DavidRod's 210g OUTDOOR Bare-bottom Tank

[davidrod8]

A little bit of background. Been reefing on and off for the last 15 years. I started out with a 55g back in Florida. It was a good learning experience, unfortunately, I had to take the tank down when I moved back to Texas. A couple of years later I bought a BioCube 29g and had it for a couple of years, but I found it to be unforgiving to mistakes and with little ones I didn't have the budget or time required. Back in 2016 I jumped back in with IM 20 or 30, can't remember. It was a nice tank but I was missing space in the tank. I ended up taking the tank down after a crash and thought the next tank I got would be a big one.

Fast forward to late 2019, we built a very nice (1,000 sq ft+) covered patio in our house with an oversized fireplace. My wife loves the patio and her comment was simply "Why don't you put your fish tank out here?" From that moment on, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I started to do some research. My biggest concern here on the outskirts of Houston is the huge temperature swings that we get. I knew I would have to get an Apex and several heaters to make it through the winter. I also know that sooner rather than later I'll be needing a chiller (maybe 2) to combat those toasty summers.

So, I started looking at tanks, wasn't sure what I wanted, just that it needed to be big (at least 150) I started looking at custom tanks and premade ones, but I wasn't willing to drop $5k - $7k for an outdoor tank that honestly, I don't even know if it's going to work. Turn into Facebook marketplace and voila! I saw some amazing deals.

After the holidays were over, I decided to pull the trigger on a very nice tank that was still running but needed a lot of TLC. It was in a barbershop and wasn't being properly maintained.

For $750 I got the following equipment:
210 Gallon tank (72 x 24 x 29)
Sump
Simplicity Skimmer
5 Powerheads
2 Return Pumps
3 AI Prime lights
Stand and Canopy
20 Gallon tank (which I turned into a refugium)
2 - 55 Gallon Blue Drums
RO-DI 4 Stage Filter System
2 Phosban Reactors
5 Heaters
a TON of odds and ends... Filter socks, additives, coral and fish foods, test kits, additional pumps.

Livestock:
14 fish (2 Engineer Gobies, 6 Clowns, 3 Blue/Yellow Damsels, 1 Blue Velvet Damsel, 1 Wrasse, 1 Dragonet)
300+ Lbs of live rock

So, on a Saturday morning, I enlisted some help, rented a Uhaul and went to buy the tank. Originally I wanted to keep the water, but even though the tank was running and had fish in it, it hadn't been maintained in quite a while. We took the tank down and discarded the sand. Brought it home, and started putting it back together on Sunday. It was indeed a huge ordeal but totally worth it considering the price I paid.

The first issue was coming up with 200 gallons of saltwater. I did keep a little bit of the old water to keep the rocks submerged but the RODI system can't clean that much water so I ended up buying 60 gallons of water from the LFS along with making my own with the RODI. By Tuesday I finally had the system filled up and pushing water and on Wednesday, after adding some bacteria to help, I put the fish back in there.

In the end, I lost one fish through the move, one of the engineer gobies did not make it, and I figured the second one wasn't going to either since I don't have any sand, but somehow he is still alive and kicking.

Another one of the challenges with buying used is not knowing how old, or how used the components are, so I have slowly replaced things as I needed them. First thing was to change the cartridges in the RO-DI system, as they looked pretty bad. I also went ahead and got new lights. I bought an Odyssea T5 and replaced the bulbs with ATIs.

Since I wasn't sure of how old the return pump and the powerheads are, I bought one of those Loop Systems from Current USA. (72") Not crazy about it, but it's a solution for now. Eventually, I would like to add better lights and pumps, but this will do for now.

As expected, keeping a stable temperature in the tank was challenging at first. I knew that I would have to get an apex sooner rather than later. After the first couple of water changes (25+ gallons) I knew I had to make this a priority as I wanted to get a DOS for AWC. 2 weeks ago I got the Apex, installed it and last week I finished my salt mixing station in the garage (wall behind the tank) It's been awesome do it this way. I will post pictures of the whole set up later, for now I wanted to get the thread going and get the conversation started.

 

[Devaji]

nice score! I am curious to see on this pans out on the patio.
for heating look in to a heat exchanger I hear ppl with BIG tanks use them. I think there is also a way to use your water heater. maybe someone with more knowing will chime in.

for cooling I have seen ppl ad a duct to there AC right over the tank that might be a possible solution

 

[davidrod8]

Thanks, I'm currently running 5 heaters, 4 300W and 1 200W. The tank came with 1 but one broke, so I bought another one. Not the ideal situation but I figure this is something that I can look into in the future. Apex does a great job at turning them on and off as needed and keeping the temp within 1 degree which is great.

I will post pics of the patio later but for now, I can tell you the AC duct is not an option as the patio ceiling is completely separate from the house ceiling (House is 2 stories high, patio is only one)

Im looking into getting a JBJ Arctica 1/3 HP and redoing all the plumbing in the tank as right now is all flexible pipe BUT it is not "flexible" in terms of changes to be made

 

[davidrod8]

A few more pictures of my set up. Here is the Saltwater Mixing station. RODI filter pulls water after the water comes out of the water softener. Filtered water goes into the top tank. I manually move the water through the gate valve into the bottom tank as needed where I add the salt. I have a powerhead in there mixing the water. Im using a DOS to pull water out of that bottom barrel and bring it into the aquarium, you can see the lines in the last picture. Behind the water softener, there is a drain where I get rid of the water being pulled out of the tank, RODI waste line as well as the water softener drain line.

I'm currently using a Neptune ATK, but the water is being pulled out of a 5 gallon jug that I have to manually fill every couple of days. I'll be getting another FMM this week and Im planning on installing that into the top tank so that I no longer have to manually deal with the 5 gallon jugs.

 

[davidrod8]

Here are a few more pictures of the patio and the area around the tank. The covered patio is about 1,200 sq ft and we also have an additional 300 sq ft of patio recently added that it is not covered. 2 couches, fireplace, dining room table for 10 and outdoor kitchen. It has its own full-size refrigerator and 70" TV. I practically live out there. After I come home from work all I want to do is hang out there, it is my relaxation area.

Afternoon sun does come down on this side, which is going to provide another challenge. I currently have outdoor rolling blinds that I can bring down as necessary. I also went ahead and planted 12 feet high magnolias to hopefully give me some shade. I guess we'll see how it works out...

For my next project, I'm thinking about building an above ground pond for freshwater turtles and maybe some koi fish, but I want to do it with a plexiglass wall so that we can look into the pond. It would go on the left side of the reef aquarium, out in the open air.

 

[davidrod8]

Forgot to mention the last picture above, I was working on that today trying to get more organized. The DOS on the right is doing AWC, the one on the left will be for dosing. I finally found a Trident, still trying to figure out where I'll be putting it.

 

[Seanb1]

cool setup.
Im going to go bb too when i set mine up.
Rock looks nice in it.

 

[davidrod8]

I can't make up my mind on BB. It was suggested by one of the LFS as a way to reduce maintenance. I have to agree that it has been easier to clean it. As far as the look it's pretty cool to look at the "mirror" in the bottom and see into the caves. I'm starting to get some algae grow in there and my tangs are going nuts over it. I just wished I had some coraline at the bottom of the tank, something that would look more like the rocks. Maybe I just need to seed it.

I do miss having the sand because I can't have my favorite fish, Diamond Goby or horseshoe crabs which I enjoyed looking at in the past.

 

[Seanb1]

The rocks look like they have plenty of coraline .
Just get your mag up if you are dosing and add more flow, youll have coraline out the ying yang.

 

[davidrod8]

Thanks! I have 5 powerheads in there already, I think I'm good

Trident should be here Friday, once I have that set up I'll start dosing Mg

 

[davidrod8]

Desperate times call for desperate measures... As the temperature fell into the 30s last night, the 5 heaters I have (4 eheim jagger 300w + 1 200w) were having a hard time keeping the tank temperature and I saw it drop down to 75. When I saw it kept going down I had to an additional heater as seen in the picture. I was amazed to see how fast this makes an impact on the tank, so I only leave it on for a few minutes....

 

[davidrod8]

Time for an update...

Tank has now been running for almost 4 months and it's looking amazing! I'm sure staying at home the last few weeks has helped a lot as I have been able to work on it and do plenty of maintenance...

Here are a few thoughts...

Maintenance is a breeze with the tank being set up in the patio. I have a hose about 10 feet from the tank and I'm able to clean the collection cup from the skimmer twice a week and dump it on the grass. In terms of equipment I ended up upgrading the sump to a Tideline 36 and I'm very happy with it. I now have 2 7" filter socks which reduces maintenance down to twice a week.

The Apex is definitively a huge help with my set up, especially doing AWC. This has in my opinion been the biggest game changer from my previous tanks as I'm able to maintain awesome water clarity. I was able to get my hands on the trident and this has also cut down on the testing. Honestly things are looking so great that I'm not doing much manual testing nowadays, just little tweaks here and there.

Bare Bottom: This is something I love, it reduces clean up greatly. About once a week I moved a Powerhead down to the bottom of the tank and this stirs everything up. Very convenient.

Temperature: This has probably been the biggest challenge with this tank being outdoors. We haven't had a cold winter here in South East Texas but we still have had a couple of mornings in the 30s. 5 heaters have done a great job at keeping the water between 78-79...

I was able to get my hands on an used chiller and have been running it for about a month. It is rated for 250g so I don't believe it will be enough for those steamy sunny days, but so far it has been able to keep the temp under 81 during a couple afternoons where we were pushing 90s and feel like was almost 100... Im keeping my eyes open for another chiller to help out during the hot summer days.

I have a second DOS to dose Alk and CA but quite honestly my CA levels are pretty easy to maintain at this stage. Tank has been taking more Alk so I have been playing with the DOS and Trident and that regard.

I bought a jebao dosing pump for Reef Energy A, B, No3PO4x and Mag. I was battling hair algae for a while but once I got Mag to the appropriate level (1350+) it has pretty much disappeared. In fact, my nitrates and phosphates were so low that I stopped dosing No3PO4x for now.

I'm doing mostly LPS for now. I do have a Monti which seems to be doing pretty good and I bought an acro that is pretty much dead.

 

[Devaji]

Love that fast that this tank is out side!

BUT with 5 heater and possible 2 chillers running up the electric bill would it to make more since to inclose the patio with insulation and nice widows/doors so you stil have that sun room patto fell but not spend a kings ransom on electric? either way its a nice tank and space you have there !

 

[davidrod8]

Love that fast that this tank is out side!

BUT with 5 heater and possible 2 chillers running up the electric bill would it to make more since to inclose the patio with insulation and nice widows/doors so you stil have that sun room patto fell but not spend a kings ransom on electric? either way its a nice tank and space you have there !

In all honesty I have not noticed a spark in my electricity bill with the heaters. I know everyone talks about consistency in numbers, no big changes but I have been playing around with the temperature in terms of how low before the heaters kick in or how high before the chiller kicks and haven't noticed much changes in the tank, it is looking the best it has.

My patio is fairly large, about 1200 sq ft, so to close it down it'll be a large expense (I did look into it) for now I bought an evaporative cooler for us that I'm sure will help the tank once it gets steamy out there.

 

[Devaji]

In all honesty I have not noticed a spark in my electricity bill with the heaters. I know everyone talks about consistency in numbers, no big changes but I have been playing around with the temperature in terms of how low before the heaters kick in or how high before the chiller kicks and haven't noticed much changes in the tank, it is looking the best it has.

My patio is fairly large, about 1200 sq ft, so to close it down it'll be a large expense (I did look into it) for now I bought an evaporative cooler for us that I'm sure will help the tank once it gets steamy out there.

man that patio is bigger than my house...haha I bet it's a great place to have the tank.
another option is a radiant heating ran from your water heater. IDK if it is worth it if you did not see a big jump? but an idea.

 

[steallife904]

have you had issues yet with rain/storms blowing the rainwater onto the side of the tank? I noticed its close to the edge of the patio, would seem like with a good windy rain it could blow water all over the tank. Could be an issue with temp and rain water getting in???

 

[davidrod8]

have you had issues yet with rain/storms blowing the rainwater onto the side of the tank? I noticed its close to the edge of the patio, would seem like with a good windy rain it could blow water all over the tank. Could be an issue with temp and rain water getting in???

We have had a few rain storms with hail and all and the tank has fared well. There is a 2 feet overhang on the roofline so it is protected. The afternoon sun does hit it directly for a couple of hours but I do have a shade I can lower. I was worried about having too much algae overtaking the tank but quite honestly it's the opposite, it seems I don't have enough

 

[davidrod8]

Tank has been running great, hard to believe it's been almost 5 months now. Since I have been working from home due to Covid19 for the last couple of months, I have been able to spend more time cleaning the tank, feeding, etc. Also I have had a lot of times to do a few projects around it.

Just about any coral that I have put in there seems to be doing great, many of them look better in my tank than they did at the store. Automatic Water Changes have been a God sent! Along with the bare bottom, maintenance has been a breeze. I pretty much spend a few minutes switching the 2 7" inch socks and empty/cleaning the skimmers cup.

I did add a double reactor for carbon/phosphate, but I'm running into the problem that the water got 2 clean, and I can't seem to keep zoas or wellsos in this tank. My nitrates and phosphates keep reading at 0 so I ended up turning the reactor off for now. I was dosing NO3 PO4-X, but also stopped that as it is no longer needed. Tank barely has any algae and my large cleaning crew keeps eating the Nori I put on the clips as they are not finding much algae.

In terms of dosing, I'm adding Red Sea's Energy A & B and alk about 1-2 per week depending on the number. Aiming for 9 alk at this point. Calcium and Magnesium are holding steady without the need to dose any extra.

I built a pergola right next to the tank to provide additional shade in the afternoons, this has reduced the amount of direct sunlight that the tank might get and cool off the space a little bit.

I also did a small project this weekend where I took the chiller out of the cabinet and put it outside, and moved all of the electronics inside of the cabinet. I added 3 fans in the canopy and this has worked great at keeping the temperature right under 80. Yesterday we hit 93 with a "feels like" of 102. Today is supposed to be even hotter. I'm keeping an eye on this as I might need to get a bigger chiller. The one I currently have Teco 1000 which is rated for 260 gallons but it's fairly small in size when compared to other chillers rated for the same amount of gallons.

I do have an instagram account set up for the tank https://www.instagram.com/davidrod888/ where I'm posting a lot of updates more often.

 

[Futuretotm]

Wow! Amazing!
I am in central FL, and I had no idea this could work! An outdoor tank!!! Way to think outside the box/home

 

[andrewkw]

I am very much an indoors person but I gotta say that outdoor setup looks amazing! Are bugs an issue? It's still relatively cold where I live but the bugs will be back any time soon and even though my tank is indoors and not against an outside wall the blue glow attracts 1000s and many are so tiny they can fit through the holes in the screens if I have the windows open and end up in the tank.