Arylus's (20year) Deam tank; Mezmer Reef

[Arylus]

Firstly this is my personal experience, and the road to a large reef. its not just here's the tank, here's the stuff that's gonna go in it.
its my personal story as well, hope you don't mind.
also, i am not used to making large threads, so it might come out a bit chaotic, if you have any questions, i'd love to hear them.

So, first a bit about me.
i am 29 from the netherlands. i have been in the freshwater hobby for an easy 22 years now keeping everything from shrimp nano's to a 125 gallon south america biotope.
but i really wanted a reef tank, and my father always told me that reefing is super hard, and should not be attempted easily.
but as you all know, salt is in the blood and it wants to be.

and this is the story about a boys dreams to have a reef tank.

about 1,5 years ago i decided now that i have my own place, a good and stable job and an empty spot in my house, that i should try reefing.
and so got a cute 30 gallon cube to test if i had what it takes to be a reefer.
so i studied and studied and did some more studying.
and for the last year (after a cycle of 12 weeks) it has been running super stable (accept when i forget to replenish the evaporated water, and when my refractometer broke)
and the corals are super happy and exploding with growth, got my algae under control and have spotted coralline pop-up throughout the tank.

sorry for the blue, i don't have a gel filter... yet...

now that i can see i can do this, its time to plan.
i wanted a 150-225 gallon tank, just so i can keep the fish and corals i want.
i love the mixed reef with a focus on lps, i want a sand bed, rimless tank and a good sump that can house everything i need (had problems with that in the 30g and it annoyed me endlessly)
i want to spread out the costs of the tank over a larger period of time, since we got a cheap hobby right?
so a modular system that can be upgraded easily.

after a while searching on the internet (in the Netherlands large (reef-ready) tanks are rather rare), i found a freshwater tank that could easily be converted to salt.
i went to see the guy (who grows albino freshwater rays, of all things, which was awesome!)
the tank looked decent, a couple of small chips missing and its not perfectly made, but the price was good and it was available and i want to replace the tank with a black seamed lidless tank in a few years to make the inevitable move a lot easier (hopefully a house with a fish room behind the tank).
if my girlfriend lets me use a room like that, i haven't told you about her yet have i?
well she is unexpectedly more enthusiastic about a reef tank than i am. she doesn't have the will to keep one on her own, but dang does she likes corals.
anyway the deal is i can have my reef tank as long as she gets the space for a piano, which i am absolutely fine with because i can listen to her play all day.

so here it is, its a 160x65x70cm (63x25.5x27.5 inches) this is how i got it (it has a hood but who has time for that ) and i did a 2 week stress/leak test.
now that i got a tank i need to start measuring and designing everything.

First the sump.
i want a sump with filter socks (i love them and i don't need to throw out floss all the time)
i want a skimmer chamber, ALOT of filter media since i have had success with this, no fuge (i have had a bad time keeping my sump unclogged with cato and algae) and i will go for a algae scrubber.
dual return pumps because a failure has you cleaning your floors at 6:30 before work and i don't like that much.

i contacted a guy to build it, and he seems intent not to do the work. so ill do it myself. ordered the glass and it will be here in about a week.
for added logistical challenge i am doing this in my vacation, so everything needs to be ordered and received in a 3 week time span.
luckily i suck at planning, but i start early.

The bio chamber will be filled with acrylic rods on which i can mount the maxspect nano media balls, so it is easy to clean and has good water flow/contact.

next up is equipment, and with that i mean immediate equipment.
2x red sea reefled 90 i found used, and i will add a third if i need more par (these are amazing lights btw)
a deltec sc 1456 skimmer
2x 500w heaters (to be replaced with 2x 300w titanium heaters with a aquamedic twin controller, so i have a heating backup)
1x skimz wavemaker 6000l
2x skimz wavemaker 18000l
2x hydor seltz 4500 (one coming in a bit later)

next tank interior:
so i got a black plexiglass plate to cover the overflow (i dont want to see the red pvc i ordered in the tank), and painted the back black.
i am using aquamedic grid to support the rock work and all the rock will be drilled and cemented with acryllic rock. glue brakes to dang easy.
i got a bunch of carib sea arag-alive sand (i think 3mm size) and a few boxed of marco reef saver rock.

the plan is to have a tower at 1/3 of the tank, connected with bridges to a structure at 2/3 of the tank. because of the more natural look.
here is the design i quickly drawn up:

Gr = Caves, large and small
Oh = overhangs.
we will see if the rocks want to be in this configuration, but its an overall idea.

this is after a few jobs to clean up and modify the tank:

i still need to close the dry chamber hole with glass that comes in, but that should not be to hard to do, and fit the grid around that new glass covering.

and this brings us to now, need to wait for the glass so i can build the sump and ato reservoir, the alluminium so make a cover.
this week i will drill the tank for a 50mm bulkhead and make the cover once that is in, also mount the lights in the stand so i can see what i do in there.
and maybe dry build and lable the tower.

will update when i have the time/content for it

 

[mattgsa]

Great build so far.

 

[Gablami]

I applaud your love for the hobby and your desire to take on all obstacles and conquer them! Many of us (including me!) here in the US take for granted how much easier it is for us to reef. Making your own sump with glass? I think acrylic would be easier, but I haven’t done either.

The only advice I have is in regard to your statement that if the return pump fails you’re dealing with cleaning up water off the ground. Your system should be designed to handle return pump shutdown, even if you have dual returns and maybe it’s an intentional shut down (for maintenance or what not). So you can prevent excessive back siphoning from the display tank through various methods, and make sure that you have sized your sump sufficiently to handle it. Your sump should not overflow if your returns are off.

Looking forward to your next steps!

 

[Arylus]

I applaud your love for the hobby and your desire to take on all obstacles and conquer them! Many of us (including me!) here in the US take for granted how much easier it is for us to reef. Making your own sump with glass? I think acrylic would be easier, but I haven’t done either.

The only advice I have is in regard to your statement that if the return pump fails you’re dealing with cleaning up water off the ground. Your system should be designed to handle return pump shutdown, even if you have dual returns and maybe it’s an intentional shut down (for maintenance or what not). So you can prevent excessive back siphoning from the display tank through various methods, and make sure that you have sized your sump sufficiently to handle it. Your sump should not overflow if your returns are off.

Looking forward to your next steps!

first off thank you for the response!
the glass decision was because glass is quite easy to work with (if you dont need to cut it) so i am having the pieces made professionally, and i just need to assemble, should be easy enough.
acrylic i heard at least can be hard to weld to hold water pressure, not sure if that is true but i have worked with it before a bit and its annoying stuff.

the sump definitely is going to have more than one fail-safe, a siphon break, a main flow-valve, a flow valve on each return-pump and off course the dual returns. so even if 2 parts fail simultaneously the tank is not cut off from its life-support. so i should be safe, i might put in more overkill in a later update, but for now i feel good about it.

man i just went through your build and i would kill for a tank and stand that clean ;Wideyed
its looking really nice!

 

[Arylus]

small update:
The aluminium came in, so one does as one does and ignore the girlfriend to build a mesh screen.

no change right? well to my absolute supprise it is completely flush with the edge of the tank.

i am happy with how it came out, its not perfect to be honest, but it will be practical and decent looking.
i had to mock up the return pipe, and it looks better then i thought.

i also installed the lights under the stand, which is a thing i don't have now. and i am so exited to see it lit like this.
they are simple and cheap led pucks from ikea. and they will make the maintenance so much easier.

that is all for now, tomorrow i will try my luck at building the large tower. ill see how far i will get.
tuesday a friend is coming over to help drilling the glass (the opening is too small for the bulkhead) and to put the tank level (my appartment is sloping down on the right side of the aquarium), so ill just make a extension of the legs.

 

[Arylus]

so, its time for an update! and its a nice one i think.

first the bad new though, the glass manufacturer ffed up, and the glass did not arrive today, it will be in next Friday. so i have another challenge, but the show must go on and the deadline still is the same, but with some hard work and a bit of over-determination it will be fine.

secondly, and most importantly, the fun part!

i re-drilled the tank with the help from a friend.
it was 45mm now it is 60mm so i can fit the 2" pipe i have.
made the durso to test that it would fit in the overflow i have.
OK so this was not the fun part.

So the Scape is done!
this was alot of work i tell you, every piece is drilled and has at least 1 acrylic rod in it, most have 2 or 3. and all of them are glued. i do not want my scape braking on me again.
i tried the aquaforest Stone-fix, it was a nightmare, it dries in about 60 seconds and is brittle when it cures. so i used liberal amounts of super glue.

the right structure is a open topped cave in the middle with loads openings, holes and caves. it looks solid in the pictures but its quite open. i might make a film so you guys can see.

the left structure is a tower that is supported by 3 rock pillars and its mostly open on the inside. again hard to see.

i am really proud of this baby, the entire scape took me 4-5 days to construct and is about 60 kg (120 pounds) i think.

so that was it for this week, ill be hands off for a week because i am helping my father on his land for a week.
next Friday i will get the glass in and i can build the sump, brace the aquarium and seal the unused drain hole.
Sundays a mate of mine will join me to move the sump into the stand and do the plumbing, and after that its sand and the first batch of water.
after that it will take 3-4 days to produce enough rodi to fill the tank.

Peace out!

 

[Arylus]

So it has been a while, i have been very busy and i havent had the time to post an update.
well in short, she is done and running well. had a slight cycle with noticable ammonia, but nothing that some additives could not handle. now she is stable and running well.

So here some pictures

so this is the start of the constuction of the sump, it was easier and harder than i expected.
easier in the fact that its done in a few minutes and some patience (had 1 internal leak but it doesnt matter much)
harder because it is quite difficult to get the glass in the exact angles and place i wanted.

so here it is, completed. kinda proud of this one. it is a very compact design (only 100x50x40cm) but it has everything i need and more. 2 staged of mechanical filtration, skimmer and large bio chamber.

putting it in the right place

plumming done and shown from the front, also the skimmer which i heightened with acryllic rods and some aquamedic grid.

the same but from the back, i could not get the pipes nicely in the middle, but this will do.

this is the electrical, still waiting on some clips to make it a bit neater.

the brain of the operation.

and with everything done, the agonizing wait for my rodi system to make water. took about 4 days to get enough water to fill her up.

the return chamber with running water, and a bit of the bio-chamber filled with 3kg of maxspect nano-spheres and my old live rock.

so here she is under whites, i dont have a filter for my phone (i really need to get one) so white is the best i can do.

detailed pictures from left to right.


so it was quite a journey but worth it! still a few issues to iron out. noise from the sump, missing a powerhead (its on backorder), and figuering out the flow patterns so i can have high and low flow areas for the corals i want.
but that can happen in a while.

next up, getting some corals! because it is SUPER empty!

 

[Arylus]

so, about corals..... i may have ordered some.

so a few mushrooms, and a nice extention to my acan garden (i absolutely love acans), and a alveopora that my girlfriend forced me to get aswell (oh the horror)