First I bought a 1200 liter 2 m imported tank that cracked on one of its rounded corners. So all my stock was moved to an LFS who were great and very patient in allowing me to have a new tank built and run in.
And then it cracked as well!!!!!!!
Yes, believe it or not. I got a frantic phonecall from my son telling me the bottom had cracked ( all I can think of is that there must have been a flaw or some stress in the glass- and yes it had a floating bottom and everything) and eventually all the weight of the water and LR had resulted in the latter ending up on the floor underneath the tank with my sand spread out across the floor of my lapa. Fortunately it was too soon to start stocking yet (blessing in disguise- my stock was still at Pet and Outdoors {thanks Oom Nick ens Nico for your patience})
So there was nothing else to do but sweep up the sand and start all over. I had a new floating bottom inserted as well as extra bracing for the base as a precaution. I moved my 300 liter three chamber sump outside to a little nook I had no other use for, and built up front and rear walls and fitted a removable roof.
The total volume of my system, incl. the sump, is just on 2000 liters. It has an elongated pentagonal shape- two 2m long sides and one short side of 650 mm and at the other end a point created by two 650 mm panels meeting one another at about a 15 degree angle. My weir sits spreadeagle across this point where they meet to re-inforce it.
The tank is mounted in a 2 m wide x 1 m high hole I have cut into the wall separating the familyroom from my lapa, offering viewing from the family room and the lapa. Because of this I have opted for a central reef stacked up and around the weir tapering down at roughly 45 degrees to sandlevel in the centre/middle of the tank. The other half of the tank is stacked to create a 300 mm high irregular swimaround submerged little island. What this does is give me ample reef space for corals as well as creating a huge swimspace for the fish- an idea I got from Crispin.
Underneath the reef at the wide weir-end I have placed two 2500 l/h Seio's to flush detritus out from under the reef continuously. These are the only two in-tank pumps. The return pump in my sump is a 2500 l/h Mianyang, and flow is suplemented by a 12000 l/h Speck pump, a 6500 liter Magnet pump (both external), a 6550 l/h Hailea powerhead, and a 2500 l/h pump all feeding into an overhead ringmain which creates flow by injecting water into the tank through twelve offset 12 mm nozzles injecting water into the tank at 45 degrees.
I am currently manipulating these pumps manually to experiment, but will eventually fit solenoid valves on timers to hopefully mimick churning currents and eddies. I also still have my old cracked tank which I am thinking of repairing and utilizing (amongst other things) as a reservoir to create a waterdump to cause wave-like surges. It will also house a refugium and mangrove, a turf scrubber, and an ICU cum quarantine area in a seperate compartment. All this will be managed by a Profilux management system.
My lighting consists of an 1,8 m pendant housing 3 x 250 watt Metal halides, 4 x fluorescents (2 actinics) and 3 x moonlights on a timer. I have also just mounted 2 x 400 watt Metal halides above the wide weir-side of the tank for when I eventually start stocking SPS's. I have ordered 14000 Kelvin globes for these to ensure I have the correct light quality. Again, the Profilux will be used to create near natural dawn-dusk effects and transisions, lightning and lunar effects if possible.
My sump holds approximately 300 liters in 3 compartments (first = receptacle, middle = DSB and third = return). I have some LR in each compartment and because it is outdoors I have 2 x 300 watt heaters, 1 each in the first and last chamber, to suplement the 2 x 200 watt heaters in my tank and the 1 x 200 watt heater in the RO drum for the auto top-up. The skimmer is a Reef Octopus rated for 3000 liters per hour. I am running a phosphate reactor with carbon and UV, and a Hailea HC- 300 chiller and my calsium is maintained by manually adding 1 teaspoon of settled-out Kalkwasser in a liter of RO to the sump every week until such time as I can add a Kalkstirrer.
Thats's it for now. Photos and more to follow.
And then it cracked as well!!!!!!!
Yes, believe it or not. I got a frantic phonecall from my son telling me the bottom had cracked ( all I can think of is that there must have been a flaw or some stress in the glass- and yes it had a floating bottom and everything) and eventually all the weight of the water and LR had resulted in the latter ending up on the floor underneath the tank with my sand spread out across the floor of my lapa. Fortunately it was too soon to start stocking yet (blessing in disguise- my stock was still at Pet and Outdoors {thanks Oom Nick ens Nico for your patience})
So there was nothing else to do but sweep up the sand and start all over. I had a new floating bottom inserted as well as extra bracing for the base as a precaution. I moved my 300 liter three chamber sump outside to a little nook I had no other use for, and built up front and rear walls and fitted a removable roof.
The total volume of my system, incl. the sump, is just on 2000 liters. It has an elongated pentagonal shape- two 2m long sides and one short side of 650 mm and at the other end a point created by two 650 mm panels meeting one another at about a 15 degree angle. My weir sits spreadeagle across this point where they meet to re-inforce it.
The tank is mounted in a 2 m wide x 1 m high hole I have cut into the wall separating the familyroom from my lapa, offering viewing from the family room and the lapa. Because of this I have opted for a central reef stacked up and around the weir tapering down at roughly 45 degrees to sandlevel in the centre/middle of the tank. The other half of the tank is stacked to create a 300 mm high irregular swimaround submerged little island. What this does is give me ample reef space for corals as well as creating a huge swimspace for the fish- an idea I got from Crispin.
Underneath the reef at the wide weir-end I have placed two 2500 l/h Seio's to flush detritus out from under the reef continuously. These are the only two in-tank pumps. The return pump in my sump is a 2500 l/h Mianyang, and flow is suplemented by a 12000 l/h Speck pump, a 6500 liter Magnet pump (both external), a 6550 l/h Hailea powerhead, and a 2500 l/h pump all feeding into an overhead ringmain which creates flow by injecting water into the tank through twelve offset 12 mm nozzles injecting water into the tank at 45 degrees.
I am currently manipulating these pumps manually to experiment, but will eventually fit solenoid valves on timers to hopefully mimick churning currents and eddies. I also still have my old cracked tank which I am thinking of repairing and utilizing (amongst other things) as a reservoir to create a waterdump to cause wave-like surges. It will also house a refugium and mangrove, a turf scrubber, and an ICU cum quarantine area in a seperate compartment. All this will be managed by a Profilux management system.
My lighting consists of an 1,8 m pendant housing 3 x 250 watt Metal halides, 4 x fluorescents (2 actinics) and 3 x moonlights on a timer. I have also just mounted 2 x 400 watt Metal halides above the wide weir-side of the tank for when I eventually start stocking SPS's. I have ordered 14000 Kelvin globes for these to ensure I have the correct light quality. Again, the Profilux will be used to create near natural dawn-dusk effects and transisions, lightning and lunar effects if possible.
My sump holds approximately 300 liters in 3 compartments (first = receptacle, middle = DSB and third = return). I have some LR in each compartment and because it is outdoors I have 2 x 300 watt heaters, 1 each in the first and last chamber, to suplement the 2 x 200 watt heaters in my tank and the 1 x 200 watt heater in the RO drum for the auto top-up. The skimmer is a Reef Octopus rated for 3000 liters per hour. I am running a phosphate reactor with carbon and UV, and a Hailea HC- 300 chiller and my calsium is maintained by manually adding 1 teaspoon of settled-out Kalkwasser in a liter of RO to the sump every week until such time as I can add a Kalkstirrer.
Thats's it for now. Photos and more to follow.
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