Alex´ office tank setup 140g / 550l

[Skragan]

So now it begins... since I broke down my last reef tank (300 gallons) at home, we´ve had a little tank in the office. Of course, that has never been taken care of well. When that tank was worn out, I installed a tank in the production area just to keep everything alive for roughly 8 weeks, until the new install was planned. Now, 2+ years later, the production tank is slightly in the way and I wanted to fall back in love with my hobby - that´s why I decided to put a new tank into my personal office, right in front of my desk.

Since my office is quite limited in space, I could only go with a max width of 1.8meters, and the standard tanks are 1.6m, so that´s where I´m at now. I didn´t want to pay for any customer specific size, since it´s "just an office tank". I rather spend this on equipment...

After having loads of discussions about lighting and since I´ve always been a HQI/T5 fan, I sacrificed the metal halide because of environmental issues (energy), but went with a T5/LED hybrid. The T5s give me a good spectrum and basically enough light for everything, while the LED can be tuned for optical impression and effects.

Specs:

Giesemann tank with black side and back, optiwhite (starfire) glass
Giesemann Aurora 1.5m
( both in customer specific coloring, Irridium/orange just happens to match the Abyzz color)

I had the luck to be able to have a freshwater connection installed in the cabinet as well as a sewage connection - makes water changes in the sump easy.

 

[Skragan]

Yesterday, I put most of the stuff together I need for the tank. I do want to have a paper filtration and I already had the RollerMat standing around - but there might be an update later. Because I´m travelling a lot, I want to have a proper monitoring, that´s why I will use both the Seneye Monitor and a full Apex system - I need that redundancy. I do have staff here while I´m away, but I want to be able to see what happens. After having lost my complete freshwater livestock during RAW in Boston because of a failing CO2 valve, I want to make sure this doesn´t happen to my reef.

List of stuff that is going to run in the system:

Seneye Monitor
Apex with ATK
1 A200 as return
1 A200 as external closed loop
1 A100 as internal closed loop (all pumps hidden)
Schuran Calcium reactor
RollerMat
...

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Nice setup!! I'm seriously jealous of those Abyss toys!!

 

[User]

Which chamber of the sump will your return pump go? I. I can’t quite visualize it with the baffles being so small

Cool setup- like the colors!

 

[Skragan]

Saturday night - Tangit night. After a couple of hours this morning until now (11:30pm) mostly all plumbing is done so far. I had to work around this giant RollerMat, I wish I had a basement to hide all the stuff. I had to sacrifice some flow optimization over space, which I don't like, but well... can't change it until I get another filter. If I get the one I want to get, I'll have to only redo the pipework on the left to the filter - everything else can stay. I just have no clue where to mount all the electronics.... need to figure that out later on the way.

Now I've filled the external closed loop with water, the overflow box and half an inch into the tank - let's see if all the water is still in it's place tomorrow... so far after a coffee break no dripping pipes.

 

[Skragan]

Which chamber of the sump will your return pump go? I. I can’t quite visualize it with the baffles being so small

Cool setup- like the colors!

The return pump is located on the right. On the left there's top up water, filter return, filter area 1 (if filter is exchanged that is where additional stuff can go such as nitrate filtration, calcium reactor etcetera), skimmer area, return pump and top off measuring & other probes.

 

[Skragan]

Btw: the top of the back wall still needs to be covered to get rid of the saw marks...

 

[Skragan]

So, no leaking detected until this morning when I found out that I indeed forgot to glue one connection of the external closed loop but I was able to redo this without big hassle. Now I`m optimizing noise and filtration. The side panels for mounting additional stuff are being prepared. Then I´ve build myself a 90° 40mm to 2x 25mm outlet for the closed loop. I wanted to have this as flat as possible so I can hide it with rock later and still be able to adjust the flow.

On the outlet of the RollerMat goes this 3 chamber filter with Siporax as additional biological filtration (plus, it reduces the noise of water coming down).

 

[FernandesReef]

Great equipment you have there man, and nice build.
Please keep the updates coming.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Great looking build - your attention to detail is really paying off. can't wait to see it come together.
We'll have a "little" gift headed your way mid week ;-)

 

[jsker]

Very nice DIY Work.

 

[revhtree]

This is a fantastic build so far! Those Abyzz pumps are pretty sweet!

 

[Skragan]

Thanks to Terence's help, I´m now apexed (yes, I will read manuals in the future....). Probes are online and the salt is in, now waiting to clear up.

After I heard that you just have to follow the tasks and manuals (which are very well done by the way), it was fairly easy to set the system up. I do need a flow meter on my return though - just to know what´s going on. Will add that later. At first I have to figure out what ORP means

Filtration is set up quick and dirty, thanks to my local dealer AquaDesign in Oldenburg (Thanks Jan!) I got a Deltec skimmer as a loaner - it´s always great to have a good dealer around the corner!

I haven´t decided on the final filtration yet, but I wanted to have it all running. Need to work on the cable harness, but I don´t want to fix it until everything is in place.

Next week I´ll be in the States to visit CoralVue, when I come back on saturday, it should be clear

 

[AQUAM]

Great setup!

 

[ksed]

Nice build! You’ve got so many Abyzz pumps on that tank you should buy shares in the company.

Kevin

 

[Skragan]

30 pounds of fresh live rock from my dealer, everything is running smoothly. Upcoming week I’ll start making water changes with the existing system to equalize parameters for transfer...

 

[Skragan]

Nice build! You’ve got so many Abyzz pumps on that tank you should buy shares in the company.

Kevin

Thinking about it... will talk to the boss

 

[revhtree]

Nice job so far!

 

[Skragan]

All fish and corals moved to the new tank - keep fingers crossed they all make it. Had to frag some of the big corals, will bring some to my favorite dealer Jan at #AquaDesign tomorrow (and maybe get something new? ). Of course, it still all looks like a pile of stones, now the real work starts.

off topic: How can I make a white correction when taking pictures with an iPhone?

 

[Skragan]

Still unscaped...