jrlafrance
06-11-2008, 08:12 AM
OK, I know that I've mentioned this to several people over the course of the past couple of weeks, so here it is. Our tank upgrade thread. The stand and canopy were designed and built by myself. The frame is 2x material with a 4x4 header at the front doors to span the 3' opening. The skin is mostly red oak, with pine trim pieces. In our original design, the trim pieces alone were gonna cost us $1200, so we needed to cut back. I think the cut back design is still very tasteful, and most importantly, we LOVE it! Huge props to fishfinger, and his company Angel Painting for doing a superb job on the staining and sealing of the stand and canopy. I highly recommend them if anyone has custom work done for their tank. Awesome job guys!
The tank was originally a room divider type, with the overflow one one end, in the middle, and the return is about 2/3 down the tank, in the center. Tank dimensions are 6'L x 18"D x 26"T, making it 145 gallons! Up from our old 60 gallon tank. (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26761) We upgraded our lights to 3x 175W MH's (10k Ushio's) run by a PFO triple ballast. Actinics are 2x 54W Actinic+, and 2x 54W Pure Actinics. I really like the different color that these bulbs help create, especially after the main lights go out! Skimmer is and older model Euroreef, probably equivelant to the RS80. Sump is 30 gallons, divided by myself to create 3 compartments: refugium (left), return area (center), and drain/skimmer area (right). I redid the Durso pipe with a Hofer Gurgle Buster, and increased the pipe size to 2". The water drains into the sump and into a filter sock.
My old GenX-40 return pump pipes the water out of the sump, through a UV sterilizer, split off to the chiller, and up to the tank. Chiller is a CustomSeaLife 1/4HP chiller and controlled with a Ranco controller (Thanks Yolo!). Water movement in the tank is provided with 1x Koralia4 and 2x MJ900's connected to a RedSea Wavemaker. The Koralia is always on, blowing across the front of the tank, while the MJ's are alternating current at the back of the tank. It took some getting used to, but the K4 really pumps out a lot of water! Not yet installed (but soon), there are going to be a total of 7 fans to aid with cooling the stand and canopy. 2 will go in the stand, one on either end, one blowing in, the other blowing out. The other 5 fans will go in the canopy. The fans on either end will draw air in, directed at the MH's, while the other 3 will pull air out through the top of the canopy. All 7 fans will be attached to a temperature controller.
Current livestock: Mated pair of true percula's, pair of pink skunk clowns, Red Sea Purple tang, bi-color blenny, 5 blue/green chromis, pair of mandarin dragonettes (very happy now for 3 or 4 weeks now!).
Current corals: Our pride and joy, sebae anemone, nearly 18" across! Green bubble tip anemone, neon green carpet anemone, frogspawn, hammer coral (branching and the other kind that I can't think the name of), several red mushrooms, scolymia, superman mushrooms, several zoas and pally's, green (or yellow?) sinularia, 5 beautiful recordia, a huge leather, a good sized fiji leather, 2 types of Xenia, a couple of monti's, an orange digi, hydnophora, fuzzy mushrooms, red tree sponge (might be dead or dying), idaho grape, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting about. Behind the overflow, we've stacked lots of little rubble pieces, and that has become the breeding ground for out supply of pods for the mandarins. Working great so far! I've also got some pods growing in the cheato in the sump.
OK, on with the pictures!!
FTS:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8097/p6100004ce3.jpg
Left Side:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/807/p6100003yi8.jpg
Middle:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2231/p6100001pf8.jpg
Right Side:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1331/p6100002kn0.jpg
Stand and canopy:
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/3092/p6100005yu8.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1449/p6100009ws2.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/209/p6100006ks6.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7198/p6100007cw4.jpg
End shot of tank:
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/1223/p6100008ok2.jpg
Back Side of tank:
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4091/p6100010sr1.jpg
More pictures to follow, let me know what you all think!
The tank was originally a room divider type, with the overflow one one end, in the middle, and the return is about 2/3 down the tank, in the center. Tank dimensions are 6'L x 18"D x 26"T, making it 145 gallons! Up from our old 60 gallon tank. (http://www.sdreefs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26761) We upgraded our lights to 3x 175W MH's (10k Ushio's) run by a PFO triple ballast. Actinics are 2x 54W Actinic+, and 2x 54W Pure Actinics. I really like the different color that these bulbs help create, especially after the main lights go out! Skimmer is and older model Euroreef, probably equivelant to the RS80. Sump is 30 gallons, divided by myself to create 3 compartments: refugium (left), return area (center), and drain/skimmer area (right). I redid the Durso pipe with a Hofer Gurgle Buster, and increased the pipe size to 2". The water drains into the sump and into a filter sock.
My old GenX-40 return pump pipes the water out of the sump, through a UV sterilizer, split off to the chiller, and up to the tank. Chiller is a CustomSeaLife 1/4HP chiller and controlled with a Ranco controller (Thanks Yolo!). Water movement in the tank is provided with 1x Koralia4 and 2x MJ900's connected to a RedSea Wavemaker. The Koralia is always on, blowing across the front of the tank, while the MJ's are alternating current at the back of the tank. It took some getting used to, but the K4 really pumps out a lot of water! Not yet installed (but soon), there are going to be a total of 7 fans to aid with cooling the stand and canopy. 2 will go in the stand, one on either end, one blowing in, the other blowing out. The other 5 fans will go in the canopy. The fans on either end will draw air in, directed at the MH's, while the other 3 will pull air out through the top of the canopy. All 7 fans will be attached to a temperature controller.
Current livestock: Mated pair of true percula's, pair of pink skunk clowns, Red Sea Purple tang, bi-color blenny, 5 blue/green chromis, pair of mandarin dragonettes (very happy now for 3 or 4 weeks now!).
Current corals: Our pride and joy, sebae anemone, nearly 18" across! Green bubble tip anemone, neon green carpet anemone, frogspawn, hammer coral (branching and the other kind that I can't think the name of), several red mushrooms, scolymia, superman mushrooms, several zoas and pally's, green (or yellow?) sinularia, 5 beautiful recordia, a huge leather, a good sized fiji leather, 2 types of Xenia, a couple of monti's, an orange digi, hydnophora, fuzzy mushrooms, red tree sponge (might be dead or dying), idaho grape, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting about. Behind the overflow, we've stacked lots of little rubble pieces, and that has become the breeding ground for out supply of pods for the mandarins. Working great so far! I've also got some pods growing in the cheato in the sump.
OK, on with the pictures!!
FTS:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/8097/p6100004ce3.jpg
Left Side:
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/807/p6100003yi8.jpg
Middle:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2231/p6100001pf8.jpg
Right Side:
http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1331/p6100002kn0.jpg
Stand and canopy:
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/3092/p6100005yu8.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1449/p6100009ws2.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/209/p6100006ks6.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7198/p6100007cw4.jpg
End shot of tank:
http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/1223/p6100008ok2.jpg
Back Side of tank:
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/4091/p6100010sr1.jpg
More pictures to follow, let me know what you all think!