2500L past, present and …….future?

[Haydn]

This is a tank thread with a difference- the system has been working for nearly 20 years, it has gone through a number of incarnations in that time. I hope you find something of interest as the thread rambles on.

I wrote this in 2002 when the tank was about a year old

About 2 years ago we moved house. The new place had an old (leaky) conservatory, which we decided to replace with a room we could use all year round. This meant I could design a reef set-up without the constriction of making it fit into an existing space and I could let my imagination run (reasonably) riot!

So this set-up was born:

The tank is 2m x 1m x 1m (78in x 39in x 39in) made from 19mm glass. It has a weir to 4 x 1.5in holes to drain water to the sump, which is at the side of the tank. I wanted to make a feature of this by growing mangroves and sea grasses. The sump is 1.5m x 1m x 600mm deep (60in x 39in x 24in) and is a pit set into the floor (a marine pond), lined with a pond liner. The whole system holds about 550 uk galls. It has been running for about 8 months.

The hardware:

Skimmer- Turbofloter 5000

Pumps- 2 x ITT Marlow 2500 galls/hr- 1 pump is used to circulate the water from sump to the tank and drive the skimmer. The second circulates the water just around the tank (and act as a stand-by if the other fails). There are 20 Maxijet 1200’s. 16 on a wave maker (4 to a channel) and 4 on continuously to reduce dead spots at the back of the live rock.

Lighting- 3 x STM 250w M/H, 2 x 10,000K and 1 x 20,000K plus 2 x 60in Actinics. There are 2 spotlights over the sump on a timer to give a reverse photo-period.

Other equipment- Deltec calcium reactor. 2 x 30w UV’s used occasionally, RO unit for water replacement.

The interesting stuff:

Both the tank and the sump have DSB’s, approx. 8in deep in the tank and 6in in the sump. A total of 200Kilos of coral sand and aragonite plus 25kilos of aragomud in the sump.

There are 350Kilos of LR in the tank

This is the earliest picture I could find from 2003. I have already changed some of the kit, but it gives an idea of the layout

And the liner in the pond had been replaced with a proper glass tank

The kit had evolved

Circulation
Through the sump(pond) ITT Marlow 2500gall/hr pump
Spare ITT Marlow 2500 gall/hr on a closed loop in the tank
2 x 6100 Tunze Streams
16 x 1200 Maxijets on a wavemaker (4 to a channel)

Lighting
Tank
6 x 400watt M/H a mixture of 10kk and 20kk to give an asthetic look (to me

)
2 x 55watt actinics
Pond
2 x 50watt halogen spots reverse photoperiod

Bits
Deltec Kalwasser stirrer direct from an RO connected to the mains (soon to be made auto topup, I have to turn it on at the moment)
Koralin 4001 calk reactor
Turbofloter 5000 skimmer

A more pictures

Then about mid 2004 I started to have problems- totally my fault I hadn't designed the DSB properly and after a lot of soul searching I decided to strip the tank down and rebuild.

But that's for the next installment

 

[SPR1968]

Sounds good so far Haydn and keep those pictures coming!

And your just ‘down the road’ from me

 

[Smarkow]

Awesome!
Love the retrospective. It’s good for my impatience
Can you tell us more about the mangrove pond?
Thanks for sharing

 

[Haydn]

Awesome!
Love thebretrospective. It’s good for my impatience
Can you tell us more about the mangrove pond?
Thanks for sharing

Thanks
These pictures are from 2016 (so a bit of a spoiler) when it was empty.

It was a suggestion from the architect to make the sump a feature by mounting in the floor, I don't think he really understood marines, because he had water lilies in mock-up. It was originally lined with a pond liner but I couldn't seal it, so I had a glass tank installed. When it's running it holds about 500ltrs of water. There is a 1Mx1Mx20cm deep sand bed, made up of coral gravel between 1mm and 5mm. I keep the gravel loose with armies of Nassarius snails, sand boring worms, some whelks and a couple of sea mice. On the left side I have about 25Kilo of LR where I grow sponges. The container at the back is for a semi-cryptic zone. The flow through the sump is around 10,000-12,000ltrs/hr around 5 times system capacity.

It is stocked with various algae, I harvest half of it every month or so.

 

[Smarkow]

It was a suggestion from the architect to make the sump a feature by mounting in the floor, I don't think he really understood marines, because he had water lilies in mock-up.

 

[Haydn]

Part 2 2004 to 2007

Because I had problems with the sand bed in the tank I decided to replace the sand with LR rubble and encourage mushrooms, zoa's (not the fancy ones you get today) and other softies to grow over it. I smashed up 50k of LR and spread it over the bottom. I kept the DSB in the sump as that was still working fine. I built a couple of glass structures to create caves under each pile of LR, to make a more open structure to help water flow.

Lighting was 6x 400Watt Lowbay commercial halide units, a mix of 10kk and 20KK bulbs. Circulation was the ITT Marlow Pumps. circulation within the tank was now 5x 20,000L/H Tunze Streams.

I can only find pictures after it had up and running for a couple of years and the tank had pretty much matured-
FTS

This acro is about 18" across to give you an idea of scale

Fish stock included
5 Yellow Tangs Zebrasoma Flavescens
2 Emperor Tangs Zebrasoma Xanthurum
1 Yellow Eye Tang Ctenochaetus Strigosus
1 Chevron Tang Ctenochaetus Hawaiiensis
1 Powder Blue Tang Acanthurus Leucosternon
1 Wildfire Tang Ctenochaetus Tominiensis
22 Green Chromis Chromis Viridis
15 Marceas Anthias Pseudanthias Marcea
28 Tuka Anthias Pseudanthias Tuka
5 Resplendent Anthias Pseudanthias pulcherrimus
2 Percula clowns
1Green coral goby Gobiodon Rivulatus
3 Bellus angels 1 male and two females Genicanthus Bellus They spawn each month
1 Copperband Butterflyfish Chelmon rostratus
1Algae Blenny Salarias Fasciatus
1Foxface SiganusUnimaculatus

Just as a bit of fun here's my second tank in about 1975 a 4' x 18" x 18"

I can't believe some of the stuff we kept then

In 2007 I decided to close it down and up date the equipment- but that's part 3.

 

[Smarkow]

I did the same thing with my live rock!

Picture from last week. I’m trying to get the same zoa/paly/shroom look that you have. Wifey wants sand back in though so... time will tell.

Looking forward to part 3!

 

[Haydn]

Part 3- My wife was making deep mutterings about the size of the electricity bill- I suppose she had a point 2xITT Marlow pumps at 750Watts each, 6x400watt Lowbay halides with magnetic ballasts, which incidentally were buzzing (another moan!) and I suppose I had itchy fingers for a bit of an upgrade...

So out went the Marlows and in went 2x Sequence 15000s at just 250Watt each, out went the Lowbays, replaced by 4x 400W electronic ballast halides. Overall it reduced the electricity cost by 50% a good saving.

So it starts, sorry I took lots of pictures of this I hope I don't bore you. Removing some 300Kilo of LR takes some time, especially rummaging around hoping not to find another blinking bristleworm!

Thank goodness the wife was away for this bit

I couldn't have done it without the help of my good mate Keith

Clean and all the rock out

The LR was cleaned and sterilised so I decided to do the tankscape dry. Not a good photo but...

LHS

The bommie was built in the garden using egg crate as a base, I took lots of photos and rebuilt it in the tank.

One happy but knackered tired builder

Here's a picture just after I started the fill

Just 13 days and 75kilo of salt later the water is circulating around the sump.

The scape looks OK, you can't see any egg crate

The equipment cupboard

I'll stop here and leave you drooling for the next installment Stocking the monster

 

[Smarkow]

Part 3- My wife was making deep mutterings about the size of the electricity bill- I suppose she had a point 2xITT Marlow pumps at 750Watts each, 6x400watt Lowbay halides with magnetic ballasts, which incidentally were buzzing (another moan!) and I suppose I had itchy fingers for a bit of an upgrade...

So out went the Marlows and in went 2x Sequence 15000s at just 250Watt each, out went the Lowbays, replaced by 4x 400W electronic ballast halides. Overall it reduced the electricity cost by 50% a good saving.

So it starts, sorry I took lots of pictures of this I hope I don't bore you. Removing some 300Kilo of LR takes some time, especially rummaging around hoping not to find another blinking bristleworm!

Thank goodness the wife was away for this bit

I couldn't have done it without the help of my good mate Keith

Clean and all the rock out

The LR was cleaned and sterilised so I decided to do the tankscape dry. Not a good photo but...

LHS

The bommie was built in the garden using egg crate as a base, I took lots of photos and rebuilt it in the tank.

One happy but knackered tired builder

Here's a picture just after I started the fill

Just 13 days and 75kilo of salt later the water is circulating around the sump.

The scape looks OK, you can't see any egg crate

The equipment cupboard

I'll stop here and leave you drooling for the next installment Stocking the monster

WOWowowOW nice update, well worth the wait. If you were setting this ip today, would you stick with the Halides?

Thanks

 

[Haydn]

WOWowowOW nice update, well worth the wait. If you were setting this ip today, would you stick with the Halides?

Thanks

Thanks for the nice words

That's an interesting question. I did like the halides for the coverage and depth penetration, I like the esthetics of the light, the shimmer and IMO the colour rendition. I didn't like the electricity bill and the heat (not just in the tank but also heating the room). I didn't like having to replace 4 bulbs every year.
So to answer your question, for purely economic and environmental reasons I wouldn't, on esthetic principles I would.

 

[Smarkow]

Thanks for the nice words

That's an interesting question. I did like the halides for the coverage and depth penetration, I like the esthetics of the light, the shimmer and IMO the colour rendition. I didn't like the electricity bill and the heat (not just in the tank but also heating the room). I didn't like having to replace 4 bulbs every year.
So to answer your question, for purely economic and environmental reasons I wouldn't, on esthetic principles I would.

Hmmmm good to know. I know that there are still some halide purists out there, but I entered the hobby right around the time AI started producing some good budget friendly LEDs so I never used any halides. Was thinking about using them in a basement build I am planning (gets cold down there so heat would be ‘okay’). That being said, the ballast terminology and reflector/bulb combos can be a bit confusing. Nice to see some different ways of doing things. But every time I hear about a halide user switching to LED I pause

I can’t believe how much equipment you managed to put away in the cupboard. I’d keep myself out of so much trouble with the Mrs. if I ever got that organized, haha

 

[Haydn]

The fun bit- As I keep saying 'I like fish' for me corals are bit players, just there for decoration, so my main focus was the fish I wanted to add. I didn't have a stock list just some general guidelines- fish in pairs or groups, small fish with a few larger ones (but in pairs).

Keith gave me a load of frags, acro's, monti's, seri's but TBH 1" and 2" frag don't make much of an impression in 2000ltrs of water

This is the first FTS after the tank had matured

The stock was
2xgreen chromis
4xFirefish
2xlong nosed hawks
100's x turbos
25xpeppermint shrimps
2xblood shrimps
monti, hydrophora, millipora frags, gorgonion and 2x large helophoras
1xblack cucumber
I was really lucky finding a pair of Longnosed Hawk's

One success was my pond, I stocked it with various algae species and some mangrove fragules.

I got interested in Chromis species and sourced groups of
Vandervelts

Black Bar

Bicolour

And these beauties

And they paired Oh boy was I pleased!!

Then came a group of these

This was taken about a year after I started with the build the tank is filling nicely and starting to look busy

For you hawk eyed readers- yes there is just one rabbit fish- I had a bubble algae issue and he sorted it, I was going to take him back to the shop but my wife fell in love with it!

On the right side there is a chunk of Heliopora (blue coral) not bad from a 2" frag

And the fire coral from 3 small frags

These were my first major mistake- they do not tolerate each other, they fight to the death!

Lesson learned

OK for the coral lovers remember these were mostly grown from small frags

These pictures were the last I took in October 2009 a pair of Emperors Angels have been added

Then disaster struck!! but thats for the next installment

 

[Smarkow]

“Just a casual year’s septupling in size for my tiny frags, no big deal, I’m just a fish guy anyways”

Hahahahahahah love it

 

[revhtree]

WOW this is epic!! @Daniel@R2R check it out!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Dope!! Very nice!!

 

[Karen00]

All I can say is WOW! What a jaw dropping scene to see all of those pics and to read about everything you did (equipment, pond, etc) is incredible!! Well done!

 

[Grallster]

Love it!!! Following along!

 

[TomBonn]

Love the history of success and challenges at the same time comparing to my own

 

[Okd]

Come on man we need the next installment! At least let us know ow frequently you plan to post/update!

 

[Haydn]

Come on man we need the next installment! At least let us know ow frequently you plan to post/update!

My apologies- putting these posts together does take some time, I need to be able to sit in front of the PC quietly to put it together so the 'story' works. Unfortunately real life gets in the way I promise I'll try not to leave it too long.