My custom 233

[mfinn]

I hope Im at that point myself one day!

This is a accumulation of several tanks and years of trying one thing or another.
And now I'm going to completely re-do it.
Kind of scary

 

[Rob77]

This is a accumulation of several tanks and years of trying one thing or another.
And now I'm going to completely re-do it.
Kind of scary

Yeah I bet scary! Good luck

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Nice looking tanks. It is cool to see it develop and change over the years. If you had to start from scratch on a new large build, would you stick with the closed loop?

 

[mfinn]

Nice looking tanks. It is cool to see it develop and change over the years. If you had to start from scratch on a new large build, would you stick with the closed loop?

Thanks.

Yes, absolutely. I love the closed loop idea.
I see people who say the closed loops are obsolete and outdated. I just can't figure out why putting powerheads back inside the tank is a better idea.
I love the look of not having powerheads inside the tank.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Thanks. When I first started looking into a reef aquarium I came across the closed loop setup and liked it for its clean look. I have read a few places that the maintenance on it can be a lot/hard to do. Have you found that to be the case?

 

[mfinn]

Thanks. When I first started looking into a reef aquarium I came across the closed loop setup and liked it for its clean look. I have read a few places that the maintenance on it can be a lot/hard to do. Have you found that to be the case?

Not at all. It's all in how you plan it out.
All you have to do is use union valves on each side of the pump and it's really easy to pull the pump.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Tanks are looking beautiful!

 

[Dsnakes]

Beautiful tank! I hope to get my upgrade display done soon to get more fish. I like the clowns, and understand the terrors they can be!

 

[mfinn]

Tanks are looking beautiful!

Thanks.
Unfortunately there is a problem that I need to fix.
I've been gathering equipment and supplies to remove all rock, corals and fish and start over.
Just waiting for my new dry rock to cycle.

 

[mfinn]

Well, I removed all my corals, fish, and rock.
Cycled new rock and got it in the tank. Fish and corals are all in and happy.
Everything still looks like a new tank so I don't have any pictures of the new setup.

I did replace my rodi system.
I've had a BRS rodi 5 stage unit since 2011.
It has worked flawlessly up until last summer when I started getting abnormally high tds readings out of the membrane. Incoming water was around 57-58. Coming out of the membrane, 10-11. It used to always be 1-2.
So I went through 5-6 months of swapping out membranes and filters and casings/canisters and fittings, new tds meter, and nothing would get the tds back down to normal levels.
200 gallons of clean water and the di was completely exhausted.
So when BRS finally stopped replying to emails, I had to buy another rodi.
I went to Melev's Reef and bought one.

I decided to do something a little different with the mounting.
I saw a picture of a guys rodi unit on reef frontiers and tried to copy it.

 

[Jim Fox]

So you basically reset the tank you already have right? Any pics of the new setup? What was the cause for the reset?

 

[mfinn]

So you basically reset the tank you already have right? Any pics of the new setup? What was the cause for the reset?

Yes, it was a complete reset.
Last year I ended up going back to work and it was a tough schedule for me.
So the daily stuff I normally do on my tank fell by the wayside.
I introduced a pink tip majano with a frag and that turned into a few dozen, which turned into hundreds, etc.
The rock and corals were infested with majanos. Hundreds, even thousands.
I tried a couple different butterfly fish, several matted file fish and nothing seemed to work.
The majanos were killing lps corals by popping up in the heads and forcing the polyps out of the skeleton.

So I started collecting rock, tanks and other equipment.
I set up a coral holding/quarantine tank for the surviving corals.
I also setup a fish holding/quarantine tank for the 22 fish I had.
I cycled 180 lbs. of rock in a large stock tub.
Completely sterilized the tank and started over.

 

[Jim Fox]

Wow, so sorry to hear that. I'm glad you hung in there for the restart. I hope things go well for you and tank!!! Post pics when you can... love the set up you have!

 

[mfinn]

Wow, so sorry to hear that. I'm glad you hung in there for the restart. I hope things go well for you and tank!!! Post pics when you can... love the set up you have!

Thank-you.
Hopefully I'll get over the new look soon and post a update.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Looking forward to seeing the update Marty, after my nearly 3 year hiatus from the Forum's it's been fun again trying to catch up on my favorite Reefer's builds. I know that I could/should have just driven the 90 minutes to see yours in person...

 

[mfinn]

Looking forward to seeing the update Marty, after my nearly 3 year hiatus from the Forum's it's been fun again trying to catch up on my favorite Reefer's builds. I know that I could/should have just driven the 90 minutes to see yours in person...

Glad to see you back around here.
Tank is just new. dealing with diatoms now.

 

[VelocityTech]

It's getting close.
My hoped for pick up day is the 19th.
But as with any custom build, I need to be flexible.

I guess the word on their build quality is getting out there.
Sounds like they are getting more orders all the time.

What was your quote for the build?

 

[mfinn]

What was your quote for the build?

I don't really remember. I want to say under $2k with all the bulkhead fittings and being bumped to the head of the line fee.
My current tank was leaking from a bottom seam.
I remember making 3-4 payments as it was completely unplanned.

 

[mfinn]

Haven't done a update in a while.
Only new thing is I've changed lights.
I went to a ATI 8 x 80 T5 fixture.
I agonized over how to mount this heavy fixture and finally decided on using the supplied cable mount and go to the ceiling.

I also thought there was a lot of so called light spill, so I made a shield for it.
I was going to use brush aluminum , but Lowes wanted almost $50 just for the materials, and I wasn't sure of the outcome.
So I used some .026 stucco embossed aluminum I had from work.
Didn't turn out too bad.
I thought maybe I would use the free material to practice and then go buy what I needed from Lowes, but I may stay with this.








This is a close up of the aluminum I used.

 

[trido]

Looks Great Martin!!