650g DT (Re)build

[gt44ever]

Ok, I understand your setup more now. My only suggestion would be to move those plates out of the first compartment and closer to the return pump... after all mechanical filtration and even after the skimmer. They will still experience a lot of flow over, through, and around them but they will take less abuse and potential for sedimentation. Should make them more effective actually.

Skimz have great products and if the price is close to Jebao might be worth a shot. I've haven't used their circulation pumps but really loved the Skimmer I had a couple years back. The Jebao pumps are certainly fine, but you have to make sure to clean them often (monthly). They lose a lot of power when they get dirty (moreso than Tunze, for example) and this may also lead to shorter life span. I assume their more recent models are better so why not give them a try.

They're already after all mechanical filtration and the skimmer. I do have a filter pad after the fuge, but thats mostly to keep loose bits of chaeto from circulating. I'll see if I can move them a bit down stream though.

The skimz are one I've been leaning towards as a great value ($120 per pump) mostly because I've heard good things about the brand. My only real concern on them is that the flow might be too broad for how I'm looking to use them (mounted low pointed from overflow towards returns) given the general design, which is all I really have to go off of. Jebao or Rossmont appear like a better design for a tighter flow (or go Tunze for a lot more $$$) and are both a bit cheaper at $105 and $87 per pump

If growing cheato is working out, look into running a biopellet reactor.

Also a consideration although I'm not entirely sure my skimmer is efficient enough to get the most benefit out of it. If I go that route, I might try a liquid carbon source first to see if I start pulling crud out like I should since that would have a quicker and cheaper start up.
I am planning on building a second skimmer with a recirculating design with the other 5' of 6" PVC I have left over from the first build. That might eliminate some of the efficiency concerns.

 

[McPuff]

Honestly, just search for some used Tunze 6105, 6255 pumps. They last a LONG time, are more reliable than Jebao (by far), and you can add a narrow flow director to reach the other side of long tanks. You can usually find them for under $150 (for the 6105) and they are controllable via apex.

 

[gt44ever]

Honestly, just search for some used Tunze 6105, 6255 pumps. They last a LONG time, are more reliable than Jebao (by far), and you can add a narrow flow director to reach the other side of long tanks. You can usually find them for under $150 (for the 6105) and they are controllable via apex.

Those are on my list too. No luck so far finding used ones though. Apparently everyone that currently has them is keeping them lol.
Not sure about the 6255 since that's they're wide flow design (darn super fine sand b/c sharks). I'd also consider the 6155, but am leaning 6105 or stream 3 out of the Tunze options.

 

[gt44ever]

Ok so update time as a dew new things have happened.

Upgraded the fige lighting and aquired some fresh chaeto (thank you McPuff). So far it seems a bit healthier than the last couple wads but that may also be linked to my ongoing cleanout of the piles of detritus that were lodged around the system too.


Have a bit of carbon going. Originally just to strip out some medication but my water was much clearer after i started so my start using it long term. Just may need to invest in a nice big reactor for it since I need kind of a lot and the only other good spot gets lots of bubbles from the skimmer outlet that eventually cause the bags to float if I leave any loose pockets.


Got most of the parts I'll need to attempt a dual venture setup for the skimmer, complete with unions to make my life easier while I tinker. I'm a bit concerned about space since it's a little bulky but will cross that bridge when I come to it.


And the most exciting news of the evening:

Finally have the QT set up. Letting it sit with just RO on it for the moment to make sire everything's nicely settled and hopedully remove or at least dilute anything left from cleaning. It's a 35g just basic power filter. Plan is to have it running pretty much all the time with just a few critters inside amd everything on it can either be tossed in a bleach solution or just tossed out in case od severe infection.
Once I get it cycled, can start trying to assemble a cleanup crew that hopefully won't just become an expensive meal and then can maybe consider what I want to eventually restock with once the rest of the filtration and flow are up to par

Few other minor updates for now:
Are another new piece of decor but it's night so can't really show much. Skittles has a new favorite spot though with the addition
Also getting closer on sortinf my flow. Planning on getting a pair of Skimz ss18's in a couple weeks. I'm seeing a number of places now that theyre a pretty tight flow so may be able to cross my tank. I've kinda blown my aquarium budget for the moment so need to either sell some stuff or wait until I'm back in line. For now, just have to rely on the cheapo ones from the LFS. Have my eye on some gyres too if just adding the skimz isnt enough
Nutrient levels seem to be improving a bit more. Nitrates are still sky high but I know theres still piles of detritus in the overflow and I'm sure my sand is pretty laden still. That's a work in progress as I continue with frequent water changes. Phosphates are still high but coming down nicely. Heavy food rinse seems to be helping that quite a bit. Little low on dissolved O2 and pH, which could well be linked and due to lacking flow especially at the surface in a couple zones.

Good night all

 

[russell13]

What a great tank. I hate to tell you this but the words cheap and 600 gallon tank are rarely used in the same sentence. That being said I am the master of cheap reef tanks. Looks like you have a good handle on things. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see the progress

 

[McPuff]

Nice work!

Carbon - definitely will be more effective if you use a reactor.

QT tank - good call for sure! You can actually run it when needed instead of all the time. Just keep some media in your main sump. When you're ready to set up QT, use that media and water from the DT. Ready to go.

You're just adding fish to your existing assemblage, right? Or are you changing out fish altogether?

 

[Jon Fishman]

A2 is an awesome city. My brother is in Chelsea.... my "Car crazy" brother, however is in Grand Rapids area...... I don't know today, if I looked at a potential new house with a tank that size, would I smile, or run!

 

[gt44ever]

Nice work!

Carbon - definitely will be more effective if you use a reactor.

QT tank - good call for sure! You can actually run it when needed instead of all the time. Just keep some media in your main sump. When you're ready to set up QT, use that media and water from the DT. Ready to go.

You're just adding fish to your existing assemblage, right? Or are you changing out fish altogether?

Yep, have a couple small reactors (got a screaming good deal on them with some carbon), waiting on the pumps to run them, which should be here today. That pair will likely get used elsewhere or with a different media long term but it's a start.

I know I dont have to leave it set up, just choosing to at least for now. Might end up deciding to use it for something else long term since it looks fairly nice and the stand could result accept a sump, but good for QT for now. Might also use it as a sort of "kids tank" for the nieces when they come to visit. Have them pick out a damsel each or something else cheap that likely would be eaten in the big tank.

I'll just be adding. It'll mostly be the clean up crew for now, which may take several goes since many of them may well end up as shark food. There's one fish we're considering giving a home to. the LFS has a still smallish panther grouper that we're considering since we should have enough space for him. Only concerns I have is if he's aggresive (might go after the few smaller fish we have) or if he'll get along with our Blueline. Need some more rockwork for that too as we're a little short on places to hide at the moment.

What a great tank. I hate to tell you this but the words cheap and 600 gallon tank are rarely used in the same sentence. That being said I am the master of cheap reef tanks. Looks like you have a good handle on things. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see the progress

Ha! no kidding. "Cheap" is more of a relative term at this point. Like, why buy that $1k+ skimmer when I can build one for a few hundred (I know full well that expensive one will work better as it's been properly engineered, but the engineer/DIYer in me says I can make something that'll work just fine... we'll see how often that's actually true) or go for the $120 powerheads instead of the $300+ ones. Still not cheap, but makes things a bit less painful. Also shopping used... a lot.

A2 is an awesome city. My brother is in Chelsea.... my "Car crazy" brother, however is in Grand Rapids area...... I don't know today, if I looked at a potential new house with a tank that size, would I smile, or run!

Ya, we weren't expecting it to come stocked... day came to sign the paperwork and got a call from our realtor: "did you expect there to be fish in here?" At that point it was kinda no looking back. We did have them take out another large tank (100+ possibly a fair bit more. I remember it being long but not very wide) that was up in the living room. Really glad we did that as I'd prolly have at least one crashed tank and/or an empty bank account if I was trying to keep up with two big tanks.

 

[gt44ever]

Ok quick update tonight.
QT is cycling:

Made the less than advisable decision to try an "instant cycle" from the LFS figuring it might just help speed things alomg. A few days later, not a bit of ammonoa processed (going fishless, fortunately in this case) so that's a bust. Put in some bio spira tonight as I've heard good things about that and have Bacter7 that I can add as well for a lottle more variety in my bacterial population.

Got a new addition to help with flow:

It's an xf150. Sends water a good 3/4 of the way across at nearly full power. Just need to learn to use it a bit better and may add another since I can't actually place it centrally like I was hoping. Theres a support post in the way.

Amd finally:

Wrapped the sump most of the way in some radiant insulation. Going to see of I can get some minor gains for heat retention, and it'll help keep more of the fuge light in as long as I scrape the sides from time to time.
Also shown are a couple of small reactors full of carbon. Probably going to switch to a larger unit or two down the road, but its a start.

And last bit if news, I'm finally free of bio balls! Final count is about 10g of mixed bio balls. Overflow is pretty darn clean now too. Newb tip (cuz I so dont qualify for pro tips yet ) for cleaning a full height overflow on a full glass tank: shine a light up from underneath. When you run oit of dark spots that aren't pipe, you're clean

Couple items on the horizon:
Might be getting some live rock to do some building with shortly. Someone local is looking to tear down a tank and is selling it cheap. May even have my first couple of QT inhabitants from the deal of things go well.
Ive been putting it off, but may start doing a little looking into lighting. One of my 6 current LED lights appears to be on the fritz and I'm inclined to upgrade rather than replace since repacing the 60" unit isnt exactly cheap and the ramp timers are pretty finicky anyway

 

[maroun.c]

Great build you got there and a nice collection of fish!

 

[gt44ever]

Ok update time!
Fishy christmas came a little early:

New lights and some new powerheads (skimz ss18.0)
Lights are zetlight zt-6500s. I'll post another update once theyre hanging but I'm pretty happy with the output compared to the current satellite marine pros I have now.

Wave pumps are super nice for lokg tanks like mine. The pair have a nice gyre flow pattern going almost all the way across the tank. Think I'll add a second pair and moint them high on the other end. Also nice and small although I still get this:

On the plus side, magnets are strong enough to hold a shark on 3/4" glass. They do get shifted a bit though at times and are tricky to reset with the round magnet. Also not wild about having to keep the controllers in the hood to use the night mode but it seems to be working decently so far.

Also QT is just about cycled so might be getting some new residents soon. Also picked up a bunch of live rock so I'll be starting on some aquascaping soon too. Mostly just some kinda basics and footprints to use for a bigger structure later

 

[McPuff]

Very cool! How big is that horn shark?!

 

[gt44ever]

Very cool! How big is that horn shark?!

I'd put him somehwere around 24-30". Hard to get an accurate measure on him

 

[gt44ever]

So big update tonight as a lot has happened over the past week.
We have our first actual fish purchase, a racoon butterfly that is currently unnamed:


Also have a cleanup crew assembled (pics of some of the bigger guys). I'll likely split between in tank and I'm sump depending on hiw likely they are to survive with the sharks. Took a bit of a shotgun approach with guys that are cheap enough to easily replace or have some anecdotal evidence of surviving with larger predators:
A pair each of horseshoe crabs, pincushion and shortspine urchins and arrow crabs:

(This is very normal... It'll flip back over eventually. Ive concluded that these guys only move forward and just kinda ping pong around)

Shortspine and the smaller arrow along with some random snails and maybe some hermits.

Bigger pincushion and arrow. Wad of chaeto tossed in to forage on a bit.

A dozen dwarf blueleg hermits, 5 trochus snails and 10 each of cerith and nassarius snails

One of the trochus. Hoping maybe I can get them to breed long term.

Also added a chaeto reactor to the QT with a very high tech shield (the box the reactor came in ) to keep the light from spewing everywhere:


And nearly have my flow situation sorted now with 4 skimz ss18's and a gyre xf150. Still need to install the last ss18 but need an extra set of hands to hold the outer magnet.
And finally added a sizeable in sump reactor thats currently running carbon to strip the prazi from the water:

Its even suitable for bio pellets should I go that direction. Going to try a liquid carbon source first (continuum reef micro fuel, basically the same as brightwell reef biofuel far as I can tell. It even shipped from brightwell apparently) to work my nitrates down then may go pellets as a long term way to maintain lower levels.

Next up, mounting the new lights and building some new rockwork foundations so that butterfly and CUC have somewhere to hide from the sharks when they make their way into the big tank.

Goodnight!

 

[gt44ever]

So brief update and I'll go a little more in depth later
Biggest change to the DT:
Let there be light!

New lights. This is 5 zetlight qmaven 6500s running about 75%. Overall pretty happy with the new look though I may try to add some sort of diffuser or raise the lights a bit (tough due to low clearance over the tank) so I have a little less of a spotlight effect at the top of the water column.

Also added another tank:

Someone local was selling a complete running 75g system livestock and all
This will serve as my grow up tank while critters are too small to be trusted with the sharks and Jeff. I'll also be getting my feet wet with a very light reef in here since it came with some mushrooms among several fish and lots of inverts. For now I'm running it separate but I plan on plumbing it into the main system after I have things a bit more stable.

 

[GrizFyrFyter]

Thanks for the updates.

Put that 3d printer to work making your light shield and a diffuser holder for the dt lights.

You can find diffuser panels at home depot and just cut it to fit.

 

[gt44ever]

Thanks for the updates.

Put that 3d printer to work making your light shield and a diffuser holder for the dt lights.

You can find diffuser panels at home depot and just cut it to fit.

I'll add it to the list of things to print once I figure out whats wrong with the little printer or finally get the power supply hooked up to the bigger one. Got a free replicator 2x that was missing its power supply. Have a suitable power supply for it but the connector is the wrong gender. Haven't managed to find the correct connector type yet to make it work.

Will be doing some sort of diffuser, just not sure exactlt what yet. It's a little ways down the priority list.
Actually starting to plan the new aquascape so that'll be the next big thing. Also a good reason to put off anything that goes over the tank until after thats in

 

[NautiTang]

anything going on with this tank?

 

[gt44ever]

Wow I really let this thread go... Time for a major update! I'll try to go in order:

First up, new skimmer:

Its the little guy next to my home build. Deltec SC2561 shipped over from the UK. Much more consistent than my home build, though it does need a bit more frequent maintenance. Been pulling nice dark skim for months now, though I'm planning on moving it into a better spot in the filter loop. Right now it's in an add on loop

Next, aquascaping!
Fts:

First big drop:

Second drop:

This has been a long time coming. Took a bit to get enough rock and get it all built, and we're not quite done yet. Likely going to add a little more towards the middle of the tank.
Its quite the adventure getting scaping a tank this big without pulling the fish out. Everything goes in in as big of chunks as can be lifted into the tank. I went swimming so once things were in the water, it wasnt too bad. Even had a shark come in for a quick cuddle
Also added aome loc line to the returns to eliminate the splashing that was corroding my lights

Speaking of lights, changed up the mounting and wiring:

Made some aluminum brackets and tidied the wiring. Also have them all running off thr apex with a single VDM. Hooray for 6 way headphone splitter


And finally made some sump modifications:

Got a new grow light (after my mars fell in the drink...) And hung it up this time on a pivot (so I wont have a repeat of the mars while cleaning)
Extended the fuge area so I now have in excess of 5 ft of room running on two lights. Really lile the design of this new light too, since I can tune the spectrum and it's pretty powerful.
Extension was largely driven by the dividers coming loose from the glass and falling over, but now I plan on moving the skimmer and filter socks into a bin over the middle of the sump so the entire flow runs through this prefilter zone before dropping into the main sump.

Final refugium note: converted it mostly over to red spaghetti so I can feed it to some of our grazers... And the LFS stopped taking chaeto but will happily take other forms of macro. No pics of that though since it's in major need of more cleaning.

Also may have finally gotten my nitrates at least back on the scale! My wife did the test but she read it at 20ppm instead of maxing out the salifert test.
Now just need to get my salt back up... And figure out the apex salinity monitor so it can actually tell me when my salinity starts drifting instead of me just ignoring it...

Hopefully the next update comes a bit quicker than this one

 

[gt44ever]

Filtration update!
Made one of those heavy duty bins into a mechanical filtration prefilter for the rest of the sump:

Running a pair of 7" socks and moved the skimmer out of the satellite box I had it in.
Socks are mounted for now on a reinforced bit of the lid from the bin:

Theres a few strips of acrylic epoxied to the underside of the lid.
Also printed up a nice low profile overflow box so I had room for the skimmer:

And glued it in place with some stick epoxy. It's noisy as the bin jist drains through a pair of 2" bulkhead, but it works and I didnt want to risk a lack of outflow. Its in the back room anyway and its mostly lower frequency so it doesnt really travel far.
Now just need to fix up the plumbing so it's less of a mess... And the wiring but lets not talk about that... O look rocks!

Much more interesting. This is the next aquascape set that we'll be dropping in. The long piece will span the two towers and has some layered acrylic underneath to act as a low vis support. Just need to cement the bridge together and drill for the fiberglass rods that will anchor it to the towers.

New structure is slated for mid tank running at an angle. One tower will be about where peanuts (catfish, aka gray blue here) and run to tank center ish around lemoncello (yellow tang) or maybe a bit further depending on how things fall.
Please ignore our total lack of doors. Thats another work in progress. Planning on going for a barn door style upper and haven't quite decided on the lowest yet.

And we have a few new residents going through QT:

In one QT we have a frenchie and unicorn that will go straight up once they're clear of treatment. The Orange shoulder is going to a different system. And:

We have a lovely trio of racoon butterflies that'll move up to help with our, uh, "minor", aiptasia issue (and because theyre one of my wife's favorite fish). Were going to be counting on generous feeding, more hiding places and achooling behavior reducing aggression towards these 3 when they go up as theyre just a bit smaller than we'd like. The unicorn and frenchie are plenty big to hold their own.

Until next time