93G Fresh Start

[Ginu]

New tank build... Decided to start from scratch since my 120 Zeotank didn't work out and lost all my sps, such pity and most frustrating part with Zeo is not knowing what went south...

Decided to pick up my friends tank and start from scratch. This tank has been used for 9 months or so before crashing as well.

Tank - custom 3 side starphire 36" by 30" by 20" external overflow drilled for herbie setup with two returns.
Stand - custom made 2x4
Sump custom made to fit the stand and use as much volume as possible

Equipment mostly moving over from the 120:

Return pump - undecided as I need a high volume pump as it will need to bring water up to the two returns and also the manifold has a sort of a closed loop in the sump in each chamber to keep all the detritus suspended
Reactor manifold pump - Eheim 1262 or Sicce 3.0 (have both and haven't decided which to use. I have a second manifold with three exits to run different reactors.

Circulation pumps - one Maxspect Gyre 150
- two MP40's

Skimmer - BK Mini 180

Light - ATI 36" 2*75W Led & 8*39w T5 Hybrid Power Module

Controller - Neptune Apex with various modules

Dosing - BRS 2part with brs dosers controller by Apex

AWC - Apex DoS will do 10g automatic water changes a week

ATO - Tunze Osmolator 3155

Rock - I have about 100lb of liverock , combination of many different kind of rocks. some rock is about 7 years old and some about 1.5 years old and its been sitting in a bucket with a heater and circulation pump for about 2 years. I am thinking of a very minimalist rock and let the SPS grow in (hopefully). I'm hoping this rock is nicely cycled and cleaned and really hoping it will be enough to sustain sps and the bioload from the fish currently in the 120 (one midas blenny, one yellow tang, one purple tang, two huge pigy black clowns, one lyretail male anthias, one watabe angel, two dispar anthias, one watchman goby, one dart zebra fish, one coris wrasse, one starry blenny along with one skunk shirmp, two pistol shrimps and a tuxedo urchin.

I ordered 15bags or 15l of siporax which will be divided in between my 20G frag tank, my Red Sea S500 office tank and this home tank to increase biofiltration
This stuff is 30 times more porous than liverock and hopefully it will sustain the minimal rocks used in the DT.

I've finished the plumbing and wet tested it last night... unfortunately I have a couple of small leaks which I will have to fix today before adding RODI.

 

[blesk]

nice dimensions

 

[Ginu]

nice dimensions

Thanks, I'm hoping the extra width will be nice vs my 120 which is 24" wide.

Currently debating if i should go bare bottom (although wrasse, goby and shrimps will hate me) or add a very think layer of sand from my 120. I am thinking to take some sand out of my 120 and wash it. I don't want a huge sand bed, just enough for aesthetics and critters to be happy.

 

[revhtree]

Cool following!

 

[naecO rM]

Nice set up!
Do you have an experience with the Siporax before?

 

[Ginu]

Nice set up!
Do you have an experience with the Siporax before?

Thanks and I don't have a first hand experience with Siporax, however I've done some extensive reading on this filtration and it seems to suit my needs. I don't think there is a risk involved with this stuff even if not needed as it is a glass product and it will not cause any harm. Only negative part is the unavailability in North America, had to order 25liters from Austria and shipping was decent as I split the cost with another reefer.
I will have three tanks running this stuff, my office tank(RSM S500), my DT@home tank (93 gallon) and my FT@home which is 20 gallon

 

[Salty1962]

Nice setup!

 

[bknapp]

Like the tank and equipment list, should be fun to watch!

 

[naecO rM]

Thanks and I don't have a first hand experience with Siporax, however I've done some extensive reading on this filtration and it seems to suit my needs. I don't think there is a risk involved with this stuff even if not needed as it is a glass product and it will not cause any harm. Only negative part is the unavailability in North America, had to order 25liters from Austria and shipping was decent as I split the cost with another reefer.
I will have three tanks running this stuff, my office tank(RSM S500), my DT@home tank (93 gallon) and my FT@home which is 20 gallon

What do you think about silicates and aluminium level increasing from usage of Siporax?
How you gonna prepare the Siporax for the sump?
I ve ordered 10l of Siporax for my 90G tank, and just wondering how better prepare the Siporax and how place the rings? Put in the bag or put in the buckets with colums from the rings.
Interesting how you will use the Siporax.
Thanks.

 

[Ginu]

Well after two days of testing I fixed one leak where the bulkheads meets a threaded male to slip female pope adapter. Ive determined the reason for the leak is the different schedules (schedule 40 bulkhead with a schedule 80 pipe adapter). Next time I will probably purchase schedule 80 bulkheads as well...

Got the tank all filled up with RODI and salted it last night.

Below is a picture of the sump; water enters the sump in the middle back then drains in the right which holds a 7" sock and goes in the skimmer chamber(one with the black egg crate skimmer stand) then it goes through the baffles in the return chamber which will house the siporax once it arrives. I intend to make a couple of egg crate boxes and stack them nicely and will move them periodically through the return chamber of the sump to make sure the media gets the same flow. the two pipes with a elbow are connected to the return; the idea here is to create enough turbulence to keep any detritus suspended.

I also need to change my pump to a high flow as I am using a sicce 3.0 as a temporary return pump. I am looking for a quiet, reliable and around 2000gph which has a 1" NPT thread. So far the Fluval SP4 is being considered. Any others which I should consider? the 1" NPT thread is crucial here as i dont have enough space to put connectors/converters.
Cheers,

 

[Ginu]

What do you think about silicates and aluminium level increasing from usage of Siporax?
How you gonna prepare the Siporax for the sump?
I ve ordered 10l of Siporax for my 90G tank, and just wondering how better prepare the Siporax and how place the rings? Put in the bag or put in the buckets with colums from the rings.
Interesting how you will use the Siporax.
Thanks.

From my research siporax is a inert bio-filter made with sintered glass, so how would this leach aluminum and silicates? I am assuming you're planning to use RO water right?

Since the siporax is inert it doesn't need any preparation, however i would suggest soaking it in rodi for a couple of hours to a day to get all the dust off them and also i suggest putting it in the sump without any light and in the cleanest place in the sump; best is to place after sock filter>skimmer
Siporax works best when its not covered in algae/coraline algae or detritus. I am not sure if it makes sense, however if you have a look at my sump above I have two return pipes with a elbows circulating water through the sump to suspend detritus and my intention is to have a couple of egg crate boxes and rotate them in front of the elbow every few days/week to get the same efficiency out of the media and also will make sure the egg crate is on some feet so that the detritus falls to the bottom where it can be removed easily if needed. Also shaking the media every week or so will most likely be beneficial.

I also plan to use carbon(in a BRS deluxe reactor) and change this monthly and a TWL gfo reactor if needed to bring down the PO4 if needed

To make sure small particles dont stick to the media I suggest stacking it nicely as a cylinder and not just thrown in a bag in the sump; this also will be very efficient when shaking the media. Also I've read mulm will fall off the media while shaking which the corals like (not sure how true this is though).

Although I don't have any experience with this media, I dont see how it can affect the reef in a negative way; probably the only negative aspect is the time it takes to become efficient usually 3-4 months; the porosity of this still is 30-37 greater than live rock, so I basically I intent to use very minimal rock (15-20lb at most) with as much siporax as i can get in the return chamber of the sump (5-7liters). By using very minimal rock in the DT I can remove if needed for easy maintenance cleaning. Also in the long run the SPS will have more room to grow; for example last year in Feb I started with a 1" piece of ora birds next and i just threw away a 26" wide ball out after 9 months of growth or so.

Lets say we use 5l of media and the porosity is 35 times greater than LR so potentially this media can replace 175lb of LR for a 93g tank

I'm also going to use a Avast swabbie for the BK Mini180 which I just modified by adding a waterproof plastic connector(similar to what is used on the Ecotech Radion power supply) and this way I can disconnect the head without pulling out the wire for easy cleaning/maintenance.

 

[naecO rM]

Thanks a lot for the answer!
About an aluminium increasing I ve read R.Holmes posts and others about that.
Silicates is one from incomes for glass producing. Some times reefers seen diatomes bloom after Siporax. I think to prepare Siporax first put for a week to RO water with daily WC.
After that put to the water from tank WC with added bacteria and good waterflow.

Here are few video with a sump setup for the Siporax. Easy to tidy up and keep Siporax clean.
I hope you will find these video interesting

 

[Ginu]

The two vid's above look cool, not not really understanding whats going on here. I am planning just a simple plain setup to aid in filtration due to to increased surface area on seporax.

 

[Ginu]

Tank has been running 1.5 months.
Finished cycling two weeks ago and currently I have two fish in the tank and some corals

Alk - 7.56 Hanna
Ca - 450 Red Sea
MG - 1300 Red Sea

 

[Ginu]

Well this tank has been on autopilot , I cant seem to figure out why SPS doesn't grow in my tank so I'm just going to let it do its thing and hope it matures at one point.
Had a Calcium dip due to running out of 2 part
My RO feed lines froze due to the storm on the West coast, so RO water container run out... sucks to haul water from friends.... can't even imagine buying RO water...