140g DROP OFF REEF (THE REAL ONE)

27ppatel · Jun 17, 2015

Hi Fans,

Welcome to my new build. I recently wanted an aquarium that was one of a kind. What I wanted was a REAL DROP OFF REEF. What i mean by real is something more then a 12" drop or 24" drop. I've contacted a few companies and everyone was willing to build me one but only suggested an acrylic drop off. While acrylic is lighter in weight and more transparency with no iron content like glass, it just scratches TOO easily!

So the only company that assured me with a safe build was Primo Reef Acrylics. While their company name does say acrylic I was hesitant at first about them building glass aquariums. However upon youtube searches I found they do build more top quality aquariums then many out there.

Lets cut to the case! As mentioned this is a 140 gallon aquarium that is 48"x24"x40" (drop) with 19mm STARPHIRE glass as ONE PIECE and finally not a two piece format. Because I did not want to take the chance and build a cheap DIY 2x4 stand and risk such a magnificent aquarium breaking or stand failing with weak points, soI had them construct an Aluminum T-Slot stand. The stand is SUPERB! I was SHOCKED to see that it was low profile and the ample room within the stand allowed me to get the biggest sump I needed. I had a sump make that is 28"x20"x17" with a 5 chamber setup. First stage, Drain In, second stage; 3 filter socks, third stage; skimmer, forth stage; reactor chamber or refugium, last stage; the good old return pump.

ENOUGH TALKING AND LETS SHOW THE TANK!

Oscaror · Jun 17, 2015

awesome!

SCMatt · Jun 17, 2015

Love tanks like this. Love the single pane of glass too. Can't wait to see it come together. I'm so jealous.

27ppatel · Jun 17, 2015

Now Shall we get into the plumbing. All PVC was bought by Bulk Reef Supply. Orange was not my top choice but the fact of EVERYONE in the hobby choose red, I wanted to try something different.

What I really wanted to note on this overflow is something REALLY DIFFERENT! All typical overflows have acrylic internal overflows or glass external. So the guys at the company where very creative in creating something I had an idea for and pulled through!

As you can see that the overflow wall is a 12mm or 1/2" glass with vinyl on the back. The top portion is the 007 concept! It is a 3/8" thick acrylic that has a "U" channel that fits on the thickness of the 12mm glass. The weir system was then glued onto it to it creates a one piece unit. The return line has a 3/4" bulkhead hole in the centre of the overflow teeth.

from there I have 2 drains that are 1.5". First is a primary (the lower one) and second is the emergency. Only the primary drain has a 1.5" gate valve attached to it to control the water noise.

AsphaltPays · Jun 17, 2015

Beautiful setup! Looks Amazing!

27ppatel · Jun 17, 2015

WHO'S READY FOR AQUASCAPE!

Now this was a VERY difficult task when it came to aquascaping a drop off that is 40"! A lot of drawing was done and then scrapped!

The whole idea behind the following aquascape was to have medium sized rocks and with a futuristic imagination of it filled up with corals. With speaking to many people in the hobby, the first time issues people have with filling their tanks with rocks is that a year down the road, there is no room for corals! So this was a issue I wanted to avoid. This is were the creative mind comes into play!

All the rocks here are Pukani rock that I picked up from a friend that was cleaned and cycled a few months back. With this saying the rocks had to again go through a cycling stage but not a major concern with phosphates leaking out.

The COOLEST feather of the aquascaping on this was the DROP! The question was, do I aquascape with tonga branches or use small to medium sized rocks? if I use Tonga branch then I can see the wall behind the tonga's, which I did not want. If I used small to medium sized rocks then the build up of detritus was a MAJOR concern with vacuuming it at the 40" lowest section.

So the idea came to mind! Using a 1/4" acrylic sheet, cement all (local hardware store), crushed coral and corse sand, I did a mixture of cement with the added substrates and improvised. The two rocks you see that are held in the top and mid section of the wall create a VERY UNIQUE and AVATAR FLOATING MOUNTAIN look! This was achieved by using 1/2" wide with 1/4" thick acrylic that stuck on the acrylic ahead of time with Weld-On. I then waited 24 hours for it to dry and cure then used a propane torch to create an UP arch so the rock can be used to "Hook" it on a particular spot (pre-planning)

WHAT NEXT? WATER!

revhtree · Jun 17, 2015

OOh wow! LOVE!

27ppatel · Jun 17, 2015

Soon after the vertical wall was cured in a square container for about It was placed in the tank and sand was added.

What do you think of it now?

reef heaven · Jun 17, 2015

Loving this

Ebone · Jun 17, 2015

this is pretty wild, nice job

aqualov3r · Jun 17, 2015

I love the the avatar floating rock concept you have going on there

27ppatel · Jun 17, 2015

Now lets talk about equipment and what I have....

Filter Socks: 3 sets of 200 micron filter socks in the beginning to remove all fine particles. Soon after I will be switching to 3 sets of Vertex Nylon filter socks so remove large particles. On the odd occasion (maybe a week in a month) I will go back to cotton socks to remove fine particles.

SKIMMER: Reef Octopus Elite 200-int. This is far the best skimmer I've ever had. The bottle style body is very effective in the flow of bubbles (great design and concept). The DC pump on the skimmer is another FANTASTIC feather to have. It allows to skimmer to operate in 5 different settings. The main part of this skimmer that tops off is the noise cancelling foam that is located at the top of were the silicone air pipe goes into. This muffles the sound down to 80% compared to other skimmers in the market I've tested with previous tanks.

Return Pump: Reef Octopus Dc550. So far a VERY quite pump and the option to control the flow rate is a major advantage to cut down flow to save on electric hydro bill.

The tank has a 3 to 5 time turn over flow rate in and out of the sump. The old method of turning over the tank 10times the volume are olden days that no longer apply. This method was done because at the time of, we or they, did not have the technology of high power powerbeads or flow pumps in the tank to keep within the tank. This was also proven with research by expert reef hobbist that when you have a 10 times + tank turn over going through the sump that the skimmer pump inlet does NOT catch 80% of the water flowing through a 1/2" to 3/8" hole. Believe it or not? but true!

Heater + Controller: Titanium Heater with Reef Octopus Heater Controller. I MUST NOTE TO EVERYONE! This is one of those equipment that NO ONE should cheap out on, or take chances with. I've previously bought all the mid range heaters and quality end heaters and with time the heater coils losing the coil function to heat and fluctuation in temperature is not the best thing when keeping delicate fish and corals (sps). With a heater controller I no long have this worry. All year around, the temperature in the tank does not fluctuate more then +-1 degree Summer (day and night) and winter.

Flow In the Drop: For this, there is ONLY ONE pump to use! Ecotech Marine Vortech MP40. By having the dry side component on the outside allows users to keep all wires OUT of the tank. I mean after spending all this money on this tank, the last thing I wanted was a pump close to 40" deep with a wire coming up and over the tank. For now, I have the vortech but looking into and researching more on the Gyre pump for the top section. As you can see that before I did my aquascape I had to measure, and RE-MEASURE were the vortech pump was going to be and cut out a hole for the pump to be placed. Before the cut out of the hole, some serious testing was done to see where the flow of the pump was most efficient at! (Example: too low and there would be a sand storm. Too high and a chance of heavy detritus building up.)

Lighting: AI Fifty Two. This was a light I had from my previous setup. Currently this is also in a testing phase to see if I need another light or not. Most likely, Yes! But again, all testing. The light is running at around 85% of power at a total of manufacture 135watt listing. This is a 4 puck light, 3 of the pucks are towards the drop off and 1 puck is on the shallow section. The only part of my tank that gets light but very dim, is close to the overflow wall. This is something of exactly what I wanted. To be able to place light sensitive to low light absorbing corals in. With a 40" drop, I will not be putting corals right down to the bottom! The rock on the bottom of the drop is about 12" high. The light from the water surface is 8.5". So the rock on the bottom of the drop, the top portion of the rock to the water surface is about 34" to 28", this I think should be more then ok for placing corals and having them grow up towards the light.

IF ANYONE ELSE HAS RECOMMENDATION OF OTHER PRODUCTS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADVISE AS I WOULD TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE PICTURES SOON!.....