650 litre (~170g) reef build from Istanbul

tyuksel · Jul 18, 2019

Hello all,
After a long break from hobby, I am back with a bigger tank build. I am planning to keep an sps dominant tank but with ban on Indonesian coral exports I am not sure how well or fast this process will go. Australian corals are very beautiful but also quite expensive here.

Currently I am waiting for the drain pipes to be installed which will hopefully be today and after that I will start filling the tank.

Some info on the dimentions

Tank
Display Tank
Size: 150cm x 70cm x 55cm(h) ~570 liters 15 mm glass.
Sump
Size: 100cm x 50cm x 45cm(h) ~100 liters 10 mm glass.*

Tank will be lit by an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb 54w unit which i hang from the ceiling. I will use 5 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Coral Plus, 1 ATI Aquablue Special, 1 ATI Purple Plus bulbs.

Return will be handled by a Vectra M2, I picked a set of Maxspect Gyre 350s as wavemakers. Vectra is connected to a car battery as a back up in case of power loss. Unfortunately Maxspect doesnt include the power backup cable in the box anymore. They are not available here yet either, so I have to wait a while before i can get them. I dont know why maxspect removed those oob from 3xx series. Bad decision imo.

My good old Profilux P3 will handle the tanks automation.

There is 30 kg of Aquaforest AF Rock and a Brightwell XPort Bio brick to aid the biological filtration and a Royal Exclusiv Doublecone 200 will handle the skimming.

As the tank progresses, or as people show interest I will add more pictures and information.

tyuksel · Jul 25, 2019

I filled the tank with salt water on 20 June and added some seed live rock. Now have to wait patiently for some weeks I am not using any bacteria products and I want to do it the old fashioned way using a piece of shrimp.

The filter socks are 800 microns and I use them to house some carbon and zeolite media. This allows a nice amount of passive flow around them .

tyuksel · Sep 24, 2019

Its been 2 months since the setup so i guess its time for an update. The tank is doing ok. I have added most of the fish on my stocking list. I would like to add a pair of Bellus Angelfish and a Majestic Angelfish to the tank and finish the stocking.

Current fish stock :
Powder Blue Tang (Acanthurus leucosternon)
Yellow Tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)
Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma veliferum)
Kole Tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus)
Carpenters Flasher Wrasse (Paracheilinus carpenteri)
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus exquisitus)
Tail-spot wrasse (Halichores melanurus)
Fire Goby (Nemateleotris magnifica)
Blue-Green Chromis [9] (Chromis viridis) ;

I have also started adding corals about a month ago. Various acropora and montipora. They have all been doing well. Colors were very pale initially due to low nutrient levels but as the fish count increased they have started to color up.