Rêverie Reef - Video thread

Ardeus · Sep 19, 2018

Current fish:

- 3 Ocellaris
- 3 Threadfin cardinals
- 2 Flame angels
- 2 Yellow assessors
- 2 Banggai cardinals
- 1 Tomini tang
- 1 Diamond goby

I want to add another diamond goby and hope they pair up, 4 more threadfin cardinals and maybe a couple of Okinawa gobies.

I even thought about having a group of chromis in hope that they would take to the BTA's. They sometimes do that.

NY_Caveman · Sep 20, 2018

Ardeus said:
Current fish:

- 3 Ocellaris
- 3 Threadfin cardinals
- 2 Flame angels
- 2 Yellow assessors
- 2 Banggai cardinals
- 1 Tomini tang
- 1 Diamond goby

I want to add another diamond goby and hope they pair up, 4 more threadfin cardinals and maybe a couple of Okinawa gobies.

I even thought about having a group of chromis in hope that they would take to the BTA's. They sometimes do that.

Have you ever tried Damsels with Anemones? Or are they too aggressive.

Ardeus · Sep 20, 2018

I always tried to stay away from them precisely because of that. I know that dominoes take to the anemones very easily, but those are devils.

Ardeus · Sep 22, 2018

The tank will be fitted inside the structure, to hide the first 3 cms of sand.

Ardeus · Sep 22, 2018

I made some changes to the piping. I had the drains feeding the refugium, UV, etc, which was wrong. Now they are fed by the return pump.

Ardeus · Sep 22, 2018

This is a top view of the tank.

Flow in tanks with high volume (200 gallons) and small length (55") is always complicated because it's too easy to start moving sand around. For this reason I chose to use the diagonal.

So the overflow is oriented in a way that allows a Jebao CP-150 (a gyre type pump) to be responsible for the flow in the whole tank. It has a max flow of 7500 gallons per hour and I can overclock it by 20% to 9000 gallons per hour.

If it's not possible to create a wave motion with the return nozzle, I will use another pump for the purpose. One way or another, there will be a soft wave motion.

The overflow weir is about 14" long and that doesn't leave lots of space for the holes in the bottom glass.

Furthermore, the tank will be braced not only on the top, but also on the bottom. I don't think it will be possible to drill the 4 x 1.5" holes that would be needed for a BeanAnimal setup plus return pipe without increasing the size of the overflow. The BeanAnimal seemed the best way to cope with the wave motion, But I guess I will have to use the Herbie setup that just needs 3 pipes (main drain, emergency and return).

Most of the BTA's are not that big, but the magnifica is getting huge. If (when!) that thing decides to take off it may block the entire overflow.

Ardeus · Sep 24, 2018

This the reason I stayed away from sumps for 12 years: it allows you to complicate and add stuff to your tank almost without limits.

There will be a switch under each socket and the eggcrate will allow me to hang the controllers, powersuplies, etc.

Ardeus · Sep 24, 2018

I have 2 x maxspect razors 180W which I was thinking would be enough to light the tank.

The older one fell in the water a couple of weeks ago, but I managed to dry it and make it work again. It stopped working again

How to light a tank that's 3 feet wide and almost 5 long? With the expense of getting a custom new tank, new lighting was the last thing I wanted to think about.

The Aquamedic Angel (the European equivalent to Cobal C-Ray) look good, but there aren't many reviews around. But they are slightly different. The fill light of the Aquamedic is blue (good), but the lenses are more focused (bad).

Or I could try to find another used Razor and spend only 15% of what two aquamedic will cost.

Ardeus · Oct 1, 2018

Slowly but hopefully steady

I keep saying to myself "I don't smoke, drink alcohol or coffee, I eat at home 95% of the time and this is the last tank I will ever own". I ordered a couple of Aquamedic Angel leds and I find myself having to say this to my self more and more often.

Ardeus · Oct 3, 2018

It wasn't difficult to choose the color for the stand, my eyes were immediately drawn to that tone. The tough part was taking the final decision to go ahead with such a bold color.

I will have a 150x100x80 cms violently red box in my living room...

Ardeus · Oct 3, 2018

Ardeus · Oct 4, 2018

I wish I could update the title of the thread because the tank is now 4 inches taller and the volume is 200 gallons.

I'm allocating money to this tank in a chaotic way while trying to establish priorities and seizing opportunities.

A skimmer wasn't on the top of my list of things to get, because not only it's not critical but I have one, a hangon Deltec MCE600.

Yesterday I found an absurdly low price (less 40% than normal) on a model from a brand no one knows.

I just asked the online vendor: "Is it good? Is it silent? Why is is so cheap?"

He replied "yes and yes. We don't know why the supplier is selling them at such a low price and we got a bunch of them".

Here is the mysterious Wo! 180 (there really is an exclamation mark on the name). It's British company.

It runs a Jebao DC-3000 pump, so all the circulation in the tank will be Jebao

The return pump is a DCP-10000 and the "gyre" is a CP-150.

NY_Caveman · Oct 4, 2018

Ardeus said:
I wish I could update the title of the thread because the tank is now 4 inches taller and the volume is 200 gallons.

As a Site Supporter you should have access to Thread Tools where you can change the title.

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Ardeus · Oct 5, 2018

Thanks!

Ardeus · Oct 16, 2018

It's common knowledge that nothing good ever happens quickly on a reef tank. It seems this also applies to the cabinet construction.

That thing is soooo red!

mattgsa · Oct 16, 2018

Really nice build. Thanks for sharing.

Ardeus · Oct 16, 2018

The guy is an artist. The advantage is that he puts incredible detail in whatever he does. The disadvantage is... that he's an artist

he can't be rushed.

Ardeus · Oct 16, 2018

He's now cutting the glass panels for the cabinet in extra clear glass... because if he used normal glass the final color would be different after he painted it red.

The glass will be tempered and then painted.

Ardeus · Oct 17, 2018

I had ambitious plans for the lighting.

I don't think I will be able to pull it off without over complicating the system, so I think I will give up on this idea.

I tested the Aqua Medic fixture today and I managed to compare it with the Maxspect Razor 180 Watt.

The Maxspect provides a much more even coverage to the tank and looks much brighter, possibly because of the different spectrum with both fixtures running at 100% on all channels.

The shimmer of the Aqua Medic is too strong so I will be hanging them high.

The plan now is to have the 2 Aqua Medics on the sides, slightly tilted and pointing at the centre of the tank and the Maxspect on the centre. This way I can still program the 3 fixtures to simulate the sun travelling in the sky.