Red Barn Reefers 200

[Redbarnreefer]

Hello All,

I should start by saying that in the past I've not been a fan in the past of larger forums such as this, prefering my local one. However, after a fun SexyCorals live sale and meeting some fun people during it, I've decided to create a thread on here to document my build. Lets start with the tank. Its a 200g acrylic built by Midwest Custom Aquariums. Dimentions are 62x30x25. I built my own stand and sump. Orriginally the tank was supposed to be filtered by a fuge and crypt that I built into the sump. After sitting on this tank for 4 years and 2 kids later, my plans have changed a little. After doing some research I decided to do a Zeovit tank. My primary motivations are one: I want a pristine and clean tank with low nutrients. Two: With 2 kids and 2 dogs I want my system as compact and simple as possible (Gotta love the word compact in a 200 g thread right?). I chose zeo because I already feed multiple times a day and can easily add that to my routine, plus I like the idea of being able to tinker with color tones in my tank. We will see how it turns out. I suppose I should post my equipment list.

200g Display Tank built by Midwest Custom Aquarium
Roughly 100g selfbuilt sump
Vertex Alpha 250 Skimmer
Vertex 3.0 L Zeovit Reactor
Panworld 50px-x
Fluval Sea SP4
2 Tunze 6101
Korellia Nano
Rio Nano - Used to circulate top off water
2 AI Hyrda
An old Neptune Systems Controller that does its job, but will need to be upgraded soon.

 

[benihana]

Sounds like a nice set up. Any pics you can share? How do you like your Midwest aquarium? Any reason why you chose acrylic over glass?

 

[Redbarnreefer]

OK. A couple pictures. I'm planning on adding a couple lights as the 2 hyrdas aren't quite doing it for me. To answer your questions, I am pleased with the tank. The guy that made it for me was very helpful and definitely worked with me, which I always appreciate. As far as why I went with acrylic. When I had it built I was trying to fit it in a specific spot and wanted it as big as possible. For less money I could go from a 180 to 200. A 220 wouldn't have fit back then. Hope you guys like it. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

 

[Redbarnreefer]

02/21/15 Update:

Well I've change some things around. I added two AI Hydra's that I picked up from a local guy who wanted to move back to MH. I'm currently in Florida, while I have a house sitter and instructions on what to do each day, I was pretty anxious about not being able to monitor my tank while I was away. To that end I bit the bullet and picked up the Gold apex system. I'm still learning fusion and definitely need to do some reading to do some of the programming I want, but so far it is the best piece of mind I have bought in a long time! Here are a couple pics of the lighting upgrade.



After having the lights up for a while one of the fans went out and I rearranged the lights for the time being. After a week of this I decided that I liked three on the DT much better because the scape gained so much more character with the shadows that were created.



Where the extra light ended up.



I'll try to get some updated coral pics when I get back.

 

[Redbarnreefer]

It's been a while and my tank has changed quite a bit in it's year and a half life. I decided not to run zeo anymore. While it had some advantages, I ultimately decided it wasn't for me. I am currently running a vertex 250 and GAC in a phosban reactor. I also just built a ATS to keep an eye on nutrients. My new goal is to keep a low nutrient system. I'm hoping to arrive at 2-3 nitrates and a trace amount of phosphate. Currently I've just been adding with feeding but the hot topic of nitrate dosing has me thinking.