Variant's Acros n' Nems

[Variant]

I've been spending the last 6 months looking at some of the gorgeous tank builds here and now that my own tank build is taking off, I will introduce myself. I go by Variant on forums and I love good coffee, hiking, and my miniature schnauzer Mona.

I travel frequently for work but will try my best to document my reef tank journey.

I'm hoping to build a mixed but SPS dominated tank for my living room. Nothings set in stone so we'll see how things change over time.

Equipment List
Tank: 30" x 25" x 12" (760mm x 635mm x 300mm) Crystal Dynamic Aquarium
Sump: 24" GEO Auto Filter Roll ("AFR")
Light: 8x24 ATI Powermodule Wifi
Flow: x2 Vortech MP10QD
Skimmer: Deltec 600i
Controller: GHL Profilux 4
Doser: GHL Doser 2.1

Quick pictures of the setup after picking up the tank today. Will be traveling in a bit so updates might be a tad slow!

 

[WifiDan]

Amazing looking tank! Following along for the ride! I love the P4 system. My favorite is the maxi for auto water changes as that is the most easily deferred item on my list.

 

[Variant]

Amazing looking tank! Following along for the ride! I love the P4 system. My favorite is the maxi for auto water changes as that is the most easily deferred item on my list.

I have high hopes for automating many aspects of this tank since I will be leaving it for 1-2 weeks at a time to travel several times a year. I think the most difficult thing will be achieving automation in a small footprint (don't have a 'fish room' per say).

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Beautiful tank. Like the footprint. Following>>>

 

[Variant]

Looking at the tank while brewing some Ethiopian Guji coffee... Man I can't wait to fill it with life!

 

[Variant]

Super excited to visit Hawaii in a week. Hopefully I'll get to spend more time in the water compared to trip last year!

 

[Variant]

Spent some time organizing the electronic components of the stand. Right now have two GHL Powerbar 5.1s on each side of the stand with the middle dedicated for all things wiring and power adapter related.

I'm sure things will get messier as the rest of the equipment show up.

Quick picture

 

[Variant]

A quick update on the build... Got back from Hawaii excited about setting up the tank but got news that my sump was going to be delayed by a few weeks. So I thought I'd take my time to focus on some of the details in the meantime.

First, I got rid of the conduit bars I was using to hold up my light. I finally got it hanging from the ceiling. This wasn't as easy as people might think because our ceiling has radiant ceiling heating and I had to buy a fancy IR thermal imaging camera to make sure I wasn't drilling into any of the thermal components.

Second, I decided to put the Reef Octopus Varios 2 pump in the closet and use a Royal Exclusiv Red Dragon pump for my return. I wanted a stronger pump that would be able to feed a few extra pieces of equipment without losing too much flow on the return. I have to say, I'm super happy with how heavy duty the pump and controller box feels. One detail that I appreciate is the ability to take the pump off the controller for easier maintenance (I won't need to clean pumps by the tank).

Lastly, I got bored so I DIY'd three dosing containers for my 3-part dosing. Given the white and red theme I'm planning for, I found a creative way to make the dosing lines look extra slick!

 

[blackizzz]

Nice start! Looking forward to following this build!

 

[leo carvalho]

Great! Keeping shoots!

 

[Variant]

For those who were curious, the red dosing lines are just regular clear dosing tubes with Techflex braided cable sleeve. I just had to add heat-shrink on either end to keep the sleeve in place.

 

[blackizzz]

For those who were curious, the red dosing lines are just regular clear dosing tubes with Techflex braided cable sleeve. I just had to add heat-shrink on either end to keep the sleeve in place.

That's actually really clever! I might steal this idea

 

[Variant]

That's actually really clever! I might steal this idea

Thanks! An added benefit of the wire sleeve was in making the dosing tube more straight and less bent. Makes it easier to work with.

IF you end up doing this for yourself, post pictures!~

 

[Variant]

Spent the past few days enjoying the outdoors...

To make things even better, when I got home today, I was greeted by a nice surprise - my sump finally got here! After 12 weeks of waiting somewhat patiently I finally got to slowly put things together.

With the sump here, I'll be putting together the plumbing in the next few days. Side note, just a quick comparison between the regular 90 degree pvc elbows versus the SPEARS brand long sweeping elbows I got in hopes of reducing head pressure.

 

[Variant]

Couple additional goodies arrived in the mail... The GHL Breeze and a little SwitchBot.

Since I'm not able to use a chiller outside my home, fans are going to have to be my main source of chillin. Got the biggest set of fans I could mount on this tiny tank!

Since the fan's effectiveness is in part influenced by room temperature and I don't have central air conditioning, I'll be relying on the SwitchBot to make sure my A/C unit turns on/off based on the room temperature. Trying to make my dumb in-wall unit smarter ;Pompus.

SwitchBot in action!

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Couple additional goodies arrived in the mail... The GHL Breeze and a little SwitchBot.

Since I'm not able to use a chiller outside my home, fans are going to have to be my main source of chillin. Got the biggest set of fans I could mount on this tiny tank!

Since the fan's effectiveness is in part influenced by room temperature and I don't have central air conditioning, I'll be relying on the SwitchBot to make sure my A/C unit turns on/off based on the room temperature. Trying to make my dumb in-wall unit smarter ;Pompus.

SwitchBot in action!

You will love the switchbot. I use it in my garage since I have a very old unreliable window AC in there. Set the temp as low as it will go, the switchbot will turn it on and off as needed.

 

[Variant]

You will love the switchbot. I use it in my garage since I have a very old unreliable window AC in there. Set the temp as low as it will go, the switchbot will turn it on and off as needed.

Glad I'm not alone here! At some point, I was thinking of replacing the entire AC unit with a brand new until I learned about the SwitchBot. You know your A/C is old when it doesn't even have a remote controller

 

[Gaspipe]

our ceiling has radiant ceiling heating

Do you live in an apartment and the upstairs floor (your ceiling) have radiant heating? Never heard of it in the ceiling.

Why did you go with a GHL over an Apex? I always hear people going w/ Apex on here.

Looks great btw.. looking fwd to this build.

 

[Variant]

Do you live in an apartment and the upstairs floor (your ceiling) have radiant heating? Never heard of it in the ceiling.

Why did you go with a GHL over an Apex? I always hear people going w/ Apex on here.

Looks great btw.. looking fwd to this build.

Yep, I live in a cozy apartment with radiant heating through the ceiling. This is my first time hearing of radiant heating at all, but I'm glad I did my research and used a IR heat imaging tool to make sure I didn't drill into any of the thermal components of the heating system.

GHL vs Apex to me, was a fairly straight forward decision actually.

• This is a generalization to a degree, but European companies undergo more stringent regulatory requirements, that give me peace of mind that I'm buying a top quality electrical piece of hardware.
• GHL seems to be very innovative in bringing new technologies to the market first (I'm sure GHL brought flow sensors way before Neptune, thermoeletric coolers, etc).
• I personally like the hardware design. The fact that I don't have to drill it into a wall, use wall mounts, or velcro stickies, makes it a win in my book.
• The Profilux controller has most of everything inside the unit, which is expandable.
• While the Apex has a nice looking UI, I am a firm believer that the less I have to look at my controller the better. In my mind, controllers were built to provide peace of mind, allowing you to enjoy it more. So to me, hardware quality is most important instead of nice looking visualizations.

 

[Variant]

The plumbing is coming along but waiting on a few more items to get me across the finish line. One of the accessories I'm glad I got was the stainless steel pipe holders, which will make the plumbing stronger and lets me get rough

on the planned manifold without the plumbing falling apart.

The long sweep elbows were pretty easy to find. I got them from USPlastics which has been a great place to buy nifty things here and there. I got my 28 gallon remote ATO tank and a nice 5 gallon bucket featuring a red fold-able arm that makes it easier to screw the lid on water tight and unscrew after. It also has a retractable outlet on the lid for easier pouring.