Background:
So. Here we go again. Every year I’m setting up or moving my 200+ system and this year is round 3. I had a nice dream 240 build Thread. I didn’t make a thread for my 210 but it was the 240 “compact”. Now I need to move my 210 and so the build in the new house begins. With a tank this size it’s hard to move in a day so I move it i over a week. Lessons learned the first time as I lost some corals not getting all the plumbing set up in time.
Current / proposed:
I bought a 250g (84x24x30 H) system and used the skimmer and 125g sump for the start of the plumbing. I realized that my 210g is the same profile just 6ft long so figured why not concatenate them into one very long tank (and spread out the coral). One tank may have more aggressive fish and one more shrimp friendly options?
Issues to deal with
1. Velvet: I’ve had it for almost 3 years and I’m finally going to go fallow. I have a 150g IBC tote for the fish and after copper for 2 weeks they’ll go into a cycled 120g for 6 weeks until the fallow period is over.
2. CO2 and pH, these have been a problem since having a calcium reactor. My plan is to use a refugium again which helped about 0.2-0.3 units. But I think
I’m going to setup a separate reactor for the effluent and also a phytoplankton reactor for the skimmer intake. I’ll keep a link to that once I start that design.
3. Programming. I’ve never really cared for programming to much. But this time. I’m going to get a bit more automated. Most I’ve had is the trident control my Ca and Kh additives in check when the Kalk and CaRx wasn’t enough. But I want a bit more of the skimmer and other functions to turn off during additions of various feeding and chemicals or supplements.
Setup:
This tank will build on a lot of what my 240g build had with some Lessons learned.
Generally I run Kalk, CaRx, and going to setup the dosing of calcium and alk again. big one is having my Vertex reactor working properly as it’s been having issues. I think a stronger pump and an additional 6” chamber.
Lights are all Radion. Going to run my usual 4 on 8 off schedule.
Carbon dosing. Tropic marin Elim NP and bacto balance have made life easier I don’t see every getting away from them.
UV lights 55w and perhaps a 40w as well since I have one.
Pumps are essentially all DC, EFlux have been awesome and inexpensive.
Skimmer is my baby. Octo 300ext with neck cleaner. A beast. Though I want the 36v driver but can’t find one for their DC pump.
Wave makers. I haven’t figured out yet. Def using my 4 MP40s. 2 per tank. But I have a bunch of Gyre 350s, though these have been unreliable in the past. Any comments on these. I love them when they work.
Roller mats have been a game changer. This is my biggest change in this system since I built a 125 sump to replace my trigger platinum sump due to water column issues. Therefore losing my integrated roller mat. It wasn’t perfect but it did the job. The new Red Sea 1200 I hooked up is so much smaller in ability but so much larger in space it takes up in the sump. I’ll come back to building a custom roller mat from the trigger systems setup (their roll is twice the area / size of red seas).
Otherwise I’ll aim to setup two low boys 5x2 ft each for frags.
A mixing station. And a fancy, for me, wiring cabinet.
Many things are in the works and in my brain including cooling and venting.
So. Here we go again. Every year I’m setting up or moving my 200+ system and this year is round 3. I had a nice dream 240 build Thread. I didn’t make a thread for my 210 but it was the 240 “compact”. Now I need to move my 210 and so the build in the new house begins. With a tank this size it’s hard to move in a day so I move it i over a week. Lessons learned the first time as I lost some corals not getting all the plumbing set up in time.
Current / proposed:
I bought a 250g (84x24x30 H) system and used the skimmer and 125g sump for the start of the plumbing. I realized that my 210g is the same profile just 6ft long so figured why not concatenate them into one very long tank (and spread out the coral). One tank may have more aggressive fish and one more shrimp friendly options?
Issues to deal with
1. Velvet: I’ve had it for almost 3 years and I’m finally going to go fallow. I have a 150g IBC tote for the fish and after copper for 2 weeks they’ll go into a cycled 120g for 6 weeks until the fallow period is over.
2. CO2 and pH, these have been a problem since having a calcium reactor. My plan is to use a refugium again which helped about 0.2-0.3 units. But I think
I’m going to setup a separate reactor for the effluent and also a phytoplankton reactor for the skimmer intake. I’ll keep a link to that once I start that design.
3. Programming. I’ve never really cared for programming to much. But this time. I’m going to get a bit more automated. Most I’ve had is the trident control my Ca and Kh additives in check when the Kalk and CaRx wasn’t enough. But I want a bit more of the skimmer and other functions to turn off during additions of various feeding and chemicals or supplements.
Setup:
This tank will build on a lot of what my 240g build had with some Lessons learned.
Generally I run Kalk, CaRx, and going to setup the dosing of calcium and alk again. big one is having my Vertex reactor working properly as it’s been having issues. I think a stronger pump and an additional 6” chamber.
Lights are all Radion. Going to run my usual 4 on 8 off schedule.
Carbon dosing. Tropic marin Elim NP and bacto balance have made life easier I don’t see every getting away from them.
UV lights 55w and perhaps a 40w as well since I have one.
Pumps are essentially all DC, EFlux have been awesome and inexpensive.
Skimmer is my baby. Octo 300ext with neck cleaner. A beast. Though I want the 36v driver but can’t find one for their DC pump.
Wave makers. I haven’t figured out yet. Def using my 4 MP40s. 2 per tank. But I have a bunch of Gyre 350s, though these have been unreliable in the past. Any comments on these. I love them when they work.
Roller mats have been a game changer. This is my biggest change in this system since I built a 125 sump to replace my trigger platinum sump due to water column issues. Therefore losing my integrated roller mat. It wasn’t perfect but it did the job. The new Red Sea 1200 I hooked up is so much smaller in ability but so much larger in space it takes up in the sump. I’ll come back to building a custom roller mat from the trigger systems setup (their roll is twice the area / size of red seas).
Otherwise I’ll aim to setup two low boys 5x2 ft each for frags.
A mixing station. And a fancy, for me, wiring cabinet.
Many things are in the works and in my brain including cooling and venting.
Last edited:
