Dueling 30 gallon rimless tanks

[ReefRacer]

I ordered 40 lbs of fiji live rock from Live Rock-N-Reef before the Christmas break. Fortunately, the day I called them was the last day were shipping for a couple weeks due to the holiday. They were super helpful and got my rock shipped out the same day as the order. Unfortunately, the holidays really messed with transportation and despite saying it 'out for delivery'...it wasn't. Show up a day later, but all looked. I have ordered from RNR before and they were great and this time was no different. The rock was packaged well and wrapped in very wet paper. The rock had very nice colors with various shades of coralline and they included a couple of really cool flat pieces. I laid out the rocks and took out my hack saw and sawed flat spots on a few rocks to make them stand up better. Creating a rockscape that was viewable from 3 sides proved to be a bit challenging. This is my planned layout.

 

[ReefRacer]

It took some time to get the plumbing right. My Sketchup plans were fairly accurate, but as we all know, nothing goes as planned with reef tanks :). I used a 20lb bag of fiji pink live sand in the DT along with about 5 lbs of their 'reef sand'. It has a little larger grain size and according to the bag is intended for refugiums...so I abliged. Thanks to a little extra $$$ from the grandfather-in-law, I ordered my AI SOLs and will build a mount for those when they get here. I have a spair 250 MH laying around that I am going to hang over the tank temporarily while it cycles.

Here are a couple of full tank shots. I still need to make the doors and do some touch up on the stain. I think I am going to hang the doors with magnets so the doors can come all the way off. Hinges would work since I don't really have a space issue with them opening, but magnetic would be way cooler. Also a sump/fuge shot.

More to come...

 

[Zack]

Looking good so far!

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[fraghunter]

If noise was a huge concern I would have not gone with the mag 5 and alsi you mentioned heat mag 5 will raise that as well. Eiheim would bbe tje way to go

Joe

 

[ReefRacer]

Looking good far!

Thanks Zack!

 

[ReefRacer]

If noise was a huge concern I would have not gone with the mag 5 and alsi you mentioned heat mag 5 will raise that as well. Eiheim would bbe tje way to go

Thanks for tip Joe. I might try that on tank #2. After a week of running though, I haven't noticed any heat problems. Tank staying at 79 degrees all day with no fans...LEDS are awesome. But, that's also with no doors yet so that may change. Noise wise the mag seems pretty quiet...my ReefOctopus skimmer makes more noise suckin in air :)

 

[fraghunter]

Ya I got a reeoctopus 3000 xl sss and its kind of loud and vibrates no matter what I do. Which I had my bubble magnus back that thing was a beast and super quiet.

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[Sandyp1]

Very nice ! Following along .

 

[ReefRacer]

I have a diablo in my 120 it sounds like a jet when it turns on. Quiets down after it settles.

Thanks Sandy. I'm anxious to get #2 tank up and running. Been a VERY long time since I had softies. Might even get a BTA, which I have never owned. My kids will love to see nemo hanging out in it.

 

[ReefRacer]

Since my last post, I got my AI SOL mounted and coral frags from my 120 added to the tank. I tried a couple of different mounts for the LEDs and none of them really were what I wanted. So I ended up buillding my own. Im very happy with how it turned out. There is a channel that runs down the center to hide the wires. Just wish the AIs didnt have to be plugged in on the side, but oh well. I'm running them at 37% White & 50% blue and royal. I read quite a bit about people burning their corals and since this tank is so shallow, I turned them way down. Corals are responding so far. Sorry for the crappy phone pics, one of these days I am going to get a nice camera and learn how to use it.

 

[strange33w]

very nice tank. looks like it is coming along well.

 

[skinz78]

Very nice indeed!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I love what you have decided to do. The tank is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see them both up and running!!

 

[ReefRacer]

very nice tank. looks like it is coming along well.

[/URL];1198391]Very nice indeed!

I love what you have decided to do. The tank is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see them both up and running!!

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate. My wife is really anxious to get the other tank up as well. Got a BRS delivery in this afternoon, so tank #2 is getting some working this weekend.
I've stocking up on some pretty sweet looking zoas for the other tank and looking forward to getting them in there. My wife thinks the SPS are boring, but loves the 'flowy' corals. I all my years in this hobby/lifestyle I have always been an SPS guy so the softies should be an interesting challenge.

 

[ReefRacer]

This project is actually a downsizing. I'll eventually be getting rid of my 120. I love that tank, but having an 'adventurous' family makes it a bit rough taking care of it. I am super happy the way tank #1 has turned out, but I am bit bummed that my prized, no-name, lime green, Live aquaria tabling acro is just too big for the new tank. I bought her 3+ years ago as a frag and she is about 12" across now. I've only fragged her once in anticipation for the possibility she wouldn't fit in the new tank. Her frag has prime placement in the new tank and I cant wait till the little guy has grown up to the water line and spread out. Fortunately, I was able to sell her to a good friend of mine that will take care of her. And I got some cool pallys out of for tank #2 :)

Sorry for the glare. Smart phones and metal halides dont mix.

 

[JoeCanada]

Wow that's a nice looking piece. Curious though how it would be easier to take care of two smaller tanks than one large tank?

 

[ReefRacer]

Wow that's a nice looking piece. Curious though how it would be easier to take care of two smaller tanks than one large tank?

lol. Shhh...dont tell my wife :) I have ZERO delusions that I won't spend just as much time on these tanks. But, size matters! Small tanks = small amount of work...yeah right!!!

 

[ReefRacer]

My 120 has a Reef Keeper Elite with float switches for ATO. Although I have no real complaints with the RKE, I have decided to try the Apex. It seems a lot more flexible and I look forward to being able to write my own code. In the interim, I needed an ATO solution. So, I ordered a 2-switch dealio from autotopoff.com. One is the top off level and the top switch is a fail-safe. I like the construction, nothing fancy, just straight forward. The switches appear to be pretty standard, but the bottom switch has a little pvc cover to protect it. This is a nice addition. For $50, i figured that was only slightly more than I would have paid to build it myself. We'll see how it goes. It has a small box that contains the 10 amp relay and I was able to mount that nicely under the aqualifter platform.

 

[ReefRacer]

Does anybody else have a project they've been avoiding?? Mine was moving my RO/DI & water storage to a permanent place in my garage. I finally tackled it this weekend and now I know why I was avoiding it :) The plan was to plumb the unit into the cold water input of my water heater. I did some net research and spoke with a buddy in the plumbing biz and it didn't seem terribly complicated. The biggest issue is that I didn't have a lot of space to work with. After a few extra trips to HD & Lowes, I got it sorted out and making water. I still need to plumb in the mixing pump, but that's for another weekend.

Cut a section of pipe and replaced with 2 unions, an extra ball valve to shut off incoming water to everything and a tee with the hose connection. The existing ball valve right at the heater will be closed when I make water so warm water can't back-flow into the RO/DI. I don't think this could ever happen considering the force of the incoming water, but its a precaution.

Storage containers

Dirty water coming in

Clean water coming out

 

[acropora4u]

any updates? looking good