Luc Vogels's 600+ gallon CoralCare Reef

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Luc Vogels

Luc Vogels

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Thats a load of changes.
Youll love having the filtration in the garage, can upgrade equipment or add frag tanks. Also maybe add a few more tanks. Still 4 50 mm tubes isnt that a bit overkill?

Very nice! You'll be happy you went with 50 mm at least for the drains. I had 1.5" (40mm) drains and returns running 12 meters or so between my tank and sump room. After a couple of years the drains were bio fouled so much that they could not keep up with the return pump. Rather than reducing the flow, I dug them all up and replace with 2". THAT was a pain in the rear. I have found that 1.5" is plenty for the return. You can pump a lot of water through a 1.5" pipe, much more than I want running though my sump.
Agree that 50mm is possibly a bit overkill.
But I have to make sure that enough water is able to flow through the returnpipes without needing to raise the waterlevel in the main tank to much.
In a few weeks I can say how much overkill it was :)

Amazing tank! please keep this build log up to date :)

Will do!
 

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No overkill in tanks. One never knows how large the next setup will be :)
 
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Luc Vogels

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Some further progress of the aquarium room :)

The garage will be split in two separate rooms.
The back-part of the garage for the aquarium (containing a small kitchen, the filtration system and a large fragtank), and the front part will be used for practical work (woodworking and electronics and storing my tools).

The tracks for the floor heating.

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And the result after placing tiles and replacing the garagedoor with a door/window frame.

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Luc Vogels

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Some random picture moment during the build.

After placing the tiles we started to rewire the electrical installation of the room and installed a new lighting system in the same run.
I also added a separate fuse (and earth leakage protection) in the main fusebox so the aquarium group is electrically separated from the rest of the house.

I used 6 60Watt office LED tiles (color temperature = 4000k) which can be controlled with a 0-10V interface. I also added a presence sensor and RF wall switch which I also integrated in my HUE lighting system. In this way I can setup some simple on/off/dim rules that respond to presence, smartphone control and time..

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After finishing the lighting, I started with the framework of the wall.
The wall is build with 75x45 beams and closed with 18mm water-resistant multiplex wood.
This ensures a very solid wall what can be used to mount equipment.
For isolation, the space between the two outer multiplex boards is filled with wool.

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Looking great.
Any space for an additional tank in there maybe?
 
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Luc Vogels

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Looking great.
Any space for an additional tank in there maybe?

:)

The water volume will be expanded with a frag tank (dimensions 220x75x40)... so yes :D
Some additional pictures of the build progress:

After we finished the wall construction we made a start with the installation of the aquarium room's kitchen.
This is the old kitchen of my parents and fits perfectly!
My stepdad helped me with the Plumbing (never did this before)

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The only thing I bought was a new tap (you can take-out the end part... handy for cleaning the skimmer)
 
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Luc Vogels

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And the last part for now :)

Some pictures of the frag/filter tank stand.

The fragtank will be standing on a table with dimensions 220x90.
It is made with 75x45 mm beams and bolted to the wall for extra strength.
I used water resistant betonplex (do not know the english word) it is hardened, glued and coated with an epoxy layer.

Below the table I am going to place the two original tanks I used in my previous setup (100x60x30 and 120x60x30). These two are going to house all filtrationstuff (and maybe a refugium).



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Mike&Terry

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Just finished reading through your build thread and I'm hooked... Beautiful reef, great photography and when you finish your project, you are going to have The Ultimate Reefing Man Cave!
 
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Luc Vogels

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Just finished reading through your build thread and I'm hooked... Beautiful reef, great photography and when you finish your project, you are going to have The Ultimate Reefing Man Cave!

Great build !!!
Following:)
Thanks!!
Should consider making a sign for the door haha :p
 

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Awesome tank. Might want to upgrade the girlfriends status before a good one gets away :). Excited to see how the new fish room finishes up!
 
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Luc Vogels

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Small progress update!

I have build a small stand on the right side next to the fragtank stand.
This is going to be used for my DIY calcium reactor (based on the DaStaCo principle).
I made room for a large CO2 bottle, and two reactor pipes (1 meter in height, 25cm in diameter what combined contains about 25 kilogram of media).

IMG_20170212_WA0027.jpg


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I also build a cabinet above the calcium reactor (the doors are not mounted yet).
This cabinet will be used to house all control equipment.
I am still planning what to control from here, but I made sure I have sufficient space for it!

IMG_20170219_WA0011.jpg


On the left side of the fragtank I made a wooden construction for my reverse osmosis storage tank. This tank (about 200 liters) will be used to store osmosis, but also to prepare/mix saltwater. With help with a valve and some gravity I can simply dump the water in the filter tank (making it more easy to perform water changes).

IMG_20170214_WA0002.jpg


Next item is to create a shelf on the top back left side of the room to house the RODI unit.
Near the shelf I also want to install a drain, water outlet and power outlet.

To be continued.

Any suggestions? Please share them!
 

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Coming a long nicely, I am excited to see how you make your CArx, so please provide lots of pics:)
 
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Luc Vogels

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Coming a long nicely, I am excited to see how you make your CArx, so please provide lots of pics:)

Thanks, will do! The main unit is still the same as depicted on page 1 and described on page 2 of this thread. But I will post some additional information about it in one of the upcoming days!!
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 68 52.3%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 67 51.5%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 33 25.4%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.9%
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