92 Corner Build

[jandlms]

Finally have some time to toss a thread up here on my newest drain on my time. With a whole lot of help from JMKarcz (Thanks Jason! Again!), I finally have a sturdy and stable 92 gallon tank set up and running. This is still a work in progress (what tank isn't?) so I apologize in advance for the bits of plumbing still peeking out and the lack of live rock in a few key places. As I said before there is still some work to do.

Tank equipment is as follows:
92 gallon AGA corner bowfront aquarium
Octopus Skimmer
Titanium heaters of various kinds
2 250 watt MH lights with 80 watts of actinic supplementation- Light hood will be changed soon!
Sump filtration system located in the basement
Reeflo Blackfin pump - New and FANTASTIC!

Here is the sump system in the basement. Water drains from the main tank into a 29 gallon tank that will eventually be filled more completely with live rock. The water then drains into a 55 gallon tank divided into compartments for the skimmer, a deep sand bed (under construction) and a drain area. Water leaves the 55 and heads into a 75 gallon tank also divided into areas for macros ( chaeto area and an area for lowere light reds and browns), coral frags and a return. Water returns to the main tank thru the Reeflo Blackfin.

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Upon leaving the Reeflo, water returns to the tank thru six 3/4" returns drilled into the back of the tank (thank you again DrillMaster!). The general hope is that the six returns coupled with the flow from the Blackfin will eliminate the need for powerheads. Time will tell.

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The two drains for the tank are done in the Calfo style and add a little shade to the back of the tank. This seems to give the illusion of depth (at least it does to me) to the tank.

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So far corals have been in the tank for about 2 months now. The ones that resided in the sump for a month of construction seem to have made it pretty well. I still worry about the hammer corals which bleached quite a bit. New corals (2 aussie acans and a superman Monti) were added last week and seem to be enjoying their new home). Sorry about the coral pics- my camera she is not so great.

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Fish residents are a Powder Brown Tang, a Vlamingi Flame Tang and a Pygmy angel. Non-coral inverts include cleaner shrimp and the usual clean up crew of snails and crabs.

During the next few weeks an algal turf scrubber will be hooked into the sump system between the 55 and 75 gallon tanks. A newer larger frag tank will also be hooked into the sump whenever time permits.

So far so good on the latest experiment in a long line of tanks. Any thoughts about lighting or comments in general would be appreciated.

 

[SaraB]

Looking Nice Jon!

Great idea on the return flow to the back of the tank. That was my biggest complaint was keeping the water moving in the back corner. From the look of all the detritus when I took it down, what I had was not doing the trick!

 

[MSU Fan]

Nice Jon. I think that you'll love that octo skimmer - those are very good for the money.

 

[premilove]

looks great! have you thought of placing a light above the tank filled with live rock?

 

[jandlms]

The 75 gallon is going to get a pair of 96 watt pc bulbs over it in the near future. The 29 gallon will stay unlit. I have been looking at some cryptic filtration setups and may go that route with the 29 gallon portion of the system. My only worry is the flow - it is really moving thru the 29 gallon tank and I worry that any sort of cryptic org. filtration will be hampered by the high flow.

 

[Fishcrazy06]

Looks good Jon. What do you figure your pump is pushing through the tank for GPH? After the head loss and so forth.

Eric

 

[jandlms]

I haven't done the calculations yet, but a significant amount. I'll post them as soon as I can.

 

[NewMelee]

looking good

 

[aerius007]

Nice rock you have in your tank, I wish I had some more of that kind myself.

 

[jandlms]

I've had most of that rock for going on 10 years. There used to be a PetWorld down in Fitchburg (near Madison) that would periodically have rock for around $2 a pound. They got some incredible pieces of Tonga branch that were almost 3 feet long. The 2 or 3 pieces that I still have are 2.5 to 3 feet long and provide some of the structure. I don't know where I will find rock like it to add to this tank.

 

[akabryanhall]

Nice setup!

 

[aerius007]

How is the powder brown tang doing? Ive never had any luck with those.

 

[jandlms]

Tang was doing fantastic until last week. Barometer dropped. Ick hit. Tang died the next day. Fat and sassy one day and dead withing 48 hours. I have never seen anything hit that fast before.

 

[johnanddawn]

nice sump set up similar to mine but the order is a little different, in mine the skimmer tank is first, then the lit cheato/frag tank, and finally the cryptic rock tank and return pump

if you don't mind me asking, what was the thought process in your sump tank order?
i did a lot of thinking about how i wanted to circ the water through the sump and which order would be most productive and am just wondering why you went the way you did
and by the way - i think the high flow through the rock/cryptic fuge is a benifit ie no detritus settling in, on, or under the rock

 

[jandlms]

A good part of the order was determined by the sizes of the tanks. Its a lot easier to put a 29 gallon up five feet than to lift a 75 gallon upthat high. The tanks were also placed in that order because I wanted the largest volume of water (75 gal) on the bottom where I could easil get into it for adding chems, water, removing detritus (general maintenance stuff). The order of filtration in the tanks is by no means set although I am pretty happy with it so far. By having the skimmer, deep sand bed, and live rock at the "top" of the chain I don't have huge amounts of wastes getting down to the chaeto/macro section or the area for frags (unutilized at this time).
Nothing about this setup is/was rocket science. A lot was just done this way as it seemed the easiest/most logical way to do them.