Oldtimer's 450g SPS Dominant System

[Oldtimer]

Hey guys & gals,
Long time reefer (started keeping SPS in 1990), although I don't do a lot of online posting due to too many life demands. Figured I'd share a bit about my system here.

~240 gal Display in wall mounted

~450 gal Total System

Started system in 2010, cycled again in 2012 to remove sandbeds. Haven't added any livestock in nearly 3 years - just letting things grow since all is happy.

All water comes from a BRS 6 Stage Chloramines RO/DI system with TDS always reading zero after the second DI canister.


Filtration:

* Bubble King 300 Deluxe External gravity fed directly by display tank overflow

* Fluidized reactor occasionally used for GAC and/or GFO (Haven't ran either for a few years now)

* Single Polypad in sump, replaced every 2-3 weeks

* Filter socks in sump - cleaned weekly with vinegar/water in washing machine. Socks are replaced every few months.

* Filter sponge as pre-filter to sump return pump inlet

* 150 lbs+ Live Rock within system

* 40 gal Refugium

* 35 gal Frag Tank

* 65 gal cryptic/live rock holding tank

* 50 gal coral growout/holding tank

* Twin sump setup


Circulation:

* Vortech MPW40 x 2 in DT

* Tunze 6105 x 1 in DT

* Tunze Wavebox x 2 in DT (have been off line for a few years since pumps kept failing - not pleased with this pump design frankly)

* Jebao RW-20 Wavemaker (excellent results with this thing!)

* Jebao RW-8 Wavemaker (another great wavemaker)

* Dart Gold (Sump return and feed to frag tank & fuge)

* Maxijet streams (in 50 gal coral growout tank)


Lighting:

* 2x 250W Reeflux 12K MH's + 1x 400W Radium 20K MH – 5/6hr photoperiod (have had up to 7-8 hours in the past)

* 2x 80W T5's (Dimmable for sunrise/sunset) - 11 hr photoperiod

* T5's on fuge and frag tank (fuge empty for past few years so no lighting active)

* 2x 36” VHO and 1x 250W Reeflux 12K MH on separate 50 g tank connected to system with similar photoperiod as DT (currently not occupied)


Heating/Cooling:

* 2x 400W heaters in sump and dual fans over tank controlled via Profilux.

* All tanks are housed in a dedicated fish room (In wall display).

* Fish room has its own ventilation and mini-split A/C system.

* A/C system maintains room at ~22-23C all year round, although switched off in colder months

* Ventilation fan switches on every 1.5-3 hours for 30 min (depending on time of day) to exchange air with outdoors

* Tank Temperature maintained between 26.9 C (80.4F) and 27.4 C (81.3 F) during day.

* Tank Temperature maintained between 26.5 C(79.7 F) and 26.9 C (80.4F) during night.


Control/Supplementation/Feeding:

* Profilux II Plus EX system with ORP, pH, Temp, Salinity Control

* Profilux 4 channel dosing unit for top off (trigged by Conductivity probe) and Balling Salts (Alk, Ca and Mg)

* Apex controller with temp probe, separate fan control and additional Eheim return pump control online and used as a redundant back-up controller - installed this after a power outage which seemingly took out the Profilux controller. It wouldn't come back 0nline for several hours...was finally able to somehow wake it up eventually but was enough of a scare to warrant purchasing another controller as a back-up.

* Both controllers are networked and online. I have email updates from the Profilux and an iPhone app for the Apex which provides alerts as well.

* Seneye also monitors temp, pH and ammonia and provides data via an app on my phone

* Multiple webcams are installed in display room and fish room. These are easily monitored on my iPhone.


Parameters and general state of tank:

· pH= 8.0-8.5 typically, steady

· Alk= 8.5-9.2 (Salifert)

· Ca= 420-460 (Salifert)

· Mg= ~1500 (Salifert)

· P04 = 0.01 to 0.03 per Hanna ULR meter (measures phosphorus but I am reporting the converted P04 values)

· Ammonia and Nitrate are 0 (Tropic Marin)

· Honestly, I don't check parameters frequently any more. Just don't need to as things are so stable.

· 40-50 gallon water change once/week using Reef Crystals

Livestock:

· Fish- Sailfin Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, 2 Yellow Tangs, Blue/green chromis, Ocellaris Clownfish Misbar, 2 Lemon Chromis

· Feed tank once/day (1 frozen cube of spirulina brine shrimp + 1 dime size chunk of Rod’s Reef food + some flake Formula 2 since the Naso loves it). Also add around 10ml each of Red Sea Reef Energy A & B just before each feeding.

· Lots of acros, digis, seriatopora, pocillopora, acans, favia, zoas, chalices, a massive hammer and a small head of xenia holding on

Some pictures from the early days...

 

[Oldtimer]

A few more...

 

[Oldtimer]

Some of the early corals...

 

[Oldtimer]

A bit more...

 

[Oldtimer]

I was going for the small and larger island look with plenty of room for fish to swim and coral to grow. Will post more later...

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great and thanks for sharing the pictures and detailed write up with us

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[Oldtimer]

Thanks Shaun... I wanted to do this thread long ago. Joined here back in 2010, but life just got in the way as they say. More pics...

 

[Oldtimer]

Moving Day. Tank was made by Miracles Aquariums and has a starfire front pane as well as end overflow weir with dual adjacent waveboxes. It's a Euro braced design and has held up beautifully. Took about 6 guys to get it down to it's final home - a finished rec room in the basement. Stand was also made by Miracles (or I believe their subcontractor)... more on that later.

 

[Oldtimer]

Some early pics after first corals added and initial rockwork made. Note the wood surround. I custom made the frame out of cherry and finished with shellac. The doors were made out of cherry to my specs and I finished them with the same shellac. All doors including the canopy door are fully functional.

 

[Oldtimer]

The business end of things...

 

[Oldtimer]

 

[Oldtimer]

If you notice the white boxed in enclosure under the stand between the two sumps... this actually houses audio/video equipment for the home theater system. It was an accidental screw-up frankly. The stand was never to receive the twin vertical members on the backside (middle section)...only the vertical member at either end along with the angular gussets. The manufacturer overlooked this and accidentally added the additional vertical members in the middle section which caused me to rethink the sump setup (which was originally going to be one large sump which I could remove from the rear for cleaning/maintenance).

So the dual sump was born and I decided to use the center section of the stand for the audio/video components. That box is fully isolated from the fish room. It has some pass through holes at the rear for wiring, but otherwise is only accessed from the front. This actually worked out quite well and I had them add a center channel speaker frame directly above the audio/video box. I built the box out of birch ply and stained the inside and painted the outside. A rear mounted projector provides the video display to a motorized screen mounted above the canopy directly in front of the tank... so movie nights with the kids are spent with the screen fully blocking out the tank. It has worked very well over the years and 4 kids later!

 

[Hemmdog]

Aquarium only sink ! My wife’s dream !!!

 

[Oldtimer]

Mine would kill me without it! I had to do it with the laundry room sink at the opposite corner of the basement and a large stretch of carpet between it and the tanks. Plumbing that was fun... had to run the drain line through two block walls. Lots of help from a massive hammer drill.

 

[Oldtimer]

Some recent top down shots. Need to prune a few especially the digi...

 

[Oldtimer]

 

[Oldtimer]

Snapped a few more pics. These pics are off my iPhone 7. No trick image processing, filters, lighting changes, etc with any of my pics.

 

[Oldtimer]

I haven't pruned the SPS much in a long time...would have liked to shaped their growth a bit more especially the blue digi which has taken the stage in the tank frankly. I just haven't been able to devote enough time. But all in all, the corals are very healthy and happy.

 

[Hemmdog]

Oh my God! Your display!! I love it! That is so much more accurate to what it looks like when I go scuba diving than your typical reef tank. Keep it up!

 

[Oldtimer]

Thanks. It definitely has a more natural appearance. That said, several colonies are constantly competing for space so it's requiring some attention to avoid some wiping out others. Coral growth in the display is extremely quick to say the least!