210 Gallon SPS dominante system.

alexjoha · Jan 10, 2019

Hi, I have a system that`s 210 gallons, the main tank is a pensula style custom made tank.

It has Opti white glass on all sides and is viewable from 3 sides.

The tank is placed between my Livingroom and the hallway.

Aquarium

Custom ordered pensula 610Liters

With full Opti white glass at 15mm

Produced by Akwarium Szczecin in Poland.

Circulation

1x Ecotech Vectra L1
3x Neptune systems WAV
1x boyu 3000L (Flow in Sump area and to manifold)

Filtration

Bubbleking Supermarine 250 + rd3 pump + avast neck cleaner.
LS: Real Reef 60-70kg dry
Deltec FR 509 - Using Rowaphos and seachem matrix carbon

Lighting

3x Ecotech Radion XR30w PRO G4
1x Ecotech Radion XR30w PRO G3
1x Kessil h380 (Sump area)

Other equipment
1 x Aqua Light Doser single head for Acropower
Computer

1 x Neptune Systems Apex 2016
2 x Apex Power bar
1 x WXM ecotech modul
1 x AFS Automatic feeder
2 x ATK Automatic Top off
1 x Apex Display Module
1 x Apex Solenoid Valve
2 x Wav Start Kit

Fish

2 x Amphiprion Ocellaris - "Nemo" clown
1 x Cryptocentrus cinctus - Yellow Prawn Goby
1 x Labroides dimidatus - Cleaner Wrasse
1 x Ctenochaetus tominiensis - Tomini Tang

Cleaning crew

Coming...

Corals

Coming...

speedstar · Jan 10, 2019

looking forward t0 more pics

Crimsonvice · Jan 10, 2019

I am loving it. Can't wait for more pics!

alexjoha · Jan 10, 2019

Old tank before tear down

I have had a tank in the same spot before this tank, so I knew what I wanted the new tank to look like.
It needed to be wider than the old tank, but I couldn’t make the water volume any larger since I had some weight restraints sins my tank is place at the second floor.
The old tank was 60cm (23inc) wide and I needed it to be 80cm (31,5inc) wide this time. The aquascape in the old tank bothered me a lot since the corals always grew out and would hit the glass.

So, I had the design ready in my head, just needed to get it down on paper, so I started the design in Sketchup.
I also needed an aquarium manufacturer, since my local shops couldn’t deliver the tank the way I wanted it to be.

It took me a while to get a hold of a tank manufacturer, I fund a firm that had a good reputation in Europe on a Swedish Facebook reef site.
And decided to contact them after I had read a few build treads and reviews from this manufacturer.

I sent them my sketches and got a pricing back, and they told me what was possible and what would be a bit difficult, the design got better and better and after some iterations I decided it was time to get it built.

The final design ended up like this:

The air slits didn’t end up in the final product since the manufacturer meant there were no need, and they were correct.

alexjoha · Jan 10, 2019

Preparation for the move

After the tank got ordered I needed to clear the space where the new tank would sit,
That meant that I needed to sell my old tank and move all the livestock. I got my hands on a used Akvastabil move 360 aquarium used for freshwater.

The space I had left over for this tank was down stairs in my laundry room. My fish and corals needed to stay in this tank for some weeks while I made the new tank ready.
That meant that I needed it to be a reef tank not a freshwater tank so I got some glass cut to size and made an overflow.

The tank in place down stairs, Now the transformation can begin.

The piping i needed finally came in the post so finally i can start the transformation!

Durso ready.

I got a used sump and skimmer from a fellow reefer for cheap, not the best design but it would work for a short period.

Got all the plumbing done so now for the new rock and filling of the tank

Finally got the tank filled, i had to borrow a light from the tank up stairs while the tank was cycling, I wanted to go over all the corals from the main tank before they got moved.
Look for any bristelworms, and remove them. Same thing with bubble algae. I also had a few emerald crabs i didn't want anymore. So the old rock wouldn't move inn to the new tank.

Salty Lemon · Jan 10, 2019

Lovin' it. Keep posting.

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Tearing down the old tank

The old tank got sold to a friend that wanted to start in the saltwater hobby.
He wasn’t going to use it as a peninsula but as a normal tank against the wall.

I started by removing a lot of the corals and rock work that i easily could get to, but over the years it had all grown together. It was painful to break everything apart

My fellow reef buddy's asked me several times if i still wanted to do this. It was such a shame to see me break down the reef, and just for some more width to the tank.

The skimmer hadn't been cleaned in 6 months ;Vomit

Guess i should have done it more often, but i hadn't had the time

A few snails in the pump

Inn to the vinegar bath you go!

Now it`s the sumps turn to get emptied out and cleaned ;Vomit

Sumps out, just need to clear everything else out of the tank now, the new owner of the tank was going to take some of the stone and coral with him

Almost nothing left in the tank now

And it`s gone! ;Nailbiting just the equipment cabinet left

He didn't have the space for everything in the care so some of it had to go on the roof ;Facepalm

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Tank down stairs

The tank down stairs got a bit to full so I had to give some corals to a friend so that he could keep them for me, I didn’t realize when I started the tear down that the corals would take so much space.

It`s just for a short while don’t judge me ;Nailbiting;Facepalm

Well i needed to have some type of dosing so i moved all my apex gear, it doesn’t look good but it works ;Facepalm

Tbabcock · Jan 11, 2019

What is the dimension of the new tank? Im looking to build a new 200+ and was looking at a stock 48"× 36" or even bigger at 48"×48".

SPR1968 · Jan 11, 2019

That’s an excellent write up and pictures Alex and thanks for taking the time to do this for us.

There was some serious what looks like Coraline build up in the NYOS skimmer after just 6 months!

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Tbabcock said:
What is the dimension of the new tank? Im looking to build a new 200+ and was looking at a stock 48"× 36" or even bigger at 48"×48".

Hi,

I normally use metric numbers but i did put my measurements in to a converter for you, my tank is 31.5 inch wide and 60 inch long,

If your able to have a tank that’s 48x48 then why not, only thing is that you will have to have double the lighting, since the width is more then what a normal light can handle. My tank is a bit wider then what the radions are designed for so I am going with a hybrid system to get full coverage, and I have 4 radions on my tank atm so that I get an even PAR reading on my rock structure.

If you go with the 48inch wide tank , then you would need 2 radions in the width of the tank to get a good coverage so it would be a bit more expensive though

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

SPR1968 said:
That’s an excellent write up and pictures Alex and thanks for taking the time to do this for us.

There was some serious what looks like Coraline build up in the NYOS skimmer after just 6 months!

Yeah the old tank used 46ml of triton core 7 everyday and had some good growth to it

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

The waiting period

Now we just had to wait for the tank to get finished, at least we could plan a bit more around the plumbing and setup, and my local shop could order in the parts I needed.
The problem with not having a tank to use all my energy on is that I have to much time to spare on the internet. ;Wacky
That means ordering more than what I need! And gadgets!

The first thing i needed to source was a good membrane valve, that`s not easy in a small country like Norway, and i needed it in metric.
I did find a store in Sweden that had them so i ordered it from them.

Also ordered a turbine flow meter ;Wideyed

The local shops didn`t have plastic clips to clamp down the hoses so i had to order from china ;Facepalm

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

When ecofriendly fails

I ordered a lot of triton core 7 and supplements, the more I ordered the better the pricing I got from the local shop.
I often buy in bulk since I know I will use it all eventually.

The first time i orderd a larger batch of triton core 7 it looked like this

I Really miss that packaging!

the first batch of triton was a success and I could reduce the dosing from 450ml with balling down to around 46ml with triton core 7.
I loved the bottles and the ease of use, I could just tell my girlfriend to open a new bottle and poring it in to the dosing container if it was needed.
Since I could turn down the dosing amount to 46ml instead of 450ml a day that meant that my GF didn’t need to fill my reservoir while I was away at work.

Since my experience with triton was so good I obviously ordered more when the first batch was all gone, and in came the milk cartons instead of the plastic containers.
What I didn’t plan on was that the new packaging that triton had decided to go for would leak over time. ;Facepalm;Facepalm;Facepalm

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my triton core 7 in a plastic container, they were all in my cabinet and that did get destroyed.
I decided that I am not taking the chance on these cartons now that they have leaked out large amounts. So I decided to empty them out and recycle the cartons…

I couldn't save the part 1 and 2 since i kept them all together ;Facepalm

I have no words.. ;Facepalm

The only way i would buy triton core 7 now a days is in 10L jugs like thees.
I am never buying cartons again, i had to transfer all the trace elements that came in cartons too the old plastic bottles too

Here is an unopened Strontium carton leaking after 2 weeks. ;Facepalm

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Killing Aptasia with a laser?

I did find a few aptasia in the small tank down stairs and had heard about people using lasers to fry them, so I went on to ebay and ordered one.

It looks like the shipping was a bit on the ruff side!

Everything inside did survive tho!

First test! not easy trying to film with one hand and focus the laser with one hand

but it did work

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Pukani or Real Reef rock?

I had ordered in about 50kg of dry pukani rock and plats for my new build, but I still wanted some larger plates to use in my aquascape.
I looked all over the place for some good plates to add but I had no luck.
After my local shop contacted there distributer and ask them if they could get ahold of some larger plates for a costumer they said that they did have some real reef rock plates that they had used in a show earlier that yare.

They sent some pictures to my local shop of the ruff dimensions and the weight of each plate they had. And they looked great!
Soooo what to do now then?? They wouldn’t fit in with the pukani I already had ordered.
Should I take a gamble and buy all new Real Reef Rock and try to sell my Pukani rock?
Or should I just keep the rock I had and forget about the large plates that I could get?

So this is what they sent me and they look so nice!

So after estimating the cost of changing out all my rock i decided that YES! ill go for all new Real Reef Rock!

After a week i got this photo from my local shop!!

my rock had arrived

Some more teasers from the local shop since he knew i couldn't come and get them the same day

Nice shape and size

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

The Tank Is Here!

The tank finally arrived from Poland, it went inside with a clearance of 1inch (2-3cm) through the door and inn to the living room!
Next time I’ll get some glass mover suction cups! Lesson learned!

I had to store it a bit away from where it`s going to sit until i had painted the back and finished the piping so we decided to put the tank on it`s stand so that i could measure out everything

The sump and ATO tank looks flawless!

They even countersunk the holes in the metal!

Screw in place sitting flush

Adjustable feet was also included

The holes for the drain pipes through the top plate was coated with silicon to prevent swelling

Here is a closer look

Tested all the pieces to see how the tank would look finished

I can`t wait to get started on the plumbing for this tank! ;Joyful

An other nice detail on the tank, they have put a fillet on the edges of the holes for the return pipes

The logo is in place!

I think ill actually keep it on

This is how they rest the top on the edge

Look at that craftsman ship!

there are NO internal silicone for me to hit with my scraper!

I have never seen a silicone job like this one! its amazing

First fish in the tank!

That back wall needs to get painted black or something so i don't see the piping and cables

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Painting the overflow

The back wall of the tank needed some paint so I couldn’t see the pips and cables going down to the sump. I used Benga lack and painted it black

Here we go!

let's hide those pipes!

Looks alot better now

now i need some type of comb so that fish don't fall over the overflow... but what to use??

Side view of the overflow where the comb needs to sit.

Maybe i should get the D-D UltraFlow Weir comb?
The solution will come further down

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Plumbing the tank

Next step would be the plumbing, I had ordered more or less everything for this, but I was still missing the threaded parts for the flow sensor.

First thing i mounted was the return lines, i wanted them to come out in the opposit end of where the overflow is

good to have some unions on the plumbing for later disassembly

After I had mounted the return line and looked at how to route it down through the cabinet, it became clear that this would be a problem later on when the tank would be sitting against the wall too, so I decided to make the hole larger so that I had ample room to work under the overflow if needed. (adding pump magnets and so on.)

I liked the idea of using silicone to seal off the wood so i did the same thing with the new hole i made

Got my self one of these for the plumbing but it was to week for 40mm piping so i broke it, back to the good old table saw

alexjoha · Jan 11, 2019

Putting the tank where it belongs

I now felt ready to move the tank in to the space where it was supposed to be,
After painting and checking everything 10 times. So, I called my reefing buddy’s again and asked for some moving help!

Yeah I forgot about the suction cups for the glass again! So, it got really heavy and tricky, now that the yoga math was placed on top of the stand. Trying to keep that from wrinkling under the tank and getting the tank in the correct place at the same time was a real pain in the butt! :mad:;Facepalm;Facepalm

I leveled out the height differences between the 2 floors with some hard waterproof finer so that the feet would sit at the correct height and not damage the floors.