FishinBob's Elos 160xl Build

[Fishinbob]

I Would like to introduce myself, I'm Bob and like the rest of you I'm a reef-a-holic!
I've been only been in the hobby 7 years or so but have had a great journey along the way. I live in cape coral florida and volenteer on the B.O.D for my local Reef club Swfmas (Southwest Florida Marine Aquarium Society) and enjoy sharing my experiences, and help build this amazing hobby in my area.
Enough about me let's get to the details...

Current setup is a 90 gallon mixed reef.
Diy 180 3w cree LED rapid led fixtures radion based/ With dual t5 retrofit
Diy oak stand and canopy
DIY 40 breeder sump,glass baffles refugium
2 mp40's and a mp10 on back glass
Royal exclusiv 80w return pump
Reef octopus xs200 w/varios 6 pump mo
All ran by neptune apex

NEW SETUP!
used elos 160xl Rimless starphire tank
Dimensions 63 Long x 31.5 Wide x 23 Tall
DIY custom veneer stand with some fun features to come!
61" Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid fixture 4 bulb to house my Diy radions[emoji6]
3 mp40's
2 tunze controllable 6095's and 1 6105
Reusing skimmer and return pump

Well it's double the water so i needed a proper mixing station! 2 55 gallon Roto molded containers from tank depot.
Sizing the 55 gallon containers

Installing the iwaki pump from a member

Plumbing and testing

Ready to make some water.

Now for the fun part. The stand
Based on rocket engineers well know design.
2x8 top frame ripped to 6" square
2x6 legs ripped square to 5"
Wrapped in 3/4" ply pocket screwed and glued
51" span between legs for easy access.

Frame about done

Wrapped in 3/4 ply and filling seams.

 

[Fishinbob]

Here the stand nearly complete.
Frame painted with flat black oil based

Front view

With doors open

Side view

Side panel for electronics display/nook

Side access for skimmer/ supply nook

3/4" ply top, will have a 4" shelf/edge around tank for a cup holder for tank gazing!

Got the sump in place 48x22x18" advanced acrylic sump!

 

[HolisticBear]

Beautiful stand your current tank looks great.

This will be a fun build to follow!! Those 30+ inch wide tanks make for some great aquascapes

 

[Fishinbob]

Beautiful stand your current tank looks great.

This will be a fun build to follow!! Those 30+ inch wide tanks make for some great aquascapes

Thanks Holisticbear, much appreciated. I am excited for the extra width, 18" width is killing me, I have corals on almost every panel touching the glass or nearly there.
Today's FTS

Side view... have to trim that stylo no weekly

Left front

Center

Right front

 

[HolisticBear]

Side view... have to trim that stylo no weekly

I spy some dosing bottles in your FTS. Are you running a Calc Reactor or Dosing? That's some pretty healthy Alk/Ca demand.

 

[Fishinbob]

I spy some dosing bottles in your FTS. Are you running a Calc Reactor or Dosing? That's some pretty healthy Alk/Ca demand.

Currently dosing BRS and or me corals alk,cal and mag with fauna marin balling light trace and colors.
Lol Yeap almost 150ml cal and alk a day. I've been researching dual chamber calcium reactors as I know that's eventually the route I'll be going with the extra space/water volume. Dosing is just so easy at this point but it's going to have to change!

 

[HolisticBear]

Currently dosing BRS and or me corals alk,cal and mag with fauna marin balling light trace and colors.
Lol Yeap almost 150ml cal and alk a day. I've been researching dual chamber calcium reactors as I know that's eventually the route I'll be going with the extra space/water volume. Dosing is just so easy at this point but it's going to have to change!

My buddy @GoVols switched over to a @geo calc reactor. It's a sweet setup

 

[Fishinbob]

My buddy @GoVols switched over to a @geo calc reactor. It's a sweet setup

Just started carousing his thread... I'll give it a good read I'm very interested. I've heard geo reactors are top notch!

 

[GoVols]

Thanks Holisticbear, much appreciated. I am excited for the extra width, 18" width is killing me, I have corals on almost every panel touching the glass or nearly there.
Today's FTS

Side view... have to trim that stylo no weekly

Left front

Center

Right front

Wow!!!
Your reef is amazing ;Woot ;Woot

I guarantee that a GEO 2 stage cal reactor, will save you the money over liquid dosing, over the long haul.
If your already struggle with low ph, then a cal reactor might be the wrong call.

Freddie

 

[Fishinbob]

Wow!!!
Your reef is amazing ;Woot ;Woot

I guarantee that a GEO 2 stage cal reactor, will save you the money over liquid dosing, over the long haul.
If your already struggle with low ph, then a cal reactor might be the wrong call.

Freddie

Much appreciated Freddie!
There no doubt it will eventually become cost prohibitive, right now I use a little under a gallon a month. I usually buy in bulk and I'm just now polishing off the last of my 5gallon bucket of hrs alk and cal.
I've finally got my ph high and stable at 8.3-8.5 (due to having skimmer intake ran out garage) does the duel chamber help increase ph compared to the single chamber? That bottle and regulator are beautiful Btw! Beautiful setup!

 

[GoVols]

Much appreciated Freddie!
There no doubt it will eventually become cost prohibitive, right now I use a little under a gallon a month. I usually buy in bulk and I'm just now polishing off the last of my 5gallon bucket of hrs alk and cal.
I've finally got my ph high and stable at 8.3-8.5 (due to having skimmer intake ran out garage) does the duel chamber help increase ph compared to the single chamber? That bottle and regulator are beautiful Btw! Beautiful setup!

Yeah:
The second stage is meant to help rebound the ph from the main reactor.
Some reefers still need to dose kalk with their cal reactors for ph.

Since we installed the GEO, I have not seen the ph lower than 8.0 / My skimmers intake is piped into the garage, but we open our windows a lot too.

I used to dose the Red Sea colors program, but have not needed them since the GEO was brought online.

 

[Fishinbob]

Well this weekend was a huge milestone in the elos 160 upgrade.... I moved my 90 gallon system..... 10 whole feet. :/
The elos is going in the same spot as the 90 gallon so, since it had to be moved figured we would make it worth while and cleaned all equipment, sump, and cleaned all the rock of bubble algea and out of control corals.
The prep.

Holding tanks

The move

Half the sps (I may have a problem)

The results
Before:

After

A whole 10+ hours for this

This week I will be adding backing for the floating canopy and finishing the stand getting closer every day!

 

[GoVols]

Bob,
lot of work, but it's going to pay off

Freddie

 

[Fishinbob]

Got a few hours today and got a bit of progress! Stand is in the house... after removing the front door from the hinges.. stand without ledge is 34 1/2". Stand sits at 37 1/2" barstool height but is currently on dollies so I can easily move for the next project involving a linear actuator.
Stand in place woot! A

Comparison before and after.

90 gallon for water/livestock transfer
Finally will have some width!

Some panduit for wire management and pvc and lots of it!

 

[HolisticBear]

Beautiful stand.

 

[Fishinbob]

Beautiful stand.

Thanks, still have to complete the ledge after the tank is mounted, and build the floating canopy as well. Also cleaned up the tank a bit too

 

[Fishinbob]

Making some progress,
Aquatic Life hybrid t5 with 24" brackets

2" panduit to solve this!!!

Started the plumbing! Valves and tons of fittings

Don't mind the mess, it's all just temp pcs

 

[BZOFIQ]

These are some super duper valves, where from?

 

[Fishinbob]

These are some super duper valves, where from?

I will check,they are industrial grade 1/2" dual union gate valves got them from a buddy who has some connections to industrial equipment setup. Way overkill but had to have them for the double union.

 

[Fishinbob]

Woot... received my order from 80/20 for my floating canopy lift, and wow solid stuff extremely impressed with the quality! Got some other goodies from amazon
my tv mount and linear actuator!
1.5"x1.5" 80/20

Some of the linear slides

Upper slides and corner gusset

Linear actuator... always wanted to incorporate one into a project! 225lb load with 20" stroke.

Here's A mockup of the wall mount, I will probably reduce the width to about 36-40" and use some excess for support but I doubt it will need it. Tv mount for more adjustment and easier for bulb changes and reaching the back of the tank.