it is right now, we are using our 1in RFG with the 1in threaded NPT fittings. - but I'm going to do away with the NPT fitting and go with our new Multidapter for a much shorter nozzle setup

I'll stick with the 1in size for the tank - but here are some photos of our new, forthcoming 1.25in Flex-Series RFG and matching Multidapter™.






With this setup - I 'll be able to shave off more than a 1/2in to the total length of the RFG, and Elbow setup. As the Multidapter allows the base of the RFG to sit right at the edge of the elbow.



I'm hoping to receive the black PVC pipe in a the next few days so we can get this done.

 

[reef’r]

@Vivid Creative Aquatics amazing build thread, read the whole thing today and am going to use this as inspiration for my 60 gallon cube, my first reef tank. Will also be purchasing some products from you, will you be at reefapalooza orlando next weekend by chance?

 

[reef’r]

@Vivid Creative Aquatics amazing build thread, read the whole thing today and am going to use this as inspiration for my 60 gallon cube, my first reef tank. Will also be purchasing some products from you, will you be at reefapalooza orlando next weekend by chance!

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

@Vivid Creative Aquatics amazing build thread, read the whole thing today and am going to use this as inspiration for my 60 gallon cube, my first reef tank. Will also be purchasing some products from you, will you be at reefapalooza orlando next weekend by chance?

Yes - we will be at RAP Orlando. I believe our booth number is 208. Both myself (Antonio) and the Boss (Darlene) will be there manning the booth as usual and we love meeting our customers, so definitely come by the booth and I'll happy to help

 

[reef’r]

Awesome, will definitely be stopping by and checking some of your stuff out